I just got back from a Austin Texas yesterday. I was invited by a colleague of mine (Gayle Marie Merrill) to be her guest to this exclusive weekend trip that Mike Dillard offered to his Elite Members. The entire weekend was planned to the “T” for us and I would expect nothing less honestly. We were treated like special quests and provided an authentic south-western Mexican lunch and taken out to a fun-filled dinner around the corner. It was truly a memorable experience. Mike is really as genuine as you can get!
During the round table, everyone had about an hour to discuss their particular business and marketing plan. This is what I was looking forward to the most. Just from the awesome answers that came out of the NES last month, I knew that this was a golden opportunity to learn.
Listening to him dissect each person was great. Yet, because I’ve been personally mentored by some of the best marketers in the past 2 months (Budd, Hoverson, Holland) I really didn’t have any pressing questions to ask at this time. My funnel is setup, it’s bringing in leads and generates a profit everyday. Most of the people weren’t that far yet. (However no doubt they will be soon if they implement Mike’s advice.) So when it was my turn, I actually passed in exchange for a few minutes of his time later on to discuss something in private. Now, that’s not to say that I didn’t gain anything out of this awesome experience. I came away with 1 personal take away that I know will be the turning point for me.
Yet, after absorbing everything that was discussed yesterday, I came away with a big take away which is very helpful for those of you who are getting started, or who are helping others and doing any kind of coaching.
The first thing Mike wanted to see when he got to someone new was their blog. Most of you know this “Nerve Center” is a crucial part to your marketing, but watching Mike critique everyone’s blog was amazing. It really brought clarity to the fact that this really is your online presence, so it needs to be specific as possible in the shortest amount of time possible. And when someone is just getting started on their blog some serious thought needs to go into it!
He focused a lot on the header – obviously the most important part. But specifically ask yourself this question when you look at your header: Does the viewer know EXACTLY what this blog is about by my header? You may say “sure”… “Online Marketing Strategies For Success” That’s what it is about…
But if you really look at that header title – in Mike’s words: “What makes you any different from all the internet noise out there?” Hmm…good point. This is such a simple thing, but if you really think about it – this is going to define your entire blog and web presence – it needs to be specific as possible. You need to try to answer all of these questions in your header: Who are you targeting, what is their problem, and how will this blog fix it? It’s not as easy as it looks. That’s a lot of information to get across in a simple tag line or header space!! Take some time to go back to your blog and ask yourself these questions when looking at your blog. This will be one of my first changes as I redo my blog (it is in need of a overhaul anyway)
Other simple blog take aways: simple, clean and gender neutral colors. No dark red and blacks guys, it will turn off the ladies, and vice versa with the pink! Keep your op-tin offer extremely easy to see on the top right and your verbiage very precise. They should know in 2 seconds what you are offering by looking. It it’s in your video, also put in in writing below.
Another great trick is to have your intro video auto-play on the first visit, but then cookie the site so it doesn’t play every time and annoy people. He wasn’t sure how to technically do this (in fact he wasn’t really able to answer a lot of the techy stuff – I actually did. But, ya know he doesn’t need to either, his “people” do that for him – another take away – outsource if you can) However, I don’t know the code to add cookies either, so he told us to ask in betternetworker, which I did, but if anyone DOES know how to have your video auto-play the first time, but then add a cookie so it doesn’t the next visit, PLEASE answer in the comments below!
My final take away would be this…be as specific as possible in WHO you are online. Who are you targeting? What do you have to offer? Why are you different? When people say your name, what follows?? If you can figure this out, you’re 100x above the rest!
Want to see what I asked him about personally later on that night? He’s backing what I’m doing – In the words of Cedrick Harris, “You don’t get what you don’t ask for!” Check Out Basic Training Intensive. This is a truly unique experience!
I’d love to hear your comments below!
