The Attraction Strategy to Use Now!
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Giving away high value, free content is at the core of a successful prospect attraction strategy and hosting introductory seminars as a component will send the performance of your strategy into the stratosphere. Consider an intro seminar to be a bite sized chunk of your full service offering that you use to build awareness, grow your mailing list, in short to engage a group of prospects in a longer term communication to establish yourself as the go-to resource.
Anatomy of an intro seminar
If you offer accounting services your intro seminar might consist of an hour long discussion of proven ways to survive an audit, a problem people with a sizable enough net worth (your target) are more likely to face and information they would find truly valuable. Once you settle on a good intro topic, its time to promote and host your seminar.
The nuts and bolts…
There are a number of ways to do this but the methods I recommend are using either a teleconference service (Free Conference Pro or Free Conference) or a web conference service like DimDim or Goto Meeting. With these services you can host free or low cost meetings from 20 to literally hundreds of seats. Even with a topic and virtual location nailed you still need an audience to make this work, right?
This is where I say “told ya so” to the people who looked at me cross eyed when I told them a year ago to do everything possible to build a strong mailing list and develop relationships with market influencers through social media. The relationship building process is not simple but investment in building your web networks pays dividends when you need support promoting your event.
About ten days out start sending free seminar announcements to your mailing list. At the same time enlist your influential partners on Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin to announce your event to their respective followings. If you are new to online networking and don’t yet have a list, consider a joint venture arrangement with someone who has a good sized list. In return for tapping your JV partner’s list and promotional support you could offer a % of any deal closed or some other value proposition. Trust me this is not the time to think cheap. A good JV partner with a connection to a strong following is worth their weight in gold. Any money you fork over will be a lot less expensive an more effective than a full page ad in any major media publication.
Bonus prize!
All of the free seminar tools I mentioned offer call recording capability that will almost instantly render an mp3 file of your seminar. Look at this mp3 file as a gold nugget offering you a free information product that you can use as an incentive to grow your mailing list, a credibility building giveaway for new prospects or a tool for your referral alliance partners to give to their clients and promote your business in the process.
The intro seminar is a little-known, yet incredible tool that is Tylenol for your “I need more customers” pain. Okay, lets get it started!