A Winning Bob Bly Strategy to Land Potential Clients
I recently started using a strategy I learned from Bob Bly, Joe Vitale, and Debbie Weil to boost client response. And is it ever working!
The strategy came from one of Bob’s recent "Selling Yourself" Teleconferences – and it is very easy to implement. What is it? Simply using an e-zine to keep your name and your skills at the forefront of clients’ and potential clients’ minds.
If you don’t think you’re familiar with e-zines, you’re wrong. You’re reading one now. An e-zine is an online or email-based newsletter.
Your personal e-zine should have one purpose: to sell yourself to potential clients. In the Teleconference, Joe, Debbie, and Bob passed on several key steps to accomplish this.
Step #1: All successful Internet promotion … including the strategy of using an e-zine for self-promotion … starts with having your own website. (We’ll cover starting your own website in several future issues of The Golden Thread.)
Step #2: Make your e-zine quick and easy to read online by using a "Quick Reading" format. If your subscriber doesn’t read your e-zine as soon as he opens it, he’s likely to skip it and delete it later – unread.
To make your e-zine a "quick read," it should have no more than 5 short useful and interesting articles … and the entire issue should never take more than 7 minutes to read.
Step #3: Use text formatting, not HTML. Joe, Bob, and Debbie all agree that this is best for most e-zines. HTML copy looks like more like a promotion and less like an informational piece. HTML copy also looks like there’s more to read … which defeats the power of the "Quick Reading" format. In addition, many people read their email – including e-zines – on cell phones, where HTML just won’t work.
The exception is if you’re sending to a subscriber list that wants and needs HTML, such as graphic designers, Web masters, and the like.
Step #4: Be regular, but don’t overwhelm. Bob sends his e-zine monthly. Debbie sends her twice monthly. You may choose to do distribute yours more frequently, but do not make it more than once a week. If you do, your e-zine won’t get read regularly. If you increase the frequency and get a lot of "unsubscribe" messages, you’ll know that you’re sending it too often.
The Teleconference ended with this Joe Vitale "Million-Dollar Tip":
"Write a special report and offer it for sale on your website. But offer it for free if the visitor subscribes to your e-zine.
"List this report on eBay for its cover cost. Then have a link on the offer that takes the eBay surfer to your website so he can subscribe to your e-zine and get your report for free. And there you have another subscriber for no cost to you!"
“While no job anywhere is secure these days, Michigan, where I live, has been particularly hard-hit. My copywriting income has definitely increased our peace of mind in a very uncertain economy.”
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