~~~Search Engine Marketing Copywriting~~~
From: Art Zoller Wagner
Hi, Heather,
I have a writing question. One of my clients leads workshops in
teamwork and leadership, mostly for high school marching bands,
student governments, and sports teams. He's a very dynamic, earthy
guy, which means (as I see it) that his personality is at least 50% of
what he's selling. Most people couldn't lead his workshops.
We need to find a way to get high school band directors, principals,
and coaches to come to his site. Putting the information these people
want strikes me as the best way. I have been trying to convince my
client that putting some of his knowledge on his Web site won't hurt
his sales. He is afraid that he'll give away his "secrets" and go
broke. I'm afraid that unless we give people a reason to come to the
site he'll go broke!
You have tons of great information on your site. Does putting your
expertise on the Web hurt your business? Does it bring people to your
business? Are there certain kinds of information that you wouldn't put
on your site? What would you tell my client?
Thanks for your site and the newsletter!
Best wishes,
Art
~~~Heather's Response~~~
Hey, Art,
Thanks for your most excellent question. You're right - your client
is shooting himself in the foot. Badly.
::getting on my soapbox now::
No, you should not give away every trade secret you have. If you have
a truly proprietary something, you have real "secrets," - and you
wouldn't want to divulge them to your competition. In fact, I would
say that anything that required a non-disclosure agreement shouldn't
be on your Web site. But that's just good common sense and not any
major marketing breakthrough.
But what about the client who doesn't want to provide information for
fear of someone "stealing his ideas?" My first reaction - get over
it. If he's a motivational speaker, he's selling his personality,
presentation skills, expertise, and knowledge. And a Web site (with
some free resources, information and articles) is a great way to
promote his expertise.
If people want to hire a motivational speaker, they'll need to trust
that he delivers what he promises. No business or school will want to
plunk down a thousand-dollar speaker fee for someone they know nothing
about. Just think about the objections that this client's site will
need to overcome:
* WHO is this speaker and why is he qualified to do what he does?
* WHAT experience does this speaker have?
* WHAT examples of past presentations can I view before I hire him?
* HOW much will it cost, and what value will I gain from working with
him?
* WHAT are some examples of past handouts, overheads and presentation
materials?
* WHAT teaching methodology does this man subscribe to?
* WHO else would recommend this man?
No matter how good or how wonderful your client is, having a home page
and a rates page will not help him get gigs. He'll need to freely
provide some information and resources before he can build any type of
rapport with his prospects. Otherwise, his prospects will have no
knowledge on which to base their hiring decision - and chances are,
they'll find another speaker site with more complete information.
As for your question about Rank Write - yes, we happily give our
information away. It is entirely possible to read the Rank Write
archives, learn the skills and perform an in-house search engine
marketing campaign. Have we "lost business" because we give away our
"trade secrets?" Not really. What we've gained is trust. And Rank
Write is how clients learn to discover who we are, trust us, and learn
how we operate.
Sure, someone could read Rank Write, write his/her own SEO copy and do
just fine. Or, someone could read one of Jill's articles and do
his/her own directory submittals. But people choose to hire us
because of the benefits, skills and expertise we offer - despite the
fact that we tell people how to do what we do. Giving away
information has come back to us tenfold. And I can handle those kinds
of conversion rates.
Your client has the same advantage. It's his unique combination of
skills, presentation savvy and knowledge that makes him valuable - not
his "secrets." He could probably post his entire presentation online
and not "lose" a customer. Why? His clients will hire him because
he's the best in the business, no one else presents like he presents
and he has valuable knowledge to share. Just think about other
speakers like Steven Covey. He constantly "gives away" his "secrets"
in books, newsletters, television shows, etc. And I doubt that this
is in any way cutting into his lucrative speaking business.
Please give your client your own motivational speech and ask him to
consider what resources he can freely provide, rather than what
information he should hide. He'll see many more conversions if he
does share his information - and he'll thank you for your help later.
Thanks for your question! Keep those online writing questions
a-coming!
Heather
~~~Send Us Your Questions~~~
If you have questions about online copywriting or search engine optimization (or both!), just zip us an email to questions@rankwrite.com. We've had some folks ask if their question
was "too basic" to be printed - and you don't have to worry about
that! There are no "stupid" search engine optimization or copywriting
questions, so ask away!
