This article is the result of a conversation I had with a
magician about his website. He wanted to know if I could
build him a nice looking site that had his name and contact
information on it. I explained to him the purpose of having
a website and what you want visitors to do when they land on
your site.
Why Do You Have a Website?
The number one reason magicians have websites is ego. They
want to be able to say to people, “You can visit my website
at www.bite-me-hard.com.” When the person visits the website
they usually see one of two scenarios:
- Brochure
Site
- Typical Magician’s Site - See Part 2 of this
series for an example.
The brochure site is nicely designed with contact
information and a few pictures. These sites usually look
nice and clean. The issue is visitor conversion. Many people
view the site and move on to another site. They may never
return. You have missed out on the opportunity to build a
relationship with them. The key element often missing with
this kind of site is the ability to capturing the visitor’s
name and email address so that follow up direct marketing
can be done. The direct marketing closes the sale. It is
rare for people to hire magicians as an impulse buy.
The typical magician’s site is wonder to behold. How can one
person find so many different ways to use free animated
graphics on the home page? It is clear that the magician
designing his site learned how to color text, change fonts,
and increase font size. All done in the same paragraph!
Check out my prior article listed above for a detailed
discussion of this topic.
Your website exists to get people to give you their
permission. That’s right, their permission. The goal of the
website is to get visitors to give you their name and email.
Believe it or not this is valuable information that is not
given away freely. The website must be structured to induce
people to trust you enough to give this information to you.
This is why brochure sites and typical magician’s sites
don’t usually work well. If you haven’t built a relationship
with the potential client, then it is unlikely they will
book your magic show. It is like it was in high school. You
can walk up to the prettiest girl in school and say “Do me!”
Chances are it won’t be effective. Your website must
establish a relationship with potential client and gain her
permission. After that you can approach her and say, “Book
me!”
Purpose of Permission Marketing
This approach to marketing is called Permission Marketing.
It has always been practiced but Seth Godin coined the term
with his book by the same name. Buy a copy and Amazon or
your local bookstore. The purpose of Permission Marketing is
to turn strangers into friends, and friends into clients.
I am not recommending spamming people to get more magic
shows. The key elements of Permission Marketing are
communications from you are expected, individualized, and
interesting to the person. Let,s look at the elements in the
context of emails:
- Expected - People are expecting emails from you
because they asked you to send them emails through your
subscription form on your website. Always use a double opt
in subscription system.
- Individualized - Every email
sent by you should be personalized to the person getting it.
I don’t care if you are sending out ten or one thousand
emails. Every person should get an email that looks like it
was written just for them.
- Interesting - The subject of
every email must be related and relevant to the reason the
person gave you’re his permission in the first place. If you
entice a person to give his name and email to learn how to
use a magic show to create the perfect birthday party, then
don’t send emails about a great business opportunity called
Amway.
Another important feature of Permission Marketing is that
there are different levels of permission. Permission levels
range from spam (no permission) to intravenous (sending
products out to customers without him ordering them). As
people give you their names and emails you start at the
permission scale (just above spam). Your main task is to use
your communications and services to move people up the
permission scale. While you will never likely get permission
to just show and do magic shows uninvited (intravenous), you
can build a base of trusting and loyal customers.
Gaining Permission With Your Website
Your website will impact your ability to gain permission
from visitors. Two general considerations are content and
design. If you have not taken the free Master Course on
Selling Services, I strongly encourage you to do so. The
course covers the topics of contents and design in more
detail. You will find material that you can use on your
website right now.
People searching the web are looking for good information.
They will trust and reward those who give them the
information they seek. Many will give you permission to
contact them again. This opens the door to build trust and
gain a loyal customer. What kinds of content should the site
provide? The simple answer is whatever the person is looking
for.
Let’s assume a mother finds your website considering the
possibility of hiring a magician for her daughter’s next
birthday party. She doesn’t care that you do gospel illusion
shows or trade shows. In fact she might be put off by it. If
this magician does all of these other things, how important
is my daughter’s birthday party going to be? You must view
your content from the visitor’s perspective.
Provide content that she can use. For example, you can
provide a general guide to hosting a magical birthday party.
Let her know if she signs up with her name and email you
will send her a detailed step by step guide to hosting the
perfect magical birthday party. You could also put magic
birthday party invitations on your site personalized to your
magic show, but with space for it to be individualized to
the child and her birthday party.
With relevant and useful content you will begin to build
trust. You will get her to give you her name and email. You
provide even better content and increase her trust. You can
contact her about how your magic show will make her
daughter’s birthday party one to be remembered always. The
key to providing content is to over-deliver on the person’s
expectations. Remember this:
The goal of your website is turn strangers into
friends, and friends into clients.
The design of your site is also important. Your site must be
easily navigated. You want visitors to find the information
they are seeking quickly and easily. Graphics add to the
site but can become clutter if you are not careful. It
should have a clean look. Don’t be afraid to use a plain
white background. It looks good and text can be easily read.
I would avoid reverse colors for text. Light text on dark
background can strain the eyes if there is much material
there.
An example of this approach is Learn-Great-MagicTricks.com.
This new site is still growing. It is clean looking.
Information is easily found. The content is useful for
people learning to do magic. Within one month, the site was
listed in most search engines, had decent rankings, was
getting newsletter subscriptions, and most importantly the
site was earning money. The point is that this advice works
and I use it myself.
Copyright 2005 J.L. Siefers, All rights reserved.
About the Author
J.L. Siefers has been performing great magic for years. He has written extensively on many topics in magic. He has shown hundreds of people how to successfully learn to do great magic tricks.
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