Champion-Presence Based Marketing

Champion-Presence Based Marketing is a holistic way of creating a web presence in such a way that you create a web presence based on a perspective of being a champion of your cause, as opposed to a presence based on “marketing”. Your web presence should naturally draw prospects to learn from and follow you, and when your web presence is genuinely compelling as a result of the mindset of helping your prospects as opposed to marketing to them, the end result is that you profit when those prospects choose to invest with you because of your champion web presence. Many marketers focus wholly on a marketing presence, don’t focus on the relationship, which can be developed through the champion mindset, and therefore miss the profitization, or focus on profits, but don’t build relationships and therefore miss out on key areas of profit.

But when you build a strong online presence, then strategically target profits based on the natural progression of a client from recognition of your presence, to recognition that your training is best for him, the end result is presence profits.

One key thing that is missing from most online business plans is usually either a web presence or the presence of profits. We tend to see either a focus on creating a web presence, but without a profit element, or we see a push to profitize through product and coaching sales, but with a powerful web presence, that push to profitize can tend to look like sales bluster with no foundation.

I find there are many coaches who teach publicity, presence, and “traffic” methods but leave out monetization, and many others who focus on profits, monetization, sales conversions, etc., but leave out an effective web presence.

I believe you need both: a powerful and persuasive web presence that attracts, or draws, your ideal target prospect towards you, and clear process of generating profit as those prospects choose invest/work with you.

The way this looks is like this:

A website presence that includes 5 core elements: Print content that target prospects can read and get to know the essence of your presence quickly, video content that prospects can use to feel closer to you and begin to experience something akin to your real (or physical, as opposed to online) presence, one or more products that you sell which teach your core concepts, one or more coaching or mentoring programs that serve as an anchor to your expertise, and a credibility element, for example, testimonials, a link to a published book, or links to published online articles.

A web presence that contains a mix of print, video, audio, media, and eventually, published books. This web presence provides a place where prospective clients or influencers can discover enough about you that they feel confident in sharing your web properties with their prospects and contacts. This web presence is critical to your presence proliferation online, as your web presence is generally the first point of contact for leads and prospects generated online, and therefore if a prospect is not wowed or impressed by this initial contact with you, he is unlikely to want to continue building a relationship with you.

A communication presence wherein you communicate regularly with prospects and influencers in your market space. This communication presence must be more than either a product – based sales communication effort, and more than a ethereal, intangible effort to talk at your prospects, but is instead an integrated effort to genuinely communicate and build rapport and relationship with online prospects using the same natural psychological triggers which are present in personal offline relationship-building. It is easy to assume online that you are communicating with a mass of individuals, whereas in reality, you are communicating 1-1 with each and every individual who reads or listens to your communication online, even though that 1-1 communication may be read or listened to by multiple readers or listeners. You see, no matter how many people read or listen to your communication, it is ALWAYS done 1 by 1, by individual persons. So whether you write or speak to one individual or to thousands simultaneously, the message is ALWAYS received by one person at a time, and it is therefore perceived by one person at a time. Therefore it is critical to use the same effective communication techniques that are effective personally, 1-1, in your online communication.

A product presence where you create information products that codify and teach the principles to which you subscribe and around which your presence is centered. For example, if you are a persuasion expert, you might create a persuasion home study course, a persuasion advanced training program, and a personal persuasion mastery downloadable seminar. The release of products is a sign of expertise, success, and mastery, and without products to sell, no matter how much you truly know and understand your marketplace, prospects won’t see you as as much of an expert as your competitor who has published products. A written book can also serve as presence credibility, and can serve as a credibility calling card.

A coaching or mentoring program where you coach or mentor 1-100 or more clients personally in the topic or topics of your expertise, presence, and products. By offering coaching or mentoring, you position yourself solidly as an expert in your topic (because most experts offer some level of coaching, and experts who offer coaching and mentoring are often viewed with a higher level of expertise than an expert who does not, by offering coaching or mentoring, you solidify your position as an expert in your marketspace online).

All of these presence components can be developed simultaneously to a degree, and do not need to occur linearly in a “do this first, do this second” pattern.

Instead, when you first get started, you can create a presence matrix, which is simply an outline of your core competencies and skill topics, and that presence matrix can be used as a guideline for creating your coaching or mentoring program, your product offerings, your written book, and your web presence elements.

For example, imagine you are a psychologist who teaches parents effective communication skills; you might create a presence matrix with 10 core techniques, and create the following, all from the same presence matrix:

A coaching program wherein each week for 10 weeks, you teach one of your 10 core techniques

An “Effective Parenting Communication” Home Study Course which contains 10 1-hour lessons on effective parenting communication skills

A 10 – chapter published book about effective parenting communication

A website with 10 core concept ideas, writing articles and blog posts on each of the 10 core concepts you teach

Blog posts and contributing content to other websites in the parenting niche online, focusing each blog post or guest article on one of your 10 core techniques.

Write a daily email, post a daily facebook article, or record a daily youtube video on 1 of your 10 core techniques.

By coordinating all your content, whether coaching, products, books, articles, blog posts, videos, podcasts, etc., from one core central presence matrix, you will find you have a high level of topic consistency from one medium to another, leading prospects, influencers, and competitors who discover you online to quickly assume (hopefully correctly) that you are the dominant “effective parenting communication” expert in your marketspace, and resultantly buy more, recommend more, invite to interview more, invite to speak more, and so on.

In fact, when working from a presence matrix, and creating all online content and points of touch from that matrix, your message will continually stay consistent over time, and avoid the “rabbit trail” phenomenon that occurs with many online marketers, which diminishes your market respect and targeting over time.

Also, with this model, it is easy to quickly create a powerful and pervasive online presence that leads prospects to quickly assess that you are the market leader in your space, no matter how long you have been in that space.

For example, consider creating something like this from your presence matrix:

A 10 lesson coaching program, with a 1-hour recorded lesson on each of your 10 core concepts

A 10 – track mp3 home study course with one track each about each of your 10 core concepts

10 videos on youtube or vimeo, each on one of your 10 core concepts in your presence matrix

10 articles on your website, each on one of your 10 core concepts

10 posts on an industry website, or on facebook, one on each of your 10 core concepts.

Imagine a new prospect finds you online, comes to a basic website you have created that contains:

10 articles

a link to a product page where he can purchase your home study course

a link to a coaching page where he can enroll in your coaching or mentoring program

a link to your youtube channel where he can watch 10 high quality videos

a link to an industry website or facebook, where you have 10 high quality posts located

It would be easy for a prospect to very quickly see that you are the expert that you say that you are, and those 5 components can literally be created in a few days, using the easy techniques I teach you in this website.

And once your basic foundation as outlined above is in place, you can simply enlarge your web footprint each day.

Assuming 250 working days in a year (M-F for 50 weeks of the year), adding just one article per day to your website, and one video to youtube each day, in one year you would have 250 high-quality articles on your website and 250 videos on youtube. How many of your competitors have 250 articles on their website and 250 videos on youtube?

You could create additional products or coaching programs over time, if you so choose. Or simply focus on marketing your initial home study course and coaching program through improving your expert presence online.

By asking fellow practitioners in your niche if you can interview them, you can quickly build relationships in your core area of expertise, and many times those interviews are reciprocated, meaning that you are invited to BE interviewed, which can create a fluffy of activity at your website and your web properties.

Perhaps by now you have noticed a high level of reliance on the presence matrix and the correlating content that arises from its use, and might be wondering, how much do I vary the content based on whether it is freely available online, available for a product price (for example, $300) or for a coaching/consulting price (for example, $1000 or more)?

I have discovered that the key is in understanding that when prospects pay a higher price to access higher levels of content, they are paying for a closer level of access to you personally.

This allows me the freedom to not have to think about “what do I NOT reveal in my “free” content? Or deal with the question, how much do I withhold in my “free” content? or how much do I reveal at what price point.

My personal rule of thumb is that I don’t intentionally withhold any level of information at any price point, but that instead each price point is separated by a level of access to me.

For example, free content online is generally articles or short videos, and by the nature of the limit on their size, they don’t contain as much information. But that limit is based on the fact that an article might be 1000 words long, whereas a book might be 50,000 words.

The book might sell for $25, and the advantage to the reader is that the information is neatly codified in one place, with easy navigation and a clear process from one concept to another, whereas the same information in free blog format might be harder to navigate, require reading dozens of blog posts that might contain duplicate information (for example, in an ideal blog post, that blog post will introduce the topic, give background and explanatory information, and summarize the content of the blog post, in addition to offering the core information, whereas a book will online introduce the topic once for the entire book, offer explanatory information once, and summarize once – not every 1-2 pages).

A 10 – track home study course might essentially teach the same concepts, but because of the recorded, audio nature of the concept, some concepts might have a depth that is revealed through speaking nuance and innuendo which might be impossible to fully achieve in a book. Because the home study course is audio or video in nature, there is a feeling of a high level of personal contact with you, the expert, and those 2 components tend to justify for most buyers the additional cost. And of course, because you record the content with the concept that a home study course buyer has likely read your book on the topic, you will likely skim over introductory topics, and probably spend more time on advanced topics. So although the content conceptually might be the same, there tends to be a higher level of depth with recorded home study courses.

A 10-lesson coaching program increases the level of personal interaction by offering some interaction with the client, whether by q and a opportunities, either on the coaching session, or via email or instant chat, whether with you personally or someone on your team. This ability to ask questions adds another level of value to the coaching as opposed to the home study course, so although the core content of the coaching program lessons may be similar to the content in the home study course, the added value comes from the higher level of interaction and possibly accountability or mentoring aspects. In fact, it is not uncommon for a speaker or author to create a coaching program that uses his printed book as the curriculum of the coaching program (which obviously doesn’t add any additional content when in coaching program form) and the added value is the communication with the author or speaker in the coaching program.

And of course, a higher level of mentoring can be added (at a correspondingly high price, of course) where a client gets 1-1 interaction, or very small group, for example, 1-5, or 1-10 interaction with the coach, and once again, the added value is the additional interaction and the possible personalization of instruction that can arise from the additional interaction, not necessarily an element of additional instruction or content.

So you can see, the increase in prices as your client moves from reading free articles to a $25 book to a $300 home study course to a $1000 coaching program to $5000 1-1 mentoring primarily comes from a higher level of interaction with you, the coach, teacher, or expert, not necessarily from a deeper level of content (although higher levels of interaction can also included higher levels of content, but it is not necessary).

Perhaps you look at this and think, that seems well and good, but I don’t have a printed book, or I just don’t want to coach 1-1. Or maybe you see some other element you don’t want in your business.

That’s fine. Just choose the elements you WANT in your business, and focus on those.

For example, in the above scenarios, we assumed 250 articles, 250 videos, a printed book, a home study course, a group coaching program, and a 1-1 mentoring program after some initial period of time, let’s say, 1 year.

But you don’t have to have a business with all of those elements.

You could have: 250 articles, a printed book, a home study course, and a group coaching program.

Or you could have: 250 videos, a video home study course, and a video group coaching program.

Or you could write a book, take excerpts of the book and turn them into articles, be interviewed and cut up each interview into 5 minute segments and post each segment to youtube, and not offer group coaching, simply limit yourself to 5 1-1 clients at a time.

By now, hopefully you can see there are practically limitless iterations of what your own expert presence might look like and contain online.

If you prefer writing, you can write articles, write a book, and write blog posts and press releases.

If you prefer speaking, you can speak podcasts, speak articles and have someone transcribe into written articles, even speak content and have someone transcribe it into a book.

If you prefer using video, you can record short snippets for youtube, record coaching lessons, record home study program lessons, and perhaps even have some of that content transcribed for written content such as articles or blog posts.

In the long run, you can focus on whatever mode of communication works best for you, and outsource or delegate those forms you don’t prefer.

In any case, the concept is to focus on creating web content that not only shows that you are an expert, but educates your prospects in such a way that you are perceived as an expert, and leads prospects to WANT to purchase your training products, whether that is books, mp3s, videos, and/or coaching program.

The world of “information marketing” is so large and so diverse that you can literally choose the medium through which you want to communicate, and you will find that some segment of your prospects want to learn from you in that medium.

For example, you might choose to become a best seller author with a supporting case of products and coaching.

Or you might choose to become the premier blogger in your topic, and support that with book sales and product sales.

In all cases, you have control over the medium you choose to use.

Of course, there are limiting psychological factors, and I’ll discuss a few here:

When you are first starting out, and you have a blank slate in your business, it is easier to spend your time reading books and watching videos about creating content, than it is to actually create content.

You must simply choose to spend your time creating rather than contemplating creating. Even Leonardo da Vinci started with blank notebooks and blank walls, and he had to start somewhere.

Start where you are. I did. Every expert before you has. And as long as you add content each day, over time you will have the content you desire.

A recognition of the passing nature of time is critical. I’m not fond of the concept of “time management” although I do tend to use the term from time to time because of the universal understanding of the general concept.

But in reality, we don’t manage time. Time comes and goes each day.

And what you choose to do with your time partially dictates your success in life. Let’s imagine you have 4 hours to work today, and you have 2 choices:

Spend 1 hour reading your inbox messages, spend 1 hour thinking about how to get started, spend one hour getting frustrated because you have nothing in place, and spend one hour on social media, making contacts.

or 2) Spend 1 hour outline your presence matrix, spend 1 hour writing the first few pages of your book, spend 1 hour recording a youtube video, and 1 hour publishing an article on a social media site.

The same amount of time is expended, and in theory, the same energy is expended. Think about it: whether you are reading emails or watching videos, or writing a chapter in a book, you are probably sitting in a chair, staring at a computer screen. The energy expenditure is similar.

But imagine the difference one year later when you have multiplied what you did in scenario 1 250 times, versus multiplying scenario 2 250 times.

The closer you come to full productivity, the more you can accomplish in those 250 daily segments.

Sometimes I am asked, how do you get/stay motivated? And obviously there are some mental tricks I employ with myself from time to time, but the biggest single thing that keeps me going is my purpose and the recognition that only what I do that furthers that purpose, during my work time, is what will be created at the end of the year.

If I allow myself to spend 2 hours a day reading emails and replying to texts, then that is 500 hours of wasted time at the end of the year. What could I have done with those 500 hours? What could I have accomplished in those 500 hours?

Notice also that I qualified the above statements by “working time,” and that’s because I only work a small part of my day, maybe 4-6 hours each day, sometimes a little more. But that leaves 18-20 hours of time that is spent on non-work aspects.

Working ruthlessly hard during my 4-6 hours of working time affords me the freedom, both time and emotionally, to spend time with family, friends, people that matter to me, projects and causes that matter to me, my God, and my church.

But there is a cognizant realization that every working hour must be accounted for in a profitable way, whether that is writing (like I am doing now), recording (like I do when I create products or coach clients in my group coaching sessions), or consulting individuals to a higher level of success. Email time is ruthlessly managed (mostly by only attending to the most important emails only; I spend very little time reading emails I didn’t personally request or that are from a paying client with email privileges. I don’t answer the phone when working unless my wife calls (which she doesn’t when I am working unless it is important), a pre-desired telephone conversation is anticipated, or something else that would qualify as important.

If something doesn’t measure up to my presence matrix, and is perceived by me as important to the business, I simply don’t do it, I delegate it, or I outsource it.

You can become just as ruthless with your working time, it is a choice to work only on what is important. Instead of letting others and their non-necessary demands control your working time, choose to exercise complete control over your working time.

Again, I’m not advocating not being available to others at your or their convenience after working hours, I’m simply indicating that working hours should be spent . . . .working.

The freedom that lures entrepreneurs to work for themselves is often the same freedom that sabotages their success. For example, if you are being paid by the hour by a 9-5 boss, you tend to spend your time working on the exact tasks he is paying you to do. But when you work for yourself, instead of viewing it as complete freedom to do whatever you want (or whatever others want) with your time, instead view yourself as your own boss. Would you fire YOU if you were paying YOU a salary?

One way to see the import of this is to keep a daily time log for one week. At the end of the week, take a red marker and put it through any time block where what you did was not productive and shouldn’t have been done. Take a blue marker and put it through each hour that would have been better off delegated to someone else. And take a green marker and put it through each hour that was invested doing something that only you can do well, the things that you excel in and are important that you do them.

Your goal over time should be to eliminate red items, delegate or outsource blue items, and increase the time you spend on green items.

As you do this, and especially in correlation with the time you spend on green items, you will become personally more productive, and as you become more productive, your web presence and world impact will grow, your income will grow as long as you are charging a fair price for your books, trainings, and coaching, and you will begin to experience a heightened level of personal satisfaction.

And finally, last here, but first in my life, is a sense of purpose. When you build a business for the simply pursuit of money, I find that that money is usually elusive and fleeting as the wind. When you focus on pursuing money, clients can usually tell that, and tend to choose to work with experts whom they feel genuinely care about them. Now, while that “genuine caring” can be reasonably faked by some individuals, why not choose to excel in something that you personally care about, where you personally care about helping the individuals who are asking for your help?

I believe that the strongest driver of personal success is the pursuit of some purpose wherein that you believe you are making a difference in the world. If you are a relationship coach, find a way to make a difference in the world with your teaching, instead of just being “another coach.” If you are a weight loss coach, choose to make a difference in your clients’ lives, instead of simply being “another weight loss coach.”
As you can see, I personally believe that a strong sense of world-changing purpose is a critical element to your success. I believe that it is critical that you find that world-changing purpose, the “thing” you were designed and created to do.

In my own life, my own purpose is guided by my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He guides my every step, and the time I spend with Him is the most productive time in my day. My business decisions are guided by Him, the insight I receive and pass on through my websites, books, trainings, and coaching comes from Him (He is the Author and Originator of all things; all knowledge comes from Him, whether recognized or not). I feel a strong sense of following Him and managing my use of the time He gives me each day. If I waste 2 hours of time doing . . . nothing productive during working hours (which again, are 4-6 targeted hours per day) then I am responsible to Him for that waste. He has given me a life worth life, He has given me a message which I am compelled to share with the world, and if I don’t share that message, people lose out.

For example, imagine that I had NOT taken the time today to write the last 4,266 words on this website. If you have benefitted from what you have just read, if you have had just one insight that will make a difference in your life, if I had chosen NOT to write this today, YOU would miss out on what you have just learned. YOU are the recipient of this (hopefully) life-changing information. And if I hadn’t written it, it’s not just a matter of not having written it, or wasting my time on useless emails, but it’s a matter of YOU not having YOUR life changed today.

And of course, your life isn’t the only life changed or impacted by what I am writing. My goal as I write this is that thousands, maybe millions, will be impacted by this. And if I had chosen the selfish route today or reading emails, watching youtubes, or otherwise wasting the time God has given me today, thousands or millions or real people would miss out.

Notice the intense importance I place on the PERSON gaining from this. My work is not to write articles, record videos, and create training, my work is to change your life. And many other lives. One life at a time. Because although thousands or millions might read this and have their life changed, each of those lives is changed ONE AT A TIME. Always.

To summarize: find your purpose, choose how you will fulfill that purpose, and ruthlessly and relentlessly implement that purpose.

You have been given a life that has a unique purpose, and your responsibility in this life is to fulfill that purpose.

What is your next step in fulfilling that purpose, given what you have learned and internalized today?

What if you were to position as a champion . . . of your cause, your method, or your product . . . instead of as a salesman or a marketer?

What if you were to create an online presence fit for a champion . . . instead of a marketer?

Imagine what would happen if every blog post your wrote, every youtube you recorded, every article you wrote, championed your prospects’ cause . . . their health improvement, their relationships, their success . . . .

You don’t have to learn fancy marketing formulas or memorize marketing plans . . . just put yourself in the mind of a champion . . . .

If you were the champion of a cause, how would you tell folks about it?

You’d write articles, write blog posts, write guest blog posts, get interviewed, record youtubes, not because you had to, but because you wanted to.

You’d simply be operating . . . as a champion . . .

and your presence would happen . . . naturally.

When you have a champion presence, it makes it easy to get noticed, easy to share your story, easy to share how you can help, and easy to profit by helping.

Creating a champion presence instead of a Marketing Persona is counterintuitive . . . but it’s actually easier!

And when you have a champion presence, prospects want to buy from YOU, work with YOU, instead of buying from the Marketing Person.

How many journalists, bloggers, writers, might be willing to interview YOU . . .because you are a champion . . . and not a marketer?

How many readers and prospects would pass on your articles, your blogs, your tweets, and your posts?

Punchline: When you position as a champion, and create an online presence as a champion . . . you’ll create unstoppable attraction for you and your idea . . . naturally . . . because people love following a champion!