Depicted above is the central challenge of marketing. We perceive a horse, standing. In the buggy are a couple of chaps wondering what the reins are for. Behind the horses head is our honorable anonymous observer. One of those chaps could be me, wondering why Dobbin isn’t going anywhere. Dobbin is my blog or my website promoting me as a genealogy professional. Why don’t those folks anywhere read my blog? Afterall, in the universe of my target audience 67 is such a small number. The other chap in the wagon suggests we send a message out that there is something of interest here. So he sends an email to folks in the professional genealogy community. Hey presto, Dobbin moves: a walk, then a trot or canter and almst a gallop as 370 folks show up. There is a lesson here.
Push technology like email messages, and e-newsletters, push our message to our potential clents. we can identify potential cliens in a variety of ways. For years an ad placed in Everton’s Genealogy Helper , Family Tree Magazine or Family Chronicle would draw in response. Today an ad in Dick Eastman’s newsletter could do the same. These media are pushier than my blog, which is definitely a minor puller in the pantheon of genealogy blogs.
Thinking about push/pull marketing for the genealogy speaker, is your entry in the directory of APG or GSG seeking out potential clients? Perhaps these are not the push technology we seek. How effective then are they as pull technology? I have heard more than one genealogy speaker tell me that their listing in the GSG directory has not yielded a single enquiry. My APG dirctory listing has elicited only four enquiries in four years. Not much push there, and not much pull either. So its just not enough to have a web presence. We need to go out and knock on doors.
Years ago in New Zealand an Australian friend promoting an idea xplained that he needed to make 200 cold calls a week to yield the seven presentations a week goal he set. However he pointed out that with 15 referals from friends and colleagues he could make the same 7 presentations a week. Is your website even making one cold call a week? How many friends have you met from your website? We need something more . ‘ Build it and they will ‘is not a realistic idea when you are looking for clients.
So what can you do?
Genealogy Education 