Chapter 4
Day Two: Creating Your Magnetic Free Offer
The centerpiece of your marketing system is a compelling free offer-what Satterfield calls your "bait piece." This isn't just any content; it's specifically designed to address your target market's most pressing pain points or aspirations.
The secret to an effective title is focusing on your market's challenges rather than your services. Consider these proven formulas:
• "Do You Recognize the 7 Early Warning Signs of [Problem]?"
• "5 Mistakes Most [Your Niche] Make That Cost Them [Money/Time/Opportunity]"
• "How [Specific Type of Person] Can [Achieve Desired Outcome]"
These work because they tap into fundamental motivations-fear of pain and desire for gain. Fear of pain is particularly powerful; we're more motivated to avoid loss than achieve gain. A financial advisor might use "5 Retirement Planning Mistakes That Could Cost You Everything" rather than "How to Build a Comfortable Retirement."
Your report should provide genuine value while creating desire for your paid solutions. The key is making readers feel "satisfied but incomplete"-give them what to do, not precisely how to do it. Think of it like explaining Thanksgiving dinner to someone from another country. You'd describe the traditional menu and its significance without providing recipes or cooking instructions.
Structure your report in six parts:
1. Identify their biggest problem
2. Explain the consequences of ignoring it
3. Discuss alternative solutions
4. Present your solution (as a series of steps)
5. Showcase results you achieve
6. Include a call to action
When describing results, use a combination of big-picture totals ("Our clients have collectively saved over $12 million in taxes"), mini case studies, and testimonials. End with a compelling call to action that motivates prospects to contact you for implementation help.
Remember that stories dramatically improve retention. Research shows readers remember three times more information from story-based reports than fact-only reports. Begin with a compelling story or by directly addressing the problem ("I know from speaking with others like yourself...").
After drafting your content, take a one-hour break before reviewing. Add examples where helpful and read it aloud to ensure it sounds natural. While simple PDF documents work fine, you can enhance visual impact with stock photos from sites like 123rf.com or hire affordable designers through platforms like Fiverr.
Your free report is the foundation of your entire marketing system-invest the time to make it truly valuable and compelling.
Chapter 5
Day Three: Creating Your Lead Capture Website
Your website has one primary job: capturing visitor information. Unlike traditional websites that try to tell visitors everything about your business, your lead capture page focuses exclusively on getting visitors to opt in for your free report.
This approach recognizes a fundamental reality: most people won't buy from you on their first visit. By capturing their contact information, you can build a relationship over time that eventually leads to business. This is why your subscriber list will become your most valuable marketing asset.
Your lead capture page needs these key elements:
1. A conversational headline (often in quotation marks) that immediately communicates you understand the visitor's problem
2. Brief introductory copy that quickly transitions to bullet points
3. Curiosity-arousing bullet points that leverage different motivational levers (pain, fear, gain)
4. Strategic formatting with bolded key phrases
5. An attractively designed opt-in box with compelling copy
Your headline is critical-if it doesn't hook visitors, they won't read further. If your free report has a compelling title, you can simply use that as your headline, potentially adding "FREE:" at the beginning for additional impact.
After your headline, use a simple transition sentence like "In this free report you'll discover:" followed by 4-12 bullet points. Place your two strongest points first and your third-strongest last, as research shows readers typically read the top two bullets then jump to the last one.
Effective bullet point formulas include:
• "Why X is not always the best way to Y and what to do instead"
• "Five proven ways to X"
• "What you should never X"
• "Three keys to X"
When creating your opt-in box, balance the information you request-less information yields more opt-ins, but more information provides higher-quality prospects. Consider using a two-step process: first collect name and email, then request additional information on a second page.
Include a privacy statement assuring prospects you won't sell their information. Use action-oriented button text like "Send It To Me" rather than "Submit," and make the button a bright contrasting color to increase response rates.
After prospects submit their information, direct them to a thank-you page that appreciates their opt-in, reinforces they've made a good decision, and explains how they'll receive the information. Send your report via email link rather than direct download to ensure you receive valid email addresses.
Consider two alternative approaches for your opt-in page: video (which can significantly increase conversion rates) or a "reverse squeeze page" that shows prospects valuable content before requesting their contact information. The reverse approach tends to generate fewer but higher-quality leads.
Build your site using WordPress rather than standalone HTML pages to ensure Google-friendliness. Single-page sites designed only to capture leads may not appear in search listings, while WordPress allows you to easily add blog posts, quickly creating a multi-page website that satisfies search engines.
Chapter 6
Day Four: Crafting Your Automated Follow-Up Sequence
Creating your free offer is just the first step in attracting new clients. Now you need to develop a series of messages that will convert prospects into paying clients by building trust and credibility over time.
The plan involves writing seven emails to send during the first eleven days after prospects sign up for your free offer. This concentrated messaging serves to cement your company name and services in prospects' minds while engaging them when their interest in solving their problem is strongest.
Your seven-email sequence builds a relationship with prospects through carefully structured touchpoints:
**Email #1 (Day 0):** Send the download link for your free report with the subject line "Here's the [Title] Report You Requested." Introduce yourself, provide the download link, briefly explain your expertise, and establish that you'll be sending periodic helpful information.
**Email #2 (Day 1):** Send a "Quick Follow-up" to ensure the prospect successfully downloaded your report. Provide the link again and reinforce the value they'll receive.
**Email #3 (Day 3):** Highlight a specific section of your report with the subject line "A Quick Question, [First name]." Reference something particularly valuable and ask for feedback, encouraging prospects to read the material if they haven't yet.
**Email #4 (Day 5):** Tell a success story about someone who used information from your report. The subject line follows the format "How [Name] [What He or She Accomplished]." Detail a client's problem, how they implemented your advice, and the progressive successes they achieved.
**Email #5 (Day 7):** Share additional valuable information that wasn't included in your report with the subject line "[First name], I forgot to mention this." This provides another opportunity to demonstrate your expertise.
**Email #6 (Day 9):** Answer "A question many [in this niche] are asking." Address a common concern, overcome a typical objection, or further establish your expertise.
**Email #7 (Day 11):** Offer a free consultation. Acknowledge that only a small percentage of readers are truly committed to achieving specific goals, then offer a complimentary consultation addressing specific issues. This represents a critical step in moving from building trust through content to a direct conversation.
When writing these messages, maintain a conversational tone as if addressing one person rather than thousands. Maintain a strong point of view as an expert, share personal stories to be memorable, and end each email with a preview of upcoming content to keep readers engaged.
For additional content ideas, consider client success stories, industry controversies, money-saving tips, and answers to common questions. Broadcast messages can be tied to current events, holidays, industry news, or surveys to maintain relevance and interest.
Autoresponder systems make this process automated and personalized, allowing you to maintain contact with minimal ongoing effort. Services like GentleRainAutomation.com make it easy to set up your sequence with appropriate timing.
Chapter 7
Day Five: Driving Traffic to Your Lead Capture System
With your marketing infrastructure in place, it's time to drive targeted traffic to your website through pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. Unlike traditional advertising where you pay for exposure regardless of interest, PPC only charges when someone clicks your ad, indicating genuine interest.
Search engine advertising offers immediacy and precision targeting since your ads appear when someone searches for your selected keywords. When someone searches, two types of results appear: organic (natural) search results and paid advertisements. While organic listings may get more clicks, they're difficult to achieve quickly, making PPC the better option for immediate results.
Start by selecting the right keywords-terms potential customers would type when searching for your services or trying to solve problems. The Google Keyword Planner helps identify valuable keywords by showing search volume, competition level, and estimated cost-per-click. Beginning with just 4-8 carefully selected keywords is recommended before expanding.
When writing PPC ads, follow three key principles:
1. Include your keyword in the headline to improve quality score and click-through rate
2. Focus entirely on benefits rather than features (you only have 95 characters total)
3. Use Title Case for better visibility
For example, an estate planning attorney might use "Estate Planning Secrets" as a headline, followed by "Lower Your Costs and Their Taxes. Free Report Shows How. Click Now." This structure captures attention and clearly communicates the value proposition within tight character limits.
Beyond Google, consider these additional advertising platforms:
**Bing** offers two key advantages: potentially lower cost-per-click for the same keywords and access to additional traffic through the Yahoo Bing Network. The interface differs slightly from Google's, but the principles remain the same.
**Facebook** has become an increasingly popular advertising platform, particularly effective for targeting consumers. Its targeting capabilities are extensive-beyond basic demographics, you can target by "Precise Interests" (reaching fans of specific companies, celebrities, or topics), "broad categories" (activities, business interests, technology adoption), and advanced factors like marital status, education level, and employer.
**LinkedIn** specializes in professional targeting with a $2 minimum per click, making it ideal for B2B marketing and high-end services. It uniquely allows testing up to 15 ad variations simultaneously and displays ads in different configurations depending on placement.
For all platforms, start with modest daily budgets and monitor performance closely. After your campaigns run for a few days, review metrics including clicks, impressions, click-through rate, average position, and cost-per-click. Pause underperforming keywords and adjust bids as needed.
Once your ad campaigns are active, your One Week Marketing Plan begins generating automatic leads. The primary benefit of online advertising is speed, but it represents just one marketing option. Additional strategic methods including blogs, social media, video, PR, and joint ventures can further enhance your results.
Chapter 8
Strategic Boosts: Supercharging Your Marketing System
After implementing your core marketing system, you can enhance results with strategic "boosts"-additional tactics that drive more targeted traffic to your website. Each boost can be implemented in 4-8 hours, with the recommendation to experiment with one per month, focusing on those producing the greatest results.
**Social Media Boost:** Rather than posting randomly, use social media strategically as a lead-generation tool driving people to your blog posts. Set up optimized business profiles on LinkedIn, Google+, Facebook, and Twitter, including keywords potential customers would use when searching for your services. For LinkedIn specifically, join Groups related to your industry to drive significant targeted traffic to your website. Post engaging headlines or questions that link to your blog content.
**Blogging Boost:** Blogging provides a powerful way to attract prospects beyond just your homepage. Blogs yield significant benefits: establishing thought leadership, drawing people to your site, enabling social media promotion, encouraging content sharing, improving search engine rankings, increasing site visit duration, and deepening relationships with readers.
To optimize your blog posts for search engines: choose 1-2 keyword phrases per post, include each phrase exactly twice, place your main keyword within the first seven words of your headline, bold the keyword in your first sentence, add keywords as tags, ensure posts are at least 300 words long, and use original photos with keyword-rich descriptions.
Write conversationally, as if speaking one-on-one with someone you like. Share relevant personal anecdotes that connect to business points to build the "know, like, and trust" factors crucial for relationship building.
**Video Marketing Boost:** Video delivers exceptional value, with research suggesting one minute of video is worth 1.8 million words. Videos outperform text in SEO, lead generation, website engagement, and customer conversion. Create a focused two-minute script that directs viewers to opt in for your free offer, following the formula: tell viewers what you've got, why they need it, and what to do next.
For those uncomfortable on camera, narrated text videos using PowerPoint or Keynote slides with voiceover provide an effective alternative. Keep your slides simple-fancy graphics rarely increase response rates compared to clean, straightforward text presentations.
**Publicity Boost:** Publicity offers three powerful benefits: exposing your business to new audiences, building credibility through media appearances, and improving your website's search engine ranking through links from high-traffic media sites.
To attract media attention, focus on what interests their audience rather than your business offerings. Effective story angles include: tying to current events or local angles, connecting to holidays or seasonal events, celebrity tie-ins, trend pieces and surveys, numbered lists, how-to content, controversial topics or myth-debunking, and anniversaries of significant events.
**Direct Mail Boost:** Despite digital communication's prevalence, direct mail remains highly effective with less competition in physical mailboxes than email inboxes. Research shows physical media creates a "deeper footprint" in the brain than digital content, making a stronger emotional impact.
Finding the right mailing list is crucial for success. The more precisely you can identify your target client, the better your results. Professional-looking sales letters have consistently outperformed postcards, with the most effective letters focusing initially on the reader's emotional triggers-fear of pain and desire for gain-rather than on the sender's services.
**Joint Ventures Boost:** Joint ventures-collaborative relationships with complementary businesses targeting the same customer base-work best once your initial marketing is established. Ideal JV partners sell complementary (not competing) products to your same audience.
Despite the compelling financial logic of joint ventures, most fail due to lack of trust. Focus on gradually developing connections by volunteering to be a resource in their marketing activities, such as appearing on their teleseminars or webinars with no expectation of immediate benefit. One of the best strategies for developing long-term joint venture relationships is promoting their products before asking them to promote yours.
Chapter 9
Implementing Your Marketing Revolution
Having established your marketing system, the key challenge now becomes implementation. Reading about marketing without taking action is like reading about swimming without getting in the pool. The system requires commitment-at least six months of consistent effort before evaluating results.
With persistence, this system enables you to build your business to whatever size you desire while giving you the freedom to choose ideal clients rather than working with anyone who has money. After successfully implementing the One Week Marketing Plan for a year, two key considerations emerge:
First, determine how personally involved you want to be in your business-can you create systems that generate income without your constant presence? Second, consider how to evolve your marketing approach as technology and regulations change. Becoming a student of marketing helps you adapt to these shifts.
Track what yields the best results and consider expanding your system to additional niches. Outsource repetitive tasks to maintain efficiency while focusing on what you enjoy. Platforms like Fiverr.com, Elance.com, and Guru.com make it easy to find affordable help for everything from website design to content creation.
Many business owners have a conflicted relationship with marketing-knowing they need it while secretly hoping clients will simply discover them naturally. This internal conflict often prevents effective implementation. To overcome this resistance, try techniques like "brain geography"-moving your thinking to different parts of your brain by remembering past successes and how they made you feel, then applying that feeling to marketing tasks.
The One Week Marketing Plan represents a fundamental shift in how businesses attract clients-from interruption-based selling to relationship-based marketing. By positioning yourself as a trusted advisor first and a service provider second, you create a magnetic pull that brings qualified prospects to you consistently and predictably.
What would your business look like if qualified prospects were consistently reaching out to you rather than you chasing after them? With Satterfield's system, that reality is just seven days away.
