SOBCon08 Notes | Liz Strauss How to Be Irresistible

Speaker: Liz Strauss of Successful Blog on how to write a compelling offer

"ME" Liz Strauss worked over 20 years in print, software and online publishing. As vice president and publisher, Liz developed products and strategic plans with publishers in Europe, Australia, the U.K. and Ireland Online, Liz is known as a community builder. Her own, Successful-Blog, has loyal and active readership and the blog currently carries over 60,000 comments.

This post is the sixth in a series. About the SOBCon08 notes series . . .

On May 2-4, Liz Strauss hosted SOBCon08: Biz School for Bloggers in Chicago. During the sessions, I typed notes to share with you. To presenters and attendees: please feel free to clarify and comment. I will share notes from each session along with how I’m using the knowledge to improve my reader/customer experience.

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Liz says there are three ways to categorize blog activity: traffic, reader or customers. 

Make sure you know who your customers are.

Don’t sell something they need and something you think they need.

Sell them something they’ll WANT!

We don’t spend money on what we need, we spend on money on what we want.

How to be irresistible   . . . it’s all about Frosted mini-wheats: fiber for adults, sweetness for kids

Three things you need:

– head

– heart

– meaning

Apologies to Seth Godin, but being remarkable isn’t enough.

Tell them how you fit into their life.

Offer something they want with their head and heart that has meaning at a price they can buy at a price you can afford to sell.

Questions

How to get more comments on your blog?

Liz: Don’t write for your teacher, she’s not on your blog. Never give a complete top 10 list. The most important thing is blog your experience. Her husband watches a movie critic – he hates the guy, but he follows his reviews. If the critic gives a movie four stars, her husband knows it’s a dog. If the critic gives a movie two stars, her husband knows it’s a winner.

Keep in mind, there’s information all over the Internet. Your readers come from you. The last question you ask on your post is the most important thing, ask yourself: how you would answer it? For example: Why is a blog post like a Ferrari? is how Terry got started with Liz.

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Reflections and Implementation

If the notes look light, that’s because Liz’s presentation was condensed into under ten minutes. To keep the program on schedule, Liz clipped her talk to the essentials. Professionals speakers know how easily this can happen and they’re ready to resize at a moment’s notice. It’s happened to me on several occasions.

Once I got to close a program and was promised at least 20 minutes. As the program got underway, it was obvious I wasn’t the only speaker or entertainer there. A few members had reports and another told the story of a friend’s health issues. We sang, we laughed at jokes, we had dinner . . . and then it was time for my speech.

The clock said the meeting was over. So I made the decision to peel off the stories and get down to the bare outline. I finished in under ten minutes and expected the group to go home when I said "Thank You." Instead, they asked questions for another fifteen minutes. Maybe the talk was more interesting without all the frills?

Before you accept a speaking engagement, ask about the event. Going first on the program usually means you’ll get all your time. Plan your presentation to be about 80% of the time allotted so you can answer questions at the end – and give the next speaker a comfortable time cushion.

Liz made the right decision. Sometimes the most memorable talk is the shortest. This simply stated definition of marketing stands out for me:

Offer something they want with their head and heart that has meaning at a price they can buy at a price you can afford to sell.

Do you know who they is?

Do you have something they want?

What’s in there head and heart?

Can they buy it at a price you can afford to sell?

One last tip I heard this week from someone else: You want to work with people who have money and can pay you. Is it worth convincing people to pay you or should you look for other customers?