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magic4u02 Eternal Order Philadelphia, PA 15110 Posts |
Robert is also dead-on here. The key word he used is a PART of. It should work as a part of your overall marketing tools. I also have found that almost every person who calls me, or books Kelly and me, has gone to the site and looked through it. It works great because I get requests from the site and I often times have the prospect knowing more about me and what I do before I even talk with them.
Because they are going to the site, they are reading my information and looking things over almost like an interactive promo kit. It hopefully gets them excited enough to take action to use my form or pick up the phone to call me. It is a great tool and one among many that my wife and I use for our magic business. Kyle
Kyle Peron
http://www.kylekellymagic.com Entertainers Product Site http://kpmagicproducts.com Join Our Facebook Fan Page at http://facebook.com/perondesign |
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Dannydoyle Eternal Order 21219 Posts |
James-
Yeah, it is a showroom in Branson Missouri about 10 months a year. I do a hypnosis show and am part of a variety show here with Katie Lynn. She is one of Mickey Gilley's singers. As a matter of fact we use most of his band too for the show. The point is, yeah I am a minority as we get about 9 million tourists a year through here in what we call the "live entertaiment capital of the world". Any work I booked in the past was from work. Mostly comedy clubs and such. Then owning the restaurant. So I guess indeed I am the minority. To me web pages are to be an ACTIVE form of marketing. That really is the point most people seem to miss. Most think of it as passive, letting people come to you. But by the same token, a good DVD of the show can almost do the same thing. I did say almost.
Danny Doyle
<BR>Semper Occultus <BR>In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act....George Orwell |
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magic4u02 Eternal Order Philadelphia, PA 15110 Posts |
Danny brings up a great point. Many do indeed view their site as a passive form of marketing. They set the site up in hopes that people come to it. The active marketer knows that the site is a marketing tool and they go out there and actively get people and direct people to their sites. Nice point Danny.
Kyle
Kyle Peron
http://www.kylekellymagic.com Entertainers Product Site http://kpmagicproducts.com Join Our Facebook Fan Page at http://facebook.com/perondesign |
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drwilson Inner circle Bar Harbor, ME 2191 Posts |
I have received some very interesting bookings from my website. I think much of the complaining about how websites don't generate leads results from a disregard for a website's rankings in searches using important keywords.
My show has some unique aspects. It is from another historical period; I do a medicine show and sideshow in addition to magic. My web host has software that lets me track my web hits, including allowing me to discover the keywords that brought people to my site. The web pages are then rewritten to rank even better using those keywords. I recently used Alexa to evaluate the effectiveness of my website in comparison to other magicians in Maine. The results were very interesting. Here is the area for magicians: http://www.alexa.com/browse?&CategoryID=90305 There are only twelve magician sites in Maine. I know there are more magicians than that; we have over twenty in our I.B.M. Ring. My site is the top-ranked site, even though some of the other magicians do far more shows than I do, and are full-time pros. We can draw several conclusions from this. First, there are plenty of magicians getting plenty of work without websites, so they are not "essential." There are also magicians without business cards, mailing lists, or answering machines, so those aren't essential either. The real question is, would a magician who does not currently have a website get more work, or better work, with a website? That depends. Use Alexa to evaluate the web sites of other magicians in your area. When looking at websites, ask yourself whether the web site does anything to uniquely position that magician. Too many magician websites have cartoon top hats and bunnies. Generic clipart suggests a generic magician, interchangeable with other magicians. Also, try doing Google searches with keywords that apply to you; in my case, Maine magician. If you are not on the first page of Google results for searches like that, your site is not being found. Of course, many magicians use their websites like a color brochure that doesn't cost much to distribute. Traffic to their website comes from business cards, mailings, flyers, etc. They are not concerned with search engine prominence because they don't believe that people find them that way. I know that I have been booked from Google searches because the client told me. There was recently a discussion here about MySpace. Some folks wrote it off as toxic, fearing that it would label them as pedophiles; others, who work the college market, consider it a valuable promtional tool. The mix of techniques that any individual performer should use to generate leads depends on their target market. A birthday-party magician in a big city could probably do fine without a website. A magician trying to get booked for trade shows or corporate events would almost certainly have to have a website. If you do have a website, ask yourself what it is for: lead generation, photo gallery, exercise in vanity, whatever. Make sure that it is effective for that purpose. I have seen some terrible business cards and other printed promotional material from magicians. These people complain that their mailings aren't effective. Evaluate every promotional tool that you are using, and fix the ones that aren't working. Yours, Paul |
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wizardofsorts Special user Chicago, IL 935 Posts |
Last year 7% of my gross income came from the web accounting for 11% of my shows.
Edd
Edd Fairman, Wizard of Sorts is a corporate magician available for your next trade show, hospitality suite, client luncheon, or company event. http://www.wizardofsorts.com
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Don Loyal user 215 Posts |
Websites are another marketing tool and a web presence, but are still not enough. I don't even have a website and get business and repeats. Some people have a nice site and have spent the money to have it laid out to sell themselves, BUT are not really living up to the hype and give others a bad name. For everyone that wants to do this there are many that should not be doing this. Not everyone has the goods to do this. Such is life.
Don |
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RickyD New user South Carolina 91 Posts |
So far, around 3/4 of the shows I've booked this year have come through my website. (That's a bit higher than in the past, but not too far off.) Basically, they fill out a form on my site that tells me what sort of show they're looking for, what date, etc. and I'll follow-up with either a phone call, e-mail, letter, mailing, or whatever form of response they request. My other shows have come through word-of-mouth/business cards/etc. I don't currently have an ad in the newspaper or phonebook. For the number of shows I do (I'm a part-time professional), I don't see that as necessary or even a smart business expense.
The web is a powerful tool, and more and more people are using it every day. Suits my needs quite well. Sure, it's not for everybody. But it works well for me.
"The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen."
-- Philippians 4:23 |
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Starrpower Inner circle 4070 Posts |
That surprises me, Ricky. I've looked at your site and, being a tripod site, it's very difficult to find it doing a routine "magician" web search. Are you sure people aren't hearing about you from some other means, and just using the website to inquire AFTER they've gotten the web address from elsewhere, or seen your show, or ???
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RickyD New user South Carolina 91 Posts |
Quote:
On 2006-04-03 13:59, Starrpower wrote: I guess that's possible. But when I ask my clients (or even potential clients) how they found me, the majority say "on the internet". Most of them will even tell me what search engine they used to find me. I guess it depends on what you search for, though.(Most don't just search for "magician", I would guess.) I'm registered with MagicTricks.com's site, and that helps some. Maybe I'm just lucky ...
"The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen."
-- Philippians 4:23 |
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icentertainment Inner circle 1429 Posts |
In Australia Many event managers are shopping for their entertainment online so a web site for my buddies is a sure-fire way to outa business.
A web site is info available 24/7- this is what it is. So you have info that a potential client wants to know. For me it's the corporate market, so video, bio stuff, show information clients, testimonials- these are what they want and are easy to place on a web site. The Web site for me is a stepping stone. If they phone me up first via a business card I'll say that I'll send them a DVD, "but for now you may want to check out my web site for quick info." If they look through web searches then it gives the appearance of a pro unit. The great thing about the web site is you can be associates with other businesses via links- very quickly people can go to your web site and get info. Like networking with venues and getting them to place links to your site - this is good. So for those people who don't have agents getting them work and are doing all by themselves- the web site is an essential tool. You need one. How professional will you look when a client asks you, "what's your web address?", and you say "I don't have one, why?" |
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Donald Dunphy Inner circle Victoria, BC, Canada 7563 Posts |
I would say that a good 75% of prospects I speak with on the phone have viewed my website, before talking with me. Some mention that outright, and some I have to ask.
Of course, viewing a website doesn't mean that they have read every word on it. - Donald
Donald Dunphy is a Victoria Magician, British Columbia, Canada.
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