Here’s an Example of How to Create Instant Engagement, Establish Credibility, and Begin the Buyer’s Journey

Rather than telling your prospects how they should think, you’re displaying true leadership by coming to the conclusion with them. This is the role of the Mentor.

You need attention to establish authority with an audience.

And that means what you do with that attention is just as important as how you get it.

You’re not looking for just a click or a page view. You need to begin a relationship with your prospect in the most impactful way possible.

The relationship begins with the first word they encounter from you but isn’t consummated until they offer an email address. Yes, there are other ways for people to follow you, but email remains the first significant step on the prospect’s part for a meaningful commitment to truly learning from you.

And just like marketers screw up attention with clickbait headlines while failing to deliver on the promise, search-optimized pages that lead to high bounce rates, and thin “thought leadership” content with no archetype-based strategy, they also screw up building an email list by focusing on the wrong objectives.

That’s because many digital marketers optimize for the most opt-ins based on different ethical bribes or lead magnets. If a free checklist results in more opt-ins than a persuasive white paper, they go with that.

Big mistake. The goal is not just to get an email address; it’s to get people to keep paying attention via receiving emails!

In other words, if someone wants your free checklist, they may give you their “spam” address to grab the freebie while rarely, if ever, seeing your follow-up content. You have succeeded in failing with this approach.

This is why I started advocating for email newsletters back in 2014. The incentive to opt-in was the delivery of the newsletter itself, which satisfies the ultimate goal. In many cases, no lead magnet or incentive was necessary beyond the promised periodic content.

Ten years later, we've hit peak newsletter. We need modified tactics, which we’ll explore in the future. But the bottom line is that practitioners of the Leading Expert Methodology use every aspect of their general website copy, their About page, and the initial messages delivered to the prospect as an opportunity to indoctrinate them.

That means you’re introducing the prospect to your point of view on how to solve their problem or satisfy their desire. It’s new, it’s different, and you’re working to make them focus on the way you frame the problem and the solution.

An Example of How to Lead Them to Solve the Case

In the last lesson, I introduced you to the True Detective Formula. Now I’ll give you a demonstration.

This framework is a structural method for highly engaging with the prospect as you create your intended attention focal point and establish credibility. Instead of talking at them to demonstrate your subject matter expertise, you explore the problem and arrive at a solution with them in a way that keeps them riveted to the content.

You can use this approach in many ways. For example, as your About page narrative, as opt-in landing page copy, or even as part of a webinar or stage presentation.

The following example is another application of the True Detective Formula: an introduction to a lead magnet or indoctrination content. This could be positioned as a free report, white paper, or email course — so we’re essentially talking about long-form content with this as a strong, engaging beginning.