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Here are some questions you should be asking yourself at this point: What are the top websites that my dream customers already go to? What forums or message boards do they participate in? What are the Facebook groups they engage in? Who are the influencers they follow on Facebook and Instagram? What podcasts do they listen to? What are the email newsletters they are subscribed to? What blogs do they read? What channels are they following on YouTube? What keywords are they searching for in Google to find information?
One of the common misunderstandings with traffic is that you have to “create” traffic, but, as you can now see, that just isn’t true. Traffic (your dream customer) is already there. Your job is to identify where they are, tap into those existing streams of traffic, throw out some hooks, and then get a percentage of your dream customers to start coming to you.
“The goal of the Dream 100 is to take your ideal buyers from ‘I’ve never heard of this company’ to ‘What is this company I keep hearing about?’ to ‘I think I’ve heard of that company’ to ‘Yes, I’ve heard of that company’ to ‘Yes, I do business with that company.’”
made a list and wrote out everywhere that I could think my dream customers might be gathering. On that list I identified: 10+ top websites and forums they spent time on 15+ active Facebook groups they participated in 50+ influencers they followed on Facebook and Instagram 30+ podcasts they listened to 40+ email newsletters they subscribed to 20+ blogs that they actively read 20+ YouTube channels they subscribed to
After making the list, I added up how many subscribers, readers, and followers each of those channels had. I was so excited to find out that there were over 30 million of my dream customers on that little list alone, all congregated inside of those 185-plus communities!
But what if, instead, I did a Dream 100 campaign to the owners of those 185-plus communities asking them to promote my book to their audience? If I could build a relationship with one of them and get just one yes, that could turn into hundreds or thousands of new customers!
The second part of the Dream 100 strategy (covered in more detail in Secret #4) works even for those who didn’t respond or weren’t willing to promote my book. Advertising platforms like Facebook allow you to target your ads to people with certain interests.
The core strategy to understand is that your dream customers have already been congregated by your Dream 100. If you focus on identifying them and marketing to them, your dream customers will start flowing into your funnels faster than by anything else you could do.
and while it’s possible to move people from one platform to another, there is much less resistance when you just migrate people to you who are already on the platform that they love.
For all my brick-and-mortar business owners, don’t worry, this strategy still works, even though you will need to look at it a little differently. When building your Dream 100 list, instead of identifying the national influencers or leaders in your niche, you need to identify your local influencers.
The next step is for you to build out your Dream 100 list. Everything we do from this point forward from paid ads to free traffic to joint ventures will all build from this core foundation of the Dream 100.
You see, the Dream 100 is the key foundation for traffic and the key foundation for your entire business because it helps you to figure out how to position your offers and tell your stories.
Interest-Based Congregations: The first type of congregation is based on interests. In most social networks, after someone joins, the first thing the network tries to do is figure out what things you’re interested in.
advertisers have the chance to select the interests that people follow, such as: Who are the people (influencers, celebrities, thought leaders, authors, etc.) you are following? What companies are you following? What movies, books, and brands are you following?
Start with your favorite social network and try to write down between 20 to 100 Dream 100 names for that network. Then do the same thing for podcasts, blogs, email newsletters, and any other important types of congregation.
After you’ve filled in as many names in the Dream 100 interest-based columns as you can find, then move on to the search-based congregations.
Search-Based Congregations: When someone goes to Google or any other search platform, they type in a keyword phrase looking for something
As soon as they type a phrase, they enter an existing congregation of people searching for the same thing.
This type of congregation is called a search-based congregation, and searches can occur on Google, Yahoo, or any other search platform. Some popular search platforms at the time of this writing are Quora.com, where people can ask questions on any topic; Pinterest.com, where people search for images; and YouTube.com, where people search for almost everything!
At the end of the day, traffic is a numbers game. I want to find 100 (or more) people because even with 100 people, we may only get 5 to 10 of them who are willing to let us get in front of their audience for free. After that, we may only get 10 or so others for whom we’re able to successfully target their audiences on the ad networks, so it’s essential that you cast a wide net.
The easiest way to build a larger list is to go back to Secret #3 in Expert Secrets, where we explore the 3 Core Markets or Desires.
To find your best Dream 100, look outside of your niche and into your submarket for the warmest traffic.
when I build my Dream 100, I’m not just looking for other people who are selling “sales funnels” stuff. I do add those people, companies, and keywords to my list, but what I’m really looking for is all the other people, companies, and keywords that are within my submarket. They are my warmest traffic and where I focus first.
My goal is to provide my Dream 100’s followers with my new opportunity. I can usually build my Dream 100 from this list pretty easily. But if you’re struggling to identify all the niches within your submarket, just ask yourself this question: What other vehicles are people tryin...
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Your submarket is where you should focus all of your Dream 100 efforts initially because this is your warmest traffic.
Every piece of good marketing has a hook, a story, and an offer.
Hook: Now that we know exactly where our dream customers are congregating, our job is to throw hooks to them to see if we can grab their attention.
The hook is the thing that grabs someone’s attention so you can tell them a story.
Anything that grabs someone’s attention is a hook, and the better you get at creating it and throwing it into your Dream 100’s congregations, the more attention you will get.
Pay attention the next time you’re scrolling to what hooks grab your attention. Why did you stop? Why did you click play? What did the hook say, and how did it make you feel? Answering these questions will help you to become amazing at developing hooks.
Story: After the hook grabs their attention, you now have a small window to connect with them through story. There are two core goals from that story that you are about to tell them. The story will increase the value of the offer that you are about to make. By telling the right story (or “epiphany bridge” stories, mentioned in Expert Secrets), you can show the perceived value of what you’re selling and the story will create a desire for them to buy now. The story will build a connection with you as the Attractive Character and your brand. Even if someone doesn’t buy something today, if they
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Your personality (or “your Attractive Character,” mentioned in DotCom Secrets) is becoming more and more vital to the success of your traffic campaigns. Anyone can throw up an ad and get someone to buy once, but if you are willing to share your stories, build a connection with your audience, and actually serve them instead of only selling them something, they will continue to buy from you over ...
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Offer: The hook gets your customers’ attention, the story creates desire, and the last step of every message, post, email, and video is the offer. The offer doesn’t always mean asking people to buy something amazing, although this is my favorite type of offer. The offer could be as small as telling them if they “like this post” or “comment on my video” or “subscribe to my podcast” or “join my list,” you’ll give them a special thing in exchange. The better the offer is, the more likely someone is to do the thing that you actually want them to do.
If people aren’t doing what you want them to do (joining your list, clicking your ads, or buying your stuff), the simplest way to fix it is often to increase the offer.
The same thing is true with your ads. If you hook someone, tell them a story, and make them an offer and they still don’t buy, it’s likely that the offer isn’t good enough for them. You may need to tell a better story to increase the perceived value of the offer, or maybe you may need to make a better offer. Add more bonuses, increase how much they get, make it sexier—whatever they need for the offer to be irresistible.
Yes, each ad has a hook (the image or video or headline that gets people to stop scrolling), a story (the thing that you show after you have people’s attention) and an offer (typically, what they are going to get if they click the ad).
If any of your traffic campaigns aren’t working, it’s always the hook, the story, or the offer. If the conversion on your landing page isn’t working, it’s always the hook, the story, or the offer. If the attendance to your webinar, the close rate on your pitch, your upsell take rate, or your email open rate is not working, it’s always the hook, the story, or the offer. And if you want to solve all these problems, create better hooks, tell better stories, and make better offers.
Now you have your Dream 100, and they have your dream customers. The next question you should be asking yourself is the same question I asked myself: “How do I get my message in front of their audiences?”
The first key to the Dream 100 is that you need to dig your well before you’re thirsty. In his networking book, Dig Your Well Before You’re Thirsty, Harvey Mackay explains that if you want to build a business relationship with someone that’s worthwhile, you have to start it before you’re ready to make the deal.
The most common mistake that entrepreneurs make when they start their Dream 100 is to wait to start building relationships with those people until their product is ready. As soon as I identify someone as being part of my Dream 100, I immedi...
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First, I subscribe to everything that my Dream 10...
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also watch what my Dream 100 are publishing because, in the future, I might be creating ads for these same people. If I know the things that an individual member of my Dream 100 are saying to their followers, I can model the same language patterns in my messages.
For the email newsletters, I create a new email address that is set up specifically for my Dream 100 campaign, and I use that new email address to join everyone’s list. I make a filter that pushes each person’s emails instantly into a folder so my inbox stays clean. That way, when I’m about to call or message a certain person, I can log into that email account, click on their folder, and quickly look at the last dozen or so emails and catch up on what they are publishing.
I also only use my social apps (YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, etc.) for two purposes: to produce and publish content, and to spy on my Dream 100. I don’t use them to be “social,” because this is the fastest way to ruin your life. Okay, not really, but seriously . . . from this point forward, you should never look at yourself as a “consumer” of social media but as a “producer” of it. You produce content and you pay close attention to what your Dream 100 is doing on each of those platforms.
After subscribing to my Dream 100’s content, I try to buy some of their products. This allows me to see their funnels and what they’re selling on their backend and get a good idea of what they are doing.
When you’re a customer, you can tell them why you love their products. Few things build rapport better and faster than being able to tell someone that you’re a happy customer.
The third and last thing I do is look for ways that I can serve my Dream 100.
One of the best things I can do to help someone after buying their product or listening to their podcast or reading their blog is to talk about it socially.
Phase #1 (Day 1–14): I started the process of following my Dream 100 by subscribing and listening to the content they were pushing out. During my twice-a-day, 15-minute social media binges, I would watch what each of my Dream 100 were doing, and then I would look for things that resonated with me. I would quickly comment on what they were publishing, sharing what I thought was special, and looking for ways I could serve them.
Phase #2 (Day 15–30): I would then contact my Dream 100 (via email, direct message, etc.) and open up a dialogue. My goal was never to pitch them anything during this time.
