As a professional magician, be it full or part time, you need shows. To get shows, we must have people see our advertising material. There are two basic ways to do this.

The first is to use passive advertising. Things like the yellow pages and handing out business cards. You place your advertising and you wait for someone to call.

The second is active advertising, where you pursue the sale. This can be through cold calling, emails or direct mail. Many magicians now use direct mail. Sadly, most use it ineffectively.

To be effective, direct mail must be sent to qualified buyers. The best are those who have requested information. Direct mail also must be repeated. It often takes several mailings before a prospect contacts you for a show. Direct mail can also be expensive.

I am a big believer in having a newsletter for past clients that is sent by direct mail. Something solid in your clients' hands to keep you on their mind. Sending newsletters just to information seekers can be very expensive though.

Email is the great solution. Used properly, it can generate tons of leads from qualified prospects. Spam is right out. Do not just blanket mail a list of emails. It is no more effective (and probably less so) than direct mailing a list from the yellow pages.

You need to create interest and get the right people to contact you.

Offering special reports is a great way to generate leads from qualified prospects. Your free report(s) should be offered on your website, on your business card and in all your advertising.

Your reports should have specific interest and real information to your prospect. Doing school assemblies, a free report offering "Ten Mistakes Not To Make When Scheduling Educational School Assemblies," could draw a response from the right people. Or, offer "The
School Principals' Secret To Motivating Students." Including things like special reward
programs, mentor programs and of course, scheduling your show.

If I was a restaurant magician, I would offer a free report, "Ten Ways To Build Customer Satisfaction," including of course, a top rate red-haired magician.

You can offer your report in one of three ways:
1) Offer a free report on a subject and give a phone number. When the prospect calls the number, get their name. address and phone number and mail them the report.
2) Have a website they can go to to get the free report, and submitting their contact info directs them to a "secret webpage" with their free report
3) Have your website have an autoresponder. The prospect enters their info including email address. They then receive your report via email. If you are adding them to an email list you will be emailing to, make sure that is clear.

With a good autoresponder, you can not only collect their information and get the report right back to them, but you can schedule follow-up emails to them. The follow-up emails should have good information in them, plus promote your business as well. Make all your emails interesting and worth reading. Do not try to sell or book shows in your email. Have links to your sales pages in the email, but use the email to establish yourself as a professional and an expert.

Many marketers offer courses for free. They use the autoresponder to send a different chapter of the course every few days. When a prospect signs up for your free course on"Using Magic To Build Your Business," they are inviting you to send them a series of emails.

The most valuable property of any business is their customer lists. You need to gather the names and emails of prospects. You need to acquaint them with your name and qualifications. Offering free reports and courses can help you build your business quickly and inexpensively.

If you have questions on using free reports or autoresponders, please feel free to email me.