After building Roland Frasier's influencer site, he invited me to speak at War Room in July 2017 where I gave this presentation full of edutainment! Since then we also built Ryan Deiss's personal brand site and War Room Mastermind's site.
Dmitriy Kozlov Reveals Personal Brand Site Formula At War Room
Building Your Personal Brand Website with Mike Dillard
This post is republished from the Mike Dillard Podcast
Hey gang, today I’m going to introduce you to one of my most valuable resources… His name is Dmitriy Kozlov. Not only has he been a personal friend of mine for almost 10 years now, but he’s also the Founder of a company called Influex.com
So Influex is the best company out there, period, if you want to build a website for you and your personal brand.
Now this is a very important subject for two reasons…
The first, is that I think it’s critical that we all have a personal website that sells us as individuals.
You only get one chance to make a first impression, and yes you will absolutely be judged by the impression that you make.
Well if we consider that 99% of the people who find us, will find us online, rather than meet us in person, how important does your website, and the impression it makes, become?
It’s unbelievably important.
But that brings us to the most important part of this interview…
I’d say that 9 out of 10 personal brand websites that I’ve seen, are doing it wrong.
People think that a personal brand site is supposed to be all about them… Who they are, what they’ve accomplished, and why they’re so cool.
And sure, those elements have a place on your website, but the people who get it, and who do this right… Will realize that this is still, always about the prospect and the customer.
Which means that your brand website isn’t about you first and the customer second, it’s about the customer first.
The primary focus of the site is all about them, and how you can help them achieve their goals.
Second to that, is your story.
A story that allows people to get to know you better, and to come to the conclusion that, “yes, this person knows their stuff, and they can help me.”
Now if you want to see what this looks like in action, just head to MikeDillard.com because Dmitriy and his team at Influex, just rebuilt the entire site for me, from the ground up.
And when you’re there, I want you to really pay attention to the structure and the copy on the home page because it will illustrate the difference between a site built around you, and a site built around your customer.
Now with the being said, please help me welcome, Dmitriy kozlov.
How To Create A Personal Brand Website with Dmitriy Kozlov at Joe Polish’s Genius Network
This post is republished from the Genius Network Podcast
Episode Summary
Do you ever feel like the word “branding” is overused? Curious about the real value of an influencer site? The right personal brand website can massively boost your authority and create deeper connections.
Dmitriy Kozlov of Influex.com explains all.
Here’s a glance at what you’ll learn from Dmitriy in this episode:
- Dmitriy describes the results his company (Influex) delivers and the value of having an influencer site
- How a personal brand website can position you more effectively and help you more easily sell yourself
- One of the most important things you can do to increase your speaking engagements, PR and positive media exposure
- The biggest mistake entrepreneurs make when trying to build their reputation (and what to do instead)
- 3 key questions you should be asking BEFORE you create your personal brand site
- The Anatomy of a Working Website: What a great result-getting website should look like and do
- How to use a personal brand website to massively boost your authority and create deeper connections
- Dmitriy shares his perspective on his passion for fusing art, entrepreneurship, and marketing
Show Notes
- There is a lot of ego-based information sold to entrepreneurs around how to build a brand.
- Influence is what makes people make a business decision. Expression is more like brand essence.
- People make a decision to buy, based as much on the essence of a brand as the marketing message.
- The difference between a $1 bill and a $100 bill is the message on the paper.
- For coaches selling their personal skill set, their website is essentially the center of their universe. Even a separate business is connected to your personal brand and can be damaged by a poor reputation.
- A good personal brand is authentically expressed and is congruent with your true self. Incongruence becomes painful.
- Brand is the personality of the product or service.
- No true achievement-minded entrepreneur is interested in retirement. Most of them are artists and creators, and their business is an expression of what they are creating.
- Position your personal brand alongside whatever it is you’re making, sooner rather than later.
- If you have a great personal brand presence, you will have a lot of opportunities for speaking and presenting.
- There are three lenses to look through when developing your personal brand site: purpose, perception, and personality.
- Ask what is the primary and secondary purpose of each page of the website. For most people, the purpose is to build their list or get more speaking engagements.
- Perception is what experience you want your visitors to have.
- Your website should be a representation of your person. Most of the time, people’s sites are incongruent to where they are at.
- Most sites follow a very similar structure while being customized for your individual message.
- The more connected your opt-in is to your core statement of value, the more you will attract the kinds of leads you want.
- Most people don’t buy what it is you’re selling by visiting your website. They visit initially to explore, which is why you capture their information and continue the conversation.
- Your story is one of the first steps of building the relationship via your personal brand site. Start with your story before trying to build credibility.
- The purpose of your story is to build connection. You build credibility through testimonials.
- The footer on your website is often a throw-away item, but you should be very intentional with the content you put there.
- When you start your business, you get paid for what you do. Once you establish a great reputation, you start getting paid for who you are.
- Your home page should contain content that gives value up front. There are three ways to show people you can help them; you can tell them, you can show them, or you can help them.
- Take your wisdom and make it free to access. Your content is the container for the value you bring to the table.
- You are not the hero of your journey, you are the guide to the hero. You are the Yoda to the Luke Skywalker.
- The important thing to ask for every perception piece on your site is ‘how can I be a guide to the people I am trying to serve?’
- You don’t have to market the same way as some of the most popular marketers. Those people know their audience. Figure out what outcome your audience wants and approach them appropriately.
- Consistency is how you develop mastery, confidence and a reputation for solid work.
- For most people, a speaking page is a good idea even if speaking is not your main focus.
- A personal brand site is like a personal conversation over coffee. You are building the relationship that may result in a sale later on.
- Your contact page should include your social media links and be a catch all for any kind of inquiry to your site.
- The first ever site that Dmitriy bought was dmitriykozlov.com, which led to him developing sites for other people and building an agency.
- The process of creating an influencer site starts with essence, expression, and execution.
- The key questions you should ask when interviewing potential designers is ‘what platform do you build on?’ and ‘what happens if we no longer work together?’
- Most entrepreneurs are artists, they are just artists in business. Ask yourself how you can fuse your artistic talents with your business acumen.
- Stepping into your artist identity will accelerate your business.
Make These 3 Simple Shifts For Your Site To Stop Leaking Money
There comes a time in the life cycle of a business when you look at your website and feel a sinking feeling in your stomach. It could be shame. Perhaps it’s anxiety. Or maybe it’s a touch of embarrassment.
Somewhere along the way, your success surpassed your website and you have no idea when it happened. For the longest time, you knew your site wasn’t great but you were too busy selling, marketing, creating, and delivering to worry about it.
You became successful in spite of your website, chasing down leads and converting them.
But now leads are chasing you down, Googling your name, and landing on a website you’ve neglected up until this point because you had to.
You realize your website no longer represent the value you offer or the Influencer you’ve become. And it is costing you leads, money, and opportunities.
Now that you’ve cemented yourself as an Influencer in your space, it’s time to give your website the attention you – and it – deserves.
It’s time to bring your website up to your level so that it fully represents who you’ve become and what you provide.
To do that completely would require a complete rebrand and rebuild from the ground up, building your site from scratch on the foundation of your essence, authentic expression, and influence – with your 3 to 5 year goals and vision in mind.
But, in the meantime, here are 3 things you can do right now so that your site stops leaking money and starts converting move visitors into revenue.
Tip #1: Include a “Power Statement” above the fold of your Homepage.
Studies show that when someone lands on your site, you have 5 seconds capture their attention. So, the space on your homepage that is “above the fold” (the area readers see without needing to scroll) is the most prime real estate on your website.
It is where you
- Establish relevancy
- Give a clear indication of who you're serving
- Give a clear indication of your unique value.
A power statement does all of these things, helping your ideal prospects realize how much you understand their situation and how you are the exact person they need.
For example, here’s what we created for Frank Kern:
Here’s one we did for Dan Holguin:
And here’s what we did for Joe Polish:
Tip #2: Under the Power Statement, have one clear “Call To Action” and “Opt-In Gift” (also above the fold)
Give your prospects the support they need most … and give it to them for free right at the top of the homepage in the form of a free Opt-in Gift.
The free opt-in gift should help them take the first step towards their transformation and towards working with you. To offer this to them, you’ll need:
- A polished product image to represent the free gift.
- A smaller headline and sub-headline for the opt-in itself.
- An opt-in form that will capture their name and email address, converting them from a visitor to a lead. The free gift should then be delivered via email.
Here’s what we created for Mike Koenigs:
And here’s what we did for David Bach:
And for Wholesale Ted:
For Alex Charfen:
For Jesse Elder
You can follow the examples on those pages. Or here are some templates you can plug into:
- “This _______________ cheat sheet will help you _______________, get immediate ______________, and __________________ , daily. Where should I send it?
- “This _______________ checklist will help you _______________, ___________________, and __________________ in the next 30 days.. Where should I send it?
- “This _______________ guide will help you immediately _______________, ___________________, and __________________ . Where should I send it?
Button Copy Example: Get your FREE Checklist/Guide/Cheat Sheet/Chapter Now.
Tip #3: Upgrade Your Navigation To Be Simple and Client-Centered
Instead of naming your pages things like “Author”, “Speaker”, and “Advisor”, which describe what you do, name your pages so they describe what your prospects can do with you, like “Work With Me” or “Book Me to Speak”.
Keep your navigation down to between 5 and 7 pages. Keep sub-menus to a minimum where possible. Combine and Delete any pages that aren’t absolutely necessary.
Keeping your navigation simple and client-centered reduces confusion and helps guide your prospects to a clear Call To Action (the first step to working with you). This is key to conversions. A confused mind takes no action.
Here are the most common pages used in a successful Influencer site (The top 7 should be chosen for the main navigation):
- About / Our Story / Meet _____
- Work With Me / Programs
- Press & Media (if available)
- Testimonials / Praise
- Podcast / Blog
- Book Me to Speak / Speaking
- Resources
- Contact
Finally, in the top right corner of the navigation menu, include a call-to-action button. Here’s an example:
For the FitFatherProject, we included a Call To Action to their 30-Day program in the top right corner. It is one of their entry-level and most popular programs and it’s a great way for clients to get introduced to working with them.
So this opt-in is always visible no matter where the prospect scrolls on the page, make the navigation “sticky” so it stays at the top of the screen even if the user scrolls. You can see this in action if you scroll down the homepage of FitFatherProject.com
Bonus Tip #4: Create a Strategic Footer.
Most websites include only a few things in the footer: The Copyright, Terms and Conditions, and navigation links. It’s usually an afterthought.
But think about the Footer as the fancy shoes of your site. Shoes always make an impression. Your suit or dress (your website) could be the most stunning outfit you own and it could be completely ruined by old/unattractive shoes (most site footers).
Many prospects skim through your site and, out of habit, scroll all the way through to the bottom of your site. And, most of the time, there’s nothing there of interest.
Surprise your prospects with an engaging useful footer that helps guide them to the tools they need most, namely the …
- Same Free Opt-In Gift you created as part of Tip #2 (a way to get started with you)
- Ways to connect with you on Social Media
- Testimonials that provide social proof. (Bonus tip 4b: sprinkle testimonials throughout your homepage for even more social proof and conversions!)
Here are some examples of ways you could create your strategic footer:
Here’s the footer we created for Mike Koenigs:
… and for Joe Polish:
And for Dan Holguin…
You’ll notice how we included Social Media elements, introducing another way for people to engage with you. But most importantly, the footer strategy is to provide a beautiful “call to action” for prospects to download a free gift and start their journey with you.
There you have it… the top 3 simple shifts for your site to stop leaking money (plus a bonus one)! Now, all there is to do is implement them. And…
If you’re interested in giving your site a further upgrade, check out our Custom Website Review service.
- We’ll look over your website from top to bottom and provide specific recommendations that can mean big improvements in getting conversions, sales, and leads.
- We’re only doing this for a limited number of Influencers in order to gather some data as we build our website review tool. We hope your site is one of the ones we get to review!
Upgrading Your Website Means Upgrading Your Brand
Team Influex is proud to launch Alex Charfen’s new influencer site!
Not only does it look awesome, it also does a great job of differentiating Alex and his unique gifts from the rest of the pack.
An entrepreneurial master, Alex began his selling career at the ripe old age of 8 when he started selling items at the local flea market with his dad (not the worst place to spend your time as a kid)!
From that point on, Alex has had massive success in real estate and in teaching others how to grow their own real estate empires, no matter what the selling climate looks like.
Now, Alex is the author of The Entrepreneurial Personality Type, the handbook for quirky and often misunderstood entrepreneurs with an intrinsic need to move and build and strive.
He has spoken on the biggest stages, appeared on TV and in print for major media outlets such as MSNBC, CNBC, FOX News, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Investor’s Business Daily and AmEx OPEN Forum to provide his unique views and insights.
Even though Alex was at a decent point with his business before coming to Influex for a makeover, he still knew that something needed to change on his site to open the space for growth.
He wanted to reimagine his brand, and so he needed a new site to reflect his new (improved) brand.
Check out Alex’s old site here:
Slickness and cool factor aside, the main thing that Alex’s old site did not have was a super clear and powerful USP (unique selling proposition)… or as we say at Influex, a UMP (Unique Messaging Proposition).
Before the site redesign, Alex’s power statement was “Helping Evolutionary Entrepreneurs Grow, Scale and Thrive.”
That’s pretty cool… but could it improve?
Let’s take a look at Alex’s new site to see what changes were made…
First, we helped strengthen his positioning. You can see that there’s a much stronger UMP here. The emphasis is now on Alex as a thought leader when it comes to uncovering the entrepreneurial personality type.
Alex’s message is now “Grow Your Business, Optimize Your Life, Make Your Greatest Contribution.”
Second, you can see that Alex’s opt-in is now honed in on downloading his book, “Entrepreneurial Personality Type”.
What entrepreneurs don’t want to know more about themselves to make the best decisions possible for their life and business? Not me!
We designed Alex’s site to strategically gather more leads and attract higher-level clients.
His site also highlights his available programs and invites readers to book him as a Speaker:
It’s great that he can connect quickly with most entrepreneurs just based on this “above the fold” focus for his website.
Third, we made sure that Alex’s identity as a growth-minded entrepreneur came through clearly and honestly. Alex now has a much stronger brand because of his more tasteful and iconic website.
How about you? Are you interested in seeing where your UMP can improve on your website?
The more you wait, the more your ineffective site is costing you in terms of missed opportunities. Schedule your Influex strategy call now.
