There’s more to building a “Tribe”–Seth Godin’s term, from the book of the same name–of loyal supporters and pre-sold books and future events just including a list of sign-up bonuses with your promotional message. The bonuses have to be–again using Seth Godin’s terminology in Permission Marketing, one of his earlier books–helpful and relevant.

But, wait, there’s more!

To have genuine relationship-building value, the bonuses also have to be tangible and visible. They have to become tools that can have the recipient do something, to research new topics, for example, or to help them make a genuine improvement in their marketing by introducing new skills.

A few days ago, I emphasized how impressed I was by Stephanie Diamond’s 4-week No-Nonsense Web Marketing workshop that starts next week. (Original post here, visit Stephanie’s details here.)

Examples of bonuses that make a difference

When I prepared my original post, I didn’t emphasize the bonuses that attendees receive.

The bonuses are not just recycle PDF’s, as they often are. Instead, workshop attendees receive bonuses that will help them profit from the information that they gain each week.

1. 1-minute video. Stephanie will help attendees create a 1-minute video for their website. Online video is one of the most powerful marketing tools available, but many don’t know how to take advantage of its power. With Stephanie’s help, attendees will now be able to display a video on their website.
2. Research software. Content forms the core of Tribes and successful long-term relationships. Workshop attendees will receive a software program that will help them locate ideas and information for creating content relative to their market’s information needs.
3. Time-management software. Time management is a crucial, but often neglected, marketing tool. Attendees will gain valuable tools not only to create better online content, they’ll gain the tool they need to find the time to create better content!

Conclusion and questions

These valuable, but relatively unheralded, bonuses raise 2 important points:

• Are you offering the right bonuses? There’s more to bonuses as long-term relationship builders than recycled PDFs. Each time you offer a bonus, you have to ask yourself if the bonus you’re offering will really make a difference to your prospects. Exactly how will your bonus help them? More important, how visible will your bonuses be to the recipient: how how often will they use it in coming months? Will the bonus hide, unread, somewhere on a hard drive, or will the bonus be a tool used every day?
• Do you regularly attend workshops and hands-on events by established leaders? Are you putting off fixing persistent problems, like inefficient web marketing, until you have the time or money? (If you don’t fix persistent problems now, how will they ever get cured?)

Perhaps we should all take fresh looks at available opportunities, like Stephanie Diamond’s 4-week No Nonsense Web Workshops.

Persistent problems have to be addressed by obtaining qualified assistance. The sooner action is taken, the sooner the problems will go away.