Today is Sunday, a day I think out of all seven when I get particularly reflective. I wanted to talk to you today about internet marketing and make you really think outside the box today.
Did you ever wonder about the guru’s making 6 or 7 figures a year what they truly did or do to make that sort of money?
I was on a private webinar about 7 months ago with the Daddy of internet marketing that revealed the secret and I want to let you know what he said. He said you have to analyze the masses. Find out what their problem is and solve it for them. Sound hard? Well, not really. You see the savvy internet marketer knows exactly what the masses want and need and they gear their entire existence around those wants and needs and monetize it. For instance, many will tell you their tale of woes, how they were down in the dumps etc., selling their furniture and such just to get more education etc. etc. and with perserverance, determination and drive they are where they are today. They do that to connect with the people that are listening to them. They want to relate to them on a personal basis instantly gaining that connection with them. They are not lying they are being very truthful about where they came from and where they were, but it’s the WAY they do it that is so powerful.
Now did you ever analyze exactly what they do? Did you actually ever sit back and watch their process unfold in front of you? Have you figured out the secret yet? I sure did and instead of leading you on for three weeks then charging you a ton of money just to tell you what you could have already figured out on your own if you were paying attention, I am going to tell you in this article so keep reading.
You see folks, most people on the internet today do everything backwards. They hear they need to build a list, they understand that they need a list of people to “market” their “stuff” to, they then try everything under the sun to try to get people onto their “list”. They work at that list for a very long time then think magically as soon as they send an email about some business they are in that all these people on their list are going to join them and all will walk the beaches of riches together. Well, that can happen, just not the way most are doing it. What they are lacking is explained below.
The biggest thing I notice that is lacking in most people’s marketing campaigns are a lack of substance and value. Oh I know you are thinking, PLEASE I have heard this already. Well, listen again. Many people claim affiliate marketing is the best way to make money on the internet. That is definitely one of them. The problem is the average affiliate marketer has no client base or following to market the service or program they are marketing in the first place. Did you understand that? If not read that last sentence again. They have this awesome tool, product or service but make peanuts because when they became an affiliate they had no one to market the service to. This is why the “list” is important. Not spamming haphazardly on a social site or to your personal email inbox. An actual group of people that value what you have to say. They comment on your blog or ask your advice. They WANT to know what you are up to and they are waiting for you to show them what you are up to. Those are the people you want on your list.
Back to the gurus, a name in which I can’t stand but nevertheless when I refer to them it is not in my eyes an insult. They know exactly what they are doing and can predict before they start a campaign how much money they will make. Can you do that?
Ok enough with the chatter let’s get to the meat of this article. Here is the secret to the guru’s success: THE LAUNCH.
Yes, you heard me, it’s the launch. It’s the art of launching a product or service in such a way that it will be successful from start to finish. How? Carefully. Well thought out. Studying the previous guru’s step by step and duplicate. Don’t think you can do this or don’t think you have something you can launch? Guess again. You can launch anything from a new line of bikinis to a newly written Ebook. It still needs to be something you are passionate about and that you can stand behind, however, it does not necesarily have to be something you created. It just has to be handled in the right order.
Here are some keys to a successful launch:
1. Don’t put the horse before the cart. In other words, get your presence out there. Start a blog and work it around what you are passionate about. For example, if you love baking cookies and are planning on writing a book about it, while you are busy writing the book, build your audience by writing a blog about cooking, baking, how to bake, why you love to bake, show pictures of your creations, encourage others to comment on your blog about their baking. Run a contest and award someone something for the best recipe of fudge. You get my drift. Something that will create buzz around your product or service, BEFORE you launch that book.
2. When you start #1 above, you will be naturally building your list. USE social media to gather more like minded people. Create a group on Facebook around cooking (back to example from step 1). Groups on Facebook are powerful, more powerful than a fan page for you can schedule events, email the people in your group etc. etc. very powerful, yet everyone talks solely about creating only a fan page. Do both…what the hell it’s more exposure.
3. Do NOT launch your product or service too soon. I see this happen ALL the time. New start up companies will launch their business prematurely before they are ready and all their work backfires in their face. If you don’t talk about your new book you are writing no one knows, right? Therefore no one will know if you suddenly got writer’s block and can’t finish chapter 10. It takes the pressure off of you, and trust me stress will make you counter productive in a heart beat. So in other words make damn sure whatever it is you are launching is ready BEFORE you start to tell the people on your “list”. Don’t give a date unless of course it’s all ready to go!
4. The actual prelaunch itself should be a series of emails and videos and of course some sort of opt in area so truly interested folks can stay informed as you go. PLEASE make sure you have an opt-out clause at the bottom of every email. I strongly suggest not to launch a product or service with fewer than 500 people on your list. It’s a numbers game. All based on percentages. This is your business, treat it as one and do your due diligence.
5. Try to do a JV partnership with key people. For instance, you offer the JV partners a special “cut” of sales if they also market to THEIR lists. Guru’s do this all the time. Why not you?! This is a very VERY effective way to gain more exposure quickly. But first, realize you will need some sort of relationship FIRST with the JV before asking them to partner with you, after all, if whatever you are marketing STINKS then that person’s reputation is on the line. Again, horse before cart = disaster.
6. Study the gurus. I will list here a bunch of people that have this launch stuff down PAT. Look them up, get on a list of theirs and next time they do a launch save EVERY email you get and study it. How they talk, what they do, and duplicate. Mike Dillard, the king of internet marketers, is so good at this he seriously could snap his fingers and tell people to start drinking 17 glasses of water a day and they would do it..why? Because he has worked years at building his followers and giving GREAT advice and people adore him, including me. Ann Sieg, she is the renegade marketer, very down to earth and women in the industry can relate to A LOT of what she has to say and what she has been through. She was my first mentor, before I started paying attention to Mike. Jeff Walker, the one that taught me how to launch. Incredible career and again, very down to earth and easy to understand. There are many more but these three people I have studied, thoroughly, oh one more, Ryan Deiss. He either launches his own stuff or does JV all the time and is a master of the launch as well.
I must tell you when I study these people I don’t buy the courses at the end of the launch that cost people thousands and thousands of dollars. What I have done is take notes, lots and lots and lots, attended webinars, lots and lots of webinars. Watched what they do, when they do it and how they do it. I can honestly say I have purchased many products (books) these people and others have written, but never the 3 month long thousands of dollar courses, I didn’t need to. Maybe you do I don’t know. All I know is the more money I kept in my pocket and the more I learned for free has brought me to where I am today. About to launch my own company. Following what I have learned, studying, duplicating and tons of research. It will happen for me and it can happen for you. Just know the money is not in that terrific MLM you just joined or that company that has the supposed next best lotion. The money is truly within you. It’s just a matter of figuring out what it is or who it is you will partner with to get it done. That was my challenge, I knew I could do it I just didn’t know what although my husband was telling me for over a year what it was. He saw it, I didn’t. or maybe I was too scared to admit it. I don’t know, all I know is as soon as I started to believe in myself the rest started falling into place.
I hope this helped you. If you are searching, wondering, trying to figure out just what it is that will be IT for you. I hope I opened your eyes a little and made you think outside the box. Sometimes the answers to the hardest questions are so obvious we tend to overlook them. I wish you the best. Start to believe in yourself and look inside you for some answers.
Tags: Ann Sieg, internet marketing guru, launch, Mike Dillard, ryan deiss, secret to success
Hey there! I went to my blog spam folder today and found it hysterical and sad all at the same time of the things that I discovered in there!
First off, My blog site here is set up to approve comments before they are posted. It’s a good idea to have yours set up that way as well so you can read what people have written before you post. Why? Because of what I am about to tell you.
I recently tweeted to my followers on Twitter to feel free and stop by my blog and promote themselves. Well, they sure posted however 25 people have now been permanently deleted. Wanna know why? Because they chose to promote their businesses instead of themselves, some of which were so ridiculous I will not even bore you with the details. They chose not to PAY ATTENTION to the words of the category of which they posted and to which they were invited called, “Promote YOURSELF”.
There was even one woman that posted and because she apparently does not have a clue how a blog works, she RE-posted and said “Why didn’t you post my comment?” and proceeded to give me the same sillyness all over again, and never once even mentioned her name…hmmm, why yes let me sign right up with you to your meaningless business opportunity.
So what is the point of my rant today? The point is when you are commenting or posting on a blog or website, you need to add value, something worth talking about and in this particular instance it would have been something along the lines of who you are, where you are from, what you do and why you do it. Not check out my website it will make you thousands of dollars in a week PLEASE people when will the insanity end? People hear the word “Promote” and said automatically yeeehaaaa a free place to post my business….NOT.
Now had they done it correctly, we would have learned a little bit about the person, they could have strategically placed their website link in the appropriate place and all could go on with their lives.
Moral of the story, don’t be a poser, nobody cares about your business, or you for that matter, unless you give them a reason to. Harsh? Maybe. True? Definitely. Just remember, you will only get the blatant truth from me. I do wish there was a lot more truth going around the internet instead of pure hype, maybe marketers would have a better name.
Tags: blogging, marketing, poser, promoting yourself
Are you trying to make money on the internet? Who isn’t these days? When it comes to the details on how you are going to do it, you may still be trying to figure it out. The truth is that earning money over the internet is more complicated than simply making the decision to use the internet to turn a profit. Everyone has to start somewhere, and even if you have no experience there are many ways you can make money online.
Here are just a couple of money making ideas to get your creative juices flowing.
Are you an expert in any particular field? You can profit from this knowledge by creating an information product, which can be a report, ebook or video. Selling a product is simpler if you have a website of your own, but it’s also possible to get other people to do the selling for you. If you have affiliates selling your product for you, you can save yourself the trouble of setting up a site of your own. There are some real advantages to having a website, though, as it enables you to really brand yourself and your product! If you are a writer, you can make extra money by writing for sites like Associated Content and many others. On websites like this there are usually a couple of options to earn money; one way is to receive a small fee upfront for the articles you write. They also have another system to make money, where your articles earn commissions if they are placed on other sites that are funded by advertising. You might even try submitting articles to online magazines. These are just a couple of the many writing opportunities you can find online.
Photographs are in demand. Stock photography sites are always looking for ways to expand their databases and increase their profits. Most of the photographs on these sites are sold by amateurs. Other sites will only pay you if your photo is downloaded by a customer. If you love taking pictures then this can be a way for you to express your passion. If you a photographer who is planning on making a name for yourself then this is one of the most powerful techniques available to you.
There are many ways to count to make money online. There is unlimited possibility on the internet and is really no different than the offline world. Everything you need is out there; your job is to sift through the mud and find the gold. You won’t see instant riches so stop thinking that. All of the big successes in life made mistakes and still do. You now have what you’ve been missing, now go out there and get it done!
Tags: article writing, extra money on the internet, internet money, making money, photography
In the middle of a good economy or a poor economy all businesses know that customers are key. However when times turn a bit sour and business is getting sparse that is the time where companies with good customer retention strategies can ride the storms much more effectively. As the saying goes “fixing the roof when the sun shines” and so it goes with customer retention. So when times are easy and new customers are rolling in be sure to mend your roof and ready your business for the rainy days that always come.
Measuring the cost of gaining a new customer is beyond most businesses. Replacing lost customers can be an expensive game and a totally uneccessary one. But what can be even bigger benefit than reducing costs. Repeat sales. A customer that has just purchased from you could if treated the right way have a value many times the value of that initial purchase. Other benefits of existing customers include that they tend not to be so price sensitive, and often buy higher priced options later on. So putting a customer retention strategy in place is important and never too late to start.
So where does one begin?
Know your customers and learn the type of person that becomes a loyal customer. Not only will that tell you which customers to focus on with your retention strategy but also the type of new customers that you should be looking for. It could be better to get 5 ‘loyal’ type customers than 10 ‘disloyal’ types based on life time sales. Such loyal customers tend to have a mindset of wanting good service as well as a good product.
One simple example of a customer retention tactic is to create a loyalty program . For example a restaurant should keep a customer database and for irregular but potentially more lucrative visitor send a discount voucher or reward card. But targeting which of those customers might be most lucrative is important.
Once you have your retention tactics in place segmenting your customers is highly important. Implementing a customer retention strategy will cost your business money so it must be spent wisely. Therefore it makes obvious sense to target your best strategies to the customers that spend the most with you. It might not be unusual to find the 80/20 rule at play here with 80% of your profit coming from just 20% of your customer base. Taking this to an extreme it might make sense to ignore customers that don’t fit the profile. Banks apply this strategy all the time and it is rumoured that they actively try to offload unprofitable customers.
So your high value segments get the lion’s share of your retention efforts. If the value of the segment warrants it then you can push the boat out and build more personal relationships. With the advent of the internet a lot of customers even high spending ones may only interact with your business via your website. Look to take these relationships offline. Company or corporate events with invited customer guests are popular and effective retention methods. Corporate golf days are good examples of such events and the end of the day promotiona golf gifts and personalized golf items that a business gives out to the invited customers can be branded in a way that resonates with the business’ ideals. And it is those ideals that the business hopes will keep those customers close to the fold well into the future.
Tags: business relationships, customer relationships, customer repeat sales, customer retention
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