To Your Success,
The Online Marketing Secrets Series starts below. We're not going in any particular order for the moment. This message is more for people who are already started than someone who is 100% brand new to internet marketing, but newbies will want to read it over, too.
Secret Number One: MORE TRAFFIC ISN'T ALWAYS THE ANSWER!
You've probably thought of this before. "If I could only get x number of people to my site in y amount of time, then I'd make z amount of money". There's something missing from this equation though. That missing element is the conversion rate. This simply refers to the percentage of people who take the action you want them to take when they come to your site. In this case, we're talking about making sales.
You've probably thought of this before. "If I could only get x number of people to my site in y amount of time, then I'd make z amount of money". There's something missing from this equation though. That missing element is the conversion rate. This simply refers to the percentage of people who take the action you want them to take when they come to your site. In this case, we're talking about making sales.
The reason more traffic isn't always the answer is because not all traffic will convert to sales for your site. What you want is one of two things - a way to get more targeted traffic to your site, or a way to get more of the traffic you get to convert to sales.
More targeted traffic is easy enough to get if you're ready to do the work involved, or prepared to pay for it. You can write articles, send press releases, have teleseminars, improve the way your site is set up for search engines, make sound joint ventures, or buy pay per click traffic.
How to get the traffic that shows up to buy what you have at your site at a predictable rate is a different matter. You'll have to start studying your site. There's too many variables that you need to check to make sure your traffic isn't falling through any holes, and that your site takes your visitors through a profitable click-path. The easiest way is to make sure there's only one way for a visitor (at least one who hasn't bought something) to navigate your site.
Of course, that isn't practical for some types of websites, such as blogs or content-based internet properties. We'll talk more about what actions you can take to fix this after the online marketing secrets series.
For now, just remember, fix the problem your site has converting - tweak and test everything until traffic begins to convert at a predictable rate. Then, and only then, should you throw immense amounts of traffic at your site in an effort to increase your income.
Secret Number Two: MARKETING MATTERS AS MUCH, SOMETIMES EVEN MORE, THAN THE QUALITY OF YOUR PRODUCT!
In a way it's sad but true.
This is a central reason why some people are able to get away with selling okay products and making a fortune, while others can't seem to make money even with the world's greatest solution to a problem.
In a way it's sad but true.
This is a central reason why some people are able to get away with selling okay products and making a fortune, while others can't seem to make money even with the world's greatest solution to a problem.
If you create something people want but don't necessarily need, do great marketing, and have a fantastic sales letter, you'll make more than if you created something of great value that has a lukewarm debut and an okay sales letter.
But make an incredible product that people are desperate for, do the best marketing job you can, and back it up with great copy, you can make a fortune.
Studies about online marketing dating back to 2001 support this theory:
People rationalize buying decisions based on facts, but people make buying decisions based on feelings. That's it in a nutshell. Appeal to both the brain and the emotions.
People rationalize buying decisions based on facts, but people make buying decisions based on feelings. That's it in a nutshell. Appeal to both the brain and the emotions.
Secret Number Three: REPEAT WHAT WORKS!
Repeat visitors, repeat subscription payments, repeat sales, repeat customers... repeat that JV that went so well with a different offer... repeat your formula for that killer name squeeze page you had.
Repeat visitors, repeat subscription payments, repeat sales, repeat customers... repeat that JV that went so well with a different offer... repeat your formula for that killer name squeeze page you had.
At the moment, I know that looks obvious. But think about your day to day life as an internet marketer. Don't you have the tendency, when it comes to certain things, to chase something new instead of keeping a process that works?
There are always times to innovate, and of course, you should test new methods of getting clients, building a targeted list, and marketing in general. But once you have a site that is cranking out cash constantly, instead of changing that site, you can build one like it, target it towards another market and make the new one into your test bed. Or maybe you have a product that used to sell like crazy, and now is not much of a producer a year later. Should you shut down the site, pull it off the market, buy some advertising?
Sure, all of those things might work and save you in the short run. You could also repeat the formula that made you money the last time with a new product line. The next time your cash flow starts to dwindle, think - what did I neglect to repeat?
Secret Number Four: LEARN THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A GOOD EXPERT AND A GOOD SALESPERSON - THEN COPY THEM BOTH!
Of course, don't go copying other people's product ideas and saying you're an expert when you're not.
Of course, don't go copying other people's product ideas and saying you're an expert when you're not.
But do know this - business people pay top dollar for the advice, help and products of a good expert, and consumers will fork over their hard earned dollar to a really good sales pitch for things that they don't need all the time.
What's the number one most purchased item in an American grocery store. Meat? Eggs? Bread?
It's soda pop.
No one needs it; it just tastes pleasant and is marketed well. So well that even when people consciously know that it may be the number one reason for otherwise explained obesity, they won't stop drinking it. And look at some of the reports on Forrester Research. Some of the reports there sell for hundreds of dollars - and sometimes they're only a few pages long!
But corporations are often run by a committee of directors. Those directors have to agree on issues for the company to make changes. Those changes have to be backed up by cold, hard data if they want the shareholders to vote their way. Then there are medium to small companies that need information or expertise. They don't have the time to go look online for free information - they want it all in one place, and the things they need to know, they need to be able to verify with testing data, and get that done now. Where do you fit in?
Secret Number Five: IF IT'S A SECRET TO SOMEONE YOU CAN PROFIT FROM IT!
After we've been internet marketers for a while, we become jaded. We assume that just because we know that the results on the right hand side and top of Google are ads, everyone must know. We think that there couldn't possibly be another person we could enlighten about making money from AdSense. We also tend to believe that there aren't new tips out there, and that all the secrets to be known online can either be found free or have already been discussed. Nothing could be further from the truth.
After we've been internet marketers for a while, we become jaded. We assume that just because we know that the results on the right hand side and top of Google are ads, everyone must know. We think that there couldn't possibly be another person we could enlighten about making money from AdSense. We also tend to believe that there aren't new tips out there, and that all the secrets to be known online can either be found free or have already been discussed. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Although it's generally not the greatest idea to do a me-too product or topic, you can create products at the beginner, intermediate, or expert level. Just make sure that you look to people who have more knowledge about a topic to help and advise you, and target your site towards people who are new to that knowledge. There are probably hundreds of "how to get traffic to your website" products on the market, many of them written by people who don't have tested and proven results. This is where niches become important again.
There are dozens of ebooks, videos and tapes about blogging. If you have specialized knowledge, sell to a niche. Nurses probably have special knowledge about the medical field, and could market a blogging solution that makes sense to doctors in private practice, for example. The next time you're looking for a product to create or a niche to be in, and you think "Oh, everyone already knows about that." Think again.
Right at this very moment, you know something someone else doesn't. The trick is figuring out what that "thing" is.
Secret Number Six: IT'S ALL ABOUT YOUR BUSINESS MODEL!
The fastest money you can make online, in terms of how fast you can start making a full time income from your own knowledge, is often in services and consulting. If you can find a desperate market that needs a certain type of service or advice, you can make immense amounts of money, because as many gurus will tell you, whatever price people will pay for how-to information, is only a tenth of what they'll pay to have you do it for them. Some people who offer services online are often able to get clients within days of opening their online doors.
The fastest money you can make online, in terms of how fast you can start making a full time income from your own knowledge, is often in services and consulting. If you can find a desperate market that needs a certain type of service or advice, you can make immense amounts of money, because as many gurus will tell you, whatever price people will pay for how-to information, is only a tenth of what they'll pay to have you do it for them. Some people who offer services online are often able to get clients within days of opening their online doors.
The problem with this, of course, is that you're then limited by the amount of time you have each month. There are only so many hours in a month. And if you book yourself solid, even with referrals from happy clients, you'll still have an upper limit to how much money you can make. Increasing your rates would make you more money, but you'll still have an upper limit to your income.
An easier model is to create, mass produce and sell your own informational product. Easier to make, easier to serve multiple people at the same time, and the only restriction to your income is how well you market.
It's still not the best model of an internet business. For the best model, you'll want to create a method of creating a satisfied client who will keep paying you over and over.
Secret Number Seven: LEARN WHICH SECRETS TO TELL!
The business of selling info products is all about giving people who are hungry for information exactly what they want. The trick is:
1. Knowing when to circulate a secret (as a freebie or introduction product) and how to get it to the most people in the least amount of time,
2. Knowing which secret to sell (as a mid-level product or as a backend) and who to sell it to, and,
3. Knowing which secret to take to your grave! (If you consult, you can use the secret on your client's behalf, but not expose what it is, but you don't actually share the technique with anyone).
The business of selling info products is all about giving people who are hungry for information exactly what they want. The trick is:
1. Knowing when to circulate a secret (as a freebie or introduction product) and how to get it to the most people in the least amount of time,
2. Knowing which secret to sell (as a mid-level product or as a backend) and who to sell it to, and,
3. Knowing which secret to take to your grave! (If you consult, you can use the secret on your client's behalf, but not expose what it is, but you don't actually share the technique with anyone).
Let's talk briefly about which secret you should tell, and we'll go over the others in subsequent posts.
The secret to tell, and give away freely is the tidbit. A little bit of information or a twist on a technique that allows you to draw targeted prospects.
You might write a blog post, an article or create a free ebook that tells people why they should do something a certain way, give proof that it works, and offer to give them another useful tidbit if they join your newsletter, or buy an inexpensive product. It's very short, simple and easy to implement.
If it's executed properly, you will create a flood of interest about the product you haven't even released - to do this successfully, you need to market it properly. If it's easy to tell, write an article and submit it everywhere.
If you can't tell it in less than 1000 words, you can do a shorter article that points to a site where they can download your free ebook on the subject in exchange for sighing up to your ezine, where you'll market the follow-up product.
And if you have access to an affiliate army, get them to spread the word about an entry level product. They make the front end cash, and you make your profit off the backend sales. Either way, you now have a list of targeted clients and/or prospects who have taken the first step, and proven that when motivated, they'll take action.
What you don't want to do with this secret is give away the whole farm - or tells something that isn't a useful bit of information to your targeted audience. If you give away the entire secret, you've outlived your usefulness. They'll read what you offer and go away. If you tell the wrong secret, they'll stop listening.
Secret Number Eight: LEARN WHICH SECRETS TO SELL!
How do you know when you ought to package a secret as an entry-level product or even as a backend? When the secret is highly effective, unique, or different enough from how everyone else does it to be brandable as your own. As an example, there's got to hundreds of ebooks on the market about RSS and Blogging. And yet, they continue to sell. If you want to set yourself apart from the competition, say something different about blogging and RSS. Or say the same thing, but better. Or make it easier to understand. Or show how it can be changed to make more money. Give more detail. Illustrate a faster way. Add your own special twist, with enough detail to make it the best resource of its kind.
How do you know when you ought to package a secret as an entry-level product or even as a backend? When the secret is highly effective, unique, or different enough from how everyone else does it to be brandable as your own. As an example, there's got to hundreds of ebooks on the market about RSS and Blogging. And yet, they continue to sell. If you want to set yourself apart from the competition, say something different about blogging and RSS. Or say the same thing, but better. Or make it easier to understand. Or show how it can be changed to make more money. Give more detail. Illustrate a faster way. Add your own special twist, with enough detail to make it the best resource of its kind.
Just don't put TOO much detail in it, because a huge resource can be daunting. If you have more than 100 pages, or five videos, or ten audios, you're probably looking at a back end product. Split the introduction part out as the front-end, and sell the rest to your confirmed client list as an upgrade. When is a secret too good to sell? That's the next secret up for discussion.
Secret Number Nine: KNOW WHICH SECRETS TO TAKE TO YOUR GRAVE!
This isn't to say that you should hoard all your knowledge like you're a jealous spouse. However, just as the Coca-Cola brand keeps the secret of their recipe, so should you evaluate what your special recipe is, and keep it under wraps.
This isn't to say that you should hoard all your knowledge like you're a jealous spouse. However, just as the Coca-Cola brand keeps the secret of their recipe, so should you evaluate what your special recipe is, and keep it under wraps.
There is something about your company, even if your company is just you – that distinguishes you from everyone else. Sometimes it's not about a secret sauce, programming secret, or configuration. It might just be a particular way to performing a service, the kind of results you can get that no one else can deliver, or a way of finding ebook topics that sell, in other words, the ingredients to your brand.
To figure out what this is for you, make a list of what you know how to do, or do differently, that no one else can figure out, or has been copied unsuccessfully. Those things make up your brand. And your brands, as well as your brand secrets, are sacred. Guard them with your life.
Secret Number Ten: YOUR BRAND IS AT LEAST AS IMPORTANT AS YOUR PRODUCT!
Even if your product happens to be a service, your brand is at least as important as the product you're selling.
Even if your product happens to be a service, your brand is at least as important as the product you're selling.
What is your brand? It is your company's identity, what makes it different. There are hundreds of nearly identical products being sold online. Let us take the example of ebooks that have resale rights. And yet, there are a few dozen, maybe even a few hundred marketers online making incredible incomes without even having their own products to sell.
They make money from affiliate products or from resale rights and they often make more from the acquired product than the people selling the rights.
How is this possible?
These people, by and large, are branded. Even if their brand is as simple - even invisible - it's there.
And when you find a brand, it doesn't have to be elaborate. You can just find a concept that goes beyond a guarantee and structure your online practices around it.
These people, by and large, are branded. Even if their brand is as simple - even invisible - it's there.
And when you find a brand, it doesn't have to be elaborate. You can just find a concept that goes beyond a guarantee and structure your online practices around it.
Your online brand can be as simple as "I'll always have the cheapest price," or "I'll save you money by bundling products" or "If you have a question about the product, I'll respond even if the original author won't", or "If you like products in this category, join my membership site and let me find them for you", or, "With these books, get an exclusive product from me, too".
This afternoon or evening, grab a pen and paper and think about what would make a great way to differentiate a company. Think as big as you can - then wrap your company around that concept.
Secret Number Eleven: FIND THE HUNGRY AND FEED THEM!
The internet is a vast desert with a few watering holes. Everyone is huddled around those watering holes. In the desert, people will pay to drink. They'll do anything to have what they believe is scarce. Anywhere on this virtual earth, real "food" is also scarce. When people find this food, they can't help but eat. They are hungry. And when they've eaten their full, they tend to tell all their friends. There's nothing better than having satisfied clients market for you when it comes to marketing. The issue then, is finding these hungry people, and feeding them - not just anything, but what they most want to eat.
The internet is a vast desert with a few watering holes. Everyone is huddled around those watering holes. In the desert, people will pay to drink. They'll do anything to have what they believe is scarce. Anywhere on this virtual earth, real "food" is also scarce. When people find this food, they can't help but eat. They are hungry. And when they've eaten their full, they tend to tell all their friends. There's nothing better than having satisfied clients market for you when it comes to marketing. The issue then, is finding these hungry people, and feeding them - not just anything, but what they most want to eat.
The relevance of this to internet marketing is that everyone thinks that internet marketing is the best place to find and sell to a market. In some ways, this is true, but let me ask you this. If you had the choice between being the only grocery store in town, or being one of hundreds of food sellers on the same block, which would you pick? You know that people have to have food, no matter what. So of course, if you're smart, you'd want the exclusive market. Especially if you don't have the resources to pay to get better clients, or a better position, or the networking to partner up with a person who already has the market you'd like to sell to.
So do your research and find a corner of the web - even if it is a corner inside internet marketing - where there are hungry people. Then feed them. Just be sure that the market actually exists and will sustain you, or you'll forever be on the search for new markets. The hungry must eat. Be the only one who sells their food.
Secret Number Twelve: YOUR REPEAT CUSTOMERS ARE THE LIFEBLOOD OF YOUR BUSINESS!
You've skimmed your eyes across this secret many times and never realized it. So let me say it plainly. You don't need 10, 0000 people to buy your $10 product. You need 1000 people to buy your $10 product once, and then your $90 product, and then another $10 product, and then some of them buy a $200 product, and so on. That's one of the biggest secrets, though no one is attempting to keep it from you. It's just that it is so simple, when you glimpse it; you think to yourself "it can't be that easy." And you move on.
You've skimmed your eyes across this secret many times and never realized it. So let me say it plainly. You don't need 10, 0000 people to buy your $10 product. You need 1000 people to buy your $10 product once, and then your $90 product, and then another $10 product, and then some of them buy a $200 product, and so on. That's one of the biggest secrets, though no one is attempting to keep it from you. It's just that it is so simple, when you glimpse it; you think to yourself "it can't be that easy." And you move on.
Think about it for a moment. What is worth more money, getting 1000 people who have already bought from you before, to buy a ten dollar product every month for a year, or getting 120,000 new people to buy a $1 product one time. You might think it's the $1 product at first glance. After all, how hard is it to sell something for a dollar, right? Wrong. Studies have shown that, especially on the internet, it's harder to get a brand new person who doesn't know you to part with even one single dollar than it is to get someone who has already bought from you to keep buying from you.
The person who doesn't know you isn't sure if your typical product is any good. They don't know if your sales system will drop them in the right place. They have no idea whether you'll be available after the sale if they have questions. (And, if it's about as hard to sell a $1 product as it is to sell a $20 product, shouldn't you sell a $20 product anyway? We'll talk about that another day.)
The person who has bought from you knows your products are superior, that you have great customer service, that your phone number comes with every order, that you have a help desk ticket center if they have questions, that whatever money they part with will be well worth it, and that you're going to over-deliver, every time. So, of course, getting new business is fantastic. But when you get to your 100th or 1000th client, think about how to balance the time you spend finding new people with the time you spend making the clients you already have deliriously happy all over again.
Secret Number Thirteen: AT SOME POINT BEFORE YOU MAKE VAST AMOUNT OF MONEY ONLINE, YOU'LL HAVE TO CHANGE YOUR MIND ABOUT WHAT IS VAST AND WHAT IS SCARCE!
Another way of saying this is that everyone wants something that is scarce more than they'd want it if it was abundant, even though, ironically, thinking of it as abundant makes it easier to get. Of course, some argue that scarcity doesn't really exist. Perhaps they have a point. When we first make money, no matter whether it's from working a 9 to 5 job or from having an allowance as a teenager, or the income we first make as entrepreneurs, the amount of money you think is "a lot" grows smaller and smaller.
Surely you remember the day when even one American dollar was a fortune to you, as a young child. And now, if someone offered you a job that paid a dollar an hour you'd be insulted. What changed? Our concept of what is scarce changed. Today, three hundred dollars might seem like a hard amount of money to make. But when you make three hundred dollars extra every week in your new business, your ideas about money will change.
This may not seem like a powerful secret, but here's the idea: you can save yourself a lot of trouble and worry by thinking of money as abundant and free-flowing now instead of waiting until you see personal abundance in your bank account. It's funny how we think about making money online. It's a concept that even in this day and age is considered rude to discuss in some circles. And yet it's hard to find a person who wouldn't know what to do with just a little bit more.
What will happen many times is that you'll think of a great idea for a product to sell or a service to have, and start planning it, then gets to the point where you say to yourself "that's too much money to charge" or "no one will buy it at the price I need to charge to make a profit".
Instead, you should be thinking about how much your target audience will make from your invention, and how much of a bargain it is, considering how much money they'll save. Do you see the difference? And yet, many would-be entrepreneurs are stopped dead in their tracks by this or some other similar concept of money. Don't let your mind and your past experiences talk you out of making more money. Next, we'll talk about how to turn the concept of scarcity to your advantage.
Secret Number Fourteen: WE ALL PUT MORE VALUE ON WHAT WE BELIEVE TO BE SCARCE!
When the scarce item is a commodity, its price goes up - and we will pay it. The basic economic philosophy is that when supply is low, demand goes up. And when demand goes up, you as the merchant can charge whatever price the market will bear. Even better, the supply crisis can be completely an invention of your own, and it won't matter. As long as the crisis you create is real, you can still charge as much as you like, within the limits of what the prospective clients in your market will pay.
When the scarce item is a commodity, its price goes up - and we will pay it. The basic economic philosophy is that when supply is low, demand goes up. And when demand goes up, you as the merchant can charge whatever price the market will bear. Even better, the supply crisis can be completely an invention of your own, and it won't matter. As long as the crisis you create is real, you can still charge as much as you like, within the limits of what the prospective clients in your market will pay.
You've seen fire sales or limited time offers all over the Net, and maybe you've had an interest in one. The page says that the price will change at midnight, but you think that it's a gimmick. You go back to the page at lunch time the next day... and the price really has gone up!
Do you write to the merchant, upset that they kept their word? No. You make a sport of kicking yourself in the rear for needlessly spending $197 for an item you could have paid $147 for yesterday, as you fill out the order form and fork over the money, not wanting to risk that you'll forget again.
This is an example of created scarcity.
The merchant you want to buy from realizes that they have a great product that people need, but that it may not be as great use to their clients if everyone has one, or because they can only provide support for 200 people, and so on. So they can either set a flat price and deal with those problems later, and risk not serving their market to the best of their ability.
The merchant you want to buy from realizes that they have a great product that people need, but that it may not be as great use to their clients if everyone has one, or because they can only provide support for 200 people, and so on. So they can either set a flat price and deal with those problems later, and risk not serving their market to the best of their ability.
Or they can make ethical use of the concept of scarcity and limit the number of items that they release to the market.
You will eventually find yourself in a situation where you have a great solution to a problem, but one that will diminish if too many people are able to use it. This is one situation where a limited quantity or timed price increase would make sense. There's only one issue. No matter what the reason is for increasing the price, be sure and actually make the increase when you hit the number you want.
This is different from when you'd guarantee that a product will be at the same price until midnight, and then deciding to leave it the same, or until you sell a certain quantity and you haven't hit the number yet. If you don't change the price, fewer people will believe you're serious the next time and your sales can slow down as a result.
Secret Number Fifteen: SIZE DOESN'T MATTER!
You can have a list of one hundred thousand and be a broke marketing failure. You can have a list of one hundreds and become a millionaire from it. You could get one million visitors a month and not make a profit. You can get one thousand visitors a month and make a small fortune without any of your readers ever paying you directly.
You can have a list of one hundred thousand and be a broke marketing failure. You can have a list of one hundreds and become a millionaire from it. You could get one million visitors a month and not make a profit. You can get one thousand visitors a month and make a small fortune without any of your readers ever paying you directly.
It can, of course, help your odds to have more traffic or a bigger list, or a higher priced product, or an affordable service. That's only if you know how to draw the best quality from your resources. The quality of your list, your traffic, your product, your service matters more than the quantity ever could.
Furthermore, if you maximize quality at every turn, you can make your online wealth much faster. Let us compare the task of getting one million visitors in a month, to the task of getting 1000 targeted clients. Odds are that 1% of fairly random traffic that isn't that well targeted will buy your offer. That's about 1000 clients. So in the end you will get the same amount of clients from one million lightly targeted prospects than you would in carefully developing a client base of 1000 by focusing on high quality leads.
If the quality of your leads is better, your conversion rate will probably be better. So you can probably get a customer list of 1000 people a lot faster than you could get one million visitors to a site, hoping for the best.
And yet, as we've discussed in earlier examples, you can make a fortune from just 1000 satisfied clients. All you'll need to do is present them with something else to buy, within their targeted area, each month. Hyper-target your market. Carefully develop a customer list of 1000 and do everything you can to make them loyal to you. Then sell to them repeatedly.
Secret Number Sixteen: IT’S REALLY THAT SIMPLE!
The most common mistake of beginning internet marketers isn't a failure to invest in their business, incorrect targeting of keywords, not building a list, or anything remotely like that. The most common mistake of beginners is making things harder than they have to be. Many of the marketers who have come before have experienced certain hardships, or written guides about their early days, hoping to help you avoid some of the same struggles. Some of these reports are even free. And yet, time and again, you'll find people whose first step online seems to be either doing what every successful marketer tells them they shouldn't do, or trying to re-invent the wheel.
The most common mistake of beginning internet marketers isn't a failure to invest in their business, incorrect targeting of keywords, not building a list, or anything remotely like that. The most common mistake of beginners is making things harder than they have to be. Many of the marketers who have come before have experienced certain hardships, or written guides about their early days, hoping to help you avoid some of the same struggles. Some of these reports are even free. And yet, time and again, you'll find people whose first step online seems to be either doing what every successful marketer tells them they shouldn't do, or trying to re-invent the wheel.
Here's what you can do instead:
Choose your focus for an online business the same way you would if you were going out buy a $150,000 franchise. Browse around and find a leader who you're able to understand and follow. Try some of the techniques they suggest for free in articles, in their free newsletters, or in their blogs.
Choose your focus for an online business the same way you would if you were going out buy a $150,000 franchise. Browse around and find a leader who you're able to understand and follow. Try some of the techniques they suggest for free in articles, in their free newsletters, or in their blogs.
When you find tips that consistently work, follow their lead. Some have consulting or training programs. Others you can meet in person at seminars.
Get their wisdom. Follow it to the letter. Make a small profit and roll that profit back into more profits. Then do it again. It may seem simplistic, but every marketer who isn't making money has made this mistake on some level.
Secret Number Seventeen: OFFLINE FOLLOW-UP STRENGTHENS YOUR ONLINE MARKETING!
Marketing is a huge part of your task as an online marketer, by definition. (We'll go over how much in the next part of the series.) Part of the job of marketing entails making your product, services or brand stand out from the crowd. Among the best ways to make yourself different is by using offline methods to follow-up with your best clients or prospects.
Marketing is a huge part of your task as an online marketer, by definition. (We'll go over how much in the next part of the series.) Part of the job of marketing entails making your product, services or brand stand out from the crowd. Among the best ways to make yourself different is by using offline methods to follow-up with your best clients or prospects.
Once you have a repeat client, a smart way to keep them buying is to add them to a super-elite group of your client list, ones that you follow-up with in the offline world.
How can you do this?
You can send your elite group special offers by postcard, or send them special mailings to touch base or to get free offers. You can meet them in person at seminars in their area. Write a physical book and sell it on Amazon to reach a wider audience.
You can send your elite group special offers by postcard, or send them special mailings to touch base or to get free offers. You can meet them in person at seminars in their area. Write a physical book and sell it on Amazon to reach a wider audience.
Another way to do this is to encourage them to take your materials into their offline world. Create physical product upgrades in addition to the ebooks you have online. Turn your podcast into a CD and mail them to your best customers for free. Turn an MP3 product into a CD and sell it to this group in limited quantities. Create a special printed version of your newsletter and send it to the group of your client list that spends the most money with you. The more a part of everyday life you are, the closer you are to becoming a household name in your market.
Secret Number Eighteen: THE MOST SUCCESSFUL MARKETERS ARE ALWAYS MARKETING!
The richest marketers online are the ones who put the task of marketing above all else. Today it might be adding a new email to their autoresponding series. Tomorrow it could be participating in a teleseminar that puts them in front of new prospects. Sometimes it's a month of aggressive advertising.
Many days it will involve upselling their current client list. Or it may be sending out a new article for mass distribution. The most successful marketers may not have every email in their inbox answered the same day, and their web site may not have been updated for a month, maybe longer.
But you can bet, every day, that they have two things in mind - getting more clients, and getting current clients to buy again. One exercise you may find useful is to evaluate what you did today for your business, put the marketing activities at the top of the list, and conduct your business with that changed list tomorrow.
No one gets everything on their to-do list done every day. So for maximum profitability, put your marketing at the top of that list.
Secret Number Nineteen: NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF SOCIAL PROOF!
In the last post here, I gave you a very little known marketing secret about using testimonials.
In the last post here, I gave you a very little known marketing secret about using testimonials.
Here's a hint: If you want to know why testimonials work, study social proof. "Social proof is a psychological phenomenon in which people see others behaving in a certain way, and therefore assume that that behavior is an appropriate mode of behavior; or when they see people they esteem approve of something, they themselves will approve of it.”
Why does social proof work so well?
First, because we're conditioned to accept it. Think of celebrity endorsements. But if you think that's all there is to it, and you're tempted to fake your testimonials, you're in for a rude awakening - to understand why, look to the other reasons that social proof works.
First, because we're conditioned to accept it. Think of celebrity endorsements. But if you think that's all there is to it, and you're tempted to fake your testimonials, you're in for a rude awakening - to understand why, look to the other reasons that social proof works.
Reason two: we want what the people we look up to have, and we slowly learn that if we do what they do, we'll have what they have. Third, we mentally hold the experts we trust responsible for the recommendations they make to us - and they know this! Particularly online, smart experts are no longer willing to toy with their reputations to make a fast buck. They rely on repeat business, which will tank if they suggest the wrong thing to their audiences - even if they mean well. Use the leverage of social proof to sell an affiliate product, or one of your own.
Secrets Number 20: IT DOESN'T HAVE TO BE BRILLIANT - IN FACT IT'S BETTER IF IT'S SIMPLE!
Simplicity they say is its own brilliance. So why are you waiting around for an amazing, ground-breaking, life-changing idea, when you already have a simple idea that many hundreds of people will find useful? Some of the most best-selling products, online and off, aren't complicated or mindboggling. They just do one thing, really well.
Simplicity they say is its own brilliance. So why are you waiting around for an amazing, ground-breaking, life-changing idea, when you already have a simple idea that many hundreds of people will find useful? Some of the most best-selling products, online and off, aren't complicated or mindboggling. They just do one thing, really well.
Dig deep.
There is some knowledge you have, some perspective on a common topic, this problem you have a solution to, a short how-to video you can create that could give hundreds or thousands of people great insight, and make you an incredible amount of money in the meantime.
There is some knowledge you have, some perspective on a common topic, this problem you have a solution to, a short how-to video you can create that could give hundreds or thousands of people great insight, and make you an incredible amount of money in the meantime.
Concentrate on that ONE simple idea - then build on it to make your fortune.
Secrets Number 21: SELL THEM WHAT IT CAN DO FOR THEM, NOT WHAT IT IS!
The greatest marketers in history have said this for hundreds of years. "Benefits, not features". "Sizzle not the steak" It makes the difference between explosive sales and barely breaking even. Most people have heard this, some say they understand it. But if we all did, we'd all be wealthy.
The greatest marketers in history have said this for hundreds of years. "Benefits, not features". "Sizzle not the steak" It makes the difference between explosive sales and barely breaking even. Most people have heard this, some say they understand it. But if we all did, we'd all be wealthy.
Next time you create a product, or decide to sell an affiliate product, get out a piece of paper and jot down a list of ways this product makes your prospect's job…
• More likely to make money
• Easier
• Faster
• More pleasant or fun
• More likely to avoid pain
Etc... And just write a letter telling them how to do that. Help them instead of sell them and you'll have customers for life.
• More likely to make money
• Easier
• Faster
• More pleasant or fun
• More likely to avoid pain
Etc... And just write a letter telling them how to do that. Help them instead of sell them and you'll have customers for life.
Secrets Number 21: HUMAN NATURE TENDS TOWARDS THE FAMILIAR!
We want to buy from people we know. We want an opinion from an expert we trust. We will even translate loyalty and trust from one form of advisor, such as a paper like the Wall Street Journal, to the individual reporters who write for them, or, to a much lesser extent, the advertisements we find there.
We want to buy from people we know. We want an opinion from an expert we trust. We will even translate loyalty and trust from one form of advisor, such as a paper like the Wall Street Journal, to the individual reporters who write for them, or, to a much lesser extent, the advertisements we find there.
To profit from this, do research to find out who your desired market trusts, and be there. Write the article that shows up in their favorite ezine. Run solo ads in it too. Join the forums they find most reputable and display your knowledge. Get to know your audience and be the trusted advisor they want to buy from.
Secrets Number 23: MANAGE THEIR EXPECTATIONS TO VIRTUALLY ELIMINIATE RETURNS!
Electronic products are harder to protect, faster to deliver, and easier to acquire. This makes them not only the target of fraud, but makes the rate of return of products higher than it is offline. Online, it's much easier for a misguided prospect to skim over the product and say "I don't need this" without actually applying the techniques in the manual, video, audio series or software package, thus giving in to the panic of buyer's remorse.
Electronic products are harder to protect, faster to deliver, and easier to acquire. This makes them not only the target of fraud, but makes the rate of return of products higher than it is offline. Online, it's much easier for a misguided prospect to skim over the product and say "I don't need this" without actually applying the techniques in the manual, video, audio series or software package, thus giving in to the panic of buyer's remorse.
However, you may be surprised to learn that these incidents are in the tiny minority among marketers. How do they make sure so few people return their products? It's not just from having fantastic offers, great products, follow-up freebies, product protection or extended guarantees, though all of these surely contribute.
The best way to keep returns low is to manage expectations of your buyers. If you market expert products to beginners, you're asking for trouble. But if you make it perfectly clear who your product is for and what they'll be able to do with it, all you'll have to do is live up to your claims, and you'll end up with a very low return rate.
Secrets Number 24: BOIL IT ALL DOWN INTO A RECIPE!
It's not just that you want to automate your processes to save time and increase your profit. (We'll talk about that next.) You want to be sure that you are automating the right thing, and that it's the most efficient process. Over the course of your time as an entrepreneur, you'll find that you'll learn how to do certain tasks rapidly, and figure out how to do certain things better and better.
It's not just that you want to automate your processes to save time and increase your profit. (We'll talk about that next.) You want to be sure that you are automating the right thing, and that it's the most efficient process. Over the course of your time as an entrepreneur, you'll find that you'll learn how to do certain tasks rapidly, and figure out how to do certain things better and better.
Whether it's figuring out how to get better placement in the search engines, or how to deal with the influx of email, once you have it mastered, record the steps to your process for later use.
This way, if you can later
• Profit on that information as a product,
• Refer to it when starting a new business from scratch.
• Use it as a blueprint to train an assistant or consulting clients, it will be easy to repeat or mass produce, without any of the mistakes from the first time around.
• Profit on that information as a product,
• Refer to it when starting a new business from scratch.
• Use it as a blueprint to train an assistant or consulting clients, it will be easy to repeat or mass produce, without any of the mistakes from the first time around.
Secrets Number 25: OUTSOURCE AND AUTOMATE FOR HIGHER PROFIT!
A wise man once said that there's no sense in being rich if you still have to work all the time. You can, of course, expect to be busy as one of the internet's top earners, but this should not be because you have no other choice. Automating your business will free you up to be able to do other things, like marketing, and help you concentrate your time on other activities that produce higher profits than, for example, reading your email.
A wise man once said that there's no sense in being rich if you still have to work all the time. You can, of course, expect to be busy as one of the internet's top earners, but this should not be because you have no other choice. Automating your business will free you up to be able to do other things, like marketing, and help you concentrate your time on other activities that produce higher profits than, for example, reading your email.
If you can hire someone to do a task for you that can do it better, faster, or has more time on their hands, don't shy away from outsourcing. If that means hiring an executive assistant, do it. If that means hiring a college student to do your article marketing, that's fine. And if you need to hire a programmer to write the code for your software project, well better them than you. The more time you can find to spend on what makes you the most money, the faster you can increase your income.
Secret Number 26: MAKE YOUR BUSINESS GROW ON ITS OWN - HERE'S HOW!
Make everything about your business as viral as possible. Most people limit this to marketing, and it's surely an important aspect. What is viral marketing? Put simply, it's any type of marketing that you get started that keeps growing. Much like pushing a boulder down a hill, once you get it rolling, it keeps going on its own.
Make everything about your business as viral as possible. Most people limit this to marketing, and it's surely an important aspect. What is viral marketing? Put simply, it's any type of marketing that you get started that keeps growing. Much like pushing a boulder down a hill, once you get it rolling, it keeps going on its own.
Don't stop with marketing, though. You want viral sales - make a product that creates a desire for even better results. You want to make your money viral - don't just spend your profit; put it where it's going to create more money for your business. Get the most results you can out of any singular process.
Secrets Number 27: PRE-SELLING WORKS!
What is better than having a sales letter that converts really well? Having the customer sold before they even get to the sales letter. This has happened to you before at some point. Your favorite actress is going to be in a new movie. You adore that actress and you don't really care what the movie is about, because if she's in it, you know it will be a good film as far as you're concerned. The same mental process comes across with preselling. You learn about something new, or get ideas about how someone could use a certain product from an article.
What is better than having a sales letter that converts really well? Having the customer sold before they even get to the sales letter. This has happened to you before at some point. Your favorite actress is going to be in a new movie. You adore that actress and you don't really care what the movie is about, because if she's in it, you know it will be a good film as far as you're concerned. The same mental process comes across with preselling. You learn about something new, or get ideas about how someone could use a certain product from an article.
By the time you get to the site, your only concern is "can I afford this." You skim the sales letter for the price and purchase. The person is sold because they were informed, excited, and pre-qualified or targeted before they ever get to the sales page.
You can pre-sell in:
• A content site that leads to your mini-site
• In your ezine
• In an article you write
• At a seminar where you give a speech or demo
• Within your blog posts
What's most important for you to know is that selling before the sale works - do it everywhere you can.
• A content site that leads to your mini-site
• In your ezine
• In an article you write
• At a seminar where you give a speech or demo
• Within your blog posts
What's most important for you to know is that selling before the sale works - do it everywhere you can.
Secrets Number 28: THAT EGGS IN ONE BASKET SAYING IS TRUE!
Applied to internet marketing, this means that you can't get tied to just one way to market your business and hope to get very far. True, once you become very successful, you may end up leaning heavily on a huge list you've built, or a group of JV partners. However, while you're still moving from part-time to full time or from struggling entrepreneur to successful business owner, you want to use as many available ways to market your business as possible.
The more ways there are for people to hear about you, the more ways there are for them to hear about your competitor first. Don't reject new ways of gaining market share just because you don't understand them.
Learn the new trends, test them and then decide. Don't just use free traffic methods. Even if they work great for you over the long-term, you can sometimes get better short term results from advertising.
Secrets Number 29: THE PERSONAL TOUCH CREATES LOYAL CLIENTS!
We're so used to it being missing that we don't even notice any more. The personal touch on the internet is often all but a ghost story in most online industries. We simulate it all the time, in autoresponders, even sales pages with names subtly embedded.
We're so used to it being missing that we don't even notice any more. The personal touch on the internet is often all but a ghost story in most online industries. We simulate it all the time, in autoresponders, even sales pages with names subtly embedded.
But the actual person to person interaction isn't that frequent in the commercial online world. The good news for you is that this is another place where you can compete. The smaller your client base is, the more you'll be able to gain by taking the extra time to connect with your audience one on one.
Call your best clients to say hello or send them all a postcard. Put your instant messenger name on your blog and chat with your audience one day a week. The appeal of this is easy to see. If you have the choice between spending $200 with an expert whose books you read and an expert whose books you read and had great personal interactions with, chances are you'll choose the person who paid you some personal attention.
Of course, eventually, you'll be too busy to keep in daily touch person to person if all goes well. In the time being, exploit this as strength and close in on your competitor.
Secrets Number 30: MULTIPLE STREAMS OF INCOME ISN'T JUST A SUGGESTION, IT’S YOUR ONLY HOPE!
The reason why you need several streams of internet income is the same reason there is more than one source of food in the world. If there wasn't, and something happened to the one source of food, without something to replace it, we'd all starve.
The reason why you need several streams of internet income is the same reason there is more than one source of food in the world. If there wasn't, and something happened to the one source of food, without something to replace it, we'd all starve.
It is absolutely essential to your success as a marketer that you have more than one way to make money. Anything can happen, you never know. If you make money from just one marketing method, something new could be invented tomorrow to make that method obsolete. If you make money from just one product, what happens if that product is a runaway best seller - and then you have nothing to follow it up with?
If you make your sales from just ebooks, you're missing out on the potential to make more doing group consulting, seminars or membership sites. Or, if you'd rather just write ebooks, because you're great at it at that's what you love to do, don't stop at one. And think about expanding into audio and video. Broadband access is currently exploding in the markets that are most able to afford higher priced goods. Take advantage of this.
Applying action to any of those tips could make you rich beyond your wildest dreams. Maybe you already know that - but then, you don't become wealthy just from knowing things. First you get some knowledge.
Then you gain confidence in your ability to apply that knowledge. Then you actually apply it. Then you make your fortune. Then, instead of stopping there, you do it over and over. Then, you get to keep your fortune, start making money faster than you can spend it, and become wealthy.
The true secret to this technique is to expand it to every single way you can make money with your business.
Print this post out and tape it to your computer. It is that important. Millions of dollars have been made in getting people to understand that one, single concept. You should be making more money from the clients you already have by selling to them repeatedly.
Each of the people who have already bought from you are giving you a special message: "I trusted enough to buy from you once, and I'm interested in what you sold me." What else can you sell them? You should be making more money by having more than one product to sell. About half of the people who become successful in internet marketing have short-lived success for two reasons. Either they focus only on getting new people to buy their last product, or because even the thought of getting more sales to one product is a concept that eludes them. Develop a product line of related material.
You should be making more money from each purchase made at your site. Bundle things. Turn your product into a re-occurring income. Sell them affiliate products in the same niche. If they bought from you once, they probably want to buy from you again. If you want to be rich, end your fear of sales. Read The Enlightened Salesperson published by Rok Hrastnik.
People want to buy. People love to buy. They just don't like being sold to. Help them. Let them buy from you and don't make it hard. If you want to make more money, the easiest way is to think of how you can create more value for your client from what you already specialize in.
If you wrote an ebook on making money from eBay, do an audio series and sell that. Sell your teleseminars to the same crowd. Give them an hour of consulting by an expert at an unheard-of price. Set up monthly consults on how to improve their sites. We all get in the habit of thinking our specialized knowledge is just common sense. But each of us have hundreds of secrets inside us, information we might think isn't worth much because we don't remember how it felt to make what we used to make in a week in a single day. (Even if you're flat broke, you remember what it was like to think $5 or $20 is a lot of money.)
So hit the blogs, go to forums and see what people's pains are and what they're responding to - and I'll bet you that you'll find dozens of conversations where you think to yourself "oh, I know the answer to that." Statistics show that only about 1 in 26 people having a particular pain will actually complain to someone to try and solve it.
So for every post you read, just in that audience, the market is at least 25 times bigger than the 50 or so people who participated in the discussion with a solution (because they once had the problem) or who said "me too" because they have it now. The markets are already there. Go and use this entire Online Marketing Secrets Series to provide a solution.
To Your Success!!!
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