Marketing Communication and Business Operations Strategies For Your Business
In this post we will discuss the best ways to leverage the power of the Internet to run your marketing communications without having a need to pay the high costs of consultants, designers or agencies. I know what is like, the ambiguous communications between you and them, the cost over-runs, the poor quality. No one likes to be “taken to the cleaners” by someone that starts out professional in their demeanor and ends up being more expensive than you originally understood or thought.
It Is Better To Learn How To Do Most, Not All Of Your Marketing in-house
Content Marketing Is King
These ten steps will get your content read, convert your readers to subscribers to your email lists and drive cash flow into your business, eventually, if done properly. You can do this from your office if you want to prevent interruptions. Every time you get interrupted you lose about 45 minutes in your day that it takes to get your mind in the same frame it was in when you were productive. We’ll teach you how to avoid interruptions in your day, especially those pesky telemarketers. The Internet is gradually making telemarketing a thing of the past. I was using the phone for years, so I know. It is just as painful for the person calling as it is for the person being interrupted, and it is always an interruption.
Don’t do it. If you have to go old school hire someone to do it for you.
#1 15K Formula
a. creating content – your the expert in your field. No one knows it better than you, but unless you let people, your best prospects, people you want to be customers know this
you will not have a business.
b. capturing leads – People will look at your business in stages. They first need to get to know you. They will research you, follow you in social media. Always remember you are being watched. Some people watch you for years before they engage with you. Don’t take it personal. Just know it exists, and build your business every day. Attract 30 new business leads a day.
c. converting those leads to sales. – Convert two of those thirty leads to sales
You will know what is working and what you have to tweak by looking at your numbers.
Always Track Your Results
…Test, Test, Test. until you get the numbers you want.
Is your ad and your capture page capturing 30 leads each day? Does your content that you create daily, have a strong call to action. You will know that by your Google Analytics exit rates, how long people stay on the page, and On-Page SEO to see what people are clicking on. Track everything. If leads are not converting your emails may need tweaking. If they are not converting to sales, are you calling new customers? Do You need to? Conversion is the name of the game. Tweak your online strategy until you get at least 30 leads a day and convert two of them to sales a day. You want this to happen consistently day after day for the rest of the life of your business.
#2 Get Your Head Straight. Get Rid Of Head Trash
You have two choices in life:
a. work for someone else(nothing wrong with that I am just no good at it)
b. Sell products and/or services for other people – this greatly reduces the cost of doing business
c. Sell your own products – this is an advanced strategy(always underpromise and over-deliver)
Those are the only legal ways I know that you can make money for yourself and/or your family unless you are a king, queen or tyrannical dictator in the World.
#3 Create Content That Brings Out The Right Emotion In Your Audience
Any emotion works just fine, as decisions always start out from the emotional part of human beings. When things are not compelling to people, they do not buy. Buying anything starts as an emotional response from the adaptive child in you asking the nurturing parent if they can have what you are looking at. The nurturing parent in You will ask the adult if it makes logical sense, and then the nurturing parent in you will tell the adaptive child in you that it is OK to buy whatever you are looking at. This all happens in milliseconds. The human decision process is amazing.
People usually just do nothing. Ever experience that when you tried to sell something to someone?
This is why Dave Wood’s rants work so well.
People are numb, and most are not OK with themselves if you get the honest truth. This does not happen right away, and sometimes never happens. You need to bring out the emotion in people before they will buy anything. When they are really ready to make a decision and buy now, the pain threshold will be perceived by them as being very high.
I’ve been in meetings in the luxury market, where the pain was so high, the prospect actually slammed his fist on the table. When you see that smile inside because then, You know you are looking at the truth. You no longer have to deal with the way people view sales people and all the tricks they use to drop the price or all the hoops you have to jump through to get a sale.
Compelling Reason To Buy > Pain of Change
Then, they will buy from you and not a second sooner.
The problem, when you really understand human psychology of decision making, will be not to laugh or cheer right at that moment. They will be in real pain and it is important to let them stay in the pain they caused themselves.
It is this pain that will help them decide what they want out of it and are willing to do “whatever it takes” to get out of it. This pain is one of the strongest decision drivers, we as humans have.
Think about it this way:
If you are having a heart attack right now, you will want the best doctor that money can buy. That is an extremely strong compelling reason to spend whatever it takes to stop the pain now.
On the other hand the way you eat and to take your heart medication if you have not been doing so, if you are not having a heart attack right now is not as compelling a reason and you may not take the medication. You may be afraid you will be in pain in the future but not right now. See the difference?
Finally, to complete this thought, if you are young and in good health you will not care if you eat something high in fat. You are not in pain now, you do not fear that you will be in pain, so there is no compelling reason or even an apparent reason to change your eating or exercise habits when you are in such good health.
It is the same way with business decisions. People are either in pain, in fear they will be in pain or they have an impending event about top happen to them, or they have a goal they can not accomplish on their own. These are the only reasons people will seek you help.
You Did Not Cause Their Pain
Look, you are a nice person, I get that. You do not want to take advantage of someone’s pain, I get that too. Me too, but remember you are truly trying to provide the solution to that pain. You provide that solution. You must believe that to be true or you should stop selling whatever you are selling. With that said you want to make sure that you understand that in business you can only help people that can afford your services.
You Are Not A Charity
People need to have the resources to pay and pay well for the value you lead them to. It usually looks like 10 times the value you give them in return for the price they pay. That will keep your customers happy and buying from you for life.
Until you get really good at targeting people that can afford what you sell, you may start by attracting people that are really in pain but can not afford what you sell. They will be in real pain. Never assume you know their situation. Ask questions that get past apparent reasons. You will need to get to a level of causes of those apparent reasons and deeper still, to personal consequences if something does not change. When you do they may still not be able to afford what you sell. In
You are the solution to getting rid of their pain. Let them feel the pain, so they stop with BS, that most people will use because they hate being sold to. But, people love to buy the second that they know you enough to trust you. Do not betray that trust. I am entrusting you with this knowledge, so as Google’s slogan says( don’t be evil) Keep them safe, but let them feel the pain in their lives, you didn’t cause it. You are the solution too it and help them see that through the right questions. See my article on apparent reasons. People usually start the decision making process in this mode
#4 Create Content People Are Searching
How do you know what they are looking for? The 15K formula covers this in depth. Take a look at Alexa.com and see the results. They rank websites according to global and national popularity. Also, see what Google, YouTube, Bing, Yahoo, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Delicious, Reddit, Pinterest, Wikipedia, ASK.com, Howto.com, and facebook are showing for your target market. When you type the name of your market in these social websites, you will pull up profile of people interested in this topic. Don’t immediately spam them. There is too much of this going on online. Type the name of the target market you want to attract in the search engines, and see what ranks on the first page…There you will see the secret. Also Hubpages and Squidoo. Read about your prospects or target market’s pain. Then provide the solution to that pain. You will save a lot of money and time by learning to do this properly.
What I Learned From Rob Fore
See what kinds of posts rank the best. This changes all the time as search engines change their algorithms. This is what Rob Fore taught me. I have never even met Rob Fore, yet. I listen to him talk and teach on the Inner Circle Audios. I joined his MLSP affiliate program when I first got started online in the beginning, to learn what I liked and did not like about it. My intention in anything I use on the Internet is always as a funnel back into Empower Network. Why? Because I know it is the best chance for them to succeed.
I watched him at Empower Network events in the Public eye and in casual conversation with others. Success leaves clues ladies and gentlemen. I also heard what he told another brilliant marketer by the name of Chris Rocheleau. Follow successful people and listen to what they talk about. Where at your company events. There is a reason people on stage say what they say.
They have experienced more and had more time to learn what to do. They are no better than you and no worse, and as soon as you start producing sales you will be with themon stage and you will make awesome friends. You learn what people are looking for by always keeping your eye on the trends of the Industry.
But when you are writing for traffic on fun topics, research your topic like I said above, then do not copy the best results. Put the resulting keywords of a topic you’d like to write about in Google Keyword Planner or put a long-tail keyword phrase that addresses the idea because that’s how people search. They search for solutions to their problems
ex: make money online or how to make money online
in the Google Keyword Planner and find one of two things:
1) Make more money
2) Have more time – to do what they want, when they want with he people they love.
Update 2015: Those are lousy keywords. People that search for these keywords are looking for an easy button or lottery win out of their problem, in most cases. It took me, talking to, or chatting with, about 800 people to finally figure that out, well maybe I figured it out a little sooner.
But, I really learned about it in The Inner Circle Audios with Chris Rocheleau interviewing million dollar earner John Mroz. They talked about this very same idea. I learned it the hard way and then heard it when I listened to that audio. There are over 100 audios and it grows every Week. Great marketers share what made them great in these audios. That information is priceless. You get it by paying a membership fee of $100/month. It has been well worth every penny. Plus, they encourage you to download them and listen to them over and over again. Each time you do you gain one more piece of information you missed before.
#5 The Problems You Will Run Into When You Choose The Wrong Keyword Phrase.
People that search for those keyword phrases above will not work hard to build a business. They will ask too many questions because they do not believe it is possible to make what You used to make in a year in a month.
We have to be careful. You see marketing is so powerful that the FTC is on constant guard that we do not mislead people. That is not good business. Here is out Income Disclosure: Your results will vary. You may make no money at all. To see average earnings click this link: http://yourlastjobever.com/income
You can also get started today on that page. But, remember there are no guarantees in any business. If you get that kind of hype-filled guarantee run as fast as you can the other way.
You want is to do market research and understand the demographics and psychographics of the customer that is most like you, your “sweet spot” customer. You may have to go on a journey of self-discovery. Ask yourself these questions:
a. What do You want?
I mean really want, what do you really want? If you get it what does that give you that you do not have now? If you get that thing how will your life be different? Be crystal clear about what You want.
If you have trouble figuring that out, do not worry,
some people have broken wanters – Judith Wright Ph.D.
b. What do You not want?
c. What do You hate?
d. What do You love?
You might also want to look at yourself in these terms:
e. What are Your strengths?
f. What are Your weaknesses?
g. What are Your opportunities?
h. What are Your threats?
When writing to Your sweet spot target market You should always keyword optimize.
These are the kind of competition keywords you should look at when doing your market research. How many people are searching for it on a monthly basic. How many other marketers are using the same keyword phrase?
These are questions you need to ask yourself. These are the things you will be looking for:
1. Low competition – highly searched globally and locally keyword phrases
2. Low competition – 1000 – 25,000 searches only, small niches almost guarantee you get the traffic if you do it properly.
#6 ON Page SEO
Write for the reader, not the search engines.
Write about topics you know people are already searching for monthly. Don’t just write for the sake of writing unless you want to(as a hobby only) and then write to help them, genuinely help them. They will see the sincerity in your writing. Once they begin to know, like and trust you they will buy your products from you. First, they will probably start engagement with you in social media
Here are some basics formatting that you can test.
H1,H2,H3 – Headline tags
Bold, Italics, Underline
If you write for the search engines eventually you will get slapped. THis means that the search engines will not crawl your content and people will not find your work.
Prevent this by writing for the reader. Include one or more of the above in your writing as appropriate to use these for emphasizing a main or sub-topic. You also want to include searches related to the keyword phrase you are writing about.
#7 In the 15K Formula They Give The Directions For Joining 300 facebook Groups
300 is the limit facebook allows at the time of this writing. It may change by the time you read this post. In the bonus material they talk about how to use facebook without being spammy and getting your facebook account shut down. This is my next method to test. 300 views of your content each day minimum, for sharing posts with social media bar or badass button.
Update 2015: Those days are over. Post to at most 40 facebook groups a day
only pick groups that have at least 10,000 people in them
This idea came from Joe Chance. Success leaves clues ladies and gentlemen.
FB Ice Breaker Method – There is a great training in the Prosperity Team’s back office. When you join, watch that training. This method is for people that are good with other people in a conversation. It uses facebook chat messages as a way of engaging customers.
It has it’s strengths and weaknesses just like any marketing strategy will have. Test, measure and tweak until you get the results you want.
If it doesn’t produce sales or at least leads, for you in 30 days discard this method and look for one that works better for you. Lisa Torres, who I have seen speak on stage at Empower Network events taught me this. Only listen to people that are speaking at your company event. You will run into a lot of people that think they know what they talk about, but do not listen to them. Only listen to people that have earned the right to be on that stage. They have produced results. Results are all that matter in your business. It is what you eat with and pay your mortgage with on time…Results.
Email Your list one blog post daily
This will always be a great idea. As your list grows, so does the traffic to your blog.
# 8 Also In The 15K Formula They Mention Repurposing Your Posts
This also works if it is done properly. Make sure you understand the terms and conditions of the sites you post to. Again, test, measure, and tweak your content until you get the results you want and then scale it up to monetize.
Hubpages, Squidoo, Ezine articles, Scribd and Slideshare.net, and other publishing sites like Kindle Reader, and their competitors, plus many other content-sharing sites are also available.
But, do not just copy and paste from your blog to these sites with a link. Repurpose the idea and make a new piece of content geared for your followers on that particular social site.
#9 Other Authority Sites
WordPress, Blogger, Delicious, and other social media sharing sites up to 200 – 400 sites at one time. New blogging sites, Vimeo, Streamcast? Filezine.com($5 per article) nice formatting once you play with it enough. (Personal preference.) Word and Power Point are fine programs to share on Slideshare.net too
LinkedIn account get a paid account…huge traffic. Somehow I ended on the first page of Google. Linkin™
#10 Google Analytics
Follow Empower Network blog set-up directions and blogging hacks, and premium tutorials for setting up Google Analytics on your account. You can track up to 25 blogs per account but you can have as many accounts as you want and you can link them together..call them at Google. They can help you figure it out in customer service.
Update 2015: While this sometimes works to get you more traffic it can also get your other blogs shut down. I had several that were there one day and gone the next. I started with 84 Blogger blogs. I still have many of them and they can be used to generate traffic if done properly. But, again, do no evil. Ask me about this in the comments.
Has anyone heard that Google affiliates accounts were going by the wayside soon?
Update 2015: Yep they were. There one day gone the next. Each time something like this happens it makes you stronger. The Internet is a living, “breathing organism” it is constantly evolving just as Rob Fore said it does.
#11 Finally, Create Your Movie
I have always wanted to make the TOM LINCOLN MOVIE and now I get too. Share each episode with YouTube, Vimeo and Your email list in a Broadcast email.. Daily is the goal. If they see you doing blog posts and video blogs daily they will follow you, and do the same.
Update 2015: Two Youtube channels with over 450 videos temporarily lost. I recorded them on my camera and my camera phone and saved them on my computer. I filled up a computer and transferred those files to a hard drive. Coming soon the Tom Lincoln Movie so far.
So How should, this work:
1. Write your blog post – use it as a script for your video Daily
2. Market both on authority sites – the ones you look up on Alexa.com that will allow you to share your videos and blog posts. You can also pay to syndicate your blog posts.
3. Pick two or three social media sites you like and would be on regardless of whether you had a business or not.
4. Share your blog posts to your growing list, if they answer the questions people have about their business. Market Research will help you find those problems.
Oh, I forgot use Empire Avenue also in the 15K formula. It is comprised of a World of Internet marketers sharing each others content. Think of it like your target market helping you learn about what you do!
Update 2015: They are now a subscription service. Test, measure, tweak until you get the results you want and then scale it up and monetize.
#12 Be Yourself
Your interests are the first target markets you can formulate a strategy for, because you understand them. They are like you. You joined for a reason, share that reason. But:
only share your struggles once you have overcome them. – Aaron Rashkin(I am paraphrasing here)
No one will join someone that is still in pain.
That pain is what turns you into the leader that people want to follow. You experience it for them, so they do not have to. But, they will always have a learning curve as long as they are new and most will be new. You help[ shift time for them. Instead of getting two sales a month you will be showing them you get two sales a day. You will be showing them you get 30 leads a day consistently. You will be showing them you get thousands of people viewing your ad or blog post each day.
Do not save them too soon, or they will not be strong enough and they will quit. Then, you did not help them.
Think of it like You are a caterpillar. You will eat all this knowledge of Internet strategy, getting ready for your cocoon stage. Inside you will sort through what works for you, and discard what does not. When you stop following everyone else and believe in your own skill, which is only knowledge and experience that happens with as much time as it takes, then you will be strong enough to shed that “grinder cocoon” and be a beautiful butterfly – network and affiliate marketer at this level. Then there will be a series of being “in the cocoon” and back “out of the cocoon” as you continue to grow better and better every day, in every way. You will continue to grow at each level in this manner.
#13 Create Your Own Purple Cow!
There was a small(physical size) book written with some very big concepts in them, written by the “Godfather of Modern Marketing,” Seth Godin. In his book, Purple Cow, he talks about standing out from the crowd. Don’t be like your competition. Only you can be You and no one is as good at being you as you are. You are exactly in the right place at the right time. When you are a purple cow in a herd of marketers, You stand above the clutter that is marketplace. Your message gets lost in “the clutter” if you try to be exactly like anyone else. Stand out! Be a purple cow.
One way to do this is to pattern your brand based on ancient archetype. Most Movies and plays use one of or more of the 20-23 different archetypes to choose from. Google archetypes if you do not understand. There is also a great explanation of them in Wikipedia It has a great description of them. You will also find a great description of them in the Costa Rica Masters Retreat product that you get as a bonus when you buy the product Mass Influence Formula.
Tell Your story. People will know, like and trust you in a world where 70% of all sales calls are considered a waste of time, and 94% of all sales are made by 4% of sales people. People have to trust you first…then they will buy, when WIIFM(what’s in it for me) takes hold and is clear in the conversation in there mind, not yours. You can not rush it but learning to use mass influence principles properly will help you build your business beyond your imagination.
#14 Create Your Markets And Use Websites To Forward To Your Capture Page
EX: Payformyhorse.com (title speaks to gain or pain if they are about to lose their horse fear of that event)
Factory Work Sucks .com(Pain)
There is also a Penny Click facebook method that I am testing. I am always testing my marketing and you should be too. Always be looking for new marketing ideas. You want to have your best prospects see you in at least 6 different places before they even know you exist. There is also a Dark Post Profits(PPC) method you can use to drive traffic to your business. Chris Record and Arthur Tubman have perfected the art of marketing without feeing like you are being marketed too. That is the true mark of a genius marketer. I was lucky enough to learn from two of them. Again, all my marketing goes to my primary business, Empower Network. Customers in Empower Netwoprk are divided into several markets:
1) Network Marketers
2) Online Marketers
3) Speakers or Authority Figures
4) People with an idea for making money with a product, but that have no idea how to monetize this idea.
Thank You To The Samurai Business Group LLC Dan and Bob my mentors. Much of the above post came from what they taught me. They help turn superstars into legends.
Always under-promise and over deliver in your business.