myMarketingGuide.com-Tips, Tools, and Templates

Don't play follow-the-leader

The Internet marketing machine is like a large information freight train running out of control, 99 miles an hour down a dead end street.

There is so much information and misinformation it's getting harder and harder to know whether what we are reading has any merit at all.

To make things even more difficult to understand, what works and what does not, changes day to day.

The root of the problem is the marketing strategy that worked for me six months ago may or may not work today. If an approach works for you it may not work for me.

The newest cutting-edge marketing information is almost always stale by the time it's published. In addition there is always a time lag between when a new marketing approach is conceived and when it becomes mainstream.

Don't Do What Everyone Else Is Doing

If you do what everyone else does you will get what everyone else gets. More Internet based businesses are failing to show a profit. One reason so many fail is because there is nothing new or interesting in their approach. In most markets there are more people selling than are needed for people buying.

The Gold Rush Mentality

In the California Gold Rush of the 1850s many businesses earned far more than the miners, selling gold pans, transportation and supplies to them. Many of the prospectors wasted their life savings on scams and non-existent gold mines. I see the same things happening online today. A FIRST few people to stake a claim to a new market are the ones making most of the money.

Adapt A Franchise Mentality

Have you ever wondered why a high percentage of franchise owners are successful? There are three main reasons.

1) The franchise owner is 100% committed. The costs are so high, commitment to success is absolute. Treat your sixty-dollar business like a sixty thousand dollar business and you are more likely to succeed.

3) The franchise owner expects success to take time. Many Internet Marketers expect it almost overnight.

The Saturated Market

Often people tell me they want to fashion their business after mine. I try to discourage them because there is less and less money to be made in an over-saturated market. In fact, selling marketing tools and information products to beginning marketers is perhaps the most over-saturated market on the Internet.

I advise people to learn what everyone else is doing - then do something different.

Push Versus Attraction

Most self-proclaimed "Internet Marketing Gurus" are still recommending a website design that works very much like an infomercial on TV. Television infomercials work because the broadcast medium can saturate the airwaves so that eventually the sales message gets through. The constant media bombardment wears many down. And some buy just to satisfy their curiosity. The small business person can't afford to compete due to the costs in this media.

Online, we reach our customers by attracting them to our websites. And the best way to do so is with unique information or a solution to an existing problem.

The Prevailing Marketing Formula

1) Write a ton of sales copy, fill it full of action verbs and lists of benefits.

3) Pepper the "long copy" with a liberal application of testimonials.

There is nothing wrong with this marketing formula. It still works, especially for information products and novelty items that sell for under $50 online.

Even The Leaders Are Playing Follow The Leader

The problem is EVERYONE,including the leaders, is doing the exact same things. It seems nobody is thinking for themselves.

Most Internet marketers start by choosing a product to sell, and then research and develop a market afterwards. Let's turn that around. Start with a subject in which you already have a special interest and expertise.

Find A Market That Is Easy To Reach

2) Develop a marketing strategy to reach this market.

Push Versus Pull

Traditional marketing is a PUSH medium. The Internet is a PULL medium. We are accustomed to PUSH marketing through the conventional media channels. We are accustomed to having the broadcast media surround us. It runs on and on, with or without anyone paying any attention. You can't buy "eyeballs" online nearly as easy as through the conventional media. It is in trying to do so that large corporations lose so much money online.

The Principle Of Attraction

You ATTRACT visitors and sales online through the principle of ATTRACTION. In other words you attract visitors to what they are already looking for, a solution for an existing problem. Using this principle, you don't find people; they find you. People will find you in many ways. The ticket is to understand the nature of their unfulfilled desire, then to fulfill it.

Using the principle of attraction you can use free or low cost marketing techniques. You can take advantage of free promotional techniques such as search engines. You can buy highly targeted keywords, banners, or classified ezine ads targeted at your unique market.

Don't Follow "The Three Foot Rule"

This rule suggests marketing to anyone who gets close enough to talk to you. You are to hand them a business card at least. The better approach online is to place information and sales letters where prospects are already looking for the solution they need. This method is much less expensive, but requires more advance planning and testing to succeed.

OK, Here Is The Rule

I learned the following from Corey Rudl in his Internet Marketing course. It has taken some time for me to really understand it, even though it's a very direct and simple statement.

"FIND A MARKET that is easy to reach and then find a need in that market that you can fill. This is the easiest way to success and almost EVERYONE OVERLOOKS IT".

Note: Robert Smith

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