MMM -- Sticking To The Fundamentals [or Fundamentally Screwed?]
Published: Sat, 04/07/12
April 7, 2012
Hello,
Marlon here.
Normally I do Marlon's Marketing Minute as a PDF.
Today, to change things up, I'm doing a shorter,
text-based edition.
It's Easter weekend. Hope you're getting to spend
time with your loved ones.
Today's article:
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Sticking To The Fundamentals
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Most people who do well online master the fundamentals
and execute them very well.
The better people execute the fundamentals, the better
they tend to do.
Execution is more important than brilliance.
I'd rather use a mediocre sales process that works
than to use a brilliant one that is 99% done but
never implemented.
Are you doing the fundamentals?
Let's evaluate where you're at.
1. Target Audience
Do you know who your potential buyers are?
The mistake most people make is they try to sell
to everyone. Who are you selling to?
Who buys your product or service?
Where do they hang out at?
How do you rate yourself on this? Do you know who
your potential buyers are, where they hang out at
and how to reach them?
2. Traffic Sources
Once you know WHO buys what you're selling, THEN the
next step is to find at least one traffic source.
By traffic I mean a source of people who are in
your target audience. In other words, they're folks
you can buy from you.
You need at least one stable source.
Without a flow of people onto your list and to your
offers, you don't have a business.
Traffic is the magic elixer. Without it, you die.
With it, you build your list and grow.
I'll point out that having a LOT of traffic is NOT
the goal. You could have a million visitors all of
whom are NOT potential buyers.
3. Your Offer
Now that you know who your buyers are, you need to
create an offer that will get them into your marketing
funnel.
This is typically a freebie report but can also be
an audio, video, trial, sample or demo. Normally,
you make this offer on a "squeeze page."
You can also have low-priced offers that qualify
people as serious prospective customers.
I think of a chiropractor in my local area who has
a set up at the local mall where he offers screenings.
Do you have your initial offer? Is it working? Are
you getting 40% to 50% of visitors to subscribe to your
email list?
4. Your Upsells and OTO's
Usually, although not always, you make an initial offer
to people when they subscribe to your email list.
Why?
Because you KNOW you have their attention! They may
never read your emails. But one thing you know is
you have their attention at this moment.
So you make an irresistible offer. This helps you
pay for any advertising you buy or offer a commission
to affiliates.
5. Your Follow Up Emails And Broadcasts
These are the things that move people into your
entry level funnel offer.
You know, it's emails that get people to buy the
first widget from you that leads to them buying more
and more widgets.
6. Your recurring billing offer
Most businesses that survive and thrive over time have
a recurring billing (otherwise known as continuity) aspect.
7. Your back end offers
The front end is the intial sale. The back end is
everything after that.
====================
The Current Trend
====================
I'm not necessarily one to follow the current trend.
That'll often lead you down a primrose path.
Having said that, the current trend is to pay a
75% or 100% commission upfront to affiliates on
your initial sale and 50% to 100% on OTO's.
Some people are paying out 100% on one or two
low-priced one time offers BECAUSE they have a really
solid webinar conversion process in place.
They get new subscribers onto a webinar and sell a
big ticket.
The basic model is still the same:
Get people on a list and sell them something.
Your income boils down to your ability to sell.
Marketing gets people ONTO your list who are your
potential buyers.
Sales gets them to spend money.
Now some people have a fear of sales or selling, as
though it's dirty, tainted and inherently evil. Or
something that is way too hard to do.
I suggest a reframe:
Sales is the process by which you help people discover
the reasons that owning a product will benefit them
more than the alternatives, including the alternative
of doing nothing.
"Marlon, I have been online 1 billion years....but I
ain't made no money...how come?"
You know, on occasion I get that question.
And the answer is:
'Cause you ain't sold nothin' to no one.
Or how about this one:
"Marlon, I need FAST RESULTS, i.c. greens in my bank
account. How do I do this?"
Well, I reckon you need to find something a group
of people want to buy and sell it to them.
You can do that threw writing, audio, video, talking
to them on the phone or webinars. Webinars are the
current hot trend.
"Marlon, I am DESPERATE. How do I create more income
in a month than I have in my last 20 years?"
You've no doubt seen those blog posts before. I've had
my share of them on my blog.
"You know, I'm a vegetable, know nothing and have no
skills. And since you are a marketer, I figured you
could save me."
If you can't sell, or figure out how to, then find
someone who will hire you to perform a service.
There's nothing wrong with performing services for
cash flow.
That's how I started.
I started as a writer.
To wrap this up, you have to get people on your list
and sell them and/or give them reasons to buy from you.
And you need to do that by writing or talking.
If you can't write, and can't talk, I can't help you.
You gotta be able to do one or the other.
In case you haven't been reading my ezines, here's the
formula:
1. Get people on a list who are buyers
2. Send emails
3. Give reasons to buy from you
Now, which of those 3 things are you NOT currently
doing?
THAT is where you need to start. I see some people
building lists of people who are proven NON buyers.
"Yeah dog, I got a list of 100,000 NON buyers!"
Find buyers.
Get them on a list.
Give them reasons to buy from you.
Is that so complicated?
=======================================================
Marlon Sanders helps people with hopes and dreams figure
out how to turn those into reality by selling stuff on
the Internet. http://www.marlonsanders.com
//////////////////////
REPRINT RIGHTS: You have permission to use the above
article without omission and including the resource box.
You have the right to insert your reseller URL for any
products I mention
=========================
Resources you can use
=========================
(If you want to post this ENTIRE ezine, you can replace the
following links with your RESELLER links. Get your links
at http://www.getyourprofits.com)
1. Go from Greenhorn To Great
You won't be a newbie after this:
http://www.marlonsvideos.com/greenhorn
2. The Marketing Dashboard: Amazing Formula and Gimme
boiled down to icons and step-by-step. Doesn't replace AF
and Gimme but useful. Basically, it spoon feeds all the
things in AF and Gimme. http://www.getitgoing.com
3. The Marketing Diary: Me teaching Matt daily all the
details of the Amazing Formula and Gimme system. This
contains additional insights into The Amazing Formula and
Gimme that you won't find in those products. It's
literally what I taught to Matt in his first 90 days with
me. http://www.themarketingdiary.com
This is an EVERGREEN product and if you're new to this
business you'll learn tons. I really like the product and
feel if you read it, 100% you'll get great value.
4. After 8 years, thousands of customer emails, thousands of
buyers in virtually every major city in the world (and
many you haven't heard of), 13 web site designs, 4 product
designs, after ebook and CD versions, after endorsements
from major marketers the world over, after hundreds of
marketers and products have come and gone, after attacks
by the world's most notorious criminals, after attempts to
put it under, there is ONE product that remains and stands
tall. There is one product that is stable.
http://www.amazingformula.com
5. Step-By-Step To Building Your Own Website
If you are, you may be getting ripped off. Design
Dashboard shows you not only the basics of doing your
own design but really walks you step by step through
setting up your hosting, autoresponders and shopping cart.
http://www.designdashboard.com
6. Promote your own products made easy
Grab the brilliant video by Adeel Chowdhry on how to mash
together stock video, stock sounds and stock music to
create an attention-grabbing, compelling video you can put
on your sales page, Facebook, Squidoo lenses, Hub Pages,
or even Twitter out to your list.
http://www.PromoDashboard.com
7. Your Own Products?
It's the only step-by-step, A to Z system not JUST for
creating info products .... but that shows you HOW to select
product ideas using my "flanking move" I've built my
business on, HOW to do 12-product surveys with an actual
example, that gives you a tested, proven email & source
with a 30% success rate in getting interviews with experts
-- PLUS, templates that would cost your more than the
Dashboard to have custom created!
http://www.productdashboard.com
8. Need website TRAFFIC?
http://www.thetrafficdashboard.com
==============================
May the road rise up to meet you
and the wind be always at your back
and until we meet again
may God hold you softly
in the palm of his hand
-- Irish poem
Copyright 2012 Higher Response Marketing Inc.
All rights reserved.