Keith Goodrum

I was reading a post on Ed Rivis’s blog titled Powerful Marketing Tactic.

He said to…

1. Write a book/report/whitepaper/ect.
2. Give it away for free!

Ed explains that by giving away free valuable content you start to develop a deep relationship with your customers. And then you can start using a tactic called back end marketing.

How powerful can back end marketing really be?

Let me give you an example… I ran my offline business for 6 years without spending one single dime on front end marketing. You read that right… I spent nothing, zippo, nada to get a new customer for 6 years. The Val Pak, Yellow Pages and Newspaper advertising sales reps were depressed… but I wasn’t!

And I still got new customers all time time. How? My existing customers kept sending their friends & family to me. I focused all my efforts on developing a deep relationship with my existing customers, and they took care of getting new customers for my business.

Do you want to learn this and other powerful marketing tactics?

Here’s how… go to Ed Rivis’s blog and sign up on his blog announcement list before the end of today. If you do Ed will send you a free PDF copy of his new book titled The Ultimate Web Marketing Strategy on Feb. 1st.

I would highly suggest you head on over and sign up on his announcement list.

Keith

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Popularity: 14% [?]

10 seconds is all you need to overcome the fear of failure. That is what a sales manager told me once. At the time I was afraid of making phone calls to customers. I could pick-up the phone and dial, but when someone said hello.. I would freeze, and hang up. I use to be so happy when a call would go to voicemail. I would leave a message and not have to talk to anyone.

One day my sales manager asked me why was I not making follow-up phone calls? My answer was that I was afraid of failing. He sat me down and told me all I have to do was dial the number, wait for someone to answer, and then only decide to talk to them for 10 seconds. That’s it! If after 10 seconds I was still fearful I could make up some excuse to get off the phone and hang up.

I figured I could do that… and it worked! I found that after 10 seconds I was no longer afraid. Well, I started making appointments. Which led to more sales. And within a few months I was one of the top salesmen.

I quickly found out 2 things.

First people started asking me how did I become such a good salesman so fast. Fast! I had been beating my head against a wall for months trying to become a better salesman. I was at the bottom or middle of the pack for long stretches of time. I would hardly say it was fast

Second that there were few if any other salesmen were doing the things I was doing. Hardly anyone was making follow-up phone calls, or setting appointments. So, few people were making consistent follow-up phone calls that many times I was the only one calling the customer. And that alone led to more sales, because I had no competition. It was easy.

So my question to you is… Why are you worried about failing? Most people are holding back afraid to fail. They believe they need to wait until they are good before they try. Well can’t get good until you practice. And that means failing, but don’t worry it really won’t matter. You will find there is hardly any competition. So, if you do fall down you will still get better results than if you tried nothing.

I’ve stuck my neck out there and have fallen down… several times. And I got up dusted myself off, and tried again. I started several offline businesses until I found one that stuck. Even after I got one running successfully… I made some mistakes that put the company on life support for a while. It was scary for a time but I made adjustments and recovered.

So, you need to grab the entrepreneurial spirit and start making bold moves. Get out there and fall down on your face. You will find out that nobody notices… not even your mom! However what will happen is you will figure out what works, what doesn’t and make adjustments. The important part is to try again, and again, and again. That will lead to success… And then people will start to notice. They will notice that you are a 2%er, and want to know how you did it. Jonathan Fields talks about this on his blog Awake At The Wheel in his post The dirty little secret to success.

Go run out and fall down somewhere, but do it fast!

Keith

Popularity: 10% [?]

I forgot to mention another benefit to unsubscribing from so many lists.  More time.  I no longer open my inbox, and see it filled with tons of emails.  It cuts down on the amount of time I use to waste plowing though them.  Even if you delete the ones that are pitching he same thing you are still wasting time emptying the inbox.

And you are no longer distracted by the latest, greatest tactic to (fill in the blank).  I found myself wasting hours getting distracted following links, reading sales letter and listening to sales pitches thinly disguised as teleseminars.

It makes it easier to focus on one course of action, stick to it and see it to completion.  Lack of focus is what keeps most people in the 98%.

Sam Carrara reminded me of this when I read his blog post today…

See what he has to say about it here: http://www.samcarrara.com/marketing/why-i-lose-time/

Keith

Popularity: 11% [?]

I’m finally breaking the last bond to the pitch-a-thon marketing ezines. Yep, I’ve unsubscribed from the countless email lists I’ve been on for the past couple years. And it felt pretty good hitting the unsubscribe link over and over again.

I’ve rationalized staying on these lists by saying I’m keeping up with all their marketing methods. But, really who was I kidding?

I tried to tell myself that I might miss a marketing tactic, or new strategy… but what was I missing? I’m got the same email from each list. And the only difference was that the sender was different. These emails were the same almost word for word.

There’s no possible way to miss a new marketing tactic because they were copying each other. I finally had to admit to myself that I was just getting pitch from the same JV product using the same email “template”.

The final straw came with the latest launch. I won’t tell you who it is, but the marketers name sounds like Krank Fern. And Krank’s product sounds like “Cass Montrol”…

It’s strange, but if you go to Krank’s blog he gives away some free list building content. He gives some case studies about “Cass Montrol” working for other people. Good solid content. Now, you know he is going to eventually sell you something… but he is using the rule of reciprocation. He gives you something free to join his blog announcement list, and keeps on sending you free content. His plan is you will feel indebted to him when it comes time to buy what he is selling.  And You feel Ok with that.

The rule of reciprocation is overpowering for this reason.

The funny part is you hear that email marketing is not as effective as it use to be. You hear complaints about deliverability issues, low open rates and pitiful click through rates. Could it be that the recipient of the emails are indifferent?!? Low quality traffic? Bogus email addresses?

I would say that the list owners are not using the rule of reciprocation correctly. It’s strange to see so many them pitching “Cass Montrol” to their list. And yet ignoring the example of reciprocation that Krank Fern has laid out for them.

Or they use the rule of reciprocation once, and cannot figure out why is doesn’t stick.

You see many of people give away free gift as an inducement to join their list. And list owners will see success at building their subscribers if the gift has a high-perceived value. However a universal mistake is made by most of them right after the gift is given.

The list owner will usually start hammering away with pitch after pitch after pitch. There is never another attempt to give away worthwhile content or a gift. The rule of reciprocation is never reinforced. If you study the rule of reciprocation you will notice that giver (list owner) gives a gift to the recipient (subscriber) for a specific action (join the list). And the recipient (subscriber) will feel obligated to repay the perceived debt. (by receiving sales messages)

However once the debt is repaid the recipient no longer feels obligated to the giver… After all the debt has been repaid. And for each person the point at which they feel they have repaid the debt is different.

The list owner must do something to get the subscriber to feel obligated to receive future sales messages. And that something is in the form of valuable content, information or entertainment.

What about me? Did I unsubscribe from all the lists I’m on? No, there are good lists I’ve stayed on because they provide a good mix of content vs. sales messages. I decided to stay on the ones that got my attention when they landed in my inbox.

Here are a few I feel are doing it right:

http://www.ryanhealy.com/
http://www.jamesbrausch.org/
http://www.aaronbrandon.com/
http://www.edrivis.com/
http://www.samcarrara.com/marketing/
http://www.terrydean.org/
http://www.patbdoyle.com/
http://www.thekaizenbusiness.com/

Keith

Popularity: 25% [?]

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

Alright, Welcome to the TGIF Video Book Review. Every Friday I’ll review a book I’ve read & liked.

Yes, you are correct today is Saturday… The video was conflicting with a plugin, and creating an internal error message. I didn’t fix the error till today. So, the TGIF Video Book Review will kick-off on Saturday!

Keith

Popularity: 15% [?]

I met Stu Heinecke a couple years ago at the Kennedy/Glazer Superconference. Stu was a great guy, and I had a lot of fun hanging out with him. He built a list at the conference by offering to mailing anyone who signed up a personalized cartoon. It was a great way to get people to sign up on his list. I did, and about a week later I this in the mail. I put it away, and intended to get a frame to hang it up on the wall.

I was cleaning out my desk today and found it. I made a note to buy a frame and hang it on the wall. I will keep it because it has my name on it. It’s personalized… I’ll never throw it away. Hey it’s got my name on it!

The lesson is Stu made an irresistible offer to get me to sign up on his list.

Here’s the link to Stu Heinecke’s site: http://cartoonlink.com/. You can sign up on his email list and he will send you a personalized cartoon.

Can you resist? For me resistance was futile…

Keith

P.S. Sorry about the lame Star Trek pun… I couldn’t resist.

Popularity: 18% [?]

In his post titled Why I Decided Not To Be Lawyer.  Ricky tells about how his business has bought him true freedom.  He talks about first time he went to sleep and woke up $1000 richer.  That transformed his mindset from trading dollars for hours to earning money beyond his efforts, or pressence.

I find it interesting that people view a j.o.b. as a secure source of income.  In my book, that is a false sense of security.  Having nearly 100% of your income dependent on one source is scary to me.  I can remember when the day it finally hit me that a j.o.b. was a not a secure source of income.  One day the company I was working at started calling department managers into the human resource managers office.  My turn came, and 5 minutes later my income went from 100% to zero.  I got laid off, because they were having a bad year.

On the way home I resolved that I would not let anyone have that much control over my income ever again.  I had to go out and find another job, but I started a business on the side to start to gain control back.  I took on the view that a job was another customer, and started measuring what percent of my income each customer provided.  My goal became to not let anyone customer be responsible for more than 10% of my income.  And a couple years ago I reached that goal. 

Most people I talk to think it’s strange that I find it scary to have that much of your livelyhood controlled by one source. 

Popularity: 8% [?]

 Ray Edwards has written an excellent post addressing the attention span of the online market.  He discusses two critical steps a sales letter must accomplish.  First Sell the prospect on reading the letter, and second lead the prospect to a desired action.

He acknowledges that the battle to hold the attention of the online market is tough.  He calls it Attention Deficit Sales Letter Disorder - ADSLD.  And he goes on to give some tips on how to prevent ADSLD.  You can read the post entitled Attention Deficit Sales Letter Disorder.

I like what he has to say, and his tips are awesome.  He talks about removing anything that distracts from the sales message, and mentions there is a debate about the length of sales letter.  However I think he stops short.

More marketers are starting to discover that making sales letters shorter while still keeping the sales message strong is the way to go.  The short attention span of the online audience is the reason.  I see more people admit that they will read the headline, the opening paragraph and skim to the price. 

James Brausch has said that the average length of a profitable sales page is 1.8 pages printed on his Epson printer.  That’s a far cry shorter than the 12, 15, 20 page sales letters you see many marketers have up.

I know that many argue that you need to tell it to sell it.  And you would never send out a salesman with the instructions to only say 400, 500 or 1000 words.  You tell the salesman to keep talking until he makes the sale.

Not exactly!

I’ve lost count of the amount of times I’ve watched a salesman talk his way out of a sale.  He does a great job convincing the prospect to buy.  The customer would give the signal that he is ready to buy.  The sale is made.  Then the salesman KEEPS on talking, and talking and talking.  He can’t stop!

Next thing you know the customer is walking out without making purchase.  And the salesman is standing there shocked because he just lost the sale.

So, yes a person can talk too much and loose the sale.  And so can a sales letter.  Especially in this attention deficit online world.

What are your thoughts about this?  I would like to hear them.

Popularity: 13% [?]

Many times during my sales career I would be on a sales call and would change my presentation.  Why?  Because I would pick up on some clues that I was losing the customer.  They would suddenly look away, become quite, or make a face… Something would tip me off.  So, I would go in a different direction.  Maybe at one point they said that saving money was important, or casually mentioned quality was a huge concern.  Then I would ask why is it important to save money, or what do you look for in quality.  I was adjusting my presentation to hit the hot button of the customer.  It’s called qualifying, or asking probing questions. 

In a face to face selling situation you have the benefit of instant feedback.  People give you clear clues as to what is working in your presentation and what is failing.  It’s easy to change the direction of your presentation.  Typically you have the opportunity to make several shifts before the sales call is over.  And you have the advantage of the customer rooting for you to make the sale if they you have established a bond with them.  If the customer likes you they will let you make mistakes, and still make the sale.

This is not the case with sales letters.  The writer has to pick a message and head in that direction.  Using persuasive language the writer has to pick, and choose the best sales presentation.  They don’t have the benefit of instant feedback, or the ability to change the direction of the letter.  The writer uses a combination of knowledge, experience and gut feeling.  Hopefully, when the writer is done the letter will be put up, and start making sales.  The reason I hopefully is because no one is really sure how a letter will do until it is put out there. 

The problem is that most of the readers of a sales letter will not purchase.  They will take a quick glance, not relate and click away.  It is usually in the high 90’s that will choose not to buy.  Think about it only, 1 or 2 out of 100 will buy.  Not a very high closing ratio. 

I’m amused when I hear people taking a look at a sales letter and boldly predicting the success or failure of a letter.  It’s a healthy dose of confidence, maybe too much confidence.  Ryan Healy discusses this at his blog on copywriting.  It’s titled Unmerited Confidence.  The one thing I’ve learned is that it is hard to predict the actions of people. 

Popularity: 14% [?]

Jim Sansi over at The Kaizen Business blog has released a new prouduct. It’s called; “Business Procedures Vol 1 - Put Your Traffic Generation On Complete Autopilot”. Jim was kind enough to let me review a copy of his new DVD last week.

Two thumbs up on this one. Jim does a great job explaining the steps to take with each prodecure. Each video was clear, and easly to follow. You will be able to do these yourself, outsource it to an intern or a virtual assistant. This is a great way to systemize your traffic generation. Jim has done all the lifting for you by making these DVDs.

The best part is Jim is having a weekend special going on till Monday 9am (GMT-8). The price is only $35, and then it will go up. I suggest you get on over there and grab a copy, before the special is over. Here is the link to Jim’s weekend special.

Enjoy your weekend,

Keith

Popularity: 13% [?]