Keith Goodrum

Last week we went on vacation. Had a great time… even though it was with the In-Laws (oops – Did I say that out loud?)

We had to put Gypsy “The Wonder” Dog in a kennel. Wait… it’s a Resort and Spa for dogs. The place we always use is called Best Friends Pet Care. And they always go out of their way to make us feel special.

Study and take notes on how they create an experience instead of a transaction

When we dropped off Gypsy the staff fussed all over her, and told us how much they liked her personality. Of course being the proud parents of Gypsy “The Wonder Dog” we got a real kick out it.

Now, Gypsy only understands a few words… some of which she chooses to ignore on a regular basis. Some of her more words are: cookie, scooby snack, walkies, car ride, do you want to go?

So, with her limited English… most of the praising sorta went over her head. Although she did enjoy the pets and back scratches.

About half way through our vacation Becky was checking her email. And excitedly showed me an email we got from Gypsy…

Having a blast at Best Friends Chestnut Ridge…wish you were here!

I’d love to tell you all about it, but since I can’t talk my Best Friends agreed to send this photo along to you instead.

See you soon!

Love,

Gypsy

Attached to this email was a picture they took of her in the Play Room. Of course my wife started forwarding the email around to friends & family. She thought it was so cool to get an email from Gypsy telling us how much fun she was having.

Here’s the picture…

We came home & went to pickup Gypsy…

We got back this past Saturday, and went to pick up Gypsy. The girl behind the counter quickly pulled up the records on the computer. She then started telling us how much fun it was to have Gypsy stay with them. We were given the report cards to look over.

The report cards are comments left by the staff members who are taking care of Gypsy. There is a place to leave comments about how things went. Most of the comments said things like: “Gypsy is such a sweetie! She really is a cuddle hound… Gypsy is always a treat to have stay with us!”

How do I know what the comments say? Simple, my wife has kept all the report cards! I’ve been reading them while typing this post.

I then handed them Gypsy’s leash so they could go get her from the back. We paid the bill and waited for one of the staff to go get her.

But, wait it didn’t stop there…

There is a large screen TV hanging up behind the counter. It usually shows rotating pictures of the “Spa & Resort”. Usually it has a live shot of the doggie playroom. And you get to watch the other dogs romp around playing with each other. It can be fun to watch most of the time.

As we watching the picture changed. It was showing the picture of Gypsy in the playroom she had sent us in the email. The caption read something like we have arrived to pick up our best friend Gypsy. Of course we got a big laugh out it, and it was a nice touch.

This is getting long so I’m going to stop here. In a couple of days I’ll talk about some of the marketing lessons. And how you can apply them to your business.

But in the mean time… why don’t you add your comments here & tell me what you think made this an experience vs a transaction.

Ed Dale twittered about an article titled The Growing Frustration Of Ebay Sellers at Business Week online. It looks like Ebay is shutting down seller’s accounts for falling below a 4.3 on their new rating system.

Business Week profiled a couple of folks who are relying on Ebay as the overwhelming majority of their business, and in some their only source of business. The story went on to explain what these people had to do to get back into favor with Ebay.

However, this points out a major flaw in their business model.

It’s sad to see these folks getting shut down, and have their sales grind to a halt. However their fatal flaw was getting comfortable with the huge amount of business Ebay was driving to their business. They found out how vulnerable this position can be after one policy change. The old all your eggs in one basket came back & bit them hard.

Back in March I talked a little bit about the danger of relying on a single source for your traffic, business, customers. eBay’s Latest Policy Is An Important Marketing Lesson

Relying on 3rd Party’s for traffic generation is a risky strategy.

This is especially dangerous when a 3rd party like Ebay, Google or even the latest traffic darling Entrecard controls the method. When you rely on a 3rd party you are one policy change from being locked out.

It is fun and exciting to see a bull rush of traffic coming from one place like StumbleUpon, Twitter or Entrecard. It’s so easy to pour all your efforts into this traffic source, while ignoring others… But, that is a huge mistake.

Think of traffic tactics or strategies like investing.

You have to spread your risk. You don’t want your portfolio concentrated in one industry, stock or even in a single type of investment. The meltdown from this past September is an example of not spreading your investment risk. To many people thought the real estate market would always boom, and got burned when it collapsed.

The same can be said for traffic sources. One can work like gangbusters producing a large number of visitors. But, eventually something will happen. Either the traffic source will fall out of favor… Myspace comes to mind. Or, the traffic source will make a policy change, and possibly lock you out… can anyone say Google slap!

The solution is simple; make sure you have many traffic sources going at once. Not one or two… but 7, 10 or more. Having this many going at once spreads your risk. The more you have the better protected you will be when one source hits a snag, and stops producing.

It’s always better to have 100 ways to send you 1 visitor vs. 1 way to send you 100 visitors.

Have you ever created a product, and then wandered around looking for someone to sell it too?

It sounds kind of funny doesn’t it? But hordes of people who follow this very marketing model… and wonder why they aren’t making any money.

Me included… I spent weeks creating a product. I poured countless hours writing, building a website, marketing only to end up selling 4 copies of the product. I didn’t bother to find out if people actually wanted to buy the product. (I found out later that there were about 5 people in this niche… so it looks like I cornered this market ) I ignored a critical marketing rule… “Find a market first”.

Now, having a thick head… I needed learn this lesson twice!

Being a little slow on the uptake… I decided to test the “find a market first” theory. I created another product without finding a market first. Guess what happened? I didn’t sell a single copy of that product.

In both cases I fell in love with the idea, and never bothered to find a market. If I had done even a little bit of research I would have discovered nobody was interested in what I was selling.

This mistake is very common. Most people jump into the market without doing any research. They just jump in on a hunch, knowing that everybody needs their product. And then are dumbfounded when they are 4 months down the line standing on zero sales.

How do you avoid this mistake?

Make sure you find the market before you make your product. Find out some basic information about this market. Some of the questions you need to answer are…

Is there a market in the first place?

Do they have any pressing wants, needs or desires?

Are they willing to spend money on solutions to the above?

How do they want their solution delivered?

This is only a small portion of the research you need to do before you even think about making a product.

I can tell you why I didn’t do this important research. I didn’t know where to begin. Sure I knew you were supposed to find a hungry market, but how? After banging my head against the wall… I finally just stopped trying. The information was not readily available.

So, I just made my products… I figured doing something without research is better than doing nothing at all…

However with the correct market research you don’t have to guess if your product will sell, or if there is a market. You will know.

In fact with the correct market research you will be able to…

Discover new, ravenous & profitable markets… finally you can be the first to grab the brass ring.

Be ready to exploit profit opportunities that others either can’t or are too lazy to find… which leaves them standing around scratching their heads trying to figure out what you’ve done.

Take the guess work out of your next product launch… imagine having the confidence to know you have the right product, the right market & the right method of delivery.

Spot trends, provide a solution & extract maximum profits before your competition realizes what’s happened.

Recognize “loser” products & apply the breaks before you waste valuable time or money… Stop chasing after “Fools Gold”.

And so much more!

Now I can confidently put a product together with the right market research backing up my decision. This is possible because of a product from the creators of Success Chef University Michel and Sylvie Fortin which solves this problem.

It’s called…

“Marketing E.S.P.: How to Pinpoint Hot, Hungry, and Highly Profitable Markets”. The first in a series of “Cookbooks” released from the team at Success Chef.

The big question is… what will “Marketing E.S.P.” for you?

This cookbook will give you an easy to duplicate step-by-step process to conduct proper market research. The same process previously reserved for top marketers, and more recently people with the means to pay almost three grand.

Marketing E.S.P. gives you the same advantage previously reserved for folks forking out three grand or more. When you get your hands on this crucial course, you’ll get:

* Four (4) major steps.
* Seven (7) major lessons.
* 11 sub-lessons (18 in all).
* Three (3) simple homework assignments.
* 17 streaming video tutorials.
* About 4.6 hours of running video time.
* Seven (7) helpful illustrations and guides.
* Lists of hundreds of resources and tools.
* Three (3) fill-in-the-blank templates with examples.
* And a copy-and-paste calculator (spreadsheet).

You see the only way to get this before was two ways. The first was the most expensive, which was to hire Sylvie’s company Workaholics4Hire, which would run multiple of thousands of dollars. Or, the least expensive option was to pay $2997 for Success Chef University. Still out of reach for most people.

But, there’s good news…

You don’t have to pay $2997 to get this easy step-by-step marketing research process. Michel & Sylvie want to get this into as many hands as possible. So, they are going to make this available for only $97!

If you’re ready to get your own “Golden Goose” which sniffs out rabid, profitable markets, and allows you to repeat it with robotic precision at will, then you know you need Marketing E.S.P.

Remember, the only way you could get this information before now was to pay the $2997 lifetime member tuition for the full Success Chef University. However for a limited time you can get access for a low, low price of only $97.

So, head on over and get access to your copy of Marketing ESP Cookbook: The 4-Step Process to Finding Hot, Hungry Markets… Today!