You may have gathered from Friday’s post about double-standards that I’ve been suffering from a kind of Someday Syndrome around my coaching services. I’ve had a disconnect happening between what I have to offer and what I felt I could sell.
A lot of that disconnect has to do with marketing–and the sleazy side of it. So, I turned to Naomi from IttyBiz for some advice (because she’s one of the not-sleazy ones). I asked her about Internet marketing and whether anyone other than Internet marketers make money using the Internet to market their stuff.
I realized that others must feel the same way as I do, so I asked Naomi if I could post her answer here. Her response? Of course!
So here you go—Naomi’s take on whether Internet marketing works, and why it especially works for Internet marketers.
You’re always going to make the most money selling money. Internet marketing, forex, stock trading, they’re all appealing because there are no steps in the features vs. benefits matrix. Nobody has to ever think about WHY they would want more money, so it is always going to be an easier sell, on the internet or otherwise.
People not in those industries have more work to do to make money anywhere because they have to do a better sales job. Because it is not ragingly obvious why you would want a book on beekeeping, you will have to do more work to win in a smaller market. Because it’s harder, fewer people experience wildly ridiculous amounts of success, yes. But more importantly, because it’s harder, fewer people really try, which skews the odds.
The real reason people selling moneymaking stuff do so much better than everybody else is because that’s what worked on them. Joe Blow is sucked in by Jeff Walker’s Product Launch Formula and he sees firsthand how the process works. It’s easier for him to duplicate that in his own moneymaking IM biz because he doesn’t have to extrapolate. Just do what Jeff Walker did, or so the thinking goes.
Also, people who sell internet marketing related products are more likely to be OK with internet marketing techniques — they’re in the industry, so they see it all the time. It doesn’t make them uncomfortable. They’ve had practice by proxy. This means they’re more likely to use them and use them in a way that does not come off as incongruous. John Q. Beekeeper hears that Frank Kern says to email people four days in a row and he freaks out because he thinks everybody’s going to unsubscribe. He sends one shitty email because he’s nervous and uncomfortable, doesn’t sell shit, and then blames the IM industry for selling him something that didn’t work.
Now, in answer to your question, yes. It works across the board. The less your product or service has to do with making money or business success or, to a lesser degree, losing weight, the better you’re going to have to be at your marketing. But yes, it works. The best way to understand this is to understand the concept behind Desperate Buyers Only, a book on ebooks by Alexis Dawes. You don’t have to read it, you just need to go out there and find a good review of it that shows what it’s about. (I’m pretty sure Brian Clark has a good one, but you’ll find out enough by Googling.)
The premise is that people don’t need to be sold when they’re desperate. When many people think of desperation, they think of financial desperation, which is one of the reasons there are so many goddamn internet marketing products out there. But it really works for anything people are desperate about.
Weight loss, sure. Diabetes. Children with allergies is a huge market. Those stupid trick out your car to make it run on water things sell like hotcakes. The avoiding foreclosure market is big.
Talking about less blatant success—as in, six figures instead of seven—you open up the possibilities of not necessarily what people are desperate for, but what they just can’t find easily elsewhere. I paid pretty damn good money for a 200 page ebook on how to move to England that came up in organic search results. There is simply no good information on how to move here because nobody thought to put it all in one place. Genius.
Also, in keeping with the last example, are things that are too new or too frequently changing to get the information via traditional means. An ecourse on, say, organic gardening for people who are really into the 100 mile diet would probably sell really well. Why? Because traditional publishing hasn’t had time to test the market, so it will be years before books or courses on this topic are available in mainstream bookstores.
So, if you’ve suffered from a marketing-related case of Someday Syndrome, what have you done or will you do to cure it?
11 Responses to “Finding people who want in on your stuff”
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You know what? I really don’t know if I have a problem or not. Lots of people have taken my marketing on board themselves - linking to me and retweeting all my posts. I haven’t been forward about it.
The people who’ve come to me have come because of the way I’ve worked so far, and I don’t want to transform into something else, thus pushing them away. It’s a difficult one because I might get more business being more pushy, or I might just piss everybody off!
I’ve decided that the “be yourself” approach is the best. If I talk and write about myself and writing, people come because they want what I’ve got.
Joely Black (@TheCharmQuark on Twitter)´s last blog post..On the matters of ‘I shouldn’t’, self-trust and other revelations experienced during a shower
Alex,
Naomi forgot, “and dating.” There’s always someone desperate to find love, and those folks will pay quite a bit of time, money, and loyal attention to a company who can convince them they have the answer. I keep meaning o ditch being an Experience Designer for being a Love Designer, but y’know, Someday…
In answer to your question, plow ahead and read everything I can get my hands on to keep fresh ideas flowing are my cures. Just weighing my cutesy sensitivities against eating usually does wonders in the “plow ahead” category. All of a sudden I don’t feel so worried about marketing when that’s how I’m looking at it!
Regards,
Kelly
Kelly´s last blog post..Inspiration Points: Reality Is Not on a TV Show
I love the cat photo and Naomi is one of my favorite people (she has accepted the spot on my list and everything!) so reading this post with great interest was a no brainer.
Great insight, Naomi gave there.
Joely’s comment refers to something very powerful, modeling. Just do what you do and talk about it, and if you’re successful people will want to do the same stuff. Havi Brooks does the same thing on The Fluent Self; she models dealing with her “stuckedness” and people want to emulate her success. It’s very powerful, really.
Terry Heath´s last blog post..The Baskin-Robbins Method of Blogging
I love Naomi, too. But I’m in a business more like Mr. Beekeeper, in that it is well known that my target market are not really big into the internet. They can get their heads around buying books on Amazon.
So I have been thinking of ways to get them to come to my website from other avenues. And I’m even seriously considering doing print versions of e-books. Because I know that when people know what I can do for them, they are golden. It is just getting them to do that first thing.
So referrals from past clients. Actually doing a booth at a conference (and speaking) so people meet me in a context they are comfortable in. And using free add-ons to live speaking things as a way to make people come to the website — to get the e-book or discount or whatever.
We’ll see how it goes.
@JoVE–Lulu.com makes converting ebooks into print books almost easier than it ought to be, plus their staff is really, really friendly and helpful. (Amazon and many others offer pod services, too.) Print versions of your ebooks for sale at your booth might be a great way to get people to come to your site to buy more–there’s less profit in it, but there’s something to be said for being able to hold that perfect-bound book with your name on the cover, too ;-).
Thanks for this great article Alex & Naomi!
Jessica @ThriveYourTribe´s last blog post..How do you follow that fabulous article?
Hi Alex and Naomi. As Naomi already said some things are much easier to sell - sex, diet, money.
You can still make money selling other things but you do have to try a lot harder. Also you’ve got to look a little further to find people who might want your stuff.
I’ve sold lowly things like carpet cleaning in the past and that can even be profitable, so long as you don’t try to clean the carpets yourself.
You just need to find people that might want that sort of thing and show them why they need it. Then you’ve got to offer a whole bunch of other things they might need afterwards.
So instead of having a whole heap of customers paying you a couple of hundred a year, you have a decent percentage who are paying you a couple of thousand.
I used to think that was being greedy but it’s not. If they need more things - why not give them the opportunity to buy from you, who they know and trust? It’s a whole heap better for them than buying from a stranger.
Cath Lawson´s last blog post..Some Business Gimmicks Backfire
@Joely
You reminded me of a Canadian singer Meryn Cadell who sang about being the best cutest queitest version of yourself. Definitely wear lipgloss. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHQFDf96yrw
@Kelly
)
You mean paying lots of money on the Internet to find our one true love doesn’t 100% of the time work? (Good thing I used a free service to meet Raul
@Terry
The cat photo totally rocks, doesn’t it? My own cats use the same faces when they find themselves (all too often) on the wrong side of the door.
@JoVE
Great ideas to reach out to all of those people who don’t actually use the Internet that much. They’ve kind of become the silent market these days, eh?
@Jessica
Thanks for the suggestions! I’ve never done the self-publishing thing, but we did get a bunch of digital photos printed in a bound book and it made me feel so famous!
@Cath
Exactly - I have no problem paying money for stuff and if I can repeat business with companies I like, then I’m happy to give them more of my money.
Wow, this was so close to home. I am in the personal development niche and the ironic thing is that people really need what I am offering but they don’t realize it. That means that I need to be a good sales person which I have a problem with. I want to help them not sell them. The paradox is that I need to sell them on the idea before I can help them.
@Jonathan
Everyone always says to me “Alex, you don’t sell; people buy.” And thinking of it that way works really well. We’re putting out services that will help people. We do our best to find the right connections and then hope that we’ve connected enough with others that they choose to buy from us.
Hey Alex,
I’m kind of struggling with this very topic right now.
I think that part of it has to do with having chosen a niche on inspiring writers for the blog on my web site. Not sure how that tag can translate into customers using my writing services.
Thanks for the food for thought.
Cheers
George
Tumblemoose´s last blog post..Spread your writing wings, it’s bittersweet
@George
Your site might become a good portal for affiliate programs that help new writers or perhaps do something like Joanna Young does and become a writing coach.
Good luck with whatever direction you end up taking.