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The Motivated Marketing Letter |
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March
5, 2003 We're All Marketing Naked |
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In this extremely pretty version of the
Motivated Marketing Letter, you'll learn how to become a marketing "Peeping
Tom," and how you can market your business as effectively as the best
marketers in the world. As I sat down to write this letter, I got an email from Internet Marketer Yanik Silver, touting his new product, "Web Copy Secrets." It promises to teach you how to write great sales letters for your web sites. The product sells for $149 or $199, depending on whether you buy the digital or cassette versions. The web site itself is - can you guess? - a great sales letter on the web.
I'm not saying the product isn't worth it. I haven't bought it, so I can't judge. The point I'm making is that there's way more than $200 in valuable information in the sales letter itself. And you already get that for free!
Yanik wants to sell me his secrets, but he has to reveal them in order to make the sale. He's marketing naked!
My PhD in Junk Mail
When I became a serious student of marketing, a wonderful thing happened. I no longer resented the junk mail, telemarketers, stupid TV commercials, and offensive billboards that clutter our lives. Instead of swearing at or avoiding the marketing drivel that passes for Western Civilization, I started studying it.
I began to notice when certain marketing efforts were having their desired effect on me. I began paying attention to certain repeated techniques, strategies, elements, and tactics.
As I studied the marketing masters of our time (Jay Abraham, Dan Kennedy, Gary Halbert, and others) and became their prospect and customer, I started noticing something very interesting.
Dan Kennedy would send me a long sales letter for a conference he was giving on copywriting. Then he would send me another letter, full of testimonials from people who had attended his previous seminars. Then he would send me a third letter, expressing his stupefaction that I hadn't yet signed up. I'd get a few emails, with additional reasons to attend. And so on. And so on.
So after a while I break down, and buy his "Copywriting Seminar in a Box." It's like the next best thing to being there - 10 audiocassettes, two huge manuals, a bunch of other goodies. Excellent product. I'd recommend it for anyone who doesn't get offended easily, and who really wants a crash course in writing sales materials that connect with their customers and prospects. Totally top-notch information, well presented. (To make it easy for you, I've made the course the featured "Business Resource of the Week" to the right of this column. If you buy, I get some bucks. Hey, I deserve them - I'm doing lead generation for him!)
What I discover, of course, is that 95% of the "secrets" in the "Copywriting Seminar in a Box" are demonstrated in the copious sales material that got me to buy the thing in the first place. All he's doing in the course is naming the techniques, giving additional examples, and discussing how and where to use them. But if you pay close attention to his marketing materials, you can figure all this out for yourself. Dan Kennedy is marketing naked.
Who else is marketing naked?
Everyone!
There are no marketing "trade secrets" by definition. If it's a good idea, somebody is using it to attract lots of business. In fact, the better the idea, the more likely you are to have stumbled across it hundreds or thousands of times.
Unlike the formula for Coca-Cola, or an algorithm for routing web traffic, or a new drug, intellectual marketing capital can't be protected if it's going to have any value. If you play your hand, you've got to show it to the world. The question is, who's paying attention?
The best marketers in the world are marketing naked.
I already talked about the marketing gurus who use every one of their own tricks on a regular basis. You don't even have to buy anything from them! Just pretend to be interested, and get all their stuff. (Of course, there is a lot of value in not having to spend the time figuring out for yourself what exactly they're doing and how to apply it to other situations. I'm just making a point here.)
Your competitors are marketing naked.
Are your competitors spending money on brochures, web sites, catalogs, promotions, letters, advertisements, commercials? How would you like to get that entire library of marketing ideas for free? Get on their mailing list. Buy from them, if applicable, and experience their products and the quality of their service.
You'll learn a ton about what to do, and most probably, what not to do. Pay special attention to your market leaders. Chances are, it's their marketing and not their delivery that makes them the most popular choice. And realize that you can't begin with a huge budget. At one point, the biggest companies in the world were tiny. What they did when they were your size is probably what you should be doing now. (I know times change, and tactics change with them, but people are people, and the principles remain the same.)
I'm marketing naked.
What would I tell you if you came to me for advice? Give away free information that demonstrates your value, stay in regular contact with your prospects and customers, don't be afraid to be yourself, and ask for referrals and testimonials whenever someone thanks or compliments you.
Isn't that what I do in this Letter, on my web site, in my consultations and talks? If I walk my talk, I do. Can I do it better, more thoroughly, more consistently? Sure I can. That's why I keep buying from other naked marketers. Even one good idea can be worth a fortune to someone prepared to implement it.
Become a Marketing Peeping Tom!
With this wealth of marketing all around us, we can't make the excuse that we don't know what to do. There's good and there's bad, to be sure, but don't we know intuitively when someone is marketing to win our trust over the long haul or just trying to suck a few fast bucks out of us and leave town on the night train? Aren't there enough role models for you to find something to emulate?
Take advantage of the ubiquitous naked marketing, and enjoy the view!
Clothes make the man. Naked people have
little or no influence on society. And in the naked light I saw/ 10,000 people,
maybe more. And we're buck naked now/ like when we were
born/When will we find out?/And why does it take so long? I wake up in the morning/Put on my face/The
one that's gonna get me/Through another day.
Marketing Motivators on Marketing Naked
1. Once you realize that everyone's marketing naked, you become more aware of the marketing that you experience all around you. Start asking yourself questions about the marketing aimed at you: What feels good to you? What feels disrespectful and manipulative? Who do you want to be like? What compels your attention and wins your trust?
2. Spend one hour a month, at first, studying the marketing done by your competitors. Visit their places of business, call them, read their marketing materials. Who are they targeting with their message? With their choice of media? Does it make sense for you to go after the same market, or a different one? Is their marketing congruent with their delivery (in other words, do they walk their marketing talk)? What can you learn from your competitors? What can you adapt and apply?
3. Watch an infomercial as if you were a professor of persuasion. Take notes, and describe the various strategies to compel a purchase. Infomercials are great marketing teachers because they're so expensive. An infomercial that doesn't work doesn't last. The most effective direct marketers in the world write and produce infomercials. 4. Get on the mailing list of a great marketer. You can do it guilt-free and commitment free if you're willing to do it online. Internet marketers will put you on "sequential autoresponders" once you sign up - you'll automatically keep getting emails selling you more stuff until you unsubscribe or die. The following web sites are excellent, in my opinion: www.ebookfire.com www.marketingwithpostcards.com I'm an affiliate for all these programs. But you don't even have to buy to take advantage of their marketing wisdom. Just sign up for anything where you have to give them your email, and watch the lessons begin. Featured Resource for Marketing Peeping Toms Yes, you guessed! Today's featured resource is my very own " Leads into Gold." I've sold out the Beta copies at the bargain price of $97, and as I promised, the price has risen. It will go up again, but I wanted to give my list another chance to take advantage of my early marketing tests.Leads into Gold teaches a simple, extremely powerful method of lead generation that can eliminate the need for cold calling, and instead puts you in front of qualified prospects who have sought you out. It embodies the "Marketing Naked" principle by having a "Swipe File," an entire section of examples of lead generation advertising and lead generation magnets (if you don't know what I'm talking about, you have to get Leads into Gold) as done by some of the most successful marketers around. And of course, having someone teach you what they're doing is extremely valuable, even if it's all out there for you to see anyway. You could look at 100 free reports without seeing the template that would allow you to create your own, but one lesson with a master marketer will "reveal" the secrets that have been staring you in the face all along. Click here to download 2 Free Chapters of Leads into Gold. The Motivated Marketing Letter Details The Motivated Marketing Letter is published whenever I feel like it, and is a copyrighted feature of howieconnect. For down-to-earth, ethical, and easy-to-follow marketing guidance, visit www.howieconnect.com. I work with businesses and solo practitioners who are great at what they do, and not so great at telling the world about it. What would you like to read about in future issues of the Motivated Marketing Letter? Email me topics and questions, and save me the trouble of guessing. To unsubscribe with no hard feelings, click on the link at the bottom of this email. If you would like to subscribe to the Motivated Marketing Letter, fill out your name and email and click "submit": I build my business through referral - I'd be grateful if you would forward this email to any associates who would be glad to receive it. Thanks. The statistics on sanity are that one out of
every four Americans are suffering from some form of mental illness. Think
of your three best friends. If they're okay, then it's you. There's very little advice in men's
magazines, because men think, I know what I'm doing. Just show me somebody
naked. To act with my clothes on is a performance;
to act with my clothes off is a documentary. Until next time, all the best, |
Now Selling Briskly! The Leads into Gold™
System. A marketing course, toolkit,
swipe file and audio crash course & "personal trainer" to help you attract
more business than you can handle with no cold calling. Learn how to
generate qualified leads who want what you sell.
Click here to download 2 Free Chapters! I'll "bribe" you to tell a friend about howieconnect |
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