Carbon Copy Marketing “No No’s”

There is actually a course called Carbon Copy Marketing, but this blog post makes no reference to that course since I know very little about it anyway.

What I’m really asking is “are you a carbon copy marketer and to what extent is copying someone elses marketing blueprint benefitting or hurting your online business?”

I’m all for copying to a certain extent but as marketing estrodinaire, Jim Connolly and I discussed with the some weeks ago, following someone elses marketing blueprint can actually be detrimental to your business.

What was interesting from my conversation with Jim was that he has been in marketing for many years and then when he came online, what he did, was applied his knowledge of offline marketing, online.  This is an observation I had made many years ago from the “big guns” in Internet Marketing … most of them worked in marketing prior to making a living online.

Now, I’m not suggesting you give up your online marketing strategies to go learn all about offline marketing since I think perhaps the underlying success factor amongst those who applied their offline strategies online, had something that I believe many online marketing beginners miss ….

They have a real understanding of marketing

They know “how” marketing works … who their target market is, the mindset of their target market and what will make them buy and, they apply these basic principles to their online business.

One of the few things I remember from working toward my MBA, was just how “bad” it was to compete on price only and yet online, whilst subtle, many marketers compete on price!  Have you noticed that all the home study courses cost more or less the same.  Membership sites are popping up all over the place using the same price structure?

The value added bonuses are from the same circle of affiliate marketers and to get the bonus, you have to opt into their list?

If you want to be different, if you want to stand out from the crowd, it’s time to add some value to the products and services you provide.

I stopped competing on price a long time ago but the value I give goes way beyond building a blog.  As I explain to prospects, in the early days when I built blogs, this is as far as most of my clients went with their blogs … the first and last post, was the one I helped them write.

When I began adding value by focusing on building an online business using a blog, over 95% of my clients worked their blogs and made it work for them.

The difference … I stopped competing on price and focused on giving value. And for me, this meant increasing my prices, not lowering them.

The likes of Tesco supermarket make value mean “cheap” but we are not cheap!

We are providing a solution to people wants.  And do notice I said “want” and not “need,” since want is actually a far more powerful motivator than need.  This is why the likes of Tesco do well with their “value” range … they appeal to those people who think they need to cut on spending when in fact, most of them want to reserve money for their wants … going to the cinema, eating out, buying their child a new computer game.

So, how do you add value?

You have to be different?

How do you “be” different?

You have to be creative and, you can start this creative process by asking “how do I want people to feel when they consume my product or use my services?”  “What value can I add that my competitors are not providing?”  You can create your niche within a niche just by being different and therefore, even in a so say oversaturated market, you can compete successfully and win.

Until next time,

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Communicating in Copy

One of my favourite copywriters is actually Alex Mandossian.  Alex doesn’t promote himself as a copywriter any more, but I think Alex has taught me some basics that few copywiters mention.

The biggest plus I learnt was how to write non hype copy.  If you were fortunate enough to have purchased Alex’s Copywriting Classics which, I believe is no longer available, you’ll have a idea about what I mean.  I even printed the copy Alex used to sell The Classics because the copy was so engaging.

But, my intention isn’t to go into copywriging in any depth here but to highlight some of the really important tips I learnt from Alex in terms of communicating on a daily basis whether through my blogs, email, sales copy or creating products.

• Stick to one point per email - oh, I’ve broken this one but each time I do, I pay for it
• when a full stop will do, there is no need to use exclamation marks
• In business conversations, more than one exclamation mark really is the equivelent of shouting at your reader
• Using more than one question mark is the equivelent of innappropriately challenging your reader and in my personal experience is the best way to lose good business colleagues
• Avoid captialising too many words to make your point.  This can have the same effect as over using the question or exclammation marks - underline gives a far better effect
• Avoid using blocks of capitalised and bold text since this really makes it difficult for your reader
• Use sub headings even in your emails to enable your reader to scan the text - guilty of forgetting this one too

It may not seem much, but just try improving on these seven points and watch your communication and business relationships improve.

Until next time,

Get Some Basic SEO Tips Direct From Google

This is probably going to be one of the shortest posts I ever write about search engine optimization (SE0).

Want to know the basics of SEO but confused about what is right, what isn’t and is Fred Blogs just trying to sell me something.

Well, there is no more need to guess or be afraid for that matter since Google have just published a basic guide on SEO for beginners.  Even if you’re not a beginner I suggest you go take a look especially if your advice came from a third party.  You never know when they might be wrong or, using clapped out old strategies - even if they did come from Google in the first place … many moons ago!

This is a snippet from the guide about why you should read it:

“Although this guide won’t tell you any secrets that’ll automatically rank your site first for queries in Google (sorry!), following the best practices outlined below will make it easier for search engines to both crawl and index your content.”

I’ve read the guide and even though I am a bit of a techie, there is just practical down to earth information that every marketer could utilise even if they don’t want to go down the full gourmet SEO route.  It’s an extra hours worth of work that could bring you lots more business … for free!

Go to http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com to get a free copy of the guide.

Best,

Your Business Channel

BlogRush is Dead!

Having received an email from John Reese this morning about his decision to close down BlogRush, I decided to blog about it whilst the American’s were still asleep.

But darn it, I must have dozed and along came the email from Ryan Deiss, saying what I couldn’t have said better.

I’ve no doubt all the “NaySayers” are about to emerge from the woodwork, but I really do take my hat off to John Reese, for making such a huge decision.

I actually thought the email I received was spam when I first read it this morning and had to read it again.  And I’m sure John must have had many sleepless nights thinking “should I, should I not?”

But, I agree with Ryan Deiss on this one …

“Only a Grade-A, Status Quo Coward would chastise John or relish in the “failure” of BlogRush”
Whilst on a much smaller scale, I had to make a decision earlier this year to close down one of my membership sites.

It was fraught with issues right from day one - which incidentally started with choosing the wrong software - and then there was just one technical issue after another and eventually, the time investment just wasn’t giving me the desire I’d imagined.

In addition to all of this, WordPress 2.6 was released which rendered some of my videos outdated.

I know many would still have happily charged for outdated videos, but my conscience wouldn’t let me and eventually, I just allowed free access to my current members and I’m now rebuilding my membership site … so keep a look out.

Incidentally, if you are thinking about building a membership site, then you need to take a serious look at Stu McLaren’s WordPress Membership script.It’s especially made for WordPress and in my view, has many more features than membership sites that will cost you hundreds of dollars in membership fees each year.

I know you must all be fed up of the “Recession” emails going around, I know I am, but seriously, now is not the time to be looking for excuses to fail or pointing the finger at other people’s failures.  From the 1930’s recession emerged some millionaires who were opportunity seekers … will you be one of the millionaires that emerge from this recession?

I personally hope that John Reese provides some insights into the lessons he learnt from BlogRush since I would love to read and learn from his journey from its inception to the close of BlogRush.

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