Archive | Blog

According to Smithsonian Magazine, a Zambian chimpanzee named Julie stuck a piece of grass in her ear and left it there. And she did this over and over again. Why? Scientists say the “grass in the ear behavior appears to serve no discernible function.”

While chimpanzees have “culture” and traditions, including unique behaviors and tools, these things usually have a concrete function. The grass in the ear doesn’t. Best guess by scientists – it’s some kind of a fashion statement.

But here’s where it gets interesting…

After Julie began placing a piece of grass in her ear, her fellow chimpanzees copied her. Mind you, no other chimp group did this – only Julie and her followers.

So what’s this got to do with online marketing?

Everything.

You can tell your readers to buy a product. You can tell them it’s the greatest product ever. You can tell them it will rock their world and change their life.

And some will buy.

But if you purchase the product yourself – if you USE the product yourself – and if you tell your readers about your experience – you will be far more likely to make sales.

Imagine if Julie had tried to force grass into her fellow chimps’ ears. Do you think they would have bought the concept? Not likely.

Obviously your readers and customers aren’t chimps. Humans are better for marketing purposes than chimps because humans are even MORE likely to copy what you do.

If your readers like you, trust you and even suspect you know what you’re doing, they’re going to want to be like you.

And if that means buying and using certain products, they’ll do it. Just be a leader and respect your readers enough to make their own decisions, and many of them will be glad to do what you do. Plus it gives you a ton more credibility. After all, you’re telling them about the products and services you use, not trying to force products down their throat…

You drive by a restaurant and it doesn’t look like it’s been painted in a decade. The flowerbeds are full of weeds, the sign is dirty, the parking lot is full of trash… do you stop in and have lunch? Probably not, but why not?

What does outside paint, weeds and trash in the parking lot have to do with what kind of meal you’re going to be served? Frankly, none. It could be that the world’s greatest cook is inside, waiting to make you the meal of a lifetime.

But you’ll never know because you didn’t patronize the place.

What’s this got to do with your business?

Everything.

I see folks working for months to get their products just right. And then they only spend one afternoon writing the sales letter or making the sales video.

They think if they get the product perfect, it won’t matter if their sales letter looks like it was written by a third grader. But it does matter, because if no one buys, no one will ever know what a great product you have.

This might blow a few minds and cause some controversy, but… when it comes to online sales, your sales copy, graphics and sales funnel are all more important than your product.

No, I’m not saying it isn’t important to have a great product that delivers tremendous value.

But I am saying if you don’t spend just as much time on the funnel that takes people from strangers to buyers, you won’t succeed, no matter how terrific your product might be.

You get the point.

Now to suggest something even more radical – write your sales copy first.

Then create the product.

This isn’t a new idea, yet to this day it’s seldom used.

Look, it’s a lot easier to write great copy when there are no limitations to what can be in the product, and then fit the product to the sales copy.

If it turns out any of the claims in the sales letter went too far, you can always pull them out. But you will still increase your odds of creating a hot selling product when you use this method.

Remember – spend as much time building your sales funnel as you do creating your product. This will get the people in the parking lot, through the door and sitting at your table, ready to enjoy the fantastic product you’re about to serve them.

When I got started in online marketing, I was lucky. Someone told me exactly what to do, and I didn’t know any better than to follow his instructions to the letter. I looked at it this way – the guy was a self-made millionaire. I was broke. So what was I going to do – take what he told me and ‘fix’ it?

Somehow make it better? Improve upon it? There’s an old expression: If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it. I took his instructions as gospel and did what he said. Soon I was making so much money, I was frankly astounded.

The biggest mistake I see new marketers making is they try to innovate. They have a better idea. A better system. A better method. And they almost always fail.

Look, there is a place for innovation once you know what you’re doing…

… But not when you’re first getting started.

Imagine you’re teaching someone to drive, and they get a great idea: ‘Why not just beep the horn when they’re about to hit someone? This way that person can get out of the way, and they never need to step on the brakes.’

See how crazy that is?

But it’s exactly how new marketers tend to think: “Forget the old ways, I’ve thought of a better way no one has ever thought of before.”

Uh-huh.

Instead, if you want to meet success quickly in this business, take a system that is already working and copy it.
Yes, that’s right – I’m advocating that you flat out copy what’s already working.

Are you in the diet niche? Then do this: Purchase the top 5 or 10 diet information products. Pay close attention to every step of the funnel. Take screen shots and notes. Pour through the products and see what’s good about them and what’s missing.

Then create your own product based on what you’ve learned, and set up a sales funnel based on the funnels you went through. Do this and I almost guarantee you’ll have a good selling product.

Online marketing isn’t hard if you’ll simply do what’s already working. But being human, we tend to think we can do better. Or we think we should do better and that it’s not right to copy systems that others are using.

But all industries are built upon the knowledge of those who went before – even those that innovate like crazy.

I’ll give you an example: It’s July 2003 and you’ve just co-founded Tesla Motors with the intention of building cars.

Are you going to start from scratch, with zero knowledge of cars and engines and how they run?…

… or are you going to take all of the knowledge accumulated over the last century and a half of car making, and then BUILD UPON this knowledge to create your own cars?

See?

Even companies like Tesla don’t reinvent the wheel – they make it better AFTER they’ve learned everything they can about what’s working now.

When you’re just starting out, find a system you like that you know is working, and then copy it. Once you’ve got it working, then and only then do you start innovating.