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January
2009
Staying
the Course - Part 1
I'm
going to start my next twelve month cycle with a review
of what of the past twelve months.
I
think it's important to take a look at the past so that
I can learn from my mistakes and hopefully not repeat
them.
I
started out twelve months ago with a specific goal.
It was to formulate a strategy to make at least
$100 per day using the info products in my Millionaire
Maker Dealership Program, starting with a budget of
only $500.
As
it turned out, I fell far short of my goal. However,
making $100 was just a part of the strategy. What I
also wanted to accomplish was to form a relationship
with the people who would sign up to be on my list.
To do this I needed to hold the interest of the people
on my list. So I thought it would be a good learning
xperience for you to learn at my expense.
By
following me on my journey, you would learn the realities
of marketing on a shoe string budget.
Everything
I told you I was doing to market my program was
true. I didn't sugar coat anything, or lie and tell
you that I had indeed reached my goal. This is important
to me because I fell it is extremely important to gain
the trust and confidence of the people on my list.
I
hope you understand that if you want to build a solid
customer base, your customers MUST TRUST you!
A
relationship of trust is the most important building
block in operating a successful business. Keep
this in mind - your customers are the life blood of
your business. If you keep this in mind, it will
carry you a long way towards building a successful business,
no matter what it is. Next time we'll look at some of
the marketing mistakes and set backs of the past twelve
months.
Year
in Review - Part 2
Reflecting
back over the past twelve months, and considering the
mistakes made in my marketing strategy, I've learned
some important lessons.
Lesson
#1 Once a project is started do everything in
your power to see it through to the end. There were
several times during the past twelve months that I wanted
to give up and quit because I was falling short of my
goal of making $100 per day. Now I know that giving
up would have been the biggest mistake that I could
have made.
Lesson
#2 Although I didn't reach my goal, the experience
that I gained was well worth the effort.
Lesson
#3 I learned that even when it became evident
that I wasn't going to reach my goal I still had the
courage to see the project through to the end.
Lesson
#4 The key to success in marketing any product
or service is to test, test, and test some more. You
have to test your advertising media. You have to test
your price. And you have to test the best way to deliver
your product.
Lesson
#5 You have to develop a follow up strategy. This
is a must because, in today's market place a one step
marketing strategy is a thing of the past.
Next
time I'll talk about what I plan to do in the upcoming
twelve months.
Year
End Review
This
time we'll look back over the past twelve months to
consider mistakes I've made so that I can learn from
them. I don't want to make the same mistakes again.
I
think one of the biggest mistakes I made was buying
10.000 visitors to my eBay web site. I didn't take into
consideration where the traffic was coming from, and
if any of these visitors had any interest at all in
eBay.
I
just thought that surely there would be a number of
prospects that would be interested in this great offer.
Well, what I found out was that if 10.000 visitors did
come to my site, none of them were interested in my
eBay Millionaire Treasure Chest publishing business
on CD-ROM.
Now
I know how important it is to target a market as closely
as possible, but I didn't take the time to think about
using a strategy to target my market.
In
the days before the Internet, savvy marketers targeted
their prospects by using the SRDS directory. This is
a huge directory that can be found at just about any
local or University Library.
The
SRDS directory has thousands of mailing lists. These
are companies who want to rent their mailing lists of
customers to other companies who want to market to their
customers. Many companies make thousands of dollars
each year from just renting out their mailing lists.
Through
the SRDS directory you can research any list of customers
that have purchased a product or service related to
your offer. You can find out how much they paid for
the product, how recently they purchased the product,
and how frequently they have purchased related products.
You can also find out more demographic information on
these people. This gives you the opportunity to target
your niche very tightly. If you want to learn more about
the SRDS services you can visit their site at:
www.SRDS.com
There
are many directories at the Library that can help you
research your niche such as, News Letters in Print and
Direct Marketing Market Place. All the companies that
produce these directories have web sites but you have
to purchase a subscription to access the information
you're looking for. But you can access them free at
the Library.
In
the next issue I will discuss my strategy for targeting
prospects who might be interested in information about
selling on eBay to offer the eBay Millionaire Treasure
Chest.
Internet
Marketing Strategies - Part 1
As
you already know, I am a novice when it comes to Internet
marketing. However, this is more from a technical
standpoint. I have very little experience in creating
links, uploading a document to a site and all of the
program language that might need to be used in formulating
a marketing campaign on the Internet.
Now,
because I 've run out of money to market my Millionaire
Maker Dealership, I'm going to have to use some free
marketing strategies if I'm going to continue to work
towards my goal of making $100 per day.
This
puts me at a disadvantage when it comes to the Internet.
In order to make some of these strategies work, I'm
going to need some help.
Here's
what I mean: If I want to form a Joint Venture with
another Internet marketer, I'm going to need to create
an offer that will be appealing enough to other marketers
that will make them want to join me in a joint venture.
This
means I will need to have everything in order and ready
to go. I know there is a lot of competition out
there and I will have to have something very compelling
to bring to the table.
So,
since I don't have much of a marketing budget, what
do I have to offer?
One
thing that I do have is product; I am loaded with products.
I have the licensing rights to almost $20,000 of info
products related to marketing, advertising and business
building these products are top of the line products
from Michael Kimble, Dan Kennedy and Vincent James.
Now,
it doesn't matter how many products I may have or how
good the products may be, if I can't bring my products
to the market place, I don't stand a chance of selling
anything!
So,
my problem is how do I get other marketers with buyers
lists to partner with me? This is what we'll consider
in the next issue.
Internet
Marketing Strategies - Part 2
Here's
another lesson I've learned about Internet marketing
and about marketing in general. As I said before, I
have thousands of dollars worth of excellent marketing
info products. I have three web sites that are set up
to offer and sell these products.
Now,
no matter how good I may think my products are, if no
one visits my web sites I won't make any sales. This
is why it is so important to learn and apply sound marketing
strategies.
So
you see, no matter how good a product or service may
be, if you don't develop a marketing strategy to reach
the potential customers who want what you have to sell,
your product or service is worthless.
I
hope you understand the importance of what I'm saying
here. I've said it before and I want to repeat it here:
It's The Best Marketer Who Wins At This Game! Now, I'm
not an Internet Marketing expert but I understand very
well that if I don't develop a strategy to get targeted
visitors to come to my site, I might just as well take
it down because with out targeted visitors, it's just
a waste of money.
Next
time, I'll bring you up to date on what is going on
with some of my off-line classified ads.
Classified
Ads Update
Before
I talk about the classified ads, let me just bring you
up to date on my credit card debt.
If
you'll remember I invested $10,000 to purchase the licenses
to my current line of info products. I purchased these
licenses in August of 2006. The only means that I had
to pay for these licenses was with a credit card. I
went against my own advice that I had given in many
articles and reports - never use a credit card unless
you can pay off the loan in two or three months.
What
I did was let a salesman talk me into using a $10,000
limit I had on a credit card to invest in these products.
The
reason that I took the chance, and spent money on these
products was that I knew the company that offered these
products. The real reason I purchased the products was
that I Wanted The Products!
I
hope you took note of the valuable marketing lesson
that I just gave you: With the encouragement of
a salesman, and because I Wanted the products bad enough,
I was willing to put myself into $10.000 worth of debt!
I let the salesman talk me into thinking I would
be able to pay off the investment very quickly because
he was going to help me. I took the bait Hook, Line
and Sinker!
The
marketing lesson here is: If some one wants something
badly enough they can usually be talked into getting
it. Of course, things didn't turn out the way I thought
they would, and I found myself deep in debt. I'm still
working my way out, little by little.
At
this point I have worked my debt down to a little over
$4000. and at my current rate I should have that $4000
pained off in about ten months.
Now
this was an expensive lesson for me to learn, but all
is not lost, I do have some excellent products to offer,
and I have gained a wealth of marketing lessons from
some of these products. It may take me a while longer,
but in the long run I will make my full investment back,
and a whole lot more. All I need to do is apply what
I have learned about marketing from these products.
I
didn't give you the update on the classified ads, so
next time let me move on to that subject.
New
Classified Ads Update
As
I finished off the last $100 of my marketing budget,
I received a notice from an opportunity magazine reminding
me that it was time to place an ad for the upcoming
issue.
The
notice also said that because of the current economic
down turn it was a good time to place an ad. People
will be reading the magazine looking for money making
opportunities.
I
passed on placing the ad because I had placed ads in
two other opportunity magazines and was waiting to see
what kind of response I would get from those ads. Also,
I had spent the last of my marketing budget on those
ads.
Now,
the ads that I placed about 60 days ago are currently
running.
The
ad that I placed in Money Making Opportunities is working
very well so far. For the first 12 days I am getting
about four to five calls on my voice mail each day.
This is from a tiny 12 word classified ad. So far on
the other two magazines I have gotten zero calls. These
were the two magazines that I spent the last of my marketing
budget on.
I
got a call from an ad broker offering me a special discount
if I placed my ad for three months. I thought it was
a good deal so I went for it. Now, if these ads don't
work the first month, I can kiss my money goodbye. Why?
Because my experience has taught me if the ad doesn't
work the first month it's all over, they won't work
for the next two issues of those publications either.
So,
here's another tip: Don't get sucked into running an
ad for an extended period of time in any publication
until you test it just one time, no matter what the
ad broker offers you.
I
should have placed my ad in the publication that I knew
would work with the ad I was running. But I passed on
it, thinking that the two for one deal was better. I
made a big mistake.
Next
I'll talk about the offer in my current ad.
Here's
My Current Offer
I
am using the classified ad that has been working well
for me in the opportunity market place. You know, the
one with the head line:
CAN
ANY OF THOSE MONEY MAKING OPPORTUNITIES REALLY WORK
FOR YOU?
But
since my ad was only twelve words I had to make some
slight changes to make it work with twelve words.
I
changed the headline a little to say: FREE REPORT! DO
ANY OF THOSE MONEY MAKING OPPORTUNITIES REALLY WORK?
and then I put in the phone number to make up the twelve
words.
The
number of my voice mail is: 1-412 734-5844. When people
call they hear a recording thanking them for calling
and then telling them what my offer is and then telling
them if they want free details, they should leave their
name and address after the tone.
Now
here's what I do: Remember I told you I was going to
take the first 52 Survival Tips Bulletins and make a
complete info product by putting them on a CD-ROM? Well,
this is what I did, and there are also some bonus reports
on the CD-ROM.
Now,
here's the thing, I can use this CD-ROM as a free give
away, sell it on Clickbank for $10 to $12, or just use
it as a bonus for some other offer. The point is: I
took the time to create a unique info product I can
use to build my list and give people who receive it
some helpful marketing tips with my own personal touch.
If you would like to receive this CD-ROM to use as a
lead generator or free bonus send $10 to: Gregory
H Bey, 7023 Hermitage St, Pittsburgh PA 15208.
Warmly
Greg Bey
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