Doesn´t marketing just drive you crazy sometimes?
It seems that every single week a new marketing program
goes on sale promising us that, once bought and utilised,
we´ll be able to attract more clients and earn more
money than we ever dreamed possible and that this time,
this one time, we´ll hit the jackpot and succeed where
we´ve failed so many times before.
They all tell us that they have THE ANSWER and yet each and
every marketing program has a different answer than the
last.
Some tell us that 'the money´s in the list´ and
urge us to put all of our time, money and effort into
building the greatest list possible if we´re serious
about becoming truly successful.
Others tell us that marketing is all about sales and
closing techniques and that we need to become expert
'closers´ in order to become successful, whilst others
still tell us that our ability to reap a bumper crop relies
upon our copywriting skills, our free reports and
downloads, our 'viral infections´, permission
marketing or search engine optimisation.
Now, whilst each of these approaches can and do provide
successful marketing approaches (in the short term at
least), they´re not really a viable way to create long
term business success.
In fact, each of these techniques in and of themselves is
pretty useless when used indiscriminately as most people
tend to do.
I´m sure you´re aware of people who´ve spent
ages (along with a small fortune) on Search Engine
Optimisation either to find that their web traffic
didn´t increase or, even if it did, it didn´t
convert into new business income?
Likewise, you probably know people who´ve created free
download after free download and grown fairly decent sized
lists only to find that whenever they tried to sell to them
that half of them unsubscribed and the other half sent
'hate mail´ to the effect of "I didn´t sign up to
be sold to. Do it again and I´ll unsubscribe" or
simply not bothering to take action at all, right?
The net result is the same. No new sales, no increased
revenue and no return on investment for all the time, money
and effort it took to put these promotions together.
Yep, I´ve been there too and, although it´s
rather embarrassing to admit, I still go there on rare
occasions when a product or service I´m promoting
flops.
It´s frustrating isn´t it?
After all, you bought the ebooks, listened to the audios
and took all of the actions that the experts told you to
take and yet... well... nothing!
No great marketing success, no return on investment and
certainly not that ever elusive passive income we´re
always promised on the marketing guru´s sales pages.
What gives?
Are we being sold a crock or is marketing success truly
attainable for all of us or just the lucky few?
These are questions I used to ask myself a lot in the early
days when most of my marketing attempts seemed to fail or,
at least, not create the success I´d been hoping for.
In my search for an answer I read literally thousands of
articles and books from some of the world´s most
successful business and marketing experts and found that
whilst they each had their own unique slant on what it took
to create marketing success and whilst they each operated
different proprietary systems, they all had at their core
identical principles that drove them.
In effect, they all said that in order to attract people
into doing business with you or your company they have to
KNOW, LIKE AND TRUST you.
That´s all!
Sounds pretty simple right?
Yet when I analysed all of the marketing campaigns that
I´d done that had been a flop, I noticed that despite
having great copy, tons of bonuses and, seemingly, all of
the right techniques in place, I had somehow violated the
KNOW-Like-Trust 'rule´ and, in doing so, condemned my
product launch to failure.
Conversely, every single success I´ve had has had
KNOW-Like-Trust at its core.
Now, for all that KNOW-Like-Trust sounds pretty obvious,
it´s clearly not. If it were then we´d all be
using it and our marketing would be super-successful and,
clearly, that´s not the case.
So, let´s look at KNOW-Like-Trust and try to learn how
to use marketing´s 'secret weapon´ in your own
marketing shall we?
We´ll start with KNOW.
It stands to reason that in order to do business with you
and, ultimately, buy your products and services, that your
prospects have to KNOW that you exist. Yet, despite this
glaringly obvious fact, few fitness professionals dedicate
any time at all to getting known, opting instead for the
'If I build it they will come´ method of marketing
favoured by the unsuccessful masses.
So they build their websites, they write their free reports
and they create their opt-in newsletters and... well...
no-one comes or, if they do, in such small numbers that it
barely matters.
This approach is 180 degrees out of phase with the methods
of the super-successful marketers who put their efforts
into first finding out who will come and then build their
products and services to match the demand that´s
already there.
A big difference right?
But how do they do find out?
Simple. They Get KNOWN!
They create articles in their area of expertise and post
them to e-zine directories and blogs as well as on their
own websites.
They find subject-specific forums and newsgroups and become
active members who provide great information to red-hot
prospects WITHOUT TRYING TO SELL ANYTHING.
They send out regular press releases to both the paper and
e-press, positioning themselves as someone with something
worth writing about.
They do public talks and seminars for members of the public
interested in their field and load them with so much great
information that people remember, use and share it with
others to great effect.
They offer to write or interview for other professionals in
the same field (or interview other pro´s themselves)
in order to spread their name as far and wide as possible.
The long and the short of it is that the 'Get KNOWN´
phase is NOT about selling in any way, shape or form.
Rather, as the title suggests, it´s about putting
yourself on the map and, crucially, in front of an audience
who will tell YOU what they want to buy rather than the
other way around.
Now, before you dismiss the KNOW phase because of its
simplicity, ask yourself how much of this you´re
currently doing.
You may be surprised with just how little you´re
actually doing to Get KNOWN!
Ok, we´ll assume that you´re now well on the road
to getting KNOWN, but don´t think that you´re
home and dry yet.
End of part 1
----------------------------------------------------
Dax Moy is a performance coach with studios in and around
London.
Voted one of the UK's leading fitness experts and a regular
contributor to numerous TV & radio shows and magazines, Dax
now runs the worl'd most successful Personal Training
Academy where he teaches others to achieve similar success.
Visit http://www.personaltrainersuccessacademy.com for more
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