Marketing methods might change, but people don?t.
Not really.
?I know a guy who consistently makes seven figures in his business without studying the newest, latest and greatest online marketing techniques.
Instead, he studies traditional ?offline? direct marketing methods that have worked for decades.
Customers love him, his products sell like crazy.
For example, he knows people need to see an advertisement in a newspaper or magazine as many as seven times before they buy.
To do this, he uses retargeting ? those ads that follow you from website to website ? to make sure he gets seen enough times to make the sale.
He knows from old school marketing that people do business with those they know, like and trust.
Then, when they want to make another purchase, they go back to the person they know, like and trust.
He strives to be that person, the one they know, like, and especially trust.
He works to do everything he can to treat his customers like family and earn their trust by keeping his promise and delivering value.
Yes, he uses technology to automate everything, but that doesn?t change the fact that he loves his customers and lets that show in every communication.
Divide And Conquer Succeed
While he loves and values every customer, he also knows that some are more valuable than others. He keeps a list of VIP clients and treats them accordingly. For example, he might create a personal video for a single client, or send them a gift or snail mail letter.
In fact, he does one of these every single day for his VIP?s, which might account for how well he sells BIG ticket items in the $2000 to $5000 range.
He looks out for customers much like a best friend might. If he sees something he believes is a scam, he warns them. If he sees or thinks of something that will help his customers, he tells them the same day.
He engages with his customers by visiting his client?s websites and leaving comments. All his emails get answered and he might even answer them himself, especially if it?s a VIP client.
Online really is the same as offline, we are dealing with PEOPLE. We sometime tend to forget that.
People in a store look like people and it’s easy to think of them as people. Online, it’s not as in-your-face and it’s easier to forget that there are real people behind those subscriber numbers. Real people with real issues looking for real solutions.
We forget that online marketing is actually a PEOPLE business.
What’s Past Is prologue
Marketing online has a modern feel but it’s roots go back to mail-order direct marketing that has been done since before any of us were born. Even today, you can learn a lot studying how P.T. Barnum promoted his events from the 1800’s. By the way, I’ve never found any support that he ever said that there is a sucker born every minute. He might have been trying to separate his customers from their money, but he always tried to deliver value.
I’ve been interested in mail-order since I was a kid and I’ve always tried to learn from what I call “The Three Joes”, Joe Cossman (toy soldiers and the ‘spud’ gun), Joe Karbo, and Joe Sugarman (Blu-Blocker sunglasses). These guys were the real deal and truly developed direct marketing, and what they were doing directly laid the groundwork for today’s online marketing.
Grab an old marketing book (remember books?), start reading, and yourself how it applies to the internet.
You might be surprised at your results.
