Reality Has Nothing to Do With Sales
2.0 Market Attraction Strategies, 2.0 Traffic StrategiesI just lost a customer. Likely for life…
This neither burns nor bothers me, but it is a lesson in attracting the right market with the right product.
My customer (I actually prefer to call them clients if I must have a name for them) was happier with the content of the old Stampede Secret. He liked the ’secrets’ better (which were widely distributed all over the internet just a few short weeks after Dr. Joe Vitale and I released the report, so they weren’t exactly ’secrets’ after all).
But Don (we’ll call him that) liked the ‘idea’ of immediate traffic, liked the ease of creating and promoting RSS feeds better, liked the fun and hype Joe and I wrote into the report, better.
Does it matter that those old techniques are all but neutered now?
It doesn’t to Don, but it certainly does to me!
What About Your Customer?
Could Your Customer Also Be Looking For A Slice of Hype?
I can’t sleep at night knowing that my heat is paid for by clients purchasing old news. That’s why I took the old Stampede Secret off the market as soon as I saw the techniques didn’t have the effect they once had.
Apparently reality has nothing to do with it.
Some customers are happy to just buy a slice of hype. And no amount of jumping up and down, gnashing of teeth, or showing my stats is going to make a lick of a difference to that type of person.
I was warned. Told that I shouldn’t be selling to the quick-fix, opportunist crowd. Asked to consider that my writing would suit more of a thinking crowd.
The crowd that understands the need to create site specific marketing strategies.
The crowd that knows that unless he’s marketing to the same person the gurus are - generic advice from gurus are useless.
This is more true now than any other time in internet history.
As people ’self-organize’, your scrapbooking site link will be worthless on the guru’s generic site of the day…they’re all currently shouting the praises of MyBlogLog (which rocks for bloggers who blog about blogging), but of what use is it to your Cape Cod Deep Sea Fishing website?
Think. Think. Think.
Part of my personal mission is to help people get smart about their business. This is only because I’d been so stupid about my own for many years. And due to that mission I will not sell out by providing a slice of hype. Promising a generic fix. Or passing on ‘what worked yesterday’. Watch the trends, do the research, understand surfer activity, (just a few of the secrets included in the Stampede Secret - not quite pitchy enough or hype-filled to hold my client Don’s interest), or perish.
Today’s targeted traffic requires strategy. Strategy requires effort - learn, devise, and apply.
And as much as I know it could be marketing suicide to place such a caveat on a sales letter, this has just been posted above the order link on the sales letter:
“STOP! Do NOT order the Stampede Secret if you are looking for a quick fix, generic strategy, to blindly follow with mediocre results. You can get that crap anywhere. The Stampede Secret assists you in learning, discovering and then devising, and finally applying a strategy specific to your market, your products or services, and your website.”
Cuts down on my sales perhaps, but helps the potential client ’self-organize’ and doesn’t waste my or their time clicking an order button for a product they’ll never read.
The perpetual beat of: chase, buy, “what’s next?”, will slow here, where reality steps in.
April 5th, 2007 at 12:42 pm
Hi Laura,
This is the real problem with online entrepreneurs, they want it all now. Many of them don’t have business strategies.
It’s also true for me, although I had an offline business (that I sold for good profits), I didn’t really have a sound business strategy.
I learn everything from watching others.
By the way, I just updated my bio (the old one wasn’t a bio…)
April 8th, 2007 at 12:47 pm
Frank,
I just headed over to read your bio. You’ve had such an interesting journey! I bet your children grow up to be interesting and well rounded people too!
A quick congrats for creating such a personal bio - something that is missing behind many thin affiliate ‘promote, promote, promote’ blogs - as this begins to differentiate you from the thousands of others who follow the same plan as you are.
Being controversial and real, shows that you can think for yourself - your readers will love you all the more for it!
You said above that you learn everything from watching others. I know you’re savvy and experienced, but what some people ’show’ or ’say’ about online business is often not what they’re really doing. I’ve worked, chatted with, and discussed this with enough others in our business to be very wary of simply watching and following.
Every business owner (online or offline) should really be marching to their own tune, and creating their own ‘turf’ in the marketplace - setting yourself apart from the rest of the noise is another of the keys to success.
At any rate, this day is done for me! We’ll catch up soon, let me know if you have any questions about the content of the Stampede Secret - I know for experienced tech-capable netpreneurs the first 30 pages seems like old news but when you put your thinking cap on for one of your niche markets for the remainder of the reading you’ll easily devise your own personal site strategy when you get to the paperwork.
Have a great night/day.
Laura Childs