Do It! Marketing Blog: Marketing for Smart People™

Some of my friends and clients are surprised that as the marketing coach and "marketing guru," I still invest in other people's courses, programs, and seminars.

Well, stop being surprised.

Truth is, all the top experts in any field are continually learning, developing, and studying the brilliance of others.

I've had folks take MY courses who were incredibly successful, 7-figure+ consultants, speakers, and entrepreneurs.

Why? Not because I knew "more" than they did - but I did have some specialized knowledge, strategies, expertise and experience that they lacked. As top-performing (and top-earning) experts, they recognized the gap - and wanted to fill it. Thus, they signed up to work with me, either 1-on-1 or through one of my online group trainings.

Which brings me back to the main story - why I spent $1,000 when I could've (maybe) gotten the same info from a $20 book.

Here's what I mean...

A few weeks ago, I signed up for Amy Porterfield's Facebook Profits Lab. It is an amazing program - and no, I'm not an affiliate and there's no link and I don't want you to sign up for anything. The program has two levels - $397 for the basic course and $997 for the VIP level where you get access to Amy and her team and get some very cool bonus materials.

The kicker?

Amy co-authored a $20 book - Facebook Marketing All-in-One for Dummies - that contains much, if not all, of the same information.

I could've just bought that, right? Well... No actually.

Here are 6 reasons I invested with Amy and spent $980 more than I "had" to...

1. Social media and digital marketing (Facebook especially) changes by the week. Any book is going to be instantly outdated upon publication.
2. I loved the way Amy ran the (huge) marketing campaign to fill her course. She won me over not only with what she was teaching, but what she was DOING to get me to buy.
3. The free content Amy provided during her launch was nothing short of top-notch. Detailed, specific, actionable, and valuable. I could've just consumed the free content and learned a ton. Ironically, that's why I bought. Don't lose the impact of this point. If your free content is a "Happy Meal" in itself, it makes people MORE hungry (not less) for your full 7-course gourmet experience.
4. Part of what Amy offered (and part of what I've always offered in every one of my group training programs) is to not only TEACH you, but to SHOW you what she does in her own business with the exact same strategies you're learning. This "preach only what you practice" approach is sadly rare in our business. Most gurus only scratch the surface and almost never reveal what's REALLY working for them right now, in today's market, with today's technology, tools, and platforms. Amy shows you. I show you. That's worth gold right there.
5. Community is huge. Part of Amy's program (and again, this is something I've done since 2008) is to connect her students with each other. This provides a learning environment that is so much more motivating, actionable, and collaborative. Back in the day, I used Yahoo Groups to provide a private forum and "online hangout" for the participants in my programs. Then in later years, moved to Linkedin, and most recently started using Private Facebook Groups which works best of all. Part of why I invested at the $997 VIP level with Amy was her "VIP Only" Facebook group with personal access to Amy and her team plus all the other VIP level members. The idea is to connect your community so they can ask and answer questions of each other, share success stories, ask for feedback, get advice, insights and recommendations from you and from others, and build a sense of shared momentum. In one of my group programs earlier this year, we had over 100 pieces of completed work posted in our collaborative forum. Seeing other's progress motivated people and it just built up to a point where everyone was crushing it. Yay!! That's the point, right?
6. You need to sell the way you buy. I could not, in good conscience, ask YOU to invest with me if I refuse to invest in myself. This one is multi-layered - but just think about it... Imagine if I asked you to spend money to learn from me BUT I don't spend money to learn from others. What a huge psychological disconnect that would be! Of course I believe in my heart and soul that you should invest with me to learn something valuable, profitable, and immediately actionable like speaker marketing, book marketing, or how to run profitable coaching programs. Why? Because I invest in myself all the time to learn more about new things that are outside of my expertise like podcasting, Facebook advertising, and joint venture marketing. If you don't buy because you believe - you'll never be able to sell because you believe... and that's where your sales success DNA (core beliefs, mindset, skill set) lives!!

Download this FREE Do It! Marketing Manifesto, where you'll discover the four levels of marketing and how to use each.

GET IT HERE

Welcome to the 2014 Do It! Marketing Master Class Series

Here's where you'll get some of the smartest marketing advice from top marketers and entrepreneurs who share their best success secrets via in-depth interrogation-style interviews with yours truly... 

My special guest this week... 

Christina Daves - PR and Media Expert

Christina Daves is a serial entrepreneur who has founded and run four successful companies over the past 20 years. With no resources remaining when she launched her latest venture, CastMedic Designs, Christina taught herself everything she could about generating her own publicity. Since launching in 2012, she has appeared in over 200 media outlets including national and local television and publications generating over six figures in sales. As a result of her PR success, she created PR for Anyone® to help other small business owners learn how to do what she did to have similar success.

Christina is also the author of the bestselling book, PR for Anyone™ - 100+ Affordable Ways to Easily Create Buzz for Your Business.

Download this Master Class (mp3) now. 

Share this with your pals, link to it from your own blog, tell 17 friends, go nuts and have fun! 

Please leave a comment below with your own experiences or questions about business-boosting PR strategies, getting more media coverage, or anything else we talked about (including how to use PR to directly get more leads, sales, and customers!)

Welcome to the 2014 Do It! Marketing Master Class Series

Here's where you'll get some of the smartest marketing advice from top marketers and entrepreneurs who share their best success secrets via in-depth interrogation-style interviews with yours truly... 

My special guest this week... 

Corey Perlman - Social Media Marketing Expert

Corey Perlman knows what it takes for busy entrepreneurs like you to dominate social media the RIGHT way. That means - strategically, smartly, and without wasting hundreds of hours on trivial nonsense. Corey's new book, Social Media Overload, is specifically designed to show you how to generate maximum social media impact in minimum time.

Download this Master Class (mp3) now. 

Share this with your pals, link to it from your own blog, tell 17 friends, go nuts and have fun! 

Please leave a comment below with your own experiences or questions about social media marketing, social media overload or anything else we talked about (including how to dominate social media without letting it dominate YOU!!)

Welcome to the 2014 Do It! Marketing Master Class Series

Here's where you'll get some of the smartest marketing advice from top marketers and entrepreneurs who share their best success secrets via in-depth interrogation-style interviews with yours truly... 

My special guest this week... 

Alyson Lex - Copywriting and Direct Marketing Expert

If you’re ready to make your marketing work for you, consistently, over and over and over again…  then Alyson is your go-to person. She's a master of developing sales funnels that work. From architecture to products to copy that converts, Alyson takes you from “I don’t know” or “This doesn’t work” or even “I’m not having any FUN with this!” to “My Marketing ROCKS!” Listen in as we talk about strategy, marketing, copywriting, and sharpening your message and your methods...

Download this Master Class (mp3) now. 

Share this with your pals, link to it from your own blog, tell 17 friends, go nuts and have fun! 

Please leave a comment below with your own experiences or questions about direct marketing, copywriting or anything else we talked about (including having a really cool name that matches your profession perfectly!!)

Old is the New "NEW" - meaning, when it comes to marketing, everything old is profitable again! 

If you've been doing business (online or not) since the 1990's, today's marketing landscape should be eerily familiar... 

Check out these "retro" tactics - they're BACK and BIGGER and BETTER than ever... 

1. Online advertising - Google AdWords was the Granddaddy of them all... Remember when you could just buy some banner ads and the leads would pour in? (Yah, me neither. It was ALWAYS more complicated than that!!) Modern update: Advertising on Facebook, Linkedin, and Twitter (and yes, Google of course) is creating a whole new online ad boom - just like the good old days!

Why? Because they're proven, they work (if you know what you're doing), and they can make you a LOT of money. 

2. Pop-up ads and pop-up offers - long the scourge of the Internet, pop-ups (and pop-under, pop-over, PopTart and every other sneaky variation) were rampant in the 1990's and early 2000's. Until the pop-up blocker industry came along, made millions of dollars, wiped the evil pop-up off the face of the earth... until today when pop-ups are back, bigger and better than ever.

Why? Because they're proven, they work (if you know what you're doing), and they can make you a LOT of money. 

3. Teleseminars - 10 years ago, you couldn't spit without hitting some business guru offering free teleseminars to showcase his or her products, services, or programs. Or offering paid teleseminars to generate a lot of revenue quickly. Fast forward to today, yes we have webinars, Google Hangouts, and virtual training - but guess what? Old school teleseminars are back, bigger than ever.

Why? Because they're proven, they work (if you know what you're doing), and they can make you a LOT of money. 

p.s. I don't know much about online advertising or pop-ups, but you can grab a boatload of actionable information on teleseminars (both Teleseminars as Marketing - and Teleseminars as Revenue) in this free "Teleseminar Domination" video series. Enjoy!

Click below to grab your FREE videos...

Guest post by Hendrik-Jan Francke

If you are not actively implementing a content marketing strategy – because you don’t have the time, expertise, or don’t see the value – you are actively denying yourself the visibility and opportunity to get in front of prospects who want what you have to give. You are denying yourself more business!

Even if you do implement a plan, there is always room to improve. Learn why you need a content marketing strategy and a few tips to improve what you’re already doing.

Content marketing increases visibility, trust, and value of your brand

61% of consumers say custom content improves the way the they feel about a company and are also more likely to buy from that company.  Why do you need content marketing? Because consumers want it. Content marketing can help you:

• Get found by more people
  The more you post to your blog and promote content across social media, people will start to take notice. You will drive more traffic to your blog and to your site.
• Build brand trust and credibility
  By positioning yourself as a subject matter expert on the web, people will recognize your content is valuable and listen more intently to what you have to say.
• Boost your SEO rank
  Content marketing is not an SEO strategy, but should be part of your SEO strategy. Relevant, insightful content, basic keyword optimization, and strategic social sharing can boost your traffic and improve your site’s overall SEO standing.
• Prime and prepare prospects 
  When prospects that are primed with your content, prospects that already value your expertise, contact you for your services – why wouldn’t you close that deal?

Tips to Make Content Marketing more effective

So know you know the why, but the how takes more time and expertise. Time is fleeting, so take advantage of these tips.

• Limit involvement to what is manageable
  You don’t need to blog daily or spend your day posting to social media to be effective. Limit your involvement to what is manageable. Create a content calendar to map out and schedule your blog posts, set aside a few hours each month to write, then use a tool like HootSuite to batch schedule social media posts promoting that article.
• Know when, where, and how often you should post
  Maximize engagement by sharing and posting content where your audience will find it. If your audience isn’t on Pinterest, you don’t have to be either. But you can increase impressions and clicks by using analytics to track when your audience is most active on each social media platform.
• Recycle your content to make it go further
  Generating 50 new blog ideas can be exhausting. Instead, take one strong piece of content you have and break that down into 10 web-friendly chunks you can use as blog articles. A little spit, polish, and strategic optimization can give your old content new perspective.

Bonus Tip: Know when to delegate!

This is probably the most important tip you need. If you can’t get the work done, delegate the tasks to an expert who can. You have the subject-matter expertise that your prospects want, but a partner that has the web writing, social media marketing, and key word optimization techniques can more effectively reach those prospects.

Start putting your plan into action

Take a quick survey of the content you already have - a book, presentations, white papers - and jot down a few ideas of how you can convert that into a blog and share it. The sooner you start your content marketing strategy, the sooner you will get results.

Ready to delegate the content marketing grunt work to a strategic partner that can amplify your results? You might be ready for your own Content Marketing Concierge.

=====

Hendrik-Jan Francke is the owner, creative director, usability expert, and lead generation specialist of Bright Orange Thread. He and the Bright Orange Thread team deliver digital marketing solutions that engage visitors, encourage action, and result in more – and better qualified – leads.

Dan Janal featured in the 2014 Do It! Marketing Master Class Series

Here's where you'll get some of the smartest marketing advice from top marketers and entrepreneurs who share their best success secrets via in-depth interrogation-style interviews with yours truly... 

Next up is... 

Dan Janal - Publicity Expert

Dan Janal knows how to get business owners and entrepreneurs the media coverage they deserve to promote their services, products, and expertise. As the owner of PRLeads.com and PressReleaseSender.com, Dan is a publicity veteran, award-winning journalist, and the author of one of the very first internet marketing books (from 1994!) Dan is probably the only person who created 8 different businesses that each generate $100,000 a year by using 8 different business models!

Download this Master Class (mp3) now. 

Share this with your pals, link to it from your own blog, tell 17 friends, go nuts and have fun! 

Please leave a comment below with your own experiences or questions about maximizing publicity and the media to generate more awareness, more leads, and more business...

Welcome to the 2014 Do It! Marketing Master Class Series

Here's where you'll get some of the smartest marketing advice from top marketers and entrepreneurs who share their best success secrets via in-depth interrogation-style interviews with yours truly... 

First on the tee is... 

Charlie Poznek - Podcasting Expert

Charlie Poznek is a seasoned entrepreneur and founder of The Boomer Business Owner podcast. If you want to build influential relationships, grow your audience, increase your website traffic, and raise your business profile in front of the prospects who matter most, podcasting can be one of the smartest ways to do it. Charlie shows you how.

Download this Master Class (mp3) now. 

Share this with your pals, link to it from your own blog, tell 17 friends, go nuts and have fun! 

Please leave a comment below with your own experiences or questions about podcasting as a marketing strategy...

Here's a training module (it's #1 out of 3 available FREE here) on why and how YOU can create, promote and profit from private coaching programs built around the expertise you ALREADY have - whether you consider yourself a "coach" or NOT!

To get the rest of this FREE "Private Coaching Success" video series, click here.

Shazam!!

Please post your comments and questions below. Hit the "Like" button above so that you get notified via Facebook when I post more videos.

I hate to embarrass people in public. Even if they deeply and richly deserve it. And I’m not about to start now, even though this story about an otherwise respected professional who wanted to start a private coaching program (for all the wrong reasons and with zero preparation) may send chills down your spine. All names have been removed to protect the goofy.

By the way, if you want to cut to the chase and find out how to do this right from the get-go, check out my new FREE video training series "Private Coaching Success" - grab some popcorn and go here. 

Back to our story... It all began with this exchange (via Facebook message) between me and a successful international keynote speaker with whom I am friendly (and who earns in excess of $20,000 per speech):

• HIM: hey you do ongoing coaching type programs, right? 
  like you get clients that pay you X per month or year for telephone time or something else?
  im asking because i was approached recently by a CEO who wants me to do executive coaching/mentoring for him.  do you have some sort of outline i could follow please? i havent structured a deal like this before

• David Newman
  I do marketing coaching, not “executive coaching” but many of my clients DO - usual structure is 2-3 phone meetings per month with email access to you in between and for CEOs I wouldn't charge less than $5k per month. 7500-10k per month if the meetings are in person. Normally you'd lock them in for a 6- or 12-month commitment.
  That's all you need to know to close the deal. Boom - you owe me a Pepsi.

• HIM: lol thanks. but what do they get for their money ? in terms of time commitments etc and i dont have any formal program structured. or is it pretty informal? they call and you just shoot the shit?

• David Newman
  If the content of the expertise you're trying to sell isn't in line with what the CEO needs or expects, you're toast - you can't just charge for something and "wing it" - don't mean to be harsh, bro - but are you playing to your strengths here??

• HIM: he approached me, not the other way around
  he was in my audience recently and came over to me and said he wants to hire me to be his executive coach
  so i certainly havent promised him anything i cant deliver
  but i dont have a bunch of papers and programs and checklists or any formal program, because this is not something i normally do.

I’ll stop there simply to spare you the pain and embarrassment of more.

What’s wrong with this picture? I could go on and on but I promised myself this would be a short post.

PLUS I want to hear from YOU in the Comments section below about your reactions and advice in avoiding this type of train wreck.

Here’s my 6 cents on what is dangerous and crazy about this exchange:

1. Someone who can deliver a killer keynote speech (regardless of fee level) does NOT automatically qualify as an executive coach. Totally different skill set. It’s like hiring a virtuoso pianist to build a custom stereo - yes, they both make music. But the similarity ends there.
    
2. “Do you have some sort of outline I could follow?” Imagine this question coming from a jet fighter pilot, a brain surgeon, or a trial attorney. There is no outline -- it’s a skill set that is a combination of serious expertise plus deep experience. You don’t “follow an outline.”
    
3. “I don’t have any formal program structured.” Here’s your first clue, Sherlock Holmes - if you don’t have a formal program for what you’re trying to sell, then you have no business selling it. Holy cow, do I really have to spell this out? Shouldn’t this just FEEL wrong? Apparently not...
    
4. “They call and you just shoot the shit?” Umm, no. I just gave my friend some pricing guidance that a high-level executive coaching program is at least $5,000 per month. And he asks me if that money goes toward “shooting the shit”? Seriously? Meanwhile - there are serious, committed, high-value executive coaches that just read this and their foreheads are about to explode. And I don’t blame them.
    
5. “But Dad - HE started it!” OK, that’s not exactly what he said. It was “he approached me, not the other way around” as if THIS makes it OK to charge money for a service that my friend is neither qualified nor prepared to offer. But wait. we’re not quite done - it gets worse...
    
6. “I don’t have a bunch of papers and programs and checklists or any formal program, because this is not something I normally do.” Again, let’s transplant this statement to a different profession - forensic accounting, cancer research, or defusing bombs. You’d probably want each of these professionals to show up with more than “a bunch of papers and checklists” to fulfill their responsibilities, correct? And you might even be more nervous to learn that “this is not something they normally do.” The lesson? THEN DON’T DO IT!!!

Tell you what - if you'd rather do this faster, smarter and better - then check out my FREE video training series "Private Coaching Success" - you can grab it right here.  

You'll be very glad you did. I guarantee it.