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 Any book is going to be instantly outdated upon publication.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... 

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...

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...

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. 

They are hard. 

Never mastered them. 

Probably never will. 

Wait... 

p.s. Notice how nobody's ever been called "SHORT-winded"?

What do you think? Use the COMMENTS area below to share your advice, insights and recommendations on writing shorter, punchier blog posts. What's hard about it? What approaches do you use? 

As a speaker, consultant, thought-leading executive or entrepreneur, you may have heard about the importance of building an audience for your work... Sounds great. 

Here are 17 vital differences between a market and an audience.

You can spend YEARS attracting and serving an audience that is NOT your market. And that's just sad, painful, and frustrating. 

These are as pernicious as they are deceptive. 

WHICH of these has been holding you back - confusing you - or set you to wondering how come you're not making more money?

Let's go down the list... 

1. An audience listens - A market pays attention
2. An audience wants entertainment - A market wants to solve problems
3. An audience values an experience - A market values expertise
4. An audience wants to watch - A market wants to act
5. An audience wants information - A market wants implementation
6. An audience reacts - A market responds
7. An audience wants their questions answered - A market wants their answers questioned
8. An audience wants you to be popular - A market wants you to be right
9. An audience asks “What can you do?” - A market asks “What’s next?” and “What else?”
10. An audience says, “Great show!” - A market says, “Great job!”
11. An audience tells their friends - A market tells their boss
12. An audience buys your book - A market reads your book
13. An audience likes your ideas - A market implements your ideas
14. An audience wants your autograph - A market wants to give you their signature
15. An audience applauds - A market refers
16. An audience says, “Thank you” - A market says, “Thank goodness!”

and finally - most important of all - read this next one as often as you need to...

17. An audience will HEAR you - A market will PAY you (well, often, and gladly)

Expert marketers not only build an audience - they develop a market for their value, ideas, products, services, and programs.

Want to apply for your Speaker Strategy Call to see how you can IMPLEMENT some of these concepts right away? Apply for your call here.

There are four things that you need to focus on in your professional service marketing, four levels if you will.

1. We can't do them all.
2. We can't even prioritize or figure out how to start to think about them.
3. We can't even distinguish which is what and why and how it might work for us.

So let's unpack this for your business...

Let's talk about level one, strategy.

A strategy is a big picture area of your business.

It could be a marketing-focused strategy. It could be a sales-focused strategy. It could be a financial strategy.

Let’s say you come across someone who tells you Twitter is an amazing marketing platform and you’re really missing out if your business is not on Twitter.

He's using it and it fits his business beautifully, of course and you respect this person and you admire their successful business. And now you’re thinking, "Oh man, it's all about Twitter Twitter, Twitter. This guy built his business on Twitter, so I can probably build my business on Twitter."

Well, all right, let's back that up and analyze that as far as the four levels of marketing.

Internet marketing is the strategy. Internet marketing is the big umbrella over Twitter. So you ask yourself, to what extent am I going to use an Internet marketing strategy in the sales and marketing and business development aspect of my business?

Internet marketing is the strategy.

The set of tactics under that would be social media. There's a lot going on via the internet, folks, that's not social media.

For example, search engine optimization, your website, the structure of your web presence, blogging, email marketing, dozens of internet marketing strategies. Social media happens to be one bucket under that, so social media is the tactic.

An initiative would be "I'm going to start using Twitter." This is level three now.

I'm going to start using Twitter. I'm going to start understanding it. I might read a book. I might go to some websites, I’m going to grab a copy of Twitter 101 or Using Twitter for business, all those fabulous resources that are out there for free. I'm going to become educated on that -- on that initiative.

Now, the action step - here's level four, the action step always takes the form of verb, noun, date.

• Set up my Twitter account by Wednesday.
• Load my first 30 tweets in Hootsuite by Friday.
• Find 100 influential people to follow in my industry by Monday.

Those are action steps. And the action step can also go on your calendar.

So this approach really takes it down to "What am I doing today?"

What's on my priority to-do list today? Not what's on my to-do list because your to-do list could be 50 things, but what are my top three most important things that I need to do based on the strategies I've selected, based on the tactics that I’ve chosen, based on the initiatives that I've designed, what are the action steps to put on my calendar and get it done?

So let’s follow this through with a complete example -- let's say I'm in the insurance business. (I'm not but let's say YOU are!)

You're selling into the insurance marketplace, insurance companies and insurance agents, general agents, insurance associations, insurance publications, and you’re looking to become a dominant resource in that world.

Your action step would be "I want to follow 300 insurance industry folks on Twitter by April 13th." That's your action step.

Does that fit into an initiative? Yes. The initiative is aggressively grow my Twitter following targeted to the insurance industry.

Does that fall in to a tactic? Yes, it does. It falls in to the social media tactic or set of tactics.

Does that fall under a strategy that I decided to use? Yes, it falls in to my internet marketing strategy.

So right there, just unpacking those four levels, you've got some "A-ha" moments, some insights you can use to start to filter and sort all of your old ideas, old notes, all of those conference sessions that you may have gone to, all of those tactics and tools and light bulb moments, all those nuggets and sound bites that you may have swirling around in your head or on your “someday, maybe list.”

If you start to sort them in to these four levels; strategy, tactic, initiative and action step – you’ll get a much clearer blueprint for ALL your marketing going forward this month, next month and next year!

Are you a DO IT freak? Welcome to the club!! Please use the social media buttons at the top of this post to share it with your network. YOU are a rock star!