I’m not here to blow your mind.
I just want internet marketing to make complete sense to you in as little time as possible, so you can be awesome at it tomorrow.
Once you understand how the game has changed, you will see evidence of it everywhere you look. You will get it. And then your results will be better every step of the way.
I’ve seen lots of people use all the right tools, and technically apply all the best practices, but get really disappointing results when marketing their business online.
It’s like that kid in junior high who thought having the best ski gear would automatically make him a good skier. He was disappointed too.
The reason people get disappointing results with marketing is that they don’t understand the rules of the game before they jump in and start playing.
Naturally, when you don’t understand why the system rewards you and punishes you, it is easy to become frustrated and even a bit jaded.
Like every time there is a Google search engine update, people come out and grumbles about how it isn’t fair.
But you don’t hear from those who have benefited from these changes, the people who already understand the rules that even Google must play by. Those who understand the rules of the game don’t depend too much on Google.
With a simple grounding in these fundamental principles, you won’t be caught off guard either. My goal in this post is to share the basic rules that will give you an 80% of expert-level understanding, in less than 15 minutes.
But first let’s talk a little about what the heck happened in business and marketing over the last couple years.
Because even “digital deniers” are acutely aware of some massive, amorphous shift that has affected nearly every aspect of business.
The digital revolution, in simple terms
Something is happening here, but you don’t know what it is, do you, Mr. Jones? – Bob Dylan
As the dust clears from the digital revolution, no one is 100% sure what happened, but the basic outline is pretty clear.
What happened is new technology made new things possible.
The internet happened, and suddenly you can connect directly with anyone in the world. You used to have to go through a media company to reach customers. You used to have to depend on your networks, which were limited in size by cumbersome communications.
Remember the days before email? I know, it’s hard to remember what that was like, even if you lived it.
Now, suddenly everyone can connect directly and instantly with everyone else. Nothing like it existed before, not even close.So, yeah, it’s weird.
But the core change is this: direct, nearly free, ubiquitous, instant communication between billions of people worldwide. You know, the internet.
And you mix in increasingly cheap software and things can get really powerful, and messy, and confusing, really fast.
5 New Rules of Internet Marketing
You may notice that you will feel suspicious of the new methods and resist them. That is okay. For now, it is good enough that the new reality starts to take shape in your mind, so that you can begin to internalize the contours of your environment over time, so you can see the patterns as they emerge.
Not all the old rules have changed. In fact, the oldest rules of all—communicate your value, the importance of personal referrals—are the same as ever.
Business basics are as solid as ever. Only a few rules have changed, but they have a big impact on how the game is played.
Change 1. Person to person instead of company to target market.
On the internet, the consumer is not sitting in a crowd. He or she is alone and has absolute control. So when someone speaks directly to the reader and his specific exact needs right now, he listens intently and tunes out the mass messages.
The producer too is just one person communicating, with no real filters to get in the way of this connection.
So it shouldn’t be surprising that what works really well in writing letters or emails also works really well in online marketing, (but for some reason, it still surprises your ignorant competitors).
The personal aspect is the most important and least understood dynamic of the internet. So communicate to one person, as yourself, not as a business entity.
The new game you are playing is very much like courtship. When I was courting my girlfriend, much of her day was filled with anticipation of the next email. You want your marketing to have a similar effect, to gradually deepen the relationship through a serious of mutually increasing commitments.
The loser’s game is mass-marketing that tries to please the largest number of people possible, make the sale and move on.
Change 2. Ongoing Relationships instead of impressions / attention.
With all media, except for the internet and books, when you’re done talking, the communication stops. So you don’t have much opportunity to make the sale.
But online, everything you say is available at all times for all people. So you really only need to say it once. And it makes sense to say it really well.
The new game is to use your website so that people can know, like and trust you before you say a word to them. By the time you know they exist, they might be ready to buy from you, or they might have already bought and simply want to say thank you.
Because you demonstrate you are willing to invest in them and their success, you earn their devotion.
We will cover the nuts and bolts of this change in this course.
The loser’s game is to keep repeating the same tired pitches to complete strangers and “playing the numbers game” of pitching to 1000 people to get 2 or 3 sales. And then having to do it all over again from scratch to get the next 2 or 3 sales.
Change 3. The user calls the shots, not the people running the company.
It used to be that companies would make something, convince you that you wanted it, and then sell it to you.
But online, a person can quickly and easily line you up with all your competitors and have their pick.
So going for the hard sell in this context is like some overconfident player dude walking up to a hot woman mobbed by suitors, saying, “Maybe if you play your cards right, you can take me home TONIGHT,” and thereby embarrassing myself.
You used to be able to pull off those kinds of stunts, but now you need to be attractive and likeable enough that people will choose to be with you instead of everyone else.
The new game is to create an unmatchable experience that breeds liking, trust, and gratitude. Masculine characteristics like hunting and aggression are giving way to feminine characteristics like nurturing, listening and responsive service.
You do this by building a path from them to you, which they already want to be on, and create such an inviting environment that they want to stick around. The invitation strategy is much more effective than the on-the-road, do-your-spiel, close-the-deal strategy.
The gatherers are outperforming the hunters these days.
The loser’s game is to go on the hunt and rely on the kill. Eventually all your “prospects” will be exchanging pleasantries in the close care and protection of your competitors, who will treat them as welcome guests instead of prospects.
4. The Decline of Gatekeepers: No one stands between you and your audience.
It used to be that big players could muscle out the little guys and hog up all the distribution, which meant they didn’t need to be as competitive.
Now you can deliver your message instantly to anyone with an internet connection. Pretty much the whole world opened up to you immediately, and no one stands between you and your audience.
Not even the post office.
But this means everyone in the world has access to the same people you do. This forces everyone to stay fresh, so some new startup doesn’t slay them while they sleep.
I know a lot of location-based bricks and mortar businesses think this rule doesn’t apply to them. The problem is that you can’t do anything to keep your clients offline, and they are finding all kinds of useful alternatives to what you do online.
You might be insulated a bit from this reality, but stay on your toes, friend. Because the longer the pressure to change builds up, the more difficult it can be to adjust when the dam breaks.
The new game is depth, quality and duration of client relationships.
Serve your audience a little better every day and you will thrive.
The losing game is mass-market. Walmart has mastered cheap, watered-down products at scale. If you’re small, you can’t win playing that game. The winning game is tailored, done-for-you, and serves deeper needs of fewer people.
5. Two-way conversation
It is inconceivable that a TV host would be taping a show, and someone watching would jump out of the teleprompter and say, “Hi Mr. Letterman! Love your show!”
At first, it is easy to be freaked out by this change. After all, it’s your website and you make the rules. So you could actually turn off all feedback. Most of your ignorant competitors haven’t really considered their approach to feedback, and if they do, it is often reactive instead of proactive.
The smart marketers are initiating the conversation, and leading it forward every step of the way, and like any good conversationalist, they invite the user to do most of the talking.
We’re used to thinking of marketing as a broadcast medium. Well, the internet has changed the rules on us. We can and often do broadcast over the internet, but under the circumstances it looks foolish compared to the conversational approach.
But usually that’s a mistake, because smart marketers figured out that they can evolve their solutions to unmatchable quality, in the process of conversation with customers.
Now, the conversation with customers starts at the idea phase, even before the product is built. This approach creates an advantage that is tough to compete with.
When the old way is the best way
It is worth pointing out that “the loser’s game” is a little harsh, because this is a game that many large companies are successful at.
Even if big corporations aren’t actually losers, it is still foolish to play their game. Because you aren’t big enough. And you don’t need to be.
And I picked out these new rules specifically because they ARE better than the old way for 95% of small business owners. If it wasn’t important to you as a business owner, I would ignore it.
What NOT to do: 6 reasons business blogs suck
If you look at your favorite blogs, the ones with the largest audiences and the biggest income streams, most of them were started by a solo blogger, not a new media agency with a lot of financing. Why is that?
It’s not because business blogs are all about selling and personal blogs about giving. That’s a common misconception, which can sometimes kill a blog. Actually, when personal bloggers start selling stuff, they tend to grow even faster than before.
The real reason business blogs tend to suck is that they use blogs as if they were TV spots or pulpits, the tools they are used to. They are like our caveman friend who used his new laser gun as if it were a stone club and broke it, then concluded it was useless.
You can see how they violate the rules of the new game, and now you know why they are losing the game. Business blogs tend to be…
- Impersonal. Started as a top-down initiative instead of a person.
- Generic, regurgitated afterthought (mass-marketing approach).
- About how great they are instead of how they can help the reader
- Directed to everyone, and therefore, no one.
- An afterthought.
- Pushy.
The takeaway
If nothing else gets across, stop broadcasting messages to the amorphous masses called “markets.”
Instead, take full advantage of this new person-to-person, direct, conversational, and recorded medium.
The opportunity is to connect with people who understand you, who like you and trust you, and are ready to buy from you and eager to continue the relationship.
FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD. AUTOMATICALLY. JUST FROM READING YOUR WEBSITE.
If this sounds like hokum, I understand. Very few business websites are getting these results.
But I am getting invitations for speaking, consulting and service gigs all the time, even when I don’t have them up for sale. And I receive notes of encouragement and praise, which is significant as well. Thank you dear readers.
But ask yourself this. Are the people who complain about poor results using their website as an informational depot that says “learn more about us!” or are they using their website as a love letter to the right people that says “tell me more about yourself, your struggles and your dreams”?
Oh, yeah. Busted, right? And now you see why some people struggle and succeed, while others struggle and fail.
As with any relationship, you start the customer relationship by giving first, make initial contact (a good impression on your website), and invite them to take the next step of the journey with you.
- Be a real person who serves a specific person as deeply as possible. Others will pay a premium for the same treatment, stick around, recommend you and buy everything you sell. Whenever you market, do so with deep empathy for a specific person with a name and unique needs. Never blast a message to a target market.
- Make the extra investment up front to build a sticky, cozy website that leads gently ever closer to purchase, loyalty and devotion. Until your website resonates, you won’t get much out of your website, so keep working on it. Because when it sells once, it can sell forever with no extra effort. (You will learn the best ways to do that in this series).
- Learn your customer’s needs so well that you can adapt solutions to them that are so special, personalized and one-of-a-kind, no one else can compete.
- Don’t mimic established competitors, or apply cookie-cutter techniques or worry about scaling. Instead, be weird, fresh and flexible.
- When setting up your goals, you will still focus on revenue, but add to that the quality, depth and duration of the connections you have established with your ideal prospects as individual human beings.
When you put this all together, the successful internet marketer looks a lot less like polished and creative Don Draper from Mad Men, and a lot more like Yoda: a scrappy, wild, quirky and authentic leader who helps people rise to their challenges and become better version of themselves.
Can you do that? Sure you can.
I have some friends who thought they were selling bicycles, but then realized that they were actually selling their leadership, guidance and friendship in building a cycling community, and ended up selling more bicycles and having more fun as a result.
That’s a pretty decent illustration of the mind shift that you need to multiply all your website marketing efforts.
When you think of your audience as the hero, and yourself as their trusty guide, mentor and outfitter who helps them on the journey to where they want to go, you have come a long way toward understanding what works in online marketing.
In a nutshell.
Alright, so coming up we will start to delve into the nuts and bolts of how to build this sticky website with an audience that does all your selling for you, even if you think your business is just a boring run-of-the-mill business. I assure you, it isn’t.
This article is part of the Audience Building Secrets series. To be sure you get the next installment of Audience Building Secrets, join here.
Did any of that turn on a light bulb in your head? Is there anything that needs clarification? Let me know.
The post The Zen Guide to the New Rules of Internet Marketing appeared first on Falconer Web Marketing.
