Matters of marketing and ethics…
Rich Schefren has a post on his blog called “I don’t think we can be friends anymore.” In it, he describes his impressions of a recent “internet marketing seminar”
There were 16 speakers, many of whom were clients of mine. It was an impressive lineup of self made entrepreneurs who got to their current position by learning, thinking, working hard, and marketing even harder.
Yet table rush after table rush were for so-called “short-cuts” like Private Label Rights Products, Push Button Software, and you just sit at home and get rich while my company does all the hard work for you type products.
On the one hand… the “learn more, think fast, work hard, market harder and smarter” mantra is NOT great “bait” for attracting throngs of attendees to your internet marketing seminar. Typical human beings (of which I am one) would much rather “get rich quickly and easily” …. oh, and I’ll take e a set of “washboard abs” which come from taking a pill while you’re at it!
So most of these “marketing gurus” have a problem. They can honestly tell their audience what it takes to be successful.. WHAT THEY HAVE DONE TO BE SUCCESSFUL… (time… talent…plus working harder AND smarter) or they can sell a “secret shortcut”.
Like I said… great “bait” is essential to attracting attention. I created just such bait when I wrote and article titled “Why the best marketing tactics have failed you up until now.” The article was picked up by SEVERAL newsletters and my phone began ringing off the hook with “opportunity seekers”. I remember one call in particular from a gentleman late one Friday night. I have no idea what time zone he was in, but he began peppering me with questions from the start.
“How much should I be paying for hosting?” he asked.
“Um, that would depend upon what kind of web site you’re running.” I replied. “Asking me how much hosting SHOULD cost is like asking me how much a house SHOULD cost. A house with 11 rooms and an ocean view is going to cost more than a 1 room shack with a view of a landfill.”
That was obviously good enough for him. “Fine. I want you to host my web site.” he said. “What kind of products oo you offer for me to sell.”
That comment triggered a flash back to a conversation with a woman who came to me for help a few years ago. She had attended an internet marketing “get rich quick” seminar and had paid $8,000 up front for a fool proof “web marketing system”. To her surprise, it wasn’t working. People weren’t flocking to her site and they most certainly weren’t purchasing the products she had listed for sale (via affiliate links) on the site.
In her case, I began outlining the traditional “steps” of successful internet marketing: learn more, think fast, work hard, market harder and smarter. She almost broke into tears as I outlined a way for her to salvage her $8K web venture. It involved posting articles to the site three-five times a week, launching a newsletter and building an audience. She obviously wasn’t prepared to do that. She thought she had paid her life savings to obtain a short cut.
So when the gentleman on the phone began asking me what products I offered for him to sell on his web site, I politely explained to him that I specialize in working with business owners who already have a product or service. I didn’t think it was possible, but he sounded even more heartbroken than the woman I had disappointed years earlier with my dose of “reality”.
Neither of those people became clients, though I knew EXACTLY what it would have taken to get them to sign up and I wish I could say I’ve only had two people come to me wanting just such a “hands free… you do the work, I’ll collect the cash” kind of set up. However, one thing that’s nice is that when I delivered my “bad news” and the person on the other end of the phone says, “DUH! I knew I was going to have to work to make money,” well… then I know I have a TRUE potential client on the phone. They’re as rare as gemstones… and I treasure each and every one of them.
Cost effective way to fastrack your design success
The vast majority of my clients are of the "bootstrapping entrepreneurial" variety, which means cost effective is one of their TOP priorities.
For that reason, when I launch a new blog for a client (and blogs are a boot strapping entrepreneur’s best friend) I always offer the option of using a Template Monster Templates for their self hosted Word Press blog. For less than $60, we can "dress" their blog in an attractive and stylish "theme" which can easily be changed in the future.
I usually don’t recommend they use a "free" template for their blog just because the quality of those free template blogs tend to vary widely. One client fell in love with just such a "free" template, only to discover that any pages created in Word Press won’t display properly (i.e. AT ALL). That created a problem. My client was in LOVE with certain elements in this blog theme which she can’t find duplicated at Template Monster. For her, we had to move to plan B.
Plan B involves:
- Hiring a Graphic Artists/Designer
This client spent three months posting her design requests to various web sites which offer to connect clients with designers. Her hope was to find a "rising star" who would create a design for her. Unfortunately, that never happened. When she told me she was going to raise her listed "budget" for the project to more than I paid for the cover design for my book, I offered to introduce her to the graphic artist who designed the cover of my book, Richard Leach.
Richard is an incredibly gifted graphic artist and he designed a SUPERB graphical concept for the theme. Step 1 is completed… and now we’re moving to Step 2.
- Hiring someone to code the design.
Unfortunately, this client was directed to a source that claimed to "code your design" for a low, low cost of $150. I had been telling her that a custom coding job would run in the $750 range…. so she was THRILLED to find this resource via a business coach with whom she works. Unfortunately, inquiries to this designer yielded a response along the lines of "I’m swamped and I can’t take on any more projects" type of a reply. (His web site is down now which I assume means he’’s going to raise his rates.)
I’ll admit, I was concerned when she first approached me about this "low cost alternative". My figure was based upon using a word press theme developer I know personally to code the design. Other sources range in the $650-$750 range for custom coding of a design as well. One site, recommended by Tech Crunch is XHTMLized Turns Your Design into Code. When you choose "WP Theme" at XHTMLized the price automatically jumps to $649.
Just a word of wisdom to any one new to business and/or life: When you get four quotes for something and three of those quotes are within 20% of each other… and ONE of those quotes is a full 80% LESS than the other three… throw out the rock bottom quote. (This is why you should get multiple quotes on any project, web or otherwise.)
In the case of Template Monster Word Press Themes, you’re getting a theme at a 90% discount FOR A REASON (two to be exact):
- Because they can sell that same theme over and over again!
- Many of the themes offered there are variations of a select group of theme codes… so while two themes have markedly different graphics, code wise they are almost identical in nature. In economics class your professor called that "economies of scale". It costs $750 to code the first design, but it only costs $50 to swap the graphics and change the color values for the second theme offered for sale.
This works in reverse as well. If you have four real estate agents and THREE of them tell you they will list your house in the $300L-$350K range and ONE agent assures you he/she will list your house at $650K…. disregard that final figure. No matter how BADLY you want to believe it, most of the time it’s not the three agents who are "wrong" about the value of your home. Instead, you have ONE agent who is trying to "buy" your listing.
My client is going to have a LOT of money invested in the development of her new theme. (Unfortunately, it looks like she’ll be spending $500 more on the coding than she originally estimated.) However, she’s going to end up with a blog like no other, and one which powerfully communicates what she does before you read a single word of copy. Because she’s a seasoned business professional, she understands better than most of my "boot strapping" clients that you have to spend money to make money.
In the end, it’s rare to find someone who is great at what they do offering their services at a fraction of cost. What always happens is the provider becomes deluged and as a result, raises his/her rates. If you find you’re swamped, then it’s time to raise your rates. Trust me…. the clients you lose aren’t nearly as good as the clients you’ll gain.
Is your business “Comcastic”?
I certainly hope not! Bob Hill of the 2 Texans Down Under blog says:
But now something like that is happening. Just as “going postal” was born and then added to our language, the term “being comcastic” has been coined and launched. One day soon, dictionaries may list this entry: Comcastic – “adj., behaving with insensitivity to and disregard for the interests of customers.”
OUCH!!! According to Bob’s blog, there are over 350,000 citations of the "Comcast vs the hammer lady" story. There are also countless others citing "Comcast Customer Abuse".
One of the ways the web HAS changed marketing is that now, when a customer feels disrepected AND they have a blog… they can tell the world about their gripe. Then, as a business owner, you have one of two options:
- Hire an attorney… sue (and lose!)
- Make it right with your customer
Part of being in business is customer service. You can be VERY short sighted and provide "Comcastic" customer service…. or you can keep your eye on the long term goal… remembering that a satisfied customer tells 3 people and a dissatisfied customer (without a blog) will tell15-16.
As Bob says:
Maybe there’ll be a second definition for Comcastic — “willing to delay or deny services to which customers are entitled. (See also ‘imperialistic’)”
Marketing is harder these days thanks to the internet
There are times when I want to scream at the screen of my computer. I am frequently faced with controlling this impulse, especially when I read a diatribe written by a 22 year old about how the web has made it so that marketing messages nobody cares about don’t work anymore.
My mind starts spinning, and I’m certain my head is following suite. "The internet hasn’t changed how marketing works! People have ALWAYS ignored slickly presented messages no one cares about." What has changed is the fact that the internet HAS provided marketing professionals the opportunity to watch those bored and uninterested visitors leave in droves.
But then, a recent conversation with my 17 year old son has enlightened me. Perhaps the internet HAS changed the way marketing works. After all, it has changed DRASTICALLY the way music is marketed.
Long ago, in the days before MP3 players…. in the days even before the internet… when the world was cold and we killed sabre toothed tigers for food and clothing…we were limited in the way we could obtain music for our own listening pleasure. We could choose to listen to a radio station play our favorite songs or, we could take the leap and purchase the music so we could listen to what we wanted, when we wanted to listen.
Oh sure, it’s still BASICALLY the same today… except you have a LOT more choices. Those additional choices have DRASTICALLY changed the way music is marketed.
Back in the old days, if you were going to purchase a single song, you bought a 45 rpm vinyl record. (45’s were smaller versions of albums and were played on a turntable…. you know, like the rappers use today. I have actually HAD this conversation with my children by the way!) When you purchased this 45, you got a BONUS song on the back. If you wanted access to MORE than those two songs, you purchased the album.
Albums were pieces of vinyl offering a dozen or more songs, including those songs offered as "singles". However, true fans would always purchase the album so they would have access to songs not available to just everyone. Back in those days, to demonstrate your love of a musician or group, you would reference a great song included on the album but never released on a 45.
Then came the internet… and it wasn’t illegal file sharing that changed the face of marketing and music.
CHOICE HAS DRAMATICALLY CHANGED THE FACE OF MARKETING MUSIC
In the old days, if you wanted access to a song that wasn’t available on a single, you had to purchase the entire album. People would purchase albums just to own a single song… but that was the old days.
Now, if you want to won a song, you can do so with a single download, and THAT is changing the face of music.
When a band was interviewed and asked why it had been so long between albums, they responded with the acknowledgement that in the music business today, every song on the album has to be great. Otherwise people will simply download the "good" songs and not download the "bad" ones. If, of the 12 songs on your album, only 2 "connect"… today’s music consumer is able to download those 2 "good" songs for as little as .89 each instead of popping for $13.48 for the entire album.
Ah, the days of releasing a single to act as "bait" to drive album sales is quickly coming to a close.
It’s not only affecting the music industry, but everyone else as well.
In the end, people will ALWAYS, I repeat, ALWAYS yawn and turn away when you present a marketing message that doesn’t connect. However, what the internet HAS done is to provide not only a way for advertisers to watch them yawn… it’s also given consumers more choice. Not only do they have more choices, but consumers also have a voice.
