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Hi David:
GREAT questions. I'll answer them briefly here, and then any that garner interest, I'll spin into a whole thread of their own. Sound good? Good!
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1. Do you know of any marketing strategies that operate outside of Search Engine Optimization? (Really, SEO is like teaching to the test.)
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Yes. Or maybe a better way to answer would be that SEO, done properly, involves many other marketing strategies. One of the owners of Google explained Google very simply. He said that if a surfer went online and started surfing at random, just clicking links - the odds of "finding" your site are equivalent to your page rank at Google.
Most people focus ON the search engines to get IN them, and that's the wrong strategy. If you focus on promoting your site to make it a popular site in your industry, the search engines WILL see that. Thus, by using other methods to promote your site, you accomplish SEO.
I actually wrote a whole book on how I achieve that (repeatedly) with my clients.
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2. Do you recommend traffic building strategies other than SEO?
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Yes, absolutely. But even in saying that, I haven't yet found a "traffic" program I like. The methodology I use focuses on building credibility and name familiarity in an industry.
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3. Have you heard of Paul Hartunian? Derek Gehl (Corey Ruhdl)?, Dr. Joe Vitale?, Mark Joyner?
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Of course.
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4. Could you give us your take on what these men and their marketing techniques? I notice you do not seem to get caught up with the pied piper mentality many "gurus" like to create.
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You're right - I don't do pied piper. My take is that most of the online gurus fall into one of two camps.
There is the "I was a direct marketing legend offline and now I'm online" camp. And there is the "I sold something online and it sold well, so now I'm gonna teach you how" camp.
My take on their marketing techniques is that for someone who's learning how to sell, it's a lot like the old story of 5 blind men describing an elephant. One touches the tail and said an elephant is skinny and ropey. Another touches the leg and says "no, an elephant is like a tree trunk." And so forth.
There are things you can learn from each of them, no doubt, but if you follow just one of them alone, without reading other methodologies, your odds lean more towards failure than success.
Take the "direct marketing" style. You can sell a whole lot of "Ginsu Knives" using the ginsu knife ads - but you won't sell many rolexes that way. Not every technique works for every product.
Just because Corey Rudll sold his Car Secrets product using his methods does not mean those methods will work for every product. Fact is, they won't.
Take the long sales letter for example. They work if you're selling a "how to make money" product (as they do) - but they are not the best way to sell most real products, they will kill the sales of a high end product (notice no sales letter on the rolex site?) and they are horrible for selling services.
I have been "selling" other people's products for decades and I've personally found that the best way to create a success strategy is to look at a combination of [a] the business owner's personality, [b] the product being sold and [c] the market sector you are selling to.
That last one [c] above is of primary importance. You see, most of the "marketing gurus" today follow the teachings of old. Ogilby on Adversiting and the "Science" of selling and all that stuff that I studied back in the late seventies.
But, there is a difference. When those materials were written, men were the one in charge of consumer dollars. Men bought the car, and the washing machine and the refridgerator. Men booked the vacations and planned the family budget. Women baked cookies and if they had a job, they certainly didn't make more than their husbands.
So, the marketing materials were written by men for men. Today, women influence over 85% of all dollars spent. And frankly, women aren't responding as well to the "old" type of advertising and marketing that worked in the past. That's why so many businesses are struggling.
To add to it, the web is not direct marketing, or tv, or print. It is a medium all it's own, and people that don't understand how to fully use the power of the web are leaving dollars on the table (for the competition) like crazy.
When you market in the manner that women respond to, sales always go up. Always. Most people just don't know how to do that. I've studied how to do that for over 10 years. That's why my clients see the changes they see. I change the way we market and the dollars flow. Ironically, studies show that men respond just as well to the techniques as women.
So, it's kind of hard to follow the pied piper routine when you know they're heading for the edge of a cliff but they don't even know it. They would argue with me until the cows come home - and some of them have. To me, it's wasted energy.
I had a phone conversation with a client yesterday. Basically, she said that she's sick of all the "talk" from people "out there." They've wasted a lot of money trying to find someone that walks their talk. The bottom line to her - is the bottom line. From sales to date for this month, they're going to hit 60K this month. Talk won't get that. My work - did.
If I was selling "how to make money" products, I might play pied piper. Somehow, I doubt it. But I don't sell how to make money programs. I just make money. Unfortunately, the bulk of it goes in my clients' bank accounts. LOL. Which is why I'm thinking I should be selling products for myself. LOL
: )
Linda
P.S. For anyone reading (David, you included) if there is any one of these you'd like to expand on, or have question about - just ask. I'm sure we could get a couple of great threads out of this!
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