You’ll never make a dime with a solution in search of a problem — unless you follow the model outlined here.
Hello and welcome to another Web Wednesday!
Before we get into the meat of today’s issue… A quick update on the “time of day” email test I mentioned last week.
Results are still out. I’ve seen a lot more variability in open rates — in the morning, the opens seem to hover more consistently around a certain number. However, in the afternoons the open rates seem to swing a lot more. Sometimes higher, sometimes lower. My guess is that maybe the afternoon opens are more intentional — versus mindlessly running through your inbox in the morning.
Or maybe it’s because the exact time of the afternoon I’ve been sending has been a bit more variable. The more I’ve dug, the more I’ve found others say there are two sweet spots for email engagement. A couple hours at the beginning of the day, between 8 and 10 AM. And a couple hours at the end of the day, between 3 and 5 PM. In the interest of transparency, expect MY emails to vary a little bit for the next couple weeks as I keep trying to find my sweet spot.
Remember, this falls under “Stupid things that shouldn’t matter but do.” Forgive me if you think the time of day you send emails is boring — I agree. But it can make a big difference in the long run, so it’s one of those things that we should be thinking about as marketers.
But now let’s talk about something more interesting…
Stupid clients!
Well, not really. Unaware is more like it. But in the heat of the moment, it’s easy to be mistaken and feel like they’re being stupid.
What am I talking about?
Once you “get” internet marketing you realize there’s a few things that will make you most successful.
- You drive qualified traffic, preferably to your website. (Other platforms like social networking sites are a far inferior alternative because they’re mostly outside of your control.)
- You get permission to stay in touch with prospects, preferably with email. (Again there are other less-effective ways to stay in contact, but email is consistently strong.)
- You systematically communicate with prospects to get a first purchase from them.
- You offer additional products or services to past customers, to deliver more value and get more revenue.
- You continue to communicate with your past customers to encourage further repeat business and referrals.
In certain markets and industries, and with certain businesses, it’s easy to be wildly successful getting just a couple of these strategies right. Or in the case of a company that uses alternate media or methods to get customers, there can be a significant volume of internet revenue coming in as a byproduct of other efforts.
When you go to these companies as the sharp internet marketer that you are, you may see huge gaps in their internet marketing strategy. Gaps that you know you could close to significantly increase the results they’re getting online.
And yet, when you point it out to them, they don’t see the need at all. Your pleas fall on deaf ears.
Especially if they’re currently getting great results because of all the other things already working in their favor.
YOU see a problem in their opportunity gap — the results they could be getting if they would do a few more things right.
THEY look at everything they’re already doing that’s working and don’t see a problem at all.
If they don’t know what they don’t know, they never see it as a problem…
And if you’re an internet marketing consultant — or someone who stands to profit from helping them with their marketing strategies — this actually becomes YOUR problem, not theirs.
Because if they don’t see a problem in the way they’re currently doing things, they don’t need your solution.
And if they don’t need your solution, you don’t get paid. (By the way, this is a HUGE sales lesson hidden in a little article about web marketing.)
How one consultant made a fortune selling to clients who didn’t see their own problems staring them right in the face…
You’re familiar with Jay Abraham?
99% of his early work was built around uncovering these opportunities the clients never saw for themselves.
He systematized the process of talking through a client’s business and marketing to uncover these opportunities, and then he made a simple proposition…
“I think there’s a huge opportunity for your business here,” Jay would tell them.
“But I don’t want you to risk anything finding out whether the opportunity I see exists. And so on my dime I’d like to do a limited test. We’ll see what kind of additional business I can drive by leveraging this opportunity that’s been ignored up to this point. And you don’t have to pay me a cent to test this — I’ll even cover media costs for the test.”
“All I ask is to be payed a simple shoe-salesman’s commission for the additional profits I generate. If I bring you $1 you wouldn’t have had otherwise, all I ask is to keep a quarter of that — you keep the remaining $.75.”
It was an irresistible offer — something I’ve written about frequently here.
He made it easy for the client to say yes. For them to let him try a marketing program, to see if it would work.
They didn’t have to see the problem to say yes — they only had to believe that Jay saw a problem and was willing to risk his own time and resources to solve it.
I don’t know the specific numbers, but it’s safe to say Jay made a fortune with this model. And maybe you could, too…
If you’re dealing with clients who struggles to see the opportunities existing in their own business, make them a deal.
Offer to commit your own resources to help them take advantage of the opportunity.
Agree on a reasonable cut of the action — preferably a significant percentage of gross revenue, because that’s more controllable and easier to track than profit margins.
And then go for it. It’s not usually a path to instant cash flow, but for the long-term, it represents far more upside.
Yours for bigger breakthroughs,
Roy Furr
Editor, Breakthrough Marketing Secrets
