Diversify or die
A few weeks ago I was at a seminar, and a friend of mine told me about an unusual conversation she'd had with a prominent, "internet marketer." Here's what this guy (who is a very bright guy) said to
her: "You're not really an 'internet marketer,' you know..."
On the surface there doesn't seem to be much to this comment, but when you delve a bit deeper, there is something very, very dangerous here: the term "internet marketer."
In my opinion one of the worst mistakes website owners make is viewing the internet as a business, instead of a media. The internet is NOT a business--it's another method of reaching customers, much like direct mail, space ads, teleseminars, fax, etc. The instant you define yourself as an "internet marketer" you're limiting yourself to a single media business, the consequences of which can be devastating.
Let me give you an example: I have a friend of mine who was making just under $100K a year as an affiliate marketer. His primary method of driving traffic was via the search engines, and he was doing pretty well. Then Google changed their algorithm overnight, and he was done--his business was gone in a split second, and so were a ton of other "internet marketers."
Email used to be one of the greatest marketing tools ever invented--until the Spammers ruined it, now getting emailed delivered is a real pain. Even if it does get delivered, it goes into "junk mail" boxes and people don't read it. It takes a lot of time, energy and effort to get it out the door, and people who were overly reliant on email lost a lot of business. And, if the ISP's ever decide to start charging for it, look out--a lot of businesses will vanish overnight.
It happened with broadcast fax--it was a neat, low-cost media that allowed a lot of legitimate business owners to generate leads cheaply. Now it's illegal to broadcast fax without a prior business relationship, and a lot of customers get huffy if you fax to them legally.
How about outbound telemarketing? Used to be great for a lot of people... until they came up with the Do Not Call list.
The point here is, you can't be reliant on a single media--you have to use all of them, because you never know when one will be taken away. When it is, you always have the others to fall back on. Yes, you can still use email, search engines, fax, and telemarketing, but you have to use them the right way, combined with each other.
You have to "diversify or die."
Now, there is one media that I would consider the most stable, effective of all media, and that's direct mail. Direct mail is the only media the government actually gets revenue from, so it's not going away any time soon. Yes, there are issues with it (like the rate increases, the post office throwing away mail, etc.), but these can be offset by adjusting your prices, and passing the bill onto your customer. Obviously you don't want to build a business based ONLY on direct mail, but it should be the "foundation" of your business, with other, lower cost media supporting it. That's how we do it here at Group M--lots of direct mail supported by email, tele-sales, tele-seminars, platform sales, and the occasional fax--it's a model that works and will continue to work.
Sometimes people squawk about the "cost" of direct mail, but they fail to see the big picture, not realizing that "gross-expenses=net" and that direct mail brings you to the BEST customer of all, one who will buy over and over again.
So, when building your business, the lesson is, build it around direct mail as soon as you can, then diversify into other media--or die.
Let's get to it...
Mr. X.
Group M Marketing
Kimble and Kennedy Publishing
her: "You're not really an 'internet marketer,' you know..."
On the surface there doesn't seem to be much to this comment, but when you delve a bit deeper, there is something very, very dangerous here: the term "internet marketer."
In my opinion one of the worst mistakes website owners make is viewing the internet as a business, instead of a media. The internet is NOT a business--it's another method of reaching customers, much like direct mail, space ads, teleseminars, fax, etc. The instant you define yourself as an "internet marketer" you're limiting yourself to a single media business, the consequences of which can be devastating.
Let me give you an example: I have a friend of mine who was making just under $100K a year as an affiliate marketer. His primary method of driving traffic was via the search engines, and he was doing pretty well. Then Google changed their algorithm overnight, and he was done--his business was gone in a split second, and so were a ton of other "internet marketers."
Email used to be one of the greatest marketing tools ever invented--until the Spammers ruined it, now getting emailed delivered is a real pain. Even if it does get delivered, it goes into "junk mail" boxes and people don't read it. It takes a lot of time, energy and effort to get it out the door, and people who were overly reliant on email lost a lot of business. And, if the ISP's ever decide to start charging for it, look out--a lot of businesses will vanish overnight.
It happened with broadcast fax--it was a neat, low-cost media that allowed a lot of legitimate business owners to generate leads cheaply. Now it's illegal to broadcast fax without a prior business relationship, and a lot of customers get huffy if you fax to them legally.
How about outbound telemarketing? Used to be great for a lot of people... until they came up with the Do Not Call list.
The point here is, you can't be reliant on a single media--you have to use all of them, because you never know when one will be taken away. When it is, you always have the others to fall back on. Yes, you can still use email, search engines, fax, and telemarketing, but you have to use them the right way, combined with each other.
You have to "diversify or die."
Now, there is one media that I would consider the most stable, effective of all media, and that's direct mail. Direct mail is the only media the government actually gets revenue from, so it's not going away any time soon. Yes, there are issues with it (like the rate increases, the post office throwing away mail, etc.), but these can be offset by adjusting your prices, and passing the bill onto your customer. Obviously you don't want to build a business based ONLY on direct mail, but it should be the "foundation" of your business, with other, lower cost media supporting it. That's how we do it here at Group M--lots of direct mail supported by email, tele-sales, tele-seminars, platform sales, and the occasional fax--it's a model that works and will continue to work.
Sometimes people squawk about the "cost" of direct mail, but they fail to see the big picture, not realizing that "gross-expenses=net" and that direct mail brings you to the BEST customer of all, one who will buy over and over again.
So, when building your business, the lesson is, build it around direct mail as soon as you can, then diversify into other media--or die.
Let's get to it...
Mr. X.
Group M Marketing
Kimble and Kennedy Publishing
