Simplenomics » Marketing Simplified

Secret Internet Marketing Code Cracked By Chris Pirillo

Mike Sigers — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 02:51:13 +0000

“Suddenly it appeared, as if by magic, a secret not known for eons …”

Er….no. You might even call bull, as Chris Pirillo did by using a series of cryptic Tweets today. I pieced together 3 of his Tweets to help you understand that there’s no silly-ass secrets and if a marketer tells you he has some ninja-type secrets, you can rest assured he’s not telling you until he’s rode that pony for all it’ll do and now that it’s not working like it used to, he’s willing to sell your sucker-ass what’s left of the technique.

So, here’s what you do: Compare what the so-called guru is trying to sell you against tried, true, tested, provern direct-marketing tactics, techniques and tips that were used by marketing people 20, 30 and 50 years ago when this type of marketing was starting to be used in print.

Human’s haven’t changed and neither has what works on them, for them and against them.

If they appear out of nowhere, showing you pictures of their million-dollar mansions, their fast cars, big RV’s and fake checks, do yourself a favor and run like hell to the library and read everything written by Claude Hopkins, Gene Schwartz, John E. Kennedy and countless others who really knew what marketing and sales were about.

All these modern day “guru’s” are doing is taking those techniques and giving them ninja names and adapting them to the internet and how we use the medium to market today.

You can do that yourself for free.

Do You Want To Train Your Brain To Be A Marketing Machine?

Mike Sigers — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 04:26:55 +0000

I’ve been listening to Sean D’Souza for a long time … on my iPod, that is.

I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of Sean or Psychotactics.com, but I’ve enjoyed his teaching’s and have found him to disseminate very useful business and marketing information.

Now I’m going to get a chance to hear more of his no-nonsense tips, tactics and strategies. For zero cost.

How’d I get it for free and how can you?

Just today, I got an invitation that said Psychotactics were giving away a workshop they sell for $2500. And that they are doing a test and giving a limited number of copies away absolutely FREE…No charge.

This workshop, the Brain Alchemy Masterclass, explains why structure, not marketing, is critical to growing a business effectively.

A free giveaway like this would normally have a catch of some sort, but this one (strangely) doesn’t. I’ve made sure I’ve signed up to their waiting list, so that I can get my copy of these goodies soon. You should check it out, and if you find it useful, you should get on the waiting list before it’s filled.

I’m letting you know because I think this workshop could help you. You should check it out and judge for yourself.

Here’s the link: http://www.psychotactics.com/freezone

P.S. I read somewhere on the page that there’s a deadline for this free offer, so be quick to click and don’t dawdle while deciding.

The Ridiculously Extraordinary Way To New Customers by Karol Gajda

Mike Sigers — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 12:56:22 +0000

Today’s guest post is by my friend Karol Gajda who is travelling the globe in search of business ideas, exploring new cultures and living the internet entrepreneur lifestyle. His writing style and personality come thru loud and clear his blog, which we’ve linked to at the end of the post. Do yourself a favor by subscribing to his RSS feed and following him on Twitter.

Although the Internet has been around for quite a long time now, many small businesses still aren’t using it effectively. A Web site as a brochure is fine to have, but it’s useless for attracting new customers.

If you run a small business I recommend you start with just 1 of the following tips, moving from 1 to 3 in chronological order. #1 is especially important. Once you’ve mastered it, add another to your marketing arsenal.

Trying to tackle all of them at once will, more often than not, hurt more than it helps.

1) Start an E-mail Newsletter

One of my favorite restaurants in the world, Ethos Vegan Kitchen in Orlando, FL, has a very simple monthly newsletter.

Every month they talk about what’s going on with the store, give away 2 gift cards to newsletter subscribers, and generally just keep in touch with their fans. The key is they’re not doing anything difficult or spectacular. But it works.

I lived 30 miles from Ethos before I went nomadic and wouldn’t usually make a special trip out unless I knew something cool was happening. Like their rare (once per month) Pierogi night. I made it out to almost every Pierogi night, but only because they reminded me about it through the newsletter.

Starting a newsletter, as I’ve already mentioned, is not difficult.

I recommend you go to Aweber or iContact (2 of the top e-mail newsletter services) and sign up. They both start at under $20/month and, if you just keep it simple and give your customers what they want, the newsletter will pay for itself right away.

How to promote the newsletter:

- Put a newsletter signup for on your Web site. Both Aweber and iContact make this very easy. Just follow their steps.

- Put a physical newsletter signup sheet inside your business. When somebody is paying for their meal, product, or service ask them if they’d like to join your e-mail newsletter to keep up to date on special events and discounts. It’s important that you don’t waste your time with people who aren’t already spending money at your establishment. You want buyers, not browsers, on your e-mail newsletter list.

2) Get On Twitter

The only two tips for Twitter.com you will ever need: Don’t spam. Connect.

Much like your e-mail newsletter, Twitter gives you an opportunity to connect with your fans. But, unlike your newsletter, it’s a 2-way connection.

Communicate daily with your customers and rarely promote your store, product, or service. When somebody connects with your business on Twitter it’s because they already know what you’re selling. Trying to hard sell them is a waste of time. Spend 10-30 minutes per day connecting and you’ll build loyalty.

Twitter is also a great tool for instant customer service.

A few months ago I e-mailed a local pizza place that stated on their Web site they sold vegan pizzas. I wanted to verify this statement, but I didn’t get a response. So then I messaged their Twitter account. I didn’t get a response for days.

That is unacceptable. It takes just minutes to read/respond to messages on Twitter and there’s no reason you shouldn’t check your messages at least once/day.

3) Start A Blog

The next step after starting a newsletter and Twitter account is starting a blog. If you already have a Web site, starting a really nice blog is free and easy using WordPress.org.

Why should you bother with a blog? You get local targeting and the benefits of becoming a leader in your field. International respect may lead to more opportunities for your business either by franchising possibilities or speaking/consulting gigs.

Much like with Twitter, your blog shouldn’t be used to blatantly promote your business at all. If somebody is reading your blog, they know what you sell.

That’s not to say you can’t use it to offer up a special blog discount every once in a while, but your blog should focus more on what your customers want and what your industry needs.

There are countless other ways to attract new customers online, but if all you do is master these 3 you’ll have a veritable line of people waiting outside your doors.

Karol Gajda, a lifelong entrepreneur, writes about Freedom, Health, Travel, and Life at Ridiculously Extraordinary. To learn about his goal of helping 100 people achieve Ridiculously Extraordinary Freedom subscribe to the RSS feed here or visit RidiculouslyExtraordinary.

Would Your Website Benefit From Visitors Who Stay Longer And View More Pages?

Mike Sigers — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 23:33:46 +0000

I’ve read a smattering of different opinions about what Web 3.0 is going to be like, but I like to keep things simple, so I’m saying it’s when we get all the info we need brought to us, instead of us having to go looking for it.

Simple, huh?

To me that means if I’m on a site that has great shoes for sore feet, like I have been of late, I can get recommendations while I’m on the site, rather than having to go find out what people are saying about the shoes on that site or made by that company.

Or, if my wife and I happened to love movies, which we do, we can get recommendations while we’re on our favorite site, rather than having to search manually and filter the results.

I’ve done a little digging and found a fascinating engine that helps ecommerce and social sites with the implementation of just that type of recommendations.

The Strands recommendation engine provides personalized recommendations for e-commerce and social media sites based on user behavior, facilitating cross/up-selling or keeping eyeballs on the pages longer in the case of media sites.

In other words, if your product or service would benefit from people who see that other people are loving your product or service, you can use the Strands recommendation engine to keep eyeballs on the page longer and get those eyeballs on other pages on your site.

More pages, staying longer should equal more sales, bigger sales, more profits, bigger profits.

Simple, huh?

I can see more and more “social proof” in use every day and you can be sure that if you don’t get started now, your website and the business it does will shrink in use, in sales, in users and in it’s relevance.

More Chocolate Covered Grasshoppers?

Mike Sigers — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 01:06:22 +0000

Do you remember my post about the chocolate covered grasshoppers?

Would you like to read the case study behind 5,000 influential people, 25,000 chocolate covered grasshoppers and over 183,000 views on YouTube?

I thought you would, so follow this link leak to the case study behind the marketing genius that was the rebranding of Grasshopper.

I want to thank my new blog friend Jonathan Kay for including me and I highly recommend that you download and read and re-read the case study… several times.