1. If you sell coffee as a commodity, it’s worth 2 cents a cup. If you sell it as a good, it’s worth 25 cents a cup. If you sell it as a service it’s worth $1.00 a cup. If you sell it as an experience, it’s $5.00 a cup. A 250:1 difference between commodity and experience.
2. Meaning: Getting ahead by slashing prices is cutting your own throat. You MUST take a lead from Starbucks and deliver an entire customer experience. Move UPSTREAM, not down.
3. Your marketing plan MUST include Google. Love ’em, hate ’em, Mother’s Milk or Big Brother, there is no avoiding this fact.
4. If your marketing plan ONLY includes Google, you’re an accident waiting to happen. You must invoke the Unlimited Traffic Technique and elevate your conversions to a level where you can compete on any level playing field. Once accept this reality, you liberate yourself from the mosh pit of misery and mediocrity.
5. If you have a successful affiliate business and it’s still standing, congratulations. You still have time to move to higher ground. Time to move NOW.
6. After 3 days in Maui (one of the most intense learning experiences ever) one conclusion everyone reached at the end of day 3 was this: *Regardless of where you buy clicks, if you don’t have an Autoresponder sequence, you’re leaving 2/3rds of the money on the table.* Social Media is a freaking a waste of time compared to just TEN well-written emails. In my opinion if you don’t have AR’s in place you’re lucky to still be alive.
7. The principle of the Slight Edge says: If you’re just 5% better than everyone else you get 50% more of the spoils.
8. There is no such thing as One Single Ideal marketing message, anymore than there is One Single Ideal shrub in the jungle. What you need is a toolbox of effective hooks that work with different kinds of people. That is the premise of the Swiss Army KnifeSM.
9. Market Research is crucial. In 2004 you could afford to sling mud against the wall. Not in 2010. Ask your prospects the right 3 questions and sort the data right and your chances of success in a startup go from 5% to 50% overnight.
10. Most people now are on the defensive. They’ve shuttered their doors and windows and they’re trying to ride out the recession. That’s just slow motion suicide. Those who prevail have decided to be 21st century alchemists and every single day they’re trying to figure out how to deliver a more awesome customer experience.
11. Today’s Pay Per Click landscape is a repeat of high school. My 1984 marketing story: www.perrymarshall.com/1984
Perry Marshall
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About the Author
Perry Marshall has launched two revolutions in sales and marketing. In Pay-Per-Click advertising, he pioneered best practices and wrote the world's best selling book on Google advertising. And he's driven the 80/20 Principle deeper than any other author, creating a new movement in business.
He is referenced across the Internet and by Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, INC and Forbes Magazine.
9 Comments on “11 realities of marketing in 2010. Ignore them at your peril.”
Perry, Love your 11 points. Let’s never forget the foundational element that I guess would be the 12th reality of Marketing today. It is that we are no longer working on Internet time. We are working on Twitter time. That means you need to get to the point in an instant – the elevator pitch is key.
Ok, so do list-building and autoresponder’s make sense for e-commerce sites?
I heard from Dan Thies that a typical conversion rate for e-commerce stores is 1% to 2% for purchases, but it can be up to 15% for email registrations.
Why don’t I see e-commerce sites trying to collect my email address in exchange for some free report?
List building and AR’s *can* make sense but it depends very much on the type of purchase.
If Amazon or Ebay blocked you from purchasing with a squeeze page, you’d be pretty annoyed. There’s an art to getting the opt-in and the sale. Especially on a highly transactional product. Some topics are information oriented and people are interested in some topics for extended periods of time. Other things are transitory.
Thanks, Perry, for another great post. I’ve copied this post and am pasting it on my wall in my home office. Thanks again.
Dr George
Perry,
Great post. I couldn’t agree more that building a list right now is essential. In your list you say that you we should ask our prospects the right 3 questions.
What do you feel those questions are?
Ryan
Opt in at http://www.LivingstonReport.com and you’ll get the whole enchilada from Glenn.
A few questions for you:
1). What do you make of guys like Frank Kern saying they’re not using AR’s (if I recall correctly), rather focusing on timely and relevant messages to his list?
2). I haven’t cracked the social media code, but the folks at CopyBlogger seem to understand it pretty well. It might be a waste of time if you sell commercial forklifts, but it’s the way to go if you sell organic, bio-degradable, talking diapers… I guess. I’ve taught myself SEO and have been battling it out for the past few months. Social media is a key part of my SEO strategy.
I’m starting an ecommerce site and once it’s up and running I’ll apply for the Bobsled Run.
Frank runs a mostly event driven business and I’m sure he could automate more with AR’s. But the point is, he uses email, not facebook, as a primary way of reaching his customers.
I’m not saying Social Media is useless. I’m saying that if you don’t have automated email followup in place you’re ignoring an EASY opportunity.
Totally agree with your when you said that there’s no such thing as one ideal marketing message, and that we a toolbox to see what works.
People tend to lose focus my over anaylsis strategies and tips online.