Category Archives: Marketing

You need a new roof on your house. What do you do? You ask your friend who she hired put the roof on her house last year.

This is a shortcut nearly all of us take in life, using the recommendation of other people instead of doing our own due diligence and research.

After all, your friend probably didn’t do any research, didn’t get several different bids, didn’t check on all the references of each company and so forth. Your friend probably did exactly what you’re doing by asking someone who they recommended.

Word of mouth is powerful. When someone comes to me asking for help or coaching, the first thing I ask is how they initially heard about me.

Almost always it’s from another marketer. “I heard Marketer X mention you on a call.” “I read your ABC report because Marketer Y was selling it.” “Marketer Z recommended your products and here I am.”

These folks find me the same way I find someone to put a new roof on my house.

Now here’s the trick and it’s a beauty:

This guy I know – we’ll call him Ralph – is quasi famous in the marketing realm these days. But back when he wasn’t as well known, he decided to white label much of his content. We’re talking about maybe 50 reports, some videos, a couple of ebooks, several courses and so forth. It was a ton of stuff.

He held back his best and more recent products and content for his own use, but everything else was up for grabs with white label licenses.

This means other marketers paid him for the right to sell his stuff, but there was a catch: Marketers who bought the white label rights could not change his stuff in any way. They had to leave Ralph’s name and URL on everything they sold.

Ralph’s marketing friends told him he was nuts because white labeling would devalue the products and his good name. They said he was giving away his business. They said it would be the end of him.

Not true, because here’s what happened:

First, Ralph made a lot of money selling the white label rights to other marketers. He was able to show how well they converted by sharing his stats, and the rights sold like hotcakes to marketers who knew a good deal when they saw one.

Second, these other marketers made a lot of money selling Ralph’s products. Remember, they got to keep all of the profits they made, so they promoted them like crazy.

Third, thousands of people who had never heard of Ralph before purchased his products, read and consumed his stuff and then went straight to the source to get more.

Ralph’s list of buyers swelled to epic proportions. Think about this… these were people who had already read Ralph’s reports or watched his videos. They liked what they saw so much, they clicked over to Ralph’s website to get more of his content. They signed up to Ralph’s list and many of them immediately started buying Ralph’s premium content because they already knew, liked and trusted Ralph.

Whoa.

If you don’t see the power in this, reread that last paragraph again.

Some of these people went on to spend thousands of dollars to get coaching from Ralph, too.

Ralph didn’t need to hard sell to all of these new subscribers because they already knew him and loved his content and products. There was no resistance to overcome.

A marketer they already trusted recommended they buy Ralph’s report, video, course or book. They liked it and became Ralph’s customer, too.

It’s incredibly simple. I wish I could tell you there was more to it, but there wasn’t. Ralph placed a compelling offer in each piece of white label content, right after the title page. “Come to Ralph.com/wow and get a free copy of Blow Me Away Marketing.” That’s it. Names have been changed, of course.

Could you do this yourself? Yes, if you already have products you can white label. But what if you don’t have a lot of content for which you can sell the rights?

My suggestion would be to get busy. Spend a year creating lots of great content, including dynamite reports that solve a single problem. Sell them, build your list, and keep track of your stats.

Then in the second year, offer your list the white label rights. Tell them the stats of how well these products sell. Be sure to include your name, landing page and call to action in every piece of content.

And watch your new customers join your ranks by the flock.

Really, it sounds like a blast to me, and something I’ll be working on myself.

Noah Kagan of AppSumo is known for starting several companies and growing them to 7 or 8 figures in revenue.

Recently, while participating in a 24-hour business challenge to prove that anyone can start a business today, Noah asked his followers what business he should start.

The answer? Believe it or not, the answer was beef jerky.

One day later Noah reached the goal of earning $1,000 in 24 hours. In fact, his total revenue in the first day was $3,030.

Here’s how he did it:

• He located a source for his jerky.
• He made a basic budget to work out how much he needed to sell to clear $1,000.
• He made a customer avatar to determine who he needed to target.
• He sought out people who fit the customer avatar.

Yes, it really was that simple.

The question is, what action did Noah take that most aspiring marketers fail to do? Did you catch it?

The avatar. Noah made a customer avatar so he would know who to target. Once he knew who his customers were, he looked online to see where they could be found and he reached out to them.

Knowing who his ideal customer is has been a cornerstone of all of Noah’s business success stories. And creating the avatar, crafting personal messages to the avatar and then finding people that match the avatar has enabled him to be successful in just about any business he starts.

If you don’t know who your target audience is, then it’s nearly impossible to find your customers or create an effective marketing strategy.

“But I don’t need an avatar for my little business, right? Noah is a big time marketer, so that’s fine for him. I just want to sell my stuff, not waste time with some silly marketing exercise.”

If that’s what you’re thinking, you’re not alone. You want to get busy making money as fast as possible and I totally understand that.

But creating an avatar for your business will actually SAVE you time and MAKE you more money, I guarantee it.

First, what is a marketing avatar?

Simply put, it’s a fictitious person that represents your ideal customer.

And your ideal customer is the person most likely to repeat buy from you, be loyal and recommend your product or services.

Naturally, your ideal customer is the one you want to attract with your marketing.

And before you can create an effective marketing campaign to attract your ideal customer, you must first know who that is. In other words, know your avatar so that you can locate and accurately engage with those most likely to buy from you.

Simply targeting anyone and everyone doesn’t work because it’s too general and not cost effective.

Imagine if you target everyone: You might reach a thousand people before you stumble on one buyer.

But by targeting your perfect customer, your advertising costs will plummet and your conversion rate will soar.

Once you have your avatar then the conversations you design will address your audiences’ wants and concerns. You’ll know where to reach your customers and you’ll know how to make offers they naturally respond to.

When you create a customer avatar, you’ll…

• Be more effective in your advertising
• Learn which social media platforms your customers follow
• Won’t waste advertising budgets on the wrong platforms
• Create branding that specifically appeals to your ideal audience

Entire books and course have been written on how to create your customer avatar, but for now let me give you a few pointers…

First create a name and physical description.

Think of a loyal customer who champions your products and is quick to leave a stellar review. What will you name this person? What do they look like?

Next, zero in on demographic details

Create a well-rounded vision for your avatar. Determine demographics such as:

• Age
• Income
• Amount in assets
• Geographic location
• Job
• Homeownership status
• Marital status
• Parental status
• Pet ownership
• Educational status

Finally, flesh out their humanity

This is a (nearly) real person, not a robot. Add the emotional elements of personality that will come into play when they are deciding whether or not to purchase your product. Figure out:

• Their pain points
• Their personality characteristics
• Their fears
• Their desires
• Books, movies, music, tv shows and websites they consume
• Their hobbies
• Their favorite celebrities

When you finish this exercise, you should feel like you’re friends with your customer avatar. You should be so connected with this imaginary person that you’re inspired to work just for them.

This is the person you will aim all of your marketing, all of your advertising and all of your product creation towards.

This is your ideal customer; the one that – if you play your cards right – will make you rich.