MarketingSecrets.com Blog

I thought it would be fun to take a look back at what Internet marketing was like 10 years ago. I think it can teach us several things about where we might be headed and how to improve our marketing...

I started marketing online in 1990. Yes, back in the dinosaur online marketing days. I did most of my marketing on AOL, Prodigy, CompuServe, Delphi, and other online services.

But by 1994, things were starting to heat up (marketing-wise) for the Internet. Here's an actual photo of what the bedroom in my apartment looked like in 1994...

I was definitely in Super Nerd Mode back then. I had all those computers running, and each was doing a different thing. Some were being used for posting classified ads, others were being used to run little scripts that I wrote that would pull content from several sites I kept regular tabs on, and others were for just poking around online to see what other opportunities I could find.

My bed was actually about 3 feet away from those computers. It was easy access to just roll out of bed and get to work.

For any Mac fans, that little sucker on the far left is actually a Mac SE/30. I started one of the first autoresponders services for Internet marketers back then (just a little piece of trivia for you) and it actually ran on that computer. It initially ran on a 28.8 dial-up modem. I had a script that would run every 5 minutes to check and see if the modem had dropped carrier or not (i.e. disconnected.) If it had, the script would make the modem automatically dial the ISP back and log back in.

And let me just take a moment to once again say, "THANKS!" to my good friend, and super duper Internet marketer, Paul Myers of TalkBiz.com. Paul was actually one of my original autoresponder customers way back in the day. If it wasn't for Paul's 10 bucks a month, who knows, MarketingSecrets.com might not exist today. So thanks again, Paul. :-)

I eventually had a T1 line going into that room back then. I think it cost me almost $4,000/month with the router lease and everything. I remember when the Sprint techs would come out to service the line they would give me really strange looks -- like I worked for the CIA or something. It was actually really cool. :-) Geek power at its finest.

Back in 1994 and a few short years after that, you could put up almost anything on a Web page and people would respond to it. Heck, one of the most popular sites back then was a site called the "Big Red Button." It was simple an image of a huge 3D red button. That's it. Well, thousands upon thousands of people linked to this page, passed the URL around, and went to that web site. Just to see the big red button and click on it -- which would do nothing. It was a funny little piece of the Internet culture back then. But it had some very important implications for marketing...

Internet marketing (the most powerful form of direct marketing ever) is all about CALLS TO ACTION. In other words, what we want people TO DO. Whether that's opt-in to a list, download a PDF file, or even submit an order form to buy something from us. The list goes on and on. But back in 1994 and the early days of online marketing, it was EASY to get people to do anything you wanted them to.

But that eventually changed.

Now there are MILLIONS of web pages online. A gazillion distractions. Nearly every web site on the planet has a call to action of somekind. It's overwhelming for Internet users. Because of all the NOISE online, in order to get people to take a call to action of anykind, you really have to put a lot of work into it. You really have to use solid marketing fundamentals to get them to do it -- and that really brings AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action) into a fullswing like never before.

Here's a great example of "where we've been" and "where we are going" as online marketers...

Let's just take a look at OPT-IN email marketing...

In 1994 you could put up a form on any web page that simply said "submit your email address to get my free newsletter" and *TONS* of people would subscribe.

Then around 1996 or so, it started to become a little hard to get people to opt-in to a free list. So then you had to give more details about the newsletter. You had to say something like, "sign up for my free Gardening Tips newsletter and improve your garden."

But then that stopped working as well. Then marketers started giving their newsletters a VALUE and adding a line like, "join now, the newsletter is a $195 value."

Things continued to evolve. People started offering BONUSES and other "bribes" just to get people to opt-in. Marketers had to get more and more creative in order to get people to take that call to action and subscribe.

And it's only going to get worse.

But knowing this is a "good" thing for you. Because you'll know what you need to do for your own marketing to get people to continue to opt-in to your lists -- which is still a very critical part of making money online.

You need to write a SALES LETTER to "sell" your opt-in list. Thats right. A sales letter. It doesn't have to be very long, but it needs to have all the elements of a good sales letter. We are going to see more and more of this as time goes on. Marketers that are willing to take the extra time to write a little sales letter to "sell" their opt-in list will experience much higher subscribe rates than those that don't. A few savvy marketers are just now starting to use this technique.

In October 2002, I was on a panel at a seminar. All of the panel members were asked to mention something they saw coming in the future for online marketing. I mentioned that good marketers would end up using a sales letter to sell their opt-in lists in order to rise above the noise online and get more people to opt-in. Many people laughed. Some people looked at me like I was smoking crack. But, Paul Myers, who happened to be there and was also on the panel, looked at me and smiled. Paul knew that this was the future. In fact, Paul shared with the crowd that he had just had a client ask him to write a sales letter to sell an opt-in list.

Write it down and bank on it. THIS is the future of opt-in email marketing.

Here's a great example of what I'm talking about. Take a look at Jason Anderson's Achieve Net Profits newsletter page.

Notice how he has a headline. Testimonials. Bullets. A reason why. A compelling offer.

Start thinking about how YOU can do this for your lists. And, Yes, before someone smacks me in the head, I realize *I* haven't even done this for my MarketingSecrets.com newsletter yet. That's primarily because this site for me has been more of a hobby and more of a "fun" thing than a business -- since MarketingSecrets.com currently has no products or services for sale.

But that will change very soon. And even I will get MY act together. :-)

You can check out another example of this "selling the opt-in" with one of my niche projects -- my "Free Auction Course" about eBay.

You'll notice that example is a little different from Jason's. Some can be short while others need to be longer and more detailed. It's also something that you need to TEST for maximum opt-in rate.