MarketingSecrets.com Blog

"There are no real 'secrets' when it comes to marketing."

How many times have you ever heard any of the following...

"There are no 'secrets'..."

"It's all just common sense..."

"You can find out any information you want for FREE..."

Well, if you're a marketer and you actually BELIEVE those statements all I cay to you is...

GOOD LUCK!

Okay, so this entry is more of a "rant" than anything else, but it's lonnnnng overdue. I'm completely fed up! I'm so sick and tired of reading discussion forum posts online where marketers are giving other marketers advice and they put so much energy into telling people that there, "are no secrets."

People that state there are no secrets (or undiscovered tactics) are basically saying one thing...

"I ALREADY KNOW IT ALL!"

I'm sorry, but NO ONE knows it all. NO ONE.

If you don't know something, it's basically a SECRET TO YOU. There are a gazillion marketing secrets I'd love to get my hands on. For example, I'd gladly pay (RIGHT NOW) $100,000 IN CASH to have a report showing the test results from all of Dan Kennedy's marketing campaigns. Believe me, those are some VALUABLE "secrets." While Dan has certainly shared 'some' of them, I'm sure there are MILLIONS OF DOLLARS worth of value in knowing the rest of the results.

It's also funny to me that most of the people saying, "there are no secrets" in these forums are almost always people that aren't making much money. Another trait they have in common is that they are trying to sell "I'll teach you how to get rich on the Internet" stuff. Why? Who knows. I guess, they actually BELIEVE that they know it all. They just don't get it. Not by a longshot.

It's a FACT... there are thousands upon thousands of marketers out there testing things everyday. There are major breakthroughs and discoveries that are found EVERYDAY. The minute you start thinking that there is nothing new to learn, or nothing new for you to discover for your marketing, YOU'RE IN TROUBLE. Now THAT is a FACT.

There's a reason I personally spend a small fortune buying infoproducts and courses from other marketers. Because *I* will continue learning and evolving as a marketer, for the rest of my life. I realize that there are many people out there discovering things that I will never discover. Now I test things like CRAZY. You should know that by now about me. In fact, I'd be willing to bet that there are very few people on the entire Internet that test more than I do. However, who cares? I don't. Why? Because while I *do* test a lot of techniques and tactics, there will ALWAYS be others that test things I never thought of.

So those people know "secrets" that I don't. I don't know about you, but I'm willing to pay to find them out if they can benefit my marketing.

2005 is coming fast. If you want to have the most successful year of your life, you MUST spend some of your time researching, learning about, and applying the techniques that others have discovered. The only way to continue gradually improving whatever it is that you have is to find new things to test.

On another note... there's one thing worse than a "know-it-all" and that's someone that actually DOES know a lot, but doesn't use it. If you look around, you'll see a lot of marketers like that online. It's a shame. They know a tremendous amount but don't do anything with it -- except spend most of their time preaching to other people that they know it all.

Never stop learning and continue to test the new things that you learn.

Posted by John Reese at 01:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (21)

One of the biggest mistakes I see other marketers make is in their copy and the positioning of their overall offer...

The single biggest mistake that non-marketing-wise business owners make is the focus on FEATURES instead of BENEFITS. Then educated business owners that become decent marketers (or at least think they are) learn to make the distinction of putting their marketing focus into the benefits of what it is they sell, BUT...

I see many marketers (especially online) missing the boat when it comes to using benefits.

One of the greatest copywriters on the planet, John Carlton, teaches a very powerful concept... he calls it the "benefit within the benefit."

For example, if you sell a product that teaches someone how to make money (such as with a stock trading product or real estate investing or business opportunity, etc.) the benefit really ISN'T "making money."

The true benefit for your prospect is about what having that money will do for them.

The focus of your marketing should be all about...

How Will What I Am Trying To Sell Make My Prospect's Life BETTER?

So for this example of selling a product that teaches someone how to make money, the true benefit would be buying a new car, being able to go on a nice vacation, being able to afford a new HDTV set for their home, buying a new boat, a Rolex watch, or maybe even just being able to afford to go to eat at a nice restaurant. Those are the benefits of your offer. THAT is how your prospect's life will potentially be better if they buy what it is that you have to sell.

Let's take another example...

Let's say you sell an infoproduct that helps people cure back pain.

Is the actual benefit "no more pain"? Well, Yes, of course, but that's not honing in on the real "benefit within the benefit." The benefit within the benefit of no more pain would be being able to sleep all the way through the night without tossing and turning because of the pain. Being able to ride in a car with a friend for more than 15 minutes without having to get out of the car to take a break because of the pain. Being able to bend over and pick up your grandchild and see the smile on their face. Being able to play tennis with your best friend again. Etc. etc.

THOSE are the real benefits of what it is that you are trying to sell. The better job you can do of expressing those "benefits within the benefit" to your prospect the more you will sell -- GUARANTEED.

Posted by John Reese at 01:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)