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You're about to embark on a full year of legal corporate espionage as you spy on the moves of a company that does $10,000 a day in sales (without lifting a marketing finger) as they are guided by Mark Joyner to the next level. |
From: Mark Joyner
Auckland, New Zealand
Tuesday, 9:57 AM
I used to make marketing a lot harder than it really needs to be.
A lot harder.
I'm well-known for many marketing exploits (you can read all about some of them below), but what most people never saw was all of the pain that I experienced, too.
Not just the pain from the failures (boy, I sure made a few idiot blunders, to say the least), but also the pain from the successes.
I used to struggle with every single marketing campaign.
I'd slug it out week after week.
I was an "opportunist" ...
(A nice little diagram below will show you exactly what that looks like.)
If you do business this way, you'll know what I'm talking about.
Even when I was outrageously successful, business was still a struggle for me.
At the end of every marketing campaign I'd be exhausted and spent. Each night I'd go to bed glassy-eyed and exhausted.
But that was before I figured out the secret of what I call "The 4 W.O.M.K.A.I.s."
Listen, if you're struggling, you're doing something wrong.
Think about it.
Struggle only comes from lack.
A lack of knowing what to do - and a lack of confidence to do those things.
That's it.
The reason why "campaign-based marketing" (you know - the kind where your life depends on the results of a new marketing campaign each week) is a struggle, is that you never know what the results will be.
If the survival of your business is based on the success of your marketing campaigns - week after week - each week will be a struggle for you.
It's like living on the edge of a cliff. One false move and you can fall right off.
But there's another way.
A much easier, simpler way that will allow you to ...
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Build a base of loyal fans who steadily and surely bring more and more business to your door.
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Make slow, gradual, almost effortless improvements that will not only consistently increase your sales, but will also make running your business easier and easier.
It all begins with what almost all marketing experts agree is "The Single Most Powerful Force in Marketing."
Yes, most all of them agree on what it is, yet very few actually use it.
And of those who do use it - none do so in a systematic way that can produce a gradual, consistent, and reliable improvement.
What's ironic is that it's not difficult.
It's easy when you know exactly what to do - with certainty - and when you have the right guidance.
Business is only hard when you keep doing stuff that doesn't work.
Do stuff that gets results: well, you'll keep doing it.
Do stuff that doesn't: you'll get frustrated and quit.
More about that later.
First, it's probably important that I let you in on a little conversation.
I made the following posts on the Simpleology Blog in 2007 and they take you through a logical process that's vital for you to understand if you want to take yourself out of this struggle.
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Most people got the question right. Let's see if you do ... September 11, 2007
What is The Single Most Powerful Force in Marketing? If you can answer this question correctly, your name will be entered into a draw to win free access to our newest Simpleology course, coming out VERY soon. No, this is not a trick question. Yes, there most definitely is a right answer. But even if you know it, I can almost guarantee most of what you've been taught about it is dead wrong - and I will prove it to you in full detail over the coming days. Post your answer in the "comments" section below to enter the draw. We'll pick 7 of you, so you have a good chance to win. More details forthcoming ... Meanwhile, if you have not taken Simpleology 102, do yourself a favor and at least give it a rapid run through before you start this next one - it will give you a decided edge. 
September 12, 2007
Word of Mouth Part 1: Why Wow, as I write this, there are 1,176 comments on the last post. And that's not even counting the 200+ comments that were posted in the wrong place ... There are some amazing marketing insights in those comments, so browsing through them will give you a great education in marketing. Now, anyone who knows me knows that I don't really believe there's a "right answer" to anything. Inflexible certainty is a dangerous state of mind - but it's also an amazingly useful one when it's applied to the right ideas. Being certain that the earth is flat will probably cause you a lot of grief. Being certain in your self-worth will probably make your voyage on planet earth a lot more pleasant. Another thing I'd bank my certainty-chips on is the power of Word of Mouth Marketing. There are many marketing truisms. Some of them I agree with - some I think are simply wrong. "The single most powerful force in marketing is word of mouth" is one that just about every marketing expert I know agrees with. I do too, and here's why. Let's compare it to some of the other answers given (which were almost all - by the way - quite insightful and well thought out). Word of Mouth Vs. Great Ad Copy Word of Mouth - the right kind of Word of Mouth (more on that later) - can bypass the copy and go right to the order. If you and your beloved uncle have both been suffering from the same kind of back pain for the last 10 years and suddenly he is "cured" - I doubt you'll need to read much ad copy before trying whatever it was that cured him. That's a gross simplification, but you get the idea. Word of Mouth Vs. Selling to a Thirsty Crowd Selling to a "thirsty crowd" is, in fact, an amazingly powerful way to generate sales. In fact, if you're paying for advertising, it's essential. But to gain access to a thirsty crowd you will always have to invest something. Be it time, energy, or money (or all of the above), there is an investment there that you will have to keep paying over and over again. The burden on you is to make sure you get a "return" on that investment each and every time. With Word of Mouth, your customers go out and find your Thirsty Crowd for you. You do have to make Word of Mouth investments (more about what they are later), but the payoff - when you do it right - will grow on itself. When you find Thirsty Crowds you have a linear investment-to-payoff (or lack thereof) relationship. When you let Word of Mouth find Thirsty Crowds for you, the investment keeps paying off again and again - sometimes "exponentially." But let's be careful about using that word. There are many gimmicky products out there that promise "exponential growth" but they don't really deliver that at all. More about that - and what actually does deliver exponential growth - in the following posts.
September 13, 2007
Word of Mouth Part 2: A Quick Exercise (First, if you haven't read Part 1, scroll down and read it now. In fact, you really need to start with the post "What is the Single Most Powerful Force in Marketing?" Also - we'll be picking the winners here very soon :-) OK, before we get into some real meat here, let's do a little exercise together. Step 1: Find a website that is offering a viral marketing tool. Almost any will do. My Prediction: The copy is probably promising that once you use the tool, you'll get a flood of visitors to your site that you can't shut off and that it will keep growing and growing and growing. Step 2: Go to Alexa.com and type in that URL. Alexa is a service that estimates web traffic to almost any site. My Prediction: You will probably see a graph that looks like this. Either that, or you'll see no real traffic to speak of.
If the tool these guys are offering creates a steady stream of traffic that keeps growing and growing, then ... A. Why aren't they using it themselves? ... and ... B. If they are, why is their traffic not growing like they promise yours will? The answer is easy: the real marketing secret of most Internet Marketing gurus is the product launch. Launches work great. Heck back in the old "Aesop" days (my old company), we used these same tactics all the time. The general idea is pretty simple: Rally the forces of people who own large lists and get them to promote on the same day. Poof! Instant surge in traffic. Instant best-seller. There's more to it (anticipation, proof, motivation, etc ...), but that's the general idea. The problem is, launches will bring in a great surge in traffic, but if what is being launched is without substance, no real Word of Mouth will occur. So, the business model of many IM experts (not the guys I mentioned above, by the way) looks something like this ...
They launch a pretty-good product. The buzz dies down. Move as many people as you can to your list in the process. Lather. Rinse. Repeat. No offense to these guys - many of them are close friends of mine and good people. Some of them are bona fide geniuses. Now, you can make good money like this. Heck, millions even. But with this model, it's like pushing a rock up hill. Every time you get to the top you have to push it back up again. (Known as "The Myth of Sisyphus." The king who was damned to an eternity of rock-up-a-hill pushing. Yikes!) Who wants to push a rock up a hill at all? Let alone over and over again ... Now, take a look at this graph here:
This is the growth of the stock price of Harley Davidson. This only shows part of the picture as they were experiencing true Word of Mouth growth for years before they even went public. Because their stock price is a pretty good reflection of the reality of their sales, they just keep growing. And the bedrock key to their growth is, without question, genuine organic Word of Mouth Marketing. What's the secret? Well, a great product is part of it, but just that - a part of it. Since we know there are a great many "amazingly great" products that have failed miserably, there must be something more to it. There is. Stay tuned closely to this channel over the next few days. 
September 14, 2007
Word of Mouth Part 3: The C-Rate (If you haven't read Parts 1and 2, scroll down and read them now. In fact, you really need to start with the post "What is the Single Most Powerful Force in Marketing?") So far we've learned that Word of Mouth is in fact the most powerful force in marketing. We've also learned that true Word of Mouth doesn't come from viral gimmicks, but from "something else." We'll be learning what that "something else" is shortly. First, let's talk about what I call the C-Rate (short for "Copulation Rate"). This might get a bit heady, so read it 2 or 3 times until it sinks in. It's worth it. Here we go ... The C-Rate is the rate at which a Word of Mouth "virus" generates new "infectees." A C-Rate of 1 would mean that 100 people "in" would generate 100 out. Or 100 customers generate 100 new customers. A C-Rate of 0.5 would generate half as much. That is, 100 customers would generate 50 new customers. Now, it's important to note that this figure is meaningless unless it is measured over time. So, what we really need to talk about are 10 day C-Rates, 20 day C-Rates, and so on ... Let's imagine a 10 day C-Rate of 1.1. 100 customers in, and 10 days later, they render 110 new customers. Not bad at all. In fact, any C-Rate over 1 is phenomenal and is something rarely achieved. 1.1 is astounding. But when you get into rates like 1.3 and above, that's when you get into serious "Tipping Point" territory. Here are two screen shots from my #1 best-selling book The Irresistible Offer (Wiley 2005) that illustrate this point.
Now, see how crazy it gets around 1.31? But actually, 1.1 is pretty crazy, too. See, at Day 10 - those are 10,100 new customers that came in passively. None of the gimmicky viral marketing tools can generate anything close to these types of results. Most companies have a C-Rate of 0.001 or maybe slightly better. But here's the reality no one talks about: anything above zero is actually "good." When you get into the 1+ range your company is growing and growing at a steady rate. The higher over 1 you are, the more rapidly you grow. But what if you're at say ... 0.5? Is that a failure? Not by a long shot. If you have a C-Rate of 0.5 it means that your advertising goes that much further. (Further than you think - do the math and you'll see that 10 days later it's 50 more customers, then at 20 days another 25, and at 30 days another 12.5, and so on ....) Imagine you start an advertising campaign and you get a negative ROI. You spend $100 on an ad, and you generate $95 in sales. That's a negative ROI of $5. But what if those new customers, through Word of Mouth, generate just a few more customers? Well, even a modest C-Rate of 0.25 or less might be enough to tip you over the edge and give you a profitable campaign. But, very few companies can ever make it over 0.25. Those that do have a decided advantage - no matter what business they are in. The sad thing is, attaining 0.25 and sustaining it is not that hard. You should be able to do much better than that if you know just a few simple things. (more on that later) So, as you can see, companies don't just wave a magic wand of "buzzworthiness" over their business and watch the magical numbers start flying in. Word of Mouth is something that must be built, cultivated, and improved over time. The company I'm building right now, Simpleology, is at around 0.8 right now. This is a fete few companies ever achieve, but we will crank it up even higher. It's almost a mathematical certainty. (More about that coming up ...) About 80% of our business comes purely through the Word of Mouth of the people who love our products. Without advertising, without affiliates (we have some great ones, but they only account for 15% of our sales), and certainly without viral marketing gimmicks. So, how does one cultivate genuine Word of Mouth? There are a lot of buzzwords out there that address this, and they sound good when a speaker says them from the stage, but they won't do much for your bottom line at the end of the day. I mean, really. Of all you've read about viral marketing, word of mouth, buzz, etc ... How much of it have you actually been able to apply to your business? What if there was an actual plan you could follow that would actually improve your Word of Mouth consistently and steadily - cranking your C-rate up and up? Keep watching this space ... 
September 15, 2007
Word of Mouth Part 4: Incentivized Vs. Inspired (If you haven't read Parts 1, 2, and 3, read them now. In fact, you really need to start with the post "What is the Single Most Powerful Force in Marketing?") In the last lesson, you learned about a way to measure Word of Mouth. Now I'll show you why it almost doesn't matter. First, here are some facts: 1. According to the U.S. Department of Labor 50% of All Business Startups Fail in the First 2 Years 2. For "MLM" companies, that figure jumps to 90-96% (depending on who you ask - MLM expert Richard Poe says 95%) Hmmm ... Isn't MLM all about leveraging Word of Mouth? If Word of Mouth is so great, then why do 95% of these so-called "MLM" companies fail? It has to do with the difference between what I call "Incentivized Word of Mouth" and "Inspired Word of Mouth." (Not to be confused, by the way, with the excellent "Inspired Marketing" concepts by Joe Vitale and Craig Perrine coming soon ...) MLM, affiliate marketing, bribed tell-a-friend forms, and the like are all "incentivized." That's people telling people for the promise of some reward. "Tell your friends about our new widget and we'll give you a shiny trinket for every one who buys." "Inspired Word of Mouth" comes from a customer's spontaneous desire to tell someone about the product. That's people telling people because they love the product so much they want others to know. Incentivized Word of Mouth can, and should, be at least a part of our marketing arsenal. Affiliate marketing, tell-a-friend forms (if intelligently used), contests ... These are all great ways to give your business a boost. The statistics above, however, would indicate that making it the centerpiece of your marketing plan is problematic. That is, if the word "problematic" does justice to the staggering 95% failure rate of MLMs. The trouble with Incentivized Word of Mouth is that the recipient knows what's going on. He knows you're only telling him because of the bribe. There are varying degrees of this, but to illustrate the worst of it, think back to a time when you were pitched on an MLM. Someone invites you to a "friendly dinner" and suddenly you discover you're being sold something. Ewwww. Any mystery as to why most of these companies have to pack up and leave town? (No offense meant to anyone here - I used to think it was the best thing since sliced bread - and even owned a few MLM companies. Since then I've wised up considerably.) Contrast this with Inspired Word of Mouth .... The conversations are natural. They're not forced. Because the recommendation is genuine, you want to hear it. Not only do you want to hear it, but the message is received so powerfully that it can bypass all skepticism - and almost all other parts of the sales process - and send people right to the order. OK, so is Inspired Word of Mouth something that a company can control? It absolutely is, and that's what we'll talk about in the next few posts. 
September 15, 2007
Word of Mouth Part Interlude: Who's With Me? As you'll recall from our post on the 11th, I said we will release a new Simpleology course very soon. Tomorrow, in fact. Well, that's not exactly true ... Yes, there is a new course there - two new courses actually - but we are not planning to release them to the general public at this point. Instead, we are going to give access to them only to a select few people who choose to allow me to take their businesses on a 1 year journey (called "Word of Mouth Transformation!"). Those people will "self-select" on the 18th of September at 8PM EST. Will that be you? You'll find out in a minute. First, let's talk about what this little journey is - and what it isn't. "So, is this some kind of 'coaching program?" Goodness no. Here's why. Coaching can help, but there's a problem ... Unless you get direct access to a real - truly qualified - coach yourself, you're not really getting coaching. Yikes. (And usually sub-standard training at that, unfortunately. Few companies take the time to perfect step-by-step [and fun!] training systems like we build at Simpleology. It costs a lot more to do what we do, but after reading this series I'm sure you're beginning to understand why we take the effort.) But ... Your coach ends up being an unqualified kid who really doesn't know what he's doing. Such a coach could really wreak havoc on your business by sending you careening down the wrong path. Simpleology could have cashed in on the coaching business a long time ago, but we chose not to. Quality and value are more important to us. The fact is, someone who really knows how to build a multi-million dollar business simply can't afford to spend time coaching you personally, unless you're willing to pay them outrageous sums. Think about it - if someone could build million dollar businesses, why would they charge you $8,000-$20,000 to train you personally for a year? "Error. Does not compute." That's why the coaching is usually performed by recording, or by someone under-qualified. It's the only way to make the economic model work. I'm sure there are some programs out there that are pretty good, but unfortunately most of the ones I've seen are as described above. The next best thing to working directly with a live qualified coach is a "vicarious" experience. It's not quite complete. "Someone Just Flippin' Show Me What To Do!" What if, though, you combine a transformation of spirit with a plan? Keep reading ...
September 16, 2007
Word of Mouth Part 5: "Would Somone Just Flippin' Tell Me What to Do?" (If you haven't read Parts 1, 2, 3 and 4, scroll down and read them now. In
fact, you really need to start with the post "What is the Single Most Powerful
Force in Marketing?") NOTE: We then asked them to listen in to a live webcast where I explained what the 4 WOMKAIs are, and ... (read on) |
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What people learned on that call (we'd replay it for you, but I don't want to put any extra barriers between you and getting started) was this ...
We took a multi-million dollar company through a Word of Mouth Transformation and allowed people to spy on them for a full year.
They reported to us once a month about each Word of Mouth move they made via a live webcast, and revealed their results to the decimal point.
Now, as part of your Word of Mouth Transformation, you'll get to listen in on everything that happened and duplicate their moves.
You'll also get to follow along with the exact same guidance I gave them ...
... paint-by-numbers "stupid easy" guidance ...
... and put your business through its own Word of Mouth Transformation.
The company is the legendary Overcome Everything, Inc - led by marketing genius Tellman Knudson.
Over the two years prior to their Word of Mouth Transformation, I helped them become a multi-million-dollar company. Then, over the course of a year, I coached them on the power of Word of Mouth marketing and they doubled their profits. You get to follow along with every single thing I taught them - nothing is hidden from you.
It's all about making small, consistent improvements to the 4 "Word of Mouth Key Areas of Improvement" (the 4 WOMKAIs).
They are quite simply:
Product
Message
Customer Experience
Referrals
You can remember them this way: "Pump My C-Rate."
It's pretty simple really, and the changes we'll ask you to make are absurdly easy. (As easy as remembering that phrase. Maybe easier.)
But it's one thing to say this. You also need to know exactly what to change, what not to change, what to test, how to test, when to make changes ...
It may sound like a lot to know, but don't worry - we've done all the deep thinking - and heavy lifting - for you.
Read on ...
Paint-By-Numbers
OK, now you have a pretty good idea of what we're going to do for you ...
Taking someone - from "step one" to "step done" - over the period of a year may seem like a giant undertaking (it is), but you don't have to worry about that.
What's important is that we've made it paint-by-numbers simple for you.
You'll giggle to yourself when you see how simple and obvious all of this is.
Let's take a detailed look.
Below is just a sample of what you'll be gaining access to over the next year - month by month - step by step.
It will all start with a down-and-dirty 7 day "intensive" course that is designed to make learning easy and fun. You'll be on your way in a snap ...
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That may sound like a lot of great information (it is), but perhaps the biggest "oh by the way" benefit here is the way we present this information to you.
Aren't you tired of paying people thousands of dollars for a box full of "secrets" that is nothing more than some low-quality audio recordings and poorly edited transcripts?
That kind of thing doesn't fly here at this Simpleology ...
Every simple•ology course is a fun and easy multi-media presentation based on the time-and-again proven technology of Learning and Behavioral Psychology.
(We're talking the real stuff here that works in real laboratories - not the hyped "instant change" fake psychology peddled by the self-help industry.)
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OK, all of this may sound great, but really - who the heck am I to say all of this to you?
With the Internet these days, it's sure easy to put on the appearance of being a reputable company. I can understand why many people have become gun-shy.
So, rather than ask you to believe me, I want to let these folks do the talking for me.
You may recognize some of these names as the greatest business experts alive.
Mixed in with them are renegade entrepreneurs and mom-and-pop business owners I've helped to achieve greatness.
You can look each of these folks up on the net quite easily if you like to verify if what they are saying here is true. (Two of them have passed away, I'm sad to say - so please be respectful to their families.)
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