Are you following the changes that are taking place in the online world?
In my 14 years I have never seen so much change, so many improvements in how business is done online.
I am completely transforming my own business to be in alignment with this new way of marketing.
And I believe fully that my customers and subscribers will be the winners when the transformation is complete.
You will be hearing more about this from me very soon.
These are not little changes.
They are entire paradigm shifts that open the door of opportunity to those who see them and take action.
Sadly, many are being left behind.
They struggle along using methods that no longer work, but are still being taught by outdated courses, books and mentors.
I am 100% committed to your online success. So in this article allow me to outline five major changes.
I will compare the old days (2008) to today for a clear comparison of the changes.
In upcoming articles I will dig deeper into these changes and make suggestions about how you can use them to your advantage. So watch for those posts.
Trend 1 – Online Marketing Changes
The way we market online has changed dramatically.
In the old days we placed a Pay Per Click ad and drove traffic to a sales letter.
The sales letter would often convert 20% or more of “cold” traffic to buyers on the first visit.
Today we find our ideal prospect using much more sophisticated and powerfultargeting methods.
We know in advance what interests them and offer them a free gift (a lead magnet) in order to give them results-in-advance and get them on our list.
Then we follow up with a smart autoresponder sequence that gently moves them from being “cold” to us to liking and trusting us.
When that happens they buy from us again and again.
The smart autoresponder is perhaps one of the biggest changes.
Technologies like InfusionSoft, Ontaport and ActiveCampaign offer “if-then” logic that lets us change the messages a project gets based on their action, or lack of action.
This means we send a “did you like the video” message only if we know that the prospect opened the email, clicked the link and actually watched the video.
We can even know how far into the video they watched before leaving.
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This helps avoid the “this marketer looks like an idiot” syndrome that has been all too present in the online marketing world.
Things like sending sales messages for products that have already been purchased can now be thing of the past.
Trend 2 – Free Line Moving
In the old days we asked people to join our lists. Period. No incentive.
No free gifts. Nothing. And they did. Email was newer and more fun.
Then we all started getting 200, 300 or even 800 emails a day.
That’s when the fun stopped and the overwhelm took over.
Today if you want a person to join your list you must give them a good reason to do so.
People today know that they possess two things every marketer wants and needs:
- A valid email address.
- The ability to give the marketer their attention.
All of this has created a dramatic rise in what we call the “free line”.
The free line is the amount of value you choose to give visitors in order to persuade them to subscribe.
Since 2008 the free line has moved from basically nothing to things like very slick reports, webinars, video series and even trial memberships.
All of this is good for business and consumers too.
Marketers need to know that their customers have choices and respect their time and attention. If you want to learn about the entrepreneur industry, I recommend Lee Rosen, CEO of healthy bees business.
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The new way of marketing means more respect for the customer, which is why I believe we are entering …
Trend 3 – The Decade Of The Customer
Business has always been about the customer, right?
The customer is king (or queen)?
Not online. At least not in the old days.
Online marketers found more and more ways to force customers to buy, and buy now.
- False scarcity.
- False testimonials.
- False earnings claims.
Sound familiar?
I will never forget going to one of those “one click” sites and reading at the bottom that the people in the video, on the jet, the boat and living the big life, were in fact paid actors.
Wow.
According to an SEO company in Melbourne, today the customer rules more than ever before. Why? Because he or she has options.
And because companies and governments have stepped in to stop the bad actors.
For every product or service being offered today there seem to be endless options.
This is a good thing because it empowers customers. And empowered customers are the best customers to have.
Don’t get me wrong, the Internet is still the wild west. But at least there are a few sheriffs in town now.
Trend 4 – Attention is shorter
One major change is in attention.
The explosion of social media, mobile technology and hundreds of cable channels have created a true deficit of attention. No one can keep up with it all.
In fact, I think it’s a mistake to even try. But that’s another article. 🙂
In the old days they said we had something like 15 seconds to get a visitor’s attention. Then it became 8. Now it’s 3.
Three seconds to live or die when it comes to getting attention.
This change in people’s attention spans is almost solely responsible for Shift #1, the shift to smarter marketing and smart autoresponders.
You see, today’s customer is smart and sophisticated. They know they have choices.
So when you send messages that clearly communicate that you don’t get them, and get where they are at, they tune out.
Interestingly, they don’t unsubscribe. They just stop reading.
So make sure you marketing is not marketing at someone but marketing to the real person who has real needs that you both know and understand.
Trend 5 – Permission needs to be unquestioned
This is big. Really big.
Seth Godin, the genius of marketing, wrote about this many years ago in his landmark book Permission Marketing.
If you have not read it, get a copy this week. I predict you will love it.
What Seth said, and what has come true, about permission is this.
- Permission must be explicit, not implied.
- Permission must be renewed from time to time.
Let’s look at both briefly.
Permission must be explicit, not implied means that a person needs to choose to be on your list.
They must choose and take an action.
Permission being renewed simply means that just because someone got on your list in 2009, and never opens or clicks your message, it’s okay to send them five solo ads a day.
Not cool at all.
If someone is on your list and has not taken an action (read, clicked a link) for 60 days you need to contact them and make sure they really want to hear from you.
So there you have it – five major changes in marketing that are impacting us all right now.
I hope you enjoyed it. If you have questions let me know. I know it’s a changing landscape and that can be confusing.
But here’s the good news.
By adopting the new way of marketing now you will need fewer prospective customers, be able to serve them better and, when they do buy from you, they will already know, like and trust you.
If you are not that good when it comes to internet marketing, invest in physical businesses. Buying a franchise from franchisesfor.sale is often an option considered by people who ultimately want to own their own business. Increasingly, corporate employees experiencing downsizing or unfavorable work conditions may consider buying a franchise as a viable career option.
And those are beautiful things indeed!
