What I Learned From The Best Digital Marketers May Surprise You

When I was undertaking my doctorial research a few years back, my supervisor, Professor Richard Dunford, (now Pro Vice Chancellor at The University Of Newcastle) said I need to be up to date with all the literature around my chosen subject. In fact, he told me to get to know who are all the eminent academics globally. The thought leaders, or expert authorities.

Well I did that and over a period of years, I was like a groupie from The Grateful Dead. I would show up anywhere my “gurus” would be performing.

Sydney? Yes. London? Yes. Phoenix Arizona? Of course! Cape Town, South Africa? Most definetley!

In fact, I think it started to get a bit weird, so I stopped doing that as I could have been arrested.

The point I am making is that I knew who were the global authorities in this field and they knew me (perhaps not always favourably I am afraid).

Now when I started to shift my companies into the digital world of social media and leverage digital marketing, I decided to take a similar approach as I did with my academic research.

You see, I wanted to know who was the very best at building effective online product launches. I also wanted to know who was the very best at writing the perfect headlines to get people to “opt in” to their stuff (products or services). I wanted to see who had “cracked the nut” when it came to building the most effective sales funnels.

When I met somebody who I thought was really good, I would invest in their programs or training. I would also ask them who were their mentors.

In time, the same names kept coming up.

Jeff Walker, Frank Kern, Ed Dale, Russell Brunson, Ryan Deiss and Todd Brown.

It was at this moment, I realised I needed to get to know these people. So these six amigos became my next Grateful Dead Band and once again, I became a groupie!

It is possible you may not have heard of these guys, but they are very good at what they do and of course are rewarded for their talents.

Now, if this is the case for you and you are in the corporate world and you have not heard about them, well be scared. Be very scared!

You see, I have learned three things from these guys collectively...

How I can drive more traffic online.

How I can obtain better conversions.

Finally, how I can increase my sales.

So let me ask you as question... if you are in business today and had the answers to those three questions, do you think that could be possibly helpful to you?

Well, it would be very unkind of me to my "gurus" (once a groupie always a groupie as they say what is said on tour stays on tour) to reveal everything, but I will share with you some simple ideas which I know will still be of value.

Firstly, you need to have an online presence.

I do not care what business you have, where it is or how big or small, you just have to be online. Now this does not always mean you have to have your own website. Nor does it mean you need to use social media, but you do need a presence.

Next, you need to establish what we call a minimum viable funnel (thank you Todd Brown for that concept).

Basically what this means is that there is some sort of advertisement or attention grabbing post, that motivates your prospects to take action and “opt in” by giving you their email address at a minimum in exchange for something that they perceive as value. It could be a report, free gift or some sort of offer that we call an “ethical bribe” (yes there are ethics in online marketing!).

You will then need to learn how to utilise technology to automate these “opt ins” so it runs 24x7 in the background of your business.

Today, the technology available is so awesome when setting up your digital marketing channels. But it is also affordable and in most situations, scalable. All this is important to know when you are starting off your business.

It is also important that it runs in the background because the very nature of digital marketing and sales funnels is that you have at the start, offers which are incredibly valuable that if your prospect does not opt in, then the perceived loss needs to be very obvious to them - the fear of missing out. What this means is that when you have this part of your funnel right, the volume of opt ins can be significant – hence you need to remove any form of manual intervention from this step as much as possible and automation obviously plays an essential role.

Finally, once you get the processes and the technology right, there are expert tips you need to master.

For example, what comes after your ethical bribe?

Are there a series of automated emails?

Or, even before they leave your opt in page, is your prospect presented with another offer, perhaps where they need to purchase an item or a service?

What happens after that? Can you present them with another offer again – this time of even higher value? What if they decline, can you present a “down sell” at a lower price, or may be instead, one that includes a pricing plan?

You can do all this!

You just need to have the big picture or “architecture” of your sales funnel drawn out and then build the process and technology around it. You do not even have to hire a technology expert!

So remember, seek out the real experts, the people who walk the talk – not the ones that just talk!

Also model successful behaviour.

Subscribe to everything from your role models, the leaders of the industry. Even if the offer does not seem personally interesting to you, opt in and see what comes next!

Use screen recording software like Camtasia, so that you can recall all the steps afterwards.

Invest in your education – time and money because you can learn a lot from experts and avoid repeating the same mistakes.

Finally, attend my next online seminar which I will go into this in more depth.

www.technologyonlineseminar.com

You can do this – never forget that!

Dr Ross McKenzie is a global business expert, advisor and mentor, to professionals, micro businesses, startups and multi-national corporations.

As an angel investor, author, key note speaker and founder of several companies that include education, coaching, advisory and outsourcing, he can be contacted at: [email protected]

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