One of the cool things about the pandemic is that there are have been so many terrific opportunities to learn and grow your business both free and paying. And as I’ve listened to such amazing people including Russell Bruson, Suzanne Evans, Jeff Walker, and Eric Lofholm, I had an epiphany.
I’ve heard to many times that marketing principles don’t change.
Human psychology and behavior don’t change.
What does change is the tactics.
But, it’s not really true.
When I started what I did would today be considered a funnel. I gave away a free ebook (and this was 2004 but people were saying ebooks were dead! Kindle didn’t even exist!). I had about two hundred people on my list from networking offline and writing brochures, press releases, and web copy, , but I got into a huge bonus giveaway and got 1600 people on my list in 2 weeks. I gave them what today would be called a masterclass, back then I called it a two-part teleseminar. This allowed me to share my knowledge, let people get that I knew what I was talking about, and then upsell them to my first book-writing workshop. It sold for $197 on the early-bird and $297 regular price.
Today that would be what Jeff Walker calls a seed launch.
I learned from it what I was doing right and what I was doing wrong and I started to refine it. And I started raising the price to reflect the value as I got incredible testimonials. I refined it each time I gave it until I stopped getting requests for more changes. (I’ve given it 30 times as of now.) I then upsold people into my first book-marketing workshop. Today this entire process would be called a funnel.
I enlisted affiliates, and I worked with JV partners. I continued to share great content through teleseminars on a regular basis. We didn’t have blogs or social media, so that was my vehicle for sharing content. But, the principles were the same. I had been doing all the right things all along,
But, when blogs came in and social media and video came in, I had to learn new ways of connecting. But, guess what? The old ways still worked too! I just didn’t realize it.
I still did webinars. But, I used a platform, that isn’t compatible with youtube, so they needed to be redone and some I still need to redo. I still sent emails, I still engaged with my community. Just in more and different ways, but I backed off on the old ways. Big mistake!
Then I finally got it! The principles are still the same, human behavior hasn’t changed and people are still rocking it on the Internet. So, don’t get caught up in the jargon and in the latest tactic or strategy. Don’t make the mistake I made. Keep your eye on the ball and remember what always works and keep moving forward!
