Hello again my friend,
Yesterday I wrote to you about the death of the ethical bribe.
In that letter I promised I’d share some of the things you can do right now to prepare your business for the changes that are coming.
I get the sense we are on the edge of some very big changes in the digital business/marketing world.
For the past decade we’ve been using the same strategies pioneered in the early 2000’s to grow our businesses.
Squeeze pages, free reports (ethical bribes), social media marketing and paid ads, along with email have been harnessed to grow a following and make sales.
But things are changing.
Change on its own isn’t a bad thing. Change happens whether we like it or not so I’ve learned to be comfortable with it.
It’s not change that worries me but the rate of change. Things are happening fast. Apple has already managed to crush a big chunk of the digital marketing world by preventing apps from tracking you, masking you IP address and coming soon, the ability to hide your email address when you sign up for stuff.
If all this change has your corn hole puckering a little bit, here’s what you need to do starting today.
1. Build a email list based around recurring value
rather than one-and-done.
Here’s how lead generation has worked for years; You throw up a webpage offering a report, webinar or anthing else with a high perceived value.
Once you get their email address you pound them with offers until they buy something or unsubscribe.
But if the ability to capture leads from freemium offers is ending our focus needs to shift to recurring value. This is WAY harder.
For example, I write this email every day. It takes 20-40 minutes to write one letter and that doesn’t include my thinking time. But when people sign up there is no question what they are getting. It’s called The Daily Alchemy for a reason. I email daily.
If someone is on my list I have a high confidence they are giving me a good email because why else would they be signing up?
2. Create and Control your own narrative
I’ve been saying this so often I sound like a broken record. Your “brand” is the most important thing you can be focused on right now.
Controlling what is known about you, and said about you is critical to your long term success. In a world where everyone’s an expert, no one is an expert. We’ve grown skeptical of anyone talking into a camera promising to fix our problem for a fee.
The only way to overcome this is through good old fashioned relationship building. Reputation and trust take time to build so you might as well start early.
3. Build Celebrity not Value
This is not an excuse to take a dump in a box, mark it guaranteed and sell it. (Thanks Tommy Boy)
Like it or not, Kim Kardashian sells more workout videos than most fitness experts. Her celebrity has brands coming to her, willing to pay a million dollars or more for a single instagram post.
But you don’t have to be a global super-influencer as Kim to capitalize on a little celebrity. What you do need is a little “Niche Fame”.
Niche fame is all about being a recognized authority figure in your industry. Who you are seen with, where you are seen and how often you’re seen all add to your niche fame.
So start putting yourself out there. Get on a podcast. If no one decent will have you, start your own podcast and invite notable people on.
Last year I had the opportunity to interview Dean Graziosi, a famous entrepreneur who now owns mastermind.com.
The recording of that interview is on my youtube page and as of today has over 19,000 views.
That interview raised my celebrity in the minds of many who already see Dean as the second coming.
4. Start developing your own social channels
Social giants like Facebook and Twitter have become the new gatekeepers. They control who can speak, what they can say and who’s allowed to hear it.
Building a huge social media following has less value today than it ever as. But building a community of like minded people who are interested in what you do has massive value.
I’ve done this with our Nomad Network. It combines a traditional feed like you’d find on Facebook along with group chat, private messaging and a resource library of on-demand training.
If you’re not a member yet you can join here for free: https://www.stapletonagency.com/nomad-network1617822560645
As a result we have hundreds of new and aspiring entrepreneurs sharing ideas, building relationships and doing business together.
In fact this week one of our members, Joe Prim is hosting our Live Wednesday Q&A to share some insights from his new book “OPEN – Six Life Changing Principles that are Easy to Implement, but Difficult to Master.”
The training is available to all our members for free as part of their membership.
This letter turned out to be a lot longer than I thought it would be and we’re just scratching the surface.
But I hope this gives you some ideas and lights a fire under your ass to start building out some of these new marketing channels.
Until tomorrow,
Jason
English