Marketing is all about speaking in a voice your market understands
The Internet Marketing “niche” is one fraught with scams, shady dealings, tactics and hard hitting direct marketing sales letter sites with huge, adjective ridden red headlines.
More often than not, dreams and promises of prosperity are the only things sold for enormous amounts of money.
Monday, January 4th, 2010, my partner in crime, Lynn Terry, and I entered that market with a goal. That goal was to offer a product that we knew would truly help people, rather than just suck money out of their wallets.
We wanted to earn from the product, obviously, but in the back of our minds and in private in our hours-long Skype chat sessions, we saw the need for something solid that served people to a) get instant results immediately after purchasing, b) provide an action plan and the resources to get longer term positive results, and c) provide the info so they could benefit from the product indefinitely.
…because there’s so much crap out there in the Internet Marketing niche where people are buying the dream and not getting results.
These, the people who buy IM products, are good people and they’re trying to get ahead in promoting their sites. They deserve solid products and customer service.
So how did we decide to get this product into the hands of the people who want and need it the most? By speaking in a language they are proven to respond to…
Direct marketing sales letter pages with a huge, adjective ridden red headlines.
We knew this going in – some people out there, in fact, a lot of people, have been sending me messages through various channels saying that our product appears to be a scam, or shady at best.
And I understand their comments completely. I’ve been on the other side of the fence too. I’ve worked for several companies and sites outside the IM niche and done well. I’ve even used some of the tools and techniques I’ve learned from IM and sales copywriting in my work and it’s worked out fabulously.
Anyway, I’m getting sidetracked here.
If I’m working for a tabloid news style site, I’m going to cater to my market there by writing headlines like:
Australian Police under fire for verbally abusing, feeding prisoner garbage
Terror Suspects Say FBI Entrapped Them With Fried Chicken
Woman charged with raping, torturing man with hot curling iron
F-16 Fighters Persue Stolen Canadian Plane over US Airspace
…and when I launch a product in the Internet Marketing niche, I’m going to write a headline like this:
…because that’s what people in that market understand and respond to.
It doesn’t, however, mean that the product is shady. It doesn’t mean that it’s a scam and it doesn’t mean that people are being duped in any way… just because others have taken advantage.
It just means we’re speaking the language of the market. It’s something good marketers do.
And when the market responds with questions, concerns, kudos, doubts, complaints and constructive feedback about the product they want to buy, or just purchased from you, you speak to them in their language.
You make a solid product, launch, sell, provide value, serve and improve… for your market.
Any person or company in any market would do well if they followed this advice.
By Paul on January 5th, 2010
