bwagy

Given the huge amount of fun I had last time with Pay What You Want Marketing Advice  I have decided to bring it back for good.

Why did I do it as an experiment? To limit my downside of course.  As I found there was no downside, it was all a challenge and hugely fun.  So now it’s back…

For those who are new the gist is:

You email me with your problems, questions, questions on strategy.

Anything Internet Marketing related.

Who is this suited for? Any kind of business, maybe your a small business who hasn’t ventured online, a tourism business, owner operator, b2b, b2c….

You probably have made cuts of your marketing expenditure.

And so you should if it has questionable returns.

BUT with internet marketing you can measure your returns. Down to the dollar.

If you know how.

So to help clear misreprentations about it and encourage spending in internet marketing I am doing this.

The catch? Well the catch is I ask you to pay me what you think my information to help you out is worth to you. If its worth nothing pay nothing, if its worth $250 pay that. Up to you, no pressure, my aim is to help you.

I just want to repeat that, my aim is to help you!

Basically you email me ben@bwagy.com with the subject line ‘pay what you want’, I give you a hand, you pay me what you think it’s worth via paypal.  It is probably the best way to get advice from me without committing to a contract.

Please note a few things:

1) Give me some background information about your company, clients (in the email).  I can clear up to several thousand emails in a busy week so if you have all the information in the email helps me out (vs a web address for more info).

2) If I help you, could you post feedback in the comments below (good or bad, mostly good Im sure)

3) Forward to friends this post to help them out.

This article on Avon (the direct sales company which recruits people to sell their cosmetics product for them) came through my inbox Avon experiencing strong growth.

In New Zealand over the past few weeks 1,500 people have signed up to sell their products!

This on top of a 27% increase in sales so far this year.

Their model (from a potential sales persons point of view) is we help you build your income.

To the recipient you get catered at home service to sell you the products you actually want.

No need to go to a store, deal with a rude staff member, battle the crowds.

Stay at home and let someone you know come to you and help you with your cosmetic problems.

I wonder what’s next, bloggers selling avon products? An Avon video blog? Wonder if they have affiliate sales…. huge opportunity for growth.

The query is then, they are soaring in a downturn, what happened when times were good? Or have they always done well and are just now doing better.  

Either way if you can position yourself to cater directly to your markets needs and by doing so deliver real tangible value, it’s not hard to sell.

They’ll only steer you from your course.

Listen to those that get it, talk with them, help them spread your ideas.

By pandering to those that have no motivation than to drag you down, you end up where they want you to be.  And that’s not cool.

So forget the critics!

A completely unknown benefit of pursuing your dreams is that of the hidden business angels.

These are people who are successful in their own right, who take a fancy to what you do, and offer a hand.

Whereby it be business advice, a dead arm when you need it (keep you grounded) or hey I think you slipped up here.

They listen without assuming, provide real advice without catches, genuine people who want to help.

This is just my post to say thanks to those that have done so with me and those that do so for others.

You are all legends.

Giving away stuff for free is such a joy.

• Advice
• Coffees
• Ebooks
• Connections
• Services & time

It is so relieving; not stressing about making a few bucks on an ebook, or negotiating rates for a hour long meeting.  Worrying I am not getting enough money. I don’t make any money off this and never intend to do so, I do it for fun. 

By deciding this is what I do for free.  This is where i make money and this is where I don’t.

It let’s me get those things done, no stress, then focus on those that make me money.

The crucial thing is the free doesn’t destroy business value, it forces you to focus on areas where you extract additional value.

What barriers can you destroy? To unlock what you have and just give it away for free? Be it reports, knowledge, ideas, systems…

Unlocking these expands your presence in your market and thus your opportunity to maximise the cashflow opportunities.

Some guidelines for internet entrepreneurs developing their early stage marketing strategy:

• SEO is about branding, it takes time, it does pay off, but don’t expect overnight success.  Expect months of hard work to recreate the apparent look of overnight success.
• PPC is great if you can sustain it.  Often you are developing or creating a segment of which it is hard to get a return on this initially.  If you are in the rare stance of breaking even or making a profit (whilst in startup mode) go horizontal, invest in MSN, in Yahoo.  Get their lower competition marketplaces to help you drive profit.
• Viral tactics are just as the term describes, tactics.  They help provide a short term boost, or add the icing to the cake.  Realise this and use it to your advantage.  Solid business growth still comes from delivering insane value to your customers and looking after them.
• Marketing results always take double the amount of time that you predicted, it takes time to refine your strategy, make the technological changes, talk to all developed parties.  However picking up the phone and calling your existing clients can be done today.
• Focus on building brand name searches, measure the numbers of visit by your brand, focus on pushing that.  No one can compete when people are motivated to look for you.
• Do not skimp on metrics, use Google Analytics, capture all that you can (helps for future analysis) but focus on the key metrics that drive your business today.  Match them to business objectives and real dollars in the hand. 
• Blogging will be your #1 Marketing Tool if you use it wisely, so only blog if you’re going to do a good job of it.
• Communities are fantastic but like blogging require a lot of work, if you are time poor this may not be your best approach.  It is better to not do it at all than do it miserably.
• The best people you can hire (if you need hire at all) come from referrals, they don’t need splashy websites to sell themselves, their clients sell them.
• Free is good, creating a product that people marvel you charge so low for it is better.  Case in point Basecamp.
• Stick to your strategy, it will naturally evolve over time but if you quit because you don’t get instant results you are following the path to mediocrity.
• ALWAYS (and I mean ALWAYS) question those that provide marketing advice, it helps you understand their thinking and helps them learn about you.
• Once you have your strategy get onto it, there are a thousand ways to skin a cat, focus on yours.  Marketing fads come and go.

And finally….Stop procrastinating and start now!  Many entrepreneurs know what they need to do, they just don’t do it, like this blog I just do it, not spend all my time talking ….

Running early for a client meeting a fortnight ago I pondered Twitter business models, so here are the results of that brain storm.

Models seen in action:

• Simple sales channel:  Push special twitter sales via twitter, coupons, don’t dilute keep them timely, relevant
• Customer Service:  Answer questions via twitter, talk to clients
• New Product Development:  Get ideas from your market, market research, watch the conversation.  Sure you can run focus groups but how relevant are they really, get unbiased reviews from real users of your product whilst they use it.  Fast & real time
• Networking & relationship building:  Using the networking model to meet people on a local or global scale, help draw people to your website, ensure that you can convert on your website.
• Building a niche audience:  To pour qualified prospects into your sales channel.

Potential Models I have yet to see utilised:

• Sell subscription to your network:  Have a free network of tweets, then charge for private access which includes coaching, marketing help, health etc.  (Used by the protect updates feature).
• Provide free data:  Users can take a new action to generate some dollars (ie free weather, txt for hourly forecast or traffic reports).
• Extra service layer:  Provide dm reminders of appointments, or account balances, notifications of specials.  Perfect for service based industries like mobile, banking, auction sites.
• Sponsorship:  Sponsor some twitterers to join in their conversation, or to mention your account, or to generate a conversation with them.  Like endorsement good to be seen with the right people.
• Gaming:  Provide a text like game, interacts with your brand, charge for upgrades.

The loose platform for conversations has huge huge potential, it is just narrowing down the kind of conversations you can build or extend a business off.