The Six-Figure Second Income: How to Start and Grow a Successful Online Business Without Quitting Your Day Job (22 page)

Physicists measure the radioactivity of different substances by their half-life, or how long

it takes for the substance to lose half its radiation strength.

Sources of leads act the same way: Certain new techniques explode on the scene

and are gone in a matter of months or even weeks. Others seem to stick around forever.

It’s fine to have a mixture of the two as long as you realize that they al decay over time to

some extent. That means they’l need your periodic attention to reinvigorate them or

swap out one technique for another.

Principle Three: There Is No One Single “Best” Lead Source for Everyone

You should build your business on as broad a base of lead sources as you can. One very

smart marketer was on a panel discussion at an event and people were astonished at

how quickly he could move into a territory and generate business for a new medical

practice. Someone asked him, “What one technique do you use to get 80 customers per

month when the industry average is only 10 or 20 per month?”

His response: “I don’t have one technique that delivers 80 customers to me each

month. I have about 80 techniques and each one delivers about one customer per month

—and I use al of ‘em.”

Now that’s a broad base on which to build a business. Let’s say a few of those

techniques have real y short half-lives and quickly decay into nothing. This marketer wil

notice a dip on his lead-source report and can then swap out those techniques for

something better—maybe the next new thing. Compare that to the predicament my Açaí

berry friend was in, whose single-source business became toast overnight.

Principle Four: Don’t Pursue Prospects—Attract Them

In Chapter 1, I (Dave) told you about the mil ions of dol ars I’ve made by sending letters

to potential sel ers of real estate asking if they might be interested in sel ing their

property to me. While other investors beat themselves up with the rejection of having

doors slammed in their face as they go from house to house, I wait for a motivated sel er

to cal me.

It’s how you wil stay in the marketing business for a long time and how you wil thrive.

Maybe you’re twice as tough as the next toughest guy with the thickest skin, but continual

rejection—year after year—sooner or later wil eat through that skin and you’l get out of

the business. Avoid that whole world of pain by sending out your message and waiting

for people to raise their hands and say, “Tel me more.”

It’s a paradox, real y—the more you pursue people the less they want what you have.

But when you make it known that you have something but you’re not pushing it on

anyone, suddenly the defense mechanisms come down and people open up to you.

The best way to make it known that you have something of value is the fifth and final

principle.

Principle Five: Give Before You Get

I discussed this one in Chapter 3 in the context of special reports and it’s true with

practical y al lead-generation sources.

Remember our discussion about kidney stone remedies and how you don’t have to be

a doctor in order to be successful at marketing such a report? You’re not going to be

successful if your marketing is nothing other than, “Buy my home remedies for kidney

stones.” It stil is unlikely to work even if you dress it up with smooth promotional

language and throw in modifiers like, “The instant you open my amazing Home Guide to

Kidney Stone Relief, you’l immediately begin to feel better. In fact, by night time you’l not

even remember that you ever had kidney stones!”

Of course, everyone but the most desperate sufferers would instantly think “
Yeah
right

—another snake-oil
salesman
,” and stop reading.

But what if you gave some useful information about how to tel that another kidney

stone attack was about to happen? And what if you actual y listed several things to try in

order to make the attacks shorter and less painful? You would not have divulged any of

your home remedies but stil you’l have delivered valuable information.

Readers might think, “
Okay
, this guy knows
the pain
I’ve been through because those

were my exact
symptoms
.”

When you give valuable information it’s more powerful than hype, and when you can

avoid the hype then you in effect have stopped shouting at people, and that makes them

open up to you.

THE MOVING PARTS OF A LEAD-GENERATION EFFORT

Now that we’ve busted some lead-generation myths and replaced them with profitable

principles, let’s see how it al comes together in online lead generation.

Step One: Deliver Valuable Information to a Highly Targeted Audience

We just finished talking about that, so you know what’s involved.

Step Two: Direct Them to a Specific Page

In other words, you’ve just captured a bit of their attention and interest by delivering

quality information to them. Now what? You want to strengthen the delicate bond you’re

creating by pointing them to even more helpful information. You should direct them to

click over to your web site in order to get that information.

I estimate that 80 percent of businesses get this step wrong. Not only do they market

to a far-too-general audience, such as the fishermen example we discussed, but they

then direct visitors to the home page of their business.

That is a highly ineffective way to market. It’s as if you were the Customer Service

Desk at a giant warehouse store and a customer just came to you with a question:

“Excuse me, do you have light bulbs?”

“Yes sir! We stock all kinds!”

“Could you please tell me where they are?”

“Oh, they’re right here in the store, believe me. Just look around and you’ll

find them.”

As sil y as that sounds, when you direct a person to your home page, that’s what

you’re doing.

Profit Rule: Before you have the name of a visitor, put blinders on that person and

deliver only highly targeted and relevant information to that person’s interests. After

you have visitors’ names, show them whatever else you want.

There’s only one exception to that rule and it’s that you can send people to your home

page only if your entire site is highly targeted. If you build a custom site just about

Schnauzer grooming, then perhaps your visitors wil feel right at home on the home

page. But if you have a site al about dog grooming and you’re now focused on a

Schnauzer grooming info product, you must take them to a page al about that one topic.

Those pages are often referred to as landing pages.

Question:

“But that’s a lot of work!”

Answer:

So what’s your question?

“Can’t I just have a Schnauzer Grooming menu item on my home page?

Question:

They can read, after al . Won’t that be good enough?”

No you can’t, for two reasons. First, you’re assuming that they wil find the

Schnauzer Grooming link but you might have two dozen other breeds listed.

Answer:
Their link might be lower on the page and you’re now making them hunt for

it. In other words, you’re too lazy to send them to the right page but you’re

hoping they won’t be too lazy to hunt for the correct link. Bad assumption.

Second, by taking them to the page with al other dog breeds, you’ve just blown your

aura of specialization. People want specialists. If I have a heart condition, I don’t want a

general practitioner—I want a heart specialist. If visitors absolutely love their cute little

Schnauzers and think they’re just the finest dogs on the face of the earth, the last thing

they want is to be taken to a dog site with 40 other breeds, al getting more or less equal

attention.

Step Three: Reinforce that They’re in the Right Place

To recap, visitors read a useful article about Schnauzer grooming in Step One and liked

what they saw. They then noticed a link at the bottom of that article saying something to

the effect of: “This article is by Mary Jones who’s a devoted Schnauzer lover. If you would

like more tips on how to care for your own Schnauzer, just visit her site at

www.SchnauzerSecrets.com.” Here’s the point of Step Three—when visitors click on

that link, make sure they immediately see something reinforcing that they’re in the right

place.

There’s a measurement tool cal ed bounce rate, which means how many people arrive

on your web page and never click any button before leaving. It’s not uncommon for sites

to have a 60 to 80 percent bounce rate, or even higher. That means most of those

people land on the page, take a glance, and decide, “
That’s
not what I
expected
.” Do not

go to al the effort to get people to your web page and then have almost al of them

bounce. Instead telegraph the message,
″You′ve
come to the right place! Here indeed is

more information about your
Schnauzer!″

You can do that with a big bold headline, or a picture of an adorable Schnauzer, or

maybe both.

Step Four: Reinforce Their Decision to Visit Your Site by Giving Them Even

More Information

Most sites manage to get a few visitors only to blow it with an overt Buy Me! Buy Me!

message. Don’t push yourself on them, but instead strengthen that bond by indeed

giving them more information about Schnauzer care. Maybe it’s the very same grooming

topic as you had in the Step One article, but here you go into a bit more detail. You might

have more case histories on the site, or a couple of pointers from people who

approached a grooming issue in their own unique way. Remember that the targeted

readers of this page are passionate about Schnauzers, so you real y can’t overdo it.

Step Five: Explain There’s Even More Where that Came From

This is where you make your offer. You have attracted their attention and given them

valuable information. You’ve had them take action by clicking to your web page and they

realized it is in fact about their precious Schnauzers. You have practiced the principle of

Give Before You Get by giving this helpful information.

Even with al that choreography it’s not yet time to sel them a product! You’re at the

beginning of the first conversation, okay? It’s a little premature to talk about marriage.

It’s instead time to sel them on giving you their contact information. You say something

like:

I’ve just completed a new report on 16 more grooming secrets just for

Schnauzers. As we know, they’re not like other breeds. I’d be happy to send

that report to your e-mail inbox if you put your contact information in the box

below. If you like, you can click the link below and see my privacy policy but

here it is in short: I will never sell or rent your name. I respect the privacy of

other Schnauzer owners and would never violate that. I’ll just use that

contact information to send you the report and other Schnauzer information

from time to time. You can unsubscribe from my private list any time you want

and you’ll never hear from me again.

Al the privacy language is important. People are so sick and tired of spam that you

must gain their trust in order for them to give you their name. I don’t blame them because

I feel the same way.

Warning: Do Not Just Have an E-Mail Box for Them to Fill Out

and Then Take Them Directly to the Report.

If you do that, you’l just have captured a huge number of garbage names along with a

few legitimate ones. Why? Because most people are tired of the tricks and the spam so

they play a trick of their own. When asked for their e-mail address they write down

nonsense like foofoofoo@foofoo .com just so they can get past the current screen and

grab the special report.

Therefore, at the very least this is what you must say: “I’d be happy to send that report