Copyright © 2008 Mark Joyner Inc. All rights Reserved Please note that this is a limited edition ebook version o the rare out-o-print MindControlMarketing.com. I you did not get this copy rom Simpleology.com, you have an illegal copy o this manuscript.
MindControlMarketing.COM
2008 Foreword from Mark Joyner
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ark, why did you let MindControlMarketing.com go out o print? I can't undererstand why someone with a best-selling book would want to stop selling it.” I’ve been asked that many times, and I guess the short answer is that “money isn’t everything.” It’s a trite cliché, but one that ts. Yes, I could have continued to sell the book, but I didn’t believe at the time that it was the right thing to do. At the time I thought that teaching people about the loop-holes in the human mind that allow people to be manipulated was, while not inherently wrong (it can most certainly be used or both good or evil), not the best place to begin teaching people about marketing. A more wholesome starting point is outlined in the next book I wrote: The Irresistible Oer. In it, I teach people something new in the lexicon o business, but blindingly obvious – that is that the “Core Imperative o Business” is to make an oer. That all business is merely a quid pro quo – a this or that – an exchange o value between parties. To really do business well – don’t dress up your oer – just make one that is so obviously benecial to your prospect that he’d be crazy to pass it up. An obvious truth, but one that is not taught in business school. Instead, we ocus too much on the art ar t and artice ar tice o marketing. We ocus too much on smoke and mirror to make our oers seem like they are more than they really are. And that is what is wrong with Mind Control Control Marketing as a concept. concept. The ideas are
MindControlMarketing.com
extremely powerul, but i you use them as your starting point, you’re you’re starting a broken business. In The Irresistible Oer I talked about “oer intensiers” and that is the rightul place to which MCM should be relegated. Now you know better, and I hope you use this potentially dangerous inormation in that proper context. The Irresistible Oer is reely available at most bookstores and I highly recommend you pick up a copy and keep it on your your bookshel next to your print out o MCM. I you don’t don’t want to purchase purchase the print book, we've included an ebook version at no charge, charge, located in the Bonus tab attached to this product. Another way to use this inormation inormation is to make yoursel less infuence-able. infuence-able. That is, these tricks and tactics are in use all day every day – whether we are conscious o them or not. And those who are using them do not always always have our best interests interests in mind. I we can spot these processes being used against us, it rees us up to make better, healthier decisions. And that is a git that will be worth much more to you ater you use this inormation to make a pile ull o money and then realize, as I did, that money isn’t everything. Mark Joyner Auckland, New Zealand April 2008
MindControlMarketing.COM How Everyday People are Using Forbidden Mind Control Psychology and Ruthless Military Tactics to Make Millions Online
Mark Joyner
Illustrated by Max Kuo
S T E E L ICARUS
Editors: Virginia Duan and Olivia Neri Illustrations: Max Kuo Cover and Interior Design: Sunny Joo-Chen © 2002 by Mark Joyner All rights reserved. No part o this book may be reproduced in any orm or by any means without written permission rom the publisher and Mark Joyner.
Library o Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Joyner, Mark. MindControlMarketing.com ISBN 0-9719-3250-6 Printed in the United States o America
To my sta at aesop.com and to my angel (you know who you are…) M.J.
Acknowledgements First, I would like to thank a ew authors who have inspired me and whom I am pleased to know personally. Too many to list here, but most notably: Jay Conrad Levinson ("Where is my box o Jujubes?!"), Joe Vitale, Joe Sugarman, Ted Nicholas, and Robert Anton Wilson. The soldiers who taught me the most (your ranks have probably changed by now - and we've almost all grown out o touch, sadly): SSG Jimmy Brown - one o my teachers at OCS - your words kept me alive during some o the darkest hours o my military career. LTC David Reaney - my Battalion Commander while at the 751st Military Intelligence Battalion in the R.O.K. - just watching you was a constant lesson in enlightened leadership. Sergeant Major Wun Jo Kim o the R.O.K. Army - who I met irst on the DMZ - you are a wise and earless soldier. SSG (irst name?) Tucker - E-2-10 Basic Combat Training in Fort Leonard Wood Missouri, 1990 - you probably don't remember me, but you were an amazing inspiration. SFC Andy Medler - my "Smoke" while I served my irst "green cycle" as a Platoon Leader in the Artillery - a god-damned pain in the ass that saved my lie and made me look better than I deserved. Command Sergeant Major Randy Woods - First Sergeant while I served in Alpha Battery 1-17th Artillery Battalion - you are the iercest o warriors and i you don't make Sergeant Major o the Army one day it will be a damn crime. I still remember to this day when you and I inally came to terms - your terms - and I was a ar better Oicer rom that day orward. To the ellow graduates o Oicer Candidate School class 3-95. Few o you needed O.C.S. as badly as I did - thank you. To the soldiers o the 751st Military Intelligence Battalion. To the soldiers o the 1-17th Field Artillery Battalion. Copperheads! To all o the soldiers mentioned here - I wonder i you all realize what an impact you had on me? I you're still in - I hope you read these words and can enjoy in the moment the impact you are having on so many lives. And thanks to all who have ever "served." All o my "online marketing buddies": you are just too damn numerous to even begin! You know who you are. You are soldiers in the Army that is taking over the world o business - shhh! My illustrator Max: you took my scribbles and turned them into accurate snap-shots o my brain. Not many could have pulled that o. All my riends and amily - most notably (the ones who believed in me the most): Brande, Jim, Brook, Sarah, Sam, Belinda, Carolyn, Vernon, Lisa, John, Erica, Kylie, the Tower Crew: (Beth, Will, Joe, etc…), Stewie, De-mo, Jimmy N., The Eric-Trish Clan, The Jay-Jeanie-Patsie Clan, Branden W., the old "Skeno" crew: (Vicci, Jeanie C., Andy K., Bessie, Joan, Forrest, Kevin, Steve, A.J., Andrea, Kelly, Bruce, Chris, Jim B. Jr. & Sr., and the list goes…) all sur-brothers past and present, Mom, and Dad. My angel S.H. (you… where do I begin?) Finally, to all o the employees o Aesop.com: thanks or believing.
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What People are Saying about MindControlMarketing.com “Mark Joyner has created extraordinary success or himsel and hundreds o others online. You'll be wise to read how he did it. I did, and it has made me a wiser businessman. Just one idea in this book could make (or save) you millions.” -- Robert Allen, author o “Multiple Streams o Income”
“Mark Joyner blends his remarkable success on the internet with his knowledge o military tactics to create a book on how to succeed on the web that is unlike any other book you'll ind anywhere. His wonderul storytelling ability and Mark's uncanny approach to business is replete with real world examples and poignant lessons that are priceless to anyone wanting to market a product or service on the net. He'll clear up many misconceptions and set you straight on what works and what doesn't work and how to determine the dierence.” -- Joseph Sugarman, Chairman o BluBlocker Corporation
“Mark Joyner is the reincarnation o Sun Tzu, adeptly applying those 6th Century Art o War strategies to a 21st century battleield…the Internet. This man who sells millions o dollars o products online annually and develops sites that get millions o visitors monthly is a tactical genius. He has a unique ability to understand how people buy, and an even more unique ability to get them to buy.” -- Raleigh Pinskey, consultant, author and speaker on “The Power o Choice” www.raleighpinskey.com
“A wise man once said: ‘90% o this game is hal mental.’ In the game o marketing, MindControlMarketing.com will give you a winning mental edge. “Mark Joyner candidly shares dozens o hard-won lessons rom his years as a US Army oicer and Internet entrepreneur. Combined with his mastery o human psychology -- speciically, this guy knows exactly why people buy -- the result is ‘Special Forces’ marketing at its inest. “Nobody else is teaching this stu. Mark's insights into cognitive dissonance, raming, boldness, and military strategy (2,000 years worth!) will help you outlank, outmarket and outperorm your competition.” -- Kevin Donlin, Author, Consultant, Guaranteed Marketing LLC
“Mark's book is not only wonderully inormative, not only exquisitely motivating . . . this well thought out, yet simple combination o art & science is inspiring to the deep-
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est levels o the reader's neuroogy, resulting in ACTION, where it counts most!” -- John J. La Valle, co-author o “Persuasion Engineering ™”
“Don't read this book. Devour it. “MindControlMarketing.com is the most compelling and useul book on Internet Marketing I've ever read. Mark Joyner doesn't hold anything back. He enlightens the reader with gripping examples and riveting metaphors that make this page-burner an instant classic. His ideas will turn your website into a powerul money machine. “I only meant to read the introduction, but I couldn't put the book down. Ater two hours o non-stop amazement, I immediately went to my websites and made changes. My marketing will never be the same. Nor will my income. Thank you, Mark. “I eel guilty that I paid so little and got so much. This is the single most mesmerizing and eective book on Internet Marketing I've ever read. I'm glad I got it beore my competitors did. “Read this book beore your competitors do. “An absolute must or anyone who thinks they know something about Internet Marketing. Mark Joyner is the expert that experts turn to when they want to improve their marketing online." -- Tom Wood, CEO, TheDuplicator.com and HelpHenry.com
“MindControlMarketing.com will, without doubt, be hailed by marketing people as the deinitive work on the psychological principles and military tactics to be employed in successul marketing campaigns. But ... it goes ar beyond that. “It has long been known that, in order to succeed in any business, a person must obey the admonition, ‘Know thysel.’ “Any person reading MindControlMarketing.com will gain a sel-knowledge they will not ind in any o the other strictly ‘marketing’ books. As a matter o act, ater reading your explanation o ‘The Zeigarnik Eect,’ your readers will know or a act why nothing a business person ever does can be inished ... and why it should always be let uninished. “That little secret, alone, is well worth 10-times the cost o the book - but - there are countless lessons in the book or those who want to know themselves. Remember: The same psychological principles and military tactics your readers will be learning to use in their marketing campaigns are being used by those marketers rom whom they
What People are Saying about MindControlMarketing.com
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are buying. “By realizing what motivates them, your readers can better understand how to motivate others. “Though most o your readers will buy and read MindControlMarketing.com to learn to improve their marketing eorts, those who study the psychological principles and military tactics you have explained will begin to understand the mental workings necessary to becoming a real entrepreneur. “Ater reading MindControlMarketing.com, the studious reader will see why their own thinking has kept them just one-step away rom the achievements they desire.” -- J.F. Straw, http://www.BusinessLyceum.com
“How good is Mark Joyner's new book? Last night, I went to bed and started reading it at midnight. I was still reading at 3:00 AM. Then I got up, made coee, and began to revise my web marketing strategy. All too soon it was morning. “Mark Joyner's new book avoids the tedious details and been-there/done-that eeling one gets rom most web books. Instead, he breaks new ground by encouraging you to think out-o-the-box and base your web marketing strategy on lessons learned psychological research and military warare. “Only an ex-military intelligence agent and battleield warrior could write a book that integrates psychology, military history and web marketing.” -- Roger C. Parker, author, “Recession-Prooing Your Web Site,” www.recessionsiteaddress.com
“Mark Joyner helped create cyberspace marketing. He has not only redeined Internet marketing, he has turned it into a sophisticated, yet easy-to-use, moneymaking art orm. With MindControlMarketing.com, the heavyweight champ in viral marketing oers you not only his unique perspective, but his tips, secrets and insights. Want to be a success on the Net - read this book!" -- Anthony Mora, President & CEO o Anthony Mora Communications, Inc. and author o "The Alchemy o Success" and "Spin to Win."
“As an Internet Marketer and CEO, I've seen a ton o people trying to make a buck, regurgitating other people’s ideas and making alse business building claims - but not in this book. Mark Joyner takes psychology and warare, combines them with his real lie experiences and delivers a “must-read resource” or anyone doing or even thinking about doing business online. “I I had this book when I started my online business, I would easily have another
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$1,000,000 in my pocket today! “An innovative masterpiece or getting the competitive edge online. These tactics may be designed or your online business, but they apply to practically all areas o business. So i you are in management, sales, web development, an entrepreneurial startup, or a Fortune 500 CEO - Read and use these strategies - I guarantee you'll love and proit rom them! “This book should be priced at $100,000 or more because i you can't easily beneit rom the tactics Mark Joyner reveals here, then you don't deserve to be online in the irst place!” -- Ford Saeks, President & CEO, Prime Concepts Group, Inc.
“Mark Joyner takes online marketing up to a whole new level with this superb book. He blends solid online marketing experience with little known psychological insights. The book is as enlightening as it is un to read. I you ever dreamt o making a ortune online, this book is mandatory reading." -- Jay Conrad Levinson, author, "Guerrilla Marketing" series o books
“This quirky book, which compares Internet marketing to warare and contains bizarre cartoons, presents lessons on how to succeed in online marketing rom an entrepreneur who has made millions o dollars doing so. For that alone, the book is worth many times its cover price. But the author also restates and makes crystal clear some o the proven principles and tested techniques o persuasion that work in all media. This shows he has amiliarized himsel with the marketing masters (indeed, many are personal acquaintances o his) but in act surpassed them when it comes to applying their methods to the Internet.” -- Bob Bly, Copywriter/Consultant, www.sureirecustomerservicetechniques.com
“This astonishing book reveals how people REALLY think--so you can capture, direct and lead them into buying your product or service. Stories and drawings bring these previously secret principles to lie, making this a joy to read, to boot. I actually took just one clever idea--rom a cartoon, no less--and dramatically improved a sales letter I wrote. Riveting. Mind-expanding. A masterpiece.” -- Joe Vitale, author o "Hypnotic Marketing" and numerous other books and tapes, www.mrire. com
“An extraordinary array o proven business building secrets guaranteed to skyrocket your internet proits upward then skyward! This book is destined to become the classic or leaprogging your online competition!” -- Mike Litman, Co-author #1 International Best-Seller "Conversations with Millionaires,"
“Most people who do brilliantly at something are unable to share the core strategies that enabled their success. Mark Joyner proves he's not most people because in MindControlMarketing.com he reveals the insights and tactics that have guided him - also
What People are Saying about MindControlMarketing.com
unlike most people - to build a super-successul dotcom.” -- Paul and Sarah Edwards, authors, "Getting Business to Come to You"
“Buy and study this book. Reveals the psychological keys you need to earn a ortune online. “Full o jealously guarded marketing secrets by one o the world's most successul online entrepreneurs. Discover how to earn millions with zero marketing cost or risk. Mark Joyner's amazing online success story comes to lie. Mark holds nothing back in this how-to-succeed-on-the-Internet classic. This book is destined to become the online Marketing Bible." -- Ted Nicholas, author o “Magic Words that Bring You Riches”
“Online marketing is the most cost eective way o doing business. Mark Joyner writes in an easy-to-understand way, that makes implementation seem possible.” -- Patricia Fripp, CSP, CPAE, Past President National Speakers Assn.
“Mark Joyner is the real deal -- he knows what it takes to succeed on the Web. That's because he's done, over and over, what so many others have only talked about. I you're ready to learn how to make vast sums o money marketing online, get this book and read every word!” -- David Garinkel, co-author, www.ebooksecretsexposed.com
“The best book o the new millennium!” -- Robert Anton Wilson, co-author o “Illumanitus!”
XI
Contents Introduction Preface
Part One: Psychology 1 Conormity to Group Norms The Herd Mentality and How to Use It 2 Obedience to Authority Yes Sir, No Sir, Would You Like My Credit Card Number, Sir? 3 The Foot in the Door Phenomenon Fending Off Your Mouse Click to Oblivion 4 The Zeigarnik Eect The Power of Unfinished Thoughts 5 Cognitive Dissonance Happiness Means Never Having to Say You're Wrong 6 Conormity to Emotions You Smile, I Smile; You Weep, I Weep 7 Maslow’s Hierarchy o Needs Tapping Into the Pursuit of Satisfaction 8 Framing Beauty May Be Only Skin Deep, But Who Wants to Be Ugly? 9 Uncertainty It's a Sure Thing That There's No Such Thing as a Sure Thing
Part Two: Warare 1 0 Killer Junior Impending Death is One Hell of a Mother of Invention 1 1 Heavy Ground Waging the Economic Art of War
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1 2 Deception Avoiding the Deadly Delete Key 1 3 Concentration Kick Your Opponent Where It Hurts - Right in His Dispersion 1 4 Factors o Recognition Seeing is Believing ... And More 1 5 Continuous Operation How to Keep the Machine Running 1 6 Quick Victories Pick Battles Worth Fighting 1 7 Boldness and Taking Risks The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing 1 8 “Don’t Never Take a Chance You Don’t Have To” (rom the Ranger Handbook) “Bold” and “Stupid” are Not Synonyms 1 9 “Don’t Ever March Home the Same Way. Take a Dierent Route So We Won’t Be Ambushed.” (From the Ranger Handbook) If You Don't Float Like a Butterfly, You're Going to Get Stung by Some Smart Bees
2 0 The Fox and the Rabbit Desire is Everything
Introduction
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hat could I do?
When Mark let me have a sneak peek at this book when it was still in outline orm, I gasped in disbelie. disbelie. I then wrote him him the ollowing e-mail: "Why, Mark? WHY? Why are you releasing this inormation inormat ion to the public? I mean, I know you want to help people, but why release THIS THIS inormation?" He ignored me. He went on to write the irst drat o his book. Ater I saw it, I sent Mark this e-mail: "Mark, again, I strongly recommend that you do do not release this inormation to the public. Isn’ Isn’tt this inormation worth worth more to you i you you keep it yoursel? yoursel? This book reveals how people REALLY think--so anyone can capture, direct and lead others into buying any product or service. Most importantly impor tantly,, do you really want just anyone having this kind o power? I’m not sure just anyone can be trusted not to abuse these ideas. Keep this to yoursel!" Mark disagreed. He said people could protect themselve themselvess when they know k now these psychological tactics. He also said that others could use these principles to ethically make money by persuading others. He went on and completed his book. You're now holding it in your hands. Why was I so concerned about him releasing this material? Is it really all that powerul? Look: Imagine i the deity who programmed human behavior showed you the operating manual he had worked rom. You You would then know the black-holes and blind-spots in people's minds so you could easily capture their attention and direct their behavior. Wouldn't Wouldn 't you hold some truly phenomenal power in your hands? Wouldn't you have to be careul about who you inluenced? Wouldn't you be able to make more sales, lead more minds, and even command segments o the public to submit to mass obedience?
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Mark's book is that very spell book. It reveals the way our minds operate so you---or anyone who knows this once orbidden inormation---can control the behavior o others. I kid you not. Mark has taken his top secret experience in Army Intelligence, his years learning Asian military and martial arts secrets, and his legendary track record or making millions o dollars on the Internet, and weaved it all into a deceptively easy to read little nuclear device: This This book. I have never seen a book like this beore. Ever. Yes, there are many books on persuasion in print. But none have been written by a genius. None have been tested in the marketplace.. None have explored the "command buttons" in the human psyche as this marketplace one does. I actually took just one clever idea rom this book--rom a cartoon, no less--and dramatically improved improved a sales letter I wrote. That may not sound very impressive until you realize I'm considered the hot shot o letter writers. I'm called “the world's irst Hypnotic Writer.” My irst e-book, e-bo ok, "Hypnotic "Hypnot ic Writing, Writing,"" (published by Mark's company), continues to be an immortal best-seller. Yet one little cartoon rom Mark's book, book , illustrating one very powerul psychological insight, helped me dynamite all o my previous sales letters! I've seen Mark use the principles in this astonishing book to make unknown people amous (like me), sell hundreds o thousands o e-products (such as my own e-books), and persuade people to join his ranks (his mailing list is now well over one million names - how ar over one million he won’t reveal, o course). How did he do it? How can you do it? It's all explained in the ollowing pages. This book is riveting. Mind-expanding. Fun. Chilling. Challenging. An unquestionable masterpiece. I urge you to read it quietly, use it secretly, and keep it locked away rom your competitors. -- Joe Vitale, author o "Hypnotic Marketing" and numerous other best-selling books and audiotapes
Preface
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ith a title like MindControlMarketing.com MindControlMarketing.com - the ethical integrity o this book may immediately come into question. Let us address it straight away. away.
The purpose is to teach people how to improve the inluential power o their marketing - speciically through marketing on the Internet. However, anyone who wishes to improve the eectiveness o any marketing endeavor, their ability to persuade, their leadership skills, or even their ability to get along better with their ellow man can beneit greatly rom these ideas. ideas. All o these things can be improved by by having a certain amount o control control over the minds minds o others. Although this orm o persuasion is sometimes extremely subtle, we all practice it every single day o our lives whether we like it or not. Sometimes we we do so unconsciously unconsciously.. Sometimes it is simply to get our riends to go along with our plans, or to get our children to obey, or or our children to persuade us! Yet, we are still practicing practic ing mind control every day. Why not, then, learn to master this art? Somehow, it is socially acceptable to persuade others subtly i done with a smile on your ace. But the minute your intentions become clear, your integrity is immediately in question. I say this is a silly social convention that that insults your intelligence. intelligence. Why not accept your nature and excel at this thing you do? And then we might ask, is inluence inluence per se really unethical? When Gandhi inluenced his people to partake in acts o passive protest, was was this unethical? When the oreathers o the United States inluenced people to rise up against the tyranny o 18th century Great Britain was this unethical? When looking at it this way, it becomes clear that it is not the act o persuasion or mind control in itsel that is unethical, unethical, but its application. Is mind control then only ethical when applied with good intentions? Well, the Nazis believed their intentions were good… One might go urther and say that no matter how well-intentioned, the use o persuasion and mind control to get someone to do anything against their will, no matter how seemingly benign, benign, is unethical. unethical. I am o this leaning. leaning. XVII
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I would put orth that there are a great number o things people know deep in their hearts that they should do, yet or various reasons (be they social, motivational, emotional or otherwise) they cannot bring themselves to do so. In my opinion, the ethical application o mind control or inluence occurs when through its application you simply give someone the psychological reedom to do something they truly want to do. You may be selling a product that someone truly needs. They know they need it. You know they need it. Yet, there is something blocking them rom making this correct decision. You can then apply these techniques and let them choose again - when the power o your inluence may be stronger than that which is preventing them rom making a decision. You may be deeply in love with someone - and they may be in love with you, but or various reasons they may not be able to express this love. Is it wrong to use the power o persuasion to tear down these barriers? In my opinion, truly giving someone the ability to choose is what separates the ethical application o persuasion rom the unethical application o these ideas. We could say "only or good purposes" or "only or things that beneit them," but these ideas are so nebulous and o such universal contention (go to a bar some time and engage people in a discussion o "what is good or them") that their discussion becomes moot. Further, many acts which are widely regarded as horrible have been perpetrated in the name o "what is good" or "what is ethical." I'll say it again: truly giving someone the ability to choose is what separates the ethical application o persuasion rom the unethical application o these ideas. This is why I love the Internet so much. When looking at a web page, it is impossible or the marketer to apply the sometimes-demeaning strong-arm tactics used in ace-toace selling. With all this said, I am quite certain these ideas will be used or nearious purposes. However, I eel it's better to make these concepts public knowledge as those who truly wish ill-will on people will ind ways to do so with or without my help. In closing, one may say "I truly giving someone the ability to choose is the ethical measuring stick o persuasion - why use the words 'mind control' in your title?" You'll learn more about this later, but in short, these words have been chosen to create a certain amount o curiosity and excitement in your mind. Did it work? Well, you're reading this aren't you?
Part One: Psychology “T he controlling intelligence understands its own nature, and what it does, and whereon it works .” - Marcus Aurelius
Conformity to Group Norms
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The Herd Mentality and How to Use It
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umans, like cattle, tend to move in herds. In action and opinions, Homo sapiens are natural ollowers. We like to act and think in groups.
Looking at twentieth-century history alone, there are numerous examples o herd decision-making, both good and catastrophic. In the 1930's, our herd instincts in personal inancial behavior plunged a nation into the Great Depression. During that same generation, another herd ollowed Hitler as he sowed the seeds or World War II. The Nazi era, in act, provides an important case study o herd behavior at work. Many people attribute the atrocities o the Third Reich to Hitler's personal charisma. In individual homes, however, Hitler's power meant ar less than people's ears over what their riends and neighbors were thinking. Interviewed years later, German citizens were asked why they turned in their dissident neighbors to the authorities. It wasn't because they loved Hitler, they said. It was, instead, the ear o being seen as group outsiders ... The existence o group-think has even been veriied scientiically. In 1935, Psychologist Mazaer Sheri took a group o people into a dark room and asked them to look at a tiny point o light in the distance. This group became test subjects in the study o a phenomenon called the "Autokinetic Eect." You can test this eect yoursel. Look at a stationary point o light in a dark room and the light may appear to wobble at times. (For some real un, try this at a party and see how people react relative to those around them.) In Sheri's experiment, the test subjects were asked, irst individually and then as a group, i the light was moving or stationary. As individuals, opinion was almost equally divided: about hal saying they saw movement. As soon as they were put together as a group, though, their individuality began to vanish. The answer given by most o the subjects was highly dependent upon the overall opinion o the group. People tended to agree with the prevailing majority, even i they had to recant on their irst answer. Then, when asked a third and inal time as individuals, the subjects tended to hold on to the opinion o their group over their own previous individual view .
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Now, let's take this knowledge about herd behavior and put it to productive use. The Internet is ull o herds. At irst glance, you wouldn't think this to be the case. Internet users tend to be more savvy, more discerning, and better educated (though this distinction is changing as Internet use becomes more widespread). Internet users are also spread throughout the globe, not packed together in a dark room looking at a point o light. Nonetheless, there are herds to be ound on the Internet pasture. The key point you need to realize, though, is that these herds are invisible until a clever thinker comes orth and deines them. Let's put this in more concrete terms. You oer products and services that you believe are the best in your industry. There are tens, hundreds, maybe even thousands o people who have used your products and services and believe, just like you do, that what you're oering is the best to be ound. This is your herd. And others - your prospects - will ollow once they see that your herd exists. It’s up to you to deine the existence o the herd and show it to your prospects. Show your potential clients and customers that others have gained tremendous satisaction rom your product line, and your prospect will tend to ollow the herd. It's human nature to go with the crowd, instead o striking out alone into uncharted waters. Not only will seeing your herd increase the likeliness that your prospects will do business with you, but it will also increase their satisaction ater the purchase as well.
1. Conformity to Group Norms
Principle: Conformity to Group Norms . Humans, like lemmings and cows, tend to ollow the herd - both in action and opinion.
Lesson: Identiy and then clearly deine your herd to inluence uture herd members. Think: testimonials, case studies, success stories. Testimonials: "'Mark Joyner is the Tiger Woods o Internet Marketing' Mike Litman, host of Business Breakthroughs Radio Show" Success Stories: "ExitBlaze .com is a ree viral traic building tool I built in 2,001. Jerome Chapman started using it on a Friday and by Monday morning, 2,337 people had visited his site as a result." Action: Aggressively compile inormation about your herd and display this inormation or all to see. I you don't have a herd, then you need to create one. Make happy customers. Make riends in discussion groups and chat rooms. By creating a unique and stellar service that exceeds expectations and, in every way, wows your customers, you will switly generate a herd worth boasting about. Key Term: "Herd" Any group that moves together. Human beings and cattle or example. Your herd is your happy customer base. Others will ollow this herd i they know it exists.
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Lemmings. Depression Era Businessmen. Nazis. All cases of herd-like behavior. Conformity to Group Norms in action? Can you think of any other examples? (OK, lemmings don't really follow each other off of cliffs, but this incorrect pop-science provides an apt metaphor.)
1. Conformity to Group Norms
Scientific experiments have shown that the opinion of the group influences the opinion of the individual.
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Why is no one saying "me too"?
1. Conformity to Group Norms
You may know there are thousands of people happily using your product, but have you assumed that your prospect already knows this?
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If you "define" the existence of a group, you can influence people to conform to that group. The use of testimonials is one way to define such groups. By showing that other people are happy with your products, your prospects will be more likely to set aside their fears and say "me, too."
Obedience to Authority
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Yes Sir, No Sir, Would You Like My Credit Card Number, Sir?
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a command comes rom the mouth o authority, we tend to obey.
This rule has always been in eect, even during the rebellious 1960's when we thought hippies believed in nothing more than drugs, ree love and their own tie-dyed brand o anarchy. Actually, members o the "turned on" generation were just as slavish to authority as their buttoned-down parents. The dierence was, instead o listening to the admonitions o Lyndon Johnson, they were worshipping at the altar o Abbie Homan and Jerry Garcia. Obedience to authority was demonstrated vividly in 1965 in the laboratory o a scientist named Stanley Milgram. He recruited a group o young college students and directed them to help him conduct some important research. Little did they know, the students themselves were the subjects o Dr. Milgram's research. Milgram told the students that he was conducting psychological research on the eects o punishment on learning. Each student, one at a time, would enter Milgram's lab to ind a lab assistant holding a clipboard and a man sitting in an adjacent, glassed-o room connected via intercom. The man in the glass room sat in a chair with electrodes attached to his head and body. The students didn't know it, but the wired-up man in the glass room was a paid actor. As the "experiment" began, the lab assistant would ask the actor a series o questions. Each time the actor answered incorrectly, the student was directed to give the actor an electric shock. With each wrong answer, the electric shock was to increase in intensity. O course, there was no electricity and the actor was convincingly yelping in pain, but the student subject didn't know any o this. The experiment progressed with the voltage o the "shocks" increasing and the actor's yelps o pain transorming into screams o terror. Toward the end o the experiment, it became apparent to the student subject that the actor (who the student thought was the real subject o the experiment) was in critical condition and that urther shocks would probably kill him. The student was told with authority that it was OK to go ahead. This was an "oiciallysanctioned" experiment, and they would not be legally or ethically liable or whatever happened. 9
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Amazingly, 62 percent o the students taking part in this experiment were willing to administer the atal shock. They knowingly took the lie o another human being, simply because someone in authority said it was alright to do so. (Or at least they thought they were taking someone’s lie, and that’s all that matters when considering the psychology that drove their behavior.) Later, the experiment was repeated using people drawn rom all walks o lie, and the outcome was the same as had been observed among the students. Compared to killing someone, using authority to close a sale ought to be a cinch, shouldn't it? (It certainly gives a better understanding o the Creedence Clearwater Revival lyrics rom 1969, "I I were a politician, I could prove that monkeys talk...") Authority will work or you - incredibly well - as a sales tool. I learned this principle mysel back in 1995 when the Internet was just beginning to boom. I had been in the e-commerce game or about a year, publishing an e-mail newsletter about doing business online while still serving as an Army oicer during the day. At the time, I had a ew hundred subscribers. One day, I called a customer about an order and introduced mysel. The lady on the other end o the phone blurted out, "Oh my God! You mean this is THE Mark Joyner? I can't believe it!" OK, now I wasn't exactly Hugh Hener lounging in my silk pajamas calling Playboy subscribers to renew their subscriptions. Mark Joyner, at that time, was a GI sitting in his underwear (not silk) in his Oklahoma living room. Over time, my name did become quite wellknown across the Net, but in 1995 I was still an obscure igure. She went on to explain how she avidly read every issue o my e-mail newsletter. It dawned on me that, intentionally or not, I had become an authority to this woman and others who read my words. She probably would have ollowed any reasonable business advice I gave her at that moment. Did I take advantage o this woman's thrall over my "authority" to sell her some products? You're damn right I did. Why not? O course, what I sold her was a great product she genuinely needed - I simply wouldn't have used my inluence in this way otherwise. I you need a visual reminder o the importance o authority, rent the movie “Finding Forrester.” In it, the young protege asks Sean Connery's character, "I I write a book, will women have sex with me?" Connery replies, "Women will have sex with you i you write a bad book." Putting words in print conveys a certain authority. Putting your words on a web page does the same thing. Make yoursel an authority and use it to your best advantage.
2. Obedience to Authority
Concept: Obedience to Authority. I a command comes rom the mouth o an authority we recognize, we tend to obey.
Lesson: Partner with, wield and create authority on the Internet to inluence your prospects. Think: articles, endorsements, product reviews, product awards, certiications... Articles: I wrote an article or a well-read Internet publication called Internet Day in 1998 (created by my riend Mel Strocen - a very clever entrepreneur who knows how to turn email subscribers into money). There was a link at the bottom o the article that recommended my ull-length course on Internet Marketing (killer tactics.com). That single link was responsible or selling 45 copies o the course in one day. I that link had not appeared at the bottom o the article, would it have been as eective? My testing says “no.” Endorsements: I you heard that Arnold Schwartzenager said eating spinach was the single most important actor in building his physique, would you eat more spinach? Note that the more credible the endorsement the more eective. I Pavarotti said the same thing, it would have a dierent eect entirely. Product Awards: An electronic book I wrote years ago, "Search Engine Tactics," was given a "5 Star" award by ZDNet - the only electronic book ever to receive this award normally reserved or sotware applications. I used this act to gain more credibility and respect or the book. Subsequently, the book had been downloaded over 1,000,000 times when we stopped counting in 1998. Certiications: I you were selecting a web host or your website, do you think an oicial looking certiication rom a proessional organization would inluence your decision to choose them? What i it said, "Certiied or 99.9% up time by the Web Host Excellence Board"? Action: Immediately begin positioning yoursel as an authority in your ield. You can do this by writing a newsletter that oers helpul inormation to your prospects. Then, you can use your authority to generate revenue by recommending products. Be careul, though. Authority can be squandered just as surely as it can be acquired. I you abuse your authority by recommending products you wouldn't use yoursel, your position as an authority igure will be short- lived.
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Who were the real rebels?
2. Obedience to Authority
People respond so strongly to authority that they can be coaxed to do even the most wicked acts if the authority assures them it is OK.
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The funny thing about authority is that two people can speak authoritatively and matter-of-factly about concepts that seem to contradict one another. Makes you wonder about the nature of knowledge…
2. Obedience to Authority
You can establish yourself as an authority and no one needs to be the wiser about who you "really" are. And why should they know? Even the Pope goes to the bathroom…
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The Foot in the Door Phenomenon
3
Fending Off Your Mouse Click to Oblivion
G
et someone to agree to a small thing. That's the irst, and most essential, step toward getting them to agree to a large thing later.
It's called “The Foot in the Door Phenomenon,” and it's one o the most important rules you can learn about Internet marketing, a ield in which you're always just one mouse click away rom rejection. Even beyond the Net, you can see the Foot in the Door Phenomenon at work every day. Many religious organizations and cults are masters o the art. You will never see a Scientologist asking someone on the street i they would like to spend thousands o dollars on a lietime o therapy. They'll simply ask you i you want to take a personality or IQ test. You don’t know it at the time, but when you take that test you’re also taking part in a very well-scripted system designed to get you deeper and deeper into Scientology. Likewise, neo-Nazis and other hate groups know they can't build their organizations by making cold calls to ask people to participate in hate crimes. Recruitment starts with a meeting or a party, beore more nearious activities are introduced. The number o steps between a personality test and blind devotion are surprisingly ew. (Essential disclaimer: I'm not putting down any religious or political movement or their belies or suggesting that their constitutional reedom o speech should be limited. I'm just comparing sales processes, and leaving my readers the right to draw their own conclusions.) It would also do you well to pay attention to some o the world's best practitioners o sneaky psychological tricks: door-to-door salesmen. I you ever have one ring your doorbell, don't automatically slam the door in his ace. Let him play out his shtick and learn some lessons rom him. Let's take vacuum cleaner salesmen, or example. I someone walks up to a strange house and asks the residents i they would like to buy a vacuum cleaner, they won't get a oot in the door. A door in the ace is more like it. 17
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Door-to-door salesmen have learned rom years o trial and error that you've got to start small beore you can sell big. The eective vacuum cleaner salesman will come to a door and say, "Excuse me, ma'am. We're here today helping people out in the neighborhood. Would you mind i we vacuumed your living room carpet? It's ree o charge and there is no obligation." (A similar technique is the "cold" sales call in which the potential customer is told they have "won" a ree carpet cleaning.) Once the salesman gets his oot in the door, the show begins. The ree cleaning is actually a sales presentation or the vacuum itsel. Once someone is in your home, you're overcome with a natural sense o hospitality and a reluctance to ask them to leave empty-handed. You would be astounded at how requently these door-to-door proessionals close the sale. It's tougher on the Internet. You don't have the advantage o being physically inside a person's space and they can zap you o your computer screen in a second without a speck o remorse. The web surer doesn't even have to be polite to you. Nevertheless, the same principle applies. On the Net, getting a oot in the door and keeping it there means that you must get your customers' attention and then provide them with something o suicient value to keep them interested. When you do this, you've got to put some thought, planning and research behind it. Beore the dot-com shakeup, many would-be Internet entrepreneurs thought you could strike it rich on the Net simply by oering something or ree. They thought the money would just roll in. Instead, they're busy combing through the "Help Wanted" ads today. "Free" does work. Make no mistake about it: people will always love the prospect o getting something or nothing. But, it's got to be part o your oot-in-the-door sales strategy. You don't give something away without having a irm strategy or guiding your target customers to the next step. I have a ormula or this. I call it, "Target, Tie-In and Collect." Target your oot-in-the-door approach toward a prospect who you know will be interested in your products. Smart door-to-door vacuum salesmen wouldn't waste their time on people with hardwood loors. Your ree oer should only be o interest to someone who would clearly be interested in your products. Oering a ree tea-cozy would not be a good way to ind people to purchase your carburetor-cleaner.
3. The Foot in the Door Phenomenon
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Tie-In your sales process once you have your oot in the door. Create a compelling, desirable linear path rom reebie to closing. The vacuum guys did this seamlessly. As they vacuumed your carpet or ree, they talked up the wonders o the machine. Only then did it become clear a sales pitch was taking place. Collect contact inormation rom your prospects. You may not get them immediately with your tie-in, but you can always pick up a ew more sales with well-executed ollow-up. In my career, the use o oot-in-the-door strategies has enabled me to build e-mail lists with hundreds o thousands o names. With their permission, I contact these prospects again and again with urther oot-in-the-door gambits. The repeat readership on these lists is quite high. Every time I get my oot in the door, I give something valuable (and o genuine interest) to the reader. On the Net, names and e-mail addresses are gold (NOTE: i you don’t have permission to contact them, though, they are “Fool’s Gold”). Once you get your oot in the door, you've got the opportunity to make money again and again.
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Concept: The Foot in the Door Phenomenon. Get someone to agree to a small thing irst, and it will be much easier to get them to agree to a large thing later.
Lesson: Use simple, compelling hooks to draw prospects into your sales process. The hook should not obligate the prospect in any way, or it may scare them o. Use my ormula, "Target, Tie-In and Collect" to render the best result rom your ootin-the-door gambit. An ad or a health club: "Come in or a ree body-at analysis." An ad or aluminum siding: "Is your home at risk? Let our Home Repair Specialists visit your home or a ree weather risk assessment." Action: Analyze your product and develop a "target, tie-in, collect" ree oer. Use this to generate subscriptions to the newsletter you developed in Chapter 2.
3. The Foot in the Door Phenomenon
If you get a chance to observe any recruiting process at all - drop everything and study every aspect of it. There is much to learn about the human mind there…
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Your foot-in-the-door approach will be even more effective if you make the "small task" something that is of great interest to the prospect.
3. The Foot in the Door Phenomenon
It's easy for web surfers to close a door in your face - because they don't even see your face. In their minds, there is no harm done by ignoring you.
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Remember: Make it easy, avoid a sense of obligation, and "target, tie-in, and collect."
The Zeigarnik Effect
4
The Power of Unfinished Thoughts
P
eople don't like it when things are let incomplete. It makes us eel uncomortable. I something is uninished, it keeps our attention until we can bring closure to it.
Let's lash back to the inal weeks o the year 2000. What was all o America discussing? We were obsessing over the presidential election. The world was on edge, waiting to see i Al Gore or George W. Bush would be occupying the Oval Oice. People who normally couldn't give a damn about politics could talk about nothing else but the intricacies o Florida election procedures. Why? Because we get uncomortable - and intrigued - when things are incomplete. George W. Bush's acceptance speech, once the election was inally resolved, was one o the most widely-watched news events in history. We are magnetically drawn to stories with uncertain conclusions. This phenomenon is called the Zeigarnik eect. Years ago, a researcher named Bluma Zeigarnik was ascinated by ood servers, amazed that they could remember lengthy lists o ordered items and be able to match them with the right customers. She noticed that this complex inormation would completely disappear rom the server's mind once the ood was delivered to the table. My theory is that the incompleteness o the task at hand - the yet-to-be-ulilled ood order - created a state o imbalance in the server's mind. We know, rom Gestalt Psychology, that organisms move toward a state o equilibrium. The lack o equilibrium associated with an unulilled task creates discomort and causes that task to stay in the server's memory until completed. Zeigarnik took this work a step urther. She gathered several test subjects and had them perorm a series o tasks, not allowing them to complete all o them. She ound, in interviewing the subjects, that the incomplete tasks were consistently remembered with greater requency and intricate detail. This is known as the Zeigarnik Eect, and it has tremendous implications or Internet marketers. As an Internet marketer mysel, I am loored by something else altogether ...
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Something almost sexual in nature. Something every one o us has in our bedrooms … STOP RIGHT THERE! Notice how you're moving rapidly on to read the next sentence. The Zeigarnik Eect is at work in your own mind. When I ended the paragraph above with the phrase "something else altogether ...," I let some uninished business on your mental plate. I then intensiied this by painting a picture around this blank spot in your mind. It would have made you uncomortable to stop reading at this moment and leave that uninished business hanging. Is the relevance to successul Internet marketing becoming clear? Used properly, the Zeigarnik Eect provides the kind o psychological edge to get your oot irmly in the door o any web surer and keep him moving inevitably deeper into your sales process. You begin telling a story that attracts a potential customer's attention, and make him keep ollowing you in search o a satisying conclusion. I you still have doubts about the eicacy o this approach, turn your television on to CNN “Headline News” sometime. Every hal hour, “Headline News” leads into their sports report with a trivia question. Maybe you don't give a rat's ass about sports, but odds are that you're going to sit through the entire sports broadcast and two sets o commercials to hear the answer to the trivia question. I this works or sports trivia, imagine its potency i you tell a housewie that there is a common household item that can harm their amilies. That housewie will ollow you with great persistence and determination to ind out the answer to the mystery you've placed beore her. An uninished story can be one o your greatest assets.
4. The Zeigarnik Effect
Concept: The Zeigarnik Effect. People are uncomortable when something is let incomplete.
Lesson: Use this knowledge to lead people into your sales process. Pose questions that can only be answered by reading your ad copy. From a highly successul website (killertactics.com): "There are ive tactics your Internet business must employ immediately i you want to prosper in the next 90 days. Does your business employ all 5?" Remember the online marketing course I told you about in Chapter 1? This tagline was part o our most successul ad campaign or selling the course ever. My testing indicates that ads with a Zeigarnik Eect tend to out-pull those that don't have one. Zeigarnik can be used at virtually any step o your sales process to pull people along. Action: Analyze your marketing eorts. Can you think o ways to employ the Zeigarnik Eect to compel people to stick with you? Remember, the longer you keep them reading your ad copy, the likelihood o a successul sale increases exponentially.
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Quick quiz: What was the name of O.J.'s attorney? OK, now name your congressman. See what I mean? The O.J. Simpson trial was probably one of the longest running exercises in Zeigarnik ever.
4. The Zeigarnik Effect
The Zeigarnik Effect
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Incomplete tasks are painful - even if we don't particularly care about the outcome.
Cognitive Dissonance
5
Happiness Means Never Having to Say You're Wrong
B
esides things that are let incomplete, there is something else that makes us uncomortable. We don't like it when our actions conlict with our thoughts.
We want logical, sound reasons or the actions we take so that we can always justiy those actions in our own minds. Case in point: I was serving in the U.S. Army Military Intelligence Corp in Korea in 1992. Among the many interesting things I observed there was the rise and all o an end-o-the-world cult. The "Church o the Living Stone Mission or the Coming Days" predicted that Jesus would return to earth on October 28, 1992. Many o the cult's ollowers went so ar as to sell their homes and personal belongings, shedding their earthly burdens beore their planned ascension to Heaven. Well, to the best o our knowledge, there was no celestial Rapture on that October day. Members o the cult, though, would not admit error. They oered a myriad o irrational reasons or Jesus's ailure to show up. This persistent desire to avoid admitting error goes to incredible extremes. Members o the notorious "Heaven's Gate" cult (remember, the ones ound dead in their bunk beds wearing black Nikes, with their bags packed to join the outer space aliens who would be swinging by to pick them up) still claim that the cult's teachings were accurate. Surviving members are still quoted as saying, "I wish I had gone with them." I the human thought process places such importance on being right, that death is preerable to admitting error, don't you think we should be putting this knowledge to use? In 1951, an insightul thinker named Leon Festinger studied people who had a near-religious devotion to automobiles. He showed his test subjects pictures and speciications o cars and asked them to select the one they thought was best. Ater making their selections, Festinger showed them advertisements or each o the cars. Inevitably, each subject would spend ar greater time looking at ads or the cars they had selected.
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People will go to great lengths to prove to themselves that they have made the right decision, says Festinger's “Theory o Cognitive Dissonance”. It's simply too painul to view evidence that we're wrong. I we can provide potential customers with compelling reasons and sound evidence that they are making the right choice, it becomes that much easier or them to pull the trigger on that decision. Internet customers tend to be a bit more discerning than the average buyer. On the Net, consumers take advantage o the world o inormation at their ingertips and absorb more material beore they make their buying decision. Beore you close a deal with an Internet consumer, you had better be sure that you've addressed all o their questions and potential ears. In other words, assure them that they won't have to worry about being wrong. This lesson holds true in everyday lie. Social psychologist Ellen Langer conducted a well-known experiment in which students were sent to cut in line to use a very busy library copy machine. Those that simply asked to cut in were turned away about hal o the time. However, those that oered a reason - even an embarrassingly lame reason ("can I cut in ront o you, because I need to make some copies") - were allowed to cut in more than nine out o every 10 times they asked. People were willing to delay their own progress to the copy machine, as long as they were given a reason (even a bad one) that would justiy the decision in their own minds. Make certain your customers have the inormation they need to justiy their buying decisions.
5. Cognitive Dissonance
Concept: Cognitive Dissonance . People are uncomortable when their belies and actions are in conlict. They don't want to ind out their belies are wrong.
From a TV Commercial: "4 out o 5 dentists surveyed recommended…" So, were only 5 dentists surveyed in this very scientiic piece o logical justiication? Notice it doesn't speciy, but people are still swayed by this example. From a sales letter: We oer a product called "Webmaster Multi-Tool" that automates a number o various marketing tasks or Internet entrepreneurs. The product is actually quite good, and we stand behind it, but some o the reasons we give people to persuade them to buy it are not always ully explained in the ad copy. Yet, it's still quite eective … See the URL below or more: http://www.webmastermultitool.com/compare.htm Lesson: Make it easier or your prospects to make a buying decision by giving them reasons to do so. They will be more comortable with the decision since the reasons you gave them will make it easier to deend their spending choices. Action: Analyze your ad copy and ask i you have provided your prospect with reasons and justiications or their purchase. These reasons must be compelling. Use scientiic data, quotes rom experts, polling research - any kind o concrete, credible inormation to justiy a buying decision.
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Even in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, we tend to hold fast to our "beliefs."
5. Cognitive Dissonance
"Subjects spent far more time looking at the ads for the cars they chose."
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What the unconscious mind thinks before making a buying decision.
5. Cognitive Dissonance
The lame excuse "because I need to make some copies" was accepted almost as frequently as the seemingly plausible excuse, "because my professor will fail me if I don't get this back to him in 5 minutes." The existence of the word "because" seems to make it easier for us to accept commands.
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Conformity to Emotions
6
You Smile, I Smile; You Weep, I Weep
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ust like how herd instinct aects the way we act and orm opinions, we also like our emotions to mirror those expressed by others in our group. Marketing experts have used this knowledge with great success or years.
The marketing whizzes or Coke, Pepsi and the rest o the sot drink industry ound out long ago that adding happy, smiling aces to their imagery would increase sales o their products. The idea is a simple, but eective one. I Joe Consumer associates happy people with Coke, then he will make the subconscious assumption that he, too, will be much happier i he drinks a Coke. Never underestimate the importance o demonstrating that your products and services will make people eel happy and more ulilled. I've tried this approach mysel and can testiy that it works. Once, I ran a split-run test o two websites selling Internet marketing sotware. The two sites were identical in every way, except or one key acet. On one site, I had images o somber, serious business people using the sotware. On the other, I used images o happy, ecstatic sotware users. The site with the smiling aces pulled nearly 60 percent better than the dead serious site. Clearly, people want to associate themselves with others who have ound the keys to happiness and delight. The television industry has long been aware o this concept. For years, virtually every single situation comedy on network television has had a "laugh track." That's the recorded canned laughter that the show's producers play every time one o the characters has a unny line. We've grown so accustomed to the laugh track that we hardly notice its presence when we watch a show. It's amazing, though, how many o us laugh at the most hackneyed, lame jokes simply because we hear the sound o other people chuckling.
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It's truly amazing - and critical to understand - how we like to mirror the emotions o those around us. In 1962, the research team o Schater and Singer gave people epinephrine, a drug that is known to intensiy emotions, and locked them in a room with other test subjects - one o which was a hired actor. Some o the test subjects were placed in a room with an actor who was told to act angry. Others shared their room with an actor who was instructed to act absolutely giddy with glee. Without exception, the test subjects mirrored the emotions o the actors in the room with them. This is inormation that you need to use with some degree o restraint. People want to be happy, not gooy. I you go over the top showing people in unrestrained ecstacy, you lose credibility and any prospects o a sale. People want to eel happy, but they also want the assurance o knowing they are handing their credit card numbers to a level-headed proessional organization. A simple image o a smiling, satisied customer can have a tremendous, albeit subtle, impact on closing a sale.
6. Conformity to Emotions
Concept: Conformity to Emotions . People tend to mirror the emotions o the group around them.
Lesson: I people associate happy images with your products, they may assume that purchasing your products will make them happy as well. From Television Commercials: "Have a Coke and a smile." "So, put on a Windex shine." (new lyrics or the song "Put on a Happy Face") Action: When appropriate, try to incorporate a happy and upbeat tone into your advertising, but do it proessionally. This is a tough, but critical, balance. The type o emotions you display must also be dictated by the type o product or service you're selling. The grins shown on aces consuming breakast cereals won't, obviously, help a uneral home sell its services. Find the value in showing visuals o emotions - whether those emotions are radiant happiness or serene, assured conidence.
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The comedy soap-opera parody "Soap" did not have a laugh track - many people did not like the show because they said they couldn't tell if it was a comedy or a soap opera…
6. Conformity to Emotions
They thought the effects of a drug were being tested. However…
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The test subjects were all given the drug epinephrine - the only difference being that one room had an actor who was instructed to act happy - the other room had an actor who was instructed to act like he was irritable. People tended to follow the lead of the actor.
6. Conformity to Emotions
If you can make people feel good about doing business with you, it will be easier for them to make that buying decision.
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But don't take the concept of "happiness" too far. People also want to rest assured that the people to whom they are giving money are credible and trustworthy…
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
7
Tapping Into the Pursuit of Satisfaction
I
t can be argued that everything we do is motivated by our desire to satisy certain basic needs. Let's set up a hypothetical example o how this knowledge comes into play.
You have just created a revolutionary product, a new innovation that will help businesses produce more at less cost. The world is ready to beat a path to your doorstep. You identiy your potential customers, you prime them to hear your sales pitch, and you launch into it by saying, "Our product automates supply chains with bottom-up six sigma integration ..." Ballgame's over in the irst inning. You've already lost. You may have the world's greatest product, but you haven't convinced anyone that they need it in order to enrich their lives. You haven't addressed your customers' basic human needs. Years ago, a gentleman named Abram Maslow developed a theory on human motivation based upon what he termed, "The Hierarchy o Needs." Maslow argued that all human action is spent, either directly or indirectly, in pursuing the satisaction o these needs. They have a deinite hierarchy. Once we satisy a lower need on the scale, we immediately begin working to satisy the next, more sophisticated need. As an aside, you'll notice that money doesn't have a speciic place on this pyramid. Money is a symbol, not a need in itsel. For most o us, money is a tool that represents saety and security. Think o every decision, every action we take in lie ... when you step back and really analyze it, it's quite easy to see where Maslow is coming rom. In act, it would be quite easy to argue that everything we do is or the satisaction o one o our undamental human needs. Even acts that seem irrational - I'm thinking o the homicidal kids at Columbine High School in Colorado who called themselves "The Trench Coat Maia" - can stem rom a perceived need to belong and be accepted, and a need to strike out at those who rustrate the pursuit o that need. ** Turn page or diagram 47
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1) Physiological: hunger, thirst, bodily comorts, etc.
8 7 6 5
2) Saety/security: out o danger 3) Belongingness and Love: ailiate with others, be accepted 4) Esteem: to achieve, be competent, gain approval and recognition
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5) Cognitive: to know, to understand, and explore
3
6) Aesthetic: symmetry, order, and beauty
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7) Sel-actualization: to ind sel-ulillment and realize one's potential
1 8) Transcendence: to help others ind sel-ulillment and realize their potential
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
7. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
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I you are seeking to sell a product or service, you absolutely must ind a way to appeal to the needs o your customers. My riend, Brian Tracy, (a world-leading sales expert and a truly captivating speaker) says that the irst step o the sales process is to demonstrate to the buyer that they have a need or the product. The next step is to intensiy the need. Let's backtrack to that example I used at the beginning o this lesson. Could the salesman have started his pitch with a stronger appeal? Well, it could be argued that he "called out to his speciic target audience" rom the irst line - and this is, indeed, a very important concept. However, you can call out to your target audience and address human needs at the same time. What i, instead, he had said, "Our product will save you time and money by automating your supply chain. Imagine what you will do with all this extra time. How much more will you accomplish when you and your supply chain managers can devote more attention to other opportunities? How much additional proit will that generate or you?" With those words, you're in the game with a better chance to win. You've linked your product to the satisaction o vital needs - time, proit, success, security. I never - repeat, never - make a sales pitch without keeping Maslow's Hierarchy oremost in mind. When discussing your product, you will succeed by breaking each eature down in terms o how it can help satisy your customers' basic needs. Or, better yet, lay out the acts and beneits o your product line so vividly that the customers can draw the conclusions themselves.
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Concept: Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs . Everything we do is motivated by a desire to satisy certain basic needs.
Lesson: In every sales technique you utilize, associate your products and services with the satisaction o essential human needs. Need or belonging: "Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there." "Fly the riendly skies o United." Need or sex: "Nothing comes between me and my Calvins. Nothing." (The amous commercial with the young Brook Shields in Calvin Klein jeans - implying that she was not wearing any underwear.) Action: Review all o the verbiage you use in your web site, your e-mails, your newsletters. I your wording is so ocused on processes and unctions without attention being paid to basic human needs, you need to revamp your approach. Ensure that every word you use is aimed at satisying at least one o the levels on our hierarchy o needs.
7. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
Perhaps the need to belong to "the group" is more important than we realize.
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Tell people how your products and services will satisfy their basic needs. "What's in it for me is not enough." That "what" needs to be something important to your prospect. Maslow's Hierarchy can help you determine what is important.
Framing
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Beauty May Be Only Skin Deep, But Who Wants to Be Ugly?
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he way people react to inormation is as dependent on the presentation o the inormation as it is on the substance o the inormation - i not more so.
We all like to say that we don't buy products based on the packaging, but when it comes to inormation, the way people react is greatly dependent on the way that inormation is packaged and presented. In other words, it's not mere coincidence that emale news anchors on local TV stations all have perectly-kept hair and the shiniest smiles modern dentistry can provide. For years, astute proessionals have understood that inormation makes a bigger impact i it's expertly ramed. Richard Nixon understood this. In 1952, more than two decades beore Watergate branded him orever as "Tricky Dick," Richard Nixon perormed one o the greatest eats o political jujitsu the nation had ever seen. It was in the midst o the 1952 presidential campaign. Nixon was running or Vice President on the ticket headed by Dwight Eisenhower. The Eisenhower-Nixon ticket looked like a shoe-in until allegations arose concerning an alleged political slush und that Nixon's rich buddies had created or him. Nixon simply denied the allegations, but people weren't buying it. The pressure became so intense that even Republican Party heavyweights were urging Nixon to step down and let someone else take his place at Ike's side. Nixon knew that his political survival depended upon giving the American people something they could embrace and deend. He did that by delivering on national television his amous "Checkers" speech. In this address, he made the claim that the only git he had ever received as a politician was a little cocker spaniel named Checkers. Who, ater all, could ever ault a politician or accepting a puppy or his little girls?
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Ater the speech, Nixon was transormed rom a run-o-the-mill dishonest politician to Mr. Middle America. People called and wired telegrams to GOP oices, enthusiastically urging that Nixon be kept on the ticket. This was a ascinating example o psychological manipulation at work. In terms o substantive inormation, Nixon didn't say anything at all new. Nonetheless, his popular approval shot through the roo. A student o Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) might say that Richard Nixon had "reramed' himsel. NLP emerged in 1975 as the brainchild o a young graduate student o computer programming named Richard Bandler and a linguistics proessor named John Grinder. Their work at the University o Santa Cruz was surrounded by controversy since its inception, but it remains a ascinating study. (NLP may be surrounded in controversy, but there is no denying that it oers some tremendously powerul ideas. Some accuse it o being a “pseudo-science” derivative o other ields [like Ericksonian Hypnotherapy], but I will give my own disclaimer. I've met Richard Bandler a ew times and have known one o his top students, John Lavalle, or years. They’ve both been great to me, and ater studying both NLP, Ericksonian Hypnotherapy, and many related ields, I still point people to NLP or urther study in inluence and human behavior.) Study NLP and you learn the concept o raming, how to package a message to make it more appealing, as well as many other immensely useul concepts. Here’s a real world example that urther demonstrates the power o “raming”: Imagine that you're walking down a street and you encounter a shabby-looking, unbathed artist trying to peddle his paintings on canvas. He yells at you, "Hey, man, buy my painting!" You would walk by while trying to avoid eye contact. Now, take that very same painting o the street, put it in a beautiul gilded rame and place it on a wall in a swanky Manhattan gallery. Imagine, as well, two attractive people lanking the artwork and talking about how much they admire it. The gallery owner strides toward you and asks you i you were interested in buying the painting. Does your viewpoint toward the painting change? I you're absolutely honest, you'll admit that you are going to give that painting much more serious consideration in the posh gallery than you ever would on a street corner. (The social liberals among you will insist that you would never judge artwork poorly just because it's being peddled by a street person. I that's the case, then I urge
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you to e-mail me at
[email protected] to tell me your irst-person story o the evening in which you invite that street artist to dinner in your home. I suspect my mailbox won't be illing up with these stories any time soon.) It's human nature. The "rame" in which inormation is presented greatly inluences the way in which that inormation is perceived and accepted. When you're running an Internet business, raming is absolutely critical. Your success depends heavily on how your website is perceived. People may look upon you and your company with great respect ater viewing your site. By contrast, they may see you as a big joke and never come back. Everything about your site wording, design, how material is organized - must rame your message in the way you want it to be received. For example, a website selling a product is going to have to make claims about what that product can do. Surround those claims with a rame o authority, credibility, believability and trustworthiness, and that message will result in increasing sales. Your concerns can't stop, though, at the way your site is constructed. You also need to be acutely conscious o how potential customers get to your site. The path they travel will rame their perceptions as well. For example, a positive review or your product with a link to your site will result in a very receptive customer inclined to make a purchase rom you. A negative review o your product may bring you some curious browsers, much more skeptical and less inclined to part ways with their money at your site. In 1995, I coined a phrase that is now an Internet Marketing Truism: "All clicks are not created equal." A click that rames your site poorly will bring you poor responses. A click that rames your site well brings you receptive customers and clients. The eect o the route taken to get to your site is o dramatic importance, so much so that you should monitor it in your market testing (using tracking tools such as those ound at ROIbot.com). Think o your own buying habits. I you walk into a store that is dirty, poorly-organized, with ill-inormed employees and located in a bad neighborhood, you're likely to walk right back out the door. By contrast, you're probably more likely to take your credit card out o your wallet in a well-lit, smartly laid-out business with a crack sta waiting on you. A website is no dierent, and you need to be thinking about how you can be raming yours to ampliy your message.
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Concept: Framing . The way people react to a message is highly dependent on the manner and context in which it is presented.
Lesson: Success in Internet marketing is aected by how well a website is packaged. Another critical element in raming involves the links that bring customers to a website. From our ROIbot.com ailiate program testing: The ROIbot.com ailiate program is one o the largest and most successul on the Net. We've tested many various types o ailiate advertisements and in the process, we were able to prove once again the importance o this concept. For example, many ailiate programs will advertise a "conversion rate" (ratio o website visitors to sales) or their websites. We've ound that this is an entirely useless igure and has no justiication in reality. That is, the conversion rate o a website can not be viewed in a vacuum, independent o the manner in which a visitor arrives at the site. A classic example o this was demonstrated by a split-run test we ran with two ailiate advertisements. One group o ailiates was asked to display "advertisement A" on their site, and another group was given "advertisement B." Both ads went to the same site, so it would stand to reason that each advertisement would render a similar "click to sales" ratio. Advertisement B pulled 523% better than advertisement A, and we veriied that the results were indeed statistically signiicant. As you can see, context certainly matters. Action: Review all aspects o your site - the copywriting, the visual elements, the way in which material is organized - to ensure that your message has authority and credibility. Work with other websites that review products and services to gain positive linkages to your site that will result in receptive customers.
8. Framing
Nixon's message hadn't changed. He was still essentially saying "I didn't do it." What changed was the way he framed this information, and that made all the difference.
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The "frame" in which information is presented greatly influences the way that information is perceived.
8. Framing
Both pages link to the same site. Which case do you think would be more likely to generate sales? The contents of www.mindcontrolmarketing.com is the same in both cases… Does it matter that the patch leading to the site is different? An over the top example, but you get the point: "All clicks are not created equal."
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Uncertainty
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It's a Sure Thing That There's No Such Thing as a Sure Thing
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e can't really know anything.
(I think that's true. At least, I've been told this by authorities who have certain knowledge about “knowing.” But who knows?) This chapter is all about what we know about Internet marketing, and about anything else in lie or that matter. And the bottom line is, in an absolute sense, we don't really know anything. Stay with me here. The signiicance o these seemingly nonsensical statements will be clear in a moment. Perhaps the ollowing example will make things clear: There's no such thing as absolute, unchanging knowledge. Doctors said in the early 20th century that they "knew" that it was “physically impossible” or a human to run a mile in less than our minutes. In the 1954 olympics, Roger Bannister set a new world-record and ran the mile in less than our minutes. So, how then, did these doctors "know" it was "physically impossible" to run a mile in under our minutes? Getting a headache yet? Who are we to trust? Let's try to bring some clarity to our lack o “knowing.” In 1926, a physicist and one o the ounders o quantum mechanics, Werner Heisenberg, developed an important theory about this concept. (Whoa ... I see you running away to the next chapter just because I mentioned the word "physics." Stop right there! I promise that we're not going to start discussing esoteric mathematical ormulae. Let's get right to the bottom line in plain English.) Heisenberg is probably best known or his "Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle." Simply put, the principle states that we can't be certain o anything because the very act o looking at something changes its nature. 61
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Get it? The minute we examine something, measure something, shine a light on something to get a better view o it, we're changing it through our interaction with it. It is impossible to "see" anything without changing it in some way (see the cartoons at the end o this chapter or a clear explanation o this phenomenon). Heisenberg admits that, while his principle rules out absolute certainties, it does allow or probabilities. He said, "We may not be able to know the location o a particle, but you can have a good idea o where it might be." You can have some un with Heisenberg's principle. For example, at your next party, when someone is arguing with you and makes a orceul statement, you simply cross your arms and tell them, "You can't really know that, you know…" Then blow their minds with a quick explanation o Uncertainty. Beyond that usage, though, what relevance does Heisenberg's theory have or you in your business lie? More speciically, i we can't know anything, then what good does market testing do us? The eectiveness o marketers can oten by gauged by how well they understand what they don't know, and develop their strategies accordingly. Most marketers all into one o our basic categories: 1. Those who don't have a clue, but think they understand advertising and marketing because they've spent so much time on their couch watching TV. 2. Those who have read lots o books and have subscribed to the teachings o a marketing guru or two and, thus, eel that they know it all. 3. Those who realize that even the gurus are wrong sometimes, and can't know anything or themselves until they test it. (Most marketers get to this point, then stop testing things themselves, even though they keep giving lip ser vice to the topic o testing.) 4. Those that realize that (holy shit!) even their own testing is uncertain at best. I know thousands o marketers. I'm on a irst name basis with most o the bestknown "marketing gurus" alive today. Yet, I know very ew who are at level our and can admit that they can never be absolutely certain about anything. The act is, Heisenberg aside, market testing can never be truly scientiic because there are too many variables in play. No matter how rigorous you are, the outcome o your testing can be aected by actors you could never imagine, or never control. That is why this chapter comes with an ironclad moral: Drawing broad conclusions
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rom your testing can be hazardous to your inancial health. In my own oice, we talk a lot about marketing principles and about the lessons that have been passed down rom all o the greats in the ield, but we also spend time talking about "probabilities," "conidence intervals" and "predictions." In other words, we are willing to admit that we never know anything or sure. There are steps you can take, though, to improve your odds. I highly encourage you to spend some time learning, in at least a rudimentary sense, the science o statistics and apply it to your marketing. Studying the science o statistics gives you a systematic way o dealing with your uncertainty. At the end o the day, you can engage in all o the scientiic testing and all o the statistical analysis you can possibly aord, but it still comes down to rolling the dice and making judgment calls. The key is to make those judgment calls as sound as you can by collecting and learning rom statistical data. I don't want this chapter to dissuade you rom engaging in market testing. The great thing about Internet marketing is that market testing on the Internet is generally much cheaper than market testing oline. You can blow hundreds o thousands, i not millions o dollars, oline only to ind out that not a single one o your tests is giving you a positive Return on Investment. By contrast, Internet marketing campaigns are cheap, sometimes even ree. Think o the cost dierence between sending out a direct mail piece and an e-mail. Use your resources wisely, not alling into the trap o squandering excessive sums o money on a "sure thing."
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Concept: Uncertainty . Nothing can ever be known or certain, because the very act o examining something changes the nature o the entity being examined.
Lesson: Realize that your best eorts at market testing should not yield broad conclusions because you must always be wary o unknown actors. Action: Gather statistical data on your Internet marketing eorts. Use that data to develop probabilities and likely avenues o success, while maintaining the lexibility to change when unknown actors have unplanned eects on your marketing eorts. It's highly appropriate to end our section on science by talking about uncertainty. As we delve into the next section, we're abandoning science altogether and going to war. Beore you judge the ollowing section harshly with your newly-developed skeptical scientiic eyes, remember that soldiers throughout history have ollowed the principles that I'm about to share with you. And, armed with those principles, they have won. They have stayed alive while watching their enemies die. So, it stands to reason that we should pay close attention to doctrines that have meant lie or those who have ollowed them, and death to those who have ignored them. You're probably still asking yourselves, what the hell do wartime principles have to do with Internet marketing? Well, maybe a little story about something called "Killer Junior" can answer that question or you....
9. Uncertainty
Somebody's lying.
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We can't observe something without touching it in some way. Light has to hit an object first before we see it… So, Heisenberg says that we can never know the true, unchanged nature of anything, because our very act of observing changes what is obser ved. So, can we know anything at all?
9. Uncertainty
If uncertainty is the ultimate level of marketing education, what's the point?
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With hard stats as your foundation (uncertain at times as they may be), and the combination of your past experience and your acquired marketing knowledge to guide you, over time you will make better and better marketing decisions.
Part Two : Warfare "Art can not only bring the end nearer to the means, but by giving a higher value to the means, enable the end to be extended ." - B. Liddel Hart
Killer Junior
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Impending Death is One Hell of a Mother of Invention
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ometimes all it takes is a minor shit in perception to allow men to remove their shackles o limitations and mediocrity, and enable the accomplishment o great things. Earlier in this book, we talked about herds and the Conormity to Group Norms. Understanding about the herd mentality is essential in knowing how to build your customer base. This chapter has nothing to do with herds, though. Instead it has everything to do with what each o us can do as individuals to overcome our limitations and succeed, even when the odds are against us. Beore we get to that point, though, let's talk again about the two herds o kids who made up the majority o the youthul population o the United States in the 1960s. In those years, one massive herd o young kids (some naïve, some patriotic) went o to a land they didn't know to die in a war they didn't understand. The U.S. government tried to dismiss this war as a police action, but the bottom line was still the decimation o a herd o good kids who did what their country asked them to do. Another herd o young kids would have none o it. They stayed home, took drugs, protested the war, "tuned in, turned on and dropped out." The herd pretended to be individual anarchists, but while they were protesting the authority o the government, they were being inluenced by the newer, even more powerul authority o television. Let's ocus on the herd that went o to ight a war. One o the activities essential to waging that war was called "deending a ire base." U.S. Artillery units in Nam were arranged in "ire bases." These ire bases were great or blowing things up at a distance. Their vulnerability, though, came when the enemy got too close (and getting close was, unortunately, one o the Viet Cong's true talents). It's not a promising situation when you're surrounded by 20 highly-skilled killers and you have long-range howitzers at your disposal. Thus, the lachette round was invented. This was a nasty little weapon. It's like a regular artillery round only, instead o iring a heap o shrapnel at someone ar away, it shot razor-sharp needles directly at close range targets. This discouraged the Viet Cong or a short time. 71
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Unortunately, though, the "enemy" - resourceul as they were - igured out that they could avoid the lachettes simply by ducking. We ire a round o lachettes, they duck, and we're still in a world o trouble. One day, the brilliant commander (nicknamed "Junior") o a very eective artillery battalion (whose callsign was "Killer") got sick and tired o seeing his ire bases so greatly distracted by these attacks. He got particularly irritated upon learning that the Viet Cong were simply ducking under lachette rounds while they crawled even closer to his ire bases. Junior was a resourceul guy. He could have waited or the Army to develop some new technology that would help him better deend his ire bases. But, a lot o boys would have died in the process. People were dying today, so he needed a solution today. Junior realized that he had, at his disposal, HE (stands or "high explosive") rounds that would send waves o deadly shrapnel at the enemy. These artillery rounds were set to blow up well o in the distance, but what i the use were set so that the HE round would blow up at a much closer range? That would solve the problem o the enemy ducking under the lachette rounds, as an HE round wreaked devastation in all directions. It was a stroke o genius, except or one problem. How do you set the rounds o close to the base without killing your own people? Junior's solution was brushed aside as impossible by many. Junior sat down with a piece o paper and igured out a table o distances and use settings or a regular HE round that would: a) prevent the men iring the cannon rom getting hit by shrapnel, and b) send out a withering, indeensible blast o shrapnel at close range Viet Cong targets. The eect was immediate and devastating. Once the technique was perected, all artillery units in the Army started implementing Junior's innovation and the job o deending a ire base became much easier. Viet Cong troops were much more hesitant to attack a ire base ater this. The perormance o the U.S. Army Field Artillery in Vietnam was simply brilliant. Because o their unlinching responsiveness and seemingly unstoppable ability to adapt, the Viet Cong was never once able to overrun a U.S. irebase in the Vietnam War. The Field Artillery were so renowned or these impressive displays o deensive tactics, that when Inantry soldiers were reassigned to Field Artillery units, they would dance and shout out, "I'm going to live!" Your business is your "ire base," and you need to deend it with the zeal o the U.S. Army Field Artillery.
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I call "Killer Junior Solutions" cases in which people with limited resources solve problems that others with ar greater resources could not.) The Internet world presents a case study in the value o "Killer Junior" solutions. When the "dot com bubble burst" in 2000 and the market crashed, a good many people learned the painul lessons that problems cannot be solved simply by throwing heaps o money at them. Too many people didn't realize the value o, and the need or, innovative solutions. Public companies are ormed on the basis o private investors unding the growth o the public company. This system is based on perception rather than actual perormance. Thereore, public companies are not motivated to ind innovative solutions to problems. I you operate a small Internet business, you have every motivation in the world to ind answers to stay alive. Some preer to take reuge in excuses, instead. They use their lack o resources as a reason or their ailures - "Yeah, those other guys are doing well, but I could do it even better i I had their money ..." We've learned at the outset o the 21st century that money is not, in and o itsel, a solution. We must ind ways to excel despite our limitations. Start looking or ways to accomplish your goals with the resources you have at hand. Stop waiting. Stop making excuses. Stop planning or ways to explain ailure; plan or success. Thousands o American businesses have started with virtually nothing, but have generated great masses o wealth through persistence and innovative thinking. You can do what these business successes have done. My good riend Ted Nicholas, one o the best copywriters in the world, started his irst business with only $79 in his pocket. Today he has two homes on two continents, is one o the most respected gentlemen in the world, and has generated hundreds o millions o dollars in sales. Read the above paragraph again ... And some people will tell you it’s impossible to start a business or less than $100,000. The answer lies in having the desire to seek and develop your own "Killer Junior" solution.
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Concept: Killer Junior . Success is directly tied to innovative thinking that overcomes seemingly insurmountable obstacles.
Lesson: You must develop a success plan that doesn't rely strictly on inancial resources. Your uture must be based on innovation, rather than simply money. Action: Honestly assess your current situation. Determine the obstacles that stand in the way o your goals and objectives, and that threaten your uture viability. Brainstorm avenues that can help you attract new customers and retain current ones without relying on inusions o cash.
10. Killer Junior
The Viet Cong soldiers quickly learned how to defend themselves from the flat-trajectory flachette rounds. Until …
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High Explosive rounds used in an innovative way solved the problem. Killer Junior doesn't care if you duck. It took "Killer Junior" thinking to come up with this solution.
10. Killer Junior
"Famous Last Words"
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Heavy Ground
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Waging the Economic Art of War
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ne way to win wars is to go undetected, deep into enemy territory, beore launching your attack. You catch your enemy totally o guard and use that element o surprise to gain crucial victory. Sun Tzu calls this ground deep in enemy territory "Heavy Ground." As I explained earlier in the book, to understand how to win at business, it is tremendously advantageous to learn how armies win wars. Asians have known this or centuries. We Westerners are increasingly getting the point. Once you open your mind to the concept o business-as-warare and begin to think metaphorically, you open a whole new world o promise and possibilities or yoursel. Solutions that other people cannot athom will become second nature or you. Your opponents will ind you inscrutable. Let's go back to Sun Tzu. He deines eight types o ground on which combat can occur. O those, two are o great interest to those o us in marketing: Deadly Ground and Heavy Ground. A Deadly Ground battle occurs when two orces meet and there is no escape route or either. You immediately realize the ramiications and consequences o such a battle. It becomes a pure ight-or-die battle, the ultimate win/lose scenario. Such a battle is one o brute orce, and there can only be one winner. He with the most irepower will win, but it will likely be a "pyhrric victory" with heavy casualties. Sun Tzu says, quite correctly, that this is the worst way to ight a battle. A Deadly Ground battle is one without “Art,” and allowing this to happen relects badly on the commander. Compare this to the Heavy Ground battle, in which you strive or surprise, deception and strong advantage. A Heavy Ground battle makes amazing things possible. It allows a weak orce to paralyze a stronger orce, simply by gaining a strategic advantage. Imagine a ive-year-old girl with a sharp knie sneaking up behind Arnold Schwarzenegger.
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I Arnold does not see her coming, he becomes a casualty to a ar smaller, weaker opponent. Let's shit the metaphors now to Internet marketing. Imagine a Deadly Ground battle, a ight to the death. You versus the consumers, whose resistance you hope to conquer. Who has the greatest strength in this ight - you or your potential customer? Let's set up the battleield scenario. You present your prospect with an ad. At that moment, you have your win/lose dynamic in place. Either you win by deeating your target's natural resistance and convincing him to respond to your ad, or he deeats you by ignoring you. It's pretty clear who has the upper hand. Ignoring your ad does the consumer no harm. In act, he may even save a couple o bucks by not giving it any attention. The odds are against you at the outset because today's consumer has a very low tolerance or advertising. They've seen so many ads that even the most innovative, dynamic advertising piece does not generate a bit o excitement. For the Internet marketer, this battleground is particularly daunting because your average Internet user is well-educated, making it a harder sell right rom the get-go. Additionally, most people log on to the Internet not or commerce, but or inormation. When the consumer has so much more power than the marketer, it is oolhardy to ight a Deadly Ground battle. You, the marketer, will lose virtually every time. You can ire your primary weapon - your advertising - but it's going to be ineective because you cannot overcome your target's deenses. A battle ought on Deadly Ground will always go to the stronger army, all things being equal, and in the Internet marketing world, the consumer is always the stronger combatant. How, then, do you win an advertising battle? Think about how you lose a Deadly Ground battle. You lose in those irst ew seconds, when the consumer sees your advertising and immediately dismisses it as intrusive junk. I you were able to ight this battle on Heavy Ground rather than Deadly Ground, you might have a chance o winning. But how does one ight a marketing war on Heavy Ground? How does one gain that element o surprise? Read on, my riend ...
11. Heavy Ground
Concept: Heavy Ground . A Deadly Ground battle is one in which one combatant must win and one must die, with the stronger combatant virtually always being the winner.
Lesson: In a contest o wills between marketers and consumers, the consumer is always the stronger combatant. There is no downside to the consumer in dismissing advertising without giving it a moment's attention. Action: Review your own marketing campaigns in terms o your outreach to consumers. Are you ighting Deadly Ground battles in which you ire advertising at your targets without seeking more eective ways to penetrate their deenses? I you're using your advertising artillery consistently without success, it's time to reassess your strategy.
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We use sports metaphors in our language every day. It's not much of a stretch to apply military metaphors in the same way…
11. Heavy Ground
A heavy ground attack takes place deep inside enemy territory. Get in quietly and hit hard before they realize you’re there.
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So many direct marketing battles are fought on deadly ground…
Deception
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Avoiding the Deadly Delete Key
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uccess in both war and business hinges greatly on our ability to recognize "cues" in human behavior, and learning how to capitalize on that knowledge.
We learned in the last chapter that attempting to ight a Deadly Ground battle against your target consumer's natural anti-advertising deenses is a losing battle. You simply cannot make a consumer, whose every relex is to toss a piece o advertising in the trash without giving it a serious look, alter their ingrained habits. Fight this kind o war in the Internet I nternet economy, economy, and you will lose. Let's go back to the teachings o Sun Tzu Tzu and understand something important about human nature. nature. Each o us have conditioned conditioned our minds to react certain ways when when we see particular "cues" in the world around around us. When a consumer sees printed material, or example, that looks like an advertising circular, circular, they are "cued" to toss it in the trash. When we, as marketers, learn what those cues are and understand how consumers react to them, we are all the stronger or it. Sun Tzu said, "Warare is the way o deception. Thereore, i able, appear unable. I active, appear non-active. I near, appear ar. ar. I ar, ar, appear near. near. Attack where they are not prepared, go out to where they do not expect." These are vital teachings in marketing, just as they were crucial to the Viet Cong's success in Vietnam. "Charlie" (the Viet Cong soldiers) used to drive good goo d old "Joe" (the men wearing the U.S. uniorms) crazy by using Sun Tzu's Tzu's tactics. Late at night, just or good-hearted un, Charlie would run out in ront o Joe's ox holes to shake trees trees and raise a ruckus. This would wake Joe up and put him on alert. He'd have have to remain that way or or much o the night until he was certain Charlie wasn't there to kill him. Charlie would run away, away, laughing laughing heartily about making Joe lose valuable sleep time. Charlie would play this game several times a night or a ew nights in a row, causing Joe's rustration and sleep-deprived anxiety to grow greater. greater. Finally Finally,, ater a ew nights o this, Joe would throw in the towel and say to himsel, "Ah, Charlie's 85
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just up to his old tricks. I'm going to get some shuteye." O course, when Joe inally surrendered his vigilance and decided to get a little sleep, ol' crazy Charlie would sneak in with a group o his riends and kill Joe in his sleep. Quite a practical joker, joker, ol' Charlie was. Ha ha. Good one. Over time, we all become become conditioned to react a certain certain way to particular cues. The North Vietnamese studied the way the U.S. soldiers reacted to particular cues, and then adapted their strategy accordingly. The only way to succeed succeed in the Internet marketplace marketplace is to do the same. Study the way a cynical consumer population acts and reacts, and then shape a strategy that will penetrate their skeptical deenses. Let's talk about eZines eZines (e-mailed newsletters). Anyone who has been been online or any signiicant length o time has probably signed up or a ew o these electronic publications. Sadly Sadly,, we come to ind that the vast vast majority o these eZines are devoid devoid o valuable content, and and are simply a vehicle to pummel pummel us with advertising. It doesn't take long to realize that there isn't any point in reading these. We, as Internet consumers, equate eZines with junk. And junk acts as a cue or us to act in a particular way. When we go through our e-mail every day, day, we've become pretty pretty adept at discerning which missives are wastes o time and which are worth reading. We keep our inger eagerly poised on the delete key to prune away the e-mail garbage, just saving the items worth our attention. It's essential, as marketers, that we recognize this behavior and make it a component o our planning. At my own oice, I have trained my sta to recognize and remove any cues that will make our e-mail look like junk mail or content-ree content-ree newsletters. newsletters. This has improved our response rates dramatically. My company sends out several eZines. I make sure that they contain very ew, ew, or absolutely no, advertisements. I've ound other ways o "monetizing" my newsletters newsletters so that I don't have to ill them with ads. (I use subtle product recommenrecommendations and so on - never blatant advertisements.) I our newsletters are irst viewed as a personal letter, this gets the recipient's attention. Eventually, Eventua lly, though, they're going to realize that it's a newsletter that is also being receive received d by several hundred other people. That's why we have to make sure that the newsletter is not viewed as an intrusion. These newsletters newsletters contain content content that is so valuable that recipients ind them a welcome arrival instead o a newsletter. Also, we remind them that they subscribed to the newsletter and that it is not unsolicited junk.
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Every orm o advertising, no matter how competently created, has a set o cues that blinks like a lashing warning light, signaling the consumer consumer that it's an ad. These cues put marketers immediately on the deensive, and in a battle that is being ought on Deadly Ground. The key here - and it is so vitally important - is to remove the cues rom your advertisements, and and keep your prospects rom immediately immediately putting up their deenses. deenses. I you can get your prospect to at least view your ad, even or a ew seconds, with his deenses down, you've managed to get at least a little inormation into his consciousness (or a lot o inormation i you're really good), and you're ighting on Heavy Ground instead o Deadly Ground. Ground. At this point, point, the advantage advantage has has shited to a degree in your direction. direction. When their deenses are down, your next objective is to communicate enough inormation to build both curiosity and credibility. credibility. I you can do that, your chances chances o closing the sale increase dramatically.
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Concept: Deception. Deception is a key strategic concept in war and in advertising. Advertising contains cues that put buyers' deenses on alert. Consumers are conditioned to reject material they consider "junk."
Lesson: In order to make an impact on prospects, it is essential to recognize and remove the cues that will cause automatic rejection o your advertising. Key Term: Cue - anything that cues in your prospects mind that they are being "pitched." Note: Please understand that what I am proposing here is quite dierent rom "deceptive advertising." I would never in any way misrepresent mysel, my company, or any product or service. Ever. What I'm talking about is quite dierent. I'm reerring to using deception to play with a prospects perception and attention, in order to urther a legitimate (and honest) sales process - not to convince them they're purchasing products they won't actually receive. There is a huge dierence here, and i you don't understand this, read this chapter again until you "get it." Action: Review your e-mails, your eZines, your advertising and all o the material you use to communicate with your prospects. Make a point o sending substantive material that will be o beneit to your prospects, and that will be seen as an asset to their lives instead o an intrusion. Focus on the ways in which you label your materials so they seem personal and not a orm o anonymous mass advertising.
12. Deception
At first, the soldiers were kept up late at night by the rattling of the trees. Each time they thought it was the sound of Charlie creeping up on them.
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After a while, they learned the game. They wouldn't let Charlie fool them anymore!
12. Deception
Yep, ol' Charlie wouldn't fool them this time.
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Each of these emails cues off "spam."
12. Deception
This one, however, cues off something different. It begs to be opened.
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Concentration
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Kick Your Opponent Where It Hurts - Right in His Dispersion
T “
he principles o war, not merely one principle, can be condensed into one single word - 'concentration.' But or truth this needs to be ampliied as 'the concentration o strength against weakness.' And or any real value it needs to be explained that the concentration o strength against weakness depends on the dispersion o your opponent's strength, which in turn is produced by a distribution o your own that gives the appearance and partial eect o dispersion. Your dispersion, his dispersion, your concentration - such is the sequence and each is a sequel. True concentration is the ruit o calculated dispersion." - B. Liddel Hart That is probably the greatest paragraph ever written about war. And when I take the time right now to put it in context, you are going to come back to that paragraph, read it again, and be illed with an understanding o how you can apply these lessons in business to give yoursel a decided strategic advantage. First, let me go to the heart o what this paragraph means. In essence, Hart is saying that you must put a weakness on display or your opponent to see. When your opponent concentrates his resources to attack what he perceives as your weakness, he must then create weak spots o his own. Once he does that, you ocus your strengths to attack his newly-created weaknesses and deeat him. Make sense? It made a lot o sense to the Union Army during the Battle o Gettysburg in the Civil War. We're not going to review the entirety o that 1863 battle, though. Instead, we're going to ocus on smaller drama within the larger conlict. It was called Pickett's Charge, and it's one o the best historical examples o Hart's Theory at work. At the climax o a protracted and bloody artillery battle, General Robert E. Lee was concerned. One o his top units, Pickett's division, had already suered signiicant losses. They were running low on ammunition. But General Lee thought the Federals were running out o ammo as well.
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What Lee didn't know was that the Federal artillery had made a calculated decision to show Lee a perceived weakness that they knew he would want to attack. The artillery stopped iring, giving Lee the impression that they were completely out o ammunition. Lee believed it was time to give Pickett's division the "go ahead" to charge into the center o the Federal lines and go or the kill. This is the amous "Pickett's Charge." Pickett's men charged the Federal Center on open ground. The Conederates were shocked, to say the least, when the Federals opened ire with their artillery. Federal guns cut down most o Pickett's men - killing, wounding or capturing two-thirds o them. This showed the beauty o Hart's theory o war - "your dispersion, his dispersion, your concentration - such is the sequence and each is a sequel." First, the Federal troops provide the appearance o being out o ammunition (your dispersion). Then, Pickett's men charge out into the open, without any artillery o their own to cover their movement (his dispersion). Then, the Federals make the kill by opening up their artillery on Pickett's exposed men (your concentration). Now, let's apply this theory to your business. Remember that the purpose o this book is to enable you to experience a shit in perspective, to begin thinking about your business in a way that will give you a tremendous edge over your competition. In that light, this chapter is critical in helping you transorm potential ailure into actual success. Let us think, or the moment, o your competition as your "opponent." I your opponent is oering a product at a low price and bases his consumer appeals on price, it can be interpreted that his concentrating his power in that area - on price. I you cannot eectively lower your price, does it make sense or you to compare the price o your product to the price o his? O course not. Remember, the key to success is to put your concentration against your opponent's dispersion. In other words, match your strength versus his weakness. There is no such thing as a perect business. Every product, every business has a dispersion, a weakness. More accurately, every product and every business has numerous points o weakness. How can you deine your opponent's weakness, and then pit your concentration against his dispersion? Local gyms these days are having a tough time competing with the huge chains like Bally Total Fitness and 24 Hour Fitness. The big guys have obvious advantages. They can oer 24-hour service and a world-class acility. With a low budget, a local independent gym cannot compete against the big boys on price, equipment and hours. I they try, they'll be like the 98-pound weakling getting sand kicked in his ace.
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The big chains are so strong and, consequently, everybody goes there. So, what's their weakness? What's their "dispersion?" Well, an analysis would probably uncover many. One not-so-obvious one is the act that everybody goes there. Clever gym managers are charging more or their memberships - and developing a clientele - by touting a certain degree o exclusivity. "Sure," they say, "you can go to Bally's and get a cheap membership, but just try getting a chance to use the equipment! It's always overcrowded. With us, you're in an exclusive club and you don't have to wait in line to lit weights." This approach works because it pits the concentration o the small gym (exclusivity, less crowding) against the dispersion o the big gyms (open to all, always crowded). Let's make this even more interesting. What i you think o your customers as your "opponents." (Hey, I love customers. We're talking metaphors here.) I you win, you get to take some o the customer's money. I you lose, he keeps it and you get nothing. It can be argued that the power o the Internet consumer is concentrated in his ability to ind ree inormation online. This is one o the greatest obstacles or people who sell inormation. I people get a sense they can ind the same inormation or ree, why pay or it? Consumers have dispersions too, however. In this case, it's time. Yes, you can ind almost any inormation or ree online i you've got the time and the inclination to look hard enough. For today's busy consumers, though, they seldom have that kind o time available, and they don't want to use their spare minutes searching the web. Want to succeed against your opponent, the consumer? As an ino-seller, put your concentration (a large supply o readily-available, uncommon inormation) against the consumer's dispersion (lack o time). Point out this linkage and make it painully obvious to your consumer opponents that they can't live without the convenient access to inormation you're oering. Like Pickett, they'll charge right into your midst, waving their credit cards in your direction.
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Concept: Concentration. Battles are won when you successully pit your strengths against your opponents' weaknesses.
Lesson: In determining your selling points, assess the weaknesses o your competition and promote those strengths that lie in direct contrast. Likewise, assess the greatest needs (or weaknesses) o your prospects and tailor your marketing to attack them. Action: Conduct an in-depth study o your competitors. What are their weaknesses? High prices? Lack o selection? Lack o convenience? Overcrowding? Make a list o their vulnerabilities and then develop a corresponding list o your business's strengths. Write ad copy that communicates the contrast.
13. Concentration
The Federals stopped firing and this gave General Lee the impression that they were out of ammunition, when in fact, they had abundant ammunition left. Then… Pickett's charge. Remember: "Your dispersion, his dispersion, your concentration."
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Concentrate on the dispersion, not on the concentration. Attacking a company with low prices by lowering your own is attacking a strong point. Attacking their quality, if it's lacking, is an appropriate attack on a week point.
13. Concentration
The consumer always has a great dispersion of time. He doesn't want to spend his whole life looking around. Pit your concentration (an instantly deliverable solution to his problem) against his dispersion in this way.
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Factors of Recognition
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Seeing is Believing ... And More
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n both war and business, there is an extraordinary amount o attention devoted to the matter o being seen. There are good reasons or that. In war, being seen can get you killed. In business, being seen is essential to maintain your economic lie. Visibility, whether in warare or the marketplace, is a science. Millions o dollars have been spent and years o psychological research conducted to understand how to be (and not be) seen. According to U.S. Army Field Manual 20-3, there are seven "actors o recognition." For the soldier, it's critical to memorize these items, because they are the actors that will get you spotted by the enemy. They include: Relectance: FM 20-3 says, "Relectance is the amount o energy returned rom a target's surace as compared to the energy striking the surace." Or, to put it in layman's terms, i a soldier has anything that relects light, it will catch the enemy's eye and trouble will be on the way. Shape: Imagine a desert horizon. You gaze across the sand dunes, looking in outline like sotly rounded ocean waves, and suddenly you see a large boxy vehicle sticking out among them. Because the shape does not blend into the environment, the vehicle is spotted immediately. Shadow: FM 20-3 says there are two types o shadows - a cast shadow, which is a silhouette o an object projected against its background, and a contained shadow, which is the dark pool that orms in a permanently shaded area. For a soldier, both o these are not good things. Movement: FM 20-3 says, "Movement always attracts attention against a stationary background. Slow, regular movement is usually less obvious than ast, erratic movement." In non-military language, that means don't move...and, i you do, do it slowly. Noise: It doesn't take a doctorate degree to understand this one. We've all seen movie scenes in which a soldier walking quietly through a orest accidentally steps on and breaks a twig. Mayhem and carnage inevitably result.
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Texture: FM 20-3 says, "A rough surace appears darker than a smooth surace, even i both suraces are the same color. For example, vehicle tracks change the texture o the ground by leaving clearly visible track marks." Irregular variations in color or shades o color produce this same eect. It's one o the reasons soldiers wear camoulage ace paint in combat. Patterns: Among a random natural setting, a rigid orderly pattern will stick out. A group o vehicles lined up nicely is much easier to spot because o the pattern it creates. In other words, even i vehicles are covered in camoulage nets, i you leave them sitting in a nice, orderly row, some smart enemy soldier is going to igure out that God doesn't usually line up dirt mounds that way. In marketing, we should take the admonitions o FM 20-3 and put them in reverse. We want to avoid being hidden. To stay incognito may be lie or soldiers, but it's death or marketing. I you're invisible, it doesn't matter what other great marketing techniques you have up your sleeve because all is lost. That's why, in the classic ad copy ormula AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action), Attention always comes irst. Getting and keeping the customer's attention must come irst, and all else ollows. I'm going to oer some proven ways in which you can exploit the principles o recognition to get the attention o your prospects. Keep something important in mind, though. These tips are like a very nice cologne. A little goes a long way. Dump a ew tablespoons all over yoursel, and you'll ind that you're turning o ar more people than you're attracting. Too many marketers go over the top with their attention-getting schemes, gaining their prospects' attention, but losing any shred o credibility in the process. Bombard your prospects with too many o these tips too oten, and their resulting sensory overload will cause them to tune you out. Used sparingly, though, these items can place and keep you prominently in your uture customer's awareness.
14. Factors of Recognition 1 0 5
Concept: Factors of Recognition. There are deinite techniques that can grab and hold your prospects' attention.
Lesson: Attracting attention to your products and services is all-important to building a clientele. Selective and sensible use o attention-getting techniques can set your selling materials apart rom your competitors. Action: Try incorporating the suggestions included in this chapter to improve the look o your website and sales materials. Also, rather than simply use these examples, make a list o other creative ways to apply this concept - the utilization o recognition actors - to your marketing.
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Here, we exploit the principles of shape and texture to get our readers’ attention. Once we have their attention, we immediately use the psychological principle of "Obedience to Authority" in order to influence the buying decision of our prospects. Using these principles in combination like this can be quite powerful!
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A banner ad in the standard position as you see above is a very bad idea. It takes you maybe a single day on the Net to figure out "where the ads are." What happens then? You start tuning them out. Personally, even though I love looking at marketing, I scroll past the banner on a web page to get it totally out of my mind. This is now an unconscious and automatic act. If your prospects aren't scrolling past these banners physically, they are doing so mentally.
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In this unusual position, the banner is much harder to ignore. It's out of the ordinary, so the brain cannot immediately tune it out as it can the banner in the expected position. Can you think of some other tricky ways to get a banner ad seen? Think outside of the box.
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Among a motionless web page, a small piece of animation will easily grab the attention of your visitor. In this case here, the little arrow animates by fading in and out of view, creating a sense of motion.
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Conversely, on a web page that has animation at every corner, animation does not stand out at all. Motion is only a factor of recognition when it is found among stillness.
14. Factors of Recognition
Your reader has to start reading your salesletter before he can read the whole thing, of course. The problem is, the reader sometimes needs an extra nudge here and there to push him along that path.
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Headlines should be positioned on a page as you see above - above the main text in a larger type - uncluttered by anything else. One could provide many psychological and psychobiological reasons why the eye falls here first. None of that matters for our purposes. What matters is that it works. Capitalize on this position by a) getting your most important benefit out there in your first shot, b) capturing the curiosity of your reader, and c) addressing what is likely to be on the mind of your prospect.
Continuous Operation
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How to Keep the Machine Running
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s our challenges get more and more demanding, how do we keep ourselves equipped or the task? This is a critical question in an era when business never stops. Lie in the military teaches important lessons about how to keep yoursel energized or the tasks at hand. When I was given my irst taste o real "tactical" lie in the Army, I learned a very important lesson rom a seasoned soldier with whom I served. Our irst night out on a long ield operation, this soldier told me there were two dierent types o soldiers - "garrison soldiers" and "ield soldiers." Some soldiers perormed quite well in a garrison environment - meaning back home in the barracks with showers and hot meals - but when they were out in the ield, they broke down and ceased to unction. Or, as this soldier said, "Put him out in the ield and he'll go rom man to bitch in hal a day." O course, there were plenty o things about ield lie that could get to you the dirt, the lack o showers or latrines, the horrible ood, the lack o sleep. It was diicult to keep your energy levels high, and energy levels are a matter o critical importance in the military. In the Army Field Manual 22-11 (Military Leadership), it is said that the tempo o modern warare is increasing drastically and that our ability to sustain "continuous operations" is vital. Many oicers thought that this meant soldiers should be trained to operate with less sleep, but Army research has indicated that sleep is a "combat multiplier." That is, getting more sleep allows the soldier to get a much greater amount o work done in a shorter amount o time. I the same soldier is orced to work longer with less sleep, he will get less work done than his counterpart working shorter hours and getting more rest. In other words, happy, rested and well-ed soldiers ight better. Period. Similarly, the tempo o e-business is break-neck, and it's getting aster rather than slowing down. Jay Conrad Levinson, when irst working with my company
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on an Internet publishing deal said, "I had no idea you guys could do things so quickly. You inspired me to coin a new term, 'Internet Time.' That's the new pace o business and those who can't keep up are clearly going to ail.” Jay discovered a act o lie in Internet marketing. Online business happens lighting-ast. Given a complete manuscript, my company, when publishing an electronic book, can crank out a world-class piece o work in as little as a week. It takes over a year or most print books to be published! To prepare yoursel or this pace, it does us all well to keep the military's advice in mind. Take care o yoursel. Get more rest. Work ewer hours, and the hours you do work will be more productive. For our oice to unction well on "Internet Time." overtime is strictly orbidden except in a case o extreme crisis. This advice may not seem important to you now, but when you need it - and there is no question you will - it will save your lie.
15. Continuous Operation
Concept: Continuous Operations . People unction more eectively when well-rested, well taken-care-o, well-ed, and it.
Lesson: In the ast-paced world o Internet marketing, being competitive means keeping yoursel in top shape and your energy levels continuously high. Action: Discipline yoursel to stick to a strict schedule, limiting your work hours and giving yoursel ample rest on nights and weekends. Monitor your perormance output and document to yoursel that your production remains high, or even higher, when you give yoursel ample rest.
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Sometimes the soldiers that excel in garrison life are not the same soldiers that excel in the field.
15. Continuous Operation
Soldiers that are well rested and are treated well, get more work done in less time. "Continuous Operations" can wear you down fast if you don't take care of your basic needs first.
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Quick Victories
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Pick Battles Worth Fighting
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t’s not always wise to ight every battle that comes your way.
Sun Tzu said it best, "When doing battle, seek a quick victory. A protracted battle will blunt weapons and dampen ardor." We can learn important lessons today rom the lie o the Greek leader Pyrrhus, who led successul conlicts against Rome in 280 and 279 B.C. In 280, Pyrrhus utterly deeated a Roman Army in Heraclea, and did the same a year later at Ausculum. The problem or Pyrrhus, though, was that the two bitter and protracted battles - as impressive as they may have been - let him with heavy casualties and a severely weakened army. From this bit o history, we get the term "pyrhhic victory," meaning "a victory that comes at great cost." What is gained by winning i you suer losses that leave you unable to ight the rest o the war? Pyrrhus should have listened to Sun Tzu, who wrote, "I troops lay siege to a walled city, their strength will be exhausted. I the army is exposed to a prolonged campaign, the nation's resources will not suice. When weapons are blunted and ardor dampened, strength exhausted and resources depleted, the neighboring rulers will take advantage o these complications. Then even the wisest o counsels would not be able to avert the consequences that must ensue." In business, we must all ask ourselves i we are alling into the trap o trying to lay siege to walled cities - ighting battles that will sap our essential resources. In Internet marketing, we oten ind ourselves trying to take on a walled city or two. Take search engines, or example. Yes, search engines can be a great source o targeted traic or your website. The problem is, many small businesses get greedy and think, erroneously and to their detriment, that spending a great deal o time on search engine positioning will open the doors to enormous success They employ a great many innovative techniques to gain a high placement in
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the various search engines. Sometimes they are successul. Usually, though, in the long run, it ends up not being worth the time they invest. Let me give you a ew reasons why this is the case: > Search engines are constantly changing the rules - their ranking algorithms - all the time. What gives you a number one ranking today may leave you in 4000th position tomorrow. All o your hard work may suddenly be or nothing. > Submit the same content too many times, or do it too oten, and the search engines may ban you. Again, your hard work may go straight down the drain. > Getting that number one ranking probably won't deliver the lood o traic you imagine it will. Hard work, again, squandered. > There are many other, ar simpler Internet marketing tasks that will render a greater return-on-investment with ar less eort. Now, I've got nothing against search engines. In act, I wrote one o the irst books on search engine promotion, and I've created two search engines mysel, so I know a little about the topic. There are a ew people out there who have truly mastered the art o search engine positioning. They do very well with it. They are also very rare. (I you are one o these people, eel ree to ignore this point.) Most people, though, spend hours and hours ighting the search engine wars only to see their eorts bearing little, i any ruit. Now, i you walk away rom this chapter with this knowledge about search engine promotions alone, this book will have paid or itsel. The larger point I want to communicate, though, is the concept o a quick victory. I've known too many people who have regretted their choices to eschew the quick victories that were handed to them. A riend o mine was once oered $100,000 or his website. At irst, he was ecstatic about the deal. He had never envisioned having $100,000 and this money would make a proound change in his lie. Then, though, he heard the story o someone else selling a similar site or $1,000,000 and it angered him. He went back to the buyer and told them he wanted more. This led to a long and ruitless negotiation process that screwed up the whole deal. He walked away having wasted months o time in negotiations, and without a single dollar in his pocket.
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Had he simply taken the quick victory that was laying on his doorstep, he would have been $100,000 richer. Yes, $100,000 doesn't compare to a cool million, but it's a hell o a lot better than zero (not even actoring in the wasted time). Extend this concept, or any o the concepts in this book or that matter, and see how they can be applied in other ways. Have you ought a protracted legal battle that let you with nothing? Have you been working on that "one big project" that never seems to come to ruition? Are you married to a promotion concept that just isn't working? Are you spending hours upon hours trying to move up the search engine ladder with nothing to show or it? Seek the quick victories and move orward, my riend.
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Concept: Quick Victories . People and armies lose wars by ighting diicult, prolonged battles that leave their resources depleted.
Lesson: Avoid engaging in tasks, projects and conlicts that have the potential o consuming large amounts o time and resources without necessarily yielding substantial gain. Action: Evaluate your ongoing business actions. Ask yoursel i you are spending inordinate amounts o time on aairs that have not yet produced signiicant beneits or you and your business. Give higher priority to those victories that can be won quickly, so that you can move on to other important matters.
16. Quick Victories 1 2 3
If only Pyrrhus knew he would unwittingly coin a phrase. A “Pyrrhic Victory” is one in which you win, but at a great cost.
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Sound like anyone you know?
16. Quick Victories 1 2 5
Sometimes it pays to drag things out for a better result. Usually, though, it pays just to accept a quick and sure victory that consumes fewer resources (time, money, emotional stamina).
Boldness and Taking Risks
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The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing
H
istory has taught us that more battles have been won by bold moves than by the blunt lexing o brute orce. By bold, I mean daring, earless, gutsy actions to take what you need. Boldness is a concept you must “eel” to the depth o your bones. When you think about boldness, let your mind turn to one o the greatest moments in the history o war - D-Day. Most know D-Day as an invasion that turned the tides o the European Theatre in World War II or the Allies, but not much more than that. D-Day was one o history's great examples o balls and brilliance at work. Let's set the scene. The Normandy beaches the Allies invaded on D-Day were probably some o the most treacherous military ortiications in history. The water leading up to the beaches was thoroughly mined. The beaches were mined, as well. The ground was covered with row ater row o wire, and the beach ground was easily accessible by German machine guns positioned saely away in the hills above. Suice it to say that the landings themselves were a living hell (the movie “Saving Private Ryan” gave us a small taste o what this day was like, but keep in mind that the beaches stormed by those brave soldiers that day stretched over 50 miles.) Finally, what makes this truly one o the greatest examples o boldness in history is a little-known deception code-named "Bodyguard." This was a ive-old plan to conuse the Germans about the allies' true plans or re-capturing France. Four o the deception plans were devised to make the Germans think that D-Day would not happen on the Western shores o France at all. The ith and most important deception, code named “Fortitude South,” was devised to let the Germans think that the Allies would indeed invade France's Western shores, but that the invasion would happen at the Pas de Calais rather than at Normandy. The execution o this deception was brilliant. The Allies ran alse convoys,
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broadcast alse radio transmissions and even set up a decoy tank division in Dover, England. To add the coup de grace, they even sent the real-lie General Patton to Dover to "command" the decoy division. This plan worked so well that Hitler concentrated most o his troops in the Pas de Calais. This made a huge dierence in what happened that day. I Hitler's orces had been concentrated in Normandy, one wonders whether or not the landing would have succeeded. Instead o being a great triumph or the allies, we may have seen images o bodies strewn over 50 miles o European beach in the biggest military debacle ever. In the Korean War, we saw another great example o boldness by General Douglas MacArthur. By the time the brunt o the U.S. orces arrived in Korea ater the invasion rom the North, all o the existing South Korean and U.S. orces there were trapped in the "Pusan Perimeter." This was a small piece o land surrounding the beautiul port city o Pusan. North Korean leader Kim Il Sung expected MacArthur to concentrate his orces in Pusan and try to break out o the perimeter. This seemed the only sane action to take and, realizing that, Kim Il Sung intelligently concentrated most o his orces around Pusan. No one ever accused MacArthur o being predictable, though. Instead o doing the expected, he took a sizable chunk o his orces up to Inchon, a small city just south o Seoul. No one would have expected this attack as the geography o the beach makes or an incredibly diicult landing operation. This took the North Koreans by complete surprise. MacArthur was able to quickly capture Seoul, and cut the North Korean orces in two. Why can't we, in business, act as boldly as great igures in history? Why can't we capture customers the same way that MacArthur and the Allies captured land? The answer is, we can - i we're willing to be earless in our actions. As B. Liddel Hart said, "...in war, the chie incalculable is the human will." It's sad to say that most great business ideas are deeated beore they are even written down. O the billions o ideas that are tossed around our collective heads each day, the vast majority o them are quickly squelched by our cautious inner voices. Even those that get scribbled out on a legal pad seldom make it into the actual planning stages. Yes, it's true that most attempted business ventures have but a slim chance o succeeding. But without even an eort, slim becomes zero. And when we're not squashing our own good ideas, we're too acquiescent in letting others squash them or us. I know many business owners who allow their ideas to be steamrolled by the ever-present bureaucracy beore they even see the light o day.
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These entrepreneurs spend more time thinking about how many regulations they have to satisy than they spend thinking about marketing. I know one businessman who, on the basis o one phone call to a minor city bureaucrat, stopped work on a project he had been planning or six months. The man told my riend what he was doing was illegal, so my riend, dutiul citizen that he is, wanted to abide by the law. As it turned out, the bureaucrat had given him incorrect inormation! What he was doing was actually not illegal at all. I learned a great deal in the Army about how to act boldly, living by the phrase, "Forgiveness comes much easier than permission." I learned that it was better not to ask i something I planned was OK. It made more sense just to do it. I I broke the rules, I'd leave it to those in charge to enorce those regulations as they saw it. Yes, I could be diicult to work with, but I was able to get a lot more done than i I had sat around waiting or permission to act. Within reason, I try to run my business the same way. As long as I am operating ethically, why should I wait or the interpretations o bureaucrats beore taking critically-important actions? Similarly, many people squelch their own plans beore they come to ruition. They imagine ways that they will ail, so they decide not to try at all. Microsot’s success hinges upon one very bold request made by Bill Gates. When he was striking a deal with IBM to include his DOS sotware on every PC they shipped, he asked or one little thing that catalyzed his success. He asked or the exclusive rights to sell upgrades to his sotware. Most people would not have even asked, thinking that surely IBM saw the revenue potential o the sotware industry. As we all know now, IBM in act said, “yes.” IBM was convinced that the real money in computing would come rom hardware sales. This single bold request is probably the most important event that made Bill Gates the richest man in the world. Stop spending your time and energy worrying constantly about the rules. Stop caring about what other people think. Stop thinking about the ways your plans will ail. Basil King probably said it best: “Be bold and mighty orces will come to your aid.” You are competing on the Internet, one o the last great, largely-unrestricted rontiers. It will be virtually impossible or the world's governments to tame something so large, so ar-lung, so ree-wheeling as the Net. Take advantage o this reedom, because you won't ind it in other venues. You have a license to act boldly. Act ethically, treat people airly, but or God's sake, stand up and take your share!
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Concept: Boldness and taking risks . History has shown consistently that great victories are won by those willing to act boldly and shun sel-doubts and the doubts o others.
Lesson: Most people are not bold, so bold actions are rarely expected by your opponent. This gives those who are willing to be bold a great advantage. The problem is, we tend to "squelch" the bold ideas that pass through our minds. Your success in business is tied to your willingness to act boldly and earlessly. "Be bold and mighty orce will come to your aid.” Action: What are the boldest, most exciting Internet marketing plans that have ever crossed your mind? Write them down. Flesh them out. Begin iguring out how they might be carried out. In your planning, never, never, never allow the word "can't" to be an obstacle to what you want to achieve.
17. Boldness and Taking Risks
D-Day was far more complex than most remember. An extremely bold deception effectively led the Germans to believe that the Allies would attack at the Pas de Calais - not Normandy.
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The Inchon Landing was perhaps MacArthur's greatest act of boldness.
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If you could tune into the thoughts of the people of the world like a radio station, you would not be able to bear the din of marvelous ideas thundering through the air. It's a staggering paradox that the greatest achievements of man all start as a single idea from one man - and that the potential great achievements that men let slip through their mind outnumber them by a trillion to one.
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He heard wrong.
"Don't Never Take a Chance You Don't Have To" (from the Ranger Handbook)
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"Bold" and "Stupid" are Not Synonyms
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eems kind o odd, doesn't it, that I would ollow a chapter about acting boldly with a separate chapter about avoiding stupid risks?
It makes perect sense, sense, though. Soldiers win battles by being being bold, but they stay alive by avoiding stupid risks. You must be bold in order to achieve the dreams that are possible over the Internet. That doesn't mean, though, though, that you should oolishly squander squander your time and money. Ironically, the Internet allows you to be bold and sensible at the same Ironically, same time. In the pre-Internet days, engaging in market testing meant, by necessity necessity,, that you had to risk large sums o money running ads. I you are a smart player in the Internet economy, economy, you realize that you don't have to risk your cash reserves in order to move toward your goals. Reer back to the previous chapter. Attacking a target unexpectedly - even at great risk - well, that's that's bold. Doing it without taking all available precautions? precautions? That's just plain stupid. Roger's Rangers - the British Colonial precursor to today's elite Ranger Regiment o the U.S. Army - knew k new how to deeat an enemy without taking oolish, dangerous risks. During the French and Indian War, War, ground troops, or the most part, still ought in ormations. They lined up like the little toy soldiers on a young young boy's bedroom shel - standing straight up and in perectly-ormed lines. To ight any other way was considered uncivilized by the armies o aristocratic countries like France France and England. They believed you you should stand up and ace your your opponent bravely sticking out chins and chests. Captain Robert Rogers, however, however, thought that being alive was a little more important than putting on a brave ront. He trained his men to ight by conducting ambushes and precision stealth strikes, minimizing their exposure exposure and, thus, their their risk. He saw how successul successul the
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Indians had been in utilizing that style o ighting, and quickly realized that to ight any other way would be nothing short o suicide. It took quite some time or the rest o the world to catch up and convert to guerrilla warare war are tactics. Even as late as the Civil War War,, U.S. troops were still ighting ighti ng in line ormations. Eventually, though, everyone saw the sense o choosin choosing g "alive" over "brave." Businesses too oten, act boldly bol dly without tempering those actions with orethought. They throw obscene amounts o dollars away on advertising without knowing i they are gaining anything anything positive positive rom their their investment. investment. Some wise entrepreneurs entrepreneurs (like Jay Conrad Levinson) know how to employ Guerrilla Marketing tactics in advertising and can do so quite cheaply. cheaply. Most business people, though, don't don't have the creativity creativity required to pull this o well. You need to realize that the Internet is ull o incredible advertising opportunities oppor tunities - many o them low cost, some o them even ree o charge - i you just take the time to look or them. It's amazing to me how many companies companies are still, even even years ater the Internet burst onto the scene, spending hundreds o thousands, even millions, o dollars on ad campaigns without even trying a low-cost orm o advertising on the Internet. For many years, my company's advertising advertisi ng budget was ZERO. That's right. We didn't spend a dime on advertising. Even today, I spend next to nothing on advertising and ocus all o my eorts on maximizing what I can get or ree. ree. I I can send out an e-mail newsletter to hundreds o thousands o people or ree, why not ocus on maximizing that return instead o risking megabucks on expensive direct mail campaigns? Once you discover the marketing and advertising resources available to you on the Internet, you'll be able to make other marketers - particularly those who are preInternet veterans - drool with envy. You can declare reedom rom the perceived high cost o doing business.
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Concept: Avoid unnecessary risks . It's essential to be bold in your actions, but it's just as important to be smart. Taking stupid risks is never a wise strategy.
Lesson: You can be an aggressive and eective Internet marketer without squandering your resources on costly advertising and direct mail campaigns. Action: Make the time to scour the Internet or ree and low-cost services that can help you gain visibility or your business. Develop as many o these resources as you can and put them to use. Evaluate your status in a month to determine i you have gained as much, i not more, through this low-budget approach than you would have by spending thousands o dollars on advertising and direct mail.
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Bravery or idiocy?
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What was first seen as a cowardly way to fight has formed the foundation for the way we fight today. After all, there is nothing brave about standing up in front of a weapon to take a bullet. That’s just stupid.
"Don't Ever March Home the Same Way. Take a Different Route So We Won't Be Ambushed." (Ranger Handbook)
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If You Don't Float Like a Butterfly, You're Going to Get Stung by Some Smart Bees
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ome people absolutely need consistency and predictability. They need a lie without surprise or variation. Those people are not soldiers. Nor are they successul business leaders.
In warare and business alike, predictability simply means that the enemy has a better opportunity to ambush you and kill you. To keep breathing, you must be inscrutable and unpredictable. You must ind new ways to engage your customers. You must be innovative in disguising your sales eort, keeping your competitors o-balance and keeping your prospects' interest. I your rivals know what you are going to do, they are going to be prepared or you. I they don't have a clue what you'll do next, your chances o survival have increased exponentially. In act, the more unpredictable you are, the more agitated your opponent will become, and he'll spend more time trying to predict your next move than working on his own. Roger's Rangers, the ellows who broke tradition and began utilizing guerrilla ighting tactics also believed irmly in the concept o unpredictability. Whenever they went out on patrol, they automatically assumed that their enemies would be observing their movements and would plan uture strategies based on that knowledge. The Rangers knew that predictability begged or an ambush. Thereore, they would take a dierent route every time, giving their enemies nothing that could be used to plot a sneak attack. This made Roger's Rangers an even more ormidable ighting orce. U.S. Army Anti-Terrorist Training teaches soldiers to have unpredictable habits. Since U.S. soldiers are prime targets or terrorism, this inormation saves their lives. Once a terrorist begins plotting an attack on a human target, his irst step is to map his target's daily habits and igure out how to exploit them. Even in sports, we see the value o being inconsistent. I a ootball team calls a running play up the middle every single time they are in a irst down situation, it's not going to take long or the opposing coach to recognize that tendency and stack extra deenders on the line o scrimmage to throw that runner or a loss. Winning ootball coaches vary their play selection to avoid giving their opponents tendencies to plan against. 1 41
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In business, your competitors are right now trying to think o ways to exploit your weaknesses. And i your behavior patterns are consistent and predictable, you are going to be ambushed. Sooner or later, it's going to happen. And it's going to hurt. Let's say, or example, that you are an oline entrepreneur, selling widgets. Every Sunday, without ail, you have an "all widgets are 10% o - Sunday only" sale. You advertise this, week ater week, in the Saturday and Sunday editions o the local paper. This campaign may not be a dynamo, but it's been working reasonably well or you, and quite rankly, you're too lazy to change it and try something new. Your competitor decides to take advantage o your predictability and, one ateul Sunday, you open the newspaper to see an ad - bigger and better-looking than yours - telling readers that "all widgets are 20 percent o - Sunday only." Your sales have just latlined or that weekend. Your competitor knew exactly what you would be doing that weekend and he ambushed you. You try to bounce back the next weekend by cutting your prices even urther but, by this point, your enemy has your number. He knows you are lazy and simple-minded in your approach to marketing, so he predicts your price reduction and runs an ad saying, "You can pay lower prices or lower quality widgets, or or just a ew more dollars, you can invest in a widget that will last you a lietime." An over-reliance on consistency has been the death o countless unimaginative, innovation-ree businesses. Predictability will hurt your relationship with customers, too. When they see marketing approaches that are never changing, they will simply tune you out. Remember that a certain amount o variation is essential to keep your site visitors, your customers and your prospects interested. This is especially important in ads that exploit the Ziegarnik Eect. Remember the "punch the monkey" banner ads that appeared so ubiquitously on the Internet in 1999? They were un, weren't they? The un also wore o pretty quickly, didn't it? The problems with those ads were that they didn't brand the companies using them, and they lost their novelty ater the irst couple o clicks. You'll notice that you don't see these ads appearing much any more … The unny thing about advertising is that ineective advertising tends to disappear - either because an on-the-ball marketing analyst discovers it's no longer eective, or the companies paying or them go broke. No matter how great your initial idea, i you all into a rut with it, your opponent is going to take advantage. And you're going to pay a price or your consistency.
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Concept: Be unpredictable . Consistency and and predictability enables your your enemy to predict your actions, ambush you and deeat you.
Lesson: I your marketing and sales techniques lack imagination and are entirely predictable, you will ind it impossible to maintain the interest o your customers and your opponents will ind ways to ambush and undercut you. You must be unpredictable in order to thrive. Action: Make a concerted eort eort to insert insert variety into your marketing marketing eorts. eorts. Step back back and review your current current activities. activities. Look at your own business through your opponent's opponen t's eyes. Try to see areas where you are too consistent, too predictable. Make a list o ways in which you can be more innovative in your approaches.
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“Don't never take the same road home twice.”
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Predictability begs for an ambush.
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Because Acme always runs this same ad, Super Widgets Inc. ambushes him quite easily with a larger ad with a greater benefit.
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Concentrating on teh weakness you created through deception...
The Fox and the Rabbit
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Desire is Everything
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any martial arts experts pass around this story. I don't know where it originated, but I do know that it is extraordinarily relevant to what we do.
A Zen Master is out in the woods with his student. Out o nowhere jumps a rabbit scurrying uriously. A ox ollows behind him, obviously wanting the rabbit to be his next meal. They watch the chase or a ew moments and the Zen Master asks the student, "Who will win?" The student answers quickly without thinking, "Well, o course, it's the ox. He is stronger and aster." The Zen Master remains silent or a ew moments to add emphasis to what he is about to say. "No," he replies, "the rabbit will get away." The student is puzzled, "I don't understand, master." "The ox," replies the Zen Master, "is chasing the rabbit or a meal. The rabbit is running or his lie." Motivation is an irreplaceable key to success. The Vietnam War is a great lesson in this regard. One may argue that the reason the U.S. lost the war was because our soldiers were not ighting or their homes. They were ighting because they were told to. Their hearts were not in the battle. Some may say it was the lack o congressional support or a host o other actors that lost the war, but the bottom line is that, man or man, the North Vietnamese outought us. Beyond all o the politics and the espionage, they were indeed iercer on the ground. (No disrespect at all meant to the American men who ought and died in that war. One wonders how they would have done had the country been on their side.) The more desperate the opponent, the iercer the ight. The U.S. soldiers were simply trying to stay alive until their tour o duty was over and they could go back home. The North Vietnamese were ighting to keep their country rom being controlled by oreigners and to protect themselves rom likely execution. That's one hell o a dierence in motivation.
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That motivational gap made itsel clear in our business, as well, when the dot com bubble burst in 2000. Many well-unded companies went under. When the lieblood o investment capital started lowing in, they couldn't survive. It was strange to many, though, that a lot o the small "mom-and-pop" Internet operations were relatively unaected by the crash. It wasn't hard or me to see the reason why. The people behind the dot com ailures gained their ortunes without breaking much o a sweat. Many o them cashed in enough to gain a signiicant amount o personal wealth well beore the market crashed. I their company ailed, it was no big deal. It wouldn't keep the gourmet dinner o the table. They were the oxes. They were just running or another meal. The mom-and-pop operations had much more to lose. They had quit their day jobs and dedicated hours upon hours to businesses that had become their dreams and their entire utures. I they ailed, they would not only lose their hard-ought reedom as Internet entrepreneurs, but also the countless hours they had dedicated to their businesses. They were the rabbits, running or their lives. Some o the greatest business success stories in history started as small (and desperate) one-man operations, but grew to monumental successes. My riend Ted Nicholas is the deinitive example o the rabbit. He started out broke, rustrated, unemployed and demoralized. But, because he ought like a rabbit or his lie, he is now retired with millions o dollars, splitting time between his homes in Switzerland and Florida. What about you? Are you satisied with what you have, complacent about your status? Are you simply chasing another meal? Are you a ox? I say that your uture lies in being the rabbit. Use all o the techniques you’ve learned in this book, but above all, apply them with urgency, intensity, zeal and even a sense o desperation. Fight every battle as i you are running or your lie. Be the rabbit. Keep moving. Never, ever stop.