How To Be More Than a Marketer And Still Sell
From: The Desk of Barry Goss
The other day, out of nowhere, one of my coaching clients blurted out:
“Hey, I think I want to be able to send out offers to a list of subscribers like you do… can you help me with that too?”
You see, the reason he said “too” and the reason I said “out of nowhere” is because, like the proverbial “too many irons in the fire” brain, he really didn’t have a focused reason to ask it, as a) the question didn’t relate to what I was coaching him on and b) he didn’t understand what the purpose of a list is in the first place.
After asking him a few questions, it turned out he’s been carrying around this pretty head-shaking, comical belief that list-building means “marketing” and that marketing means “pitching.” (Ah, Joe, I dig ya, dude, for giving me the green light to rip on ya some).
“What makes you think that I, or anybody under our LWL umbrella for that matter, uses opt-in lists as the email version of an advertising and pitching channel?”
I heard the long pause… he knew he’d stepped into something he thought, somehow, someway, that he’d be able to tip-toe out of. So, Joe took a deep breath and preceded to continue what he started:
“Aaaaah, a-hemmm, well, I guess I was just assuming, since everybody else who sends me emails sends me offers, that you guys do too.”
This, unfortunately, is the typical advice given to current-day, green-around-the-ears affiliate markers and anybody else who just wants to “make money online.”
And, like I told Joe, I’ll say it here too:
When you equate an email to an eyeball, the same way that Dot Com’ers did in the ’90s, you end up missing the ‘secret distinction‘ that most newsletter PUBLISHERS “get.” It’s the adoption of some time-proven principles that can take you BEYOND just being a so-called marketer.
The person who labels himself a marketer (and “just” or “mainly” a marketer), more often than not sees an email (and a name) as a target. A hit-or-miss part of the equation that’s gotta be in place to make a sale. It’s not far removed from the “one night stand” mentality.
The person who doesn’t like labels, but just a business that serves — through value-added products or by delivering focused newsletter-style content that synergistically leads into unique, usable products — sees email as a relationship. An ongoing way to communicate his/her interest, experiences, and knowledge. It’s not far removed from wanting to ‘marry the reader’ into his/her world.
But, therein lies either the disservice or the magic.
I explained to my curious, ambitious coachee that this is often where marketing stops and publishing begins. Many people attempt to bring a reader (a subscriber) into their world, either for all the wrong reasons — by not being upfront about why they are — or by not even delivering what the subscriber subscribed for in the first place.
Actually, Heather wrote a post about this distinction, as it relates to congruency and integrity.
But, I’m going to pass along some quick rules — ah, nah, more like guidelines — that Joe asked me to write up so he could better understand how to command attention, interest and desire with readers: