Something struck me this morning as I was talking to a fellow marketer. Something that might affect the way you think about how you market online.
I have been finding my way around this internet marketing thing for over a year now. I subscribe to a multitude of lists and see many different offers every week, some good, some bad.
Every once in a while I see something that is really cool, in an “I got to get me one of those!” way. Since it is such a great product and a great idea, I assume it is the newest of shiny concepts.
Often I find out that is not the case.
The fact is, if you are an ethical marketer with the best interests of your customers in mind, you will not judge your offerings purely by the length of time they have been around. You’ll try to select products based on what’s best for them.
Though some of the newest offerings in the marketplace have truly new takes on old ideas, most do not. Most are just a retelling of the same old story.
I am constantly amazed by how fast a new product can disappear if it is not continually marketed. Products that were the hot ticket just a few months ago are nowhere to be seen, replaced by the newest hot ticket.
Another thing to keep in mind is that just because you are very familiar with a product or a course, that doesn’t mean everyone is. Marketing on the internet in many respects involves a collection of interconnected circles. The ways that you find out about what’s new will be a product of the circles you are involved in. Those circles might not be the same circles your customers travel.
For example, if you spend a lot of time on the Warrior Forum you will be familiar with a certain set of names and products, and those names and products will seem like the biggest in the internet marketing space. That is not the case. A surprising number of people have never heard of the Warrior Forum, and even more have been there and don’t really go back. So that little universe that seems like the center of all things internet marketing doesn’t impact them at all.
I don’t mean to pick on the Warrior Forum. It’s a fine place. But what is true for it is true for everything else. The space you travel in is just one of many. Don’t assume your customers travel in the same circles.
So don’t make the mistake of assuming that your experience is the same as your customer’s. If you have a product you would like to promote because it is wonderful, but you worry that it has been around so long that everyone has already seen it, don’t. Show it to your customers and let them decide.
We won’t even talk about open rates, or the number of times someone needs to see an offer before they buy…
