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Should I set up a Facebook business page?

By Christian

There’s been a streak of marketing lately from people selling Facebook marketing courses, and as a results I’ve had some questions about whether or not it’s smart to have a Facebook business page (they used to be called ‘fanpages’).

Facebook is becoming a business platform more than a social network. It’s angled heavily for business now, which is fine in principle, but their execution sucks.

Currently, Facebook presents fantastic opportunities for business owners right now, but I’m not going to have any part of it.

Why? Because it’s scammy. I do see a lot of great opportunities on FB right now, but the way they’re approaching their business is a short game, and that’s not how I roll. It’s also not what I recommend to clients I think every business owner should look at Facebook carefully right now, because we’re watching a disaster in the making.

It’s marketing with a social media skin. Facebook is monetizing their user base, which is fine. But they’re using covert tactics, and making their user accounts very accessible to marketing messages, and most users don’t understand this.

Do you want to reach a LOT of people with your message? If so, then on the surface it may seem like Facebook is a great way to do it.
Do you want your users to actually trust and accept your marketing? If so, then you need to be very careful with how you proceed to market yourself on Facebook.

For example, did you know that when you click the ‘like’ button for one of your favorite businesses, gurus or celebrities, you’re also automatically signing up for their email list? What’s wrong with this? Three things:

Are you asked if you want to receive email from them? No.
Are you asked to confirm your email subscription? No. You’re just automatically on their email list now.
Is there an opt-out link or any clear way to get off an email list once your on? Again…that would be a ‘no’.

This is the OPPOSITE of permission-based marketing, which is what social media marketing is SUPPOSED to be all about. This is just one of many, many examples. It causes users’ inboxes to get flooded with marketing messages they didn’t anticipate, and most users don’t know how to get off the email list.

Check this out…as a marketer, I can go in and create a new group on Facebook for free. Then I can add you to that group without reference to you…completely without your permission or even your knowledge. And you will then start to get email from that group. Again…automatically. And if you don’t want the email, it’s then up to you to figure out where the email is even coming from, and it’s up to you to figure out how to get off the list. Sounds great, huh?

Again, it’s a short term marketing opportunity for business owners. I have no inherent fight with anyone who uses Facebook for marketing. Why? Because there are many ways to do it ethically. But you really need to learn the platform, and you need to respect your users, or you WILL end up alienating them. In fact, Facebook encourages it.

When you take a massive network like this, and you flip it around without people’s knowledge and turn it into a marketing platform which presents itself as a social network, you’re asking for trouble. Is Facebook still free for personal accounts? Yes. Does Facebook have every right to monetize it’s platform? Of course. My criticism of Facebook is not that they’re monetizing. My criticism is that they’re doing it in a really sketchy way, and their user base WILL retaliate.

An explanation for why my blog sucks

By Christian

I feel I owe you an apology. I make lots of mistakes on this blog. I don’t SEO most of the posts. I only put pictures up on some of them. I don’t even have comments turned on for God’s sake. I’m such a loser. I want to apologize 🙂

Here’s the thing: it’s not my goal to build big traffic here. I’m writing this blog for you. Yes, I’m quite serious…I’m talking to YOU. There really is quite a good chance that you and I have emailed a bit, talked on Twitter or even met at a conference. I write this blog for a small niche audience…my audience.

This isn’t a big blog. It’s my business blog, and I run a small consulting and publishing business. Why spend time optimizing my content when I could just be working with you guys one on one or coming out with a new product to help you take things to the next level?

I know we work on cool stuff like SEO, image optimization, driving traffic, etc…in our consulting sessions. And I practice very little of that here on my own blog. You may have noticed that. I think it’s crucial to focus. Know from the outset what you want your blog to achieve, and then go for it.

What am I going for on DangerousTactics? Well, I’m going for you. Mission accomplished 🙂

For god’s sake be deliberate

By Christian

Dear fellow ninja bloggers. You’re awesome for taking up blogging. It’s such a fantastic tool for marketing your business. But let’s not forget that it’s just a tool. Having a tool does not get you results. Any tool must be wielded with skill in order to get a meaningful result.

I see too many boring blogs out there. Don’t do that. You are not a boring person. You’re a business owner! You have mad skills and so much to share with your customers and clients. Your people like working with you. Share your personality on your blog.

Be yourself. In doing so, you will differentiate yourself. You will stand out. You will have more fun, and by having fun, your blog will become better.

I’m writing this post, because I just got a message from a reader saying that he’s been blogging for “quite a while now” and he gets “NOTHING” out of it. His blogging hasn’t done anything meaningful for his business as far as he can tell, and I know for a FACT that he’s not the only one out there who feels like that.

Do you feel like that? Do you question whether or not your blog is worth your time?

I’ve been doing this for 12 years now. Let me give it to you straight. Here’s the bottom line:

If your blog is not getting the results you’re looking for, there is an identifiable and correctable cause for that. In other words…it’s fixable! Did you know that? Did you know that it is an absolute FACT that you can and will get the results you’re looking for if you stick with it and make the necessary tweaks to your approach?

It’s a fact. Stick with it. Email me questions. I answer them, you know! That’s why I’m here. Yes, I charge for one-on-one stuff, and I sell products, etc. I also do massive amounts of stuff for free. Why? Because you’re awesome; we’re all in this together, and I owe you. A certain percentage of you will always buy stuff from me, and that is why it’s my duty to do whatever I can to help you get the results you need from your web marketing.

Do you feel like you’re not sure what to do to take things to the next level? Fire me an email or hit me up on Twitter. Let’s get you where you want to go.

How do you know if your website is successful?

By Christian

I find it curious how some people choose to define success when it comes to web marketing. For example, I have one particular site in mind that many (if not most) traditional web marketers would define as a failure in many ways. It’s been up for over 4 years now, and I’ve never added any content to it. The bounce rate (people who hit the site and immediately leave) is high…over 60% last time I looked. After 4 years, it doesn’t rank very well for many keywords I would like. As if that’s not enough, traffic is low by many people’s standards. It gets fewer than 2,000 visitors per month.

Is my website a failure?

These are all metrics that most web marketers use for indicators of success, and by all counts this website pretty much sucks! But I consider it a success. Why? Because I spend no time on it and no money on it, yet it brings my team an average of $18k per month. How does that sound to you? I think that a pretty good return on investment, so I’m thinking I’ll leave this sucky website up for a little while longer 🙂

What metrics do YOU use to measure your site’s success?

What’s my point? Maybe all these metrics we use to measure “success” don’t mean nearly what we think they do. Maybe it doesn’t matter how much traffic you get, not if you’re converting at a high rate and earning a good return on your investment. Maybe it doesn’t matter whether you have 100 or 100,000 followers on Twitter. Maybe quality matters, not quantity. What do you think? Is it too simplistic to say this? I get lots of questions from clients that reveal their distress over things like not having more comments on their blog or not having as much traffic as they think they should have. First, we always have to address “why”? Why do you want these things in the first place? It’s crucial…

Therefore…

Are you working hard to build your follower count on Twitter? Why?

Are you spending a lot of time or money to get more traffic to your website? Why? If you’re not making a good return on the traffic you’re already getting, why do you think more traffic will help?

Let’s challenge ourselves to set worthwhile goals. Let’s go deeper than the superficial metrics we usually use. Numbers matter. They do, but context is everything. The number of people on your email list, for example, means nothing outside the context of your business plan. Do you have a written business plan? Does your business plan address your web marketing goals? Too many of us do not have these things in place, and without them, the traditional metrics we use to gauge success online don’t have any context.

I know marketers who did over $1M in business last year with a list of 500 or less. You can do it too. The tactics that will work for you are out there, but first you have to figure out your business. If you’re interested, fire me an email about my training solution called “Sales Funnel Mastery”. It addresses this exact thing for you. It gives you that context you need and puts everything into perspective for you, so you know exactly how to approach your business and get laser-targeted results.

Until we have that type of clarity in our business, none of the metrics we use to measure success mean anything.

Boundaries are not evil

By Christian

It’s natural is get stressed when you hit 3 red lights in a row. It’s natural to get upset when you have to wait at your house for 4 hours, waiting for the cable guy to show up. As human beings, we rarely appreciate boundaries…we see them as unnecessary hurdles. We see them as a pain.

So when it comes to selling your product or service, you may be inclined to remove as many boundaries as possible. After all, you want to be easy to work with, right? You don’t want to upset your customers with any unnecessary hoops to jump through, right? Well hold on there. Be careful.

Boundaries are not evil. They’re necessary.

The fact is that without red lights, a lot more of us would be dying in car crashes on the way to work. They upset us, but they also keep things running a lot more smoothly, wouldn’t you agree?

I see these things in my consulting work all the time:

A salesperson gets a call, but they are not assertive in getting the persons name and phone number. They just give the prospect the information they asked for and hang up, losing the opportunity to help that prospect any further.
A small business regularly lets their clients talk them down in price, instead of competently selling their value and only working with customers who see real value in what they do.
A consultant allows clients to pay them 30,60,90 days after the work is complete, instead of getting paid up front.
A new online marketer has great content but wants to give everything for free. They feel by making offers too soon, they’ll turn off their readers and not build a strong audience. Instead, they end up building a readership that expects everything to be free. How exactly do you monetize THAT?
A new salesperson decides the best way to get business is to never say “no”. They answer their phone 24/7 and work with any client who can fog a mirror. Obviously this is unsustainable, but they’re afraid that setting boundaries will unnecessarily turn away business…which is something they cannot afford to do.

All of these are examples of business owners taking down boundaries. They’re making themselves more accessible. They’re giving their customers and clients what they want, so how could that possibly be a bad thing? It’s bad because it’s not sustainable, and it’s not a win-win.

We need boundaries because boundaries are what enable us to all work together and live with one another in a mutually beneficial way. That’s what we all want, and that’s why it’s WORTH it to put up boundaries. We need them.

For example, you’re not evil for requiring an email address first, before the customer can download the free report. You’re not evil for having your consulting clients to pay you in full, in advance. You’re not evil for turning off your phone at night and not taking calls from your clients or customers at 4 in the morning. Yes, they’ll call you then, and yes…it’s ok to call them back during reasonable hours.

Your business is NOT just about your customer. It’s about you too. Find what works for BOTH of you, and set up boundaries to ensure that balance is met.

Why niche marketing is scary

By Christian

Niche marketing is scary because it means turning away business, and that is something most small business owners just don’t have the stomach for. It’s unfortunate, but it’s WAY scarier to operate on the premise that your target market is “everyone”.

Why is that scarier? Because it’s literally impossible to sell to “everyone”. Talk about setting yourself up for failure. There is simply no chance that you’re going to sell to everyone. Not even Coca-Cola sells to everyone. Importantly…nor do they try. Coca-Cola markets to a niche. Compare their marketing to Pepsi, and you will see distinct differences. As reader of this post, there’s a good chance you’re either a Coke or Pepsi person. You’re probably not both. You like one or the other, and the same is true in every business. Some customers will really connect with you, others will not. You need to get in touch with the true value you can offer your customers and market yourself accordingly.

Your goal needs to be to connect with the people who really “get” you…who really see value in what you offer.

Attempting to sell to everyone is a losing proposition, because you’re trying to be everything to everyone, and you can’t be. With most people, you’re going to fall short, and when you work in that type of situation you’re forcing yourself to offer a low amount of value. Conversely, there IS a niche where you can really connect. You absolutely CAN connect with a small niche in a big way, and in doing so you will be offering them a very high amount of value.

Niche marketing enables you to offer significantly higher value while earning significantly more from a SMALLER base of people. When you really nail your niche, you become indispensable. Lack of niche marketing is why most small businesses struggle with competitors, and it’s why everyone seems to compete on price. Everyone wants to be the cheapest. We know in our gut this is not the way business is supposed to be. We’re supposed to offer our customers high value, not just sell them a bunch of junk at the lowest possible price.

When you find your niche, you not only become indispensable to your customers, you also become a strong supporter of the people you used to consider your competition. When a customer offers something you don’t do, you send them down the street to your “competition”. It builds good will, it’s great for the economy, and it connects customers with what they really need. Niche marketing is really not nearly as scary as you think. Avoiding it is what’s scary 🙂