So last week's video was called
"Rock and Roll Branding vs Direct
Marketing" and it was about branding vs.
direct marketing and how those two very
distinct styles of marketing are coming
together and how the really big brands
are starting to figure out that direct
marketing is awesome... and for those of us
little guys that have been using direct
marketing online for so long that
branding is becoming more and more
important. So got a lot of great comments
on that video and questions as well. So I
thought I'd just do a little quick "Part 2"
revisit branding vs direct marketing,
especially with regards to our type of
businesses. So, first of all, I got a
comment from Stu McClaren. Stu's
been a great friend of mine for a long
time and many of you know him as the
creator of the Tribe course. So,
first of all, I gotta say it's just awesome
that I have amazing people stopping by and
leaving comments on my blog. Like a few
weeks ago , it was Steven Pressfield, the
the author of many books, including "The
War of Art," which is a great book. In any
any case, Stu stopped by and he said, "For me,
this is what makes it now so exciting.
The brand marketing helps us reach the
masses; the direct response marketing
helps us make it profitable." And that's
exactly right. Direct marketing is
becoming more and more mainstream.
Everyone's getting used to it. Everyone's
using it.
The stakes are going up. You have to be
better at it. It's not as easy as it was.
There's a lot of things that are easier
in this business, but people are getting
used to really good direct marketing and
so that means you have to keep on stepping up
your game. You know, welcome to life. That's
the way life is.
But Stu's absolutely right. We're now
able to reach the mainstream like we
weren't a few years ago. I look at my
business and how it's become so much
more mainstream. Like I
go by my friends and especially
neighbors and
when I see them starting to
know who I am and get on my list, it's a
little bit weird. But it also tells me
we're hitting the mainstream.
Ten years ago, none of my friends or
neighbors had a clue what I was doing or
the type of business I was in or
even awareness that this thing existed...
and now it seems like almost
everyone has got a friend that's got an
online business - and they're pretty much
always online direct marketing-style
businesses. So getting your
branding right and having a site that
looks good and just your entire brand
that is something that the mainstream
can feel comfortable with is absolutely
important. And the direct marketing is
the thing that allows us to close the
sale. So that's what awesome about direct marketing.
Then there was another comment just below
that from Tim. He said, "Stu's summary
above is spot-on." So he was responding to
Stu McClaren's comment. He said, "My add... beyond
great content, over delivery and
professionalism lies a whole other level
of connection. People are also looking
for and hoping to see the real you, something
Jeff and Stu are both
masters at, which is why so many people
are drawn to you guys. It's a huge part
of your brand. Funny thing, the more we're
just ourselves in any communication, the
greater the connection - and impact always
always goes up." So Tim...
well, first of all, he said some very nice things, so thank you,
Tim, I appreciate that. It said very nice
things about me...
thank you.
That's what I want to speak to. It's this idea,
in our kind of business, especially the
personality-based brand, a personality-
based business, which mine is and most of
us are. Because for smaller, micro kind of
online businesses, it's easier to sell if
there's a personality behind the sale.
And your personally can be
any number of different things.
You know, you could be angry.
You could be happy. You could be whatever
your brand is.
I mean, like somebody who gets this really well is
Gary Vaynerchuk, Tim Ferris - both those
guys, they get this really well. And they
have a specific brand that they put out.
I have a different style. I have a
different personality. I have a different
brand. The thing I stumbled on really
really early...very, very early, this
was like 1996 or 1997... was that I could only
be the best me. And so the way I've
always communicated... like when you get an
email from me,
it's written in the same style that I
send an email to a friend. And when I
record a video for you, my intent is that
I'm on camera just as I am with my
friends or with my family. And I know the
closer I can get between the video Jeff
and the friend Jeff or the dad Jeff or the
husband Jeff, the more the authenticity
comes through... and authenticity really,
really, really sells. It really, really,
really builds your business. Because
what you're doing is you're
building a connection with your future
clients or customers. And these days
online, when you're inauthentic, when
you're not congruent, it really shows
through. Ten years ago, when it
was all just text-based and it was a
sales letter online, you could get away
with all kinds of stuff. But nowadays
there's so much coming through on social that it
really gets hard to fake being someone
you're not.
So my advice is to get comfortable with who
you are and get comfortable with sharing that.
And like I said, this is something I just
stumbled upon, I think because I
didn't know any better in 1996. I didn't
know I was supposed to act
like a big, important brand, so I
just acted like myself... and it worked
and it kept on working and that's just
who I am. And so this leads to another
comment that is very very interesting. It
sort of ties into Tim's comment.
This is from Chris Miller. Chris said,
"This post has me wondering... because your
sites are very nicely designed, but the
emails aren't polished at all.
I thought part of the
gimmick was to make them look like they were
typed personally to make them seem
more personable. But shouldn't polished,
well-designed emails that are
mobile-friendly be part of that overall
branding? I feel like I'm missing something
here." And Chris was missing a little
something. So, yeah, my sites are hopefully
nicely designed. They're not super
high concept, you know, crazy amazing
design... but I hope they're
nicely designed. I hope they're at
least at a minimum level of professional-ness.
And, you know, to
tell you the truth, seven or eight years ago
they weren't. Because it wasn't that
important. But now there's sort of this
minimum level where you got to have...
I mean, if someone just
stumbles upon your site, it has to look
fairly professional, at least fairly
modern, fairly well done.
The great news is these days it's so
easy to do that.
Five to ten years ago it was hard. Now, for
landing pages, there's tools
like LeadPages and things like that
that just allow you to create
great-looking landing pages. And then if
you're creating a website, 99% of us should
probably be using Wordpress. But then
there's so many great Wordpress themes
that it's just easy to create a
great-looking page. And everyone else in
the world is doing it, so you have
to look at least passably professional
there. Now in terms of my emails, I want
my emails to come out like I had
just typed an email to a friend. So I
just look at the emails that I send back
and forth to my friends. Like if they're
pinging me to see if I want to go
skiing or something like that, or
they're sending me like a link
to a cool guitar they like, I look at the
emails I sent back and forth with
friends... and that's how I want my emails
to look like when I'm sending them out. So
Chris said the emails aren't
polished at all... I thought part of the gimmick...
I never want to use
gimmick, so that sort of threw a red flag for a
bit, but let's leave that aside because
Chris wasn't trying to
be demeaning or anything here.
"The emails aren't polished at all. I thought
part of the gimmick was to make them look
like they were typed personally to make them
seem more personal."
Uh, not so much typed personally,
but they feel like they're coming from
me as a friend. Because when I think of
what hopefully my brand
represents out in the world is
just a very friendly brand, a very
friendly me that you can connect with,
that even though I'm reaching hundreds
of thousands and even millions of people, I
think of the people on
my list as they're just an extended
family. And I want them to feel that way.
And I want them to feel a connection to
me and I want them -- and I'm speaking to you now.
Entrepreneurs are the future of the
world. We're the ones changing the world.
The people that are publishing wisdom-
based products, information products,
training products are the people I'd
really love to help out.
I think they're the ones that are
the future of education, which
again is the future of the world. And I
want to empower them. I want to empower
you.
I want you to understand that if you
haven't started your business, this is a doable
business. It's very, very doable. I started
with nothing. I started
as a stay-at-home dad and
I built this amazing business that has
touched millions and millions and
millions of people
either through me or through the clients I've helped.
And so I know it's possible and I want
people to understand that. And for those
of you that already have great
businesses going, I want to push you to
think bigge, to think that your reach and
your impact and your lifestyle and your
income can all be ten times bigger. So
that's what my brand is about - and it's
about just having fun,
it's about being relaxed and it's about
sharing your message with the world. So
for me, I don't want a super highly
designed email going out that's all fancy,
because it's not the email that I send
my friends. When I send an email to my
friends, it doesn't have a big
graphic header or something on there.
It's just plain text... and I
love text. And then it sends
people to videos like this, which might
or might not be highly produced or
highly professional. This one was just like
basically a sort of fancy selfie.
Sometimes my videos are super awesomely
polished and fancy... and that's usually when my son's
involved, when he's shooting my videos. But again,
everything around my brand,
it's not about sending fancy emails. So
there's a little bit more insight into
brand and it's something you need to be
thinking about. But really the
easiest way to get your brand right, if
you're in this type of business, is just
to be as authentic as you can. Think
about the video "you" or the email "you" and
then the friend "you" or the father or
the son or the whatever "you" - and how close
can you get those. My wish is for
for me... basically I'm the
same person on camera as I am if you run
into me at the grocery store or that my
kids see. And if you can nail that, the
closer you can be in your video
"you" or your professional "you" and
who you are with your family
and friends, I think that shines through...
and that wins in today's market.
Because people are looking for that, people want
that, people hunger for that. I'm Jeff
Walker. Wherever you're watching
this, scroll down, leave a comment for me,
tell me what you think. Tell me what you
think my brand is, what my brand
represents. And let's go get 'em this week.
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