Why Following In The Guru's Footsteps Is Marketing Suicide
One of the biggest mistakes I see people making is doing something in their business simply because they saw a guru doing it.
In fact, I can’t count how many times I’ve had clients come to me with a “brilliant” marketing idea they saw their favorite guru doing and absolutely insisting we do the same thing.
Even after I tell them it probably won’t work.
Their are a few reasons that, in my opinion, lesser-known business absolutely should NOT be doing what the guru’s are doing. Sometimes, yes, but the main lesson in today’s post is that in every single case – you absolutely must think about how any marketing idea correlates with YOUR business.
Here are 4 reasons I don’t think you should be copying what the guru’s are doing.
#1 – They Have Credibility, You Don’t – In the majority of cases, the person copying a guru is someone that does NOT have any authority or credibility in their market. I always hear people saying “well guru “X” got “X” conversion but I can’t get anywhere near that – and I’m doing the same thing!”
Ummm, yeah – that’s because no matter what that salesletter says, people are still going to buy!
I heard Frank Kern once say that he was going to test a page where it was nothing but a middle-finger and a “buy now” button. And you know what? It would probably convert better than any salesletter I could ever write for a person with no stance in the market.
#2 – They Have Money, You Don’t -When you get to guru status, you obviously have built up a big enough business that you can be called that. And with that huge business comes huge money. A lot of times, guru’s are simply trying things as a test to see if they work or not. What you might not realize is that they have deep enough pockets to re-gain that money after 6 months and it wouldn’t even bother them. For “normal” business owners – it would put them out of business.
#3 – They’re Usually Launching, You’re Not – Product launches are amazingly effective. I’ve heard people talk about having dozens of people order within the first 30-60 seconds of opening a product on launch day. Do you honestly think those people read the letter? Hell no! They were ready to buy the second the guru said they were coming out with something. This relates directly with #1.
#4 – They Have A Different Business Than You – For some reason, this is a concept many people have a hard time understanding. I don’t care if Guru X made 85 billion dollars with some new marketing technique. If you’re not in his or her market, it may absolutely BOMB in your niche. That’s why testing is so important – you never have a clue whether or not something is going to work unless you test it!
Just in case you don’t believe me, here are 2 examples.
(And by the way I know I “should have” added a 5th one in their because that’s “what you’re supposed to do”…but I feel like being a little unorthodox today.)
Anyway, back to my 2 examples.
Case #1 – Do you know how it’s a “fact” that ending your price in 7, or at least not using an even number…”always” increases response? Well, it’s not true. I heard someone talking the other day and said when they tested $9.95 against $10 – their conversion went up 50% with the $10 price point.
Myth #1 – busted.
Case #2 – Do you know how video “always” increases response? That’s not true either. I was listening to someone else who said they tried both audio and video, and just the text alone out-pulled both by around 30%. So audio and video both decreased response by 30% or so.
Myth #2 – busted.
Need I give more examples and embarrass even more people who claim these techniques to be practically godly? I’ll save them the humility and wrap this up 🙂
All in all there are a few takeaways from today that, if you haven’t discovered them yet, I’ll reiterate because they’re so important.
First…always, always, always test.
Second…while many “guru” marketing ideas are great, almost none of them are anything new, and they may NOT work in your particular business.
Third…always THINK before doing something new with your business. If it helps, sit down with a piece of paper and pen, draw a line down the center of the page and write out “advantages” and “disadvantages” at the top of the page. Then brainstorm for 30 minutes. If the idea is still good, test it out on a small scale and see if it works.
