How To Build Your Business One Step At A Time From Scratch

Monday, June 15th, 2009 at 7:17 am

Hello, Marlon here. I’ve been in this business of marketing online since before the world wide web existed. How? Because I was marketing on AOL and Compuserve. I’ve been full-time so many years I don’t remember NOT doing this for a living. So you might say I know a few things about how to build a business that will be here tomorrow and next month and next year and five years from now.

Let’s talk about how you can build one step at a time from scratch.

1. Learn to acquire new customers

This is the heart and soul of your business. It’s your engine. If you learn to do this, you have a business that runs. If you don’t, you fail. Getting new customers requires several things:

a. Figuring how WHERE to find ‘em. If you can’t target them, you can’t get ‘em on your list.

b. Figuring out WHAT they’ll respond to If you’ve “tried” squeeze pages but they didn’t work for you, it’s because you never figured out what they’ll respond to.

c. Making irresistible offers. This involves figuring out their hot buttons and pushing them hard!

So the other day I visited the blog of a customer just out of curiosity. This person is still in the process of “getting it.” She’s getting closer but isn’t there yet. I looked at her blog and honest-to-goodness, I had NO IDEA of who she was targeting with her blog. You don’t write a blog or any communication just to blab. You target.

When your ideal prospect comes to your site, they need to KNOW it’s for THEM!

Look at your blog. Your web site. Is it clear WHO you’re targeting? In other words, if I go there and I’m a prospect, is there anything that flags me down and says, “Hey you, this site is custom made for YOU and NOT anyone else?”

The things you talk about on your blog. Are they topics YOU are interested in or your target audience? Your blog is NOT to chat about YOUR interests. It’s to talk about the interests of your target audience.

Now, there’s nothing wrong with a personal blog. Here I’m talking about one you use for BUSINESS.

Resource: Ockham’s Razor shows how to boil this whole thing down to a few simple things you can focus on. It takes away the complexity and gives you a simple plan to focus on.

2. Break even immediately

This is the biggest innovation in Internet marketing in the past 10 years — the ability to amp up sales at the point of purchase and break even immediately. This means you do NOT have to go negative or in the hole to get new customers.

Once you can break even immediately, you open the flood gates to new traffic.

3. Learn to ERASE your bills using laser targeted messages

You get people on your list and then SELL ‘em.

The secret to selling is learning what marketing messages your folks respond to. If you don’t know WHAT they’re going to respond to, then you’re shooting in the dark. Once you know their hot buttons, then you can deliver messages that make sales. And you open the door to selling larger tickets.

Man cannot live by bread alone. Nor $37.00 ebooks.

You’ve got to learn to sell bigger ticket stuff that will pay your bills!

Bills suck. But NOT nearly as much as having no bills. See, if you have no bills you don’t own anything. True, you might pay cash. But that’s still a bill. You just pay it off all at once.

And once you find out how to make the stuff you sell pay FOR your bills, then it’s not so bad. You don’t pay for your cable TV. Your product does.

You don’t pay for your car.

Your product does.

You don’t pay for your house.

Your product does.

Let me give you an example. One of the things I do is brainstorm with lots of people others would call “gurus.”

Yesterday, I brainstormed with a guy who is creating a new offer for the market. He’s a well-known “name.” Anyway, I looked at his letter and told him it wouldn’t fly with my list and here’s why.

And he better test this and that.

Now, he IS going to test those things. But he feels the offer will fly with HIS list because the age, motivations and mental state are different from my list. Your list isn’t just some amorphous blog. It’s composed of people with certain commonalities. And the more you understand those, the better you can craft a message that communicates TO your list.

To recap, you find a group of people and TARGET messages and communications TO them that arouse a desire for them to be ON your list, to receive communications FROM you and to explore your ideas further in your products.

Do you know how to get new customers?

Can you do it at break even?

Are you clearly targeting your customers with your messages?

Do you know what they respond to and what they don’t respond to?

Best wishes,

Marlon Sanders

PS: If you want to discover the Formula that has helped thousands around the world sell products like crazy for 10+ years, Then Check out the Amazing Formula That Sells Products Like Crazy.