George Blogs!

Rudimentary marketing consists of three sequential steps (which experts usually abbreviate to STP). This concept is very commonly used in marketing circles before it provides nothing less than a detailed, step-by-step guide for identifying your customers and crafting an offering that will appeal to them the most. This process is known as “Segment – Target – Position.”

Segmentation consists of dividing the market into a number of segments based on a variety of factors (such as location, income, age, gender, etc). You can’t market the same product to the whole market - to really get the bang for your buck, you need to create a variation of the product for each of the segments you’re going to be operating in.

Targeting involves narrowing down the segment that you are going to focus on. For example, let’s say you segment the market on the basis of income and decide to focus on the affluent segment. When targeting the segment, you will need to conduct the following research on your audience:

• Location
• Lifestyle
• Spending habits
• Preferences
• Tastes
• Etc.

In the end, the focus of the second phase is on the profile of the average customer in the target segment. Once you have that nailed down, you are ready to move on to the third phase: brand positioning.

The truth is, proper positioning is what makes or breaks your business. You can easily sell the same product to different market segments, provided that you position it different through your marketing mix. For example, let’s say you are marketing the same product to both affluent and lower-income market segments. Your commercials for the former will likely emphasize high quality, class (and if you decide to do a special limited edition run, exclusivity). In contrast, advertisements aimed for the lower-income segment will emphasize savings, affordability, durability and results.

In both cases, you are selling the same product - but the real trick lies in the understand that a product is more than just a combination of its physical attributes. Perception of a product is part of the product - and, as a marketer, it is your job to influence perception in order to drive sales.

As an Internet Marketer who relies heavily on direct response advertising, effective targeting and positioning are essential for writing effective copy. Only by understanding your customer (targeting) will you truly be able to write copy that appeals to them and pushes their buttons enough to close the sale (positioning).

Today, I’d like to take an opportunity to ruminate a little. With my latest site now on the auction block and me waiting for the results with my breath held, it seems like a good time to contemplate the beautiful intricacies of the free market system.

Allow me to begin this post by quoting my favorite movie character of all time - Gordon Gekko from Wall Street. Michael Douglas got an Oscar for his portrayal of the brilliant corporate raider, and with a good reason.

Put simply, Gordon Gekko is the man we can all aspire to be. Supreme intelligence, perfectly ruthless and utterly unscrupulous, Gordon’s monologue is an example to us all:

“The point is, ladies and gentlemen, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms — greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge — has marked the upward surge of mankind.”

But that was almost 30 years ago - are the eloquence and brilliance of this speech still relevant to the 21st century, with collapsing financial institutions, white collar crimes and and a world economy that’s heading right to Hell in a hand-basket?

Let’s explore that, shall we?

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Over the past few days, I have been working with a number of clients of mine who have been having issues with Clickbank. Specifically, in a limited number of cases, the sales copy got rejected for making “specific income claims and implying that customers who buy this product can expect to earn the same amount of money.”

However, as we all know, income claims in some shape or form are a necessity in online copywriting. It is far easier to sell a product that promises $10,000 a month income than one that promises “thousands of dollars every month.”

With that in mind, let’s review some of the options you have as a copywriter working with a Clickbank product:

[...]

So, you’ve finally finished putting the last finishing touches on your site. Every last bug has been meticulously hunted down and exterminated, every last table has been optimized for IE7 and FF3, everything last typo has been corrected and every last link is working.

In other words, after about a week of hard work and dedicated effort, you are finally ready to sell.

But here’s where things get complicated. You see, those customers are, by and large, an ungrateful lot. They don’t care in the slightest about the work that has gone into the site or you’ve proofread the copy so many times that you can now recite it. No – all they really care about are the benefits that you are selling.

If you’re not convinced, ask yourself this question – last time you bought a car, where you interested in its gallons per hour ratio because you were interested in the number itself, or because you were looking to save money on your gas bills?

The key to selling your website is writing good ad copy that will highlight the benefits of your product to prospective customers. Here are three sure-fire steps you can take to improve your copywriting skills today without investing much effort on your part:

[...]

It was only a few months ago that I was an unproductive, emotionally-unstable (well, ok, that part hasn’t changed one bit), depressed waste of biomass that thought there’s no better way to spend a day than to wake up every morning, log in to World of Warcraft and log off 14 hours later, drained, exhausted, weary and dizzy.

Long story short, I was a mess in every sense of the word. I had gym membership that was costing me $165/month and that I didn’t use once since August, a computer that I wouldn’t use for anything other than gaming and e-mailing, and a part-time job that I didn’t care about one bit.

Fast forward a few months later, and I am a completely different person. I barely log into WoW anymore, except when there are raids that I just have to attend. I spent my entire day at the computer – but working on websites or e-books instead of wasting hours on YouTube and The Daily Show. I exercise at least 3 times a week, and, in general, feel better than I ever have before (although those haunting thoughts about my ex still visit me occasionally).

What changed? Simple – I finally got serious about making money online (again).

I’m no success story by any stretch of imagination. I am not rolling in cash, driving expensive cars or dating supermodels. And yet every day I wake up with the feeling that what I do in the next 24 hours will take me one step further towards my goal of financial independence.

Every day I wake up, I know I am going to spend it productively – whether by finishing my latest site or e-book, updating this blog or building my image on Tweeter.

Internet Marketing has, without doubt, changed my life. It gave me purpose where I had none – and the means to pursue my dreams.

And that, my friends, is the biggest motivator of them all.