As you’ve come to expect from me and my blogs, I come at things from a different perspective and paradigm. My goal for my blogs is to be the catalyst for ideas that can help you grow your business. The Internet is an exponential tool that can help in countless ways. Today’s post is another example – using tools like Linked In Polls to gather valuable information.

It’s pretty self-explanatory and that’s OK.

Exponential Internet Marketing is not rocket science. It’s all about “doing stuff” that works and having the discipline to follow up and follow through.

As I have been saying for some time, attitudes toward email marketing are improving. Part of the reason is that opting out is easy and email marketers are now respecting people’s time more, so commercial ‘spam’ has been reduced by legislation and market forces.

Forrester Research, one of the most prestigious and respected research organisations recently reported that consumers now delete fewer promotional email messages without reading them and are now more likely to forward such messages to others. This is quite a shift from the previous predisposition to  “click and delete”.

Attitudes To Email Marketing Are Changing

Not only have positive behaviours been reported, but negative behaviors toward email have also declined. Specifically according to the Forrester Report, consumers…

• Delete 14% fewer messages WITHOUT reading: 59% of consumers say they delete most email messages without reading them, down from the 63% who said they did so in 2008 and the 73% who said so in 2006. This is not an insignificant finding in this day and age of information overload.
• 50% More combine promotional and personal emails: Just 10% of consumers say they have a separate email account they use just for receiving promotional email advertising, down from the 15% who said they did in 2008. This is a quantum shift that in my own humble opinion (IMHO) confirms greater trust within email-based communications and relationships between companies and clients.
• Forward To A Friend up 33%: 12% of consumers say they sometimes forward promotional email to others, up from the 10% and 9% who said so in 2008 and 2006 respectively. With the advent of increased social networking tendencies, this is not surprising. It’ll be interesting to see what happens next.
• Purchasing predisposition remains more-or-less stable: The percentage of consumers who often buy things advertised via email has hovered at roughly 5% for the past four years fluctuating from 5 to 6 and 4 percent from 2006 to 2008 and 2010 respectively. Because the numbers are still so small, small changes are not necessary representative of a major shift either way. This is relatively-speaking good news. Many opponents to email marketing were sounding the death knell a long time ago. This reinforces the proponents with a no-so-fast defence. Time will tell how this evolves over the next two years.

• Product information declines by more than 30%. Consumers tend to fluctuate about email’s value for product information from 22 to 27 and back down to 17% in 2006, 2008 and 2010 respectively. I would agree with Forrester’s supposition that the decrease is likely a result of a proliferation of alternative product information sources that were not as prevalent back in 2006, including blogs, social networks, and rating/review sites within niche (long tail) communities.

This all bodes well for those of us in digital marketing focused on real brick and mortar businesses that want to find fresh new leads to establish long-term business relationships founded on high integrity value creation.

I came across this insightful article by Dudley B. Dawson

Below are seven habits that consistently appear at offices across the world. If you have additional examples, please feel free to provide them in the comments below.

1. Including email signatures that include credentials like “MBA” or “HRMS” after their name. Existing readers are well aware of the distaste for credentials in email signatures as described in “Email Signatures: Adding “MBA” after your name is very telling“. [Note – I disagree in principle with this, but will leave that for another blog post – this article is about Dudley’s list, not mine.]

2. Adding clipart to your email. Often the work of administrative assistants, human resources, or other corporate cheerleaders. To think that when these people attach the clipart they imagine recipients smiling. This is called reputation distortion. Those who think others believe them to be a cheery person are actually the people most despised by the office. Clipart photos are to corporate cheerleaders as rainbows are to the GLBT.  Immediate and universal identification. Read More »»

As I mentioned yesterday, we’re at the Marriott Hotel, staging the last of the Exponential Internet Marketing Bootcamps - ever. We’re not opening it up to the general public anymore, we’re going to keep the content for our most privileged clients – our Platinum Program Members… That being said, there is one concept that you can gain instant access to, it’s called Virtual Real Estate and as I’ve mentioned previously on several occasions, the program will be re-branded, re-formatted and the price substantially increased. At this price, it’s an absolute bargain because it introduces you to the concept that we’re leveraging for brick and mortar businesses every day. Plumbers, dentists, engineers, doggy day care centres, consultants, you name it.

Social Media Marketing is a time consuming waste of time – UNLESS you know what you’re doing and how to do it properly.

This is a program that can save you in excess of 200 hours of searching plus a lot of the information in the bonuses you simply would never find on your own.

Go ahead and click here on the hyperlink here – to find out about Virtual Real Estate.

At the Bootcamp, I am spending 3 hours explaining this concept in detail – not for people to actually Flip Websites For Profit, but to leverage the business model to create an endless stream of qualified prospects walking into their stores or businesses that become paying clients.

Imagine having a lead generation system that is free. That’s right, new leads that don’t cost you a cent.

That’s what Bootcamp attendees are learning about this weekend – you’re not there, so the next best thing you can do is get the online video program and try to get as much from it as you can. Otherwise you’re wasting a lot time and effort for… nothing.

There is a better way, an exponential way of doing things.

As a business coach to entrepreneurs and business people who want to increase sales and expand their businesses, I advocate the 1 Percent Improvement Doctrine. It’s a concept that is covered on Day 3 of my Bootcamp events when we cover the concepts of Pathways To Profits™ and determining your Next Best Step™. With Internet strategies there are so many things to do, the most important question is “what should I focus on?”

That is the “million dollar question”.

At my upcoming Exponential Internet Marketing Bootcamp, I will, for the last time, reveal how to do this for non-Platinum Program Members. The process takes a few hours to learn, but once mastered, you will always do the right thing, at the right time for the right reason/outcome.

It’s a simple, easy-to-learn methodology that I’ve developed to re-create success for over 2,000 businesses across 200 industries over the past 20 years. In fact, the strategies are so effective that I now GUARANTEE RESULTS when you attend the Bootcamp as a VIP Ticket holder.

As a business coach I don’t just reveal strategies, techniques and tactics that work, I advise and mentor my clients to learn to do it themselves. That is why I am The Exponential Growth Strategist and not “just a business coach“.

The saying “teach a man how to fish and he’ll feed himself for a lifetime” is true with business coaching, but most coaches don’t have the competency to teach, they consult and create a dependency with their clients to ensure they need them so their personal income is “secured”. I don’t do that. I make sure I teach people how to think exponentially leveraging a MasterMind Group of the most ambitious entrepreneurs around.

Why is this important? Because success on the Internet is about doing what works. Finding that out is a process. If you want to know how my clients do it, contact us and we’ll reveal the secrets to you, but you should know that this upcoming Exponential Internet Marketing Bootcamp is the last one I’m doing. That means in 2011, you’ll have to be a Platinum Program Member to learn these strategies.

I’m going ‘upmarket’ with my most valuable information and strategies. I will still have introductory seminars and workshops, but the most powerful will be reserved exclusively for those willing to pay for it. Their reward will be that I GUARANTEE RESULTS. I would think you’d agree that’s not just fair, that makes good business sense.

That’s the whole point, it’s win-win.. Ka-Ching!

Google Page 2 ‘Almost’ As Good As Page 1? Google recently reported that 38 to 45% of people searching on Google immediately click to page 2 because too many people are manipulating keywords to be on Page 1. That means you now need to be both on Page 1 and Page 2…

“The Internet is the easiest thing that is hard to do.”

As a business coach, advisor and mentor, I teach my clients little known facts like these to make sure they are always one step ahead of the competition. There’s a joke that explains this metaphorically:

There are two guys in the forest and they come across a bear. One says to the other “Oh SH_ _! We have to out-run the bear!” when the other says “No mate, all I have to do is out-run you!”

That’s the reality of Google rankings. If you want to make sure you’re always one step ahead of your competition, contact us. Most of our programs now come with a RESULTS-BASED GUARANTEE.

That says it all don’t you think?

At our upcoming (and last ever) Exponential Internet Marketing Bootcamp, we’re going to go well beyond explaining Social Networking as shown in the video below. We’re going to cover the risks and pitfalls of getting sucked into the Vortex Of Mediocrity where countless hours are wasted by people who fundamentally don’t have a life and therefore have no cash to spend. That being said it doesn’t mean it can’t be leveraged – it surely can, but not in the way the Internet Spruikers want you to think. Internet Spruikers want to sell you systems and solutions so they can make a fortune.

What we do for our clients is cut through all the CR_ _ to uncover what works. Like the $25, 15-minute strategy that increased a jeweller’s web traffic by 25% within a week. These are real results for real brick and mortar businesses. The strategies are so good and easy to implement, that we now guarantee them… That’s right, when you become a VIP Bootcamp ticket holder, we GUARANTEE you’ll make at least $30,000 in the next 12 months. That’s putting our money where our mouth is.

In November, we’re staging the last Exponential Internet Marketing Bootcamp in Melbourne. As I explained at my recent Exponential Extravaganza events, I am getting out of the “Internet Marketing” space letting the Internet spruikers and promoters do their thing at their multi-speaker salesfest events. That does not mean I’m abandoning Exponential Internet Marketing strategies, in fact for our Platinum Program Members, we’re even more aggressive with our strategies than ever before. It’s why we can and do GUARANTEE 300% RETURNS.

The Bootcamp includes Pre Program Preparation™ as well as Post Program Planning™ to ensure you get the most out of the event – in fact we even GUARANTEE the results from the Bootcamp if you purchase a VIP Ticket!

The video below explains what the Bootcamp Experience is like.

This year’s Exponential Internet Marketing Bootcamp Dates
are 26-27-28 November 2010 in Melbourne

Learn Exponential Internet Marketing Strategies that turn clicks into cash 24 hours/day 7 days/week.

Strategies like this YouTube Video that provides Search Engine Optimisation rankings for FREE, within minutes…

Stop losing at the Internet game – 95% of the people on the Internet don’t make money… The champions, the top 5% make more than the other 95% combined…

Wanna be an Internet Champion? Attend the Bootcamp – WE’LL GUARANTEE You’ll Make $30,000 in the next 12 months!

Trying to keep up with Google’s policy changes is getting harder and harder. Ray Keefe of Successful Endeavours sent me this update that I thought you should be aware of – it concerns trademark use in Google Ads. We address these issues in detail with our clients, which is beyond the scope of this blog post, but I thought it timely and important for you to know about it. Information is power as they say. Of course what you do with that power is another story! When you come across news like this, please forward it to me by posting a comment on the blog. I make a point of making sure that ALL contributors are rewarded with a backlink, often more than one!

Ray Keefe of Successful Endeavours came across new data that shows Google searches are getting longer and more specific. Attached are a few pointers on how you can adapt.

The data reveals that the percentage of clicks based on search term length is changing. Clicks made through searches over eight words grew by 8.3%, with searches over seven words growing by 5.3%.

In contrast, clicks made through searches using one word fell by 1.1%, with clicks made by searches over two words falling by 1.5%. Searches using three words remained flat.

The data isn’t surprising as the growth of the Internet as a business tool results in more users searching for more specific data, such as brands and product names.

Google reports that 20% of searches are absolutely brand new, meaning they have never been typed into the search engine before. Users are having to think about being more specific to get through jargon and get to what they really want.

This is important for you, as you must think about what keywords you can use in order to show up in as many searches as possible when your target market is looking to acquire your product or service.

One of the biggest trends ignored by small businesses is search-by-location. You must start to use keywords relating to your  location, as users are more and more searching for specific brands and products by suburb.

Not enough small businesses think about ranking for their suburb name, which is an extremely easy thing to rank for and people will use it in very specific searches. This is necessary even though Google is getting better with that sort of thing, with both maps as well as business listings.

At eight words, which is pretty high, think about the things people would be searching for and the combinations they would prefer…

That means you must consider what you think users will be searching for and that means not just what you think should be an appropriate keyword.

For example, Qantas probably use the keywords cheap flights, but they aren’t targeting cheap air fares. Similarly, you might want to use the words “cheap accommodation” but also consider most people won’t type that into Google, chances are they’ll type in “cheap hotels” or “cheap motel”.

As I’ve explained in previous blog posts, you must not get obsessed with adding as many keywords as possible, but instead should add the right types of keywords.

Google Adword strategies are beyond the scope of this blog post, I just wanted to highlight that BECAUSE searches are getting longer, you need to keep that in mind…

You can thank Ray Keefe of Successful Endeavours for the initial source of information – by going to his site and having a look around – that’ll help his SEO!

I previously blogged about this, I called it Stop Feeding The Piranhas… It’s one of my Internet pet peeves. Always use the Bcc when SENDING or FORWARDING to a group of people to protect the email identity and integrity of others. When someone does it to me too often. I take them off my list and literally won’t send them anything. This is a great image to insert whenever you’re forwarding on fun stuff that we all love to get…

Stop Feeding The Piranhas!

If you’re looking for a way to make money online, sell things that people need for their hobbies. In a recent survey, 97% of respondents said they bought something they did not have the money to pay  for what they bought and a whopping 99% had the funds, but did not need the item they bought. Say it with me… Ka-Ching!

The simple moral of the story: Sell people want they WANT to buy and they will – even if they can’t afford it!

In my Internet Mastery Programs, I teach people about Long Tail Niche Marketing Strategies to take this concept to its ultimate outcome…

Small Sounds, Big Deals: How Do Number Sounds Influence Consumers? This article was so interesting I just had to share it with you. Instead of interpreting it for you, go to the original article by clicking the hyperlink – it’s brief and exceptionally well written! You’re welcome. It’s who I am and what I do… Find stuff that you otherwise wouldn’t find yourself!

Most companies automatically choose their company name as their domain name. While that’s a wise move, it’s often a BIG mistake to stop there. In fact you could be losing as much as 75% of your leads because of it – keep reading if you want to avoid making this Internet Marketing Mistake!

Testing multiple domain names and picking the one that performs best (for example, in Google AdWords ads) is a very profitable strategy. Read More »»

This is such a cool and powerful concept I keep it for my clients. Sorry. I can’t give you everything for FREE, after all that wouldn’t be fair to my clients. Stuff like this, when you really understand what it means is the difference between drowning in the tsunami of leads going to your competitors versus riding the wave of success all the way into success beach.

Social Media Ripple Effect Explained

A blog like this is a great, even ideal way to INTRODUCE concepts and whet your appetite… If you want to know about stuff no one else will tell you and cut through the C _ _ P that the Internet hype specialists are infamous for – consider our programs and events.

They are geared to every day people who want to get better results – one day at a time, one click at a time. Without having to learn PHP, HTML or other obtuse coding languages.

What we teach is all about getting better results with the least amount of effort and lowest cost. In plain English. Our Internet products and programs start at $27 and $97/month respectively – to meet any budget and level of ambition from newbies to experts. Go to our Internet Mastery site and take a look around – you’ll read testimonials of people just like you who took their Next Best Step and have the results to show for it.

Isn’t it time you took YOUR Next Best Step?

One of my mottos is that life’s too short to be too serious. The world I attach to this way of thinking is what I call Antimimeticisomorphism. Having FUN doing out-of-the-ordinary things that create extra-ordinary results with the least amount of effort and lowest cost. Click on the hyperlink to find out more… But today’s YouTube video is something that rings true for most of us – not looking forward to going to the dentist… Watch the video and I’ll get to how a dentist can use this to grow his practice.

This video’s fun to watch even though you always kind of know what’s coming. It takes something most people don’t enjoy and makes light of it.

The exponential leverage is achieved by…

Read More »»

This blog’s main focus is Internet Mastery - anything that has to do with the Internet for business purposes. Today’s YouTube video is another example of the strides we’re making with Virtuality – doing things that were once impossible. Watch the video and I’ll get to why this is important for you and your business.

The reason this is important to you and your business is… Read More »»

Many new clients we deal with realise that a lot of what we do is NOT DOCUMENTED anywhere – they have to do it because they have to TRUST this stuff works. THEN once they do it, they need to TEST and track using what I call Management By Metrics. That being said, it takes an open mind and a low uncertainty avoidance predisposition to even CONSIDER it. Its been well documented in the Entrepreneurial literature that success is directly proportional to the level of Uncertainty you are able to embrace.

Think about that.

This is especially true BECAUSE…

Read More »»

In a previous Conversion Clinic blog post, I introduced the concept of how to tell stories with a funny video. Today, I want to address some more copywriting tips that help you convert visitors into paying clients.

Conversion Clinic Tip #1: Feed your reader with bite-size chunks

That means use: Short words. Short sentences. Short paragraphs.

Short words

Short words are anchored in childhood, before our intellectual development takes place. So they speak directly to our emotions. George Bush knew this well – speaking to the lowest common denominator of society with unparalleled success – Democrat John Kerry at the other end of the spectrum spoke with such sophisticated language that even seasoned political pundits needed a thesaurus to decipher his cryptic messages!

In his book, Words that Work, Frank Luntz explains this with exceptional humour and revealing honesty – in fact it’s one of my ‘must read’ books on my Linked In Reading List for anyone writing copy.

Of course being exponential, you might want to come up with words like antimimeticisomorphism, but that’s a discussion for another day!

Short sentences

A sentence is like a puzzle. It must be decoded by the reader. Aren’t long sentences more difficult to decode than short ones?

Sure. The long ones require you to think just to figure them out. They add needless overhead, narrowing the mental bandwidth available for your sales message. And they run counter to the pleasure principle, because thinking for most people, hurts.

Read this next long sentence and you’ll see what I mean …

A sentence is like a puzzle that must be decoded, with long sentences being more difficult to decode than short ones, adding needless overhead, narrowing the mental bandwidth available for the message, and running counter to the pleasure principle, because thinking for most people, hurts.

Do you see how much more involving and pleasurable it is reading short sentences?

Of course being Exponential, you actually might want to have long sentences, such as this one… (Take a deep breath!)

Apply Marc’s 3X3 Multiple Momentum Mailing Matrix™ to exponentialise e-mail campaigns, using Dr Dussault’s Demographic Descriptors™ to compress your Pathways To Profits™ to define your Next Best Step™ to fill in Marc’s Marketing Milestone Matrix™ within the Business Building Blueprint™ that encapsulates the Exponential Potential™ that lies hidden in all businesses which can be uncovered by Reversing For Results™ systematically to replicate and repeat successful results with Management By Metrics™ principles that combine offline and online strategies to create the Internet Double Whammy™ effect that is exemplified in the Massive Momentum Monthly Mailing™ that comes to your doorstep every month or the Dr’s Daily Distinctions™ that are delivered to your inbox every day or the Wizard’s Website Wisdom™ that are like steroids for your website that will explode your Marc-Ka-Ching™ capabilities when you a Kreate a Kwintillion Kaleidiscopic Kombinations™with your Marc-Ka-Ching Kube™ even if you don’t use Virtual Real Estate™ Strategies that pay you while they create a never-ending flow of new suspects and prospects into your sales funnel!

Short Paragraphs

Now paragraphs are another thing altogether. Each paragraph is a decision point. Your reader is asking himself, “Do I really want to tackle this one?” “Do I want to keep reading?”

How does he or she decide?

By the look of it of course …

Short paragraphs are inviting. They hold out the promise of instant gratification. Long ones are intimidating. They look like work. And who wants more work?

It’s human nature not to want to start something we may not want to finish. The same goes for paragraphs. It’s also human nature to want to remain consistent with our commitments. We don’t want to stop something we started. The same goes for paragraphs.

Of course you can throw that out the window and great MASSIVE paragraphs just to be antimimeticisomorphic, but the point is to do that as the EXCEPTION, not the rule.

So there you have it – the long and short of it.

Yes, the pun was intended! We recently taught participants at the recent Professional Mastery event – Unleash The Speaker Within, how to use puns, quotes and metaphors so they could become corporate rockstars… You would have been on the floor laughing your head off if you had been there – it was the most electrifying performances we’ve ever witnessed – totally engaging and captivating, but that’s a discussion for the Professional Mastery Blog!

Wow, what an event it’s been – 24 hours over 2 days and people still want more. That’s because most events just give you information, the Exponential Internet Marketing Bootcamp is different because it leverages the Business Building Blueprint™ that I designed that helps people find the Next Best Step™ as they determine the Pathways To Profit™ in their business, which in this case is ONLINE via their website and/or blog.

What people are doing right now if you are reading this when this was published, is witnessing a mini website makeover or Exponential Internet HotSeat™ where I literally go online and in 30 minutes go through all the Exponential Strategies the owner of the site can implement to improve his/her online results. We’ve got 4 companies that have lined up and paid for the privilege of this process that is both terrifying and exhilarating at the same time.

Often the pain comes from learning the mistakes made – the money flushed down the toilet whereas the exhilaration comes from realising THAT WILL NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN!

With 4 mini website makeovers, each participant gets to learn both the process and the strategies that then apply to them and their website and/or blog!

It’s massively valuable and totally and utterly exponential.

Of course a lot of people think we stop there , but being exponential – we always take things ONE STEP FURTHER.

This time, we’re staging a Google Adwords MasterClass where we reveal all the tips, tricks and techniques to get approximately TWICE the SALES for HALF THE COST of what most people can produce with their Google Adwords Campaigns. This alone is worth the price of admission.

For example, I’ll explain the top 10 reasons most people overpay for their Pay Per Click (PPC) Campaigns and how to substantially reduce the cost WHILE increasing the conversions.

More importantly, I’ll reveal why you should STOP your Google Adword campaign if you’re spending less than $1,000/month.

I know you wanted to be here, but you didn’t make it – the next time – MAKE THE TIME.

Between now and then thousands if not tens of thousands of dollars will have slipped through your fingers either in lost sales or in costs that you could have avoided.

Next time, MAKE the time to attend.

There are people dumber than you who are out-performing you on the Internet right now.

That’s gotta hurt to hear me say that – the ONLY reason they can out-perform you and that means MAKE more money than you and/or SPEND LESS than you is because they KNOW HOW.

They might be dumber than you, but the one thing that makes them successful is that they made the time to attend.

That doesn’t sound too dumb to me, but then again they’re me clients and I actually think they’re brilliant – taking the little they’ve got and making the MOST of it.

Then there are the millionaires of the group – well, they are a species on their own. Always looking for the extra edge – that’s a blog post for another day.