We've all done it...
You get really excited about starting a new project, whether that's a blog, a PPC campaign or developing a new product - only to realize after a few weeks that you're hemorrhaging money and there doesn't seem to be a light at the end of the tunnel.
One of the biggest mistakes most marketers make (I've done this as well) is they ignore the most important part of a campaign... And that's the
research
John Caples, a famous direct response copywriter once said "If I had 12 months to put together a campaign, I wouldn't be upset if we spent 11 of those months doing research to find the right appeal"
He's right.
If you don't thoroughly understand...
- exactly what your customers want
- who your customers are
- the words your customer's use
Then you'll be doomed before you even start. After 3 years of wasting time and money, here's a few hard lessons Ive learned from starting new projects....
Small Tests Can Save You Time And Money...
One of the great things about affiliate marketing is it can allow you to test offers quickly and see if they're profitable.
If you're thinking of making an ebook on Bodybuilding, you could test a few hundred dollars of traffic with a product through Clickbank and see if your niche is profitable.
If you plan on making a blog, do your best to network with other bloggers in the space before you even launch.
These small steps sound like common sense, but you'd be surprised how many people miss this...
Now the next big thing research will help you with is something that I feel is the most important part of selling...
It Can Tell You The Exact Appeal Your Customers Are Looking For
This one took me a while to nail down with our fitness product. For men and women there were
completely different appeals - and also depending on the age of the customer their were different appeals.
A 50 year old guy cares about losing his gut, feeling young and living longer. While a 20 year old guy usually wants to look good so he can impress his friends and get laid. The same product could have an entirely different appeal depending on the age group you target...
You can figure this out by simply using a survey (I use SurveyMonkey) and also reading between the lines when you interact with your customers. One of the things I learned early on was that most people have a reason they'll tell everyone for why they want to get in shape, and then they'll have an irrational reason that truly motivates them and pushes them to get in shape.
For example a 55 year old guy might tell people he wants to lose weight so he can keep up with his grandkids, but in his head he wants his wife to look at him like she did when they were in their twenties.
Finding the irrational reason isnt easy, but it can really help you connect with your customers and selling to them will be much easier.
And along with the right appeal, research can show you one of the biggest, yet most overlooked parts of selling...
It Can Show You The Words And Language Your Customer's Use
One of the keys to selling is speaking the same way your customer's speak.
If you're selling a fitness product to women, trying to sell them six pack abs is not going to work. Just look at the covers of popular magazines and you'll see this right before your eyes.
The women's magazines use words like "lose belly fat" and get a "flat tummy", while the guys magazines use hot buttons like "six pack abs" and "burn fat, build muscle"
These are things that just a few hours of research can tell you. And its the difference between a profitable project and one that's a dud.
And not only does this work for selling, it also works for creating content on blogs. I did this with my MMA site. I asked what were the main things they wanted to know, and we saw a huge response for people wanting
MMA betting information.
And Shoe did the same thing when he created the Shoemoney System...
So whether you use a survey, or you get information from things like magazines and websites - using the words your customer uses are crucial to wetting their appetite and making a sale.
Conclusion
So whether you're promoting a CPA offer, an ebook or selling your own product and services, you need to make sure you study and understand everything you can about your potential customers.
Even if you don't want to put in the time for full fledged research, do yourself a favor and spend a few hours on blogs, forums or send a simple survey to your readers to get a feel for what they're looking for.
