About Frank Kerns State of The Internet Address

There is an important message here.

He starts with some good points about attitudes and money. But the meat of the discussion comes later. At 20min into the video Frank reveals an obvious but rarely followed bit of advice regarding lead diversity.

Are you or your customers guilty?

We see this online all the time. But offline businesses are guilty of this too. Every customer I have, past and present, suffers from the same problem. They rely too much on one source of new business. The single yellow page ad, cold calling, referrals or door-to-door sales.

It is obvious that a single source for new business leads to a single point of failure. But it is everywhere and we are all guilty of this at some point. So here is the question:

What are you or your customers doing to fix this?

Here are some suggestions you can use to help your clients diversify:

  • OPL (Other peoples lists) – This is what we call a “JV” in the internet world. But what can our customers do to partner with complimentary businesses and create a joint marketing campaigns.
  • Integrated Marketing – Take print, radio and tv advertisements to the web for optin, tracking and followup. Integrate the various media types.
  • Ying and Yang – Email vs. Mobile vs. Direct Mail. If you market primarily with direct mail adding email and / or mobile to create a diverse communication strategy.

In most cases offline clients use NONE of these methods if even one. They typically rely on foot traffic (location) or word of mouth marketing. So having more lead channels is the start. Frank Kern also tells a powerful story about premium pricing about 24min into the video.

Why Premium Pricing?

What is better… 12 clients at $1k per month or 4 at $3k (obvious I know)? If you have four clients paying $3k a month then you have a solid $12,000 per month income with far less effort. This means you have more time and resources to deliver quality services.

However, you can’t ignore the fact that your marketing efforts might require an alternate approach. Since each client will be worth about $36k per year, it will take a few bucks more to acquire them as a client. Email marketing might not be ideal for this situation so the approach would need to be adjusted appropriately.

Part of his premium pricing discussion included an important message about delivering value. The value Frank discusses is about what is perceived as well as actually delivered to your customers. In this case he mentions higher prices for greater personal interaction. You see this with almost every “guru” where face time or private coaching is a higher price than any product they sell.

The final message, an important one, was about repeat buyers. An important part of the success formula and all part of the Dan Kennedy “Herd Building” message he often pushes in his books and seminars.

Creating Repeat Buyers

Technically this is the easy part. However the not-so-easy aspect of creating repeat buyers are the systems. Email, direct mail or other mechanisms needed for follow up with your customers requires a method, some careful thought and ongoing testing.

Sendpepper provides simple online tools for implement email and postcard followup which is why I often implement this for my clients. If you haven’t had a chance to investigate this tool I highly recommend it as It is relatively cheap and scalable. More importantly, it eliminates the excuses and procrastination associated with sending physical mail because it is point-and-click simple.

Dan Kennedy is the #1 advocate of consistent and quality followup. Frank mentions him several times in the video and for very good reason. Much of the concepts Frank mentions regarding pricing and targeting can be found in Dans books. One of them is a “must read”… Marketing to the Affluent.

What Can We Take From This

Other than some obvious ideas like ” get more clients”, I think the following points are worth asking:

  • What am I doing to create multiple sources of new leads?
  • What am I doing differently that allows me to charge premium prices?
  • How can I create a followup system that allows me to sell more services and products to existing clients?

What did you think of Franks’ message?

I am anxious to hear what you think about this message. What does it mean for your customers and what does it mean for you? Your comments are welcome.

2 thoughts on “About Frank Kerns State of The Internet Address

  1. David

    The information is good, but the video stalled about 15 minutes into it. 341mb for 37 minutes may need to be reduced in size.

  2. David K. Enders, D.C.

    Robert, Great summary of Franks recent video. We all (at one time or another) look for that “magic bullet” to bring the customers in (on or off line). But we need to remember it’s like fishing – you catch more fish if you have more than one line in the water.

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