You drive by a restaurant and it doesn’t look like it’s been painted in a decade. The flowerbeds are full of weeds, the sign is dirty, the parking lot is full of trash… do you stop in and have lunch? Probably not, but why not?

What does outside paint, weeds and trash in the parking lot have to do with what kind of meal you’re going to be served? Frankly, none. It could be that the world’s greatest cook is inside, waiting to make you the meal of a lifetime.

But you’ll never know because you didn’t patronize the place.

What’s this got to do with your business?

Everything.

I see folks working for months to get their products just right. And then they only spend one afternoon writing the sales letter or making the sales video.

They think if they get the product perfect, it won’t matter if their sales letter looks like it was written by a third grader. But it does matter, because if no one buys, no one will ever know what a great product you have.

This might blow a few minds and cause some controversy, but… when it comes to online sales, your sales copy, graphics and sales funnel are all more important than your product.

No, I’m not saying it isn’t important to have a great product that delivers tremendous value.

But I am saying if you don’t spend just as much time on the funnel that takes people from strangers to buyers, you won’t succeed, no matter how terrific your product might be.

You get the point.

Now to suggest something even more radical – write your sales copy first.

Then create the product.

This isn’t a new idea, yet to this day it’s seldom used.

Look, it’s a lot easier to write great copy when there are no limitations to what can be in the product, and then fit the product to the sales copy.

If it turns out any of the claims in the sales letter went too far, you can always pull them out. But you will still increase your odds of creating a hot selling product when you use this method.

Remember – spend as much time building your sales funnel as you do creating your product. This will get the people in the parking lot, through the door and sitting at your table, ready to enjoy the fantastic product you’re about to serve them.

According to Smithsonian Magazine, a Zambian chimpanzee named Julie stuck a piece of grass in her ear and left it there. And she did this over and over again. Why? Scientists say the “grass in the ear behavior appears to serve no discernible function.”

While chimpanzees have “culture” and traditions, including unique behaviors and tools, these things usually have a concrete function. The grass in the ear doesn’t. Best guess by scientists – it’s some kind of a fashion statement.

But here’s where it gets interesting…

After Julie began placing a piece of grass in her ear, her fellow chimpanzees copied her. Mind you, no other chimp group did this – only Julie and her followers.

So what’s this got to do with online marketing?

Everything.

You can tell your readers to buy a product. You can tell them it’s the greatest product ever. You can tell them it will rock their world and change their life.

And some will buy.

But if you purchase the product yourself – if you USE the product yourself – and if you tell your readers about your experience – you will be far more likely to make sales.

Imagine if Julie had tried to force grass into her fellow chimps’ ears. Do you think they would have bought the concept? Not likely.

Obviously your readers and customers aren’t chimps. Humans are better for marketing purposes than chimps because humans are even MORE likely to copy what you do.

If your readers like you, trust you and even suspect you know what you’re doing, they’re going to want to be like you.

And if that means buying and using certain products, they’ll do it. Just be a leader and respect your readers enough to make their own decisions, and many of them will be glad to do what you do. Plus it gives you a ton more credibility. After all, you’re telling them about the products and services you use, not trying to force products down their throat…

Of course this is just my opinion, but I think you’ll see the logic… As online marketers, if we build our business correctly then we can create money whenever we decide to do so.

For one marketer, it might be sending out a terrific offer to her list and getting orders back within hours.

For someone with a highly popular site, it might be putting an unbeatable offer on their site and collecting the cash.

For a membership site or software as a service site, it might mean offering a year’s membership for a low price.

For someone offering services, it might be offering a special deal to clients for the next 7 days.

You’ll notice that all of these boil down to one thing – keeping a list of customers, members or leads, and having permission to contact them at will.

There it is again… you need a list.

Because a list is and likely always will be the online ticket to cash on demand.

They say you have to walk before you run… and you have to finish 9th grade before you can start 10th grade… and you have to start at the bottom and work your way up… and all that stuff. Quite true, isn’t it?

Is it?

Really??

When you hear something enough times, you think it’s true.

“Of course it’s true, EVERYONE KNOWS it’s true.”

Yeah.

Right.

Do you really need to know all the basics of how to market online before you can start making money?

OR…

Can you find a desire in the market, create a product and get it online within a week, knowing almost nothing about what you’re doing?

I’ll give you an example:

Let’s say you’ve heard about “Internet Marketing,” but you really haven’t paid any attention to it.

You don’t know how to set up a WordPress site, build a list, create a product or any of that stuff.

But last week you got laid off from your job!

Unemployment compensation will barely cover the mortgage. Food? Utilities? Insurance? Car payment? You need money, and you need it FAST.

So you don’t pay attention to all those people who say you have to ‘pay your dues,’ ‘learn the basics first’ and all those other ancient clichés.

Instead, you hit a forum, or Amazon, or the Dummies guides.

You find a desire that people have.

You devise a plan to make a product that fulfills that desire.

You decide to get it on the market in 7 days.

Website building? Sales letters? Turning a word doc into a PDF? And a hundred other little things?

You’ve got help for that – Google.

Every time you need to know something, you Google it…

Yeah, I know – it’s too easy, right?

Where’s the suffering? The pain? When do the dues get paid?

Getting a product online within a week (or even a month) of first beginning in Internet marketing is like skipping your first 3 and a half years of college and graduating in no time.

Come to think of it… what’s wrong with that?

Some of the richest people in the world didn’t graduate college.

They were too busy DOING.

So yes, I do believe a person can run before they walk in Internet marketing. I’ve seen it done too many times to not believe it.

What are you waiting for? A written invitation? 😉

Rule number one of getting your emails opened is be the person your list knows, likes and trusts. When you’ve accomplished that, you won’t need to put as much energy into your subject lines and ‘from’ fields. But until then, try these hacks to improve your open rates and get your emails read…

1. Catch the eye with the ‘from’ field.

If you go to your own email program and scan the emails, which ‘from’ fields stand out? And why?

Udemy (4) – Looking at my own inbox, the first eye catcher I see is from Udemy, the (4) indicating they sent the same email 4 times. Perhaps not the best idea, but it definitely pulls the eye in. You can duplicate this by using a number in your ‘from’ field.

Actual Email Addresses – The next eye catcher in the ‘from’ field is from Amazon because they used their actual email address with the @ sign in the middle of it. So few people use their email addresses in the ‘from’ field anymore, that if you choose to do this you will stand out.

The downside – it can look a little amateurish. Then again, if Amazon is doing it…

Academy Sports + Outdoors – Of course, it’s the ‘+’ that draws the eye.

~ PayPerClickSearchMarke – notice the symbol (do you see a trend here?)

Fab – crazy short, thus eye catching

The Email Fairy (via Tel. – This is from Tellman Knudson, who employs the unique strategy of using all sorts of different names in his from field. Still, it’s the ‘(via Tel.’ that catches my eye.

chintimini – one word, no capitals. Everyone else uses capital letters which makes this stand out.

Don @ EnginesPlus – This is a good one because it has the person’s name, their business and the ‘@’ sign.

2. Catch the eye with your subject line. Not with the actual words – we’ll cover that in a moment – But with symbols, capitalization and so forth.

Check your inbox and you will likely notice a few fancy symbols and emoji. These might be check-marks, snowflakes, hearts, faces, etc. These are actually Unicode symbols, and they’re easier to install into your subject lines than you may think. Here’s a brief tutorial on how to do it… Just Google it.

One note: Don’t go symbol crazy. Generally one per subject line is plenty, 2 is questionable and with 3 or more and you just look like spam.

About using capitals – If you use all-caps, you will stand out. But use this tactic sparingly since it’s tantamount to shouting. Best bet – use all-caps on your keyword only.

3. Use specifics.

First, you need to be absolutely clear on what your goal is. Are you promoting something? Are you giving helpful information? Do you have a story to share?

Let your customers know what they’re about to read. Being honest and upfront will get you opens. “Coupon Inside, today only” “Free Report: New Killer Traffic Source” “Twitter’s Dark Secret: The Real Story”

4. Ask a question in the subject line.

This is a great way to raise curiosity and get the customer involved with your topic before they even open the email.

For example, for a Christmas email involving Santa Claus, you might ask, “John, have you been good enough?”

Or if you’re promoting a book on persuasion, you might ask, “Who will you persuade with your new powers?”

5. Whenever possible, personalize the subject line.

Not just with names, but with other pertinent information as well.

For example…

“John, getting the most out of your new XJ524 Printer”
“Day 1 of your Jump Purple Hoops program, here’s what to do first”
“Sshhh… Special one day offer for our UK friends only”

6. Mail a series and let them know which day they’re on.

For example, maybe they joined your list to get a series on building more traffic. You could title each email with, “[Day 1] – Traffic Builders Course” This also makes it easy for them to go back and find the emails they missed.

7. Optimize the preview text as well.

Remember that the first line of text shows up in most desktop email clients. This means the recipient sees not only the ‘from’ field and the subject line – they also see the first sentence.

The last thing you want is to have it say, “To unsubscribe from our list” or any other housekeeping type of content.

Instead, think of your first line as an extension of your subject line and keep it interesting, intriguing and highly relevant.

One last thing: Become a fanatic about testing. You hear it time and again; test, test, test. But are you doing it? If you’re really serious about improving your open rates, testing is definitely the way to go.

Have you ever suspected that marketers make secret deals with each other behind the scenes? And that perhaps they will call each other on Skype or Zoom and coordinate activities and launch dates? And maybe they work together on marketing deals, promote each other’s products and work together to maximize their profits? Well, it’s 100% true…

Marketers network and mastermind with marketers on their own level.

Now, if you’re new to the game, how do you break into one of these million dollar mastermind groups?

Unless you have something incredibly spectacular to offer – like some marketing holy grail or something – you don’t. But you don’t need to.

Think about college – you go to school with a group of people. You meet as Freshmen or Sophomores, hang out together, do stupid stuff together, take classes or study together, etc.

After graduation, who can you call to get an “in” at a company, get a lead on an account, get an introduction to somebody and so forth?

Your pals from college, that’s who. You came up together. You’re friends. And of course you’ll help each other out whenever you can.

Marketing works the same way.

Find people on your level – marketers who are on their way up. Make friends. Hang out. Have drinks. Talk on Skype. Work together. Bond.

You and your friends will progress up the marketing food chain together.

And there’s your ground floor opportunity into your own million dollar mastermind group – the guys and gals who came up with you through the ranks.

So start networking. Get a team of friends. Work together. Help each other out. Have each other’s backs. Care as much about them and their success as you do about your own.

And in no time, people will be looking at your group and wishing they were you.

There is a kind of cruel, ancient story that goes like this… 

A group of people are standing at a river bank and suddenly they hear the pained cries of a baby. Shocked by what they are hearing, they then see an infant floating in discomfort in the water.

One person immediately dives in to rescue the child. But as the rescue is commencing, yet another baby comes floating down the river in the same way, and then another and another! People continue jumping in to save the babies and then see that one person has started to walk away from the group towards the bridge.

Angrily they shout at the person, “Where do you think you are going? Come here and help!”

The response was this: “I am. I’m going upstream to stop whoever’s throwing babies into the river!

The story is a mad one, but if we remove the content of the story and just focus on the metaphor, there is a massive lesson for us to learn both in business and in life.

When your online business is not working as well as you might hope and customers are not buying or your sales material isn’t converting – do not a/ blame them or b/ dive straight in and see the problem from the end.

You must go back to your strategy and check what is going on behind the scenes – what are you missing in the back-end that the front-end users are experiencing? It’s about focusing on the source of the problem and healing it, rather than trying to bail yourself out by adding more money or focus into something that is already flawed and not working. You need better foundations.

Imagine that the babies are your customers and each one is unhappy, there is no point in wasting your energy dealing with customers by trying to convince them that everything is fine and that they are wrong because your site/strategy (whatever) is perfect and other people have ‘said so’, instead go to the source – listen to them – why are people leaving? Why are the numbers decreasing? Why are people complaining? What can you do as a whole rather than trying to deal with the consequences?

Below are 3 overlooked things that I want you to focus on and see if there are any corrections to be made within your business that may be stopping your business from growing:

1. Are you using old strategies? Long form articles, chasing influencers and buying links are all old-school strategies that won’t grow your online business or presence as much as you think they might. It might have worked then, but you must move with whatever is working now.

2. Are you copying others or being authentic? We are told to model the already successful and yes, this is good. But not at the cost of who you are. People want an original, not a clone. If they want the person you are copying, they’ll go with them. You need to be you and don’t copy everything that the successful leaders are doing. What you want is to take what you need from others and design your own brand around it in a personal ‘you’ way.

3. Are you focused on building traffic? It doesn’t matter how good your website looks or how your funnels are set up… If you don’t have website traffic, you don’t have a business.

Current strategies that build traffic include interviews, podcasts and writing guest posts for large authority publications. You can always jazz up your systems if you have an audience, but it’s ineffective the other way around.

Ultimately, the problem unfortunately lies with you and how you are marketing, not the customers. If something isn’t going the way you want, don’t dive into the river to try and fix it, go to the bridge and see the root of the problem before moving on or throwing more money into an existing and floundering strategy.

During school, our professor gave us a pop quiz. I was a pretty smart student and had gotten through the other questions quite easily, until I read the last one: “What is the first name of the woman who cleans the school?” I imagined this to be some kind of joke.

But when I thought about it, I realized I had seen the cleaning woman many times. She was short, dark haired and in her 60’s, but how would I know her name? I didn’t.

I handed in my paper, and just left the last question blank. Just before I left I asked the teacher if the last question would count towards our grade. “Absolutely,” said the professor.

“No matter what career you choose in life, you will meet many people. All are important. They deserve your attention and care, even if just by a smile and greeting.”

I’ve never forgotten that lesson. I also learned her name was Clara.

Online, it is not as easy to obtain first names as it is in person but at least we have a better way to store them when our memories fail.

The professor was right, in fact, as it turns out, our names are so important to us that hearing them lights up entirely different part of our brain than any other words, scientists tell us.

Using your customer’s name makes them like you more, also using your own name makes the interaction feel more personal, too.

For example, who would you rather get an email from, “John” or “The Support Team”?

Personal names make a shopping experience much more enjoyable as does hanging out with people who know your name in real life, it just feels more respectful, more engaging and friendly.

Firstly, when sending emails, avoid the lazy trap of ‘Dear Customer’. Use their first name every time.

If customers call you, try and use their name in the first sentence as an instant rapport builder. This is especially helpful in calming an irate customer down quite quickly by seeming more authentic and familiar.

For some of you, when booking a callback, arranging a meeting or getting people to leave their names and numbers, ensure you have their names written in your diary on that date and any other bits of information you can get in that first interaction.

Then when you recall accurately the words of the last conversation you had with them or ask them a more familiar question using their name, you’ll instantly make the customer feel like you know them and so they relax with you.

Another trick of the name remembering trade is to create stories or rhymes in your head associated with the person’s name you want to remember and genuinely try to use it when you bump into them. It’s a great way to build connections and friends in person that may one day be useful to your company or idea, on or offline.

People like their name being used, and it will be a boost to your business and relationships in general if you make the effort to use them every chance you get.

That’s the question posed in an online forum recently. Answers ran the gamut of the spectrum, but here are the 28 I found especially helpful, in completely random order…

Become financially educated. Read personal finance management books, starting with Rich Dad Poor Dad. Learn how to budget and how to invest.

Live frugally. If you’re thinking you can’t save more of your money, take a look at homeless people who live on almost nothing. Yes, you can save money. Stop eating out so often. Cancel the cable. Don’t buy a new car. Don’t buy a new used car until you absolutely need one.

Always pay yourself first. Devote the first 10-30% of your pay to savings and investments.

Spend money on assets (real estate, stocks, bonds, etc.) not liabilities (everything that loses value the moment you purchase it). Thinking of buying a new car even though your old one is fine? Take that money and invest it in your business, in stocks, in real estate or something that is an asset. Then buy a good used car in a few years, when you really need one.

Don’t care what people think of you. Your neighbors think you’re poor because you don’t buy new cars? Little do they know that $20,000 you would have spent on a car is now earning you a 10% compound interest rate.

Invest in yourself. Self-education equals new knowledge. Add execution to that new knowledge and you get results. Repeat continuously.

Find ways to help as many people as possible. The more you can help others get what they want, the more money you can make.

Scale. Don’t render services when you can mass produce products. Better to make a $10 profit on a million sales than a $1,000 profit on 100 sales.

Stuck on services? Go upscale. If you’re going to render services, find the niches that pay the most.

Have multiple streams of income. This way if something happens to one, you are still in good shape overall.

Sell stuff. Lots of stuff. Hire others to help you, so that your earnings are no longer tied to your hours.

Always keep the return on investment in mind, whether your investment is time or money.

When you want to buy something, figure out how to make the money. Don’t take money out of your savings to buy a car or a vacation. Instead, figure out how to make the extra money needed to cover the new expense.

Be friends with people who have more money than you. Their mindsets and thought processes will rub off on you. That said, do not try to compete with them – keep the car and house you have now, at least for a while.

Leverage your abilities to their fullest extent instead of working harder to get ahead. Forget working hard and focus on working smart. For example, a personal coach can create a course and sell it for $297 a million times over, but can only coach a few people one-on-one at any given time.

Take calculated risks. Failure is a part of the journey. If you’re too afraid to fail, you will never take the smart, calculated risks needed to become wealthy.

Use your head more than your heart. Make your financial decisions based on provable fact rather than gut instinct.

If you have a business, work ON it, not in it. Your labor isn’t needed to make the business a success – your ideas and leadership are.

Things like sports and entertainment are simply distractions for the masses. While you’re watching sports and shows 2-6 hours a day, the rich are making million dollar contacts, doing deals and starting businesses. If you get more of whatever you focus on – maybe it’s time to stop focusing on distractions and start focusing on your finances.

Bad decisions are better than no decisions. Any decision that moves you forward is better than total inaction. The key is make decisions quickly and work until you get results.

Confidence and belief in your ability will take you further, faster. The higher your confidence and the more you believe in what you’re doing, the easier it is to bring others on board, to convince buyers and to make money.

Having a lot of money doesn’t change life as much as you think. It’s not a magic shield from illness, tragedy or loss. You’re no smarter for having it (although perhaps wiser if you made the money yourself.) You still have problems, although they might be an entirely new set of problems. On the plus side, you never have to worry about putting food on the table or paying bills, which frees you up to think about bigger things.

People will look at you differently when you are rich. The upside is they respect you more. The downside is most people will want something from you.

It’s best to not flaunt your money, but instead put it to work to make more money. Many millionaires drive beat up cars and live in perfectly average homes. Few people know they are rich and they like it that way.

Don’t buy stuff you don’t need. Rent it, borrow it or do without. And don’t carry a balance on credit cards. Ever.

Never borrow money to make discretionary purchases. Only borrow money to make money.

Start with the end in mind. If you’re starting a company, from day 1 ask yourself what to do to make your company as valuable as possible so you can one day sell it for millions.

Lastly, having money is power. Power to help any charity you choose. Power to help anybody or anyone. Power to make positive changes in your community, positively impact the lives of others and make the world a better place.

A man sets out on a journey of a lifetime. The problem is, he doesn’t know where he wants to go. So he spends the next 40 years wandering the back roads, never really going anywhere. Another man chooses his destination. It’s a promised land, far, far away. The dangers he faces along the route are great and the challenges seem almost insurmountable. Yet because he knows where he wants to go, he is able to find his way, overcome the challenges and reach his destination, where he retires in 10 years’ time.

One man didn’t know where he was going, and so he wandered for 40 years and achieved nothing.

The other man knew exactly where he wanted to go, and because of his belief and determination, he was able to overcome every obstacle and reach his destination in 10 years.

Which person are you?

Most people won’t define what they want until they have clarity on how they will get there. But because they don’t know what they want, they don’t have the clarity, and thus end up doing nothing.

That’s why you’ve got to decide first what it is that you want, and be totally clear on what that is. Write it down in detail. Only then will you figure out how to get to where you want to go.

One more thing: Once you begin your journey, take time every single day to revisit your goal.

Just like a builder continually consults the building plans, you should continually go over your goal so that your subconscious mind knows exactly what it should be doing to get you to where you want to go.

This will also help you avoid time wasting activities that you don’t need.

Advanced Tip: Measure what you treasure.

Whatever your goal might be, take daily measurements of how you’re doing.

For example, if your goal is to reach a certain income level, you’ll want to track your profits daily.

If your goal is to exercise and eat right, you’ll want to keep a journal of everything you eat and every exercise you perform.

Whatever your goal might be, measure what you treasure and you will get more of what it is that you want in life.