Fly on the E-Commerce Cyberwall

Are You an Internet Marketer Who Hates Marketing?
I can't get out of my head a rant I read yesterday by Clayton Makepeace. Clayton is one of the world's best copywriters and he has an awesome online newsletter in which he gives away a wealth of copywriting and marketing information every day.

Well yesterday he googled himself to see what others were saying about him. As usual, there was a lot of high praise. But one blogger's comments stuck in his craw.

Now, as I said, Clayton gives away tons of free advice every day. This blogger, though, was incensed that, a couple of times a month, Clayton also sends his list an email offering a special discount on one of his products.

"How dare this charlatan ask people to pay money for his expertise. He should share everything he's learned over 20+ years of hard experience absolutely free." Her rant was somewhat along those lines. And Clayton was disgusted.

But one thing he said in his reply rant really stuck in my mind. He said that a lot of Internet marketers really hate marketing. And he's absolutely right.

I even see signs of it in myself.

I've experienced lots of times where I've been hesitant to promote what I have to offer because I didn't want to "dirty myself" by coming across as trying to "persuade" people into buying.

I've experienced lots of times where I've looked at marketing strategies as forms of manipulation.

I've experienced lots of times where I've tried to market by doing nothing more than vaguely hinting that I had something of value available and hoping that people would batter down my doors demanding the chance to buy it.

Maybe you've had the same feelings.

So why do people who look down marketing try to do it for a living?

For the money.

It appeals to that get-rich-quick mentality with a promise of "tricks" that will enable us to shovel in truckloads of money for little effort. It promises that if only we hit on the "secret formula" for successful persuasion, the world's coffers will open up and spill out on us all the money we could ever desire.

And so we dabble in marketing, trying to discover the "tricks" and "secret formulas" while we inwardly suppress a disgust for the whole idea of manipulation that another part of us associates with marketing.

That doesn't have to be, though. Clayton brings up a great point when he quotes marketer Bob King: "Marketing is the art and science of bringing value to consumers’ lives at a price that is insignificant relative to that value."

If we're marketing junk just to make a buck, if we're trying to trick people into buying stuff that isn't worth what they're paying for it, we have every reason to feel ashamed of our "marketing" efforts. That's because we're not really doing marketing. We're scamming people.

But if we are truly bringing people solutions that have far more value to them than we're asking in return, we're not doing anything disagreeable at all. We're providing a great service.

Now don't think I'm advocating that the solution to our love-hate relationship with marketing is that we give away things of great value for next to nothing. Marketing should be neither coercive nor sacrificial.

The solution is to understand intimately the needs of those whom we seek to market to and provide a solution that truly is of value to them. The moment we can do that is the moment that "marketing" turns from distasteful manipulation to an eager exchange of value for value.

Get to know what your customers desire and provide it for them. Do that and you'll never need to worry ever again about how to "coerce" them into buying.
Jeff


P.S. Clayton's newsletter is one I faithfully read every day. I encourage you to check it out. Just click here and enter your name and email address in the banner at the top of the page and you'll get not only his free newsletter, but also four useful ebooks on ways to improve your advertising.

Labels: Clayton Makepeace, copywriting, marketing