Copywriting

How Influencers Are Using Negative Attention To Create The Bandwagon Effect, And Why It Works

December 21, 2019 by Dan Lok Leave a Comment

Social media influencers have a lot of tricks up their sleeves when it comes to getting more followers, more engagement, more likes, more shares, and more exposure. Figuring out a way to create the bandwagon effect is one of the ways rising influencers gain momentum – but is this a good way to grow your following? Before we get into that, let’s talk about what the bandwagon effect is.

Whenever you do something simply because “everyone else is doing it,” you are shamelessly riding the bandwagon.

The bandwagon effect is a psychological phenomenon characterized by the increase in the probability that an individual will adopt certain beliefs or follow certain trends, simply due to the fact that a large number of other people are doing it.

People will ride the bandwagon in order to follow the crowd. The thing is, they’ll do this even if the crowd’s beliefs oppose their own true beliefs.

When you see that an influencer’s post got a lot of retweets on Twitter, you’ll be more likely to retweet their post. If you notice that most people are cheering for a particular team at a sports event, you’ll be more likely to cheer on that particular team. This is often called “hopping on the bandwagon” or, “jumping on the bandwagon”.

The Bandwagon Effect Requires Social Proof

Without social proof, the bandwagon effect won’t be easily achieved. But what exactly is social proof?

Social proof is based on the concept that human beings tend to follow the actions of the masses, or follow the crowd. We tend to rely on social cues – or social proof – to make our decisions. And, we tend to conform to whatever the majority is doing or thinking.

We tend to rely on social cues to make our decisions, which is why social proof is so important for influencers and brands. Click To Tweet

When deciding what to buy, what to think, and how to act, do you rely too heavily on social cues? Do you look to see how others are reacting, before deciding how you are going to react? Have you noticed a strong desire to conform to whatever seems to be the popular choice or the socially acceptable decision? If so, you’re one of the millions of bandwagoners who make the bandwagon effect work.

When people see social proof that there are a large number of people doing something, or an influential person is doing something, they’re more likely to hop on the bandwagon and join in. Some people call this ‘following the crowd’, others call this the ‘herd mentality’, and others call this ‘riding the bandwagon.’

Examples of Social Proof at Work

If an influencer already has 1 million followers, you’re more likely to want to follow them, right? And if an influencer’s product already has thousands of online reviews, you’ll be more likely to buy it, correct? Similarly, we’re more likely to buy a book on Amazon that has lots of reviews from the public, or has been endorsed by a celebrity. Statistically, 91% of 18-34-year-olds trust online social proof reviews as much as recommendations from someone close to them. We also tend to trust endorsements from public figures.

When you choose to buy a product because a popular social media influencer or a celebrity has endorsed it, that is social proof at work. Similarly, when you choose to sign up for an influencer’s master class because you see that 10,000 people have already signed up, that too is social proof working its magic.

Social proof is also at play when you decide to wait for a table to eat at a busy restaurant, instead of eating at the restaurant next door with plenty of empty tables available. But what if that empty restaurant actually served better food? Why is it that instead of finding out, we’re more likely to follow the crowd?

Relying On Social Proof Indicates Low Self-Esteem and a Desire to Fit In

Your innate desire to fit in with the rest of the crowd affects your purchasing decisions. Your desire to fit in also affects your decision to adopt a particular belief or take a particular action.

Why do so many people refer to how others are reacting, before deciding how to react themselves? The answer could have a lot to do with low self-esteem.

When someone is motivated to fit in with the rest of the crowd, or hesitant to decide their own reaction independent of the reaction of others, does that indicate low self-confidence?

What if your actual desire was the opposite of what the majority of people were doing? Or, what if you thought the decision the masses were making was actually a pretty stupid decision? Would you adopt the herd mentality, and base the validity of that decision on the number of people doing it? We have already established that doing something simply because everyone else is doing it, is the epitome of riding the bandwagon.

In fact, wouldn’t you agree that not doing something that everyone else is doing, requires a high level of self-confidence? To intentionally be the odd one out – to be okay with not fitting in – that, to me, is admirable.

Using Negative Attention to Your Advantage

You’ve probably heard the expression, “All press is good press”, and “There’s no such thing as bad publicity”, right? But is bad press ever really a good thing?

Some influencers think negative attention can be a good thing, and later in this article I’m going to reveal my true thoughts on the matter. But first, let’s discuss whether or not there’s any truth to the concept that “All press is good press”. Is negative attention ever advantageous for influencers?

When you ‘hop on the bandwagon’ by bad-mouthing a public figure on social media, because everyone else is bad-mouthing that public figure, you’re just giving them more exposure and promoting their brand. When a YouTube video goes viral, it’s generally considered a good thing, even if it went viral because people were making fun of it or shaming it.

Influencers are Leveraging ‘Outrage Culture’ and Using ‘Outrage Marketing’ to Get Attention

Outrage culture, also known as call-out culture, is a form of public shaming, popular among millennial social media users. In today’s outrage culture, it’s completely normal for social media users to identify social media posts that are offensive, repost them, and “call out” whoever originally posted it to publicly shame them.

Stirring up controversy is something many influencers do intentionally, to gain exposure in the media, and leverage outrage culture. Some influencers are hoping that what they post will result in a Twitterstorm of absolute outrage. If that’s what it takes to stand out and be noticed, they’re willing to do it, and it becomes part of their influencer marketing strategy.

Stirring up controversy is something many influencers do intentionally, to leverage outrage culture and gain exposure in the media. Click To Tweet

Sheer outrage can be a driving force, and people are inclined to share negative stories and spread the negative virality.

Ryan Holiday, former Director of Marketing for American Apparel said, “What some marketers have realised is that with polarising products and campaigns, they can use the outrage – real or sincere – of their opponents to hijack the media and get attention.”

The question is, is this form of outrage marketing ethical? And let’s say you don’t care about ethics, then let me ask you a different question. It may have worked once or twice, but is this marketing tactic sustainable?

It’s my belief that when outrage marketing becomes more widely understood, people will stop falling for it. It’s therefore certainly not a sustainable marketing tactic. It’s also not typically an ethical one.

You might be wondering why outrage culture has become a thing. The truth is, getting outraged over minor controversy online is a welcome distraction from people’s real problems. It’s also an easier and less thought-provoking outlet for people’s outrage, as compared to getting outraged over real problems such as war, poverty, or violence.

The Masses Project Negative Emotions Onto Social Media Influencers

People project negative emotions onto social media influencers because they function from a lower state of being. They are generally angry, sad, moody or depressed in their own lives, and outrage culture provides them with an outlet to get angry.

Many people tend to be focused on the media’s negative stories, and influencer marketing campaigns take advantage of this knowledge. Like I said earlier, people are inclined to share negative stories and spread negative virality – especially if they themselves are in a bad mood.

Rather than work on improving their own lives, many people would rather call out worse offenders than themselves. This distracts them from their own issues.

Famous Examples of Influencers Who Used Negative Attention to Create a Bandwagon Effect

In recent years, one of the most famous examples of an influencer who used negative attention to her advantage, was Nicole Arbour and her viral video, “Dear Fat People”.

People weren’t really talking about the Canadian comedian Nicole Arbour until she released her YouTube video, “Dear Fat People” which today has amassed over 14 million views on YouTube.

Does it surprise you that it was all a marketing scheme? In an interview with Cosmopolitan, Arbour admitted that “Dear Fat People” was a pre-planned marketing scheme, and that the highly controversial video changed her life financially, as she predicted it would. The short “Dear Fat People” video. She also boasted about film and TV offers that came after that video’s release. “Dear Fat People” launched Arbour’s career, all because of the negative attention it amassed.

Logan Paul is another controversial YouTuber and influencer who has over 20 million subscribers on YouTube.

In late 2017, Paul posted a video which showed a dead body in Japan’s “Suicide Forest,” which spurred outrage online. Paul was accused of making light of suicide. Paul later posted an apology video which garnered over 56 million views, and his following only continued to increase.

Was it all an elaborate marketing scheme? And if so, did it work? As a result of the offensive video, YouTube removed Logan Paul from the Google Preferred program. This of course had a negative effect on his ad revenue.

Paul, however, continued to gain more and more exposure, and make more and more money, despite all of this backlash. People kept buying his online merchandise and kept engaging with him online. This year, he was announced by Business Insider as being one of the world’s highest-paid YouTube stars.

Logan Paul Says His Haters React Exactly How He Wants Them to React

What does Logan Paul have to say about this? “I bank on the naivety of old people and millennials, to perpetuate my brand, make me go viral and keep me relevant,” Paul recently told his podcast, ImPaulsive, later explaining that he has earned hundreds of thousands of dollars, “Because of the haters.”

Of his often outraged haters, Paul said it’s unlikely they’ll catch on that it’s all a marketing scheme, and even if they do, his followers are still reacting exactly how he wants them to react.

Of his haters, Paul said on his podcast, “I’m so confident that they will never, ever catch on – and if they do, their desire to do the bandwagon-type action and bandwagon tweets trumps their ability to go, ‘You know, if I don’t like Logan Paul, the most effective way for me to show my disdain is to be indifferent and not talk about it.’”

What would happen if people showed their disdain for Logan Paul by not talking about him? The bandwagon effect wouldn’t take place, and Logan Paul wouldn’t achieve his desired result.

People Jump Off The Bandwagon Just As Fast As They Jumped On

Influencers who think using the bandwagon effect is good for their online presence need to figure out a more sustainable way to gain media exposure.

People hop off the bandwagon just as fast as they hopped on. Influencers need a more sustainable marketing strategy than the bandwagon effect. Click To Tweet

If you’re a social media influencer considering this marketing tactic, you might be wondering: Why is the bandwagon effect unsustainable? Firstly, it’s because people will jump off the bandwagon just as fast as they jumped on. There’s another bandwagon ready to pick them up that has nothing to do with your brand, and the cycle continues.

In The End, Negative Marketing Hurts Your Brand

In the long run, negative attention hurts your brand more than it helps it. Negative attention is good for brand exposure, but it’s not good for brand image.

Using negative attention and the bandwagon effect might work once or twice. You might get noticed and gain exposure. But if you keep doing it, your brand’s reputation probably won’t be able to uphold itself.

Many consumers view negative marketing as manipulative. You don’t want your brand to appear to be unethical or manipulative, do you?

Negative Marketing is Not Financially Sustainable

Are you a rising influencer, looking to grow your following and monetize your social media platforms? I have millions of followers on social media, and over 2 million subscribers on YouTube. I didn’t gain those followers through negative marketing. Curious how I did it?

Influencers or entrepreneurs can build their communities through a more ethical and sustainable way than through negative marketing or the bandwagon effect. Enroll in my 12-Week Intensive High-Ticket Influencer Program. Do you want to grow a loyal following, and learn how to build a real business around your brand? If so, my program will provide you with the tools required to do so.

The Fastest Way to Build a Superstar Copywriting Team

October 5, 2019 by Dan Lok

If you have finally realized that you need a superstar copywriting team in order for your business to succeed, I want to congratulate you. Understanding how important it is to put together a talented copywriting team is a step in the right direction.

Poorly written marketing copy and website copy will silently destroy your business if you don’t do something about it. What you must do, is put together a team of talented copywriters. Copywriters know how to close in print, and a superstar copywriting team can help grow your business fast.

If you’ve become wise to the fact that hiring skilled copywriters can lead to increased sales, then you’re probably motivated to build a superstar copywriting team. My guess is that you want to build this team as soon as possible, so that your business can start seeing results as soon as possible, right?

If you’re an entrepreneur or business owner looking to scale your business, you’ll want talented copywriters in your corner. Your business is in the best possible position when you’ve secured the loyalty of talented, skilled individuals who specialize in particular skills. That’s why when you hire a copywriting team, you should look for individuals who specialize in copywriting. In other words, seek out the experts.

So how do you build a superstar copywriting team? And what’s the fastest and most effective way to put together this team? I’m going to give you some tips that you should read before you start putting together your copywriting team. However, I’m going to start by emphasizing some of the most important reasons why your business needs talented copywriters.

Why You Need To Hire a Copywriting Team

You can tell your customers why they should buy your product or service until you’re blue in the face, but only copywriters can do this the right way. A talented copywriter will understand your key message and your USP (Unique Selling Proposition) and communicate it in a way that persuades the reader to take action. The best copywriters know how to speak your customers’ language, and can write copy using the lingo and emotional triggers that influence your target market. They’ll write copy that pushes all the right buttons.

It’s not uncommon for a business to pay a talented copywriter $5,000 for a project, and find that the copy they paid $5,000 for generated $100,000 in additional sales. That’s why hiring copywriters is typically a worthwhile investment for your business.

Copywriters understand that it’s their job to make you more money. It’s their job to write copy that results in more sales, more revenue, and more growth for your business.

Now, let’s get into some of my best tips for quickly building a superstar copywriting team.

Tip #1: You Get What You Pay For

The best copywriters charge high prices because they can. They have made a lot of businesses a lot of money with their skills, and they are well aware of their worth. If you can’t afford to hire the best-of-the-best, that’s okay, but don’t hire the cheapest copywriters either. Remember that you get what you pay for. Remember what your goals are. If your goal is to hire copywriters to write copy that converts, and your goal is to increase sales, don’t expect the $10/hour copywriters to achieve this for you.

SEO copywriters, for example, charge more money – but it’s worth the extra money. SEO (search engine optimization) is a specific skill that requires extra training. It requires knowledge of Google algorithms and SEO practices. Copywriters who are well-trained in SEO will write copy with strategic keyword placement, resulting in more search engine visibility, and therefore more views. More views means more potential buyers. The value of this is beyond any extra cost associated with it. That’s why paying extra for a copywriter who excels at SEO is worth the money.

Warren Buffet said, “Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.” When hiring copywriters, think about the value – not the price. The value you get is much more important than the price you pay.

Photo credits: Mark Reinstein / Shutterstock.com

Buffet also said, “Risk comes from not knowing what you are doing” and believe me, it’s risky to hire a copywriter who doesn’t know what they’re doing.

Tip #2: Ask About Their Research Practices Before Hiring

Ask any star copywriter, and they’ll tell you that doing proper research is integral to writing great sales copy. So, when you’re interviewing copywriting candidates, ask them what their research formula is.

Research skills are crucial for copywriters, because it’s their job to understand your target market and your ideal customer. It’s their job to learn the lingo, trends, and principle emotions of your ideal customer.

Superstar copywriters don’t just research your target market, though. They also research you, your business, your brand, and whatever it is that they’re selling. They seek to understand the product or service they are selling and its unique selling points, so that they can build a story around it and sell it to the best of their ability. Superstar copywriters will familiarize themselves with your industry, business, brand, product, target market and competitors.

Tip #3: Assign a Trial Project

Many of you probably don’t want to hire a copywriter without seeing what they can do first. Assign them a trial project so that you can see how they write. Think of this as their “audition” for a long-term copywriting job. Of course this trial project should be paid, since the copywriter will have to do research and spend time writing the copy.

Before you assign a trial project, figure out what your needs are. If what you really need is someone competent in direct-response copywriting for landing pages, then there’s no point assigning Facebook ad copy as the trial project. The trial project is most effective when it helps confirm that the copywriter possesses the specific skill you are looking for. So, it should be tailored to whatever your current needs are, instead of being random.

Tip #4: Have Each Team Member Focus on Their Unique Talent

One of the smartest things you can do when building a superstar copywriting team is honing in on each individual copywriter’s core talents. What I mean by this is, figuring out the specific talent or niche area of expertise each copywriter on your team is best used for. For example, perhaps one copywriter on your team is great at writing Facebook ads, while another copywriter on your team is great at writing email sales letters. If you focus their training, responsibilities and assignments on one or two specific types of copy, do you know what will happen? You’ll watch in awe as they excel within their areas of expertise. They’ll become masters at writing the specific type of copy you’ve encouraged them to focus on, and their copy will start to perform better and better.

It’s important to recognize which team members excel at which types of copywriting. Writing for social media, for example, is a special skill not every copywriter possesses. The restricted character limit on social media platforms such as Twitter, requires a talent to be able to write enticing, clickable content, within the character limit. By recognizing which copywriters on your team possess certain specific skills, and encouraging them to focus on what they’re gifted at, you’re well on your way to building a superstar copywriting team.

Tip #5: Hire a Copy Editor as Part of Your Copywriting Team

Some business owners make the mistake of thinking that if they hire expert copywriters with advanced skill sets, they won’t need to hire a copy editor. However, even if you trust your copywriters to produce high-quality copy, you still need a second pair of eyes on it. You need a star copy editor as part of your copywriting team. Below I’ve laid out some examples of the types of editing skills your copy editor should be able to implement:

Proofreading: Checking for grammar, spelling, sentence structure, punctuation and proper capitalization.

Why it’s important: This makes your copy look professional, and helps you establish credibility with your prospects. Proofreading is one of the most important types of editing.

Fact-Checking: Ensuring all facts are accurate, relevant, not outdated and not misrepresented.

Why it’s important: You can lose the respect of your audience if your facts or statistics aren’t accurate and up-to-date.

Editing for SEO: Double-check the copy for appropriate use of keywords, and edit the copy for search engine optimization.

Why it’s important: If you use SEO best practices, your copy will be ranked higher by search engines, and will therefore be seen by more people.

Substantive Editing: Assessing the piece of copy as a whole, ensuring the message is clear. Checking for any inconsistencies in language, tone, and style.

Why it’s important: Until you fully trust your copywriters, it’s important to check for clarity and consistency in their work.

Other types of editing include formatting and link-checking. As you can see, the role of an editor is quite complex, which is why this team member should focus solely on editing – not writing – the copy.

Tip #6: Send Them Through a Training Program

When it comes to training your copywriters, why take on the burden of training them yourself? One thing you can do, is take a master copywriter’s knowledge, and use it for training purposes. Have a master copywriter take what they know, and turn it into a very structured, systematic formula. This formula can help you train your other copywriters.

Make sure to have separate training for separate types of copy. For example, have separate training just on headlines. There should also be specified training for the hook, story messages, sales letters, Facebook ad writing, direct-response landing page copy, etc.

This way, you’ll end up with exactly what you need. You’ll have some copywriters who are very good at landing pages. Some who are great at Facebook ads. Others who are great at email sales letters. The list goes on. Each copywriter will excel within their niche areas of expertise that they’ve been trained on.

When you train copywriters on specific types of copy, what happens? You now have structure. This type of structure works. For example, if you provide advanced training on Facebook ads and product copy for one copywriter who seems to excel in these areas, don’t let them touch anything else. Have them focus entirely on this type of copy. Watch what happens. Copywriters will maximize their potential by narrowing their focus. As their leader, it’s your job to help them narrow their focus on the type of copy they’re best at writing.

You can also have an onboarding process where a training program is involved. Perhaps when you onboard copywriters, you’ll send them through a training program such as my 7-week High-Income Copywriter Certification Program. Once they’ve completed basic training, you can level-up their training to level 2 training, level 3 training, and keep escalating based on the competence of the copywriter.

Tip #7: Keep Upgrading Your Team’s Skill Stacks

You can upgrade the skills of the copywriters on your copywriting team with training programs, seminars, workshops and master classes that focus on relevant and up-to-date skills training. Copywriting is a modern skill that needs to be consistently upgraded and continuously exercised in order to stay current.

You can provide your copywriting team with copywriting exercises, designed for mastering the skill of copywriting. Check out these fantastic copywriting exercises for some ideas. These copywriting exercises could certainly help someone on your team become a better copywriter. You can also send your team members to a modern training program.

Ultimately, proper training allows you to spend less resources and time revising and critiquing the work of your copywriters. Level up their skills and keep them well-trained so that you get higher quality copy, less revisions, and more speed. You do not want that back-and-forth where you have to critique their work, and have them take a second go at it. You want them trained so well, that they get it right the first time, and revisions aren’t necessary.

Summary

Hiring a team of talented copywriters is crucial for the growth of your business. Poorly written marketing copy and website copy will silently destroy your business if you don’t do something about it.

Hiring skilled copywriters can lead to increased sales, because copywriters know how to close in print.

Here are 7 tips for hiring a superstar copywriting team:

Tip #1: You Get What You Pay For. (The value you get is more important than the price you pay.)

Tip #2: Ask About Their Research Practices Before Hiring. (The best copywriters are great at doing proper research on your industry, your company, your brand message, your target market, and your ideal customer.)

Tip #3: Assign a Trial Project. (Let copywriters audition before offering them the job.)

Tip #4: Have Each Team Member Focus on Their Unique Talent. (By narrowing their focus, copywriters will excel in their niche and make you more money.)

Tip #5: Hire a Copy Editor as Part of Your Copywriting Team. (Copy editors are integral to any copywriting team.)

Tip #6: Send Them Through a Training Program. (Let them learn from a master.)

Tip #7: Keep Upgrading Your Team’s Skill Stacks. (Have your copywriting team keep exercising their copywriting muscles by updating their skills.)

Enroll Your Copywriting Team in My 7-Week High-Income Copywriter Certification Program

If you’re motivated to make sure your copywriting team is well-trained and capable of closing in print, enroll your team members in my brand new copywriting training program. My 7-Week High-Income Copywriter Certification Program is valuable even for copywriters who think they already know what it is to be a copywriter. Anyone who enrolls in my program is likely to learn something new and develop better copywriting skills. It’s also a great program for any team members who you’re attempting to transition out of their current role and into a copywriting role. You can’t go wrong with a modern training program taught by a master copywriter.

How to Use Niche Marketing to Grow Your Business

May 4, 2019 by Dan Lok Leave a Comment

What if I told you I was looking for companies that deliver food or medical supplies and they only deliver to remote areas inaccessible by transportation? A fairly specific request, isn’t it?

That’s the nature of niche marketing – because if you’re selling to everyone, you’re not selling to anyone. It’s a real product by the way- drones that drop off food and medical supplies to remote areas by parachute. Marketing to businesses looking for this technology is very specific, very niche.

To be effective at your marketing, you want to specialize by profession. This is the most basic specialization and it’s ideal for service professionals. It means identifying a niche within a profession and owning it through promotion and personal brand development. You’re just working on one segment in the marketplace.

To be effective at niche marketing, you can implement any of these strategies: first, target a very particular segment of the market, second, gain an incredible advantage by becoming the competition, and third, create some mystery when describing what it is that you do.

Watch this video about using niche marketing to grow your business.

1. Be Clear About Your Target Market

To find your niche market, be explicit about what type of client you are looking for.

For example, Ken was in internet marketing for 17 years, and he was just dealing with anybody that would work with him in any area of business.

Before he started working with me, he noticed a significant part of his business – 40 to 50 percent – was with real estate agents. So I told him not only to forget everybody else, but to exclude everybody else.

We formed a company that specialized in internet marketing for realtors. It was a pretty big market. I also suggested that he write a book about the topic. After he formed the new company, he also had a new, improved business model.

The company name that he had before was called “Standard Marketing” which was as attention grabbing as a blank wall. So we changed it to “Top Agent Internet Marketing.”

The new name tells all, including who we serve.

We also have a book called Sold. It has a very powerful image for a real estate professional. The sub headline, which I came up with, is “How top real estate agents are using the internet to capture more leads and close more sales.”

The book title is very clear about the target audience.

I just put a description of the target audience right in the headline.

If you’re a plumber, are you going to read that book? No. They’re not our target market. Not unless the plumber is curious about a career in real estate.

But a real estate agent will look at it and think, “Oh that’s interesting. I should read that.” Being specific about your target market will get you much stronger results.

2. Be Your Client’s Competition

Strategy number two is a subtle, pressurized kind of marketing but it’s effective.

I want to share the story of my long time partner and client, Matt. Again, we have a specialized niche. We only provide digital marketing services for audiologists and medical professionals.

There aren’t that many of them but because we only provide our service to them, we absolutely dominate the market. We are number one and the company in second place is very far behind.

We’ve been leading their industry for a long time. We have more clients, we charge more than anybody else, and we provide a whole list of services just for that market. We started off locally and then spread out across North America.

Behind the scenes we only work with certain clients in certain cities. Our marketing is not the typical kind. We turned the tables around. Instead of telling potential clients we do digital marketing and telling them about our services, we do the reverse.

We say that in each city and in each geographical area, we only work with one clinic. If that clinic doesn’t want our services, we call their competitor.

This strategy makes it a lot easier for us to sell our services. We also do recurring. Our clients pay us anywhere from $2000-$3000 per month, sometimes up to $5000 a month to do their marketing.

We offer this recurring deal through a signed 12 month agreement. After a year they can quit anytime. But if they cancel, we call the nearest clinic to them and they’ll become a client instead.

We actually have clients say, “Damn, you guys, I’ll just keep paying you.” It’s a much easier solution. They just want to make sure their competitor doesn’t have us on their side.

Understand Your Target Market

Now I have something that I must confess. I don’t know every industry.

I’m not a realtor or an audiologist. But I have my edge because I do more research and study more than anybody else. As a result, in a niche that’s unfamiliar to me, I still understand the market.

So although I’m not a real estate agent, I can tell you I know their business inside and out. I know their frustrations, what their pain points are. What they’re looking for.

I know their goals and desires. Because I learned to speak their language, they feel like I’m one of them. It’s the only way to be successful in unfamiliar territory.

There is a lesson here as well. I want to tell you about Gary, a realtor who isn’t just any realtor.

When you introduce yourself at a business event, don’t say, “Hi, I’m a realtor.” What’s the reaction of people around you?

You’re just another nameless face of yet another realtor. Gary and I came up with an elevator pitch. It’s this. Instead of saying you’re a mortgage broker or a consultant, you say something more specific. Here it is.

The Niche Elevator Pitch

“I’m a real estate professional. I specialize in working with investors, where we generate big profits through a buy and hold or buy and flip strategy. I often generate long-term wealth through a buy and hold strategy as well as various hedge fund strategies… I go into more detail in my book, The book on Vancouver Real Estate.

A book can be more effective than a business card.

It’s pretty clear who he serves and you don’t feel like he’s just another realtor. If I want to buy my first home, maybe, he’s the right person for me, maybe not. But he’s very clear, who he works with: investors on either buy and flip, short-term, quick profit. Or long-term wealth, buy and hold.

And if you have more questions, read his book. This also tells you that he’s an author. By saying he’s a real estate professional your mind doesn’t close off. You don’t instantly jump to the conclusion that he’s going to sell you something. Instead, you wonder, what does that title mean?

Is he an investor? Realtor? What exactly does he do? Then he can go into his specialization to answer the questions in your mind. When he has your interest, he then says he has a book if you want to know more.

Do you see the difference? There are so many realtors out there. So many realtors haven’t even learned how to talk about what they do in a 30 second elevator pitch.

Now remember I said I’m not a realtor. Gary, however, is. But I understand the industry. My edge is when I go into an industry to gather information. I go nuts.

I read the publications and I attend the trade shows to learn their language. I talk to a ton of realtors and take a lot of notes. That’s how I win.

I gather as much intelligence, or data, about the market as I can. Your wealth is in direct proportion to how well you understand your marketplace. Some people have been in their market for a few years, yet they don’t actually understand their market that much.

There are no excuses for not being informed, not if your wealth depends on it.

Final Thoughts On Using Niche Marketing

The key takeaway here is that even if you’re not familiar with your niche, you still need to be familiar with the market. That means that even if I’m not a realtor, I must study the marketplace for realtors.

If you don’t understand the target market, you won’t be able to communicate with them. Have an elevator pitch handy that will tell potential clients what it is that you do. Have an element of mystery about your description so the client will want to hear more.

You want to stand out from the competition. You can even beat your competition by telling your clients that if they don’t do business with you, then you will do business with their competitors. This is how you dominate in the industry.

Which strategy do you like the most? Comment below.

How to Create the Story of Your Own Personal Brand

April 22, 2019 by Dan Lok

Never start at the beginning. Always start from some point halfway to the top, and work your way backwards. Now you might be wondering what I’m talking about.To create the story of your own personal brand, to be like the book that people can’t put down, you begin with climbing up the mountain.

You see, back in my early days as a copywriter, people didn’t even think I could succeed in business. And before that, when I was in high school, no one wanted to talk to me. So I don’t want to start my story there.

But now that I am a multi-millionaire, a business magnate, internet celebrity and global educator with students and fans around the world… people want to hear my story. They want to know how I became successful, and how I’ll take my success to the next level.

And now that I’ve reached this point and I’m still climbing up, people want to learn how I did it, and they can relate to how I started. They can relate to how I used to struggle to begin my career because that’s where many people are now.

This is a good place to create your story – when you are successful, and people are hungry to know how you got here from your humble beginnings. So this is how your create the story of your personal brand, using one of the following character types.

Watch this video about creating a story of your own personal brand.

The Reluctant Hero: Forced Into Action

People love a good story, and this is how you reel them into your brand, and from there, to build trust in your business.

The first character type is the reluctant hero, the person who is just like us until something extraordinary happens to him. Peter Parker was just a regular teenager, into girls and from a regular family until a radioactive spider bit him.

His life wasn’t the same after that – he had enhanced strength, speed, and reflexes. Special powers to help others. It was his uncle who said, “With great power comes great responsibility.” But Peter didn’t want extra responsibility. He just wanted the power.

Peter changed his mind when he let a thief escape and his Uncle Ben tried to stop the thief instead. When the thief killed his uncle, Peter realized the full meaning of his uncle’s words. Peter became the hero Spiderman whose mission was to find his uncle’s killer and to fight crime.

That’s the reluctant hero. A regular person with flaws just like everyone else but that hero must leave their comfort zone to make a difference in their world. It’s a formulaic storyline we’ve seen in many movies and books and it works. These characters could be any one of us.

Frodo Baggins, a hobbit from The Lord Of the Rings has no special powers and no aspirations to change his life, yet he gets sucked into an epic journey. He meets many fanatical and spectacular characters as he faces extraordinary adventures, but after all that, he’s still just a regular character.

The reluctant hero is a proven storyline that captivates.

The second type of character is the exceptional man or woman who overcomes great obstacles.

Exceptional Person Who Overcomes a Challenge

People are intrigued by characters who are good at what they do. They also love underdogs who thrive against all odds and the skepticism of others. Here’s a real life example of how someone without limbs overcame a huge challenge.

Nick, a famous motivational speaker without arms or legs, inspires millions and millions of people with his positivity. He’s an exceptional man who’s overcome challenges everyday.

For us, brushing our teeth is a simple task. For him, it’s a big challenge but he’s overcome it. We’re inspired by people like him. If you search for him online and study the message he’s trying to convey, you’ll noticed he’s narrowed down his message to mostly Christian-based philosophies. He’s found his audience.

Another example is one of the highest paid motivational speakers in the world, Tony Robbins. At one point he was overweight and broke, living in a one bedroom condo, until one day when he got sick of his life. He went for a run along the beach, then wrote in a private journal, “No more!”

Tired of who he had been, he wanted to work on himself and his psychology. He wanted to inspire others and started doing seminars on personal power. He taught people how to master’s psychology… and that brings us to where he is now. Successful and a household name.

It’s a familiar storyline.

Us Versus Them

The third type of character is us versus them. It works well because it’s based entirely on the fact that we as human beings create our own belief systems based on completely irrational beliefs.

Let me give you an example. Usually we like to blame our problems on others so it’s us versus them. When you meet someone and you both don’t have anything in common yet you have a common enemy, that instantly bonds you. You have the same enemy.

So hypothetically let’s say I don’t like Donald Trump and you don’t like Donald Trump. When we watch him in the election, we instantly have a common enemy. We can talk about a lot of things including his hair.

Here’s another example. Let’s say I am selling natural herb supplements online. I can easily talk about how in the past I wasn’t very healthy so I was overweight and sick a lot. I tried Western medicine but it didn’t quite work for me. Then I stumbled on Chinese medicine.

Then in my journey I discovered these supplements and they are amazing. I have this mission I want to share with you so I put together these products and I set up this company. Now we are fighting against these pharmaceutical companies.

They actually don’t want you to get well because if you get well you won’t buy their medicine anymore. I want to focus more on prevention and that’s what these supplements do.

A Formula For These Stories

So with these stories, you can see there’s a formula. When you use an us-versus-them storyline you stumble upon a secret. The secret proves there is a problem with the market or something similar. It’s the market’s fault.

For example, in the case of the natural supplements, the fault is the pharmaceutical companies out there selling their drugs and teaching the doctors to get them to write prescriptions. You vow to fight against them and unite on your mission to solve the problem.

You emphasize that by buying your product, your client becomes one of us, the good guys. If you don’t buy the supplements, then you support the evil pharmaceutical companies. Or you buy the supplements and you become one of the good guys who fight against evil.

It’s a very powerful formula, so you want to use it with caution.

One of the things I used to do was talk about how most internet marketing gurus haven’t been there and done that. They talk about things that they don’t have firsthand experience in. So it’s us versus them when I talk about a lot of these other people, the so-called gurus who are selling information. That’s an example of what I do in my business.

Them. So that’s an example of what I do in my business.

Now, after you’ve got your character type, you work on character crafting.

How To Craft A Character

To make a character compelling and irresistible he’s got to have some flaws. Nobody likes to meet a person who is just far too perfect. The perfect family, the perfect kids, the perfect home. People don’t want that.

They want to see a bit of loss that will reveal the character’s motive, their human side. They want you to be transparent because real people have flaws. We all have flaws and we’re all a work in progress.

You sustain your tribe’s interest over time to the degree and extent that you’re willing to be transparent. If you want to have a strong character you have to be transparent. If you want to have a powerful personal brand you have to be transparent.

Look at Superman as an example. Superman is almost perfect. What is his weakness? Kryptonite. If you take away that weakness, think about it. It won’t be as fun to follow his story. You can’t kill him, he doesn’t get hurt, and he can dominate everything.

Final Thoughts On Creating Your Branding Story

What draws an audience to you is the type of character you create. The reluctant hero, who is forced to leave his comfort zone and take on a new mission. He or she is just an ordinary person, which makes this person relatable.

Another character type is the exceptional person who overcame an obstacle. We admire this person because they have faced challenges that we haven’t. They inspire us.

And finally there is the us versus them story type. We bond instantly with another person because of a common cause or belief. We take their side so we can either become the bad guy or the good guy.

No matter which character type you choose for your personal brand story, you want to have a character who is flawed. A perfect character is uninteresting and unrelatable. It would be like watching an undefeatable Superman rid his world of his enemies in two seconds because he is invincible.

Which character type is your favorite? Comment below.

The Best Strategy To Get Clients Fast

March 13, 2019 by Dan Lok Leave a Comment

If you’re like most entrepreneurs, you want to grow your business fast. But if you want high-paying clients, then you must be willing to go against conventional wisdom.

Not everyone can be your client. If you say, “Anyone is my client,” then you’re in trouble.

Many new entrepreneurs think everyone and anyone with money is a potential lead. But for you, you must be more selective.

Most advice out there recommends that you talk to everyone you know, get involved in local business communities, optimize your website, and get into as many social media platforms as possible. But what happens if you try to catch a fish with a tiny net in an enormous sea?

You’re lucky to catch a fish or two! So if you’re patient enough to grow your business slowly, if you want to talk to dozens of people to get your first client, then follow those conventional strategies that require a high degree of time and effort. Eventually, you will find your first client. But your troubles don’t end there.

You’re new and no one has heard of you, so your first client doesn’t want to pay you hundreds or thousands of dollars. You might even have to offer some advice or service for free, just to get your first testimonial. Meanwhile, your rent and your phone and electricity bills are waiting to be paid. So what can you do to cut through this slow and painful growth stage? Is there a way to fast forward this process?

Back when I was running my one-man advertising agency as a copywriter, I was trying to get clients from all over the place. I would do the work for anyone who would hire me. As long as the client breathed, they were good enough for me. Everyone was my customer.

However, over time and with more experience, I realized that to grow my business, I had to use one powerful strategy which I’m going to teach you today to get that ideal high-paying client fast.

Watch this video to learn how to grow your business faster.

The Kingpin Strategy to Get Clients

Here’s the problem. If everyone is your customer, then nobody is your customer. What I needed was that one account that would improve the quality of my clientele. I didn’t need dozens of clients paying me a few hundred each for my services.

I just needed a couple of high-ticket clients paying me thousands for the same service. My goal was to make the same income with fewer clients. So what I had to do was find the kind of client I would attract when I had more experience… and attract that client now.

When I was struggling as a copywriter, I came across a book called Guerilla Marketing. It’s a very famous book series on small business and marketing written by Jay Conrad Levinson. Now Jay has sold over 20 million books worldwide for the Guerrilla Marketing series. He was one of the most well-known educators and marketing gurus of our time before he passed away. So I approached Jay.

At the time, Jay was marketing a Guerilla Marketing Association membership. I went to his website and saw what he did so I rewrote the entire page. I sent it to the Guerrilla Marketing Association and got a reply from Jay personally. He thanked me because I had delivered value before asking for anything in return.

“Wow, you know what, young man, that’s very nice of you,” he said. He actually used the material and it helped him to generate more sales. Afterwards, I asked him, “Hey, Jay, since you’re getting value, is it okay if you give me some kind of recommendation and endorsement?” He said he was more than happy to do that. And he did.

That was my first Kingpin client.

By getting Jay Conrad Levinson, a well-known marketing guru with credibility and authority for so many small business owners, I could approach potential clients differently. I could say, “I have an endorsement from Jay Levinson who wrote Guerilla Marketing, who sold 20 million books.” That reference impressed my next client.

At the beginning of your career, when you’re establishing credibility and reputation, don’t chase everybody. Decide on the one person or company that will launch your career and serve them.

For example, in the tech world if you could work with Google or Amazon or Microsoft you could get then get other high quality clients. Everybody else will look at that account and say, “If you’re good enough for them, you’re good enough for me.”

You skip that learning curve and grow your business much faster. You can also use this technique to draw in more customers at one time.

The Kingpin Strategy To Get Clients Fast

Let me give you another example of the Kingpin Strategy from a different perspective. In the United States, they have these huge events. The Learning Annex back then was doing massive conferences with 5,000 to 25,000 people using this Kingpin Strategy.

They would bring in “Kingpin speakers,” such as Donald Trump before he was president, Tony Robbins, Robert Kiyosaki, and Bill Clinton to draw people in.

They paid them a huge speaking fee to have them show up at the event. At the same time, platform speakers or platform closers who aren’t paid to be there will offer their programs or products. They would make a 60-minute or 90-minute pitch on stage to draw in the crowd.

These events don’t make money from 5 to 20 thousand people’s tickets.They make money from these platform closers. The event organizer would do a split with anything that the closers sell. Imagine if someone is speaking to 10,000 people and he is selling a $1,000 package.

If he sells 500 of them a day, a multi-day event would generate millions of dollars. The platform closures would get a 30 to 50 percent commission because the organizers are the ones spending all the money. The organizers made millions upon millions of dollars from these conferences going around North America, even the U.K. That’s how the business model works.

That’s the Kingpin Strategy from a different perspective. So ask yourself the question. Who is that one company, that one organization you could get that would change everything. From then on, you leverage that one person’s name or that organization’s name for the rest of your career. Before you know it, you go from a nobody to a somebody.

How will you apply the Kingpin Strategy to get new clients? Comment below.