MaryEllen Tribby: Why 99% of People Will Never Make Money With Social Media

Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google Plus, yada, yada, yada! Ninety-nine percent of the time these “cool” new tactics are going to be worthless to your business. That’s right, they will not yield you one red cent!

Why?

Because any tactic will only work when you understand the underlying, fundamental strategy. And the strategy I’m taking about is the mother load – Direct Response Marketing.

Think about it. You want to build your dream house. You have hired the best architect in the world to design your house. You have picked out the very best supplies money can buy to construct the house. You hired the best builder in the world to put it all together.

So naturally you think in the end you will have your dream home. A home where you and your family will make everlasting memories for years and years to come.

Oops . . .

No one told you that the land you were building this dream house on was actually swampland. So after months and months of planning and building and finally the house is up and looks so beautiful to everyone – it comes crashing down because the foundation was non-existent.

The exact same thing is true in business. Your business will come crashing down if you don’t understand the business of business. If you do not understand the concept of dollar out – dollar in, you will never have a business. And that is called direct response marketing.

A Must for a Real Business

Although direct-marketing techniques have been used since the advent of the printing press, the definition that was set more than 90 years ago holds true today: Direct-response marketing (DRM) is a form of marketing designed to solicit an immediate response that is specific and quantifiable.

You see this at work in every DRM channel:

Online newsletter promotions ask you to “click here.”

Magazine promotions ask you to place a “yes” sticker on a postcard to renew your subscription.

TV ads ask you to call an 800 number to learn more about the latest vacuum cleaner technology.

All of these channels then add urgency by stating that if you are among the first 25 or 50 or 100 to respond, you will be rewarded with extra bonuses.

They all ask customers to take action immediately. They all ask customers to follow specific instructions. And smart companies track and quantify the results.

Keep in mind is that DRM is not branding. The end goals of direct- response marketing and brand marketing are entirely different. DRM wants to get the customer to take immediate action.

Branding, on the other hand, wants to get the customer to remember the product.

Direct-Response Marketing wants to get the customer to open their wallet by making sure its message is highly targeted with explicit interest or intent.

Moreover with branding the customer remembers the product through image building and broad reach. There is little to no conscious intent.

At least today, with the power of the Internet behind you, branding and DRM work more closely together…closer than they ever have in the history of advertising.

The Internet allows companies to create campaigns that are nearly hybrids of traditional branding and traditional DRM.

Think about all the e-newsletters being published today. There are hundreds of thousands of them out there on every subject imaginable, from gardening to politics to rock music, and thousands more are created each week.

Working Moms Only.com (WMO) is another e-letter my own company publishes. Because WMO is delivered several days a week and reaches tens of thousands, it has developed a certain brand presence.

By “brand presence,” we mean that Working Moms Only has a specific look and feel. It has a strong mission statement and specific core values. These are aspects of our “brand” that have been with us since its inception.

All of the products we produce carry our logo. So when you see banner ads on other web sites and text ads in other newsletters, you know by the logo that the ads come from WMO.

But at its heart, WMO is not a brand marketer. WMO is a direct- response e-newsletter. That’s how we’ve developed our following, our community.

That’s how we’ve grown our business. And because we’ve been consistent with our message, our values, and our product quality, we’ve been able to create a brand presence that other people recognize. A brand that developed organically from good DRM.

For most small businesses (the non-Cokes or -Nikes of the world), this is the best way to grow. Spend your money on great direct-response campaigns and let your brand develop while you make money.

Now if you’re not familiar with direct-response marketing methods, here are a few good books to start with:

• Eugene M. Schwartz’s Breakthrough Advertising, originally published in 1966
• Dick Benson’s Secrets of Successful Direct Mail, originally published in 1987
• Claude C. Hopkins’ My Life in Advertising and Scientific Advertising, originally published in 1927 and 1923, respectively
• Robert W. Bly’s Complete Idiot’s Guide to Direct Marketing
• Michael Masterson’s and Michael Mastersons (yep, yours truly) Changing The Channel: 12 Easy Ways to Make Millions for Your Business originally published in 2008

The authors of these books understood the profound impact that direct-response marketing can have on any business. It was their mission to teach the fundamentals-the rules and principles that apply to all businesses at all times.

But I have to warn you – by reading these books and putting them into action can ONLY help you make money!