How to use I-Phone: One Step Ahead: The Multi-Million Dollar Difference

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Issue 19 - December 14, 2010

Hey Genc,

Though you've probably seen a hundred different "secrets" sold in the Internet marketing niche...

How many do you think are really true, powerful secrets that make the difference between just making a splash in your market, and dominating it with just one product?

Well the secret in the spotlight today IS a powerful secret. One of the most powerful you'll ever find in marketing. If not THE most powerful.

A single concept that will enable you to...

Transform any sales material into a high-converting profit generator...
Turn your product into a best-seller...
Add excitement that makes people want to share it with others...

And make your competition irrelevant.

I'm talking about your Big Idea. Which if you get it right, will cut through the clutter and bring you the results you want, and much more. All the business-boosting details are included in today's issue of "One Step Ahead."

Along with a timely conversation about the "email is dead" fallout from Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg's recent interview session. If you make a living using email marketing, the answer I provide in our Reader Q&A Session below is a must-read.

See, understanding how "once-effective" marketing methods lose their punch, only to be replaced by new methods that follow consumer behavior and trends, is an essential skill.

One skill you must master if you want to experience "Tomorrow's Business Breakthroughs Today."

To higher profits,

Rich

The Difference Between Mediocrity and Millions

By Rich Schefren

Why do certain marketing campaigns hit the ball out of the part... While others fight an uphill battle from the minute they are conceived?

If you're trying to take your business to the next level, the answer to this question is critical to your success.

The answer is the secret behind best-selling books... Speeches that have the greatest impact... Reports that skyrocket sales... Businesses that release one blockbuster after another... And any form of communication that stimulates massive action no matter which medium is employed.

This secret is the difference between my Business Growth System (BGS) and a normal business course. More specifically, it's the reason BGS brought in over $10 million dollars in a few short years... (Most business courses are lucky to bring in a hundred thousand dollars.)

This secret is the difference between Frank Kern's Mass Control and your run-of-the-mill email persuasion course. It's the reason Mass Control brought in over $5 million to Frank Kern's coffers... (The typical email persuasion course is lucky to break six figures.)

I've coined a phrase to explain this magical concept responsible for everything I've just shared with you, and it's called...

The Core Concept

Sounds simple doesn't it? Well, it is simple. It's also obvious - but only in hindsight. Once you get it, you'll never see the world the same way again. You'll also never allow your business to approach marketing the way it's been done up until today.

The Core Concept is an idea, but it's not just any idea... In fact, it's a Big Idea that can turn a product into a best-seller... Transform a sales presentation into a high-converting sales-pitch... Generate a marketing campaign that commands premium prices while igniting skyrocketing sales... And so on...

So far we've said the Core Concept is a big idea that wraps around the campaign, product, or whatever else you're attempting to package. Let's add some more to our definition.

The Core Concept is also an exciting idea. You want to share it with others. In a way, it's a form of social capital - just like a good joke - because you become more interesting in the eyes of whomever you share it with.

It's an idea that cuts through all the clutter your message (or product) has to compete with. And even though its basic premise might have been said many times before... The way it's presented makes it new and interesting. It forces those who are exposed to it to stop, take notice, and want to find out more. And in today's marketplace, where your prospects are smarter, more sophisticated, and more skeptical than ever before, your Core Concept is more valuable than a king's ransom.

The Secret Behind Every Multi-Million Dollar Report

I've been using the Core Concept in every free report I've ever released. In fact, it's the single biggest reason for their success. Many who've tried to knock off my reports have failed miserably because they missed this single critical element.

Now, as you probably already know, every single free report I've released has brought back a minimum of $2 million in sales that can be directly attributed to each one. (That doesn't account for the ancillary sales, which can often be just as significant.)

Here are the Core Concepts behind my free reports:

The Internet Business Manifesto - Opportunity Seekers struggle and fail while Strategic Entrepreneurs succeed massively...
The Missing Chapter - The only way a startup can succeed is if the entrepreneur focuses her business around leveraging her unique strength...
The Final Chapter - In every industry the big dogs (and the small businesses aligned with them) reap the overwhelming majority of the rewards...
The Attention Age Doctrine - Attention is becoming the scarcest commodity; therefore entrepreneurs who optimize their own attention and are able to seize the attention of their marketplace get filthy rich...
The Attention Age Doctrine II - To seize your prospects' attention you must go where your prospects are already giving their attention and increasingly that'll be Social Media...
The Maven Marketing Manifesto - The Maven of the marketplace will command the highest prices, have the most customers, and extract the majority of the profits...
The Uncertainty Syndrome: The Entrepreneurial Emergency - The single biggest cause of entrepreneurial failure is building more potential instead of increasing the levels of success, and the fastest way to succeed massively is to tap into the potential you already have by eliminating the constraints blocking you from cashing-in on your complete potential...

The Sole Focus

Each report contains a Core Concept. But that's not all. In fact, each report is laser-focused on the Core Concept.

When creating your own reports (or videos, webinars, teleseminars, marketing campaigns, etc)... Use the Core Concept as a measuring stick to determine what content is included and what content is excluded. So, any piece of content that doesn't support, reinforce, or prove the Core Concept should never make it onto the page.

The reason for that is you want to do everything possible to ensure that readers of your reports fully buy into the Core Concept. Any extraneous ideas, no matter how good they are, will only weaken the report and reduce the chances of installing your Core Concept in your readers' minds.

Here's why: When you hit your prospects with too many competing little ideas, they have more information and even less clarity than they had before.

So, in order to make your Core Concept seductive and easy to grasp it must be the sole focus of your communication. No matter if it's a video, report, webinar, teleseminar, marketing campaign, product launch or an in-person presentation.

Setting Up the Sale

So far we've said that the Core Concept is a laser-focused, exciting, seductive, single big idea that wraps around whatever you're packaging (product, presentation, report, campaign, etc.) to cut through the clutter of everything else vying for your prospects' attention. Now we'll take it another step further...

A core concept is an idea that leads the prospect to buy your product (or buy into whatever it wraps around). In other words...

If your Core Concept is accepted - buying your product, service, or whatever else becomes the next logical (and emotional) decision.

Each of my reports was written to sell a product (or a program). And obviously each of those products had a big promise attached to it. But the world is full of big promises. So in order for our product to stand out and be incredibly desirable, the big promise of the product delivers on the Core Concept.

So, just to recap: My reports presented the Core Concept..The products I wanted to sell fulfilled the desire created by the Core Concept.

Let's take a closer look at two of the reports to show you what I mean...

The Core Concept of The Internet Business Manifesto was "Opportunity Seekers struggle and fail while Strategic Entrepreneurs succeed massively."

So, guess what the big promise of The Business Growth System (the program attached to The Manifesto) was? If you guessed "transforming Opportunity Seekers into Strategic Entrepreneurs in the fastest, most result certain way"... You guessed correctly.

Here's another example...

The Core Concept of The Uncertainty Syndrome: The Entrepreneurial Emergency was this: "The single biggest cause of entrepreneurial failure is building more potential instead of increasing levels of success, and the fastest way to succeed massively is to tap into the potential you already have by eliminating the constraints blocking you from cashing-in on your complete potential."

And, of course, Guided Profit Systems (GPS) - the program that followed - promised to show entrepreneurs how to eliminate the constraints currently holding them back from tapping their full potential.

See how all this works?

But it gets even better...

Explodes in the Mind

Whenever someone is trying to sell you, naturally you've got your guard up, right?

But, how about when you're learning something valuable? Or when someone you trust is sharing an exciting idea with you?

The odds are you're not as guarded, right?

Realize what's going on here. I'm sharing an exciting, seductive, big idea with my prospects. It's the sole focus of that communication. Better yet, because it's done outside of a typical selling environment (like a sales page or in the middle of a pitch), it's more easily accepted.

Once the Core Concept is lodged inside the mind of a prospect, it explodes into a desire. A desire to fulfill the opening the Core Concept has just created.

This is the primary reason why many of my clients (after reading one of my reports) have told me, "I don't know what you're selling but I want to buy it!"

Because a well formulated Core Concept explodes into desires in the minds of your prospects.

So far we've seen how a Core Concept is a laser-focused, exciting, seductive, single big idea that wraps around whatever you're packaging (product, presentation, report, campaign, etc.) to cut through the clutter of everything else vying for your prospects' attention and explodes in your prospects' minds to create an insatiable desire for your product or service.

But believe it or not... it gets even better...

Creating a Category of One

You see, when you unleash your Core Concept and generate that desire for your product or service... You've just created new demand for something that wasn't in demand the day before.

So, by default, you are all alone in your marketplace. You're the only one offering this product or service.

Not only will you be alone in offering your marketplace a solution they desire, you'll also have leverage on one of the most powerful marketing tactics ever employed.

It's called "The Law of Category," Law #2 from the book: The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing by Al Ries and Jack Trout.

Their advice is, "if you can't be the first in a category, set up a new category you can be first in."

They then go on to say: "Forget the brand. Think categories. Prospects are on the defensive when it comes to brands. Everyone talks about why their brand is better. But prospects have an open mind when it comes to categories. Everyone is interested in what's new. Few people are interested in what's better."

You - The Market Leader

When you construct your Core Concept correctly, you not only ignite a flood of orders... You also establish yourself as the leader of a new category that attracts even more new prospects and customers to you while (at the same time) justifying premium pricing. (The leader of a category can always charge a premium.)

That means your Core Concept enables you to sell more products... To more customers... For more money.

Personally, I've never seen a single concept as powerful as this... Even in programs that cost me ten thousand dollars.

Now, once you've leveraged your Core Concept to create a new category, do you know what else happens?

You...

Make Your Competition Irrelevant

Because you're alone in your category... And you're the only one who can satiate the desire your Core Concept created... You've just made whatever competition you had irrelevant.

That's right. In one big sweeping stroke you've just brushed every one of your competitors off the table.

That's what I did with both the Business Growth System and the Guided Profits System.

That's what Frank Kern did with Mass Control. If you bought into the concept that persuading the masses through Frank's techniques is the fastest way to wealth... Where else are you going to get your hands on those techniques, right?

Do you see it? Do you see why the difference between mediocrity and millions is the subtle shift of leveraging your Core Concept?

An entrepreneur who "gets" the Core Concept... An entrepreneur who can identify and develop his own... Will end up making a lot of money and find himself very wealthy indeed.

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Today's Question and Answer with Rich

Question: Mark Zuckerberg basically announced that email is dead during his latest Facebook conference. What's around the corner for us as we try to reach out and build lists and grasp customers?

Rich's Answer: That's a great question. Well, what I would say is this, everybody knew email was going to die. So there's no revelation there. I said it a couple years ago and it will. Because young people don't use email. But it's not going to die for people like you or me. I'm not a big email user, but you know text messaging is really what kids do. And they only use email when they talk to an adult. So that was obvious for a long time, that it was going to rise and then fall.

The big challenge as a marketer, and I talked about this when I wrote the Attention Age Doctrine, is that attention is becoming more and more scarce.

If Zuckerberg is successful, then more and more it's going to come down to relevance. You are either relevant or you are irrelevant. To me relevance means is I see you, your company, your product, your service somewhere in the near future of my personal narrative. In other words, you either fit into to my personal narrative or you are irrelevant. And that's going to be problematic for a lot of people.

But maybe when that happens, maybe then direct mail will make a comeback. Because it would seem to me that television, with more channels, and less audience, and more and more people having DVRs, means that doesn't really work. Print is kind of dying and so that's not going be a factor.

You would think that there will always would have to be some kind of interruptive type of marketing, although I don't know that will be online because people don't like to be interrupted online so much.

Then the other thing is - it's always a play for attention. It's always been a play for attention and it's just becoming harder and harder to get attention. And that's where the iPhone apps that are free but advertising supported makes sense. Because that's just another way to buy someone's attention, give them a tool and let them have it for free in exchange for a limited attention span every once in a while.

I got one the other day that I was pretty floored by - an ad came up which looked like a banner that filled my whole iPhone. I don't even remember which free tool I was playing around with, but it said "Are you behind on your mortgage? Click here to speak to someone about my options." Wow! I just was blown away by that.

It seems like when I watch my wife who is less of an internet user... she doesn't really use search very much. But she's on Facebook all the time talking to her friends. And she will click an ad on Facebook that's relevant. But Facebook has her attention.

And games are another example where you are buying someone's attention, you know, because the game is free and stuff. But the issue with that and it depends on how it's done. But games are also questionable, primarily because when you're playing a game, you're in the now... you're in the moment. Most people don't even look at their score while they're playing the game because it's a distraction. They're trying to play the game. They look at their score at the end of the game.

There's always been a question about whether or not it's worth it. There is no question games are very popular. But it doesn't translate? I've seen mixed stuff on that but yeah, at the end of the day; you got to go where attention goes and hopefully find avenues where that attention goes where you still have the opportunity to stand out enough. That's why Facebook is such a good platform because of that. People spend a lot of time on Facebook. The people that use it.

I like what Michael Masterson once told me. He said, "I like obstacles because that's where I leave my competitors behind."

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