In this episode, I'm going to talk about why, when it comes to finding a joint venture partner or an influencer or an affiliate to help you promote your product, you would be making a big mistake if all you did was try to go after just the biggest names in your market.
And I'm calling this the "Don't go for the blonde" technique. Now, I mean no disrespect to brunettes, or blondes, or whatever color your hair may be. This is an equal-hair-color opportunity show. But what I'm referring to here, is a scene from the movie "A Beautiful Mind" where Russel Crowe plays famous mathematician John Nash, widely regarded as one of the great mathematicians of the 20th century, who won a shared Nobel Prize in 1994. So let me set up this clip for you...
In this scene, Russell Crowe is setting in a coffee shop with his friends. And in walks a stunning blonde, with 4 brunette friends. And that's where Russel's character John Nash, comes up with his Nobel Prize winning theory...
Now listen to this clip (listen to the episode)
The idea is that if everyone went for the blonde, she would ignore all of them, because she's feeling way too important. And AFTER the rejection, if they now approached her friends, they would now be insulted that they weren't approached first, and would shun the guys as well. So he says, ignore the blonde, and go straight for the brunettes, and that way everyone goes home with a date.
Basically, this is what tends to happen in the real world as well. I've seen a lot of newbies and inexperienced marketers, looking at the big-name marketers in their industry, and lusting after their big lists, and thinking "All I have to do is do a JV with Mr Big-name-marketer" and I'll have them blast my product to hundreds of thousands of people on their list, and I'll hit big time soon thereafter.
Well, that's a very flawed way to look at it. And there are a number of issues with that approach...
1) The biggest names, they might have tens or even hundreds of thousands of emails on their lists. Now, remember, in most cases, they have worked very hard to build this list, probably over many years. And most of them don't endlessly spam their lists - well, some of them certainly do, but they usually lose subscribers pretty fast. So spam karma is usually quick to take effect.
So they have to be judicious in emailing their list with offers, as these marketers usually have their own products to promote. And then there are usually favors that they have to return - maybe a friend of theirs might have mailed their list for this person's launch, and now they have to email their list for that friend's next promotion. And then every so often, comes an insanely great product - like dropbox when it first came out, or some new shopping cart or ecommerce system or plugin - like DigitalAccessPass.com - and they are compelled to participate in it because the product itself is so new and noteworthy.
So by the time they're done with their own products, and their returning-the-favor mailings and the occasional new kid-on-the-block mailings, they're already at risk of burning out their email lists. And they're not going to mail out for your product launch. Not unless you're launching something spectacular. It's got to be spectacular in other people's minds, not yours, because I'm sure you will always think your new book or plugin or product is always going to be spectacular.
So if you're thinking people will email their lists on your behalf just because you came out with a new product, or just because you joined their mastermind group, or because you bought this marketer's products, or because you joined their facebook group, or because they appeared as a guest on your show, then stop. Stop right now, and don't even go there, because it's not happening.
I'll give you a small example of my own. At DAP, we have almost 28,000 DAP users. And we have so many other lists outside of DAP. If you came to us and said that, you have, say, a new WordPress plugin launching, and you want us to promote it to our lists of tens of thousands of users, mostly buyers, which we have built with lots of hard work over the years, then guess what? It's not going to happen.
So don't waste your time following a marketer, buying their products, their books, joining their expensive mastermind or coaching program, just BECAUSE you think they will one-day turn around and promote your product to their lists. You are in for a big disappointment if you do that. Because it just doesn't work that way, and you may not even understand the full extent of it, until you've built your own list, and only then will you realize the true value of having that list, using it more to deliver value than to sell products. And on the occasions that you do wish to promote something, you want to save that for your own products, or to return the favor of someone who has helped you, or to gain the favor of someone who might soon help you. Well, you will know that value even if you have just 100 people, know what I mean?
And the crazy thing, do you want to know of a guaranteed way to get the attention of a big-name marketer? It is to promote THEIR product as an affiliate, sell lots of product for them, and get a big commission check. And if you sell tons and tons for them, then that's when you can expect them to reciprocate. Well, if you had that big of a list already, and had the brand and respect to get people on your list to buy stuff, why sell them other people's products? Why not save that to promote your own book, or podcast, or do a JV with someone who has an up-and-coming product and split the profits as an owner?
Always buy, don't rent. Build YOUR business. Not someone else's.