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GDPR – scary news for online marketers

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as you may or may not know, towards the end of May next year, the so-called GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) comes into effect in the EU.

However, it applies to ANYONE selling into the EU … and that includes pretty much all online/Internet marketers.

So, straight from their FAQ http://www.eugdpr.org/gdpr-faqs.html

the ‘scary’ one:

What are the penalties for non-compliance?

Organizations can be fined up to 4% of annual global turnover for breaching GDPR or €20 Million.

This is the maximum fine that can be imposed for the most serious infringements e.g.not having sufficient customer consent to process data or violating the core of Privacy by Design concepts.

There is a tiered approach to fines e.g. a company can be fined 2% for not having their records in order (article 28), not notifying the supervising authority and data subject about a breach or not conducting impact assessment.

It is important to note that these rules apply to both controllers and processors — meaning ‘clouds’ will not be exempt from GDPR enforcement.

 

Regarding the first part (the 4%): that applies to the entire company-structure.

So if you think: “not to worry, this one company that might be affected is only a small thing under my umbrella brand” … think again:

GLOBAL turnover of the ENTIRE company!

As you can see, they explicitly mention ‘not having sufficient customer consent to process data’.

Here’s where this gets scary:

look at the last paragraph I mentioned:

if you store customer information in e.g. Aweber, and they get hacked … YOU are responsible!

It is YOUR responsibility to CHECK up-front (and keep checking on a regular basis) that (in this example) Aweber are GDPR-compliant (they’re not, just checked, see below)

Now it gets even scarier:

even if you can prove that Aweber messed up and YOU checked in on them on a regular basis … it’s still the 4% of YOUR company that’s on the line (or €20 Million, whichever is the greatest).

You can then TRY to reclaim that from Aweber, but that’s YOUR job. YOU/YOUR company foots the bill to begin with.

in case you’re wondering: I attended a seminar on just that topic last Thursday, great presentation by a lawyer who specializes in just this thing.

The big take-away from this was:

obviously, the scary stuff from above.

But, probably more importantly:

Data Protection (at least for those selling into the EU) is now a PROCESS!

It’s an ongoing effort, and in order to be compliant, you will have to prove that you have systems in place!

If you don’t … that’ll be 2% or €20 Million … whichever is the greatest.

Just to scare you some more:

just had a chat with Aweber … and they think they’re safe because they US-EU Safe Harbour agreement (self-)certified.

They’re NOT safe:

https://iapp.org/resources/article/safe-harbor-and-gdpr-action-plan/

(read the Price Waterhouse Cooper article at the top)

how’s that for a lighthearted start to the week?;-)

Cheers

Veit

PS: if you’d like to sign up to my new “Drip”-list, you can do so here:

Join us in the fabulous world of “Drip”

Enter your name and email below, and see the magic of Drip in action (there’s a video with ‘first impressions’, along with demonstrations of the tagging functionality)


 

[CASE-STUDY] Back things up … in copywriting

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here’s a nice lil’ case-study illustrating a major mistake many people make when selling or copywriting:

it’s about not backing things up with ‘proof’ of some sort.

The example in this video shows you why/how:

[UPDATE] About a day into the ‘launch’

Here are the current stats – and they ain’t pretty:

Here’s why I’m pointing this out:

it’s not meant to be nasty, or high-horsey, or anything like that, but instead to highlight 3 very important points:

  1. there’s a ton of rubbish being taught out there (in this case Murat fell for the “hey, just get some PLR/Whitelabel/Codecanyon dev-right material, rebrand it, and launch it, and you’ll make $bazillions”. In most cases – like this, that $bazillions part won’t happen)
  2. Launches are inherently a rubbish model to use – especially when you get started.
    They work just fine for Apple etc because they already have a massive fan-base, and they already know exactly what people WANT (so they can give it to them, as in: they know exactly HOW to give it to them),…
    But if you’re an unknown, and you’re marketing a product where it’s an unknown HOW to market that product to whom (or if anybody even wants it), then the odds of “$bazillions” once again, is very slim.
  3. The main ‘mechanism’ by which the 2 previous points work (and are sold to you) is using pressure cooker tactics: it’s all about urgency, scarcity etc. And that sucks, (for me) mainly from an ethical point of view, but also from a business perspective:
    1. it constantly adds to the ‘marketing noise’ (because everybody is shouting, you need to be shouting louder) – and that’s INEVITABLY driving the whole process/approach into a dead-end (want proof? Look at where the WarriorForum went. The JVZoo-world is on a similar trajectory right now)
    2. a ‘pressure’-based launch model is a churn-and-burn model: you do everything to get a buyer through the door, no matter what. And that more often than not leaves a bad taste in people’s mouth. Not good for building Know-Like-and-Trust, and definitely NOT the basis for building a long-term, mutually beneficial business-relationship where you keep getting paid for continually solving people’s problems.

 

To return to Murat and his launch:

I reckon (this is based purely on what I’m observing, I don’t know Murat, haven’t done any business with him before) that Murat was in the typical position of “wanting to earn $ online” and not knowing  where/how/in what form/whom to he could provide value to. (as in: he was clueless)

And when you are ‘clueless’ … ANYTHING (and I mean literally ANYTHING) that says “with my method you can earn $ online” WILL look appealing to your brain (your brain’s main mission is to filter IN the information you are looking for, and filter OUT the information that’s not relevant to you at this point).

And when you’re looking for a general objective like “make $ online” … that’s precisely what your brain will highlight with a big fluorescent marker pen.

And, as Murat (probably) didn’t have any basis for making an informed decision … the idea of just relabelling something and relaunching it seemed like a plausible thing to do.

(and thus he wasted time, energy and money setting it all up … for very little to no reward whatsoever)

if you find yourself in the same boat as Murat (not exactly sure where/how/in what form/whom you could provide value to (and get paid for it)), then you’ll like my upcoming

“Pick Your Path” Course

Which

  1. helps you pick the online business model that suits your personality style, your strengths and your background best
  2. is free, and best of all:
  3. is given to you without any pressure cooker tactics whatsoever;-)

if you’re interested, have a look here

(in my email I suggested there would be an email signup form. Well, I got busy and created the first module of the course, and you can access it by creating your account on the next page)

 

Snot Gurgle – Why You May Just Want to Consider “The Fundamentals” After All

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That’s disgusting

she exclaimed!

And changed my life forever.

“She” was Katrin, an ex-girlfriend of mine (we were still friends – still are), and I’d come to visit her at her parents home in Jever in Germany.

And because Jever is where they brew a fantastic beer, she’d taken me on a guided tour.

We’d just arrived, had a few minutes to spare, and were waiting outside with a few other people.

One of them was a teenage-boy, about the same age as us, 16 or 17.

And just as we’re about to be let in, he does the ‘snot-gurgle’ (I can’t find the technical term for it, but I hope it’s descriptive enough. The act of, well, gurgling, and then spitting it all out with a loud cracking noise)

Truly disgusting.

Just as Katrin had said. (well, more like “EXCLAIMED!!!” in all-caps and with 3 exclamation marks. For everyone to hear;-)

And it changed my life forever, because much to my embarrassment, I have to admit that my stupid male teenage-brain thought that doing the snot-gurgle probably wasn’t such a bad idea and that I might just copy it.

Fortunately that thought process took a fraction longer than Katrin’s public shaming of both the other teenager and all my future impulses to be disgusting (especially in the presence of a lady), so I never did. (gurgle that is)

Here’s the thing:

based on observing 4 of them here at home, I can tell you that your average teenager spends a significant amount of time in front of a mirror every day.

Later on today, I’m taking one of them to the hairdresser (when I was a lad, mum had a sauce-pan and a pair of clippers for that job)

and when the hair is done, there’s plenty of ‘product’ in it.

Then there’s the clothing. And shoes. (Imelda would be jealous…)

and accessories.

and having the ‘right’ kind of school-bag

etc, etc, etc.

Boy do they look and smell good.

And yet, NONE of that matters – all that time, that effort and money wasted … when you snot-gurgle.

Snot-gurgling is a FUNDAMENTAL Flaw!

Change that, and EVERYTHING changes.

But as long as you do something your ‘prospect’ doesn’t like (or finds disgusting), no matter how hard you try, they will not look at you (best case scenario) – or shame you in public (worst-case scenario).

And that, right there is what I mean when I say:

Please, (PLEASE), focus on the FUNDAMENTALS!

No amount of shiny shit added to a terrible offer is going to make that offer appealing.

And yet, that’s precisely what 99% of the population (of marketers) are doing:

they focus on ‘making things looks good’ … whilst ignoring the fact that their TOM (traffic-to-offer-match) is truly awful.

As in:

your prospective traffic thinks your offer is the equivalent of a snot-gurgle.

 

I know, we all want shortcuts, quick wins and as little energy expended as possible.

it’s natural, it’s even hardwired into our brains.

so, when I keep saying: “oh, btw, if you want to ‘win’ online, focus on the fundamentals, not the shortcuts“, more likely than not, your brain is telling you: “nah, ignore that, I’m hardwired to want the shortcut“.

and every time your brain does that and makes you reach for yet another piece of ‘shiny product’ …

… just remind it of the story of a teenage boy, whose life was changed in one single public shaming;-)

Cheers

Veit

PS: Figuring out TOM? Simple: TEST plenty of ideas, avoid the trap of ‘feedback-myopia’, and do plenty of segmentation and surveying. The market is going to tell you what it finds appealing (and what it doesn’t!)

Business Hyper Growth Activity #2

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This is part 2 in the 4 (+1) part series on the 4 essential activites you need to focus on when starting & growing your business as a solopreneur. Part 1 of the 4 essential business hyper growth activities.

Activity #2 is ‘list-building’ … but it’s not

I’m pretty sure you’ve heard it a million times:

You must build a list

well, are you?

In theory, it’s really (I mean: REALLY) simple:

  1. put an ‘ethical bribe’ in front of prospective clients
  2. if they’re interested, they give you their email address in exchange for said ethical bribe
  3. you start mailing them cool stuff and make sales

and yet, despite this incredible simplicity …  if you are like far too many others … you’re not, right?

The reasons are pretty almost always the same. Things like:

  • “I don’t know what to ‘bribe’ them with“
  • “I don’t like this ‘bribing’ thing, sounds ‘sleazy/salesy’ to me“
  • “I don’t know when to send content, and when to sell” (or: “when (if at all) do I start selling?“)
  • “what if they don’t like what I’m sending them/what if they hit the spam-button/what if ….“
  • (and seemingly everybody’s favourite) “I don’t know what to email them after they sign up“
  • …

Now, there’s little point me saying: “but look, it’s easy, just do it“, or “here’s a list of 17 different ‘bribe’ ideas“, or even “here’s a set of email templates you can use to follow up”

(if that were useful, people wouldn’t be asking those questions, because answers to all that stuff already exist).

My view is that the real problem (and hence the source of the solution) is the focus on ‘list-building‘.

If you tell your brain to go “build a list”, it’ll look for ways to “build a list”. (see top of the page for the recipe)

But, a “list” isn’t really what you’re after, isn’t it?

Really, what you’re after is a way of communicating with one or more prospective clients.

The (email)-list is just the vehicle in this case.

So, instead, we want to tell our brains to find ways of communicating with prospective clients.

And as communication involves at least 2 parties, and at least one of them has to be willing to listen …

… I’ll borrow from Seth Godin, and simply suggest you view the whole ‘list-building-dilemma’ from the ‘permission-based marketing’ perspective:

ask yourself this:

what has to be in place so prospective clients give you their permission to email them on a regular basis?

(Obviously,  the aim is to get to “Permission 2.0” – we want to get to the point where they actually WANT to get your emails)

But the overall mission is now pretty simple:

when deciding on how to ‘build your list’, keep asking the question above:

what needs to be in place, …

what needs to happen, …

what do they need to be sure of …

… so they WANT to give me their permission?

(not only to get the ‘bribe’, but also to keep hearing from you)

Time for a bit of DIY-thinking:

what, in YOUR opinion is THE #1 question people ask themselves when they first encounter your ‘ethical bribe’?

(assuming they haven’t heard of you before)

To make sure you’re actually thinking about it, I’m putting in this random video of a new plugin I’ve got coming out in the next couple of weeks – which happens to be rather useful when building targeted lists;-)

Watch it, then think about the previous question some more, and only then keep reading!

 

Right, the answer to the biggest question people have (when they don’t know you) – and that’s also the question your entire ‘landing-page + ethical bribe + follow-up-funnel’ have to answer is this:

is it (likely to be) worth my while? (aka: is it a good investment of my time & privacy)

in other words: if you want to get people’s permission to send them good stuff, they need to be as close to 100% as possible sure that this is NOT going to be a colossal (actually: even a tiny) waste of time, and that you’re not going to do anything untoward with their email address.

Taking just one of the items on the “but I don’t know…“-list above, the “but I don’t know what to bribe them with“, the answer is now simpler:

it’s whatever gives them the most confidence that you’re NOT wasting their time.

In other words: the type of content that gives them an opportunity to convince themselves that they are likely to get quality answers to their questions from you.

(I’m obviously assuming that you’re after quality optins here … if you just want as many signups as possible, free beer tends to do well)

The great news is:

that type of content has to be to the point … and is hence much easier to create than e.g. an all-encompassing 100-page ebook that showcases YOUR incredible expertise.

Sure, at some point, YOU will have to demonstrate that …

… but the first contact is all about THEM.

THEY ask:

is this (bribe) (and hence whatever is behind the bribe) going to help me solve MY problem?

And the best way of achieving that is by letting them see for themselves (without having to invest a ton of time & effort to ‘make it happen’)

Obviously, there’s more to that, and as they progress further down the ‘funnel’, those questions change, but if people don’t ever sign up to your list because you’re not ‘building’ a list, it doesn’t really matter what cool stuff you put in the follow-up funnel.

So, make sure that about 1/4 of your daily effort is focused on finding new ways of giving your prospective clients an opportunity to see for themselves that it’s worth giving YOU their permission to talk some more

Cheers

Veit

PS: in case you’re wondering why you should even ‘build a list’ – the answer is ‘leverage’.

With modern technology, there’s no real difference whether you’re communicating with one, 10, 100, 1000 or 10k prospective clients.

Same effort going in … massive difference in what you get out.

 

4 ‘business-hyper-growth’ activities you should focus on (if you want to grow your business faster than ever before)

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Most small business owners wish there were more hours in the day, so they could get more done (so they can generate the revenue they’re aiming for)

Turns out,  the ‘not getting enough stuff done’ is NOT the real reason why so many businesses struggle (whereas, at least initially, the ‘not enough revenue’ is often real;-)

So, if I could travel back in time (say the 10 years since leaving the corporate world;-), I’d tell myself to do a few things VERY differently!

Specifically, I’d have a list with precisely 4 things to do every day, and then spend my day on exactly those 4 things (using one very specific way of doing them)

​​Probably no more than 45mins on each one, but that time 100% fully focused.

Add a couple of breaks in between, and you’re looking at a 3h45min workday … and I can guarantee you’d get more stuff done in those few short hours than most people in a week.

(and even if you halve this, and only do a little under 2h/day  – you’ll still beat 99% of the rest of the population when it comes to ‘being productive’:

So, today, business-hyper-growth activity #1:

Focus on actually generating leads.


Before you throw up your hands in the air and exclaim: “but I don’t like talking to people and being all salesy…“

… STOP:

what I mean by ‘generating leads’ is:

finding places where your ideal clients hang out, and then make it known to those ideal clients that you have something that might be of interest to them.

This could any one of FB ads, ‘doing’ social media, networking, newspaper ads, phoning up people, asking for referrals, doing Adwords, JVs, solo-ads … whatever.

But, don’t do what this guy did:



a few years ago I gave a sales-seminar​​​​​​ in a city called Monchengladbach in Germany.

In the evenings, I went to check out the various restaurants in town.

So, one day I just wandered into one I hadn’t been to (it’s the place marked with red arrows in the image above;-), and, as usual, started talking to the manager (in this case also owner) about their marketing.

Turns out, they’re doing ‘flyers’ – beautifully designed, very enticing, even with a coupon for first-time visitors.

Clearly they know what they’re doing.

Or so I thought!

So​​​​​​​​​​, I ask him:

“where do people find these beautiful flyers?“

His response:

“right here, on the counter at the bar“.


I still think I would’ve done him a service by slapping him:

“FFS, if people don’t know about your​​​ restaurant, how the beep are they going to come here and find your beautiful flyers on the bar?“​​​​

Your job is to give your prospects an opportunity to learn about whatever wonderful thing you have.

Especially in today’s “short-attention-span” world, people just aren’t to go out of their way to search for you … either they can easily find you, or they’ll go with whomever is willing to show them that they have got what they WANT.

Now, when you starting looking at this ‘generating leads’ business, one key distinction to keep in mind:

If you’re into ‘mass-marketing’ …

focus on testing lots of different angles.

You big opportunity and leverage-point here is the fact that you tend to have lots of traffic.

And that means lots of split-testing opportunities.

In other words: let the market tell you what they WANT (instead of you guessing)

If you’re into ‘high-end’ marketing focused on a smaller target audience …

focus more on inbound marketing based on personal outreach.

The reason is that you have less opportunity for split-testing lots of angles (because the traffic is limited).

The knowledge.ly team e.g. have built all their businesses based on ‘cold emails’ to the right recipients.

(hypercharge that by combining it with the principles of Chet Holmes’ “Dream 100”-approach)

And once you’ve got just a handful ‘in your world’ … then engage them in a meaningful dialogue to figure out what they really WANT.

 

The key here is that you’re actively going out (I call it “respectfully interrupting” your prospective clients, and then pulling in the ones that are a great fit), instead of hoping that they’ll somehow, magically stumble upon your site and instantly recognize how great your offer is.

 

So, Lesson #1: Please, (PLEASE) don’t be that owner-manager who does all kinds of beautiful marketing … but never actually shows it to potential clients.

Instead: Invest just 45mins of your time daily on this one activity, and do it consistently, and you’ll get massive results faster than a typical Monchengladbach restaurant goes out of business (which sadly is so quick that every time we ran workshops up there, there’d be new restaurants on that square)

comments, questions, concerns?

let me know below

Veit