I read a lot.

I once heard Bryan Tracey say that leaders are readers and it’s stuck with me ever since. I figure it takes 20 solid years of work to get enough great info to write a good book that I can read in a week, that to me is knowledge leverage!

I tend to read a lot of biographies and books by the masters of marketing. I saw that most of todays marketing guru’s have simply plagiarised from the great marketing books of the past so I tend to read and re read those.

One of my favs is David Ogilvy, he was the king of advertising and pioneered direct response into the mainstream, very very smart guy.

Anyway, in his auto biography he has a “rules for advertising your product in print” that is brilliant and still applicable to today. I like distilled wisdom and check lists, must be the geek in me :o)

So inspired by that I’ve started my own “Neil’s Rules for marketing online”

This is not some theoretical BS that we think might work but we’ve never actually tested. I hate that stuff.

This is actual tested principles that we have used to make our clients a lot of money.

This is not an exhaustive list by any means but it’s a great place to start if you’re selling online.

So without further a do here’s –

Neil’s Rules For Marketing Online!

– Measure everything

– Not all searchers are created equal

– Boring Banners ads don’t sell

– Let the numbers make the decisions (but the client has the last word)

– Marketing has to be consistent across the search and sales cycle

– Pictures sell online but they must offer a benefit

– First get the click

– You won’t sell anything until you put your offer in front of the right audience

– Benefits sell features tell

– Don’t try and be creative or funny, focus on selling instead

– Use the language of your prospects, go to forums and read reviews to get this

– Great information that is easy to understand will outsell great presentation (ugly sells)

– Be honest and truthful with your marketing, lies and bullshit always catches up to you

– Put news into the advert and you will make it contemporary and relevant and have a greater chance of catching the zeitgeist of the day

– Any demonstration of the product will always do well

– As will (believable) before and after pictures

As I think of things I’ll add them and no doubt when the mood takes me I’ll expand a little more on the points I’ve made above.

For now though it’s a great start and a suitable homage to the great men and women who’ve gone before.

Neil