Josh Kerbel

If, you have just stumbled across this post, you may want to check out these previous posts (here, here, here and oh ya, here)  if you want to bring yourself up to speed.

Ya,  so I made you suffer through all that smut for a purpose – to get a good understanding of the direct marketing model.  I could have done it with online florist, Amazon or www.buyoldshoes.com, but I thought the porn guys actually had the process down best.

But now you need to see how it comes together.

Collectively, these sites have spent millions of dollars refining their marketing and customer acquisition strategies.  They know their numbers cold.  They know how much it costs to acquire a lead, how many leads will turn in to customers, and how much money each customer will spend with them over the lifetime of the relationship.  They have taken sex and broken it down in to cold hard numbers.

Exactly like you should, well your business that is, not sex.  Most people don’t find cold hard numbers sexy, well maybe accountants and engineers.  Even if you think you never spend any money acquiring customers “cuz ya built your gosh darn websites yerself”, there is still an element of time involved.  And even in a worst case scenario, your time could be spent doing other things, like flippin’ burgers, washing cars, being Prime Minister of England, you know, things that put a price tag on your time…………even @ $4.27 cents an hour.

So you may not have spent a dime landing that new client, but you did spend 100 hours building that website that brought in that new client, so there you go……….the client cost you $427.00

Now back to the matter at hand…….

These sites are sooooooooo confident about their money making potential and conversion rates, that they know exactly how much to pay you (you, being the owner of a website who sends them traffic) for every single person that becomes a customer.

You know how the know this……..it’s because they spend hours a day looking at pictures of hot naked people know how to calculate the value of every visitor to their website.  Do you?  Did I just repeat myself.  Yes I did.   I did it to make a point of how important these numbers are.  They know that the combination of their unique selling proposition (created through the use of well written copy and appropriate, yet inappropriate pictures) breaks down into a certain mathematical formula that tells them how much to spend on a new client or prospect.

Want to see how much some of these sites will pay for new business?  No, well tough luck, I’m showing you anyways.

Click on the images if you want to read for yourself, but these companies are paying anywhere from $30 for a trial sign up to $120 for a sale.  What gives?  Do you think theses guys provide a more useful service than you do?  You build stuff, you put people in houses, you educate, you finance.  These guys, they just satisfy some carnal urges……

Take away point

I bet if you sat down and figured out how much your business really spends on bringing in new customers and the true value of each qualified prospects, you could spend………..and make money like a porn site too.

Ask anyone in business which task is easier (and cheaper for that matter) selling more product to existing customers or finding new customers to sell to.  Here are 6 quick tips so you can do more of the former to support you while focusing on the latter:

1. Discount,  but don’t discount. What’s the difference between promoting ” Buy 2 and Get 1 Free” and “Save 33% on your purchase?  Well, from a purely mathematical point of view nothing, but from a business and psychological view they are a world apart.  First off you can increase sales volumes by dangling a carrot in front of you customer to increase their units purchased.  Secondly, you haven’t really impacted your value proposition with the first phrase as people are not quick to do the math.  Start outright discounting your product and you start eroding the value of your product in people’s minds.
2. Figure out how much your customers are worth to you.  Segment your customers – spend time and money promoting yourself to big spenders.
3. Let customers customize their orders.  Sell in smaller lot sizes.
4. Increase your value proposition.  Rather than discounting a product, throw in an additional free product with purchase that costs you less than the discount you would have taken in the first place.
5. Tell your customer to buy more.  Yes, that’s right, You.  You need another one of my widgets.
6. Ask your customer to buy more. If step 5 doesn’t work, try this.

We are now going to walk you through the sign up process for the site, you might call it a slow long screw………

So our everyman Robert finally decides to sign up for an adult orientated dating site.   Let’s look at the process from start to finish, every step of which has been split tested against thousands and thousands of visitors.

I have captured a few screen shots along the sign up process.  While this sign-up process could be done much faster, I suspect that this long registration, much like a long form sales letter, really helps focus the prospect acquisition process.  If someone is going to jump through all these hoops, they must really want the product.

Watch as the questions get more and more personal……asking if I am circumsized…….talk about really building up my hopes that some woman is going to care what my penis looks like!!!  15 or so steps and I finally get my free password.

I get an email to confirm my account and then I am taken to a landing page that tells me adding a photo to my account will get me more attention.  Let’s test this out.  Remember that picture of we said wasn’t Robert, well I lied……….we are going to upload the pic of the  fat guy in a wife beater up to the site.  Before we leave this page, do you see that small ad over on your left……saying the get 20,000 new members a day.  I wonder why its there.  20,000 new members every day?  How can a guy not get lucky in this place?

I’m going to leave the account for now and see what happens next………besides getting hit with pop under ads for hardcore porn.

Actually wait a second, let’s try and contact a lovely lady who goes by the name of FallenAngle88 (I wonder if she gets turned on by geometry.  So I try to email our math major and I get hit with my first conversion attempt……..and it comes complete with guarantee (Are any of you paying attention to how good these guys are at using the whole Problem – Solution – USP model here)

So we saw how these guys tried to convert me into a paying user………look familiar?  Looks like the same old direct marketing strategy that has been used since the invention of the postage stamp.

Now let’s look at how these sites use email to push their USP and drive conversions.  WE GUARANTEE YOU WILL HAVE SEX!

All of a sudden I start getting emails from attractive younger women that want to sleep with our Robert.  Here are two.  Notice that one of them is in Cleveland and I am in Toronto.  Each time you attempt to contact them back……….BAM!!!!

….Right into the pay wall.

Is it just me, or is it getting a little hot in here?

By this point, most users are so hot and bothered they dont care. Their emotion hot buttons have been hit so many times that they don’t even bother looking at the terms of service for the site, which usually includes something like:

XXXX may, at its discretion, cause or allow you to be contacted by one or more an emissaries. This may be a real person, such as another xxxx Member, a digital actor, an avatar or  a computer generated person. They may be employed by xxxxx or a third party to enhance your online experience.

Now how is that for a tight conversion process (and a cold shower to know that your paramour is possibly a computer program  or a guy who looks like Robert!!!

Regardless,  Is your company that efficient with its conversion process?

Next up Part III -  It gets even better when you look at the numbers.

The prerequisite of making money online is getting visitors to your site.  This means having promotional system in place that taps into the problems that people are trying to solve.  Take a look at some of these banners and PPC ads to see if and how they work.  Here is a sampling from around the industry.  It’s far from complete, but gives you an idea.  The point is to think of who this ad is targeting.  What you are seeing are ads that have been tested with lots of money and lots of page view, so even though these ads may seem explicit, irrelevant or offensive to you, they work.   These ads could be tested with upwards of $1,ooo,ooo worth of promotion.   Every word that is on the page is there for a reason.  Stop blushing and think about how this applies to how you can promote your auto supply business,  your  flower shop or your IT consulting operation that you are trying to get off the ground.

Have you found out the emotional hot buttons that move you clients?  Where there pain (or pleasure) is?   The first ad taps into someone looking for an escape from the grind of reality.   The second ad goes after people’s lack of knowledge of sexual activities and confronts the

awkwardness of discussing the subject of a lack of sexual gratification with your partner.  Talk about going after a PAIN POINT

The third screen shot shows some PPC ads , that, well, could honestly be better written, but some do attempt to address whole issue of discretion and online dating.

Click on the image to read the PPC ads.

Like I said, these ads, and the landing pages they send you are the product of a huge amount of time and testing.  Unlike many of the ads you see for doctors, lawyers, flower shops, concrete cutting,  a surprising amount of brain  and computer power went into them.

Next up, we are going to pick a site for Robert to sign up at and see the method it uses to extract money from his wallet.

If you find this topic distasteful, think about it this way.  You are getting millions of dollars of education for free.  Once we take a look at the conversion process, we will then shift our focus to the back end and marketing formula

If you thought I was going to get you all worked up, you were right.  But  it isn’t going to be with pictures of men and women in hot and sweaty compromising positions.   It’s going to be by showing you that while you are missing the obvious, an entire industry group that is branded by some as immoral, corrupt and destined for the 7th circle of hell has you beat hands down when it comes to running a business.

So say your “Hail Mary’s” in advance, hold on to your favorite religious tome and see what you can learn from the rouges of the Internet.

Putting all the lasciviousness aside, can you answer the fundamental question of  “What problem does porn/smut/adult entertainment/online dating/’insert your own term for it’  here solve?

Well without getting to deep into the sociological and psychological aspects of it, you can put forth the argument that it solves any of the following problems people may have:

• Boredom;
• Loneliness;
• Sexual curiosity;
• Want for adventure;
• Sexual education;
• Need for sexual gratification;
• Satisfaction of a sexual fetish that cannot be satisfied in other ways; and
• Many others that probably haven’t even crossed my mind and trust me, my mind is usually in the gutter, that is of course when I’m not thinking about my clients (Wow, I have some smoking hot clients, but I digress).

The take away point here is that the privacy and anonymity makes the Internet makes the sexual revolution of the 60′s and 70′s seem like an awkward first kiss.  The market is huge.  Estimates on the size of the online adult entertainment segments ranges from 20 to 50%   A quick search of Google Insight for industry related terms (sex and free sex)  and comparing them to the search terms (religion, god and Jesus) should give you an idea of the size of the market.

So if you can withhold your moral judgement, what this should drive home is that this industry knows how to market.

And you know how they do it?

By testing their marketing message over and over and over again.  They develop targeted messages – UNIQUE SELLING PROPOSITIONS (and my how they know how to proposition) and segment the hell out of the market.  They are constantly testing ad copy, landing pages and follow up methods in order to maximize conversions and extract money from prospects in such a way that they practically have a formula for doing so.  Let’s see this process in action.  We are going to sign up for an adult orientated dating site and see how they attempt to convert us to a paying member.

Before we do so, let’s set the stage.  First off, I am going to blur out the name of the site that I use for this experiment.  I want to make it clear I am not promoting any particular site.  Second of all, I am going to leave in all the language and copy that I am sent.  This is important.  It’s how they hit your hot buttons, your pain and pleasure spots.  You have to learn to apply these concepts to your business.  If the occasional off color or X rated word makes you blush or offends you, then don’t read any further.  If you can look at it as an academic exercise, then you should.

Let’t build the persona first.  Who is going to be looking for love, lust or some tawdry action online.  Let’s call him Robert.

Robert is 42 years old, lives in a metropolitan city, say Toronto, has been married for 20 years, has 2 kids, a mortgage and is a little bored at home and while he’s not looking to end his marriage, he is looking for some excitement.  Curiosity has got the best of him and maybe if he can learn a few things, he can spice up his love life at home or maybe he just wants to see what its like on the other side of the line.  He isn’t blatantly looking to engage in flesh to flesh carnal lust, maybe just some email/web cam stuff.

He’s a relatively good looking guy, may have a few pounds to shed, but isn’t an unshaven fat slob in a stained white tanktop looking to get lucky with some girl who has a preference for guys who are not as familiar with soap as they should be.

If this sounds stereotypical, its’s because it is and the reality is that for some sterotypes there is some truth.  But the marketing world calls these sterotypes something else.  They call them personas.

Up next, how Robert gets pulled into a site………..

Or if you are a little more conservative/uptight  in nature, you can call this article “Learn the Art of Conversion From the Masters of Perversion”.

Whether or not you want to admit it, pornography and adult entertainment drives Internet innovation – everything from streaming video, payment technologies, website optimization and marketing.  If your business is online today, you really should slip a $20 bill under the g string of the next stripper you see as a show of gratitude for all the adult entertainment business has done for you. (Ask not what your stripper can do for you, but what you can do for your stripper)

And while the front end of the online adult entertainment business may seem quite titillating,  its backend is so silky smooth  (in a systematic and numbers orientated kind of way)  as to make an Accountant or MIT physics major salivate.

So join along as I strip away the facade of bustieres, thongs and garters to reveal some hardcore Internet marketing action that leaves nothing to the imagination (and allows me to work in all the double entendres that I can).  At the end of it all,  hopefully we popped your Internet marketing cherry made you wise in the ways of the world and a  love making marketing machine.

Let’s take a walk through the red light district of the Internet and see what sort of venereal diseases information we can pick up.  I can promise you that these segments will not be family friendly, but will help your business procreate  customers left, right and center.

Part I  gets all hot and sweaty on the front end of the business,  Part II looks at the conversion process and Part III cools us down with a proverbial cold shower of marketing statistics and numbers.  So join me on the part of the Internet where the morals are loose, the lights are low and the money flows like water.

And no, it’s not Howard Schultz

It’s the 13 year old boy who walked in to Starbux surrounded by a gaggle of 12 and 13 year old girls, each one of them grabbing his cell phone and programing their numbers into it

It seems that he is the only boy in a summer dance course at the dance school across the street.

If that isn’t the best illustration of being where your competition isn’t, I don’t know what is.

It’s also a perfect example of why I will always regret not taking dance at university………

No.  It’s not.  And that is part of the problem with social media.  It gives everyone with a few fingers access to a digital Gutenberg press to blast their thoughts and ideas across the Internet.  Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should do something.

Social media is not about inundating your friends, clients and contacts about your latest flash of brilliance or telling them all about your cool project over and over and over again

And this is part of the reason I keep shutting off my friends feeds in Facebook and Linked in.  If I wanted a  direct link to your thought or personal promotion of the moment, I’d vulcan mind meld with you more often.

You need to give people a reason to listen to you and chances are that reason isn’t you.

One of the few people I have come across who does this rather well is a recruiter by the name of Harry Joiner.  Yes, he uses his twitter feed to post stuff about jobs he is looking to fill, and yes, he represents a source of money for potential hires (so people have a reason to listen),  but he also sends plenty of messages about issues that impact his target audiences.  People don’t tune him out………on line, he understands the value of an economy of words.

Bottom line, he knows how to get into people’s head space.  He knows who his customers are and knows how to talk to them.

…..almost.  OK, what the heck, these guys @ Pluck are about as close to having a proper lead generating campaign in place as we have seen in the sector.  So it seems that Pluck is the winner of this lead generation derby………….

PPC traffic is driven to this page -

The top half

…and the bottom half.

And low and behold, it has some form field captures to capture some prospect information in return for a free report on the six pillars of social networking.  Prospects can now be funnel through the system to be better qualified.  If you down load the report, Pluck may think you are worth talking to about your problem and how they can solve it.  If you don’t sign up, they won’t devote any expensive manpower to you.

The lights are on and someone is finally home!

While the copy could be a little less self serving and there are a few too many links on the page to distract the user from completing the assigned task of filling in the information form, it is light years ahead of what we have seen from other social media consultants we looked at today

My advice to them would to be hold off on establishing your operating history until you have engaged the reader by addressing his or her  problems.

But at least they get it.  They seem to know what to do with someone’s attention once they have it.

Finally!

Click on the numerals to read Parts I, II, III, IV & V of this Question of the Day

You remember that fat lazy kid who was in your 5th grade class way back when.  The one who spent all his time watching movies and TV to the point where he had memorized all of the Star Wars movies, Airplane 1 &2 and Revenge of the Nerds?

Ya, well guess what, he’s still a fat lazy nerd who knows how to write killer ad copy

You’ve probably heard it since you were a kid “Watching Too Much TV Isn’t Good For Your Eyes” or maybe “TV is a waste of time”.  Well, much like most conventional wisdom, people’s attitudes to TV are wrong!  Here are 5 ways you can tighten up your copy writing based on what you see on TV

• Plants: Use foreshadowing to set up a story so you can return to it later.  For example, on your PPC ad you can ask a question, but don’t answer it until someone 1/2 down your landing page.  If you are targeting gearheads/car enthusiasts looking to increase the horsepower of their V8 engines, you might lead with something like “Learn how cylinder compression is the key to improved horsepower, but don’t address this until midway down your landing page.  Someone who is looking to solve the problem associated with increasing engine horsepower will keep reading until they find what they need.
• Pace: Ever notice how some movies have long scenes that build suspense or short choppy sentence  fill with action that play to your need for excitement.  You can play on this as well.
• Point of View: Write from your point of view; show how you can relate to someone with the problem you are trying to solve.
• Tone: You can be boring or you can draw your readers in with a story the describes the exact situation your product is trying to solve.  This ties in well with using the readers point of view
• Point of Attack:  All stories have beginning, middle and an end, but there is no law that requires them to be told in that order.  Try writing your copy backwards, with the prospect’s problem already being solved and then gradually working in your pitch after you demonstrate how your product solved the problem.