I got distracted over the weekend by Frank Kern.
Frank is somewhat of a legend in Internet marketing. I first heard of him in the early 2000’s when he making a killing selling marketing courses. Back then he had long hair and used fowl language, but everyone seemed to have tremendous respect for him.
That was also before Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. When social media became big deal, I suspect it may have taken him a while to get “up to speed” on it because he seemed to face away somewhat. I got distracted by other Internet “gurus”, particularly ones that focus on helping local businesses, which has become my main focus.
But he seems to have found his way on social media and I’ve been seeing his ads pop up fairly frequently in my newsfeed. Nowadays, he looks and acts like part of the establishment, and is probably considered old-fashioned by the younger generation of marketers. On his website, he still claims to be “the most sought after direct response Internet marketing consultant and copywriter on the planet” and the “go to guy” for celebrities like Tony Robbins.
Anyway, over the weekend, I saw an ad for his “Social Sales Formula” which promised to help you gain followers, leads, etc. using a simply social media strategy. At the time, I was starting to feel a bit overwhelmed with the strategy and path I was following because it seemed like there were too many moving parts. The way Frank talked about his strategy made it seem simpler.
So I purchased his course (for $297, which he labels “low-ticket” lol) and spent the next couple of days thinking this is the way to go. In fact, I was taking steps to get it started such as cleaning up my “personal” Facebook business page, and Instagram account, and even started making some posts.
But, pretty quickly, I began having the same feeling I’ve had in the past when I start to post something knowing that no one was going to see it. It felt like a hopeless situation and a waste of time.
The strategy he was preaching was to post something and wait to see if anyone engaged with it. If they did, you turn them into ads. Sounds good if you have a following, but what if you don’t? No problem, said Frank, as he showed posts that received engagement despite the fact that they didn’t have his photo in the post image.
However, he ignored the small photo of him in the upper corner of each post with his name beside it. That makes all the difference. He also mentioned that if you have no followers you can get them by turning your posts into ads and forcing people to see them.
But that leaves you with having to advertise a post before you know if anyone will engage with it. It’s a “chicken and egg” problem that likely will force you to spend time and money as you use trial and error before you finally discover the best approach.
So, I’m back to what I was working on last week. What follows is my current marketing strategy.
I currently have four “Shop Local” Facebook groups, each named for a particular city or area.
I have a Facebook page named “Best Local” where I will run ads and a chatbot.
I will rename my current “Support local Youngstown” Instagram page to “ Best Local” and abandon other Instagram pages I created to match my Facebook groups.
I will promote a giveaway on Facebook – awarding a $50 gift card from the top pick in my “best pizza” poll.
To register for the giveaway, I will require people to vote in the poll and join one or more of my Facebook groups.
We hold a drawing when we have 1000 votes for the best pizza. After that, I will create another type giveaway and plan to continue doing that every month.
As people join the groups, I will ask if they own a business and if they would like to receive information about my services. Posting will not require admin approval but I will encourage every poster to get greater exposure by posting on my website first (and avoid having to post to multiple groups because I do it for them.
Every time a business owner creates a post on my website, they are redirected to a page that lists my optional paid services.
As the group grows, I will need some help moderating it. I will look for someone who is interested in becoming an affiliate and they will earn a commission for every sale.
My vision for the future is that my website will grow and become a valuable place to advertise offers and I may at some point begin charging to post. When I have things working pretty well locally, we can expand to other cities by finding people in other cities to moderate similar groups.