Common Marketing Myths for Authors, Speakers, Experts & Entrepreneurs

I am often asked, “What are some of the Common Marketing Myths you’ve seen in this business of niche marketing?”

Well let’s start with marketing a book, since this is often the first info-product people create and it is one that illustrates a valuable lesson.

You may have heard the expression ‘junk in the trunk’, it’s a slang term that refers to someone have a full figured bottom. You know I’m on the treadmill a couple of times a week to reduce my back end – but in your business you really need some junk in the trunk. The bigger the back-end of your organization - the bigger your bank account. You want to maximize your list, have additional profits centers that help bring in money while you sleep and have a system in place that sells to people who already love your stuff – it’s much easier and much more profitable.

Common marketing myths – Let’s use some now to help illustrate the power of a back-end strategy. I’ll test you on some common marketing myths, so write them down. As you’re reading this, if you get them correct you will get something for it, because in business, the people who pay attention are the ones who are going to get ahead in life.

Marketing Myth #1:
Once I take my book to Best-Seller status I’ll be rich and home free!

Fact or Fiction? (take a guess)

There are many benefits and reasons you want to take your book to best-seller status. Having a best-selling book gives you credibility, helps you to gain publicity and media attention. It’s a lovely gold sticker on your book. In fact, I help authors do that. Ken Foster, asked me to help him do just that and 6 weeks later we took his book Ask and You Will Succeed to #1 best-selling status on Amazon.com on the date we predicted, and beat out The South Beach Diet, The Da Vinci Code and Dr. Phil McGraw.

Ken was an unknown author this was his very first book remember, but we simply followed a marketing strategy that I knew had proven successful, we had the right knowledge. If a marketing person tells you that all you need to do is get your book to number one and you’ll be set - you should run or at least stop paying them. Here’s why, essentially, a book is only a very large business card. It is your lead generator, and just one of many. It will get you into the press, it will introduce you to new customers and it will let people know who you are and what you’re all about.

Robert Allen sold millions of copies of his first book “Nothing Down” yet after the publisher’s cut and everything else, he was lucky if he got $2 a book. His third book was considered a dismal publishing failure compared to his other books (his words not mine). However, throughout that book he identified about 15 places that where he would give readers a special report, or a CD an audio cassette. Essentially, all he did was put “You want this? Contact me here and I’ll give this to you” in about 15 different places. Well only 10,000 people called but 5,000 of those people paid him 5,000 dollars for one of his high–end programs.

So what is 5,000 times 5,000? Its $25 Million dollars!!! Now that was an extremely successful book marketing strategy, but it was considered a publishing failure. Now, I have a question for you… would you rather position yourself where you HAVE to sell at least a million books to make a million dollars or would you rather put your marketing efforts into selling 60,000 books that could make you 25 million dollars? Less stress – more money. 25 Million may scare some of you and excite others, but just think if you had the same knowledge and followed the same strategy but only sold a quarter of what he did, you’d still be laughing all the way to the bank. See how important having a back-end marketing strategy was for this author?

Marketing Myth #2:
You need to put thousands of dollars into a marketing campaign before you see any return.

Fact or Fiction? (take a guess)

The only people that will tell you that are advertising agencies or other entrepreneurs that are still working off a marketing plan that isn’t working for them. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but to advertise in magazines 7 times or more (which is what the industry recommends) is not cheap. There are much easier ways to get your name and product out in front that cost you nothing or very little on the front end. One of them is doing Joint Ventures with other people where you “borrow” their database, their customers, and even their website to sell your product – all at no cost to you, which is why I started the www.PrivateJVClub.com

Another area people flood money into unnecessarily is a fancy website that earns them little or no income. I created a site for one of my clients that cost him about $300 to build and is generating him anywhere from $3000 - $10,000 a month. I don’t know about you, but this sounds like a much better idea to me. No cost and low cost strategies are very effective.

Marketing Myth #3:
Once I write my book, my publisher will be in charge of getting my book out there so I don’t need any marketing strategies.

Fact or Fiction? (take a guess)

This may be one of the biggest misconceptions that many new authors soon discover. You and you alone will be responsible for getting your product out there, creating the sales and determining your own income. In fact, many publishers today won’t even take on new authors unless the author can demonstrate they understand all this by submitting a marketing plan that describes all the different ways they’re going to get their product out there. You need to know this. You are in charge of marketing your book, product or service and you better have a big back–end strategy that sells additional product, keeps your clients happy and coming back.

If you got these three questions correct – please visit: www.stefaniehartman.com/freereport where there is a free gift waiting for you – a report on How to get Booked for TV and Radio Shows.

Another example of why it is important to build a profitable back–end strategy to your business model is particularly important if you are a speaker.

I am constantly shocked that I get calls from well known speakers who have been doing this for years but are now going broke. Let me save you from those tears. You can’t survive on doing speeches alone – even if it’s $5,000, $7,000 or even $10,000 that you get paid each time. Sure, on paper that sounds good, someone telling you just line up 3 speaking engagements per month and you’ll bring in $30K. Here’s the reality. That model no longer works. The economy no longer supports it.

Companies are cutting back on travel budgets, training budgets and the money they spend on meetings.

You know I had a great learning experience long ago. When I started my consulting business I was approached by a big name speaker, who had been on Oprah and wanted my help to get more speaking gigs. Because this client was someone that I really wanted to work with I agreed. But following the methods that the speaker had known and used for 10 years, we were only getting limited results. Yet at the same time I was also working with unknown experts and they were raking in thousands of dollars a month through the marketing model that I was teaching them. So being well known or not wasn’t the difference between little money coming in and a lot of money coming in – it was simply the information they had, their willingness to use it, and the model they were following. Now I only work on marketing formulas that I know are proven successful and will work for anyone that follows the formula. If you work with me, I am not going to tell you what you want to hear – only what I know will help you make money. The choice to put it into practice is yours alone.

This is not to say that you will never make money giving speeches, you can and you will, it’s fun and it can be a big part of your plan. But it is only one element of it. Think about this? In your investment portfolio you wouldn’t put all your eggs in one basket, you wouldn’t invest that way – so why would you build your business that way?

Building a back-end strategy is crucial to your business; don’t let any inexperienced marketer tell you otherwise.