Do You Leverage Your Competition Whenever You Can?
Leverage - Positional advantage; power to act effectively. Source.
One of the best things you can do for any sales type business (physical or digital) is to gain leverage off your competition.
Some call it sneaky (which it somewhat is), but as long as you stay above board, it’s perfectly legal and an excellent marketing strategy.
One particular golden nugget you can achieve here is instant follow-up ideas for any product you are promoting:
Pick a product, any product you wish to promote. Search for that particular product you’re promoting on Google and find the other
successful marketers who promote it.
Next you simply join their list, whether it be email or postal and check out their particular follow-up system. See what they do, offer and say about the product,
Take plenty of notes on your own AND you can then “borrow” their ideas by rewriting it in your own words to create your own follow-up system! You should never just simply copy other peoples work, but it’s perfectly OK to get ideas or inspiration from others and then rework them to suit your own needs.
Being a successful marketer is not about being the fastest, the biggest or the strongest. It’s about being the smartest! You want to leverage as much as you can from other marketers who are already successful,
If you’ve been online for any length of time, you know that just about any product you can think of to promote (unless you created it yourself), someone else is promoting it as well…..let them do the heavy lifting for you 
.
S0 I ask you, are you leveraging through your competition, or just flying blind? If I may make so bold a statement…they are or will do it themselves.
Never stop pushing forward!
Dennis
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Tags: , competition, Email Marketing, leverage, marketing, promotion, sales
Jaq @ Net Age Web Design
Kev
Latief@AnotherBlogger
sherry
October 21st, 2008 at 5:16 am
as always, another great post. thanks.
I learn new thing today
Acakadut´s last blog post..uuIE 1.10
October 21st, 2008 at 5:32 am
That’s what I’m here for, thanks for the continuing support
October 21st, 2008 at 6:11 am
Very good idea, sneaky but effective. I will be certainly be trying it, should also get some ideas of what immediately draws attention on the email and what doesn’t from a layout point of view.
October 21st, 2008 at 6:26 am
I mean, observing what your competitors are doing is extremely important wheter or not it’s affiliate marketing. Watch the big guys and how they do it and promote their stuff. After that, the important aspect is NOT to do like them. I can’t stress that enough, don’t be like everyone else! It’s good to get some tips, tricks and strategies but then implement these with your own personal touch
Ben´s last blog post..Advertisers: wake up! The real subscriber count
October 21st, 2008 at 7:34 am
learning from other affiliate marketers who are more successful than yourself isn´t what I would call sneaky. it is keeping an eye on the competition and learning from them, as long as you don´t copy all they do.
not sure i completely agree with Ben´s comment, i think doing what they do could certainly help you a long way forwards, especially if they are doing a lot better than yourself. there are times to try to reinvent the wheel and others where that same wheel will work just fine, depending on your own goals and your ability to use the tools available.
Mirjam´s last blog post..Challenging Yourself, Do You Do It?
October 21st, 2008 at 7:54 am
Kahled - exactly right. That’s why most top marketers keep what’s known as a “swipe file”, don’t worry, it’s not as bad as it seems lol.
basically you save any email’s that come through, that might catch your attention in a certain way.
Whether it’s a snazzy headline or a new sales approach or whatever.
October 21st, 2008 at 7:55 am
Ben - right on my man, it’s extremely important in ALL marketing…online or off.
Otherwise it’s just pin the tail on the customer with a double blindfold
October 21st, 2008 at 7:57 am
Mirjam - I think Ben was just saying what you said in the first paragraph - just don’t copy all they do.
You always need to put your own spin; your own “voice’ in your marketing….very similar to standing out as a blogger.
October 21st, 2008 at 8:48 am
You always have to study what your competition is doing and figure out ways to improve upon their strategies. I know everyone love sports analogies (sarcasm) but here comes one anyway.
Sports teams have film sessions before every game to study the exact methods of offense and defense the other team is using. Now they don’t copy those methods, but the recreate them in order to defeat them.
Adam
October 21st, 2008 at 12:09 pm
I decided to check your blog out after you commented on mine a couple of weeks ago. You look like you have a nice blog going so great job.
October 21st, 2008 at 1:16 pm
Now everyone is talking about the American economy and elections, nice to read something different. Eugene
October 21st, 2008 at 3:15 pm
Staying on top of what your competition is doing is absolutely necessary. Just make sure not to copy what they are doing. Is it was a better idea to improve upon it.
John Edwards´s last blog post..Curtis Bay Real Estate
October 21st, 2008 at 3:26 pm
I think this is a smart thing to do. It seems wasteful to reinvent the wheel and go through trial and error when there are other people who have found successful ways to do something you are planning to do. Copying it outright, of course, is wrong, and will be a negative point against you, but to follow their lead and maybe even improve upon it is smart thinking.
~ Kristi
October 21st, 2008 at 3:50 pm
I borrow ideas on the daily - even from peers, like you!
I purposely have an email account strictly for mailing list ninja spy tactics, and it’s funny how many of these gurus are blasting the same things to the same lists…
I’ve learned a lot about email marketing from Frank Kern simply by studying his daily blasts.
Elijah´s last blog post..Success Starts With Your Socks
October 21st, 2008 at 4:33 pm
Your a sneaky mohambee… Great idea. Are there any that you might suggest? Am I pressing my luck on this?
David J. Parnell
October 21st, 2008 at 5:50 pm
Adam - that’s actually a very good analogy…..watch and learn, maybe find a weakness or hole and jump in!
October 21st, 2008 at 5:52 pm
Franklin - thanks man, I appreciate that. You have good stuff as well and I hope to see you around more often
October 21st, 2008 at 5:54 pm
Eugene - I can safely guarentee that you will never find any of that on any of my sites, EVER.
Welcome aboard and I hope to see more of you
i wish I had more money for travel; I’d be spending lots of time on your site
October 21st, 2008 at 5:56 pm
John - that’s the overwhelming consenses for sure. It’s ok to duplicate methods and processes if they work, just make sure to put your own mind into it.
October 21st, 2008 at 5:59 pm
Kristi - right on, it’s done constantly in things like PPC. Start doing what you know works, then slowly pick it apart and see how you can improve it.
October 21st, 2008 at 6:02 pm
Elijah - good job! I’ll be doing somewhat of a follow-up post on the method.
Btw, I’ve subscribed and unsubscribed a few times from Franks lists
October 21st, 2008 at 6:04 pm
David - who are you asking that question too? i don’t understand what you’re looking for suggestions on.
October 22nd, 2008 at 5:20 pm
I honestly, am not a true salesman(girl) at heart, I often fly blind, need to make more sound strategies, as you recommend Dennis.,
JR @ Internet Marketing Strategies´s last blog post..Affiliate Marketing - 16 Website Content Ideas
October 22nd, 2008 at 6:18 pm
JR - I’d say it’s not as much about “salesmanship” as that usually applies to *how to sell* as much as it’s about, “when what and why” to sell.
Does that make sense?
October 23rd, 2008 at 10:37 am
Great post Dennis. I’d add - learn, un-learn, re-learn and apply new knowledge to the marketing efforts. And you nailed it down with learning from competition.
Max@Viliat-Blog´s last blog post..How To Build Blog Making $100+ a Month on Autopilot Under 3 Weeks – Part 1
October 23rd, 2008 at 4:34 pm
Max - Very well put. Take it, learn from it, then spin it in your own style.
October 24th, 2008 at 10:19 am
This is so important and is often overlooked. I am constantly researching competitors and their SEO methods. You can’t just do it once, then sit and wait, this is an ongoing task.
October 24th, 2008 at 10:44 am
That’s a very good point ET; doing it “once n a while” isn’t a whole lot better then not at all.
I catch myself guilty of this from time to time…..or I used to anyway.
October 24th, 2008 at 8:21 pm
Man, you’re slipping posts by me just like I’m probably slipping some by you!
This is a pretty good idea, and I’m thinking I read something about it a long time ago, but never went that route; not sure why. I may have to check into something like that one of these days.
Mitch´s last blog post..Growth Revisited
October 24th, 2008 at 9:32 pm
LOL Mitch, it sure happens don’t it?
Yes, definitely start, even a little at first and eventually it will become 2nd nature…part of your daily or weekly routine.
November 8th, 2008 at 10:37 am
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