10 Things I hate about Internet Marketers
There are some things that really annoy me in the Internet Marketing world.
Today I’m going to share my rant of the top 10 things that I hate Internet Marketers doing…… (unfortunately, there’s more but I will save them for another day!). Hopefully, some of you will agree with me…..
- The One time offer. Nothing is at all wrong with having a One Time Offer (OTO). In fact, some OTO’s produce great content and value for the visitor - but not all.
There are two types of OTO that really cause me to click “back” and “unsubscribe”. The first one is what I call the rolling OTO. Once you have made the decision to open your wallet and buy the “new next best thing” to further your IM journey the marketer offers you a “special” that will enhance the product. Fair enough. But when you find the tiny sentence saying “skip this offer forever” or something similar you are met with another OTO. This time it might be a downsell. So, instead of getting all the fantastic products that the previous OTO had, this time you might just be met with the bare essentials. If you skip the offer, you are then offered another deal. This time it might be an upsell - a course or something like that and it goes on and on. I counted 6 OTO’s from a marketing product the other day and hit “unsubscribe”.
There are two reasons that I really hate the rolling OTO. The first one may surprise the Marketers that email me 5 times a day, but I actually have a life! I don’t have time to sit and press “skip this offer” for 10 minutes. I have better things to do! Secondly, if the Marketer really valued his product in the first place why not put all the essential bits and pieces in it. This, in my opinion, would be preferable to jumping through hoops to pay for something.
The second reason that I hate some OTO’s is that the marketer has not provided any thought or value in his or her offer. For instance, if I have bought a package on List Building do I really want a package of ebooks on Bad Breath. Actually, no. These sorts of OTO always remind me of someone trying desperately to clear out their hard drive to find a gift for an unexpected guest. It is about as thoughtful as giving your spouse an iron on their wedding anniversary! Just because the OTO has lots of stuff doesn’t mean that it has any value!
The other thing about this style of OTO I hate is when the products are not only irrelevant but also old news. Most of the “fantastic products” offered can usually be picked up on e-bay or on any of the free giveway sites - so why pay?
On occasions, before I have had my morning coffee, and am feeling a little narky, I am often inclined to email the marketers some out of date ebay books or something from the public domain to boost up their one time offers!
- The patronising sales letter. I am really tired of being told that it is a “no brainer” not to accept a marketers offer to sign up for some crappy PLR product. I am also tired of the same “testimonials” from all the marketers jv partners saying that it is a fantastic deal and a “no brainer”. Isn’t there some sort of concept called “customer relations” or is it just fair enough in the online world to call your potential customers idiots if they don’t buy your product. Funnily enough, I don’t recall my plumber, dry cleaner, barista, solicitor, greengrocer or the like ever telling me something was a “no brainer”. Perhaps the online marketers could provide some value for their products in the form of evidence rather than cheap insults, and I’ll think about getting out my credit card….
- The copycat product. Often a good product will be launched (yes, there are some) and you um and ah about buying it. You are gripped by the sales letter and you think how good the software would be for your business, how it would save so much time - if only you could justify the cost of the product. Then, a few weeks later, when you are still thinking about that lovely software another similar product is launched. Now this one doesn’t quite have all the features as the dream software but it is cheap enough to justify the purchase and heck it’s close enough to the real deal. So, of course, you go with the cheaper, inferior product and from then on you are afflicted with non buyers remorse. You regret paying the extra dollars for the better quality software with more bells and whistles that you decide you really need and then you end up buying the more expensive product …..
- The try hard marketers. Don’t you just love getting the emails or promotions from marketers who haven’t made a cent online yet want to tell you to buy their products on making money. Their “newsletters” comprise an affiliate link to any product on the market but no actual “news” and their website looks like a mini mall or an overdecorated Christmas tree. Actually, their newsletters remind me of a wal-mart catalogue without the pictures. On the other hand, one well known and successful marketer has been “marketing” to me for over a year. I think it is roughly every 20 emails that he actually trys to sell me something, the other 19 are full of good quality content.
- This brings me to my next point, autoresponders. Firstly, most auto responders come with pretty simple instructions - in fact gurus - it should be a no brainer to work!!!! How many emails do you get from marketers that start “Dear {firstname}”. Well, my first name is in fact, pretty boring, but to be referred to as {Firstname} throughout the entire newsletter is not overly polite and I think that I would prefer my first name. Surely, these guys have heard of testing the email system? It would only take 5 minutes and would truly be a no brainer! What always makes me smile is that it is generally the same marketers who are always imploring us to test everything that do this.
Finally, there are the marketers who don’t use a decent auto responder that has an automatic unsubscribe link. One that I got tonight actually wants me to email them and tell them why I don’t want to be on their list. Hello - anyone heard of anti SPAM laws!
Speaking of spam I have also noticed that the decent, well respected IM guys email say …once a week generally giving valuable information or tips and not selling, selling, selling. On the other hand, all the try hards just email continuously with their latest affiiate product and never give any value. To cap it off, several of the try hards, and some more experienced that should know better, email sometimes 5 times a day! Are they out of their mind? One marketer likes to personalise his emails, letting me know that he’ll be out for a few hours as he has a doctor’s appointment…. Seriously, do they think that anyone sits by the computer waiting for their next email?
- Too many ads. Do you know the feeling when you get to the order page. I’m always relieved that I have negotiated the one time offer maze successfully. You are within reach of the product that you have ordered. You are close to the download page. Hooray! You reach the download page but … where is your product? You can see an ad for an autoresponder, a web host, a domain registrar, some buddy that is having a “fire sale”, a quick video message, an opportunity to take up the One Time Offer that you might have missed, some unadvertised bonuses, an invitation to the next marketing seminar……but the download link is nowhere in sight. Ah … there it is … just down near the copyright statement! But it’s a double opt in …..
- Which reminds me of another thing…. the unadvertised bonuses. To me a bonus is something that I might actually want and find useful. Something relevant to the product and of value. Most of the unadvertised bonuses I have seen lately are like a dead animal on the road - best left for someone else to clean up. To cap it off most marketers can’t expend the energy or the courtesy to tell us what the unadvertised bonus is - just a simple “click here for unadvertised bonus”. Has it ever occurred to a marketer that they could save the strain on their server if they just said what the bonus was. Then the visitor, like me, who has a fully loaded hard drive full of “bonuses” could decide whether to download the product or not and avoid a hard drive full of the same products.
Finally, you get to click the subscribe link to get your product. And once you hit that confirmation link you are presented with yet another product to buy. Marketers call this making the most of internet real estate. I call it catching someone between a rock and a hard place ie it is too late to go back. The only way is forward because you are so close to getting that product….
- Two other things that I am bored with, are the butterfly marketing website script and the viral friend generator script. Don’t get me wrong they are both great products from {firstname} Filsaime but I wish so many people weren’t using them - it can get a bit much ….maybe I’m on too many lists and need to click “unsubscribe” some more.
- The upsell. Don’t you love it when you wrestle with the decision to buy a product. You listen to the pre-launch hype. You look at who is promoting the product and how much you respect them. You consult your credit card. Then you finally take the plunge and buy on launch day. You have justifed the expense because you have been told that it will be $X. You didn’t want to spend $X but if you cut back on some subscriptions …. give up chocolate you can buy it. Just. And then there is the upsell….
The upsells that have really torn me lately (but I have resisted) are for the tutorial products. The videos that guide you through the process that forms part of the package. According to whoever is launching the product while you could certainly get results with the basic package if you really wanted to copy their methods you will take the upsell. I have only one thing to say…. if you are selling a “system” of doing something - sell the system not part of it. Now, how about some honesty in marketing?
- My all time hate is the pop ad up that hovers on half of the page, that you can’t get rid of and consequently can’t read the sales letter. Dear Marketers please note that if I can’t read what the features and benefits are of your product because you have popped them out - I won’t be popping out my credit card or popping back to your site anytime soon.
In fact, when I see your pop up blocking the sales letter I can only assume two things a) you couldn’t afford a copyrighter to write your sales letter so you are hoping to block it out or b) that the sales letter doesn’t contain any quality information and that is why it had to be covered up like a bad stain on the carpet. Naturally, it only leaves me with two things to do click “back” and “unsubscribe”.
I feel a little better that I have got that off my chest….now where’s my coffee….
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Blimey, some rant…but you have to hand it o the girl, she’s right !
Great work, loved the heart & soul approach !