Wednesday 3 June 2009

The Spectacular 'Marketing Magicians' Review

It’s over 4 years since I put on an event so yesterday’s ‘Marketing Magicians’ one day conference at the British Library was a big deal for me – and reminded me just how much goes into ‘putting on a show’!

The biggest challenge which faces the entrepreneurs I meet is how to market their product or service amongst the soup of some 5,000 marketing messages we are all bombarded with everyday, while working on a shoestring budget. So the idea behind the day was to bring together a selection of speakers who were not just expert theorists but entrepreneurs who have all built thriving businesses off the back of very low cost marketing techniques.

We opened the event with the inspirational Royston Guest who runs the international training company PTI Worldwide. Royston talked about the power of thinking big, how to implement referral marketing strategies into your business as well as easy techniques to step change your company’s profitability by over 30% within weeks. He made me realise just how under optimised my own business is!

We then had the very suave bespoke tailor Thomas Mahon telling the story of how his ‘English Cut’ blog has lead him to create an international client base and fame as the leading authority on tailoring in the world. Thomas is so successful that his latest Blog post announcing that he was planning to wind down his client base lead to an overnight flood of orders from clients begging him to make suits for them! Everyone was blown away by Thomas’ integrity, honesty and charm.

After a break for coffee we had the first of our 90 minute workshops, with the amazing Internet Marketing guru and skip hire entrepreneur Mark Attwood. Mark showed us very practical techniques of how to track what works on the web, how to get to the top of Google and how to convert the maximum amount of business once you are there. It was like trying to learn brain surgery in a 90 minute session! Techniques I was not even aware existed. I am now booked on to Mark’s SEO workshop on 19 June and can’t wait to learn more.

After lunch (which I am embarrassed to admit was spectacularly crappy and definitely not worth the extortionate prices charged by the incumbent caterers Peyton & Byrne – but you have no choice but to use them) we had our next 90 minute workshop this time from the charismatic Alan Forrest Smith. Alan told us his story of taking his hairdressing business from a disastrous position of being hugely in debt and having bailiffs arrive at the door to being a healthy thriving profitable business through understanding how to market properly and really understand what it is you sell to your customers. You may think it is a haircut - but really it is the power to make them feel fabulous! Alan has clearly reached a stage in his life where he is as much a spiritual philosopher as he is a brilliant marketer and I thoroughly enjoyed just sitting basking in his positive energy stream.

It was then my turn to take the stage, and as time was limited I scooted through my views on why PR & Branding is the most powerful tool in your armoury – a whistle-stop taster of my full Entrepreneurial Masterclass the next one which is happening on 17 June.

Finally we had the lovely Sue Stone, whose light shone from stage, talking about the power of the mind in creating your world. Sue pulled back from bankruptcy with just £10 in her pocket to living a fabulous abundant and happy life through using the simple techniques she taught us. It made me reflect on how idle negative thoughts can inadvertently sabotage even the best laid plans.

We ended the day with a networking session and I had so many positive comments and thanks for the day from the entrepreneurs who attended I feel certain that we achieved our aim – to inspire, motivate and help entrepreneurs achieve personal fulfilment and success.

The whole event was filmed and if you would like the 4 DVD set it is available at the Marketing Magicians website for just £69 – order now and it will be shipped in 10 days’ time.

I’m now excitedly planning our next series of events for the Autumn/Spring season including a re-run of Marketing Magicians and if you’d like details please register for free at www.rachelelnaugh.me

Have a wonderful day!

Rachel

28 comments:

Stephen said...

This does sound wonderful Rachel.

I particularly like the SEO'd skip hire site Mark Attwood put together. This site reveals real evidence that internet marketing is as much a skill as a magicians trick.

As you are aware, (for reasons not within my control) i am at home right now. During my recovery i have spent a lot of time researching internet marketing and more specifically "internet marketers".

What i found from my analysis was that there are two kinds of internet marketer.

Short term and Long term.

Short term marketers are not very business savvy, but they can make a buck or two where and when they need too. They tend to teach whatever the latest flavour of this that or the other is.
Some turn to "black hat" techniques, given it fits their shaky business accumum and unethical outlook.

Long term marketers tend to take a mature approach to business planning and use internet marketing as a tool, rather than thinking internet marketing is the "business". These guys tend to specialize in areas of IM knowhow and teach specific subjects to high degree of proficiency. Some might teach "lead generation", some "keyword research", "copywriting", so on and so forth.

So far i have found four people out of the many thousands of internet marketers i have spoken too and who actually take a long term approach to online profitability.

Look them up on google. They are worth listening to.

Steve Johnston (google consultant)
Mr X (introductions only)
Mark Vurnum (lead generation)
Dr Andy Williams (keywordresearchlab.com).

I have no affiliation with these names.

ohh and they are all British.

Something tells me i will be adding Mark Attwood to this list.

julesbrad said...

I just went to the website to order the DVD set of the event but could not see the order button
:-(

Is it not there yet ?

And a cheeky question to finish, Do your blog visitors receive a discount on the DVD lol

Rachel Elnaugh said...

Stephen: Mr X sounds interesting, I would love an introduction to him!

Jules: Yes you can order the DVD on the website - look on the right hand side and click 'add to cart' - if you enter the promotional code eventonly you will get it for £49 - but don't tell anyone!

Regards


Rachel

MikeB said...

Be careful Stephen

The ones to follow are the ones who make a fortune out of doing internet marketing, not the ones who make money out of talking about it.

Follow guys like Dan Raine (UK) - Ed Dale/ Rob Somerville ((these are the kinds of people Mark and I follow)

They have flipped farms of websites measured in £millions numerous times

As a result of their advice, I was on twitter 2 years ago.


Also Stompernet guys - Brad Fallon and Andy Jenkins, first and foremost make money out of doing internet marketing

Also the likes of Ted Nicholas on copy.

Stephen said...

yes, i like Ted Nicholas, Mike B.
I also like Brian Tracy for sales psychology - and Brian Proctor too.

I certainly understand where you are coming from. It is a bloody jungle out there.

Rachel, All i can say about Mr X is that he is from Derby, an ex Derby County football player and is probably the most passionate Derby fan that ever lived. He is also a lover of the greatest football manager that ever lived.
Brian Clough. He also has a built in BS detector, which means i have to behave at all times when i am in his "virtual presence".

For me, that is more difficult than watching Arsenal whipping Spurs arse! lol.

I am always attracted to the real deal..

Hani O'Keeffe said...

It was fantastic Rachel, thank you so much. So many inspiring ideas and good advice from all of the speakers. I am looking forward to seeing the DVD as well.

Mr C said...

I'm in the fortunate position of having a website that I don't want found by natural search. Only a small proportion of the population can afford what we sell and most of our business is by recommendation. Thus we don't want to be inundated with hits that we cannot sell to.

Mind you we are thinking of doing a sort of diffusion line and then we will need to deal with SEO etc. But for the moment, ignorance is bliss.

C

Cranberry said...

Such beautiful ignorance C! Honestly, to have a web presence that doesn't need to get involved in the whole SEO game is a gift indeed – enjoy.

Mr C said...

Cranberry!

I was only just thinking of you and was contemplating putting a new comment on your blog to berate you for lack of posts!

C

Cranberry said...

Err... yep, posting on the blog, or here for that matter, have been severely lacking – apologies for that.

Quick summary (because I'm not sure whether I'm going to continue with the blog), so I'll do it here:

Funding? No
Business surviving? Yes
Sales right now? Good
Current situation? Everything to work for, cash positive, no debts, but on the knife-edge – still. If sales stop, we can only keep going for about two months. Summer isn't a great time for us.

All that aside, I've really enjoyed the last few months because we've worked hard, knuckled down and seen the results. Most accountants would have said we were dead 10 months ago.

I mildly dislike accountants...

Mr C said...

If it all goes tits up you could always reposition yourself as a champion of the entrepreneur and a marketing guru...

I'm sure there are some lovely accountants out there but sadly I've not met one yet either. The problem with accountants and lawyers for that matter is that they get paid whatever. I think we should pay them double if they are successful and be allowed to poke them with sharp sticks if not. Actually, maybe we should just be allowed to poke them with sharp sticks.

C

MikeB said...

C

Couldnt put it better myself.
About accountants and lawyers.

Cranberry said...

I mean, are we supposed to take this seriously?

http://www.becomeacopywriter.co.uk/

julesbrad said...

Cranberry said...
I mean, are we supposed to take this seriously?
http://www.becomeacopywriter.co.uk/


I listened to Rachels webinar when this guy spoke for over an hour and he was really inspirational.
I'm def looking forward to the DVDs of the Marketing Magicians which feature him too.

Cranberry said...

Ever the sceptic I'm afraid. I mean AFS is apparently a genius copywriter? Maybe, if you are compelled by words like 'reveal'. It's the same old rules that has been written in countless copy writing books and we've all received letters written according to these rules – they're two pages of A4 and printed using a grey courier font, full of endorsements for this and that.

My take on the 'speaking circuit' is that they all big-up each other to drum up more business for themselves. What they NEVER do, is say: “I'll get you an X% increase in sales – and to prove that I'm that good I'll do it for free. If I'm correct then you can pay me after.”

I wonder why...?

Stephen said...

Cranberry,

You got to take the good and bad advice for paid or for free.

Preferably for free of course.

Detecting BS is all about intuition.

Don't pay for stuff up front if you detect BS.

It is better to sit still and wait, than to jump right in with both feet and get burnt.

Calculated risk, calculated risk.

Just because this guys makes a success - doesnt mean he could do it again and more importantly.
....Doesn't mean he can educate you into being a success.

Maybe his succcess was more than he himself can remember and replay. Maybe he is in the education business now because his success was really just short lived elsewhere.

Who knows?

long and short of it.

Whatever the secrets you learn, you can only make money by taking risks. Calculated risks.

Cranberry said...

Indeed Stephen. I think the point is that you are 'what you say you are'. AFS has decided that he is a marketing guru. He's not, we know that and I'm sure he knows that – but he's making a living out of telling people he is. Absolutely nothing I can see convinces me that he has anything special to add to the mix.

Maybe it's all really about kilt wearing...?

Cranberry said...

Sorry, just got to post this:

So AFS is a world renowned copy writer? These typos were all in a single post on his blog:

http://www.alanforrestsmith.com/blog/2009/05/13/zeminar-zombies.html

“the audience have been informed and romo gets filled.”

“So lets be honest; there’s no such things as press a button...”

“...an expert that has invested literally hundreds of thousands of time and risk into their expertise must be paid”

His other posts have similar errors. Now, would you use a surgeon who clearly couldn't hold a scalpel properly?

MikeB said...

Interesting assumptions Cranberry

There are certainly copywriters and marketers who make guarantees.

But they dont do it for timewasters who want "free"...

They do it payment up front, with a moneyback guarantee...

Cranberry said...

I don't think I've assumed anything have I Mike? I'm simply making assertions from the information in front of me.

Agreed about people wanting stuff for 'free', which is why I pointedly included the line: “If I'm correct then you can pay me after.” However, a money back guarantee also works for me.

Stephen said...

Copywriting is a skill and an art.

You have to totally "GET" what the clients business is all about and express that on the pages, in terms that readers will fully understand. In fact you have to change the vocabulary around from talking "company...ese" to communicating the way the customer would. Using exactly their vocabulary and nothing else.

Thats where a lot of businesses people come unstuck with websites.
Because they don't really know what vocabulary is used by their customer base so they write copy that expresses the message in terms that relate to the product and not their customers.

This is particularly true of start-ups who have no track record of dealing with customers in their market.

Copywriting is a skill because you have to take the business knowledge, brand message and customer vocab and at the same time as creating high converting copy, ensure that the meta-language of the search engines is effectively stitched in.

That's why copywriters make a lot of money. That can make or break your business by what they write for you.

Cranberry said...

Stephen you are so right – I get it now. AFS's customers are all people who can't write so he writes in the same vernacular as them. I understand it now – you're a genius – and so is he!

Stephen said...

Now you are being stupid Cranberry.

If you want to get your message across, you have to fully engage with your customers wants, needs, desires etc.

That's all i'm saying.

Copywriters are experts in driving this process. But no one says you have to use them.

I guess the same is true of any business, skill, profession etc..

Stephen said...

Anyways, take a closer look at the skip hire site. It is the only evidence you need that Mark Attwood can build a serious online presence.

Its very, very good. One of the best i've seen built around a bricks n mortar business.

Cranberry said...

Yes - he's good for sure.

Rachel Elnaugh said...

Just to say I thought that Mark Attwood and Alan Forrest Smith were BOTH absolutely brilliant and I really mean that

Rachel

Stephen said...

I don't what they said Rachel, but i can tell from that skip hire site that they know what they are doing.

Cranberry said...

I'd be somewhat surprised if you said anything different Rachel – given that it was your event. Presumably you embrace the power of such writing – so we can all look forward to seeing buzz words like 'reveal', 'underground' and 'breakthrough', appearing in your posts?

I'm not out to bash AFS, I'm sure he's a very amiable chap - I'm just not convinced by his claims.