Marketing and Promotion
Paul Revere, Internet Marketing, and the 80/20 Rule
Tip! You need to use testimonials spread out through out your sales page. Granted, this is taught all over Internet Marketing World.
I'll bet you thought you knew all about Paul Revere. He was, of course, responsible for inventing the Internet
uh, no
sorry, wrong turn.
Not that he couldn't have used Internet marketing principles, however, had the Internet been available. Putting an ad up on Google sure would have made life a lot easier than, say, getting captured by the British
not to mention a greater impact, as Internet marketing goes.
But, his famous ride to awaken the colonists has historians - but not marketers - utterly baffled. Why? Let's see first the problem
then how marketing (particularly Internet marketing principles) solves the problem.
Most historians don't understand the 80/20 Rule. Don't get me wrong. A lot of people don't understand the implications of the 80/20 Rule. They don't understand its recursive nature, the 64 - 4 Rule, the 51.2 -0.8 Rule, Sierpinski Triangles, and so on.
But, it's really not necessary to understand all of that, anyway. What you should know is simple: the 80/20 Rule simply means 80% of your results will flow from 20% of your efforts. That's the simplicity of the 80/20 Rule for Internet marketing
or anything else.
Paul Revere understood the 80/20 Rule well, in concept. I bet he would have taken to Internet marketing too.
You see, historians can't understand why Paul Revere's ride produced a word- of -mouth- epidemic (buzz) and why fellow yeller William Dawes' ride did not. After all, Dawes traveled 17 miles on horseback that night. But, almost no one from the southerly circuit of towns he visited - towns like Roxbury, Brookline, Watertown, and Waltham - responded to the call.
Tip! Develop shared metrics for IT and Internet marketing. IT is usually concerned about ROI and seeing projects implemented, while marketing wants leads, sales, and conversion.
That's the reason he goes as an unsung hero in our history.
I am a wandering, bitter shade, Never of me was a hero made; Poets have never sung my praise, Nobody crowned my brow with bays; And if you ask me the fatal cause, I answer only, "My name was Dawes" 'Tis all very well for the children to hear Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere; But why should my name be quite forgot, Who rode as boldly and well, God wot? Why should I ask? The reason is clear -- My name was Dawes and his Revere. History rings with his silvery name; Closed to me are the portals of fame. Had he been Dawes and I Revere, No one had heard of him, I fear. No one has heard of me because He was Revere and I was Dawes. (The Midnight Ride of William Dawes by Helen F. Moore -Century Magazine, 1896).
Tip! Developing a newsletter or ezine is a classic internet marketing solution that is a proven profit earner. The great thing about a newsletter is that you can develop a huge list of subscribers that is permission based.
Seems unfair. Many historians lament Dawes, the unrecognized hero. But, then again, the 80/20 Rule shows us that life is disproportionate in its results.
That wasn't Paul Revere's only ride:
You see, the 80/20 Rule teaches us one simple lesson and
several very powerful ones. So don't go away.
The simple lesson? That's easy. Focus and prioritize on what you do best. Each of us is, or should be, a specialist in a particular niche. In other words, very good in one area - and a duck out of water elsewhere.
That was Paul Revere. As renowned historian David Hackett Fischer put it, unlike Dawes, Revere had an uncanny genius for being in the center of events.
From the Boston Tea Party to the Revolution, committees and congresses sprang up all over New England. Revere rode from one city to another, bearing messages and linking to each other. Consequently, he was well known.
He rode to Philadelphia from Boston regularly carrying organizational messages. He rode from Boston to New Hampshire, from Boston to New York, and from Boston to just about anywhere in New England.
He connected people to people, and people to news and events. And he did it well. While 80% of the leadership belonged to but one committee, he was only one of two men who served on almost all of the committees in Boston. (80/20 Rule: The most accomplish the least. The least accomplish the most.) More popularly known as: If you want something done well, give it to a busy person.
He was a clearinghouse for information about the British. In other words, if you knew something and didn't know who to tell, you went to Paul Revere.
So, when the stable boy overheard the conversation of the two British officers, he went to Paul Revere.
When Paul Revere mounted his horse that fateful night, his travels were strategic
He knew who the town fathers, militia commanders, Minutemen officers, key ministers, opposition lawyers, merchant leadership, and other strategically placed individuals were
and where they lived.
Tip! List building. If you want to be successful in internet marketing, you must have a big list of targeted prospects.
Dawes did not have that gift. He was not well known. He had not traveled widely. Consequently, his efforts that night were spent on arousing common folk, no doubt, but most people didn't know where to go, or who to contact, or what the next step should be.
Paul Revere knew the leadership. What they needed was what we all call in Internet marketing, a message to market match, (when and where specifically the British were moving).
Paul Revere supplied that match. The 80/20 Rule is a filter for precision matches between effort and result. He supplied that filter:
Preparation and research? His keywords were people,
places and events learned over three years
Key knowledge? The information from the stable boy
and
when the British would move
Strategic niches? Most profitable towns to alarm in
the shortest amount of time
Pre-qualified traffic? The individuals who were
prepared to respond to his call, did so, like clockwork.
Message to market match? They would act in direct
response to his focused message
and
Call to action? The British are coming. Resist
them
now.
Revere was less a rider and more a guided missile that night. Specific. Targeted. Effective. Those are the ingredients for successful Internet marketing
and the call to Lexington Green that next day was an 80/20 Rule in play.
Every Internet marketer knows from the 80/20 Rule, that Internet marketing is a process, broken down into steps, each step catering to the comfort zone of different kinds of individuals. The days of one stop, one purchase are over. Most people will NOT purchase in one stop
so devise other kinds of response (email follow-up, mini-courses, opt ins, surveys, etc.)
As any Internet marketing specialist knows, if people are confused, they take no action, except to leave the issue (or website) alone.
If Dawes had had a website, they would've left it confused with no way to respond to any call to action.
So, people didn't act under his call
until days later, after Lexington and Concord were history.
Yes, William Dawes was a hero. But, his ride took so much more effort, accomplished much less, and took much longer to finish
Mixed results, at best.
History and Internet marketing turn on hinges produced by the 80/20 Rule.
Tip! If you are going to create a web site as an internet marketing solution then you must optimize it for the search engines. The highest quality and cheapest visitors are those that come from free search engine listings.
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