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Ryan Deiss is widely regarded as one of the world’s leading marketing strategists and one of the all-time masters of internet TRAFFIC, the lifeblood of any online business.

Since first going online in 2000, Ryan has driven more than 1 BILLION clicks to his web properties and sold millions of dollars worth of products and services in over 300 niche markets.

Today Ryan privately consults with companies for EQUITY. That’s right, he’s so in demand that he can charge ‘nose bleed’ consulting rates and still take a piece of the company. Why? Because what he knows makes his partners MONEY and lots of it.

Ryan was one of the keynote speakers at Dan Kennedy’s SuperConference this year.  I was very familiar with who Ryan was thanks to my careful study of the internet product launches over the past 10 years.  No doubt about it, Ryan is an internet marketing guru, and when he speaks I listen.

What Ryan Deiss spoke about at the SuperConference completely shocked me!  Ryan is known for being a master internet marketer, so I was expecting to hear all the latest dos, don’ts, and newest internet marketing techniques.  Ryan only spent a few minutes talking about online marketing, though.  Instead, he spent most of his time talking about business growth…which was awesome.

Business is Simple

Ryan started his talk by saying, “business is simple…it’s just we like to make it seem difficult.  It’s simple, but not easy.”  He went on to explain that ALL businesses can really be boiled down to three core components:

1.  Traffic

2. Conversion

3.  Fulfillment

If you think about it, he’s exactly right.  No matter what business you’re in, everything you do fits into one of those three areas.  We sell websites.  If we don’t get traffic (to our website, to our inbox, and making our phone ring), we can’t sell a website.  If we can’t sell (convert) a website, we can’t build (fulfill) a website.

Sure we do lots of other things.  We have drip sequences with dozens of steps.  We spend countless hours designing and coding websites, we returned hundreds of emails and phone calls…but all of these things fall under all those three core components.

What was Ryan’s point?  Don’t complicate business for the sake of complicating it.  If you say business is difficult, it will be difficult for you.  Focus on making your business simple, and it will stay simple.

Spend More to Acquire Customers

Ryan echoed what Dan Kennedy shared the night before…you have to be in a position (and willing) to spend more to acquire a client than your competitors.  Doing this gives you huge leverage over you competitors.  It gives you the ability to stay in the fight longer for each customer.  It also forces you to:

• Think strategically about your business
• Discover ways to increase the lifetime value of each client
• Place more value on the relationship you have with each client
• Discover how to better serve and meet your clients’ needs

Understand the Market Cycle

All of business (and life) tends to be cyclical.  Trends tend to repeat themselves over and over throughout history.  Ryan did a great job of explaining that you have to be sure that you match the current market sentiment.  The example he gave was the recent decline in the prices, and numbers, of online product launches.

A couple of years ago it was very common to hear of a huge product launch happening every other month.  The products where typically $1,997.00, and the gurus would brag about how they sold out within only a few hours.  Well, today if you’ve been watching what’s happening on the internet you have probably noticed far fewer product launches, and typically much lower prices.

This reduction in the number and the prices is a reflection of the market sentiment.  The economy has slowed and people are far more skeptical of online product launches.  So it wouldn’t make sense for you to spend a bunch of energy and effort trying to launch an expensive product online.

If you want to know what will work now, take a look at what worked in the previous recessions.  What sold well in your market and industry?  How did people make buying decisions?  Why did people make buying decisions?

Give Them What They Want…Sell Them Other Stuff

If applied, this one principle could have a profound impact on your business.  What is it in your market that clients want?  For example, in our industry (web design) people want a website that helps them grow an existing business, or launch a new business.  What if we offered our website conversion and traffic generation system for free, and then sold them other stuff (like a new website design, social media management, an offline marketing campaign)?

How about in your market?  What do your customers want?  Is there a way that you can provide it to them at a better price, and with better service, than your competitors?  If you could, do you believe you could gain some quick traction and leverage in your market?

Ways to Increase the Lifetime Value of Your Clients

• Slack Adjusters – products and services you add on to existing products and services
• Speed and Automation – use systems to help decrease your cost of providing your product or service
• Supplements – additional products that may interest your market
• Done for You – provide premium “done for you” services for your clients
• Coaching – provide paid coaching to help your clients achieve results
• Continuity – Figure out ways to bring value to your clients on a regular basis
• Post-sell Followup – Follow up with clients after they buy – ask how you can further serve them.

Questions to Get You Started

• What is the lifetime value of my clients?
• What additional products or services can I offer them?
• What is the end result my clients are hoping to achieve when using my product or service?
• Why do my clients purchase from me instead of my competitors?
• How can I better serve my clients?
• What other similar markets would my products or services be of value to?

Conclusion

Many of us are sitting on a gold mine of potential revenue…it’s just waiting us to go and get it.  Getting it really isn’t very difficult.  It’s just a matter of figuring out how we can better serve our clients.  Stop worrying about revenue.  Stop overly complicating business.  Start serving.  Do exceptionally well…and everything else will take care of itself.

Leave a comment and let me know what one thing you can start doing today to better serve your customers.