Chapter 1 review of Success Secrets of the Online Marketing Superstars

Brian Clark’s journey from an overworked attorney to CEO of Copyblogger Media is an inspiring story of how a person can forge their own career path. Brian uses the analogy of a “rainmaker,” which historically is connected to the Native Americans and a medicine man sort of figure. If there was a drought for example, the rainmaker was seen as someone who could literally make it rain.

In modern business, the rainmaker is a person who is bringing in new business.

In his prior life as a junior attorney, Brian witnessed how the lawyers with the best schedule (in late, out early) weren’t necessarily the ones who were the best at their trade. Rather, they were the ones who brought in the high-paying cases – they would simply delegate the leg work to people like Brian while they made their 3:00 tee time.

These guys were the rainmakers – they kept the business flowing in. These types of figures can be found in virtually any industry.

Prior to the Internet as we know it, business rainmakers typically had some sort of inherent advantage. Perhaps they come from a wealthy family or belong to the right country club. Whatever the reason, their privilege allowed them a certain leg up over someone without any connections.

Today, being a rainmaker is open to about anyone who understands AND acts on how new business generation works these days, which are the principles of building and engaging and audience online rather than your family connections.

Building an audience is in fact more critical than whatever product or service you may have

In 2006, Brian started his Copyblogger blog to share knowledge about advertising, copywriting and direct marketing he had gained throughout the first 8 years of his entrepreneurial career. He didn’t have a product for Copyblogger yet, but in Brian’s case, he didn’t need a product. If he worked to build his online audience, they would in fact reveal what their needs were and how Brian could help meet them.

This audience gets built through what we now call content marketing, which according to Brian, is “…different than traditional marketing but accomplishes what marketing is supposed to.” However, instead of people avoiding it like they avoid cold calls and direct mail pieces, they actively seek it out since at its core, content marketing works to address the questions and concerns of the prospect.

This is why Brian prefers to say media rather than marketing – he in fact doesn’t like saying the generic word “content” since it’s so overused. Worse, he doesn’t like using the term “marketing” so much because the word carries such negative connotations in most peoples’ minds, who think “..great, something else I don’t need.”

Instead of “marketing,” becoming a successful rainmaker has more to do with building your personal media brand with a solid content foundation

If you set out to develop this media brand and become a new rainmaker, the first rule you must observe is to “…be a valuable information resource via your own media platform, with a key emphasis on providing value.”

Through this process, you will demonstrate the value of your product/service upfront rather than claiming value.

Demonstrate the value of your product/service upfront rather than claiming value. Click To Tweet

Many businesses and brands struggle with this – they think “why do I want to give information away for free.” However, demonstrating your value upfront rather than claiming it through traditional marketing techniques is the core of how business marketing is changing.

The new rainmaker is essentially a likeable “expert” in his particular niche. Demonstrating and earning authority through a personal media brand creates the circumstances by which new business will come in.

Besides their expertise, new rainmakers are also known for their generosity and authenticity.

To wrap up, Brian explains a simple formula for taking your business and brand to the rainmaker level – Know + Like + Trust = Belief

Simply being known isn’t going to get you there, unless of course you’re Kim Kardashian or some other celebrity. We all prefer to do business with people we like. Trust is the next key ingredient, and is a critical part of building belief in your offer.

Now nobody says it’s easy, but putting all three together – know, like and trust – will provide the recipe for success, or as Brian puts it, making it rain.

My comments:

Well I certainly understand Brian’s point about it not being easy – building an online audience takes time and patience, and personally, I’ve barely scratched the surface.

Brain also explains how the word “content” is overused when discussing this form of marketing. I couldn’t agree more, and I definitely feel the word is thrown around too much. Content can be just about anything as Brian explains – my refrigerator has “content” within it.

While it may be a term we just have to live with, using “content” to describe creative writing, audio and video works seems to be quite the understatement. One day, I may write a blog post on this topic, but not today J.

Anyway, that’s chapter 1 of 24. Like I said, this will no doubt be a long-term project, but I think in the end, you should find these summaries to be a quick way to get the invaluable insights offered by these industry leaders.