One of the great things about understanding internet marketing is being able to realize when marketing is happening to you. As marketers, we are marketed to all the time. If you pay attention to the marketing that’s happening in the world around you, you can get a lot of great ideas about how to run your business.
Recently I became acquainted with a podcast expert named Cliff Ravenscraft over at PodcastAnswerMan.com. I have to tell you, Cliff has what I consider to be a near perfect sales funnel in operation there.
Here’s how I experienced Cliff Ravenscraft…
The First time I heard about Cliff was from an authority in the podcast space, Jason Van Orden, over at InternetBusinessMastery.com. He talked about Cliff as an expert on podcasting gear and I needed some, so I went over to Cliff’s website. That’s the first part of the sales funnel.
I found out that he had an outstanding website with all kinds of excellent free information. It was clearly an authority site on podcasting. After reviewing the website, there was no question that Jason was right about Cliff, absolutely an expert on podcasting gear and podcasting in general, for that matter.
So, naturally I did exactly what Cliff wanted me to — and you can see from his website that he’s set up for this — I subscribed to his podcast. After listening to several episodes of his podcast I was completely hooked and knew this was the guy for me when it came to podcasting tech.
So, what did I do?
Well, I bought all my new gear from Cliff. That’s exactly what he wanted me to do. He’s got affiliate and drop-ship relationships with all of these products and manufacturers that he actually uses. When I bought the gear, I was so pleased with the free advice that I had gotten from Cliff that I made sure that I bought the gear either directly through Cliff or through his affiliate link. Pure reciprocity.
To be honest with you, I bought stuff that I did not even know I needed. I bought exactly what Cliff uses, and I purchased through his links on purpose.
Following that, of course, I needed help setting up the gear. So, what did I do? I bought some online courses from Cliff about how to set up all this complicated new podcasting gear that I had just purchased.
I have two degrees in electrical engineering, so there is no question that I could figure out all of this stuff by myself — eventually. But that would take time. My time is worth a lot more than what Cliff is charging for these products, and I get the additional benefit of knowing the best settings and best configurations that Cliff has been able to determine. I could do all that, but it would take me FOREVER.
Now, this very important, because it’s something that all affiliate marketers can do. Cliff is an affiliate for great products. But all products have gaps — many times these gaps are in the form of training of missing information on how to get the most from the product.
Cliff has recognized gaps between what the customers need and what those products are offering and he is filling them with digital products. This is a key idea for affiliates to grow their internet business and one that Cliff does amazingly well.
What’s Cliff missing? Well, I wouldn’t say he’s missing anything, but of course the next step would be for Cliff to have some massive high end product. Oh wait a minute… this month Cliff is actually offering a soup to nuts podcasting course over at PodcastAnswerMan.com. It’s very high end and everything you need.
Now, I’m not offering an affiliate link for that here, although I’m sure it’s an awesome course. You can go over to Podcast Answer Man on your own and figure out if that’s for you if you’re interested. If you do sign up, be sure and tell my friend Cliff that Mark sent you.
Watching the world around you for examples of great marketing is a good way to get a free education on the things that you can do in internet marketing to improve your own business. Have a great day!
