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So there he is.
They call him "the world’s greatest pick up artist." He’s wearing this crazy, tall, funky top hat like a magician. He has odd jewelry on. And he’s teaching guys how to "pick up women."
It’s a show on in the U.S. Where the man named "Mystery" takes a group of dateless, desperate guys and teaches them how to meet women.
It’s fascinating in that he has his own world and own set of terminology. Things like DHV’s, which stands for "Demonstration of Higher Value." Then there are OIO’s, which are indicators of interest and IOD’s, indicators of disinterest.
And the lingo goes on. You can see video of him on VH1.com. Just search for "pick up artist."
What’s totally and completely bizarre to me is how much of what he says applies to Internet marketing. I’m going to zero in on one of those things — demonstrations of higher value. Let’s start with "the pickup artist" TV show to begin with. It probably wouldn’t exist unless a book called "The Game" hit bookstores bigtime and demonstrated the value of the concept. Mystery was the featured character in the book. And that likely had a major impact on him being the featured character in the TV show.
Next, in "The Mystery Method," he has his guys wear clothes or articles of clothing that are unique and stand out. One reason is so they have a conversation piece. The other is to increase their social value.
Point: Your packaging or design of your products and web site signals or demontrates the value you have.
Another thing Mystery has his guys do on the TV show is "social proof" themselves by being seen with attractive people. So a guy might invite along an attractive woman some place to help him meet someone else. By implication, he has high social value if he’s seen with someone perceived as attractive.
In short, social proof. Social proof in marketing would be having articles published in directories, speaking at seminars, testimonials, showing that you hang out with popular influencers, and so forth.
Then, there is scarcity — not looking so "available." By implication, if you’re in demand, that’s a demonstration of your value. And if you’re NOT in demand, then it’s a demonstration of low social value. DLV.
Anyway, I could go on and on drawing parallels.
And the point I want to make today is that you may already know a lot about marketing that you don’t know you know.
Why? Because if you have a boyfriend, girlfriend, husband, wife, you probably used some or all of the above techniques without realizing it.
Signalling value or demonstrating value for your product or service is largely FREE. It costs you NOTHING to do but has a major impact on whether or not people buy from you.
And chances are, you’ve already demonstrated a skill in doing this in an area of your life in the past.
People buy based on benefits – costs. And increasing the benefits part of the equation is as simple as demonstrating or signalling higher value.
Marlon Sanders
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Marlon Sanders is the author of "The Amazing Formula That Sells Products Like Crazy." If you’d like to get on his mailing list and receive tips, articles and information about online marketing, visit: http://www.marlonsblog.com
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Socialites think that they contribute somehow in so called society. They probably think they can change the not easy or painful existence into more pleasurable or more beautiful. Much human involvement in change or evolution is connected to making the existence more comfortable a sort of buy a dishwasher instead of washing dishes yourself. But one need not to be concerned with this or see either positive or negative side of it. I prefer to contribute only little to socializing. Therefore you can rate me DLV + Jan
[Jan, I think my point got lost in the drama of the topic. The point is to create demonstrations of higher value for your PRODUCTS. It's not about you as a person.]
Hi Marlon.
Love the show! I let my blog readers know and my list.
Keep on entertaining us AND teaching us!
All The Best,
Lisa Angelettie
Your observations about the similarities between pick-up and marketing has force me to look at marketing in a much simpler way.
This is very practical too.
For example, Mystery talks about triggering “switches” of attraction within women, that when switched will literally and inevitably trigger within her just the right type of emotions.
It is the same with Marketing. Because what we’re really talking about here is connecting with humans on an emotional level.
Humans are humans are humans.
And we all to varying degrees unconsciously respond to social proof, greed, lust, desire for respect, pleasure, etc. when it is triggered properly.
And when I look at the top gurus in IM and other niches, they are all triggering these ‘switches’ using various mechanisms through books, seminars, e-mails, and their various products.
As you’ve mentioned in previous posts… a mechanism that would convey social proof can be in the form of having published books, public speaking, having testimonials from ‘celebrity’ marketers vouch for you, etc.
And I think. One of the cornerstones to effectively flipping these marketing ‘switches’ on a consistent basis is through the skillful craft of salesmanship in print: copy writing… because this is the main means of communication on the internet; text.
Although it is now become increasingly popular to use multi-media as the internet grows more mature and technology evolves.
Still, whether it is in video or text, effective direct-response copy I don’t think is going anywhere time soon.
Although I am not experienced as much as
other marketers, I believe that in order to get results in sales, one has to try to sell a good product. Some products don’t sell. “A good product” sounds probably vague but so be it. It’s better to remember that many products don’t sell – this is also vague but it sound better. So in order to accomplish sales simply – don’t sell products that don’t sell..