Hmmmm.... beware of new "Local Marketing" by Russell Brunson

[levisolutions]

WOW - I have got to say that I enjoyed the products and services, alongside the thinking and strategy behind them, that I have received from Russell Brunson in the past. While none of these past "IM Programs" had anything to do with Local Marketing to offline businesses his newest program DOES. He explains that you will get his entire theory that is so powerful you can build a Local (offline) marketing business to people in a way that no other IM package or Guru is teaching. So - while I am used to the hype and I almost expect it from some lists I subscribe to it doesn't annoy me as much as it used to!

To get to the point here (and not drag on and on like the product I am reviewing here does)
The basic theory is to take good content that generically works in any niche or business industry and "re-niche" the front end. So if you take a great book like "Think and Grow Rich" and you make it "Think and Grow Rich in Dentistry" as well as "Think and Grow Rich with plumbing" etc. etc. That you can offer quality products, services or even consulting and then just package it for any offline business "niche industry". Although there is more to his program than this, of the THREE MAJOR POINTS that all current local marketing programs are NOT teaching you, this is the major difference between his program and the others out there.

I am not sure what the website is, I wouldn't give you the link anyhow, but I was directed through a email link that came from his AR and did not show the site name, anyway the program is "Russell Brunson's Local Marketing Myth". The problem I have here is he is NOT producing anything NEW at all.... in fact I think the point of this program is to get people to NOT focus on there locality and to regress in a way to focusing on a niche instead of an area. He touts it as "a strategy that NO OTHER local marketing program or guru is missing" although in my opinion it is something MOST people where doing BEFORE they started targeting areas, or at least before targeting local areas became such a niche in IM itself.

Basically - you create a great program for offline business, but since "You would not sell a marketing strategy to a dentist the same way you would to a hot dog vendor" as the intro video clearly points out, you create a targeted video for ALL dentists that leads into your generic local marketing plan after singing up a dentist. You then market to ALL dentists in the USA or world. You also create the "landing page" content and video to entice the hot dog vendors around the world that after singing up get the exact same marketing strategy in your program as do the dentists. I am NOT trying to be a big bummer or negative guy about this but COME ON! This is how most business structures or programs are run in a LOT of niches, industries and marketed specifically to for some time now. If anything, the local marketing (offline) marketing that makes this forum and Dexx as well as a handful of great teachers in this craft so special IS THE FOCUS on area and not market.

While you might disagree with me that is fine, I have not "Blown the top" off of some big secret that Russel is selling for the $499 price tag - but rather I am just letting people know that before you go out and give the "Local marketing Myth" your email and then 15 minutes of your life pumping up this "Unknown" strategy... that you will not be to hurt to find out and that after taking the five minutes this post takes you to read you might just save yourself 15 minutes of life that you could be enjoying doing or watching some other video! Heh

That's all folks. I do like Russel and I will be a bit more selective with his next "Big Secret" but you have my two cents (or $1.57 since it did go long).

Levi Brown
Rank Local Network

[MrPhelps]

Makes sense for him. He focused a LOT of energy at one point into Public Domain content, basically re-purposing stuff like personal growth material for specialized niches.

We're going to be seeing lots of these programs popping out of the woodwork over time. I'm sure everybody and their brother will be promoting them before long. It's how IMers are -- they just keep recycling stuff amonst each other.

I'm fed up with it, and so are a lot of others I've been talking to recently.

Here's one you can beat Russell to market with:

"Think And Grow Rich For The Offline Marketer"

Read it. And read it. And read it again -- a few more times. Just don't DO anything.

-David

[Bonnie]

Not surprising. Since Frank Kern let it be known he's turning his attention to offline marketing, every Frank-WannaBe is going to jump on the bandwagon. You'll see tons of promotions calling it the "latest and greatest thing to make you RICH!" for about 6 months. Then that'll die down and the NEXT BIG THING will be launched, and relaunched in various permutations by every IM guru (while they promote each other's stuff).

I just hope they don't market CRAP that gets a lot of buyers who then start pitching the heck out of that crap to small biz owners. It's hard enough for us to overcome the crap biz owners have already been sold by clueless web designers and incompetent SEO "experts."

My advice (to myself as well as others): Get your offline biz up and running and develop a strong list of loyal clients before all the crap hits the fan.

(Did I say crap often enough? Sorry, it's an occupational hazard... my day-job is writing/PR/public info for a sewer treatment agency ).

[jacquic]

Good review, Levi - thanks for taking the time to write all that.

Yep, real band wagon time right now :-)

~ Jacqui

[ramprof]

This stuff is actually a real threat to us right now. Not because a bunch of people are going to learn this stuff and actually compete with us in terms of expertise, positioning, etc. (the things that actually matter). The problem is that a bunch of people are going to jump on these "guru" programs and flood the marketplace with complete crap (following in Bonnie's footsteps)!

Yes, it will be our job to distinguish ourselves from this crowd. But a lot of small businesses are going to get burned by these guys and will be very cautious about spending money on this again.

I think the key (at least for my business) is NOT to position myself as the online marketing guy (a bit hard to do when you have a Ph.D. in this stuff). My partner and I are positioning our company in terms of the entire sales process chain. Online is part of it, but we want to also focus on the human side. After all who cares how many people come to your Website or call you if you can't close the deal with them!

-Ross

[BAYO a.k.a. Mr. B]

The mistakes too many people are making are just increasing every day.

The bottom line is folks need to think and act like true busines people. I ask those that work with me to consider what they would need to confirm and have in place BEFORE they got approved for a bank or any other loan for instance and also what they need to have in place BEFORE they even step up to the plate and present themselves to their ideal target audience.

Personally I believe in and operate in niches as it is proven to make marketing easier and more effective and so 'marketing to the world' because it sounds sexy is obviously something RB knows will appeal to anyone seeking the 'no work, tons of profits' silver-bullet strategy.

[drdan]

Thanks for the heads up and saving us the wasted time.

[levisolutions]

Thanks jacquic! - glad someone is reading my thoughts!
I agree there are a lot of wagons to hitch to and I am a bit fed up, on the other hand i want to start a "wagon" for people to hitch to so maybe I am a hypocrit BUT if my wagon can carry the load and reach the utopia land of gold then maybe not!!!!

I appericiate ALL the feedback!!!

Good review, Levi - thanks for taking the time to write all that.

Yep, real band wagon time right now :-)

~ Jacqui

[levisolutions]

NO problem my man Dr Dan! I am just sorry I did not make it shorter and more consise so you could have wasted even LESS time! LMAO....

[levisolutions]

This stuff is actually a real threat to us right now. Not because a bunch of people are going to learn this stuff and actually compete with us in terms of expertise, positioning, etc. (the things that actually matter). The problem is that a bunch of people are going to jump on these "guru" programs and flood the marketplace with complete crap (following in Bonnie's footsteps)!

Ross - THANK YOU, that needed to be said. I cannot talk a TON about it yet but with the success we have had with this style of helping offline businesses go online we are now creating a network of like minded marketers that has a customer.client back end as well as EVERY TOOL you can think of for promotions and idea generating/mind mapping. Once we roll this out I believe that we will have a strong presence that will help with the "crap that is a theat to u right now". Man - you said perfectly and I would love to talk to you about it if you have the time??? - Levi

[fmadison]

I bought Russell's Local product. It is basically a site where you send them traffic and get a percentage of the membership fees... the members you target are business owners who are pitched via a good video that they could do all the marketing themselves or have their secretary do it by watching in the membership area all these different videos on how to do the marketing.

In the end the business owner will either do it himself or be overloaded with 52 different marketing methods he could do himself or outsource it to Russell for him to do it. The videos in effect are sales letters even though they do teach you how to market if you watch the video.

What is really distasteful is that you only get 10% of any contract a business buys from Russell. He claims the average package price is $5000.00 So basically his product is just a giant lead generation system.

You can learn alot from his sales letter videos very effective.

Can't say that I like his 10% deal...

-Frank

[MrPhelps]

This seems to be happening more and more. All of these off-line service providers are turning us into sales people for them and paying us a commission for sending them leads.

EZLocalSEO from David Preston is like that. They charge a grand a month for stuff you can outsource for $50 or do yourself with a few tools in a couple of hours.

Please check this out: SYNND <-- 24-HR SPECIAL FOR LABOR DAY ONLY! 30% discount

When you opt-in you'll get a really nice PDF file that has just been updated to reflect the things they offer in their latest platform.

This is by FAR one of the most cost-effective services available today, IMHO. The new things they're about to launch will make it even better. (Well, they've launched them, but they're still sitting on the runway awaiting clearance to take-off, so to speak.)

You can use it for yourself and/or for your clients.

Basically, for under $100 a month, you can accomplish a large part of what most SEO firms are charging up to $2500 a month to do, with very little effort. They have several plans that let you buy more services as you grow your business.

They ALSO have a turn-key service like what Russell and David Preston offer, and they pay around 30% commission on your sales. However, I'm not sure if they're accepting any new "agents" at this time. If you opt-in for their Guide, they'll probably send you various promos about their other services as they become available. But they're VERY low-key about it.

-David