Affiliate Marketing

Engineering Evergreen Profitability ~ the Secret to Getting Paid

An article by Richard Bravo on Sat, 05/11/2013 - 12:00pm.

: "Silver Sphere Of Influence" the Art and Science of Engineering Success

from the desk of Richard Bravo
Executive Editor of YouIncPro.com

I'm sure you've heard the phrase "sphere of influence."
It's a reference to the degree of influence, authority, respect and relational prowess you carry in your personal and professional life.

Today I'd like to introduce you to what I've coined your Silver Sphere of Influence™

I'm going to show you how to cultivate and develop this asset into a money-getting machine (silver and gold...you know, REAL Money) that finances your ultimate You Inc. lifestyle.

Silver & Gold... Real Money

Learning to increase your ability to control the ecosystem within this sphere is paramount, which in turn increases your profitability ratios. The art of sales, audience engagement, servitude and increasing the value spawned within the sphere all play a vital role in the healthy growth and life-cycle of this ecosystem.

What Is Your Silver Sphere Of Influence?

Your Silver Sphere Of Influence is where the magic happens when it comes to making money and monetizing your business. Your sphere of influence is an asset, just like gold and silver. Hence the "silver" moniker.

Your Silver Sphere Of Influence is the path and the flow taken by your audience, potential and existing customers, media and potential partners, where you control the conversation to produce the highest likelihood of them making a purchase from you, subscribing to your list or hiring you.

They become a resident in your community, aka "Silver Sphere Of Influence".

You are able to exert the most influence within this silver sphere and build the tightest bond with your audience by intentionally creating an environment based on community and methodically engineering the message your visitors see, and to a high degree, the route and flow of your website traffic.

Your Content HQ vs. "the Social Network"

At a simplified level your silver sphere of influence is any blog or website you own and use as your Content Headquarters.

For example, let's look at the difference between your website (i.e. your self-hosted Wordpress blog) and a third-party social network such as Facebook.

The first key distinction between your content HQ and a social network is that you own your blog and can control everything happening on it. You decide what offers and ads to display to visitors. You decide when, how and what content to present to your audience. You have access to crucial metrics that directly impact your business success. Down to the color of links on a page, font styles, the call to action, A/B testing and much more, it's your show. You are the Ring Master & Architect.

In contrast, you control very little on Facebook or any other social network you do not directly own or are able to exert measurable influence over. I refer to these and other platforms like them as Media Outlets in the Big Bang Formula.

Your audience is shrouded in a blanket of noise and distractions on Facebook. It's a constant barrage of marketers competing for ad clicks, comment notifications from their friends, private messages, event invites, more ads, pictures of kittens, more ads, invitations to play TimeSuckVille, gonzo diet promoters and MORE KITTENS!

...ok yes, they're cute as hell I'll give you that ~ how can you hate on kittens. {meow}

: original photo by Nesster via Flickr

Ok now, focus, focus...
HEY! Yes you... focus, LOL!

The crucial difference here is that at any time Facebook decides they don't like what you are posting, they don't like your ad, what ever the case, they can and will shut you down. Poof! Just like that.

Or they will throttle your activity for being "too social" in some way.
I know it's a social network, but you aren't supposed to be "that" social =/

Or they'll run you through a maze of vague, ambiguous terms of service forcing you to play cat and mouse to get an ad approved, all while what appears is a slew of royal idiots get their ads approved in clear violation of Facebook's so-called "ad guidelines."

It's enough to drive you bonkers!
When you focus on becoming the platform you're able to escape the madness of the ratrace.

The degree of customization, control and longevity required in an effective Silver Sphere Of Influence ecosystem is very difficult to engineer unless you own the real estate your content is built on.

As the owner of a business that absolutely must profit, it is vital that you learn to bring your audience into your Silver Sphere of Influence to have the highest possibility of them becoming a new and repeat customer that you build a long-term, profitable, relationship with.

This is not to say that social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn or multi-media outlets like SlideShare, Youtube, niche forums, etc., have no value or do not play a role in empowering your your Silver Sphere of Influence. On the contrary, they play a very important role in their own right.

In fact one of the most influential emerging socioeconomic mechanics of these platforms, gamification, which is out of the scope of this article to discuss in depth, is a powerful concept to build into a highly effective Silver Sphere of Influence framework that is becoming increasingly easy to incorporate in self-hosted blogs.

This TED presentation is an excellent primer on gamification.
Seth Priebatsch: The game layer on top of the world
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yn9fTc_WMbo

The important thing for us as digipreneurs is to identify the specific strategic factors and return on investment social media provides to our individual businesses, while recognizing the content we publish and the acounts & profiles associated with it can be stripped away without warning, then to plan and proceed accordingly, building out our own platform.

Therefore use these networks and platforms to reach your audience, start relationships and engage with your potential customer base. Syndicate your content and leverage the powerful distribution and SEO factors these media outlets can add to your marketing.

But be keenly aware that if the platform in question is outside of your direct ownersip, it is not a controlled asset within your Silver Sphere Of Influence.

Your goal at that juncture of the social media driven relationship with your audience should then be to funnel them to a piece of digital real estate that is a direct asset within your Silver Sphere of Influence.

If You Build It, They Will Buy... Maybe?

In my experience working with many coaching clients and through my own entrepreneurial escapades over the years, the concepts I'm sharing with you in the Silver Sphere Of Influence are by far the most overlooked and neglected principle of business training when it comes to helping rookie entrepreneurs get started or, troubleshooting why a seasoned entrepreneur has plateaued.

Time and again my wife Bridgette and I have bought courses and listened to webinars where it all just sounds like the same rehashed material, said in a slightly different way.

Create awesome content
Send traffic to your "capture page"
Sell stuff to people on your list.

Really?...
I mean to some extent yes, it is sort of that simple.

But 'they' always leave out some of the most important details; the stuff between the lines.

The little details and nuances you learn from doing this stuff first-hand that can make a world of difference in an ad campaign or an offer to increase conversion rates. What on God's green earth is a proper sales funnel, how do you build one, and what is a upsell sequence or OTO anyway?

I'm not talking about magic bullets, ninja tactics or underground shenanigans.
The core principles of the Silver Sphere Of Influence are fundamentals that you must know and execute.

It's not just the copy, it's not just the sexy graphics, it's not just the half price limited time only discount.

While all of those are singularly important components of the equation, the root of successfully making money and being profitable in your business is, outside of mindset and developing personally as an entrepreneur, but that's for another conversation...

The root of successfully making money and being profitable in your business is this:

"You must have a complete, cohesive path of purchase, to a product or service your target customer must have, presented through a compelling offer they simply cannot refuse, at a price they can afford or are willing to pay, that provides a solution to their most pressing pain, problem or need."

One of the core principles of creating your Silver Sphere Of Influence is engineering your product choice to match your sales funnel, to match your marketing message, to match lead generation optin offers, to match your audience engagement.

It's a process of reverse engineering and story-boarding to come up with a blueprint that not only makes sense to you on the business side of the relationship, but also makes sense to your customers and meets their needs as well.

{K+L+T} * {ROI} / {ROOKIE} = $FAIL$

They say people buy from people they know, like and trust.
As people get to know you and grow to like you they will begin to trust you.
Once that scenario plays out, people will buy from you.

Guess what ... they're wrong!

People buy first out of need, then trust and social proof.
They continue to buy because they've grown to know and like you,your brand and or your business.

The next big piece to engineering your Silver Sphere Of Influence is cultivating trust and offering solutions that your customers are actively looking for.

This long standing, yet incomplete advice is especially disempowering and frustrating for the rookie entrepreneur. Unless you are coming to the game with an existing rolodex chalk full of influencers, power players and talent, odds are you aren't well known yet. Odds are stacked high against you that you have no audience, and you currently wield no influence in the market place.

As a rookie listening to this sales proverb you are very likely to find yourself feeling a little out of place, a little lost and maybe even a little scared... much like I felt when I was getting started.

Those feelings are compounded by the notion projected by the KLT formula presents. Which is success is determined by people knowing you and liking you prior to doing business with you.

: Ripple Effect of the Silver Sphere of Influence | image via Playgen

Trust agents are ordinary people with a keen interest in an area, they are digital savvy and wield the web to provide an honest, genuine relationship for their own means. They have the capability to elevate an ideology and reputation or vice-versa.

Let me prove my point...

Have you ever been somewhere, on vacation for example, and you find that you forgot something at home, toothpaste let's say. Did you scour the city looking for your hometown store to buy some because you'll only shop at a store that you know, like and trust? Of course not!

You went into the first reputable looking place you could find and bought some toothpaste. I'm willing to bet you bought more than that. If you're anything like me you grabbed some snack food, some drinks, a souvenir, another pair of sunglasses because your 2-year-old made yours magically disappear,a pack of gum and some lip balm, before you even hit the register.

Between the tired spouse, hungry kids and everything else on your brain, the only thing that crossed your mind subconsciously within nano seconds was whether the place looked decent enough that you weren't going to get mugged in the parking lot... i.e. you chose to shop there because you established a level of trust first and foremost.

There's no way you would know or like the store. You're on vacation, you've never been there before. Perhaps someone at the front desk recommended it, or you pulled the local directory from the drawer next to the bible in your hotel room.

Outside of recognizing a franchise brand name like a Walgreens or Albertson's, your decision to do business there is first on the perceived level of security of the location [trust], next is the appearance and the perceived social acceptance, i.e. "other" people are shopping there, and it is fairly obvious this is the type of store that will have what you need in stock.

If the inside of the store is clean, orderly, pleasant, and they have what you need, you won't hesitate for a second to plop your goods on the counter and give them your credit card, happily, with a smile ~ whether you know them or not.

Now, and ONLY now, shopping at this store is a familiar experience for you, i.e. (now you know them), and they have successfully served your needs and met your expectations, (now you like them). NOW it is a strong possibility you'll shop there again before the end of your vacation and most likely the next time you return to the area.

Let's look at what the "Silver Sphere Of Influence" characteristics in that scenario that lead to a making a purchase?

First, you had a need. Not a want, a need. You needed toothpaste.

The upsell sequence that took place, the shades, the gum, the junk food etc., are based on the fact the store knows, based on data, if you purchased one thing there is a high probability that you will want these other things. Enter the impulse buy... we'll cover those topics at a later date.

Next, the store is in a good location, is well-kept, the staff are pleasant and the isles are stocked with the things you need. The experience is familiar to you, and the store has a layer of perceived social acceptance that eased your mind.

The experience was safe, pleasant and easy... a so-called "no brainer."
In actuality it was a total brainer, nothing but psychological triggers, sales environment design and good old' fashioned pride of ownership influenced your decision to buy. All-in-all the epitome of a well engineered "Silver Sphere Of Influence."

Now flip the scene.
If all things being equal there were other options...

What if the first store was in a "bad" location, looked run down, is tattered and appears to be a gathering place for shady looking characters... Would you have even gone in?

Or would you high-tail it and keep driving till you found an alternative, any place that looked better?
i.e. somewhere you felt you could trust and provided a sense of security...

If you went inside and the place was a mess, smelt weird and looked dirty ... would you have stayed?
Or would you have gone next door or down a few blocks, or further to a better store?

If the prices were outrageously high, the selection was slim and the employees were rude ... would you still make a purchase? Or would you opt to go next door or down the road to the next store?

You didn't know them, but you sure didn't trust them and you didn't like the environment.
So you took your business elsewhere... to a business that obviously invests in deliberate energy and resources into engineering their Silver Sphere Of Influence.

I've been in these exact scenarios numerous times, as I'm sure you have as well.
I've walked right out at the cash register after being confronted by a grouchy or rude employee.

I'll drive another mile or more to get gas just because I know there's a really nice Maverick down the road. I pass by all the run down dirty stations and go to where I trust, know and like.

My brain learned that by experience.
It all started with seeking a place I felt I could trust.

Your Silver Sphere Of Influence is the foundation for everything in your business.
This is why it's imperative that you begin there by designing a platform of trust.

Don't fall into the trap of slapping any old replicated affiliate landing page in front of your audience. Or sending a cookie-cutter message to your list. Just because a certain style of speaking, the language used and the energy level of one marketer works for them, don't assume it will automatically work for you.

Be selective and methodical in what you choose to present to your audience. It must make sense to them, every time, based on the branding and message you've built. The same message and branding that attracted them to you and/or your business in the first place.

Your presence online, your marketing materials, your ad campaigns, your emails, everything must be consistent with the brand, which instills reliability and trust.

If you invest the time to dial-in this component of your business first as an intentional measure to cultivate your Silver Sphere Of Influence, then everything else in your business will be easier to put into play and render better results and greater ROI overall.

Silver Frame of Marketing

the Marketing Frame and Character Of Silver

The fundamental characters of silver are a perfect frame to model and apply to effective marketing and engineering your Silver Sphere Of Influence.

Silver's most basic descriptive attributes are it is Shiny, Valuable, Reflective and Soft.

Instill each of these attributes into your processes to engineer the perfect marketing frame:

• Shiny

Use language, visuals and audio that draw attention. Design your brand, style and message with the intention of being attractive to your target audience.

• Valuable

Expose the inherent value so it is immediately recognizable in your product/service.
Strive for mass appeal within your niche... When people see it, they must have it.

• Reflective

Mimic the perspective of your audience. Empathize with your target customer. Mirror your audiences desires and wants.

• Soft

If you follow the first characteristics you won't need a hard sales approach. You can effectively "soft sell" all day long when you treat your audience the right way.

Go Forth And Prosper...

Engineering Your Silver Sphere Of Influence is exactly what you need for long-term success and maximum profitability.

Understanding how the pieces of your Silver Sphere Of Influence fit together to complete a grander, more lucrative blueprint is paramount to evergreen success.

The strength of any blueprint for success begins with a solid foundation.
That foundation, the key piece to your success is your Silver Sphere of Influence.