Why I Hate Marketing Gurus

After I finished my first feature film, I had a slight idea of how to market or sell my film; but, since we are in the golden age of the internet, where you can learn anything either by paying on websites like Lynda.com or on Youtube for free, I decided to learn marketing and online marketing.

It did not take long for me to get sponsored ads from Facebook gurus around the web, and even now I get consultant gurus ads, but still, I don't bite into their gimmick. I only saw one “Webinar” from one of the most famous Facebook gurus; I did learn a thing or two, but at the end of the webinar, I realized it was a one-hour commercial for a $300 Masterclass that said it would help me make THOUSANDS of dollars—maybe even millions…

This is where I started to get very suspicious.

After exchanging theories and info with a friend of mine who wanted to get into the whole drop shipping business, I ended up on a Youtube video with an online seller and he explained why all of a sudden all the gurus came out the woodwork. I don't know if it's true or not, but if you know about Facebook ads… it does make a lot of sense.

All the gurus made money for a short period of time when the bidding was not high. Then, all of a sudden, it got really high and they could not compete anymore. So, what do they do? They sell you a course on how they made money when the bidding for ad space was low. They just happened to leave that last part out of their pitch.

If a guru wants to show you how he makes 1, 2, 3 thousand dollars a week… why not just keep repeating the process for himself? Why sell a masterclass for $200-300 when you know how to make 3 thousand a week selling online?

Because They Can’t!

A paying customer (converting) is very expensive now. Converting customers go for $25 and up! (This depends on the business you are in and your audience.) So, if you are selling something that is worth $15, you will lose money on that customer—UNLESS you up-sell them via email marketing and follow-ups, but that takes time and work.

But you know what is the worst thing about these marketing gurus? The thing that pisses me off the most?

The Tactics They Use to Sell

I read a book about persuasion by a psychologist (Influence); it’s mainly a study about techniques that people exploit to get you to comply or do what they want. All of the techniques are psychological reactions that most of the time we can't control.

I have read emails from a bunch of “gurus” for either marketing or filmmaking, and all of them sell you something. But, they use ALL of the techniques in that book; you end up buying their product not because you need it but because you think you need it. They exploit how your mind works.

Here are a few examples:

• Social Proof: "Hundreds of people already joined/bought what I'm selling." (They will make them out to be like you (similarities), since Social Proof works better that way.)
• Urgency: "For a limited time, it's only $299! but this price will only be available for 24 hours." (Urgency makes your brain kick logic out of the window.)
• Reciprocity: They already gave away a free webinar with useful info, or gave away an e-book via email. (Reciprocity works on the foundation that someone gave you something for free and we feel like we owe them for being nice.)

These are some of the tactics they use, and they are meant to exploit our psychological, primitive part of our brains. "Click, Whirr," as the author/psychologist Robert Cialdini would say.

All of these gurus should give away all the “trade secrets.”

If they are so worried about us that they want to help us, then why not do it for free?

Why stop making thousands of dollars a week to sell us a $300 masterclass?

Why go through all the work of doing webinars and marketing if they can just keep making thousands a week?

They won't give you easy answers, templates, or formulas to get rich quick (get-rich-quick scheme, anyone?), because what works for one person or business might not work for another. Every item is different, and every store is different.

My Experience

I actually don't think there are trade secrets; online advertising is so saturated right now that your cost-per-acquisition is so excessively high that you can't compete without a huge budget.

Can you make money online with a drop shipping store? Yes.

If you want to make that $500k a year, just know that (and you can research this online) a normal ROI is 2-4 times your budget; so, to make $500k a year, you need to spend $125k-250k. Research it, and don't believe the people who make a living being a guru and telling you otherwise to sell you their service.

Here is a true fact that proves how full of bullshit people can be and how easy it is to exaggerate numbers: I created ads for the business of a friend of mine, and he now makes $12k a month after only one initial investment of $1.2k! That's an ROI of 10x.

I can help you achieve the same thing! Buy my masterclass (I’m just joking—I'm not selling anything).

Here are the problems with that.

1. It’s true. I did spend around $1.2k on ads, and he got around 120 kids to enroll at around $100 a month each.
2. His business is a school. If I used the same technique on another local business, I would not be able to get an ROI like that. Doubling or tripling your budget is not doable or normal on almost any kind of business.
3. There's a huge demand for schools in our city. We used the "engagement" type of ad on Facebook and some nice copy to get people to engage with our post or send messages three weeks before school started.

Am I a guru? No.

Did I make my friend all that money? Yes.

Can I do it again? I can try.

Can I show you how I did it and sell my secret to you? Yes.

But I won't sell you anything. I don't care.

Online marketing is not my business.

I LOVE the Psychology behind sales.

I LOVE targeting people on Facebook and getting it right.

I LOVE the technology behind online marketing.

Let get a conversation started about online marketing! You can reach me at my email [email protected] or on twitter @adrianpedrin.

Remember, I’ll share my knowledge if you share yours! :D