Does Your Internet Marketing Stand Out from the Crowd?

It’s way too easy to blend into the background on the internet.

Even if you think you’re doing something different.

Squeeze pages often use the same program – ClickFunnels or LeadPages are two of the systems that are used and you get used to the format quite fast.

Does Your Internet Marketing Stand Out from the Crowd?

Webinar software that pretends recorded videos are live is another common tactic.

But, again, once you’ve been asked a few times to choose a time from a drop down list it gets samey.

Does Your Internet Marketing Stand Out from the Crowd?

And then there are the hyped up claims and aspirational pictures on the sales page.

If it’s a make money offer, there are often beaches or fast cars or mansions or yachts.

And extra precise claims – thousands of dollars and then some cents so that you’ll believe the figure that was earned, all in a specific (short) time line, usually measured in days but sometimes in hours.

Does Your Internet Marketing Stand Out from the Crowd?

If it’s a weight loss offer, there will be before and after photos, carefully neglecting to tell you that whilst the people shown did lose the amount of weight claimed, they were previously slim and had almost been fattened up for the photo shoot.

It’s legal and truthful but not exactly honest.

Does Your Internet Marketing Stand Out from the Crowd?

You’ve got two choices:

● Join the crowd and make your offer even more hyped up in the hope of standing out from everyone else – that’s a bit like competing on being the lowest price, it’s a never ending process

● Do something different from the crowd so that you stand out from them.

Doing something different is the method I prefer.

Does Your Internet Marketing Stand Out from the Crowd?

My videos are like this – simple, slide show style with me mostly reading the slides and occasionally ad-libbing extra things.

A simple set up with usable information and I can (and do) turn the presentation into a document on sites like SlideShare so they end up serving me in two very different places.

That’s my chosen style for videos and it’s one I’m happy with.

Does Your Internet Marketing Stand Out from the Crowd?

Versus the other YouTube results, mine stand out.

Most people don’t use a simple headline as their thumbnail – they use an image that doesn’t necessarily work at thumbnail size (much like most people don’t think to check their Kindle book cover looks good at the thumbnail size most people view it at)

Think about it: if you’re searching in YouTube, you’ll have a screen full of potential videos. Most of which you won’t watch.

Does Your Internet Marketing Stand Out from the Crowd?

When the video ends, if you haven’t allowed YouTube to auto-play the next video, you’ll get a mosaic of potential titles for you to watch next.

Most of them, you’ll need to hover over the thumbnail tile to see the title.

Mine stand out from the crowd because you’ll instantly see the blue on white title.

Does Your Internet Marketing Stand Out from the Crowd?

That’s a very simple way of standing out from the crowd on YouTube.

Maybe I’ve now invited lots of competitors to do that but unless you’re in one of the niches I’m involved in there’s a good chance our paths will never cross in the search results.

Most of the time, Google will use the same thumbnail in their results (sometimes they won’t show any thumbnail, I’ve not found any logic in that) and blue on white visually acts as an extra headline.

Does Your Internet Marketing Stand Out from the Crowd?

Blog posts are another way I stand out.

Most of mine have few – if any – images.

That’s not “correct” because almost everyone says I should use images.

And maybe they’re right – sites like WikiHow liberally use images in their posts.

Does Your Internet Marketing Stand Out from the Crowd?

But some people will prefer my format.

That’s the trick with standing out from the crowd in internet marketing.

There’s so much traffic in almost any niche that you can be the contra and still pick up visitors.

Does Your Internet Marketing Stand Out from the Crowd?

There won’t necessarily be as many of them as there are by following the crowd.

But you won’t be competing with as many people either.

It’s likely to follow the Pareto Principle.

Upwards of 80% will follow the crowd in their internet marketing.

Probably nearer 98% of them - that’s my unmeasured estimate.

Does Your Internet Marketing Stand Out from the Crowd?

But there won’t be that same percentage of the potential audience who want to buy in to that image.

So there’ll be maybe 2% of people going the opposite direction to the crowd in their marketing and they’ll attract maybe 10% or 20% of the potential market who are fed up with the pictures of yachts and beaches or impossibly slim people or whatever is the dream being sold in your niche.

Does Your Internet Marketing Stand Out from the Crowd?

Being a big fish in a small pond works.

And it’s actually easier in a lot of ways.

I don’t have to sell my soul to come up with dodgy income claims.

I don’t have to spend hours searching for images of a different beach or yacht from the ones my competition are using.

Does Your Internet Marketing Stand Out from the Crowd?

Instead, I just concentrate on content.

Which I’d need anyway.

Because even if you follow the crowd with your internet marketing, you still need to create content to feed the search engines and to keep your visitors and potential customers happy.

Does Your Internet Marketing Stand Out from the Crowd?

One marketer I follow releases most of his products as audios.

That’s a step back in time for a lot of people – after all, video is surely the place to be?

But actually it has quite a few benefits...

Does Your Internet Marketing Stand Out from the Crowd?

● He stands out from the crowd – few people create audio only products in internet marketing, they prefer hype over substance

● It’s probably more convenient for buyers – there are lots more places you can listen to an audio than you can watch a video or even read a PDF (most people can’t walk or jog and read a book)

● It’s quicker to create – he uses a teleseminar service so he doesn’t even need to render the recordings but if you were recording on your PC, audios render faster than videos

Does Your Internet Marketing Stand Out from the Crowd?

Take a step back from your current internet marketing.

Open up an incognito or private browser window so that your previous searches don’t have as much effect.

Run a new search for some of your main keyword phrases.

Then check each of the first batch of results – open them each in a new tab so you can flick between them easily.

Does Your Internet Marketing Stand Out from the Crowd?

Most of the time, the common ground between your competitors is obvious when you do this exercise.

It’s less obvious when you only look at the occasional page in isolation but there’s often a “D’oh!” moment when you look at a bunch of them in quick succession.

It’s then a matter of doing something different to help you stand out.

Does Your Internet Marketing Stand Out from the Crowd?

Take some time to look at all the different things you’re doing in your internet marketing.

Then work out what you need to do to stand out from the crowd rather than blend in with it.

And, of course, do it and monitor what happens.

Does Your Internet Marketing Stand Out from the Crowd?

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