In the second episode of the Lo Cost Marketing podcast we interview “The Freddy Krueger of Blogging” – Danny Iny from FirepoleMarketing.com. Danny has a wealth of experience online, and more importantly RESULTS, and in this interview we tap into some of his secrets to online success.
@DannyIny is from Montreal Canada, and left school when he has fifteen to start his entrepreneurial career. A few years later he was busy with a combination of a copywriting practise and also a company that created software to help kids learn to read.
It was at the software company that he recalls one of the biggest mistakes that he had made in business, which was creating a product where the end user was not the same person as the actual purchaser. In this particular case it was kids that were actually using the product, but it was the parents that paid for the product.
Unfortunately the parents didn’t share the enthusiasm for the reading software that the kids had, and it made it difficult to actually sell the product. So the lesson to be learned here is that you should create products where the end user is the same person that is using the product.
We discussed some tips for the Average Joe who is struggling with marketing online part time, while working a full time job. Danny suggests that the most important thing for these people is to have a clear plan of action and a strategy designed to solve a specific problem.
Danny says “There are always multiple stages in the growth of a business and you don’t want to trying to skip ahead and hit a home run too quickly. First define exactly what you need to do to achieve the next step of your growth, and then focus on making it happen.”
Danny also suggests that you read the most popular post on his blog – Why Guru Strategies for Blog Growth DON’T WORK… and What Does! and also his Kindle book co-authored by Sean Platt – How to Build a Blog (Create Awesome Content and Build Community) (The Digital Writer)
But the best way to sum it up is that before you try to solve the problem, work out what it is – it is as simple as that 🙂
I then continue to ask Danny a few questions about himself and his company Firepole Marketing, and also the nickname of the “Freddy Krueger Of Blogging”. Danny is quick to point out that he didn’t name himself that, as it was someone else that actually created it.
It came about because of a clever strategy that Danny had worked out with guest posting on other people’s blogs. In a nutshell this strategy is all about sending out a huge wave of guest posts to different guru’s blogs that get published at around the same time. The posts written must be extremely well written and be of genuine value to the readers of each blog.
This wave of guest posts meant that Danny was effectively getting noticed on all of these high volume guru sites at the same time, and was effectively everywhere. The Freddy Krueger part came from the quote from the movie “(“wherever I turn, you’re there!”). The timing of the posts published is crucial, and the more you have go out at the same time the better the effect.
But for this strategy to work properly it is important to only go for the blogs that are relevant to your industry and also get a lot of traffic, for obvious reasons. Danny also mentions that the most important factor of the guest posting was the quality relationships that he was able to build along the way with both the owners of the blogs, and also their readers.
We then talked about Danny’s email marketing strategy, which from personal experience is quite different to the average marketer or guru online. Danny tends to send out emails on a regular basis and makes them very personal. He frequently asks for feedback and also suggests to his subscribers that if they are not interested in his emails to simply unsubscribe.
As well as sending out a lot of high quality content he is also not shy to ask for the sale – particularly if he can solve a particular problem that someone is having. Danny’s views on email marketing were interesting to say the least.
In Danny’s words “It makes little sense to be pushing products all the time via email and basically not care about the relationship side of the marketing. It is not respectful to the customer and is basically what scam artists do.
Email marketing is not about pushing or manipulating people to buy things. Email marketing is about aligning yourself with the correct audience that need what you are offering, and building relationships with these people. Most people don’t understand how to do it properly.
The difference between junk mail and not junk mail is the expectation of the response. Are people interested in reading the emails that you are sending them, or are you just annoying them. Email is not meant as a broadcast mechanism it is meant as a conversation mechanism. Unfortunately a lot of people are using the spam button as basically a vent button, wether the emails are spam or not.
Whenever I send out an email to my list I get two types of responses – some people are really happy with what I am sending them and want more, and some people reply saying that I send out way too many emails and to slow down. But it is all about chemistry – just like dating you decide that either you like this person, or you would rather just be friends .”
Danny writes his emails with the view of having a conversation with his subscribers, instead of primarily pushing products to them. If people like what he offers then they will buy, simple as that. The bottom line is to treat people with respect and aim to solve their problems, rather than just focusing purely on selling people stuff. Trust is vital and building relationships with your subscribers.
His company Firepole Marketing provides marketing education to small businesses owners who want to get better at marketing their goods, services and brand. They offer various paid training programs related to writing, blogging and marketing plus offer loads of free valuable information on the blog.
Danny has just hired a couple of people to make up a team of 4 working full time to push the boundaries on the way that business eduction is done online.
To connect with Danny online he suggests that you go to EngagementFromScratch.com and download his free book, where you will find everything you need from there.
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