What My Father Taught Me About Online Marketing

My father never owned a computer, yet he taught me almost everything I know about online marketing. I never realized this until just yesterday though. My father never had Twitter or Facebook, never blogged and was never famous, but he left a legacy that lives on to this day.

3 Key Takeaways

1. Sales Begins with Service

In online marketing, we can get so caught up with trying to get more subscribers, more optins, or more customers that we forget to serve our audience.

My father would look for people in need (struggling golfers) and serve them by providing a quick solution to their most pressing problem. This was an offline version of an optin.

Once that quick solution fixed the problem, a certain percentage took it to the next level and bought lessons from him.

He began with serving. That allowed him to sell.

The best optin is a quick solution to your audience’s most pressing problem.

2. Never Miss an Opportunity to Upsell

My father never let one transaction be the end. He always looked for an opportunity to upsell.

If you bought a lesson package, he looked for other needs such as equipment. He never did so greedily, but if what you truly needed was a new driver, he’d be the one to help you find it.

As a result of his service-based attitude, people came to him for recommendations on products.

Never let a single transaction be the end. Continue to serve and upsell.

3. Focus on Relationships, Not Transactions

When my father passed away, more than 500 people showed up.

How is it that a small-time, virtually unknown golf instructor had that many people show up? Because he focused on relationships, not transactions.

His lesson clients became friends. He genuinely cared about their well-being and their happiness. He cared about their results.

And that meant they cared about him.

What’s your biggest takeaway from this video? Who has been your biggest mentor in online business?