What Is ‘Information Marketing’, Anyway?
By Dan S. Kennedy, Chairman Emeritis
Information Marketing Association
There have never been greater, more diverse, more lucrative opportunities for everyone - very experienced, successful entrepreneurs to rank beginners - in the field of Information Marketing.
‘Information Marketing’ is responsive to and fueled by the ever-increasing pressure on peoples’ time, so that businesspeople and consumers alike need information provided to them in convenient forms, and, in some cases, need an extension of it; methods and strategies that might merely have been taught to them 10 years ago now done for them.
The ‘Information Industry’ encompasses products like traditional books, audio programs, video or DVD’s which you might buy in a store, from a catalog or online, magazines, newsletters, e-books, membership web sites, teleseminars and webinars, telecoaching programs, and seminars and conferences, and combinations thereof.
The possible topics are almost endless. People are buying information on every imaginable topic, from better sex, to teaching parrots to talk, to gardening, to investing in real estate foreclosures, to running businesses.
‘Information Marketing’, then, is about identifying a responsive market with high interest in a particular group of topics and expertise, packaging information products and services matching that interest (written/assembled by you or by others or both), and devising ways to sell and deliver it. If you can name it, somebody is packaging and profitably selling information about it.
Personally, I work very closely with more than 50 private clients and coaching members in such businesses, and less directly with several hundred more. The information marketing businesses I am directly involved in generated millions of dollars in income in 2005, doubled 2004, and are projected to again double in 2006. My “Platinum Group” of 18 info-marketers and my other private clients combined did over 200-million in business last year.
But what’s important to the entrepreneur is that much of this is lone wolf, small, quiet operators, many with home-based businesses, most with zero to no more than a few employees, most working only part-time hours, and most netting 7-figure profits.
It’ll be instructive to give you a random list of topics and markets these businesses cover, then a couple more detailed examples.
Random list of subjects: yoga for golfers; investing in tax lien certificates; extreme fitness;persuasive voice skills for business, and for dating; how to get women to approach you;how to make money on e-bay;how to learn gunsmithing at home, as hobby or business…..and in business niches, marketing systems, management, finance information for restaurant owners; dentists; chiropractors; auto repair shop owners; real estate agents; insurance agents; menswear retailers; jewelry store owners; pest control operators; even professional magicians.
As an example from a business niche, consider my Platinum Member and client, Rory Fatt, who owns Restaurant Marketing Systems. Rory has over 100 restaurant owners each paying $10,000.00 yearly to be in his top-level coaching program; nearly 4,000 buying and using his advertising, marketing and business “kits” --- information products ranging in price from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars, and subscribing to his newsletter; nearly 500 attend his annual multi-day conference; and he also provides pre-fab web sites, a loyalty points program (like a frequent flyer program), new mover mailings done for them, and other products and services.These products are sold using print ads in trade journals, direct-mail, web sites and e-mail, and teleseminars. It is a multi-million dollar a year business built from scratch in about 5 years.
Rory has only two employees, and he works from home most of the time, takes a lot of time off to be with his family, and takes at least two extended vacations a year. And maybe what’s most significant is: Rory’s never owned, operated or managed a restaurant.Quickly a few other examples from amongst my group: Gene Kelly, who made over a million dollars this year selling gunsmithing and related home study courses to hobbyists.
Dr. Paul Searby, who, after only two years creating his information businesses from scratch, is bringing in as much as $200,000.00 a week, so he sold his dental practice - he makes more in a month in Information Marketing, part-time, than he did in a year, full-time, as a dentist!Ron and Jill Wolforth, similar income, selling information on “hitting” to parents of Little League baseball players. I could go on and on and on.
I have been at this for almost 30 years, and have seen the business go from “mail-order” to the much bigger, broader, hugely profitable arena of opportunities it is today, and I’m pleased to say I have literally invented some of the business models that people now routinely use to go from zero to $10,000.00 to $100,000.00 a month and more, in just a matter of months.
Just so you know, I have enjoyed great success as a professional speaker, consultant, information marketer, and published author - in fact, I have two new books in bookstores in February 06: No B.S. Wealth Attraction For Entrepreneurs and No B.S. Direct Marketing For Non-Direct Marketing Businesses.
What you can learn by observing me is the creation of “business loops”. For example, the aforementioned books drive readers to web sites and free teleseminars where they are introduced to my newsletters and become subscribers and members; when I have a book published, it’s got a built in audience, and is promoted to our subscribers via the newsletters.
There are a number of other “business loops” you can create, each providing you with multiple streams of income. Whether your interest is an interesting sideline or retirement business with no stress, complete flexibility and portability, and a few thousand dollars a month of easy income, or a full-time business providing a high 6-figure or 7-figure income and, if desired, prominence, celebrity, a saleable asset, one of the Information Marketing plans I’ve devised and perfected will fit you to a ‘T’.
Dan Kennedy has been called the “Professor of Harsh Reality” because he’s provocative, irreverent, sarcastic, and tells it like it is in a humorous, but chillingly serious fashion that cuts to the core of the issues.
His faithful followers also refer to him as the ‘Millionaire-Maker’ who moves with remarkable ease from one very different field to another, working with clients in 62 different businesses, industries and professions, earning as much as $400,000 in a single month providing unusual direct-response advertising and direct marketing advice, strategy, copywriting and marketing materials.More information about Dan is available at www.DanKennedy.com