EightBlack.

Ken McCarthy’s The System has certainly gained momentum since I was here in 2003.

The internet marketing community fascinates me - because there are people from both ends of the spectrum. When it all boils down to it, internet marketers (ie people who make money selling products or services online) are nothing more than direct marketers who use the internet as their primary channel.

Ken McCarthy is well respected in this field. He’s earned the right to take the platform. A better copywriter you will not find.

But. And I’m pausing for a minute here.

The 2007 System has, for a significant quantity of people, not met expectations. To be fair, it’s only Day One.

You see, when you come to “trade shows” like these, the speakers (or Faculty) are featured and marketed as leading practitioners in their field. You would like to think that if folks are forking out good money on the actual tuition or entry fee, airfares, hotel accommodation, average coffee and time away from their family, that the seminar organiser would insist that his faculty deliver content.

But this is where the basic model of these events is flawed. You see, the speakers all need (or want) to be compensated. So their sessions are platforms whereby they are supposed to deliver content to the audience and then gently mention that there are options for investing with them - by either buying their product or service.

In true US capitalistic fashion, some presenters get carried away. Instead of following the creed Content Is King, they get out of the gate quickly and go straight into sales mode. Hard. Pushy. Aggro. All the things that are old sell.

I sat thru a session yesterday on branding because I wanted to see and hear what this respected person might be able to offer, given that we’ve just gone through a re-branding exercise ourselves.

To be frank, the session wasn’t good. Little content. And a lot of fluff. And even times when I thought we were going to have to hug each other. Which would have made me puke and walk out. Listen, I’m married to an American. I’ve lived there. I probably know more about the US way of life than the Aussie one. But if one more presenter makes me stand up, turn to the person next to me and shout out “Hallelujah I’m a good person and I if I think I can do it, I will” (or something like that), then it just makes me want to barf. A lot.

But its not actually the presenters fault. Selling their wares is the only way they get paid. And on top of that, they have to split their sales proceeds 50/50 with the event organiser, in this case, Ken McCarthy.

Its human nature to think and act like this. The speakers have a limited amount of time to present in. They have a lot of material to cover. They need to sell their product. Or they wont be asked back again next year. Internet events are well oiled money making machines.

When we ran the X10 Seminar back in 2004, we refused to follow this model. Each presenter spoke twice. And there was no pitching of personal product. Just solid content. Remnants of the video of the entire event is scattered on Google Video and YouTube. We put it all up there. Watch Perry Marshall’s session on Google Adwords. Its still timeless advice.

I came here with a specific purpose, and that was to meet some key folks who are leading the way in their field. People like Sherman Hu and Dave Taylor (blogging experts) and Marc Harty (Web PR genius).

I went to Perry Marshall’s session and to be fair, I know Perry well and know what he’s capable of. This wasn’t his best day. I then went to a session titled “Branding On The Internet Is More Important Than Ever” by Kim Castle. See notes above. Not great.

On the plus side, I’ve met some great people. And reconnected with some old friends.

The conversation at the bar and over dinner that night wasn’t great. And Ken has certainly received the feedack from Day One. I’m convinced Day 2 will get better.

So, here’s the debrief of Day One of The System.

Opening Address and Day One System Notes: Unedited

System 2007
Opening address - Ken McCarthy
Chicago - home of direct mail
Ken started back in 1993
Direct marketers creed - We want more leads and more ways to convert people.
Understanding the history of media, marketing and technology
What is direct marketing? Communication designed to stimulate measurable action.
Fundamentals work.
Formula that made the system - Traffic + Conversion = Cash
Must have a way to generate leads, a plan to convert those leads
The only thing that makes money is getting traffic and converting traffic
Make sure you organise your time where you spend 80% of your day on getting more leads and converting those leads
Conversion = changing a persons “state”.
First state - dealing with strangers. Strangers have all the money (Google understand this implicitly)
Converting strangers to listeners, viewers, readers.
AIDA formula
A Attention
I Interest
D Desire
A Action
Not a sequence, its a simultaneous process that goes on
Dont ask people to buy, ask them to “try”
Stranger to Listener
Listener to someone who will try your product, service etc
NO risk.
You dont need to master every traffic method known to man, you just need to get on top of one
Ken McCarthy is living example. Not an SEO person, not a PPC person, not an affiliate marketer
Become a master of changing states
After they’ve tried, then what?
Risk Reversal
Your job to take all the risk off the customer.
A believer comes back again and again and again
We create a climate where people decide to buy something
Long term view equals success
Take care of your customers
System Seminar TV.com

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This entry was posted on Sunday, April 29th, 2007 at 9:17 pm and is filed under Internet Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.