2009, February. This story was launched into new dimensions. A partner and friend invited me into a home-meeting designed to launch a home business. I want to tell you that story but let’s talk about this being my 4th published book for context.
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Previously in the world of my book writing endeavors, I published my 3rd book called Real Estate Money Secrets as a follow up to the first book I ever published called Smart Real Estate Wholesaling.
Between those two books, I co-authored a book with my wife called Get My Marriage Back to help couples going through a crisis in marriage rekindle things in a sustainable and healthy way.
It is with great pleasure that I present to you my 4th published book; Digital Marketing Certified. I believe it’s going to be my greatest work thus far towards my on-going effort to continue to put more value out into the world.
Not just because it’s going to help me make more money but honestly, because it will help you add more value into the world, create a positive impact and yes, make more money.
It almost feels like my books are tracking my personal journey; which I am about to share with you in a second. I like it because it’s starting to make sense.
There were times that I had planned to write other books in the past few years but it just never happened. This book is not just written; you are also here reading it and to me, that’s a sign of lots of greatness that will come through you into this world.
Reading this book 10-15 times is not just about reading a book. It’s about mastery of what it’s going to take to connect your message and the value you have to offer the world with your core audience; literally millions of them waiting to receive your awesomeness.
I want to be able to track your progress and especially your story as it’s also being documented as you implement what you learn in this book; that’s my greatest wish.
So 2009, February as I was saying earlier, my digital marketing story was officially launched into new dimensions. A partner and a friend invited me into a home meeting designed to launch a home business in his apartment, West New York, New Jersey.
A multi-million dollar real estate business had just gotten wiped out from underneath me due to the 2008 recession. So I was open to ways of pivoting because I experienced massive unfathomable success between the ages of 26 and 28 year old.
You couldn’t tell me anything. I was on top of the world and suddenly; it was over. I tried building an online mall, a car export business and a few other things. I just knew that I was never going into the 9-5 world.
I just always knew that I had more value in me to offer the world. It feels like a big whole ball of fire inside of me and it would be the greatest form of punishment to lock me inside of a cubicle for eight plus hours and 5 days per week or more.
In hindsight, I now know that I was naive and too young to be able to comprehend everything I have now learned since then; over 12 years.
Anyway, I ended up signing up for a network marketing business opportunity and that officially launched me into the world of marketing.
With the prior real estate business, I actually leveraged the power of the internet with direct response and email marketing in so many creative ways. But I didn’t realize it was all digital marketing.
I recruited my whole family into the network marketing, multi-level marketing, MLM business model but they all did nothing with the business opportunity. So I received a $12 check months later in exchange for the $2,000 that I spent on signing them all up.
In 2014, I made my way back into real estate in collaborations with other investors, wholesaling, training and coaching investors how to market using my systems. But since 2009, there is one aspect of all these that I wake up to daily; that’s marketing. I am obsessed.
One of the most difficult and “easy to be distracted from” lessons I’ve discovered is that everyone needs a link to opportunities to serve. Let me explain.
We all want to, not just survive, but we want to be financially stable enough to enjoy the things we like to enjoy. Let’s just address the elephant in the room.
We all want more money no matter how much we already have. Everytime, you get a raise in income, a new problem is created. Naturally, the cost of your lifestyle follows suit.
There is not much difference between being a business owner or not; I learned after about a decade. It’s still a rat race if you do not figure out how to link up with new opportunities to serve on a regular basis.
Gone are those days, when you would spend 40 hours per week on the same job for 40 years starting at an entry level of $40,000 annual salary. Even a 6-figure salary doesn’t add up any longer.
Honestly, I am not even talking about the money because I believe that part is a by-product of having the skills to link yourself up with new opportunities to serve more consistently.
In the 9-5 world, it’s about those resumes connecting with new potential employers on a consistent basis. You can no longer afford to settle with one employer for 40 years.
But in business, it’s about connecting with new leads, new customers, new clients and new deals on a consistent basis on demand. In a highly competitive world, it’s difficult if you don’t pay attention to the digital evolution.
Think about it. How many businesses do you see on your way home with “closing out sales?” Every organization including charity organizations are struggling connecting to people who can donate.
Here is the problem. The world hasn’t moved on. It’s moving as a consistent constant. Technology is always evolving and I’m sorry, business cards and billboards have become the most ineffective way to connect with new opportunities to serve and off course make more money.
So how do you connect with new leads, new prospects, new customers, new clients, new deals, new jobs and more money as the world continues to evolve in the digital era?
You guessed it right. Digital Marketing; the art and science of leveraging the digital evolution to build influence and connect your values with an audience that already wants it badly.
Just a few years ago, we called it internet marketing and online marketing. But the truth is that we can’t keep up because there are on-going developments around the same concept; everything is digital and digitally evolving.
In fact, sooner or later, we are going to have half-humans half-robots taking away more old school jobs. But the good news is that more new-school jobs are being created.
Digital marketing is a solution to the problem of connecting with new opportunities as relevant to the obsession of mankind with wanting everything easier, simpler, faster and all the other ‘er’s you can think of.
But we also know that every solution creates new problems. And every problem creates new opportunities to solve more problems.
So I hope you are starting to think of the idea of digital marketing as the greatest opportunity to make more money and build out your career, your life and your legacy no matter what it is.
I guess the easiest proof I can offer you right now is to observe just social media, which is just one piece of many, from this lens for 24 hours. Then write your objective observations as to how much money is moving hands right in front of you in real time.
While many businesses are going under due to what I consider as arrogance, many new companies and income opportunities are rising daily from something so obvious, many still can’t see it.
We are going to use this book to shed light on digital marketing and also teach the skills required to take serious advantage of it.
If you are still reading, you already know that you need to be marketing in order to keep bringing new eyeballs and revenue into your business. You already know that it's a direct source of food for the beast.
So even if you want to do great things for others from the goodness of your heart, you know that you won’t be able to afford to keep it going if no revenues are coming in.
But the question now is why should you pivot from more traditional types of marketing into digital? For one, it’s easier, simpler and gets you results faster. And guess what, it’s actually cheaper too.
Back in the days, a lot of marketing activity involved throwing stuff against the wall and hoping that something will stick. Quite often than none, some did stick. But I would attribute that to that particular environment where everyone else didn’t know any better.
In this digital age, more and more people are discovering it; even though I believe that digital marketing is still very much in its infancy stages.
That right there is your competitive advantage going right out the window. Sure there is a balancing act between not just jumping on every bandwagon and being proactive when it comes to new technology.
Leveraging digital marketing is one of those where you have to be proactive because it has to do with the blood and life of your mission; new people to serve.
As opposed to traditional methods, everyone is equal. (I’m not sure if that’s a good thing) and it’s easy to get started. That could have been a disadvantage but because getting started is readily available to anyone, most people are taking it for granted.
Many people literally had to wait years for major universities to be teaching it in their curriculum to pay attention to digital marketing. It’s not too late but that doesn't mean you didn’t miss out on certain opportunities that come from taking action at ground zero.
So I get approached every now and then by people who have a little money to spend on marketing to build their movement and mission. “Ola, I’ve got $25,000 to spend on marketing. Where should I start?”
It’s probably the most popular question that I get. “How do I get started?” Some would say, “there are too many people talking, exactly where is the starting point?”
That can be absolutely confusing and frustrating. So I get it. Especially when you consider the beast itself; the internet is such a viral machine that it’s so easy to get lost in a rabbit hole without any chances of coming out with a useful product.
That’s one of my goals with this book. I want to help you outline a step-by-step approach which obviously has to start with a step one. Speaking of goals, the first step is for you to get crystal clear on what your personal and business goal is, not “are”, but “is” with respect to why you want to leverage digital marketing.
Without a clearly written out goal and purpose statement, you will get lost in the sauce of the beast because what we love about it what you may end up resenting about it.
I can’t tell you how many people have left the mission because of the frustration directly linked to not starting with a goal and clear purpose. It may sound simple but anything worthwhile in life and business is easier said than done.
This book is a great guide, a type of bible, if you will, to help you stay grounded in your set purpose as you navigate the world of digital marketing.
That’s what we are going to use as seed for the initial research to identify the right content, platform, placement strategy that will create your desired results from this simple process presented in this book.
Go ahead and log in into your favorite social media platform right now. What do you see? I bet you see some type of news and/or post feed.
Here is something else you will notice. You will notice that the first few postings in that feed tend to be a continuation of the same type of content you had been engaging at least with your eyes during your recent browsing.
As simple and as regular or obvious as that may sound to you right now, I want you to realize how powerful it is to follow your ideal customer and client with content they are most likely going to engage again.
“Again?” Yes. It’s very important to pay particular attention to the idea that you can actually track the interest of your ideal audience down to what they are most likely going to enjoy and engage in. Imagine being able to track this phenomenon down to micro-behaviors and leverage it to build your ability to connect with more opportunities to serve and therefore make money.
It’s been proven time and time again that your average customers will not do business with you just after their first encounter with your business. Back in the days, you would have to make follow-up calls to see if they are ready to do business.
But in the digital era, you can track and set up automated campaigns to take advantage of what we already know for centuries.
Have you experienced an ad following you to every website you go after viewing a product that you didn’t buy yet? With digital marketing, you are able to track people’s interest and connect it to your offer in the marketplace in an extremely predictable and scalable way.
In this digital age, it’s all trackable numbers that you can leverage to create more of its kind; optimized for massive profits in your business.
Before we dive in through the rest of this book which I know you are excited about, this is what I want you to do. I want you to grab a piece of paper or open an empty document on your personal computer.
Then I want you to write straight from your heart what you want personally from digital marketing. I want you to describe your desired outcome in full detail and what that desired outcome would mean to you with respect to wealth building and living a healthier lifestyle and fostering better personal and business relationships.
Here is what’s going to happen. You will discover how much you have buried inside for one. In addition to that, you will notice a flow of ideas based on what we’ve covered in just the introduction.
There are some exceptions. Maybe you are one of them and you don’t feel that way after honestly going through that exercise. This is what I want you to do.
I want you to describe in full detail how you’ve attempted to use emails and/or social media in any capacity to advance your outcome either in business or in your personal life.
Once you’ve done that, I want you to attempt to quantify the outcome you got from such activities in the past and then multiply it somehow by 100. Continue to describe the product of that exercise because I know you may find it difficult at this point to describe things in discrete data.
Congratulations. You have just had your first experience in the excitement you are about to discover over the next 11 chapters of digital marketing awesomeness that’s about to happen to your business, and your mission.
It’s never been this easy to quantify the numerous activities involved in exposing content, products and services to quality eyeballs. Literally, all of it and more can be done from a laptop and a decent internet connection.
In the next and first official chapter, I am going to help you a little further in defining your goals. Remember, you ultimately know what outcome you desire from leveraging digital marketing to spread your message, impact, products and services.
But I want to help you define it in a way that you are able to predict results so you can double down over and over where necessary. No worries. It’s going to be a lot of fun as we dive even further into this.