Dale King Interviews Marketing Strategist, Adam Urbanski

Adam Urbanski: Dale, I'm excited to share some of my direct-response marketing know-how with your readers. Thanks for inviting me to do this. I really appreciate the opportunity.

Dale King: My pleasure, Adam. Would you mind explaining exactly what it is that you do?

Adam Urbanski: I work with service professionals and business owners and show them how to develop an effective marketing plan to attract all the new clients, sales, and profits they want. In the process I teach them how to position themselves to be recognized as experts in their industry and start generating passive and leverage income from publishing and selling information products.

Dale King: Adam, tell my readers how and when you got started marketing on the Internet.

Adam Urbanski: I used to own a chain of fast-food restaurants - which, by the way, is my first big "claim to fame", because I built it into a multi-million dollar business in less than 10 years, starting with only $194,
no special connections, and with a VERY limited ability to speak English. I sold my last store in 2000 and decided to become a business consultant.

But I quickly learned that I was faced with massive competition, and working with clients individually presented serious limits to how big I could grow my business. So I began to teach group programs called "Six Weeks to Your Business Success and Bigger Profits". At first I registered people over the phone. The I realized I can have a registration page online.

Originally only people I met at local networking functions came to my webpage - which, by the way, looked terrible! But as I started to publish my articles, and a weekly ezine, eventually more and more people who I didn't know and never met before began to buy my course.

With time, I added more products and programs and learned about a lot of different strategies to find my clients online, develop products that sell, drive quality traffic to my websites, and convert visitors in buyers and repeat buyers.

Today, my online business generates an amazing income, and I run it from home with a team of three employees and about six additional support team members who work with us virtually.

Dale King: Wow...that's a really interesting story. Adam, Some Internet Marketing experts advise newbies to steer clear of certain areas of Internet Marketing, like selling e-books on how to make money, advertising services, SEO services, copywriting, etc., because those particular niches are deemed to be "too competitive." Do you agree with that assessment?

Adam Urbanski: This question is actually harder to answer than you think. Because the real answer is "it depends" - but most people don't like hearing this. Let me explain it.

The key to success in any business - and building a business using the Internet is no different - is to find a need and fill it. Which means everything starts with finding a group of people - a specific target market. Ideally, this target market is already aware of their problem, wants to find a solution. Furthermore, this market has to be easy to find and approach and has to have the money to invest to buy the solution to their problem.

So if you follow this criteria, getting into the "Internet Marketing Market" isn't a bad decision. The fact that it's a crowded industry is a telling sign that people in this industry are buyers. The real key to building a winning business in a crowded market is the ability to offer something unique and differentiate your products and services from others! If the newbies are simply copycats and try to recreate what someone else is already doing - without adding anything new - they won't be successful. I hope this makes sense (big smile here)

Dale King: I couldn't agree more. How is Internet Marketing different now, as opposed to when you first got started online?

Adam Urbanski: It's definitely more crowded. It seems that every day more and more people claim they are experts at something. For example, in my area of specialty - developing effective marketing strategies for service professionals and small businesses - there are now people who want to teach others how to build a million dollar business, but they have
never done it themselves.

When I started, it was enough to put an opt-in box on the website and just say "sign up for my ezine". Obviously, that's no longer the case.

Dale, direct marketing, copywriting, freebie-type promotions, and selling information products has been going on for at least a century - and probably much longer. But Internet has shortened the "exposure curve". Every day more and more people are exposed to "name-squeeze pages",
sales-letter-type website, product launches, and new gurus entering the market each day. All those things make our potential clients more skeptical, jaded, and much more cautious about doing business with us.

But the bright side of this is that the real "gurus" always come up ahead - because they know how to create more and more value, and out-strategize the copycats and wanna-be's!

Dale King: That's a great point, Adam. How important has goal-setting been to your overall success?

Adam Urbanski: On a scale from one to 10, I'd have to give it a 20! But goal setting alone isn't enough. You must have specific deadlines. Plus, it's important to attach action steps to each goal.

I once heard a quote that the reason people procrastinate is because they don't have a clear direction or the task at hand will take longer than 45 minutes. I really believe it.

Goals give us clear direction. Breaking them down into small, easy to take steps, propels us to action!

Dale King: How important has reading been to your overall success?

Adam Urbanski: This is another 20 (on the scale from one to 10) Personally, I'm a slow reader, but I still average at least a book a week. Plus, I buy a lot of home study programs because I love to learn by listening. And my favorite is to attend live events. I invest a lot of money in high-level trainings each year and I really believe that's one of my "secrets" to success - constant learning from others who are already doing what I want to learn.

Dale King: If you could recommend one book that all Internet marketers should read, what would it be?

Adam Urbanski: I'm not sure I can settle for just one. Each book you read ads new twists and perspectives to understanding of business and the psychology behind human behavior. I'll give you my top three. The first would be "My Life in Advertising & Scientific Advertising" by Claude Hopkins. Next is "Influence the Psychology of Persuasion" by Robert Cialdini. Finally, "Breakthrough Advertising" by Eugene Schwartz.

These are not new books by any standards and seemingly have nothing to do with Internet. But they will teach you how to understand how people think, how to create value, and how to create marketing messages that magnetically resonate with your potential clients and cause them to spend money with you.

Dale King: In your opinion, what technology has changed Internet Marketing the most over the last 5 years?

Adam Urbanski: Certainly the use of audio and video are huge. But I think what really changed the "Internet Game" are things like blogs and other tools which foster creation of closer and faster exchange of information between "us" and our clients.

Dale King: What new technology do you see changing Internet Marketing over the next 5 years?

Adam Urbanski: I'm probably the wrong person to ask this Dale, and I'll you why. The technology develops so fast, and the new things are so "sexy", they literally "seduce" most online entrepreneurs away from what they should be focused on - serving their clients.

Personally, instead of looking for new technologies, I'm now focusing on ways to "humanize" my business more. While everyone is running towards eliminating all contact with clients as much as possible, I'm going in the opposite direction, to the point where we are considering giving each new subscriber a personalized phone call to welcome them on board. I tell you - this impresses people and makes them trust you (and buy from you) more than anything else.

Dale King: What person or persons have influenced you the most in your lifetime, and how?

Adam Urbanski: I'd have to say it was my father. He taught me solid work ethics and good business skills. But most of all, I grew up watching him build amazing relationships with people around him. Ultimately, I don't believe my business would be where it is today if it weren't for the fact that
I'm always there for my clients and helping others reach their goals is my ultimate goal.

Dale King: Adam, If you could give my readers one piece of advice, what would it be?

Adam Urbanski: Most people like to overcomplicate things and then they become overwhelmed by too much information and complexity of what they are trying to create. My advise to all my clients and to everyone reading this is this: map out a simple action plan and work diligently to implement it.

My favorite saying to all my students is this: If something is worth doing, it's worth doing poorly to start with! It's implementation over perfection!

Dale King: Thank you very much, Adam! I appreciate you taking the time to do this interview.

Adam Urbanski: Dale, it's been my pleasure. Best wishes of success and profitability to you and all your readers!

Adam's website: http://themarketingmentors.com

This interview is the exclusive property of Adam Urbanski. It may not be republished in any format - period.