BREAKING NEWS: A new Kartra update, scheduled for release next year, will streamline your business so powerfully that the software will be reduced to a single button. All you have to do is push it and money will begin spurting out of the disk drive (that you no longer have because it’s not 1998).
At which point we predict that approximately 1% of the market will complain, saying: “Pff! You have to push a button? Sounds like hard work to me.”
Being a Brit, I sometimes get in trouble for being too subtle with my humor (isn’t it enough that I spell it “humor?”). So, just in case, please note that the above is satire and there is no obviously made-up feature planned for release next year that will reduce online business to a single button.
Or IS there…?
No. There isn’t.
What I’m drawing attention to, in my circuitous and SEO unfriendly manner, is that while Kartra is, in my opinion, the most accessible ecommerce and marketing system in the history of the world, you still need to insert some thought and effort.
Kartra may be able to turn any business idea into a functioning ecommerce website, but that business idea and the way in which you market and develop it is still going to be the difference between success and failure.
In the Kartra launch material, we talked about how marketing can be boiled down to simply what we WRITE and what we SAY. Kartra takes care of EVERYTHING else so you can focus on those two things. The only two things that really matter.
And, yes, we’ve even made the writing part easier by providing some pre-written templates, and “done-for-you” campaigns.
But you can’t avoid the inevitable.
At some point, Kartra stops, and your unique input has to begin. And this is where some people are getting overwhelmed.
Do you REALLY need all these features?
If at this point in the article you’re wondering what I’m blathering on about, you’re either my long-suffering boss, or you already have a prospering business and you’re excitedly getting on with the job of using Kartra to streamline your efforts and propel your business to new heights.
Either way, this article isn’t for you. This article is for the budding entrepreneur who is either yet to start their business, or already has the semblance of a business in place but that has yet to find its feet.
This is for the new Kartra user who is overwhelmed by the possibilities offered by the software and is wondering if this is all a little bit too much.
Experiencing Kartra as a new entrepreneur is a bit like deciding you want to be a professional musician and being handed a guitar, a strap, five sets of strings, a dozen plectrums, a capo, recording equipment, mixing software, a quartet of backing singers, and a booking at Carnegie Hall.
In the long-run, this is all stuff you’re going to need and you’re going to be glad to have.
But right now, you just want to pick up the guitar and pick out a few chords.
If that’s a bit how Kartra is looking to you at the moment, don’t sweat it. It doesn’t matter if you’re not ready to use the affiliate program, or the membership site builder, or even the video hosting. You will in time; I guarantee it. But for now, it’s perfectly fine to just add a product and figure out a simple sales funnel.
How much marketing experience do I need?
Setting up and using Kartra’s features is easy. So easy that, most of the time, you don’t even need to read the documentation. You can just click, follow the on-screen instructions, and everything else is deliciously intuitive. I’ve lost count of the number of times I wanted to find a specific feature in Kartra, and I’ve found it in seconds because it’s in the place where I logically expected it to be.
Which means that most of the real work you do with Kartra is about creating the marketing material. I’m talking headlines, bullets, sales copy, promotional emails and videos.
The technical heft that Kartra provides and the ease with which it can be managed, leaves you free to focus on your marketing content. That’s one of our key selling points. But what if you’re concerned that you simply don’t have the marketing experience or knowledge to manage this part of the process?
In short, what if marketing isn’t in your skill-set?
Honestly…
It doesn’t matter.
Because here’s the secret that revealing will probably earn me the hatred of every marketing coach reading this (they’re not reading this, they’re too busy going blind staring at endless pages of analytics data)…
Marketing skill and experience ISN’T necessary to successfully sell a product.
If you’re skeptical, read that line again because I chose those words very carefully.
To take a product from successful to being a world-beater DOES require top-draw marketing. And launching a new product is EASIER if you have some marketing experience. But marketing genius isn’t NECESSARY to get your business off the ground.
Going from nothing to breaking into the market can be accomplished through the simplest marketing technique in existence. A technique that everyone can manage instinctively.
Write and/or talk passionately about what your product does and why you created it.
That’s it.
In lieu of marketing strategy, just talk openly and honestly, from the heart, about your product.
There’s a great example of this in the movie, Joy, a bio-pic about entrepreneur Joy Mangano, who invented – among other things – the Miracle Mop. The movie’s bonkers and inexplicably dull given that we spend most of it bathing in the ethereal light that is Jennifer Lawrence, but it’s a classic example of how marketing experience can be totally unnecessary.
In one of the key portions of the movie (spoiler alert!), a QVC salesman demonstrates the mop despite having no clue how to use it. Naturally, the sale is a flop. Shortly afterward, Joy gets a second chance and she demonstrates the mop personally, on camera. After doing her best “deer in the headlights” impression, gives a simple demonstration of how the mop works and explains the problems that it fixes.
And the result is huge sales numbers and a business that quickly flourishes.
I’m not suggesting that marketing is pointless. It’s good business sense to at least learn the basics of marketing (I suggest taking a short online course or reading a few books on the subject – LINK ???). But don’t let a sense of inferiority or a lack of confidence hold you back.
Simple, clear and honest language can get you up and running, even if your marketing experience is virtually nil.
***
The marketing and business pros are going to take Kartra and blow up the Internet. No question.
But don’t be fooled into thinking that Kartra is a tool purely for the experts. The ease with which campaigns can be created and managed will streamline the creation of your infrastructure, leaving you time and space to focus on crafting your message. Something that is especially valuable when you’re still finding your voice.
Exactly how smart do you have to be to use Kartra?
Wrong question. It’s not about smarts. It’s about having the determination and the spirit to get stuck in and make things happen.
Need a little help? You can ask questions in the comments, visit our friendly customer support, and sign-up for our Kartra training program.
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