Info Marketing Book Promotion

Mary Jane Popp interviews Robert Skrob on her PoppOff Show in Sacramento, California.

January 18, 2008

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Mary Jane Popp: Well, that’s Robert Skrob. He’s co-author of the Information Marketing Association: Official Get Rich Guild to Information Marketing. Good heavens, I hope you don’t have to put that on your card, Robert.

Robert Skrob: Well, I got to say it, everywhere I go, to every person I meet this is quite a hassle.

Mary Jane Popp: Now, you say we can build a million dollar business in 12 months?

Robert Skrob: Yes, because several – this book profiles 30 people many of which have created, all which have been very successful creating products out of CDs, audio programs, manuals, and how-to study courses and making them available to others on, you know, to purchase. It can be done and this book includes several profiles of people who have done just that.

Mary Jane Popp: Well, how do get ****. Don’t we have to have ability or something kind of knowledge some place put something down to sell somebody else?

Robert Skrob: Well, you know there are a lot of folks such as a good friend of mine and gentleman profiled in the book, his name is Joe Polish of Piranha Marketing, he doesn’t have a college education, was a carpet cleaner. He figured out how to do great Yellow Pages ads and some things to do to generate clients so that he had a lot of carpets to clean and a terrific profitable carpet cleaning business. Well, he took those ads, packaged them in to a product, and has sold them to thousands of carpet cleaners across the country, helping all of them get more customers for their businesses. And then, a gentleman, Ed O’Keefe worked in his profit systems. He started out just researching the information that he needed to know and Ed has now over a thousand dentists participating in his program. And he teaches the dentists how to put more patients in those dental chairs. The dentists **** $495 a month to receive those marketing training, VisorMed, yet Ed’s never been to ****. He simply researched the industry and then built his business.

Mary Jane Popp: Now, you say that there are four reasons why info marketing is so lucrative and that it’s so easy, a high school student can do it. Now, what do you mean by info marketing?

Robert Skrob: Well, info marketing is packaging information, like a kind of how-to facts, data or instructions, you know. It can be on to audio CDs, manuals, or books or even home study courses –

Mary Jane Popp: What about downloading from the internet?

Robert Skrob: Oh, that’s a very popular way, yes. And it’s nice because you don’t have to worry about packaging and fulfillment. A lot of folks do build very successful businesses on the internet. What most find though is that, you know, long term customer value that the customers really like receive the information in the mail while delivering of the internet is sexy to talk about as an info marketer, the more lucrative business is delivering – is to go ahead and delivering it as product that they can touch and feel. This is perceived value that’s more –

Mary Jane Popp: But how do I get myself out there to say, “Hey, I got something for you?”

Robert Skrob: Well, there’s a lot of ways. You know, we can’t overlook radio advertising by any stretch and that’s actually a way that a lot successful info marketers have made those products available. Also, direct mail, magazines –

Mary Jane Popp: Hold on. I just want to let you know, I do have some free time on my show.

Robert Skrob: Okay. Well, all of us do. It’s a – actually, yeah. Radio’s terrific and – but anyhow, in addition to radio, you know, after you’ve proven how well that works, you can experiment with other marketing methods such as direct mail. Like Joe Polish, he ran ads in carpet cleaning tray ****.

Mary Jane Popp: Oh yeah.

Robert Skrob: So you know, all these carpet cleaners subscribe to the, you know, the association and they –

Mary Jane Popp: Get target market, right?

Robert Skrob: They get the magazine and so bought full page ads in there and offering report for carpet cleaners if they wanted to know how to market themselves better. The carpet cleaners who responded to the free report offer received Joe’s report that talked all about his marketing system and kind of gave some insights and made it available for purchase if they were interested. So those are many of the ways that, you know, and Joe has a high school education and doesn’t have any – the amount of his, you know, you wouldn’t consider him, I mean he’s a great guy. Buy you know, you wouldn’t say that he’s, you know, a brain child by any means.

Mary Jane Popp: But again though, you have to have some kind of idea or some ability and you can sometimes, I would think, turn a hobby into something that is marketable.

Robert Skrob: Definitely. You know, the subjects that info marketers teach are very, very – from lifelong business, to losing weight, to teaching a bird to talk –

Mary Jane Popp: You’re kidding.

Robert Skrob: - to knitting. I’ve seen how to play pool and in fact, I just saw info product on how to do math. So for adults that want to revisit their long lost math skills, there’s even a product out there for that. So it’s really – what info marketing does or more than any other is package the information in unique and useful ways. The internet is just slammed with all kinds of stuff. You know, people can – where we used to have to look things up in an encyclopedia. Now, if you want to know the population of Topeka, Kansas, you can pretty much just put that into Google. However, we don’t have any idea whether the number that we get back is accurate or not.

Mary Jane Popp: Well, let me give you an example. Suppose, I said, “Hey, I’ve got…” After being in this business for 35 years, you learn a few tricks of the trade on how people, when they pitch to be on this show, what convinces me to have to them on the show?”

Robert Skrob: Definitely.

Mary Jane Popp: So I’d go to businesses and say, “Okay, I can tell you how to get on radio because I know what radio talk hosts and producers are looking for.”

Robert Skrob: Definitely.

Mary Jane Popp: Okay, now, who do I send that to? And what if I put it up on the internet, there are millions of sites for people to go to. How am I going to get them to come to me?

Robert Skrob: Well, you – one, more important than anything is your story. You are able to tell, you know, you would have to research this market and spend a little bit of time doing it but there are people who have those types of products. And what makes you unique is that you are an actual talk show host and that you have this – you can talk from that perspective whereas the ones that I know that do that haven’t. They talk from the perspective of, you know, that they were able to be a guest on a show a couple of times and this is how they did it. Where you get to tell them, “Hey, you know, I’ve been a show and have done this.” And so, people will buy from you because of your story. You know, they’ll, you know – if somebody, there’s a place for everybody if you were a woman talk show host, you’re going to appeal to different people than a man, even a man talk show host. And so different – there’s a market that will respond by just telling your story, where you came from, how you were successful and what insights you have. People will be attracted to you, won’t be attracted to anybody else.

Mary Jane Popp: Because I usually do this for groups just to be nice.

Robert Skrob: Right.

Mary Jane Popp: And one tip that I always tell them and this is the topic of the ****, when you call and ask me to be on my show, don’t ask me if I’m doing a show because if you don’t know that I’m doing a show, and you don’t know what kind of show I’m doing, you’ve already slam dunked poor little ego. We’re on the air with egos, you know. So we want to be known.

Robert Skrob: Well, then if you’re already speaking, then you’ve got it. You’re in 80% of the way there. You can put – you tell your listeners that you’re going to have four-hour seminar about how to get on the radio. You can either make that free or make it available for a price and then record that and take those four CDs and so the next time you go do a free gig where you’re going to give like an hour presentation, at the end of it say, “Well, you know, I’ve had an hour here but as luck would have it, I actually have a four-hour seminar. If you like what you’ve heard here, then you can invest in some more information. It’s $195.” If you’re going to gig and speak anyway, you might as well make those products available at the end of the program so that if folks like what they heard, they can invest at that time.

Mary Jane Popp: Yeah, because I tell you. When you’re on the air, believe me, everybody expects you to do it for nothing. You’re so rich on the air, you don’t need have to –

Robert Skrob: Well, you got the excuse that you – well, I only had an hour. If I had had four hours, I would’ve given it all to you.

Mary Jane Popp: That sounds better to me. ****.

Robert Skrob: And then also, you can make the case of repetition that, you know, I’ve talked to you once and you know, in order for you to really understand and be able to follow you’re going to need to listen to it over and over. And why not, if you throw like a letter, you know, a pitch letter or, you know, a couple of examples in that, you can probably bump the price up to $495.

Mary Jane Popp: Holy smoke. Well, it’s interesting because you have done for 35 years radio and television both and I also can tell them what you should and shouldn’t do on the air because you’ll not – it’ll make a difference whether you’re invited back again.

Robert Skrob: Well, there’s your second four hour training.

Mary Jane Popp: Oh, my gosh. See, I’m going to hire you. ****.

Robert Skrob: Well, not only that but you have hours and hours of archived recording and you know, you can put together a “best of” package that, you know, you could maybe even categorize around a couple of – you know, maybe you’ve had, you know, quite a few relationships, quite a few business guests, quite a few – you know, package some of your best shows together and make those available for sale.

Mary Jane Popp: Yeah, and I’ve had, you know, top-notch people in the country and I can say, “See, these are good ones.” And I can give them an example of, “This is not a gone.”

Robert Skrob: Well, we just don’t talk about the

Mary Jane Popp: Hang in there with us, Robert. Okay? I’m going to take a quick here and we’ll come back and – you know, this the time to do it. You say this is the – especially with the economy so let’s talk a little bit about that and how we can maybe turn something around because people are losing jobs, people being laid off, people are being cut back. Here’s a chance for them to move on, okay?

Robert Skrob: Sounds great, Mary Jane.

Mary Jane Popp: Again, it’s Robert Skrob, The Official – it’s a long one. Are you ready for folks? The Official Get Rich Guild to Information Marketing: Build a Million Dollar Business within 12 Months. I’m listening. [Commercial Break]

Mary Jane Popp: Well, if you want to get a few of those diamonds, then got to listen to, “The Official Get Rich Guide to Information Marketing: Build a Million Dollar Business Within 12 Months.” That’s what Robert Skrob says and he’s holding to it. The question is Robert, have you done it?

Robert Skrob: Oh, definitely. I’m actually creating products now. We had a two – this is how easy this is. You know, I did a – in November, a two-day seminar. I video taped and now, I’ve taken the video and put it on DVDs so I can make that available to – for people to buy over and over again. That’s really the biggest value of information marketing over other types of businesses is that you can – we’ll do the work once, and get paid many, many times. My background is I’m a CPA and whereas in public accounting and, you know, certainly loves reconciling banks statements and but, you know, decided to kind of move on after a while. But more – what I didn’t like the most is even though you can be an expert tax preparer, you had to create a different tax return for every customer. You couldn’t, like, create one and then sell that same tax return to every person. You know, they want one with their own name on it. And so, every person you have to do the – you have to start at the beginning and do all the work for that. Whereas in info marketing, your write the book, or you write the home study course or you write the program about how to be a perfect radio show guest and then, you are able to sell the product over and over again. And it’s really that leverage that allows you to make more money than if you were just trading hours for dollars?

Mary Jane Popp: So do you start it? If somebody says to you, “Okay, Robert, I am fired up. I’m ready to go and get started.”

Robert Skrob: Well, the fist thing is pick your market, you know, the topic that you want to deliver. And this, a lot folks are very quick to discount what they know. And if you’ve been doing a hobby for a year or two or you’ve at a particular line of work for a while, you’ve got ways of doing things that are unique to you. You solve problems that have come and to you, they’re like old hat. You know, everybody knows about them. But to somebody to start now or to other people within that industry, it could be an extremely valuable little trick or shortcut. And if you don’t have any information, you know, we’ll talk – talk in the book a lot. There’s a whole chapter about choosing your market but even if you don’t have anything, then you can research other industries, see the types of products that other information marketers are already creating and delivering, and then, create your own newsstand. You know, maybe it’s a, you know, a particular sub-niche. You know, maybe instead of targeting all chiropractors and telling them how to do more marketing, you teach only chiropractors either within a particular region or, if, you know, maybe you teach chiropractors how to do whole health. So pick a little piece of an industry and that way you’re not competing with anybody but you’re in an industry where you know people are already successfully marketing and selling information products.

Mary Jane Popp: Okay. Now, there is a little bit of cost though, if you, like, going to video tape something or you’re going to record something and then, do CDs and DVDs. There’s a little cost involved there.

Robert Skrob: Well, you know, one of the profiles that we have in the book is from Dave D. Dave D was a magician and he was booked for gigs all over town. He was constantly, you know – you imagine his cape. He was riding all over town with his magician’s cape on, going from gig to gig. And when he created his first product, he went to Radio Shack and bought a microphone and plugged it into his cassette recorder and the microphone cord wasn’t long enough to reach because you had to kind of plug it into the back of a cassette recorder. And so he actually had to lay on the floor and record his audio. So I mean, with a microphone you can buy at Radio Shack and software that you can download for free on the internet if you have a computer. If you don’t have a computer, just you know, record it on an old cassette player, you can create a product and make that available for sale to others. Even if you have to lay on the floor because your microphone cord doesn’t reach all the way to the front. You know, it doesn’t matter if there’s dogs barking or the, you know, the salesperson comes in the door while you’re recording it and there’s this noise. Just, you know, just go in, turn off the recorder, go answer the door, get back to work and create a product. It doesn’t have to be expensive.

Mary Jane Popp: So basically, what you’re saying is most people sell themselves short. They think they don’t have information and indeed they probably do.

Robert Skrob: Everybody does. And it’s – it’s really that – it’s really easy because folks are looking for shortcuts. And so, if you have an opportunity to be able to train somebody, you know – businesses, they call them systems, you know, but it’s – if you’ve a way of doing something, that, you know, that’s extremely valuable because things get repeated in a business. There’s labor cost. There’s waste of time and if you can show somebody your shortcut of how to get something done more quickly, that’s a very valuable product.

Mary Jane Popp: And it’s also, to be honest with you, a lot more reasonable than trying to do a book because I do have a book out. And I mean, to get a publisher and the money involved in doing books and laying the layouts, et cetera. Unless, you have already established yourself like you’re saying with the CDs, with the DVDs, possible and then you can always have a book as an up sell. I call that the up sell, isn’t it?

Robert Skrob: Yeah – well, if you’re a consultant where you’re going into businesses, or even working with people or a life coach or a psychologist or anything where you’re helping people, by taking your – what you’re doing, what you’re helping the information you’re dispensing and putting it in to an audio program, or a home study course, now you free yourself from time. You don’t have to give that information to each customer. Instead, you can package it and one, you can have a lot more reach and impact and you can help more people because it’s not dependent upon your own time and as a side benefit, you make more money that way too.

Mary Jane Popp: I also think a lot more people are listening to CDs or watching DVDs. With CDs, very popular in automobiles now because people don’t have a whole lot of time to sit with a book anymore.

Robert Skrob: That’s right. So the car gets to become your rolling university and everywhere you go, you can have a CD where you can learn something and get there at the same time.

Mary Jane Popp: How does – do you have a website?

Robert Skrob: Yes, www.infomarketingbook.com. The book is also available at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble or any local bookstore. www.infomarketingbook.com provides, you know – a little bit outline and some information about, you know, the profiles and the folks that we talked about in the book.

Mary Jane Popp: Yeah, I kind of like that too that you have the profiles because that gives us some really practical experience from other people that we’ve been **** too. Hey, I really want to thank you, Robert, for being with us.

Robert Skrob: I had great time.

Mary Jane Popp: Thank you. Same to you and I maybe calling you again. No?

Robert Skrob: Sounds great.

Mary Jane Popp: Hey, you take care and have a great weekend.

Robert Skrob: Bye.

Mary Jane Popp: Bye. Again, it’s Robert Skrob. The Information Marketing Association’s Official Rich Guide to Information Marketing: Build a Million Dollar Business in 12 Months. Got to go for it Poppoff.com and don’t forget, it’s Informarketinbook.com for more information. Stay with us on Poppoff, more coming up in the second hour. Wait till you hear, it’s going to surprise the pants off of you.