“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take” Wayne Gretzky

“And roughly 97% of the shots you do…” Phil Hughes

We’re all familiar by now with the infamous 80/20 Rule which basically states that 80% of the time you spend is wasted and that only 20% is usefull.  Another way of looking at it is that 20% of what you do makes you 80% of your money and the other 20% comes from the remaining 80% effort… I’m not a math wiz but hopefully you’re following me here.

The point that’s trying to be made here is that if we can focus on the 20% of what we do that actually gives us real results we’ll be able to get more done with less.

Nice Theory…The problem is that the numbers, especially when it comes to modern marketing, are WAAAAY off.

Enter the 97/3 Rule…

I was first introduced to the 97/3 rule by Tony Blauer (check out www.tonyblauer.com).  The rule was initially applied to law enforcement and goes something like this.  When faced with arrest by an officer 97% of all suspects will comply.  The 3% that don’t account for 97% of officer injury and/or death.  The cool part of the story is that this was a ‘Theory’ he had that happened to be corroborated empirically by FBI statistics…It’s my theory that it applys equally in marketing.

Think about online marketing for a moment.  If you check your Google Analytics on your site (which you ARE tracking…hello?!) you will likely see that the number of visitors who initially get to your site and finally end up being paying customers is likely lower than 20%…or 10%…and likely 5%.

At first glance that might seem a bit depressing.  However, if you have a $1997 backend product and 3 out of every hundred purchased…how many visitors would you need to pay the rent?  See where I’m going with this.  The point is not to feel BAD that you only have 3% success…that’s a decent direct mail campaign.  The point is to feel GREAT if you can do better.

Don’t get me wrong here, I’m not suggesting that you set the bar intentionally low.  I’ve had open rates and optin rates better than 45% on some campaigns.  Just keep in mind that nothing builds upon success like success.  Give yourself a chance to win and move forward.

So, what are you waiting for?…Get Busy!

Phil Hughes

www.philhughes.tv