How to Become a Top 1% Marketer: Research First

TL;DR

Spend 80% of your time researching your market rather than optimizing ads and funnels, because what you say matters more than how you say it. Only 3% of any market is ready to buy now, so build soft offers like free reports that capture the other 97%. Focus your entire funnel on the 20% of customers producing 80% of your profits.

Transcript

How do you become better than 99% of marketers? I've generated $7.8 billion in sales for my clients, became a shark on Shark Tank, all because I spent 17 years of my life mastering one skill, marketing. But most marketers are doing things completely wrong. They're mcking around with chat GPT, hoping and praying that people will care about what they... Read More

Key Insights

• Market research is where the money is made in marketing, not ad structure or funnel design. The recommendation is to spend 80% of your time obsessively researching the market, because the most powerful thing in marketing is not how you say things but what you say in the first place.
• Continuous intel gathering beats a one-time research sprint. Markets move as new technology arrives and new competitors enter, so businesses need mechanisms that constantly collect first market intel: contact forms, rich data from booked calls, central storage, and AI mining comments to track where the market is heading.
• The dream buyer is the 20% of customers who generate 80% of your profits, a group the speaker says exists in any business. Architecting the ads, landing pages, VSLs, and offers around that single buyer makes the message cut through the market like a hot knife through butter.
• A coliseum keyword is the keyword at the center of a market, and there are typically two to three in every market representing 80% of search volume. For a buyer agent it might simply be buyers agent plus location, rather than the spurious long-tail keywords people chase.
• Customer language should be captured verbatim, never interpreted and rewritten in your own words. Take the comments your market makes directly into your document and use them to form ad copy, lead-ins, VSLs, and email body copy. Format it but leave the wording raw and untouched.
• Only 3% of any market is looking to buy right now, and this is where every competitor fights. That competition drives cost per click through the roof and makes campaigns very hard to run profitably at scale, since all messaging targets the same small slice of buyers.
• The market splits into four tiers: 3% buying now, 17% in information gathering mode, 20% problem aware but not searching for solutions, and 60% not yet aware they have a problem. A marketer's job is to move each section of that pyramid up.
• Soft offers outperform hard offers by a wide margin. The speaker's free reports about getting number one Google rankings converted 300 to 500% better than competitors' get a quote offers, and also captured the ready-to-buy 3% because the offer felt less threatening.

Questions & Answers

Q: How much time should marketers spend on market research?

The recommendation is 80% of your time spent obsessively researching your market, rather than on ad account structure, cost per lead optimization, or funnel bells and whistles. That means signing up to the biggest Facebook groups in your community, reading through the relevant subreddits, and studying customers closely enough to know their every move. The reasoning is that in marketing, the most powerful thing is not how you say things but what you say in the first place, so the research determines whether the message lands at all.

Q: What is the 3% rule in marketing?

In any given market, only 3% of people are looking to buy right now. This is the segment every marketer obsesses over and fights for, which pushes cost per click through the roof and makes campaigns very hard to run profitably at scale. The point made is that converting the 3% does not require much marketing skill, and the real money is in the 97% who sit outside the top of the pyramid: people who are curious, have a problem, and are open to buying but not shopping today.

Q: What are the four segments of a market by buying intent?

The market breaks into four tiers. Three percent are looking to buy right now. A further 17% are in information gathering mode: interested and curious with a real problem, but not buying today. Another 20% are problem aware but not actively searching for solutions. The remaining 60% are not even problem aware, meaning they do not yet know they have a problem and are not searching for anything. The marketer's job is to move each section of that pyramid up and up.

Q: Why do soft offers convert better than hard offers?

A hard offer asks the prospect to get a quote or speak with a salesperson immediately, which only appeals to the 3% ready to buy. A soft offer, such as a free report giving people answers to their questions, is far less threatening. The speaker created free reports about getting number one Google rankings and saw offers convert 300 to 500% more than competitors' offers, while still capturing the lion's share of the 3% who were ready to buy. Having the name, email, and phone number allowed nurturing prospects to a buying decision.

Q: How do you identify your ideal client or dream buyer?

Look at your existing customer base and ask which 20% of customers generate 80% of your profits. That group exists in any business. Once identified, obsessively focus on those customers and architect the entire funnel around them: the ads, the landing pages, the VSLs, and the offers. Everyone else in the market can effectively be ignored in the messaging. You will still get them, but when the message targets one dream buyer it cuts through the market and each reader feels the message is speaking directly to them rather than at a group.

Q: What is a coliseum keyword?

A coliseum keyword is the keyword at the center of your market. There are typically two to three in any given market, and together they represent 80% of the search volume in that market. The example given is a buyer agent, whose coliseum keyword might simply be buyers agent plus location. Prospects could also be searching a whole range of spurious long-tail keywords, but the coliseum keywords are the ones that carry the bulk of the demand and are worth identifying first.

Q: Should you rewrite customer language in your own words for ad copy?

No. The instruction is to take the comments your market makes directly and verbatim into your document rather than reading them, interpreting them, and rewriting them in your own words. Those raw comments then form your ad copy, lead-ins, VSLs, and email body copy, because it is exactly the language your market is already using. You can format it, but you should not tamper with how they say it. Mining the data this way means you are no longer guessing which hooks and headlines will resonate.

Q: How do you keep market research current as a market changes?

Treat research as a continuous living, breathing document you always come back to and reference, not a once-and-done exercise. Markets move, things shift, new technology comes out, and new competitors come in. Create mechanisms in the business that constantly gather first market intel: contact forms, rich data captured when someone books a call, and a single place to store all of it. Then use AI to mine that data and read all the comments so you can see where the market is at any given time.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• Most marketers obsess over ad account structure, funnel details, and copywriting technique while neglecting market research. The recommendation is to invert that ratio and spend 80% of your time researching the market: joining the biggest Facebook groups in your community, reading relevant subreddits, and studying customers closely enough to know their every move.

• Research must be continuous rather than a one-time exercise, because markets move, new technology arrives, and new competitors enter. Build mechanisms that constantly gather market intel: contact forms, rich data captured when someone books a call, a central place to store it all, and AI to mine that data and read the comments.

• Identify your dream buyer by finding the 20% of customers who deliver 80% of your profits, a group that exists in any business. Architect the ads, landing pages, VSLs, and offers entirely around that one buyer. You still capture everyone else, but the message cuts through because each reader feels personally addressed.

• Every market has two to three coliseum keywords that represent 80% of the search volume, such as buyers agent plus location for a buyer agent. Beyond keywords, capture customer comments verbatim into a document and use that raw language for ad copy, lead-ins, VSLs, and email body copy without rewriting it.

• Only 3% of a market is looking to buy right now, which is where competition and cost per click are highest. A further 17% are gathering information, 20% are problem aware but not searching for solutions, and 60% are not yet problem aware. The marketer's job is to move each section of that pyramid upward.