“I have been up against tough competition all my life. I wouldn’t know how to get along without it.” – Walt Disney

What is the biggest challenge facing internet marketers today? 

This is one of the questions I was asked at a recent Internet Marketing Mastermind.

Many of the attendees were concerned about what they viewed as regulatory “overreach” by social media platforms. Media like Google and Facebook are becoming ever more restrictive in terms of the advertising they will allow, and that is making it very difficult for small companies with limited budgets to get noticed and make sales.

And they are not wrong to be concerned. When you aren’t a brand-name business, you usually have to create aggressive, “noisy” advertising campaigns to attract the attention your business needs. But when the major media won’t let you be “loud and proud” about your products, what can you do?

One thing many marketers do is to try to sneak non-compliant copy through the gatekeepers, but this strategy is doomed to fail. Others try to make do by placing ads on secondary and tertiary media and by affiliate marketing and even direct mail. These are all better than nothing, but they don’t add up to enough coverage to grow a business of any size.

Everything that is posted on the internet is subject to scrutiny, and that will not change.

So there is only one sure way to solve the overreach problem, and that is to submit to it. Instead of trying to figure out how to squeeze or sneak their old-direct-mail style “promos” on the internet, they need to learn how to produce campaigns that are honest, authentic, and transparent.

Another thing they must do, and this is equally important, is learn how to create video ads, both short- and long-form, that are high quality, entertaining, and persuasive.

The days of selling millions of dollars’ worth of products with cheesy infomercial-quality ads are fading fast. Thousands – no, millions – of small and large companies are learning how to tell persuasive stories through video advertising. Which means that the buying public is quickly becoming accustomed to higher quality ads. Marketers that cannot or will not get up to speed in terms of the entire video production process (script writing, story boarding, staging, lighting, sound, music, acting, directing, post production, etc.) will soon be left behind.

I’ve been making this case to my clients for at least five or six years. At first, none of them had any interest in trying it. They must have thought I had lost my mind. Then about three years ago, I saw a few feeble attempts. In the last year, I’ve seen a few more. But compared to the average level of video advertising I see commonly on the internet, most of my clients are way behind.

My clients went into the internet enthusiastically when it opened up at the turn of the century. And they benefited immensely from it, using most of the same sort of copy and marketing tactics that they used for decades in selling their products and services through the mail. They were – we were – outliers then. But the internet is no longer a market for outliers. In the coming years, the gold will go to those with the intelligence and creativity to produce advertising that is competitive with the likes of 60 Minutes and Coca Cola.

Let me give you an example – perhaps not the best example, since this is an ad for PragerU, a conservative non-profit. It doesn’t attempt to close the sale. But it does demonstrate that PragerU has decided that they want their ads to look like they were made in Hollywood… and create a Hollywood level of excitement in their prospective viewers.

Click here to see what PragerU is doing.

This is the future of direct marketing. For the present, some will continue to have some success with outdated, low-quality, high-noise ads. But as the months go by, those types of ads will begin to lose their ability to compete with higher quality ads. I hope my clients can get up to speed before it’s too late.

 “The ultimate purpose of economics, of course, is to understand and promote the enhancement of well-being.”– Ben Bernanke

 What You Should Know About Argentina 

Argentines are sophisticated people. They have always seemed more like Europeans to me than South Americans.

Actually, I can’t pretend to know much about South America. I’ve only spent lengths of time in Uruguay, Brazil, and Colombia. And come to think of it, Uruguayans and Brazilians seem pretty sophisticated too.

But I have spent a lot of time in Argentina. And I like the country. I am a partner in several businesses there, and I’ve bought and sold property with some success. Investing in real estate in Argentina is relatively easy because of the country’s incredible economic swings. Real estate prices rise and fall dramatically. So for an outsider who can pick and choose his timing, it’s not difficult to sit it out when prices are high and buy in when they get cheap.

When I’m in Argentina – a country with such a refined culture – I can’t help but feel bad for the people. In terms of what matters in building wealth – hard work, saving, and learning – they are equal if not superior to Americans.  But because of systemic problems connected to politics, power, and corruption, it’s tough for business builders and entrepreneurs to get any serious traction.

And as anyone that has even a rudimentary understanding of macroeconomics knows, when entrepreneurs can’t grow businesses, nothing else can grow either.

This was true of the Soviet Union. It was true for China until they freed up the private business sector. It was and is true of Cuba. And Venezuela. And Nicaragua. And many more countries that were once prosperous but then laid low by governments that confiscated property, socialized industry, and massively redistributed income.

And that is what happened to Argentina.

In a recent essay, Bill Bonner provided an excellent quick history lesson in the insidious and unintended effects.

“In 1853,” he explained, “the Argentines agreed on a constitution, largely based on the US model. There were the familiar legislative, executive, and judicial branches. There are elected representatives. There are checks and balances. And the president’s office is in a special house, called the Casa Rosada– rose-colored, not white.

“The system worked plausibly well for the first 100 years. By 1914, the Argentines were richer than the French. The expression ‘as rich as an Argentine’ was not followed by laughter, but envy.

“Then, in the 1940s, Juan Perón figured out how to play the urban mob by promising the people more stuff. Over the next decade, he nationalized key industries, began aggressive spending programs, and redistributed wealth on a grand scale.

“Output declined. Inflation increased. It kept increasing until 1980, when prices rose at a rate of 1,000%.

“The inflation (as well as other things, presumably) soured the whole society. Corruption increased. And politics became more of a grotesque entertainment.”

Bill then explained how politics works today in Argentina…

* One political party makes “extravagant and unrealistic promises… gets elected…  [and makes] a mess of the economy.”

* Upset about rising inflation and falling productivity, the populace votes a moderate or conservative into power.

* “The new group tries to correct the errors and oddities of the first group. But this return to reality is shocking and painful to most people.”

* After a few years, the people, frustrated that things haven’t improved as quickly as they had hoped, “re-elect the bamboozlers.”

* “Gradually, it becomes harder and harder to get ahead honestly.” Thieves become rich by making deals with corrupt politicians. Eventually, the first tier of the economy is run by packs of political and private scoundrels.

* And then, in a desperate effort to ward off eventual economic collapse, the government creates fake money. Those on the top benefit from it. The working class suffers.

“It’s great down here,” Bill’s friend in Argentina recently told him. “As long as you have dollars.”

The degradation of Argentina’s money is happening fast. The inflation rate is 55%. A dollar would bring you 30 pesos a year ago. Now, it’s worth 60.

Could this happen to the US if Bernie gets elected? You decide.