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How to Use Open Source Marketing

Always start with strategy first. Go through the Circuit Interview and make extensive notes. The key to the questionnaire is not to skip any part. Our advice is to print it out, then lock yourself away (either alone or with a team) with a writing implement and work through the whole document. Don't miss out any questions, even if the answers seem obvious. Write something down, even if it's, "Not applicable".

The third step is to design your Marketing Strategy. Figure out which channels or techniques are likely to be most appropriate for your unique context. Do not set out to use every tool there is, that is a recipe for burning through your energy and resources! Pick what's in your sweet spot.

Finally, you can start to build. Use the advice from our growing library of interviews with guest experts to help you get the best return on your investment.

And remember, it may be best to get professional help in certain areas. If you are not comfortable or skilled with copywriting, video editing, or web design, it makes sense to hire someone who already has those skills. But having a clear strategy beforehand will make it far easier to get a great result!

Fundamental Principles

1. There are no right answers. Context is everything. Anyone who tells you that you MUST use the latest technique (which they're usually selling) is lying. Anything can be helpful, and anything can be unhelpful.
2. That's why the key to competing and succeeding today is in strategy. Get the fundamentals right, and your campaigns will run more easily, cheaply, and smoothly.
3. In OSM, we take time to think about the strategy and to design campaigns before investing anything in execution.
4. We don't just take the situation as we find it, but strive to think creatively about how we could improve the fundamentals of a business proposition before going to market.
5. Campaign delivery does not have to be a massive up-front investment (of time or money). The old model of web design is dead. OSM aims to apply lean principles of testing assumptions, fast iterations, and continual improvement, wherever appropriate.
6. Once a campaign is running, there may be opportunities to optimize it. Sometimes, optimization (particularly of ads and/or conversion funnels) can make the difference between making a loss or making a profit. However, it is not always justified. (There are no right answers, remember.)

Why It's Free

1. The world needs great marketing. It can make the difference between life and death for a business.
2. But not everyone who needs one can afford a marketing education. (And there's very little good marketing education around anyway. Most of the training offered by "Internet Marketing gurus" is not as useful in the real world as it's claimed to be.)
3. Information wants to be free, so why reserve good education resources only for those who can afford to pay fees?
4. True experts, who really want to serve and help people, can earn money by actually helping people through their services. We don't need to ransom off our knowledge to the highest bidder.

One System for Everyone

For DIY Marketers: If you do your own marketing, this is absolutely perfect for you! Please take this system, use it, and tell us if you think it can be improved. The key, if you have limited resources, is to start with a solid strategy and not to try to do everything at once!

For Clients: If you hire other people to do your marketing, using people who'll use Open Source Marketing means you will both understand the process better, and be able to communicate it to other service providers.

For Marketing Professionals: Please adopt Open Source Marketing and use it with your clients. As part of this community, you have a team of other marketing pros alongside you, who can help at any point in a project, all using a common platform.

If you are interested in the origins of this project, check out Ben's original 44-minute presentation to his Inner Circle group from 2015, which an overview of why the world needs Open Source Marketing, and how OSM may be structured in the future.

Get Started: Strategy >