Running a business is like a war.
Remember how many analogies in the business world come from the military: price wars, guerrilla marketing, strategic alliances, subordinates, chain of command, and more.
I started studying military strategy in college for fun. I wish I could give you a great reason for this, but the truth is, I wanted to get better at playing StarCraft.
And with all that studies, I’ve stuck to one strategy over the years. And it’s one that I’ve used over and over in the business world for the past decade.
It’s called the Beachhead Strategy.
Here’s where it comes from.
France was occupied by Nazi Germany in the 1940s.
On June 6, 1944, more than 176,000 American, British and Canadian soldiers stormed the beaches of Normandy, France.
You might recognize this operation as D-Day.
You have not carried out a multi-pronged attack on different areas of France. No, the Allies concentrated all their strength on victory small area.
After conquering the Normandy beaches, they established them as a stronghold. They defended the beaches and allowed more troops to land safely in what was once a dangerous area.
From there they slowly took over the rest of Europe.
We tend to forget that most billion (or even trillion) dollars of businesses started out small. We hear about all of the strategies they use today, but it’s far more useful to examine how companies got started.
Amazon.com started with a bridgehead strategy. Jeff Bezos saw the growth of the internet in the early 90s and wanted a piece of it.
His goal was to build an online shop that could sell almost any type of product in the world. But that wasn’t his goal at first – it was too big a goal and too unrealistic.
Instead, he rated more than twenty categories to sell.
The winner? Books.
- He didn’t have to invest any money in product development.
- All books are the same so customers know what they are getting.
- He had an advantage over the in-store bookstores. It could offer more titles than any physical location.
- Getting the inventory was easy as there were only two major booksellers in the 1990s. He didn’t have to waste time negotiating hundreds of deals.
In the beginning, Amazon only sold books for the first few years. They dominated.
In these few years they were able to generate sales, build their brand and perfect their processes.
Books were their stronghold, and they began to expand into more and more categories.
If you’re starting out in affiliate marketing or starting a new business, you don’t yet have the experience or resources to compete against the established players.
That’s OK.
If so, there are several bridgehead strategies you should use. Let’s talk about some of the ways you can apply it.
The Benefits of Beachhead Strategies in Affiliate Marketing
Whenever I take part in a Brazilian jiujitsu tournament, I will be balanced.
I can measure myself against someone under 155 pounds, between 30 and 35 years old, and he has a blue belt. I’m not going to let a 19 year old black belt smash the Hulk.
There is no such thing as an amateur league when it comes to business or campaigning.
The second you start a campaign, you are up against everyone. You won’t compete against another newbie who just signed up for STM and has a daily budget of $ 10.
No, you could be bidding against a team with a daily budget of more than $ 10,000 and more than 5 media buyers.
There is no such thing as a “safe space” in which to practice your skills.
This is why it is important that you use bridgehead strategies. It is a way for you to maximize your resources.
How To Use Beachhead Strategies In Your Marketing Campaigns
Okay, enough theory. Let’s see some practical examples of how you can apply these concepts to your campaigns.
1. Which countries are not targeted?
This is one of the simplest and most reliable strategies in affiliate marketing.
Affiliate marketers like to launch campaigns in English-speaking Tier 1 countries like the US, Canada, the UK, and Australia.
There is a lot of traffic in these countries and there is less work because there are no languages to translate.
Your laziness is your gain.
You can use a spying tool to see what ads, angles, and landing pages are working in the English speaking countries. You can take the same creatives, translate them with One Hour Translation, and serve them in countries they don’t target.
At some point I had a policy in which I would not target English speaking countries. Why step into a red ocean full of competitors in the US when there are so many blue oceans?
People underestimated how much money you can make from locations like the Nordic countries, Turkey, South Africa and Latin America.
Don’t make the mistake of thinking you can just translate and benefit from other people’s creatives. It may work sometimes, but you can dominate if you try harder.
Think of McDonalds.
Do they have the same menu in every single McDonald’s in the world? No, they don’t.
They research the local cuisine and create a menu that suits local tastes.
- In India there is a McAloo Tikki, which is a vegetarian patty made from potatoes.
- In Japan there is a panko patty with shrimp
- Americans have apple pie. There is a taro cake in China.
It’s a strategy I call hyperlocalization.
Instead of just translating your creatives, create new marketing prospects and copy landing pages that incorporate the country’s culture.
2. Niche in the product
Lemonade is an insurance company founded in 2015. It is backed by Softbank and is worth $ 2 billion.
Imagine trying to break into the insurance industry. How can you compete against giants like Prudential and Berkshire Hathaway?
The founders knew that if they turned to the biggest segments like home and auto insurance, they would lose money.
The acquisition costs are too damn high.
Instead, they used a bridgehead strategy by just relying on it Rental insurance. There is a method to madness. With a focus on rental insurance, millennials are the main demographic.
Soon, their main customers will be aging and dealing with other insurance needs such as home and life insurance. By focusing on rental insurance, it gave Lemonade time to establish its brand, processes and technology.
Another example is ConvertKit. When it comes to choosing an email service provider, you have unlimited options. They established themselves by focusing on the needs of bloggers.
Think about how you can segment down.
- Adult dating. I am overwhelmed by how many niches there are in this field. Instead of going for the generic “hot mom next door”, you can target different niches like hentai.
- Products for dogs. Most dog products have a machine gun approach and are aimed at all dog owners. Niche it with certain races. It’s dynamite if you target German Shepherd owners and use German Shepherds in your ads.
- Nootropics. So many guys are trying to create the next one Congratulations. It’s a great brand, but they mostly focus on bros. niche down. Mental nutritional supplement for older women. Mental supplements for chess players. Mental Supplements for Entrepreneurs.
3. Audience / demography niche
Certain companies benefit from the “network effect”. The more people use the service, the more useful this service becomes.
Ironically, Facebook has started deliberately limiting its audience.
When Facebook first launched, it was only available to the students at Harvard.
- Then Ivy Leagues
- Then university students in the US
- Then university students outside of the US
- Then employees from companies like Apple and Microsoft
- Then finally everyone who is over 13 years old and has a valid email address.
The containment of the audience allowed them to build their own “sandbox” to improve the product.
Another example is life insurance. Demographics have other pain points.
A new parent wants life insurance to protect their children.
I don’t have any children yet. I took out life insurance in my 20s to make sure my parents were covered in case I died young.
4. Do the opposite of the leader
Whenever a company has a strength, it also has one weakness.
The strength of Facebook was in how it saved all of your memories. What’s the opposite of that? Don’t save anything.
This is how Snapchat established itself.
The other weakness of Facebook is that it has become “older” demographically. No teenage girl wants to twerk in a place her parents and friends will see. This is how TikTok has an audience.
There is a growing movement towards using only 100% organic ingredients in skin care.
What’s the opposite? Use of synthetic ingredients. Drunk Elephant is a skin care line that uses synthetic ingredients and hugs them.
Their message is that they don’t care if an ingredient is organic or synthetic, they just care if it works or not. They say that organic products have limitations.
It can be intimidating to see an established company but realize that their strength is also a weakness.
Photo by Musa Ortaç from Pexels.
Don’t be afraid of competition
When someone slaps you in the face, instinctively you close your eyes and twitch.
Floyd Mayweather is considered one of the best boxers in history. One of his secrets is that he trained himself NOT flinch. When someone attacks him, his eyes are always open.
This allows him to block and dodge at any time, even if someone swings after him.
How many times have you thought of a business idea, but you quit because you found a “competitor”?
This feeling is as natural as closing your eyes when someone tries to hit you.
But I want you to retrain the way you think about the competition.
Competition means it Market validation. But you can’t go up against them directly.
Instead, use the bridgehead strategy to enter the market effectively.
All other photos courtesy of Pixabay via Pexels.
