In the biz-opp world, it’s popular to sell people on the idea of the so-called “duplicatable” business.
You’ll often see copy that claims, “All the hard work has already been done for you! This business is super easy to duplicate. It’s truly a ‘plug and play’ opportunity.”
I just scratched that out. Here’s some real copy I found on the Warrior Forum (took about 5 seconds to find):
$2 A Day Website Workshop – Duplicate my success! PLR Available
I didn’t bother reading the offer, but I assume it was an offer for PLR content that would supposedly allow the buyer to duplicate the success of the seller.
Here’s the thing about these types of claims: They’re false.
The truth is, there’s no business that is truly “duplicatable.” In other words, the duplicatable business is a laughable myth.
Times change. Markets changes. Your customers will be different than another person’s or business’s customers even if you are in the same market.
You are different than other business owners. You have different talents, skills, assets.
With all these variables, how can anything truly be duplicated?
Even among franchises, which are about as close as you can get to a “plug and play” business, you will find significant variations in success. One franchisee does really well; another does okay; a third fails.
What if I promised you that you could “duplicate my success”?
It would be ridiculous for me to promise such a thing. How could you duplicate my success? You’re not me, I’m not you. (Not to mention, in order to duplicate my success you’d also have to duplicate my failures — and I doubt you’d want to do that.)
Yet these kinds of claims are made every minute on the Internet.
The only way you can truly duplicate a business is this:
Same location, same moment in time, same owner, same product or service, same customers, etc. If all variables are identical, then the success will be (or ought to be) identical.
Unfortunately, what I’ve just described is impossible.
So file this away: Virtually every business that is advertised as being “duplicatable” is anything but that. Caveat emptor.
-Ryan M. Healy
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About Ryan M. Healy
Ryan Healy is a direct response copywriter. Since 2002, he has worked with scores of clients, including BoostCTR, Alex Mandossian, Terry Dean, and Pulte Homes. He writes a popular blog about copywriting, advertising, and business growth, has been featured in publications like Feed Front magazine, and is a regular contributor to WordStream.com, BoostCTR.com, and MarketingForSuccess.com.
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I agree 100% Ryan. There are way too many variables that come into play – even if you do *exactly* what someone else does, you’re probably going to get different results. Maybe better, maybe worse but probably different.
I’d even go so far as to say you’re better off to add your own spin anyway, even if something is pitched as duplicatable. The chances of seeing success are much better if you take an existing system and add your own tweaks. That way you’re not competing with all the other people who are trying to duplicate that success.
Your franchise example is right on. I think there are 5 McDonalds in my city and my son always wants to go to one specifically, no matter how close we are to the others. The food’s better (as much as that’s actually possible!) and he just likes that particular location for some reason. They all follow the same system, but there are still differences.
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Thanks for your comment, John.
Great advice to add your own spin. I get far better results when I adapt systems/processes to my own business than if I try to follow them to a T.
The word “duplicatable” should be a red flag in and of itself. It means everything is duplicated… as in the failures (like you mentioned), the marketing required, the results of those marketing efforts, the payment systems, and on… and on…
In short, there are too many things to duplicate (precisely) to have the same success someone else had with the same business.
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Exactly.
Hey Ryan,
This is good food for thought. I too see this a lot in the biz-op market — especially in the copy.
I think too much copy is written as boilerplate, and it robs the client of their USP.
I see many copywriting students latch on to “hook phrases,” and “power words.” What is needed is simple, clear communication — and THEN punching it up with whatever emotion is appropriate to that context.
Bottom line: duplication will only take you so far, in a business, or writing copy for it. You get breakthroughs from being original. Thanks for bringing this to the forefront, Ryan.
Hey Kevin – Thanks for commenting.
As you point out, copywriters copying each other has led to the duplication of “duplicatable business” claims.
Irony!
I’ve seem many of these ‘easy’ and ‘duplicatable’ systems come and go over the years (hell, I’ve even bought a few, stupidly!).
But people still fail to think it through – and get carried away with all the surrounding get-rich-quick-and-easily hype. On top of the excellent points you make Ryan, is that if the seller does give you the full method (including comprehensive lists of what sites to post on and wording to use), and then sells that to 1000 people, their success rate (which is probably vastly overhyped anyway) will go down fast; and everyone else’s will be non-existent. One link on a site leading to information may be clicked on – a thousand leading to the same information will just be seen as spam to be ignored.
Let’s face it – if they really had a simple method of earning the money they say they make, for as little effort as they say it takes – why on earth would they share it with thousands of others?
The real answer is to build your own unique product, programme or service. Unfortunately I learned that the hard way!
Hi Angie – Thanks for commenting. :-)
As you point out, methods that are sold to a lot of people tend to lose their potency. I wrote about this in a post titled “Marketing Tactics That Work Today But Not Tomorrow”:
http://www.ryanhealy.com/short-term-marketing-tactics/
Thanks again for leaving a great comment.
Ryan,
So true. I come from a background in the biz-op world, and it is so so totally rampant there, it’s incredible.
Lov your comment about “All the work is done for you”. It really appeals to what people want that join those….money without having to work for it.
You’ve gotta admit though…the copy does appeal to that target market.
Cheers,
Kurt
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Hey Kurt – Yes, the copy does appeal to that market… nevertheless, I’m hoping my blog makes a small difference and prevents people from responding to claims that are blatantly false. :-)
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