Copycats Never Steal the Show
- With so many brokers offering the same thing it's time to think outside the box.

As I look around at a lot of brokers’ websites, do you know what I see? I see pretty much the same thing. Whether it’s messaging that tells the reader just how ‘great’ that broker is, and ‘how low its spreads’ are, to loads of ‘free education’, and ‘segregated bank accounts’. You know what guys? I’m simply not buying it!
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The London Summit 2017 is coming, get involved!
Let’s look at the cold hard facts, which is contrary to how I’m feeling as I write this piece in my Limassol office, where the sun with its thirty degrees Celsius rays battles it out with my overloaded air conditioner. The facts are that the majority of Forex Forex Foreign exchange or forex is the act of converting one nation’s currency into another nation’s currency (that possesses a different currency); for example, the converting of British Pounds into US Dollars, and vice versa. The exchange of currencies can be done over a physical counter, such as at a Bureau de Change, or over the internet via broker platforms, where currency speculation takes place, known as forex trading.The foreign exchange market, by its very nature, is the world’s largest trading market by volume. According to the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) latest survey, the Forex market now turns over in excess of $5 trillion every day, with the most exchanges occurring between the US Dollar and the Euro (EUR/USD), followed by the US Dollar and the Japanese Yen (USD/JPY), then the US Dollar and Pound Sterling (GBP/USD). Ultimately, it is the very exchanging between currencies which causes a country’s currency to fluctuate in value in relation to another currency – this is known as the exchange rate. With regards to freely floating currencies, this is determined by supply and demand, such as imports and exports, and currency traders, such as banks and hedge funds. Emphasis on Retail Trading for ForexTrading the forex market for the purpose of financial gain was once the exclusive realm of financial institutions.But thanks to the invention of the internet and advances in financial technology from the 1990’s, almost anyone can now start trading this huge market. All one needs is a computer, an internet connection, and an account with a forex broker. Of course, before one starts to trade currencies, a certain level of knowledge and practice is essential. Once can gain some practice using demonstration accounts, i.e. place trades using demo money, before moving on to some real trading after attaining confidence. The main two fields of trading are known as technical analysis and fundamental analysis. Technical analysis refers to using mathematical tools and certain patterns to help decide whether to buy or sell a currency pair, and fundamental analysis refers to gauging the national and international events which may potentially affect a country’s currency value. Foreign exchange or forex is the act of converting one nation’s currency into another nation’s currency (that possesses a different currency); for example, the converting of British Pounds into US Dollars, and vice versa. The exchange of currencies can be done over a physical counter, such as at a Bureau de Change, or over the internet via broker platforms, where currency speculation takes place, known as forex trading.The foreign exchange market, by its very nature, is the world’s largest trading market by volume. According to the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) latest survey, the Forex market now turns over in excess of $5 trillion every day, with the most exchanges occurring between the US Dollar and the Euro (EUR/USD), followed by the US Dollar and the Japanese Yen (USD/JPY), then the US Dollar and Pound Sterling (GBP/USD). Ultimately, it is the very exchanging between currencies which causes a country’s currency to fluctuate in value in relation to another currency – this is known as the exchange rate. With regards to freely floating currencies, this is determined by supply and demand, such as imports and exports, and currency traders, such as banks and hedge funds. Emphasis on Retail Trading for ForexTrading the forex market for the purpose of financial gain was once the exclusive realm of financial institutions.But thanks to the invention of the internet and advances in financial technology from the 1990’s, almost anyone can now start trading this huge market. All one needs is a computer, an internet connection, and an account with a forex broker. Of course, before one starts to trade currencies, a certain level of knowledge and practice is essential. Once can gain some practice using demonstration accounts, i.e. place trades using demo money, before moving on to some real trading after attaining confidence. The main two fields of trading are known as technical analysis and fundamental analysis. Technical analysis refers to using mathematical tools and certain patterns to help decide whether to buy or sell a currency pair, and fundamental analysis refers to gauging the national and international events which may potentially affect a country’s currency value. Read this Term brokers have a white-labeled version of MT4 (and MT5 – got to get that in there somewhere or the MetaQuotes team will hunt me down), and they’re offering financial products in the shape of forex and CFDs. Those, ladies and gentlemen, are the cold, hard facts. This brings me onto my next question; why do so many brokers copy one other?
Doing the conga
Being a marketer myself, I’ve had my fair share of discussions with directors and shareholders who have blatantly told me to 'take a look at broker X', and “copy what they’re doing”! It’s something I won’t do, and I know there are many talented, up-and-coming heads of marketing that don’t want to copy their competitors either, but as the pressure increases, before you know it, we’ve got a conga line of brokers that look and act like each other.
Brokers: think about your clients
One of the first rules I learnt in marketing many moons ago was to think like your clients. If I were a client of a Forex Broker Forex Broker In the forex space, a broker is any company that can provide traders with access to a platform that permits the buying and selling of multiple currencies.The retail forex industry has grown over the past two decades to include every major jurisdiction, which in turn has necessitated new regulatory oversight. Relative to the institutional sector, retail brokers are rather small portion of the greater forex market. However, traders can rely on brokers for leveraged trading in a 24-hour-a-day market.What Differentiates Forex Brokers?Forex brokers vary across the board in terms of trading platforms, currency pairs supported, leverage, and spreads, among other attributes. The most commonly supported trading platforms used by forex brokers include MetaTrader 4 (MT4) and MT5.Many forex brokers also offer contracts-for-difference (CFDs) and exposure to commodities such as precious metals. Another element that has seen a high degree of improvement in recent years is education and customer service gains. This has taken the shape of online portals designed to promote proper forex trading techniques.Webinars, encyclopedias, trading tools, and other techniques have helped educate retail traders, many of which lose money trading forex historically.Forex brokers are located around the world but are bound by their service offerings in many instances. In most jurisdictions, these entities require licenses from regulatory authorities to trade forex.Over the past few years, retail brokers have dealt with a wide range of challenges that has redefined the playing field.This includes new regulation, leverage restrictions, compliance costs, payment processing challenges, and more. Brokers have consistently had to deal with an increasingly competitive environment for clients as well. In the forex space, a broker is any company that can provide traders with access to a platform that permits the buying and selling of multiple currencies.The retail forex industry has grown over the past two decades to include every major jurisdiction, which in turn has necessitated new regulatory oversight. Relative to the institutional sector, retail brokers are rather small portion of the greater forex market. However, traders can rely on brokers for leveraged trading in a 24-hour-a-day market.What Differentiates Forex Brokers?Forex brokers vary across the board in terms of trading platforms, currency pairs supported, leverage, and spreads, among other attributes. The most commonly supported trading platforms used by forex brokers include MetaTrader 4 (MT4) and MT5.Many forex brokers also offer contracts-for-difference (CFDs) and exposure to commodities such as precious metals. Another element that has seen a high degree of improvement in recent years is education and customer service gains. This has taken the shape of online portals designed to promote proper forex trading techniques.Webinars, encyclopedias, trading tools, and other techniques have helped educate retail traders, many of which lose money trading forex historically.Forex brokers are located around the world but are bound by their service offerings in many instances. In most jurisdictions, these entities require licenses from regulatory authorities to trade forex.Over the past few years, retail brokers have dealt with a wide range of challenges that has redefined the playing field.This includes new regulation, leverage restrictions, compliance costs, payment processing challenges, and more. Brokers have consistently had to deal with an increasingly competitive environment for clients as well. Read this Term, what would I want to see? Something different, surely! For starters, I would want to be surprised. Show me something I’ve not seen before, and you know what, there’s a chance you’ll inspire me. Give me something powerful to think about, and you’ll probably see me getting my wallet out.
For the marketers reading this now, I’m talking directly to you. I want to hear your thoughts on how you personally think you can change this great industry we’re a part of – I promise to answer every comment. That being said I want to tell you how you can be different. Okay, I’ve already said that ‘thinking like your clients’ is the way to go, but there’s a lot more that can be done, and in fact, should be done to break away from the norm, which is boring. There, I’ve said it.
Direct response marketing copy
If you’re not sure what DRMC (direct response marketing copy) is, let me break it down for you. As a forex broker, you’ve got to make sales. Heck, all businesses do. To make sales, you entice the client in by offering him/ her a great product or service. You’re with me so far, right?
You can either bore them to death with the standard indirect response approach, which is where you metaphorically go on a mission to build up your brand and product and pray to gods (the old and the new) that passersby remember your brand when they’re ready to get their wallets out. Or you can do something different. Make no mistake here guys, the indirect response is the norm in thecforex industry. Direct response, however, is a different beast.
DRMC takes the client directly to a buying decision right then and there. And before you start writing in and telling me that ‘compliance will eat me alive if I try this approach’, take a breather and let me enlighten you. Don’t mix ‘spammy content’ with ‘direct response marketing copy’. Stay away from the spam, people!

Reuters
DRMC, if done properly, will trigger super powerful emotions in your potential clients, and the real beauty is that it’s easily testable too. When you produce a new landing page, you’re going to know if your potentials are responding to it or not. A/ B test it with option A housing your zombie indirect response copy, and arm option B with DRMC that Rick, Carol and Daryl would be proud of.
So if DRMC isn’t spam, what is it?
DRMC isn’t content marketing. You’re not simply providing the reader with information. No, no, no! What you’re doing is providing your potential clients with an arsenal of reasons as to why they need to open a live account with your firm.
That’s all for today, but I do promise that in my next article, I’m going to show you some examples of DRMC that work, so watch this space!
As I look around at a lot of brokers’ websites, do you know what I see? I see pretty much the same thing. Whether it’s messaging that tells the reader just how ‘great’ that broker is, and ‘how low its spreads’ are, to loads of ‘free education’, and ‘segregated bank accounts’. You know what guys? I’m simply not buying it!
[gptAdvertisement]
The London Summit 2017 is coming, get involved!
Let’s look at the cold hard facts, which is contrary to how I’m feeling as I write this piece in my Limassol office, where the sun with its thirty degrees Celsius rays battles it out with my overloaded air conditioner. The facts are that the majority of Forex Forex Foreign exchange or forex is the act of converting one nation’s currency into another nation’s currency (that possesses a different currency); for example, the converting of British Pounds into US Dollars, and vice versa. The exchange of currencies can be done over a physical counter, such as at a Bureau de Change, or over the internet via broker platforms, where currency speculation takes place, known as forex trading.The foreign exchange market, by its very nature, is the world’s largest trading market by volume. According to the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) latest survey, the Forex market now turns over in excess of $5 trillion every day, with the most exchanges occurring between the US Dollar and the Euro (EUR/USD), followed by the US Dollar and the Japanese Yen (USD/JPY), then the US Dollar and Pound Sterling (GBP/USD). Ultimately, it is the very exchanging between currencies which causes a country’s currency to fluctuate in value in relation to another currency – this is known as the exchange rate. With regards to freely floating currencies, this is determined by supply and demand, such as imports and exports, and currency traders, such as banks and hedge funds. Emphasis on Retail Trading for ForexTrading the forex market for the purpose of financial gain was once the exclusive realm of financial institutions.But thanks to the invention of the internet and advances in financial technology from the 1990’s, almost anyone can now start trading this huge market. All one needs is a computer, an internet connection, and an account with a forex broker. Of course, before one starts to trade currencies, a certain level of knowledge and practice is essential. Once can gain some practice using demonstration accounts, i.e. place trades using demo money, before moving on to some real trading after attaining confidence. The main two fields of trading are known as technical analysis and fundamental analysis. Technical analysis refers to using mathematical tools and certain patterns to help decide whether to buy or sell a currency pair, and fundamental analysis refers to gauging the national and international events which may potentially affect a country’s currency value. Foreign exchange or forex is the act of converting one nation’s currency into another nation’s currency (that possesses a different currency); for example, the converting of British Pounds into US Dollars, and vice versa. The exchange of currencies can be done over a physical counter, such as at a Bureau de Change, or over the internet via broker platforms, where currency speculation takes place, known as forex trading.The foreign exchange market, by its very nature, is the world’s largest trading market by volume. According to the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) latest survey, the Forex market now turns over in excess of $5 trillion every day, with the most exchanges occurring between the US Dollar and the Euro (EUR/USD), followed by the US Dollar and the Japanese Yen (USD/JPY), then the US Dollar and Pound Sterling (GBP/USD). Ultimately, it is the very exchanging between currencies which causes a country’s currency to fluctuate in value in relation to another currency – this is known as the exchange rate. With regards to freely floating currencies, this is determined by supply and demand, such as imports and exports, and currency traders, such as banks and hedge funds. Emphasis on Retail Trading for ForexTrading the forex market for the purpose of financial gain was once the exclusive realm of financial institutions.But thanks to the invention of the internet and advances in financial technology from the 1990’s, almost anyone can now start trading this huge market. All one needs is a computer, an internet connection, and an account with a forex broker. Of course, before one starts to trade currencies, a certain level of knowledge and practice is essential. Once can gain some practice using demonstration accounts, i.e. place trades using demo money, before moving on to some real trading after attaining confidence. The main two fields of trading are known as technical analysis and fundamental analysis. Technical analysis refers to using mathematical tools and certain patterns to help decide whether to buy or sell a currency pair, and fundamental analysis refers to gauging the national and international events which may potentially affect a country’s currency value. Read this Term brokers have a white-labeled version of MT4 (and MT5 – got to get that in there somewhere or the MetaQuotes team will hunt me down), and they’re offering financial products in the shape of forex and CFDs. Those, ladies and gentlemen, are the cold, hard facts. This brings me onto my next question; why do so many brokers copy one other?
Doing the conga
Being a marketer myself, I’ve had my fair share of discussions with directors and shareholders who have blatantly told me to 'take a look at broker X', and “copy what they’re doing”! It’s something I won’t do, and I know there are many talented, up-and-coming heads of marketing that don’t want to copy their competitors either, but as the pressure increases, before you know it, we’ve got a conga line of brokers that look and act like each other.
Brokers: think about your clients
One of the first rules I learnt in marketing many moons ago was to think like your clients. If I were a client of a Forex Broker Forex Broker In the forex space, a broker is any company that can provide traders with access to a platform that permits the buying and selling of multiple currencies.The retail forex industry has grown over the past two decades to include every major jurisdiction, which in turn has necessitated new regulatory oversight. Relative to the institutional sector, retail brokers are rather small portion of the greater forex market. However, traders can rely on brokers for leveraged trading in a 24-hour-a-day market.What Differentiates Forex Brokers?Forex brokers vary across the board in terms of trading platforms, currency pairs supported, leverage, and spreads, among other attributes. The most commonly supported trading platforms used by forex brokers include MetaTrader 4 (MT4) and MT5.Many forex brokers also offer contracts-for-difference (CFDs) and exposure to commodities such as precious metals. Another element that has seen a high degree of improvement in recent years is education and customer service gains. This has taken the shape of online portals designed to promote proper forex trading techniques.Webinars, encyclopedias, trading tools, and other techniques have helped educate retail traders, many of which lose money trading forex historically.Forex brokers are located around the world but are bound by their service offerings in many instances. In most jurisdictions, these entities require licenses from regulatory authorities to trade forex.Over the past few years, retail brokers have dealt with a wide range of challenges that has redefined the playing field.This includes new regulation, leverage restrictions, compliance costs, payment processing challenges, and more. Brokers have consistently had to deal with an increasingly competitive environment for clients as well. In the forex space, a broker is any company that can provide traders with access to a platform that permits the buying and selling of multiple currencies.The retail forex industry has grown over the past two decades to include every major jurisdiction, which in turn has necessitated new regulatory oversight. Relative to the institutional sector, retail brokers are rather small portion of the greater forex market. However, traders can rely on brokers for leveraged trading in a 24-hour-a-day market.What Differentiates Forex Brokers?Forex brokers vary across the board in terms of trading platforms, currency pairs supported, leverage, and spreads, among other attributes. The most commonly supported trading platforms used by forex brokers include MetaTrader 4 (MT4) and MT5.Many forex brokers also offer contracts-for-difference (CFDs) and exposure to commodities such as precious metals. Another element that has seen a high degree of improvement in recent years is education and customer service gains. This has taken the shape of online portals designed to promote proper forex trading techniques.Webinars, encyclopedias, trading tools, and other techniques have helped educate retail traders, many of which lose money trading forex historically.Forex brokers are located around the world but are bound by their service offerings in many instances. In most jurisdictions, these entities require licenses from regulatory authorities to trade forex.Over the past few years, retail brokers have dealt with a wide range of challenges that has redefined the playing field.This includes new regulation, leverage restrictions, compliance costs, payment processing challenges, and more. Brokers have consistently had to deal with an increasingly competitive environment for clients as well. Read this Term, what would I want to see? Something different, surely! For starters, I would want to be surprised. Show me something I’ve not seen before, and you know what, there’s a chance you’ll inspire me. Give me something powerful to think about, and you’ll probably see me getting my wallet out.
For the marketers reading this now, I’m talking directly to you. I want to hear your thoughts on how you personally think you can change this great industry we’re a part of – I promise to answer every comment. That being said I want to tell you how you can be different. Okay, I’ve already said that ‘thinking like your clients’ is the way to go, but there’s a lot more that can be done, and in fact, should be done to break away from the norm, which is boring. There, I’ve said it.
Direct response marketing copy
If you’re not sure what DRMC (direct response marketing copy) is, let me break it down for you. As a forex broker, you’ve got to make sales. Heck, all businesses do. To make sales, you entice the client in by offering him/ her a great product or service. You’re with me so far, right?
You can either bore them to death with the standard indirect response approach, which is where you metaphorically go on a mission to build up your brand and product and pray to gods (the old and the new) that passersby remember your brand when they’re ready to get their wallets out. Or you can do something different. Make no mistake here guys, the indirect response is the norm in thecforex industry. Direct response, however, is a different beast.
DRMC takes the client directly to a buying decision right then and there. And before you start writing in and telling me that ‘compliance will eat me alive if I try this approach’, take a breather and let me enlighten you. Don’t mix ‘spammy content’ with ‘direct response marketing copy’. Stay away from the spam, people!

Reuters
DRMC, if done properly, will trigger super powerful emotions in your potential clients, and the real beauty is that it’s easily testable too. When you produce a new landing page, you’re going to know if your potentials are responding to it or not. A/ B test it with option A housing your zombie indirect response copy, and arm option B with DRMC that Rick, Carol and Daryl would be proud of.
So if DRMC isn’t spam, what is it?
DRMC isn’t content marketing. You’re not simply providing the reader with information. No, no, no! What you’re doing is providing your potential clients with an arsenal of reasons as to why they need to open a live account with your firm.
That’s all for today, but I do promise that in my next article, I’m going to show you some examples of DRMC that work, so watch this space!