by seller_bot | Feb 13, 2019 | Our Blog
Let’s talk about human nature for a second. If I were to offer you a succulent, moist, still warm-from-the-oven piece of triple chocolate cake…
…while simultaneously slamming my heel into your toes…
…which one would you notice?
Which one would you react to?
And which one would you still be thinking about tomorrow?
People will spend an enormous amount of time, money and energy to avoid pain. They’ll avoid confrontation with bosses, neighbors, spouses and kids to avoid emotional pain. They’ll take drugs to suppress physical pain.
Your job as a successful marketer – whether you like it or not – is to use this pain to help them find a solution.
Some might call this exploitation – digging around in the pain and agitating it to motivate people to take action. You’re making the pain worse before you finally prescribe the cure.
But it’s the pain that makes people take action. And if you can help people, then it’s your job to do it. And to help people, you’ve got to use the best method possible to motivate them to take action – which is aggravating the pain and making them feel it until they cry ‘uncle.’
I know what you’re thinking – you won’t make their pain worse to sell them the solution. Instead, you’ll motivate them with a positive picture of what their life will be like once they have the solution. Well, you’re half right. Understand this – Humans will do far more to avoid pain than to receive reward. They’ll run as fast as they can away from the stick, but they’ll creep up on the carrot and many times never even reach it.
Most people cannot clearly describe what they want, which is why they never get it. But they can tell you exactly what they don’t want. By rubbing their noses in what they’re trying to avoid, you momentarily make the pain worse until it’s unbearable. They want to take action now. They NEED to take action NOW.
And then you motivate them with the positive picture of all the benefits they’ll receive from doing this thing you want them to do. The niche doesn’t matter, either. Whether you’re selling software, information, washers and dryers or stocks and bonds, agitate the problem, then offer the solution.
Examples:
Software
– how much work are they having to do, and how much business are they missing because they don’t have your automated solution?
They’ve already wasted tons of time and lost a fortune. Their competitors are ahead of them, and soon their business will be on the scrap heap.
Unless… unless they grab your software now, because then they can get x benefit and y benefit and z benefit, etc.
Health Information
– they’re overweight, tired, catching colds and at risk for serious disease. From here, it only gets worse
– much worse. Sick, in pain, bed ridden, in the hospital, heart attacks and chemo and drugs and …
but wait. They can turn their health around, starting right now.
Washers and dryers
– think how much extra they’ve already paid in water bills because they don’t have energy efficient models.
Plus, the wear and tear to their clothes from inferior washers and overheating dryers, their shoddy appearance wearing these clothes, making a lousy first impression at work because of how bad their clothes look. But you can solve it all today…
Investments
– they’ve already lost a fortune by not using your services. Just look at the returns your clients have been getting, look at how much money they started with versus what they have today.
If only they had started with you sooner, all the time and money lost. But right now you have perhaps your best investment advice yet, but it’s a super hot market and timing is critical…
Okay, you get the idea. No matter what you’re selling, you can agitate the problem and then offer the solution.
Remember, in movies the hero doesn’t arrive to save the day until things look completely bleak and desperate and the cause is all but lost. Effective marketing is no different.
by seller_bot | Feb 6, 2019 | Our Blog
Your target market must be small enough that the resources you’re able to commit will have a big impact.
Imagine carrying the heaviest rock you can hold and dropping it into a small pond. The splash would be huge, loud and noticed by anyone around, and the ripples would cover the entire surface.
Now imagine dropping that same rock into the middle of the ocean. No one would even notice. Imagine dropping a rock 100 times that size in the middle of the ocean. Again, no one would notice a thing.
The rock, of course, is your resources.
When new marketers come to me looking for advice, I ask them who their target market is. Nine times out of ten, it’s, “Everyone who wants to ___.” It might be everyone who needs to lose weight, make money or whatever. It doesn’t matter. Their market is too big and they’ll never get noticed.
But if they target teachers who want to make extra money online, or nurses, or fast food workers, they’ll probably make a killing.
Still not convinced? Think of the pond versus the ocean, and the rock as being your marketing. How much marketing will you have to do to get noticed in the ocean? You’ll need the resources of a Coca-cola to do it.
Now imagine getting noticed in the pond. Heck, if you just stand up and say, “I’ll teach everyone in the pond how to lose 10 pounds this month, or how to make $1,000 a month online,” you’ll get noticed right away.
When someone describes their market too broadly, I know they’re going to fail. But when they know exactly who their audience is and how they’re going to reach them, I know they’ll do fine
by seller_bot | Jan 22, 2019 | Our Blog
The Secret Copywriters NEVER Tell You
It’s all about fancy copywriting and Jedi mind tricks to make the sale with your copy, right? After all, that’s what most copywriters will tell you.
However, at least half the battle is won via selection of your audience, rather than how good your message, your copy or your offer is. If you’ve got mediocre marketing aimed at a highly targeted and well selected audience, you’ll get great results.
But if you’ve got exceptional, world-class, you-hired-the-best-ofthe-best copywriter kind of marketing aimed at the wrong market or even a poorly targeted market, at the very best you’ll get mediocre results. And odds are, you won’t even do that well.
You need to know who your customers are and where to find them.
Who is your ideal client?
What do they want, what do they need, what are their objections, and what do they look for in your product or service?
Here’s an easy example – not all targeting is this simple, but it gives you the idea:
You have a pet-related product and so you target all pet owners. That is sloppy targeting, and yet I see it daily. Or, you have a cat product for senior cats who have chronic kidney disease.
Now you know exactly who your market is – no, it’s not cats with kidney disease, it’s their humans. Talk to them, find out their struggles, fears, worries, problems and so forth with dealing with this disease. Ask them why they try so hard to keep their kitties healthy rather than go get a new, younger cat (if you’ve ever loved a pet, you already know the answer to that one.)
When you have a product that can help these particular cat owners, you can have a sloppy marketing campaign and it won’t matter a bit – they will buy, I guarantee it.
Spend half your marketing time finding out exactly who your market is and targeting those people. Spend the other half crafting your marketing message, and you will have a marketing campaign that cannot lose.
by seller_bot | Jan 26, 2018 | Our Blog
The marketing budget is a sensitive area to discuss when it comes to small businesses, as in an ideal world people would flock to your site, and you could save your precious money. But, unfortunately, we don’t live in a perfect world, and marketing is a huge component to achieving success with your company.
However, there are certainly ways to keep your marketing spend to a minimum, and the most popular right now is Facebook video ads. To put it into perspective—you could pay thousands for TV commercials, be exposed to the masses and 99% of them may not be interested in your product or service.
On the other hand, you could utilize content marketing which is completely free. However, that simply does not produce results like Facebook video ads do. Content marketing is typically performed with the long-term in mind, rather than quick growth which is what a small business often needs.
But, with Facebook video ads, you can make every single penny you have count. Firstly, you can laser-target an audience that is interested in your niche to ensure every view has the potential to covert well. Secondly, the cost is extremely flexible depending on how much you are able to spend.
For instance, if you are just starting out and have very limited capital, you could begin a campaign for as little as $5 per day. This may not produce mouth-watering results, but it could get enough views to get you off the ground. In addition, you can then scale it as much as you want, in accordance with your budget.
Furthermore, Facebook video ads have been proven to produce extremely impressive engagement and conversion rates. It makes sense, right? If you’re laser-targeting thousands upon thousands of people, it’s inevitable that you’re going to receive a high percentage of views.
Then, if you’ve optimized your video for a newsfeed, and it is high quality, a good proportion of those views are likely to transition into conversions. Ultimately, for small net spending in comparison to other methods, you’ll generate leads which could be the difference between your business failing and your business flourishing.
Facebook video ads are a smart choice for the small business budget. There are too many benefits to ignore. Think about it—there must be a reason why Facebook video ads are taking the marketing scene by storm!
by seller_bot | Jan 24, 2018 | Our Blog
3 Ways to Target New Customers with Facebook Video Ads
Facebook is a platform that is home to over a billion people across the world. Now, if you capitalize on that audience correctly, you can generate tons of leads or even direct sales. So, you’re probably wondering how you can tap into Facebook’s huge number of uses, right? Well, you can set up a video ad campaign, and target specific audiences relevant to your niche.
Facebook video ads is a marketing strategy that is so effective, and that is because it has such staggering conversion and engagement rates. There have been a multitude of studies in recent times, and they all point towards people preferring to watch a video over anything else. Plus, surveys also revealed that Facebook users regularly interact with video content on the platform.
But, to run a successful campaign, you must be aware of some strategies that will ensure you aren’t wasting precious money. Here are some brilliant ways to target new customers with Facebook video ads.
Create appropriate ads for the relevant audience
If you’re starting your first campaign, then you’ll most likely be targeting what’s known as cold traffic. This is an audience that isn’t currently aware of your brand or products but should still be interested in your niche. So, you’ll need to create some exposure and introduce that audience to your brand before you do anything else.
Then, once you’ve gathered intel on who engaged with your ad and showed some interest, you can start to produce video ads that highlight your products or services. Either sell what you offer or upsell to people that have already purchased from you.
Develop your ad assuming there is no sound
On Facebook, video ads are automatically played without sound as users scroll past. To listen to the video, the user will have to turn it on, but over 85% of people do not do this. You may be thinking, “Well, how will I market my company if no one’s going to listen to the add?”
You will need to be creative, and capture people’s attention with the quality of the video. Moreover, you could utilize textual clues, jump straight into the good part without an intro, or just simply add narrative subtitles.
Always add a CTA (call to action)
Whether you want them to purchase your product, subscribe to something or just visit your site, you need to encourage them to do so. You may not realize it, but most people won’t do something unless you tell them to do it.
If we reflect on our second method, people watching with no sound only highlights the importance of a great CTA at the end. So, don’t be shy and if you want them to purchase your amazing dog collar, then say – ‘Purchase this wonderful dog collar NOW.’
