Donnie Bryant

Donnie Bryant is a direct response copywriter and marketing consultant. He helps small businesses and solo professionals connect with and convert their “should-be” clients with unusually effective marketing messages and systems.

Un-Fragile: Marketing with the Man of Steel

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How do you make a billion dollars in sales without discounts, urgency, a call to action or even appearing to “sell” at all?

It’s not only possible, but it’s a bit of an open secret. It happens somewhat frequently these days — in Hollywood.

I know this about you: you don’t have a Hollywood bank account to spend on advertising. And you know something about me, too. You don’t have to have a 10-figure marketing budget to apply the ideas I’m going to share. Trust me and give me just a few minutes of your time.

This trailer for Man of Steel is a good jumping-off point:

Even though Man of Steel had a $150M marketing allowance, there are some powerful principles you can put into practice for yourself without spending much more on your own marketing. If you do it well, these ideas will more than pay for themselves. Some will begin begin having an impact faster than a speeding bullet.

Here are 4 super takeaways:

1) Sell the Experience

Most of our marketing sounds like this: “We’ve been serving the community for 20 years. We only use the finest materials. Our service can’t be beat.”

Those things are important, but they don’t capture the imagination of our customers. That messages doesn’t make the heart race.

The trailer doesn’t say “We spent 3 years and over $200M to make this movie. It’s 2 hours long and it’s sure to excite you.” Instead, it teases you with a taste of what you’ll see, hear and feel when you get to the theater or buy the DVD. Action. Stunning visual effects. An engrossing story about a beloved character.

How can you emulate that? Talk about the experience you provide. Illustrate what the future will look like after doing business with you. Or if they don’t. Better yet, have a current customer tell the story for you.

Remember, people want to know what’s in it for them. Show them right away. Put yourself in their shoes; what’s going to get their heart racing?

2) Know, Like and Trust

Everyone’s familiar with Superman. Most of us like him. Some people are fanatics. (I’ve seen people come close to fist-fighting when discussing DC vs. Marvel.) And just like an old friend, we’re happy to spend more time with him, getting to know him.

While there are plenty of ways a Superman reboot could go wrong, this production builds on a strong franchise with a loyal built-in following. Not a bad place to start.

On top of that, the director (Zack Snyder) and producer (Christopher Nolan) have rabid fan bases of their own. Even if you don’t know them by name, you’re familiar with their work:

People know, like and trust the movie-watching experience itself.

What positive associations do your potential customers have that you can tap into?

Who or what do they already know, like and trust that you can align yourself with?

What part of your product or service are they already in love with that you can highlight?

What amazing experiences can you remind them of?

3) Go in for the Long Haul

Superman has been around since 1938. There are new comics, cartoons, TV shows and movies all the time, and it’s been that way for decades.

Repetition begets trust and burns memories.

Think about your marketing efforts in the long-term. I know you don’t have 75 years to wait for a profit, but don’t go crazy acting like a traveling salesman who’s only in town for a week, either.

Communicate consistently and continually. If possible, try to reach your audience in multiple channels to keep things fresh and interesting. Write articles in magazines or trade journals they read. Take on speaking gigs and record them so you can share the video or MP3. Do a podcast.

Don’t just blog or email.

The challenge is that you have to continually fascinate, educate and/or add value, otherwise you become a nuisance.

4) Make the “Ask” Easy

Have you noticed that trailers don’t put pressure on you? They don’t have to sell you half-price tickets or give you free Ginsu steak knives if your order in the next 10 minutes.

There’s no need for anything like that.

They’ve tapped into established consumer behavior. People love movies. They pay for tickets at the theater and buy the DVD, too. They love to go in groups (or couples at least), and they love to tell everyone they didn’t go with how awesome (or horrible) the experience was.

There are millions of people who go to the movies no matter what’s playing. It’s not hard to get them to buy a ticket.

The price-to-value equation is an easy one for moviegoers to calculate. They enjoy the experience, and the value of that experience outweighs the cost of the ticket. It’s a no-brainer.

Is there a proven consumer behavior or cultural trend you can hitch a ride on? (Be careful, the competition can be rough there.)

What can you do to make your product/service so valuable that your price is a non-factor?

(Just for the record, I’m all for strong calls to action, creating urgency, etc. I highly recommend using them to strengthen your offer.)

I haven’t seen Man of Steel yet (apparently their marketing doesn’t always work, huh?), but I know this: $150M worth of marketing has generated at least $830M in gross revenue for Warner Brothers. That’s nearly a 6X return on investment. There’s something worth paying studying there.

Although I believe direct response is the way to go, especially for small businesses, we can learn from all kinds of business success. Anyone getting 600% ROI is worth paying some attention to, wouldn’t you say?

P.S. Want more superhero marketing tips?

You’re going to love this video.

Isn’t Selling to the ‘Lizard Brain’ the Goal?

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In The Art of Planting Ideas, we talked about how the prefrontal cortex (PFC) of the human brain goes dormant while watching movies on the big screen, television shows and sometimes even marketing videos.

Understanding people, how they think and why they do what they do is the foundation of marketing. Knowing why certain tactics and triggers work makes you much more effective at applying the what and how of selling and marketing.

Why does the relative inactivity of the PFC even matter? Don’t people always buy based on emotion? Isn’t the goal to sell to the “lizard brain” anyway? First, let me say that I find the term “lizard” or “reptilian brain” ridiculous (although the phrase itself is both visual and visceral, making it a great use of language). This part of the brain – the limbic system – is not some genetic hand-me-down of an evolutionary process. (In fact, the “three-brain theory” has been largely rejected by modern neuroscience. Most marketing educators are clinging to old, invalidated information.)  I find that the radical self-interest of the human race can be traced back to choices Adam made back in Eden. The more I learn about psychology and neurology, the more clearly I can explain why marketing works from a Biblical perspective. (Maybe we’ll talk about that another time.)

I prefer the term “old brain” instead of “lizard brain“?

Back to the point…

The desires that drive our decision-making, including purchasing decisions, do come from the old brain. They’re more emotional than intellectual. That’s why we focus on appealing to the emotions in sales and marketing.

But the prefrontal cortex is still in control of the executive function, i.e. the ability to guide thought and action in accordance with internal goals. We aren’t lizards! Desires still have to make it past the PFC, which processes the logical outcomes of acting on that desire. This is the reason why “reason why” advertising works.  Marketers have to provide the necessary ammunition to rationalize the purchase. Check out Simon Sinek’s 2009 TEDx presentation explaining why “why” matters. (I don’t agree with all of his conclusions, but it’s still worth watching.)

Ultimately, desires are rooted deeper than logic and rationality, but the PFC almost always has the final authority.

Have you ever wanted to punch someone right in the mouth? Have you seen yourself do it in your mind’s eye? Most of us have. But most of us don’t act on that desire. That’s the executive function at work, overriding emotion.

That means you sell to the emotions, but you can’t neglect the intellect in the process.

So, is the PFC-paralyzing power of video good or bad? It is inherently neutral. It can be used for evil purposes, e.g. the Nazi propaganda film “The Triumph of the Will.” It can also be used for good. In either case, it’s effective.

A good story can have a similar effect on the brain. When you’re engrossed in narrative, the brain makes its own mental movie to watch the story unfold. Robert Collier said it well: “The mind thinks in pictures, you know. One good illustration is worth a thousand words. But one clear picture built up in the reader’s mind by your words is worth a thousand drawings, for the reader colors that picture with his own imagination, which is more potent than all the brushes of all the world’s artists.”

 

“Who Are You Going to Believe, the Doctor or Me?”

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One of my readers asked me a question about gaining trust from his clients. What most entrepreneur doesn’t think about that least occasionally? Of course, people like you who read my ramblings are a special breed. As such, this reader took his question a little further. “How do I build my authority and credibility to the same level as a doctor?”

Here’s a slightly modified version of my response. I hope you’ll find it helpful.

6 Ways to Build As Much Authority As 6 Years of Med School

Realistically, it’s very difficult for most entrepreneurs to be as authoritative in the mind of an individual as a physician before actually working with him. In all likelihood, he’s been conditioned year after year to literally trust doctors with his life. He also has plenty of personal experience with them.

Doctors have been around for ages. Almost everyone on Planet Earth has been to a doctor, or at least they desperately wish they could. As such, physicians are among the most authoritative professionals in the world.

Most entrepreneurs don’t have that advantage. Their industries are probably not continuously portrayed in the media as the pinnacle of intelligence, value and significance the way the medical profession has been for decades. On the other hand, there are plenty of industries that are the butt of non-stop ridicule from Hollywood, e.g. used car sales, lawyers, marketing professionals.

But, after producing mind-blowing results for a client, you have the chance to become just as trustworthy and authoritative as a doctor. That’s really the tip before the tips. Do great work and proactively encourage clients to give you referrals. I guess that’s 2 tips…

Having said that, there are 6 things entrepreneurs can do to boost their credibility and authority among people they haven’t personally worked with:

1) Writing a book has always been a huge authority builder. Even in this digital age, authors are seen as experts, period. (You may have noticed that author is the root word of authority.)

Even if you never make the bestseller’s list, having a somewhat comprehensive piece of intellectual property on a given subject will give you instant credibility. E-books are good, but physical books are better.

Even though digital books are outselling their print counterparts, a physical book has a powerful subconscious trust-building effect. We instinctively think of them as more valuable, more expensive to produce, and more likely to have gone through a more rigorous approval process. Self-publishing is okay, but if you can get published even by a small publishing house, that adds more gravitas to your credibility.

2) Multimedia – Create MP3s, CDs, online videos or DVDs. You can showcase your expertise at length and in a professional way.

You can create these as products for sale, give them away as “freemiums” to get people to sign up for your newsletter, or give them away free on your website, Youtube or as physical handouts.

Like books, physical CDs or DVDs are seen as more valuable, more difficult to create, and thus, build more authority. Would someone who has nothing to say go through all the trouble of making CDs and handing/sending them out to potential clients? Even if they never listen to them, you’ll have positioned yourself as a confident expert. Of course, you want them to listen…

Your content should be specific and unique. If possible, give information that can be easily put into practice to generate instant results. That quickly establishes you as a source of positive change. The easier it is to take the first step, the more likely they’ll take it. The quicker they see results, the stronger their appreciation for your ability will be.

3) Public speaking. Do some searching to find an opportunity where you can speak to a group of people on a subject that 1) matters to them and 2) you can deliver a quality presentation about. Look for these opportunities wherever you can. (If possible, record them on video capturing some shots of the audience as well.)

Most people are terrified of speaking in public. Those who do so well are highly respected. I have a few buddies who charges $10,000+ for one speech. Are they celebrities? Not one of them. But in their niches, they are sought-after thought leaders. They also signs big clients as well as future speaking gigs almost every time they get on stage.

4) Get testimonials and make them a prominent part of your self-promotion.

5) Associate yourself with someone else who has authority. For example, Dr. Phil’s appearances on Oprah Winfrey’s show took his career to heights he probably never would have otherwise reached.

Who has the trust of the people in your target audience? Or who would be perceived as authoritative to your audience that you could become associated with? Ask them if you can interview them. Write guest articles for their website or newsletter (everyone’s always looking for good content).

Sometimes it takes creativity and persistence, but I’ve found most experts to be easier to get in touch with than you think. They’re also willing to give interviews to promote themselves.

Writing articles for major magazines or websites your audience pay attention to.

6) Public relations. If you can get your story noticed by the news media, you become an instant celebrity and authority. Honestly, I don’t have much experience in this area (but I do have something cooking in this area right now). Write press releases and deliver them strategically. You’d be surprised how many of the stories covered by news outlets is planted by self-promoters via one-page press releases.

Your Action Steps

1) Think about which of these techniques you might be able to use to boost your own credibility.

2) Get in touch with me if you need some clarity. I know these are very general recommendations. Perhaps I can help you make specific applications.

3) Check out the following resources about why prospects don’t trust you (yet) and how to fix that:

Bypassing Your Prospects’ Hardwired Conversion Obstacles

30 Minutes to More Trust – An Interview with Charlie Green

Until next time!

Learning Salesmanship from a Kid’s Toy

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Today’s lesson is inspired by and based on a 47-second video. (None of this will make much sense if you don’t watch it now.)

Why Does This Ad Work?

I wasn’t able to find any verifiable figures on how this particular device is selling (or how much can be attributed to this 2-week old commercial), but according to Inc. Magazine, the company that created Nabi, Fuhu, is the fastest growing privately-held company in America this year. With 42,148% growth over 3 years, they’re clearly doing something right.

Let’s go with what we know. This commercial is:

1) Laser-targeted. Fuhu knows precisely who the main buyers of these tablets are: parents (mostly mothers) of children in their Pre-K and early school years. This commercial makes its appeal directly to them. They’re not trying to win over any other audience. The commercial is running on channels where Mom, in full parenting mode, will be most receptive to the message.

2) Emotionally-driven. The video plays on the heartstrings — and does so mostly without words. It isn’t about tech specs; it’s not even about the device itself. The quick plot focuses on the triumphant end result: your child is fearless, unstoppable, even when her peers tremble.

3) Visually compelling. Again, the words are almost an afterthought here, although they do strengthen the visuals. But if you play the video again with the volume off, it has just as much punch. Video is powerful that way.

Viewers who don’t have kids can still appreciate the impact of the message.

Parents who see the commercial are deeply moved.

Parents with kids struggling academically…well they’ve probably already gone to buy the thing.

You can make your message visually compelling even if you’re not using video. Good copy can create the exact same effect in print or audio. Robert Collier said it well:

“The mind thinks in pictures, you know. One good illustration is worth a thousand words. But one clear picture built up in the reader’s mind by your words is worth a thousand drawings, for the reader colors that picture with his own imagination, which is more potent than all the brushes of all the world’s artists.”

Your Action Steps

1) Get to know your target audience. I sound like a broken record, but this point can’t be stressed enough. You can’t make a truly persuasive marketing message if you only have a vague idea who you’re talking to and what they care about. If you don’t get anything else from this newsletter, I’d make this the thing you pay attention to.

Your ideal client is like your spouse: you can never know her too well.

2) If you are intimately familiar with a promising audience, consider customizing a product or service for them. Fuhu saw a big opportunity to market kid-friendly, drop-proof tablets (you know you always cringe when your little one grabs your iPad with his slippery, slimy fingers). They went from $279,000 in revenue in ’09 to $118 million in 2012.

Maybe there are some 9-figure doors waiting for you to open them.

3) Add emotion to your messages. Aim for those heartstrings.

You’ve got a great product with all the bells and whistles. Who cares? Potential customers want to see their own triumphant end result. Paint that picture.

4) Make sure you have a good copywriter on your team.

5) Get your laser-focused, emotionally-charged message out in places where your best buyers will see them — and be in the right state of mind to listen attentively. Maybe it’s a radio ad during drive-time. Maybe it’s a snail mail letter from someone they trust. (That’s another one of those things you’ll have to figure out with study and testing.)

How Do I Get People to Want What I Sell? Part 3

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In Parts 1 and 2 of this short course, we’ve been talking about intensifying your potential customers’ built-in desires and directing them towards the thing that you’re selling. There’s a common thread tying together each of the points we’ve covered. Perhaps you’ve noticed.

You use your words to paint vivid, evocative images in the minds of your prospects…their response will correspond directly with their desires, motivations and priorities…

You base your marketing messages or sales pitch on the quest they’re on, the vision they have for their lives and the way they see their place in the world…

You do your best to be convincing…but those who become your customers are those who convince themselves that you can deliver the results they want.

Do you see it? Conversion is essentially a self-initiated change. All persuasion is self-persuasion.

Persuasion’s Passive-Aggressive Nature

“No matter how brilliantly an idea is stated, we will not really be moved unless we have already half thought of it ourselves.” ~ Mignon McLaughlin

If you’re honest, you know deep down that this quote speaks to real experience.

As irresistible as your message may seem to you, what really matters is how it matches up with what the hearer thinks about himself (his quest)… about the problem you’re addressing or promise you’re making… about you.

For example, if he believes he was born to be an entrepreneur and that reading a book can speed up the process and increase his chances of success, he’ll actively search for those kinds of books.

If he believes that “I could never succeed in business” and that starting a business a risk reserved for richer, more educated people, “be your own boss” products won’t appeal to him.

Vision Is the Delivery Mechanism

In order to get someone to buy from you, you need him to convince himself that your product or service will give him what he wants. To do that, you have to give him the materials he needs to convince himself. That brings us back to the concept of building vision.

When you’re helping your prospect imagine all the wonderful tomorrows that are sure to come after he buys your product… when he can see himself enjoying a brighter future because of you, he’s really selling himself on your proposition. Of course you’re doing your part: feeding him the raw materials he needs to see that mental image. This is where copywriting, storytelling, demonstration and testimonials come into play.

You want him to come to a predetermined conclusion: that your product is his best option to achieve the transformation he’s looking for. Rather than stating that too explicitly (which will probably be a turn-off for most potential clients), you want to help him draw that conclusion on his own. As Blaise Pascal said, “People are usually more convinced by reasons they discovered themselves than by those found by others.”

When he decides that you’re the best choice based on his own “reasoning,” you’ve won a firmly-convinced convert.

Arriving at Imbecility (and How to Avoid It)

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“So the final conclusion would surely be that whereas other civilizations have been brought down by attacks of barbarians from without, ours had the unique distinction of training its own destroyers at its own educational institutions, and then providing them with facilities for propagating their destructive ideology far and wide, all at the public expense…himself blowing the trumpet that brought the walls of his own city tumbling down… Until at last, having educated himself into imbecility, and polluted…himself into stupefaction, he keeled over–a weary, battered old brontosaurus–and became extinct.” ~ Malcolm Muggeridge

Although Muggeridge was talking about the crumbling of Western society’s moral foundations, I think his observations apply to the world of marketing (especially online) in many ways.

Hear me out.

How much time and money have we invested in learning marketing techniques and strategies that we’ve never used? How many newsletters do we get and read (including this one) but never put the ideas we get into practice?

I’m guilty of it, too, more than I’d like to admit. For example, the photo above is a shot of around $10k of infoproducts sitting on my bedroom floor. A telling illustration if I’ve ever seen one.

Ideas to Action

Education is a good thing. Information is critical to everything we do in life. But education and information has to lead us some place, not just fill out heads with “book knowledge.”

“The object of education is not knowledge; it is action.” ~ Thomas à Kempis

This should be self-evident, but the point often eludes us. We frequently, inadvertently make education an end unto itself. Twelve-plus years of public school will do that to you…

What you need is almost certainly not more information. You need to begin acting on what you do know and continue learning as you go. Action will help put new information into context, leading to continually-optimized action.

Don’t let education be your excuse for procrastination or your refuge from the terrors of the real world.

“Action is the foundational key to all success.” ~ Pablo Picasso

If you’re not moving on the information you consume, you’re blocking your own path to success. Success is the result of value creation; creation is an action. Three quick suggestions:

  1. Act on what you know now.
  2. Put what you learn in the future into practice as soon as you can do so responsibly.
  3. Stop wasting time obtaining information you’re not going to use. As Sherlock Holmes told Watson in A Study in Scarlet:

    “I consider that a man’s brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best is jumbled up with a lot of other things…the skillful workman is very careful indeed as to what he takes into his brain-attic. He will have nothing but the tools which may help him in doing his work, but of these he has a large assortment, and all in the most perfect order. It is a mistake to think that that little room has elastic walls and can distend to any extent..there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you knew before. It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones.”

Countless millions of would-be marketers have educated themselves into imbecility by making information an end instead of a means. Many of them take what they’ve “learned” but never used, repackage it and try to market that information to other newbies.

When amateur marketers sell marketing information to amateur marketers (who probably plan to do the same thing), we have the blind leading the blind. A large part of the industry may end up in a ditch.

Focus on action and you’ll avoid the collapsing walls of Marketropolis.

P.S.  If these articles aren’t helping you get active and improve those actions, I encourage you to unsubscribe. 

Seriously.

Not that I want you to leave, but if I want to be consistent, my newsletter has to meet the same criteria I’m asking you to hold everyone else to. If there’s something I can do to make these communications more action-inducing, let me know. I don’t want to be party to any procrastination or avoidance of the nitty-gritty of real-life business.

How Do I Get People to Want What I Sell? Part 2

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Vision USP

Don’t forget to read Part 1.

The Main Qualifier

Whether they’re aware of it or not, every single person on this planet is on a quest. This quest is defined by the person’s vision of his life, both how he interprets his past and imagines his future. It’s the lens through which he sees himself and his place in the world.

This quest can take all kinds of shapes. To be a millionaire living on a tropical island by the age of 35. A mother of two beautiful children. To be respected by his golf buddies. To “just fit in,” or to stand out from the crowd. To rock and roll all night and party every day.

Please understand, persuasion isn’t about building a vision for its own sake. The images you create with your sales and marketing messages have to complement the hearer/reader/viewer’s vision for his own life. They have to fit that vision and expand upon it. Clarify it. They have to move the hearer further along his life-quest.

For example, painting vivid mental pictures of arthroscopic knee surgery won’t convince anyone to undergo the procedure. (That would probably have the opposite effect, wouldn’t you say?) Rather, images of pain-free movement, the ability to participate in activities you’ve missed out on for years, the enjoyment of an energetic, uninhibited life – that’s what sells.

“That’s Not How I See My Life”

A number of years ago, my wife and I had a disagreement over observing a particular tradition. I wanted to abstain from observing it. She plainly informed me that she would not be married to someone who wouldn’t keep this custom.

“That’s not how I see my life,” she explained.

My bride had a vision for what her life would look like. She had a strong drive to make the vision a reality.

I was driven by the way I saw the future, too. I envisioned myself as a happily married man, and I was just as motivated to make my vision reality. Needless to say, the aforementioned tradition hasn’t been interrupted since that conversation.

That’s the importance of the quest.

Our quest dictates our priorities (in large part); our priorities determine our decisions, including what we buy.

Knowing and Playing Your Role

The kind of heroes people want are the ones who assist them in making their dreams come true. We want heroes who help us become the heroes we envisions ourselves as becoming on our life mission.

Remember: your customer is the protagonist of his own story. You’re a role player helping him overcome the conflict and reach ultimate victory. It’s your job to talk/write your way into the plot of his story.

The question is, how do you do that?

1. Get the attention of people whose story you can transform in a unique way: Your business won’t fit into everyone’s story. That’s cool because you don’t want to get involved in everyone’s story. You need to have a) a clear understanding of the value you can create for your customers, b) who those customers are, and c) how to gain their attention.

2. Paint a picture of the problem: If you talk about the “good life,” people who don’t have it will feel the sting. Alternatively, you could talk about the problem itself. Your message will resonate with those who are struggling through the challenges now, or those who have already given up in despair. If you can use language they’d use to describe their experience, you’ll really strike a chord. They see that you understand them and their difficulties. It’s much easier to trust the advice of someone who knows what you’re going through.

You can inspire those individuals that there’s still hope, and you’ve found it. You’re also the best person to lead them to the source of that hope.

3. Paint a picture of progress: When you build vision in your prospect’s mind of the progress he’s looking for but doesn’t yet have (or doesn’t know how to get), his desire intensifies. It takes on a definite shape, like liquid poured into a bottle which you design. He’ll probably feel it in his gut. He wants that progress, and if you do it right, he’ll see your solution as the best way to get it.

Last week I shared a quote from Gene Schwartz’s Breakthrough Advertising. Let me share another excerpt as an poignant example. It’s a bit lengthy, but compelling. From the Preface to the Boardroom Edition:

This book was first published in 1966…it only sold a few thousand copies. But since it was published I have had people coming to me regularly to tell me that they directly credit reading this book with their making millions of dollars.

… Here is a book that is called Breakthrough Advertising…and yet was used by men who were not in the business of advertising at all, to make more money than most of us ever dream of accumulating.

How did this happen? Why was a publisher, a financier, a manufacturer of novelties, able to make so very much money with a book that is about putting sentences together? (The financier told me that, within one year of obtaining the book, he had raised his net worth from $100,000 to $10 million). Are the sentences contained in the pages that follow actually that powerful? Can they change the fortunes of men so radically? Are they far more universally adaptable than I had first thought…so they are no longer about advertising products, but literally about opening whole new markets for them?

There is a way to develop an entirely new market for a new or an old product. That way involves a certain number of clearly-defined step. And in this book I show you every single one of those steps…

We are, in a phrase, “Market Makers”…

So, this book is not about building better mousetraps. It is, however, about building larger mice, and then building terrifying fear of them in your customers. In other words, it is about helping to shape the largest and strongest market possible, and then intensifying that market’s reaction to its basic need or problem, and the “exclusive” solution you have to offer it.

Ask Rodale Press–for whom I sold over twenty million dollars of a single book…

Creates some nice images, right? After reading the preface, it’s hard for an entrepreneur or marketer not to be excited about reading the rest of the book.

As you can see, better words paint sharper pictures. Vivid images are the holy grail of desire intensification. Don’t slack off in this area.

In Part 3 we’ll wrap up this short course on desire intensification. Until then, think about the pictures you paint. Think about how what you’re learning about your customers’ desires can make bolder, brighter and clearer visions in their minds. Then work on improving the words and sentences you use to win your customers over.

How Do I Get People to Want What I Sell? Part 1

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How do you make people want what you’re selling? I mean, that’s the point of marketing, right?

Let me clarify one thing before we get started. I don’t believe in it’s possible to create desire. Our desires are pre-existing. Your job as entrepreneurs and marketers is to create products and services that there is already some existing desire for, then direct the desire our potential customers feel toward your offer.

Now, I hear what you’re saying. “There are companies making big money selling things people didn’t know they wanted. Just look at Apple. They’ve sold millions of devices nobody even knew they wanted.”

Steve Jobs himself said that “A lot of times people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.”

Jobs was dead wrong.

What about the auto industry? Henry Ford once said “If I’d asked my customer what they wanted, they’d have said a faster horse.” Nobody wanted cars. But in 2012, global car sales topped 80 million units.

Believe it or not, this apparent discrepancy actually proves that marketing is about selling what people already want. People may not have wanted a car, but they did want to travel faster. So Ford gave his customers what they wanted – it just came in a different package than they expected.

The same is true for Apple. Jobs and company didn’t create a brand new desire; they channeled desires that millions of people already had into a unique new line of products.

Apple didn’t invent music and inject it into the iPod. It just made it easier to access the tunes you love and carry them with you everywhere you go. Apple didn’t have to convince anybody that carrying one multi-capability device was better than hauling a music player, camera, GPS device and a phone.

The iGadgets are products appealing those already-present desires in an attractive new way.

So instead of asking “How do I make people want what I sell,” figure out how to channel your ideal prospects’ desires toward your product and the satisfaction they’ll experience when they buy it.

Vision, The Ne Plus Ultra of Desire Intensification

The real key to directing the desires of your potential customers is to create a vision, an image in their minds. Business gurus spend a lot of time talking about coming up with your own company vision, and that’s important. But until you’re building a vision in other people’s minds, you’ll always struggle to sell your product or service, especially if you’re not the cheapest, closest or only available option. (A precarious position at best.)

Even then, you face the danger of being overtaken by someone who does inspire visions in your customers’ minds.

Feast Your (Mind’s) Eye On This

Waikiki_beach

According to Roy Williams, the 7th Law of the Advertising Universe is this: “Engage the Imagination, then take it where you will. Where the mind has repeatedly journeyed, the body will surely follow. People only go to places they have already been in their minds.”

Think about it. When you’re making a big decision, you’ve always imagined scenarios of how it will turn out. You’ve seen yourself enjoying the benefits of action or enduring the pain of indecision. You’ve smelled the salt air and felt the warm waves soaking your feet on Waikiki.

When you keep picturing something you want, that recurring vision heaps up desire that sooner or later you have to act on. Or go crazy.

Eugene Schwartz said this in Breakthrough Advertising:

“Above everything else, advertising is the literature of desire…Advertising gives form and content to desire. It provides it with a goal. These desires, as they exist in the mind of your prospect today, are indistinct. They are blurs—hazy, ambiguous, not yet crystallized into words or images. In most cases, they are simply vague emotions, without compulsion or direction. And as such, they have only a fraction of their true potential power.

“Your job is to fill out these vague desires with concrete images… your job is to show him in minute detail all the tomorrows that your product makes possible for him.

“This is the core of advertising—its fundamental function. To take unformulated desire, and translate it into one vivid scene of fulfillment after another. To add the appeal of concrete satisfaction after satisfaction to the basic drive of that desire. To make sure that your prospect realizes everything that he is getting—everything that he is now leaving behind him—everything that he may possibly be missing. The sharper you can draw your pictures…the more your prospect will demand your product, and the less important will seem your price.“

How Do You Score?

Are your marketing materials are delivering in these areas? Are they intensifying and directing the desires of the people you really want to do business with? Are you talking about what interests you or what interests them?

In Part 2 we’ll plunge a little deeper into this topic. In the meantime, make an effort to get to know your prospects and customers better than ever. It’ll be one of the best investments you can make.

What A Wet Floor Sign Can Teach You About Your Business

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What’s the purpose of wet floor signs from the perspective of a business owner?

Believe it or not, your answer to that question can tell you a lot about how you run your business. It doesn’t matter if you have a brick-and-mortar retail location or you sell strictly from your website. This exercise is purely hypothetical.

So what do you think? What’s the purpose behind wet floor signs?

If your answer is “to protect the business from legal liability if anyone should happen to slip on on the premises,” you may have uncovered a dangerous mindset that could threaten the vitality and growth of your own business.

What might this sort of response tell you about yourself? To put it plainly, you’re focused on the wrong thing.

What’s at the Center of Your Business?

If you’ve got a “protecting what’s mine” mentality (as indicated by the aforementioned response the the wet floor sign question), you’re exhibiting symptoms of an defensive-minded, self-centered entrepreneur. You place your own interests at the center of everything you do.

On the other hand, if you said that the purpose of the wet floor sign is to protect people in your store from getting hurt, you’re showing that you’re a customer-centered entrepreneur.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with protecting your business or yourself. It would be foolish not to. But when you focus on your business instead of your customers, you’re putting the cart before proverbial horse.

You’ve heard it a hundred times: “The purpose of business is to create a customer.” Not to build a store, invent a product or make a name for itself. If you want to get good at creating customers, you need to make them the most important thing.

Playing It Too Safe

It’s hard to grow your business proactively when you’re playing defense. If you’re too invested in protecting your reputation, image, your perceived upper-hand in relationships, etc., you’re probably playing too safe.

Risk-taking empowers you to make bold promises in your marketing. Playing it safe makes for boring advertisements.

Customer-centric courage frees you to offer strong guarantees, which can often increase sales by 300% even while inviting buyers to ask for their money back if they’re not fully satisfied. When you put your customers first, you’re willing to reverse the risk back on yourself.

Self-centered businesses hesitate before giving value in advance.  They’re worried about getting ripped off by cheapskates or copied by sneaky competitors. Customer-centric businesses know that offering value in advance brings more leads in, develops more trust and establishes more authority in the marketplace. Sure, there’s a little more risk involved, but the upside potential is worth it.

Business isn’t about you. The companies and solo professionals that really make a difference are usually those that make it their priority to take care of their customers. They want to make the world a better place, not just put money in their bank accounts.

Which description sounds more like your business?
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This illustration probably seems overly simplistic, but I think it’s also rather instructive. I’d love to hear what you think about it. Feel free to share your thoughts in the Comments section.

P.S. If you’d like to hear about some of the most courageous marketing and guarantees you can imagine, you might like to listen to my interview with Space Shuttle engineer-turned-consultant Mark Fox.

Unexpected Insights for the Christian Entrepreneur Pt. 6

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The Necessity of Copywriting for Christian Entrepreneurs in Spiritual or Secular Businesses

“If you talk to people in a language they don’t understand, how will they know what you mean? You might as well be talking to an empty room.”– 1 Corinthians 14:9

Unexpected Insight part 5 was about writing for ministry purposes. I want to get back to talking about business.

One of the most important qualities of strong copy is clarity.

As a writer, you should be easy to understand, and you should attempt to make the world easier to understand through your writing. No one wants more complexity in their lives. Colin Powell is quoted as saying “Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers.” Donnie Bryant says that great writers are almost always great clarifiers.

Have you ever visited a website that made absolutely no sense to you? Read a letter that confused you instead of answering your questions? How does that experience make you feel about the other party?

Yet so many businesses I know spend as little time as possible putting together their messaging. They see it as a chore to get out of the way. “Let’s get to the selling!”

But confused prospects never buy.

Weak copy doesn’t answer questions, overcome skepticism, or demonstrate value.

What would happen if prospects were smarter and better-informed just for having visited your website? How much more likely are they to trust you over the guy who just threw some words on the page? How much more likely are they to believe that you understand them? How much more likely are they to connect with you and buy from you?

You must be able to write copy in an engaging, easy to understand way. Avoid trying to impress your readers. They’re not reading your message to admire your vocabulary or sentence structure. Gene Schwartz said that if someone read an advertisement and their response was “that was a great ad,” the ad was a failure. Instead, the reader should come away with a greater appreciation for, understanding of and desire for the product and the benefits that come with it.

This isn’t poetry.

Horace Greeley said that “The best style of writing, as well as the most forcible, is the plainest.” Say what needs to be said in the most consumable way possible.

You will lose a lot of readership by using big words, convoluted sentences and ambiguous statements.

Write and speak to be understood, not to impress. Not to make yourself feel smart. The Bible says that if the trumpet gives an uncertain sound, who will prepare himself for battle (1 Corinthians 14:8)?

Let there be no uncertainty in how you write. Business is no place for poetry or ambiguity. Clarity is of the utmost importance.

Spend the time necessary to write clearly and convincingly. You’ll never regret doing so. Or, enlist the help of someone you can trust to do a great job writing for you.

What’s the point of communicating if the reader doesn’t know what you’re saying?

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If you missed them, you can read Parts 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 of this series.