Marketing

Are You Playing the Flashlight Game with Your Clients

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Blackout Attention

My 4 year-old son gets a major kick out of playing with flashlights. He loves to turn out all the lights in the house and pretend it’s a blackout. Then he runs around the house, exploring and frolicking in the dark.

His fascination must have started during a real power outage about 2 years ago (seen in the photo above).

The other night, my 11 year-old twin daughters (also seen in the photo) were putting away their laundry when the flashlight game began. The weren’t supposed to play along, but the game’s allure proved to be too strong. Before long, the girls stopped working to join the fun.

The flashlight game is far too enticing to ignore.

Are Your Clients Playing Your Game?

When you reach out to your prospects and customers, are you presenting them with ideas, words, images and offers too enticing too ignore?

Frankly, none of us have much of an option these days. The people you’re trying to connect with have a limited mental bandwidth. They can only really pay attention to one thing at a time — and there are no shortage of messages and people fighting to be that one thing.

The brain always pays attention to the most interesting thought it can find. Not necessarily the most meaningful or most important, but the most interesting. (That doesn’t mean that you throw away the meaningful, important stuff. You just have to lead with a thought so intriguing that it can’t be ignored. Earn attention, then deliver the meat of the message.)

Turning the Lights On

A flashlight in a dark room gets everyone’s attention. In marketing, it’s not quite that simple. You have to know what kinds of things your ideal clients are interested in. Hint: every answer to this question is about the client — not you.

Everyone is interested in problems that are bugging them…pain that is plaguing them…goals they haven’t reached yet. What are your audience’s problems, pains and goals?

Speak to your clients and potential clients in an unexpected way. Predicable marketing is easily dismissed. Make big, yet believable claims. Or make promises that are so unbelievable that the listener/reader/viewer can’t help but wonder what you’re up to.

One of my favorite novelists, Ted Dekker, put it like this: “A good writer is one who can take those rather blunt instruments called words and string them together in a way that turns lights on.”

Connection Concept

Whatever you do, don’t be boring!

In many ways, your audience are walking around in the dark. It’s your job to get their attention so you can turn on the lights for them.

There’s only a few more hours to get the 50% discount on next week’s Irresistible Offers teleseminar.  Until 11:59 Central tonight (August 4th), you’ll pay $29 for the hour-long training. Find out more at https://donnie-bryant.com/irresistible-offers/.

**Update May 19, 2017**

I recently recorded a livestream video about writing copy that wins and keeps your should-be clients’ attention. In about 10 minutes, I shared 4 critical ideas that you can put into practice today. Thought you might get some value from it.

 

How to Beat Goliath – Now on Amazon Kindle

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Beat Goliath Kindle Book

You may have heard by now, but just in case you haven’t, I’m proud to announce that my book How to Beat Goliath…even if you can’t outright kill him is now available on Amazon Kindle.

If your business facing fierce competition from the big boys in your industry and the battle is beginning to take it’s toll, his book shares information and ideas you can use to turn the tide.

David went to his battle with Goliath armed with 5 smooth stones. With this book, you will arm yourself with 5 strategic marketing concepts. When put together, these 5 concepts form a powerful marketing system that puts you in control of the growth of your business.

You’ll be set up to successfully defend your territory and gain ground, even if your Goliath never dies off completely.

Beat Goliath is my 3rd book, but the first one available on Kindle.

Check it out on Amazon here.

Be on the lookout for the 2nd edition of Stealth Selling: Non-Pushy Persuasion for Professionals in the very near future.

Is Something Missing from the AIDA Formula?

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AIDA

Almost every marketer and salesperson in the English-speaking world knows about AIDA. It’s often one of the first lessons in many of our training programs. As a framework for persuasion, it has stood the test of time in every industry you can think of for over 100 years.

A – Attention
I  – Interest
D – Desire
A – Action

It is my contention that there is something crucial missing from this basic sales and marketing formula. I talked about this in a recent newsletter (if you’re not subscribed, you should fix that expeditiously). If you missed it, you can find out what’s wrong with AIDA as it currently stands in my newest guest posts on the Rhino Daily blog:

Is AIDA Outdated As a Marketing Process? Part 1 and Part 2

P.S. The article wasn’t written in two parts, and to be frank, I’m not crazy about the split. It reads better as a single piece. But I submitted to the Rhino Daily editorial process. The good stuff is in Part 2, but you Part 1 forms the foundation for my ultimate conclusion.

Worst of Signs, Pt. 3

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Same Day Appointment Sign - Calumet City

I took a picture of the sign above at a dentist’s office in my Calumet City neighborhood. (That’s in Chicago’s south suburbs, if you’re curious.) What’s wrong with this sign? On the surface, nothing. But think about the wording “Same Day Appointments” for a moment. Is this dentist so efficient that he can guarantee to look at your teeth the same day that you call? Or is business so slow that there are always open slots in the schedule?

(To be fair, I’ve never visited this office, so I can only speculate about any specifics about the business and it’s success.)
Speaking of slots, The next sign is a doozy.
Slots Sign - Calumet City
This photo is from a bar, also in my neighborhood.

The bar changed the sign after about a week. Must not have worked as well as they thought…

Either that or the slots really do pay out too much and they started losing more money than they made in drinks…

In which case the lead generation method really was brilliant. The lifetime customer value was just too low or the owners were too short-sighted.

Like the dentist’s office, I’ve never been inside this bar, so I’m speculating again.

A few people told me I took the whole thing too seriously; the sign is probably just a joke. And maybe they’re right. (I could just walk down to the bar and ask the owner.)

But even so, marketers have to be careful; if customers feel misled, they’re not going to be happy.

That’s one of the reasons humor is risky in marketing.

What do you think?

Don’t miss these related posts (with pictures from my neighborhood!):

It Was the Best of Signs, It Was the Worst of Signs

Worst of Signs, Pt.2

Small Restaurant, Big Lesson

Pork Chops and Big Promises

When Business Gets Bloody

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“There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.” ~ Ernest Hemingway

Writing was Hemingway’s profession. All he had to do to reach legendary status as a writer was bleed.

I don’t know what success looks like for you. I assume (which is usually a dumb thing to do) that you want to build a solid, profitable business, provide for your loved ones, gain the respect of your peers and attain some level of freedom. Maybe you hope to reach legendary status in your profession.

Take heed to Hemingway’s advice. All you have to do is approach your business or career with a willingness to bleed.

Pouring Out You

As a small business owner or solo professional, you probably know exactly what Hemingway means in the quote above. Your business is an extension of yourself. Day after day, you pour yourself into it. You’re committed to its protection and growth.

In many ways, identifying yourself so closely with your business makes you vulnerable. At the same time, that vulnerability also makes your business appealing:

Your values shine forth. The things that are important to you are the driving force behind the decisions you make. You’re willing to take a courageous stand for what you believe in, even when it doesn’t conform to the industry standards. This can have a polarizing effect; some people will love you and some will hate you. People who share your values and beliefs are more likely to become loyal customers and enthusiastic supporters than they would be if you “played it safe.”

Your “brand” is authentic. What the public sees is what it gets. And what they see is the real you — in the form of a product- or service-providing business. More than ever, consumers are looking for transparent brands to buy from. More than ever, inauthentic brands are shown for what they really are: hucksters more concerned with turning a profit than serving their customers.

It’s hard to connect emotionally (remember: emotion is critical to every purchasing decision) with brands that don’t seem authentic.

Your message has personality. Generic marketing stinks. Personality and uniqueness of voice will make it easier for your business to stand out from the robotic sounds of the boring majority. Your distinct voice will be more attractive to the customers you want to do business with most; your personality demonstrates that you’re one of them! You “get” them! The bond you form can be deeper, i.e., more personal, than anything that can be achieved with pricing or even product specs. I always refer to Apple because they’re a great example of this principle.

Your hard work pays off. If success is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration, how can you win without a willingness to bleed?

Not everyone who bleeds succeeds. But blood-letting usually precedes success.

Disclaimer: Pouring yourself into your business is no guarantee that you’ll succeed financially. It doesn’t even mean you’ll be fulfilled emotionally. All it guarantees is that you’re more likely to connect with the people you want to serve, partner with those closely aligned with where you are, and that if you do succeed, it will be on your terms, not someone else’s.

Good stuff from around the Web
Brand Your Business with Genesis Storytelling: Great 6-minute video from Tom Wanek on telling the “genesis story” behind your business

What Your Client Really Means by Price Objecting: “Your client just told you that they’re not interested in dealing with you, at least not on this subject. That’s not a price problem, that’s a relationship problem. And that’s a big deal.” Charlie Green tells us what’s really going on when a customer says “It costs too much.”

The Truth About Recycled Ads and Pickup Lines: What happens when you try to pour someone else’s blood into your marketing. Or dating. Great illustration from Chuck McKay.

Hanging Out With Jeff Zelaya

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Jeff Zelaya's Google Hangout with Copywriter Donnie Bryant

It’s not often that you’ll catch me on camera; I have an irrational fear of leaving photographic evidence of my whereabouts and activities… (I’m just kidding)

But for my buddy Jeff Zelaya, I made an exception. We spent about half an hour on a Google Hangout talking about copywriting,  marketing and being self-employed. Fun times for everyone. Now I’d like to share the fun with you.

You could check out the video on Jeff’s fantastic marketing blog, where he says some very nice things about me (check’s in the mail, Jeff). There’s also tons of other great content, including Hangouts with other smart people. But for simplicity’s sake, I’ll embed the video right here:

Now, one of the nice things Jeff says about me on his blog is about how cute my 4 children are. He’s telling the truth, of course. And he knows cuteness when he sees it. Have you seen how adorable his son Elijah is?

Elijah

 P.S. If you enjoyed this, there’s a good chance you’ll get something out of my recent interview with Steve Lahey.

Writing Copy to Sell Your “Crazy” Offer

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Yesterday we talked about turning your prospects into paying customers by making crazy offers. Did this concept haunt you the way it’s been haunting me? I hope you spent a good deal of time coming up with an almost too-good-to-be-true offer you can use to move potential clients from interest into action.

Ideally, you will come up with an offer so crazy, so compelling that you don’t need much sales copy (or pitching if you’re selling in person or over the phone). Start with a winning product or service and create a very valuable offer and you’re already most of the way there. Now the copy has an easy job. (Confidentially, this is one of the big reasons copywriters are picky about which projects they work on.)

But no matter how strong your offer is, you should still…

…Sell the Heck Out of It Anyway

Even though making the right offer to the right prospect is 80% of the battle, persuasively-written sales copy can improve response by 10, 100 or 1000%.

Here are 4 qualities that will add extra oomph to your copy:

Identification

Your message should aim for the heart of who your target customer is and how he sees himself.

Nike could talk about comfort, but their customers are athletes concerned with performance, so that’s what their marketing highlights. Lexus could talk about performance, but Lexus buyers are thinking about status. That’s what they showcase in their ads.

What causes one person’s heart to race may not excite the next person at all. Know your customers. Write copy that appeals to their sense of who they are and who they want to be.

Clarity/Specificity

Don’t be the least bit vague about what you’re offering. Tell them exactly what they’ll get, how long it’s available for, how they’ll benefit from their purchase, what to expect next, etc. Clarity creates vision; without vision there is no action. On the other hand, confused people generally don’t buy.

Bold Claims

The idea of under-promising and over-delivering seems to make sense, but it can be suicidal when it comes to marketing. These days, with so many sales messages begging for our attention, you can’t afford to be shy.

Don’t be afraid to make big claims, as long as you can back them up.

People are searching for the best answers to their questions, the best solutions to their problems. Imagine a dentist who marketed his services as getting your teeth “pretty clean.” How long will he be in business? Even if he’s the best dentist in town, marketing like that will ruin him.

Sincerity

Skepticism is at an all-time high. So is the volume of hype-filled sales pitches we see and hear every day. People are looking for providers they can trust. Any hint of dishonesty or shadiness will send most potential buyers running.

Sincerity is like a breath of fresh air. Almost no one is using it.

The less you seem to hype up what you’re doing, the more believable you are. You come across as honest and helpful instead of desperate and opportunistic.

Your Action Steps

1) If you haven’t come up with it yet, keep working on your crazy offer.

2) Write the first draft of your sales copy ASAP.

3) Test out your offer. Don’t be scared.

If I’ve ever shared anything on this blog that I think you should act on right away, this is it. Don’t let another day go by without considering the immediate and long-term effects this “crazy offer” concept can have on your business.

And get moving!

The Business Growth Question I Can’t Get Out of My Mind

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Robert said something a few weeks ago that has been ringing in my ears ever since it rolled off his lips. He has no idea it’s had such a lasting –almost haunting– effect on me. Maybe I should call him and let him know.

“Have you ever offered anything crazy get people onto your buyer’s list?”

He posed the question to about a dozen bright entrepreneurial minds during our mastermind group call. As I recall, only one or two of us came up with a response.

For the record, Robert Michon is a very smart marketer, so his inquiry comes loaded with knowledge, experience and an ever-present curiosity.

This is an idea we all understand, but most of us don’t do it. Or we don’t take it as far as we should. For whatever reason, we never cross the border into “crazy.”

When You Understand This, You Understand How Direct Marketing Really Works

You hear a lot of talk these days about building your email list, and that’s a good thing. But there is a fundamental difference between people who subscribed to your list to get something for free and paying customers. Understanding the difference and focusing on it appropriately will virtually guarantee increased conversion rates, sales and profits.

The best new customer is a satisfied old customer. The second best customer is one referred by a satisfied old customer. The best prospects to buy your higher-end product or service are satisfied buyers of your less expensive offers (all things being equal).

This idea reminds me of a lesson I learned from Richard Armstrong, direct marketing veteran and AWAI Copywriter of the Year for 2012. In chapter 11 of his book My First 40 Years in Junk Mail, he shares the story of his time working with the legendary Dick Benson. The takeaways are golden. Stealing from pages 56-57:

“Oh, let me tell you one other little secret I learned from Dick Benson. Now that he’s passed away, I can share this with you. Dick was never in the publishing business. He was in the list-building business!”He sold subscriptions to those newsletters for just ten dollars a year! In the process, they became the most widely-circulated newsletters in America… But Dick didn’t really give a damn about the newsletters… All Dick cared about was the lists. In other words, he literally gave away the newsletters in order to build up gigantic mailing lists of subscribers…

“When you understand why he did that, you understand how direct marketing really works.”

I can’t recommend Richard’s book strongly enough. Grab a free copy here.

How Does That Impact Your Business?

A significant psychological shift takes place when someone gives you money. If you’ve been in business, either as an owner or an employee, you know there’s a huge difference between a customer and a tire-kicker. Rather than being passive about the process, be proactive. Don’t sit and wait for prospects turn into buyers. Consider making a “crazy” offer, one that’s harder to turn down than to buy. You’ll jumpstart that psychological shift in those individuals, and that begins what will hopefully be a long-term, mutually beneficial relationship.

Either that or you’ll find out that those 1) prospects aren’t as hot as you thought they were, 2) your offer wasn’t crazy enough or 3) your potential buyers don’t see your product as solving their problems or enhancing their lives. No matter what, you’re learning something that you can use to make improvements.

Any type of business can put this idea into practice. A little creative thinking and some courage can make this experiment wildly successful.

I’ve talked before about how Gillette sent me a Mach 3 razor in the mail for my 18th birthday.  Some businesses would be too scared to go that far. It’s crazy, especially since the only thing they knew about me was that I turned 18 on November 2. But their small investment (probably no more than $5) secured my loyalty as a customer for over a decade. I’m in my 30s and I still use the very same razor they sent me. When I need replacement blades, there’s no question who gets my money.

Do you see how this could change the way you do business?

Your Action Steps

1) If you’re not already doing it, start collecting a customer database. Be as detailed as you can. This is a separate list from your general mailing lists.

2) Come up with a hard-to-resist introductory offer and give your prospects compelling reasons to buy. Not just opt-in, but actually send you money. You might be surprised by the difference between $1 customers and free newsletter subscribers.

3) No matter what price point you pick, over-deliver. Give more value than the customer expected.

4) Create back-end offers. Dream up ways to offer targeted products and services (your own and those of other providers you trust) to your customer lists. This is the Dick Benson secret.

5) Test different offers to convert the prospects who didn’t respond to previous offers. Measure results.
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I hope Robert’s “crazy offer” question is burning in your mind the ways it burns in mine. One of the reasons it affects me so much is that I know I could go much further into “crazy” in my own business. But more than that, I know this concept can have a huge impact on your business.

I hope this article provides the spark that gets you to take action on this idea.

4 Steps to No-Brainer Status

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If your target market had to make an instant decision, without thinking, would they would still pick you?

The mind is always doing something, always focusing on something. We even dream while we’re sleeping. Your brain never really stops working.

My fellow Chicagoan James Ford taught me a very interesting lesson (inadvertently, through the radio). He pointed out that we often look for distractions to give our minds a break. We call that amusement. A-muse-ment is, literally, the act or state of not-thinking.

While I generally discourage the use of funny marketing messages, you should consider being appropriately amusing.

With that in mind, here are some amusing marketing ideas:

1) Make your offer a “no-brainer.” If your offer is just right, the prospect literally doesn’t have to think about it.

It’s not good enough to have the best product on the market or to be the most logical choice as a service provider.

Plenty of outstanding businesses struggle while waiting for the world to beat a path to their door to buy their better “mousetrap.” Marketing is still critically important, and the message it conveys must still engage the motivational drives and desires of the target audience.

There are several factors involved here. No matter how much a prospect wants what you sell, there are obstacles to overcome:

a) You have to be trustworthy. No doubt you’ve heard a lot of talk about getting potential clients to “know, like and trust” you. This is not only because we like to do business with people we like, but because we have a hard time doing business with people we don’t trust.

  • This is part of the reason marketers are enamored with social media, and it’s definitely the driving force behind Facebook Sponsored Stories and Google’s social search. You trust your friends, so when they “like” something, that something inherits some of that trust.

b) Your offer itself has to be credible. I imagine if you got a letter in the mail offering “Buy 1 Mercedes, Get 2 FREE.” It might grab your attention, but you’d dismiss the idea pretty quickly. We instinctively believe “if it’s too good to be true, it probably isn’t.”

By all means, make the strongest offer possible, but make sure it’s believable.

c) Eliminate as much risk as possible. The plumbing in my house is not great. At one point, we had to call a plumber every few weeks. When we finally found a guy we liked, one of the biggest reasons he got repeat business from us was because his 90-day guarantee. If the toilets clogged up in that time frame, he’d come out and fix it for free.

How strong is your guarantee? Do you provide excellent customer service after the sale? Do you share additional information or resources to ensure customers enjoy every possible benefit from their purchase?

  • Make testimonials prominent. This form of social proof can be effective at communicating the fact that lots of people just like the prospect has had a wonderful experience doing business with you. What more is there to think about?

2) Get to know your audience so well that you can describe their needs better than they can, using words they’d use themselves. When people feel like you know them, trust comes naturally. Add to that a comprehensive understanding of the challenges they’re facing and the dreams they have, there’s no need for them to look to anyone else when they’re ready to buy. Choosing you is a “no-brainer” decision.

3) Find a way to make buying from you habitual, or attach your offering to the habits of your target audience. That which people do habitually, they do unthinkingly. Here are two terrific articles explaining the power of habits and how they apply to marketing and buying decisions:

The Power of Habit
How Companies Learn Your Secrets

4) Your offer must be obviously valuable. The more clearly you describe what the customer will get after he buys, how wonderful his experience will be, the less he has to justify the purchase to himself. The less internal negotiations have to take place.
The longer he argues, the less likely he is to buy. He’s also more likely he is to either ask for a refund or suffer from buyer’s remorse – a serious problem for repeat business and referrals.

Your Action Steps

1) Get to know what you really sell. Homebuilders don’t sell structures; they provide safety, security, a feeling of family, the American dream, etc. Authors don’t sell ink on paper, but wild adventures and escapes from reality in packages that fit in the palm of your hand.

2) Get to know your prospects better than ever. Always remember, marketing is not about you – it’s about your would-be customers.

3) Speak to the soul. Go beyond having rebuttals for objections and answers for questions.

4) Work on ways to clearly communicate that the solution to your prospects innermost drives and desires is within their grasp – if they enter the door you show them. Help them see it.

5) Find effective ways to deliver that message.

This will take some work, but it will pay off in big ways.

All’s Fair When Avoiding Price Wars

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As a soldier, what main characteristic did David possess that allowed him to defeat Goliath, who was bigger, stronger and more heavily armed?

Most people will say that it was his agility or speed. Just moments before the battle, David decided against suiting up with King Saul’s armor to maintain his mobility.

More important than these things, though, was his willingness and ability to choose the terms of the fight. Even though he was very confident in his physical strength (he’d beaten wild lions and bears in the past), he picked up stones and decided to take out the giant from a distance. I’m inclined to believe David would still have been victorious over Goliath in hand-to-hand combat, but there was no need for that.

He took a weapon he was skilled with and slew the Philistine champion before the fight even began.

When your small businesses square off against entrenched competitors… ones that are bigger, stronger, better-known and better-equipped than you… you can learn a few things from the young warrior David.

Setting up Battles Where Your Victory Is Inevitable

There is a strong temptation for look at your potential customer base and think, “If I drop my prices, more people will buy from me. That’s what everyone else is doing.” In most businesses, special offers mean discounted prices. Every conceivable holiday is an excuse to offer a sale. And some of your big competitors spend thousands or even millions of dollars broadcasting these discounts.

How can you compete with that?

Make no mistake: low prices are attractive. There will always be a market for cheapness. That’s probably the biggest reason why a huge percentage of startups open their doors with plans to become the low-cost provider for the customers they’d like to serve.

But unless you have the buying power of Walmart or its equivalent in your industry, that’s a tough fight to win.

Take a page out of David’s book. Pick your battles strategically. What do you offer that’s better than everyone else who is competing for the customers you want?

Your lunch menu is healthier than McDonald’s.

Your plumbing work is guaranteed for twice as long as anyone else in town.

Your T-shirt brand has been worn by more rock musicians in concert than any other brand this year.

Force The Comparison

In general, you don’t want a potential customer to be able to make an “apples to apples” comparison between your product or service and that of the guy who insists on cutting his prices to the bone. All other things being equal, the customer will buy the less expensive option.

You can’t allow other things to be equal.

It’s essential that you create some differentiator that forces the consumer to make an “apples to orange” comparison.

Your marketing and your sales people force the comparison between your product and the competition at the point of differentiation.

“Look how healthy our lunch menu is!”

“No one guarantees their pipework for as long as we do.”

“If you’ve been to any concerts this year, you’ve noticed how popular our brand is with your favorite rock stars.”

Juxta-position your product in a way that appears unique, especially if your product or service is seen as a commodity.

Create Your Own Category

Have you ever noticed how many different choices are available for chicken eggs at your local grocery store? There are probably dozen options (yes, I thought that was funny).

What’s really interesting is the price difference between some of the choices. For example, your “average” large eggs sell for $1.79/dozen at this particular store. Eggland’s Best Vegetarian eggs normally sell for $3.79/dozen. That’s more than double the price of your “commodity” eggs.

egglands price wars

How does that happen?

Eggland’s Best has capitalized on a key differentiator. This type of egg is in a distinct category: cage-free, vegetarian brown chicken egg.

This destroys the “apples to apples” comparison and forces the customer to consider whether it’s more important for them to save a couple bucks or treat himself to this special kind of egg.

Dutch Farms (the Goliath in this example) probably sells a lot more eggs at the much lower price. But Eggland’s Best (David) is carving out a nice corner of the market to dominate.

Can you think of a way to create a special category for what you sell?