Hey there,
Last week I told you I was about to become famous.
In the most inconsequential of ways.
And so, this week I'd like to reveal it (watch for the next email from me today) and then share a few more thoughts - from master marketer Dan Kennedy - about crafting your irresistible offer.
* * *
Four Steps To An Irresistible Offer - Dan Kennedy
In your last Success Marketing Strategy I gave you two examples from two different industries of how you should not create the offer until you have found out as much as possible about the people who will be receiving the offer.
I also mentioned that I would reveal to you today some additional tips to help you create successful offers.
Here are four of the top seven I know:
#1: The offer must be clear. People must be able to understand it instantly. Confused people do not respond. For example, half off is better than 50% off and a lot better than 35% or even 60% off. People have difficulty understanding percentages. Two for one is usually better than half off.
#2: The offer must be a good value. It has to be understood as a good value. That's why percentage off coupons doesn't usually work well. People get suspicious. They think as soon as they see I have coupons they'll just raise the price to recover the discount. Percentage off coupons work well where there are known published prices.
#3: The offer should involve either a discount or a premium or preferably both. Sometimes premiums work much better than discounts. A premium is something you give away as a free gift to someone who comes in or who makes a purchase. Bill Glazer in his retail store meticulously track results of all his offers and has found that by adding a premium he will average a 30% increase in response.
#4: There should be a logical reason for the offer. If you discount or give something away without an explanation you create skepticism and suspicion. People have been told all their lives there's no such thing as a free lunch. You have to explain. We're doing this to introduce ourselves to the neighborhood as an introductory offer in celebration of opening our new store, as an anniversary sale, a clearance sale, customer appreciation week. Just about any explanation will do but there needs to be an explanation.
NEXT WEEK - you are going to see six real world examples of USP's.
I hope all is well with you.
Warmest,
Tad Hargrave
Founder
Radical Business
"helping conscious folk make more money"
tad@tadhargrave.com
www.tadhargrave.com
P.S. Please consider the environment before printing this email - Thank You!
P.P.S. In a few weeks, a handful of you are going to get the chance to receive an Offer Makeover from me. It could be worth thousands of dollars to you. Seriously. You can't sign up for it yet. So, don't try. I'll be offering the chance to my best clients first - and then to my entire list.
FREE 90 PAGE "THE WAY OF THE RADICAL BUSINESS" EBOOK: www.tadhargrave.com (sign up on left hand side)
FREE 'CONSCIOUS MARKETING' ARTICLES: www.radicalbusiness.blogspot.com
Showing posts with label eco-business marketing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label eco-business marketing. Show all posts
Sunday, September 09, 2007
NEW - 101 Page EBook - "The Way of the Radical Business"
Hey all,
It occurred to me that - a month or so
after creating this ebook I hadn't told
anyone.
What?
Expect me to live what I teach? . . .
There's no charge for this ebook. You
can just go and download it at the link
below . . .
http://www.tadhargrave.com/RB/welcome.pdf
What is it?
It's basically a three in one package:
PART ONE:
An edited and expanded version of my live
two hour intro. The only thing missing is
my card tricks.
If you haven't been to my intro, here’s a
sneak preview of what you’ll learn:
o the difference between your inner
marketing game and your outer game (and
which one 90% of businesses totally ignore)
o the three critical criteria to
developing a strong target market or niche
o how you can craft an irresistible
offer that will compel your ideal clients
to buy from you in ways they never have
o the massive importance of identifying
‘hubs’ for your business (and the three
critical criteria of a good one)
o the difference between active and
passive word of mouth (and how you can
create substantial, positive word of
mouth for your business)
http://www.tadhargrave.com/RB/welcome.pdf
PART TWO:
The Horrible Hundred+
This might just be my favorite thing I've
ever created.
It's basically a diagnostic for the
conscious entrepreneur to see where they're
strong and where they're weak.
But from a particular angle.
I created it because I saw one too many
good-hearted conscious entrepreneurs
completely mis-diagnosing their situation.
They came to me thinking they needed
marketing help - but their real problems
lay outside the realm of marketing. Often
they were in the wrong business entirely,
they were addicted to urgency, they had
no goals etc.
I've gotten rave reviews on this thing.
http://www.tadhargrave.com/RB/welcome.pdf
PART THREE:
The Radical 180
This is a 180 point checklist that focuses
almost entirely on your marketing game plan.
It's divided into what i consider to be the
five most 'mission critical' areas of your
business.
It should give you a good birds eye view
of where your marketing is strong and where
it's weak.
* * *
To download your own copy - or forward it
to a friend - go to:
http://www.tadhargrave.com/RB/welcome.pdf
That's it.
Warmest,
Tad Hargrave
Founder
Radical Business
"helping conscious folk make more money"
tad@tadhargrave.com
www.tadhargrave.com
P.S. Please consider the environment before printing this email - Thank You!
FREE 90 PAGE "THE WAY OF THE RADICAL BUSINESS" EBOOK: www.tadhargrave.com (sign up on left hand side)
FREE 'CONSCIOUS MARKETING' ARTICLES: www.radicalbusiness.blogspot.com
FREE RADICAL BUSINESS VIDEOS: www.youtube.com/radicalbusiness
If you are confused about why you got this email or want to be removed from this list please just click REPLY and type in "remove" in the subject line.
It occurred to me that - a month or so
after creating this ebook I hadn't told
anyone.
What?
Expect me to live what I teach? . . .
There's no charge for this ebook. You
can just go and download it at the link
below . . .
http://www.tadhargrave.com/RB/welcome.pdf
What is it?
It's basically a three in one package:
PART ONE:
An edited and expanded version of my live
two hour intro. The only thing missing is
my card tricks.
If you haven't been to my intro, here’s a
sneak preview of what you’ll learn:
o the difference between your inner
marketing game and your outer game (and
which one 90% of businesses totally ignore)
o the three critical criteria to
developing a strong target market or niche
o how you can craft an irresistible
offer that will compel your ideal clients
to buy from you in ways they never have
o the massive importance of identifying
‘hubs’ for your business (and the three
critical criteria of a good one)
o the difference between active and
passive word of mouth (and how you can
create substantial, positive word of
mouth for your business)
http://www.tadhargrave.com/RB/welcome.pdf
PART TWO:
The Horrible Hundred+
This might just be my favorite thing I've
ever created.
It's basically a diagnostic for the
conscious entrepreneur to see where they're
strong and where they're weak.
But from a particular angle.
I created it because I saw one too many
good-hearted conscious entrepreneurs
completely mis-diagnosing their situation.
They came to me thinking they needed
marketing help - but their real problems
lay outside the realm of marketing. Often
they were in the wrong business entirely,
they were addicted to urgency, they had
no goals etc.
I've gotten rave reviews on this thing.
http://www.tadhargrave.com/RB/welcome.pdf
PART THREE:
The Radical 180
This is a 180 point checklist that focuses
almost entirely on your marketing game plan.
It's divided into what i consider to be the
five most 'mission critical' areas of your
business.
It should give you a good birds eye view
of where your marketing is strong and where
it's weak.
* * *
To download your own copy - or forward it
to a friend - go to:
http://www.tadhargrave.com/RB/welcome.pdf
That's it.
Warmest,
Tad Hargrave
Founder
Radical Business
"helping conscious folk make more money"
tad@tadhargrave.com
www.tadhargrave.com
P.S. Please consider the environment before printing this email - Thank You!
FREE 90 PAGE "THE WAY OF THE RADICAL BUSINESS" EBOOK: www.tadhargrave.com (sign up on left hand side)
FREE 'CONSCIOUS MARKETING' ARTICLES: www.radicalbusiness.blogspot.com
FREE RADICAL BUSINESS VIDEOS: www.youtube.com/radicalbusiness
If you are confused about why you got this email or want to be removed from this list please just click REPLY and type in "remove" in the subject line.
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
At Last! Tad becomes minorly famous (and how you can too)
Hey there,
How many pink spoons do you have?
It's an important question. I'll explain in a moment.
If you want to skip the whole story you can jump to this link:
www.youtube.com/radicalbusiness
but it will really make much more sense if you read on.
Before I tell you about how I am about to become minorly famous (and how you can too) I'd like to make a few safe bets.
I'd be willing to bet that when people meet you they like you.
I'd be willing to bet that your marketing materials will never be as powerful as meeting you in person.
Sure, your website and brochures and ads might sound good, but people are going to doubt them - after all - you have a vested interest in them buying.
I'd be willing to bet that when you really have a chance to explain how you do what you do and tell your story - that people are impressed and far more likely to do business with you.
Isn't there something about meeting someone - and getting to read their vibe - that matters a lot?
How many times have you heard of people meeting celebrities and telling their friends, "Wow. He was so down to earth. He wasn't pretentious at all."
I doubt most celebrities are that pretentious.
But most people are naturally suspicious.
And, sad to say, they're suspicious of you too.
Which is a shame.
After all, you're nice. You have integrity. You'd never try to lie, cheat or steal from them. But, until they meet you in person, they just aren't really going to trust you.
People trust their experiences, not your rhetoric.
I can't tell you how many times I've had folks come to my free intro sessions and come up to me afterwards to tell me, "You know, I've been to so many marketing sessions and I thought, 'Hmm. This sounds good but maybe he's just another hype filled marketing ass****.' But you weren't. You were really down to earth. I like you and I think I'll be coming to the weekend."
How can you do create this personal connection?
This can mean:
1) Teleseminars
2) Speaking at events
3) Running free intro sessions
4) Meeting with people one on one
But all of the above are very time intensive. You have to actually be there in person.
What if there was a way for people to 'meet' you that required almost none of your time?
Wouldn't that be useful?
I recon it would.
Before I tell you what I did - let me come at this from another angle and then tie it all together.
Word of Mouth is powerful, right?
But, why?
Because, instead of people having to take the time and energy and risk of meeting you in person (and being trapped in a two hour seminar that ends up sucking) they can hear about your experience. And since you're someone they trust and since you're independent of the business you're recommending - you can be trusted.
But sometimes, this isn't enough.
After all, can't you think of times when you have recommended some workshop or seminar or restaurant to someone only to have them never act on it?
Of course you have.
Why?
They hadn't experienced it for themselves yet.
They weren't sold on the relevance or value or the product or service for themselves (and maybe you aren't as credible to them as you thought you were - owch).
Imagine you're at an ice cream shop with a friend.
You want them to try the Mango Tofulatti. They shrug. You tell them it's the most delicious thing you've ever tasted. They seem unimpressed.
"Think I'll just stick with strawberry."
You keep trying to convince them but you are afraid to push it too far. After all, if you push them too hard they might decide to never try it just out of principle.
So, why don't they try it?
Well, if they spend five bucks on the cone and they don't like it, they're out the money and they know they could have spent that money on something they know they would have liked. Right?
But, what if you said, "Here, try this little pink spoon."
They do. They're curious after all, they just don't want to have to commit their whole five bucks.
Pink spoon marketing is powerful.
You give people a sample - not enough to satisfy - but enough to let them make an informed decision about whether or not they want more.
Do you have any of these for your business?
What are YOUR pink spoons?
Your pink spoons should fit a few critical criteria.
1) It should contain enough to let them know if it's a fit.
2) It should be something that your existing clients will actively WANT to pass on to their friends.
3) It should be low risk (or ideally NO risk) for people to try out.
Now, there's lots of different things you can do:
- Offer people a free buyers guide or special report on a critical topic
- Free downloadable audio files
- A Blog
etc.
But there's a relatively new medium that's available to you now - for almost NO money.
And I've just gotten into the game.
Online video.
It's a powerful way for people to learn about you, who you are and how (and why) you do what you do.
Instead of simply reading words - they can see you, read your body language and get a sense of who you are.
Again:
I'd be willing to bet that when people meet you they like you.
I'd be willing to bet that your marketing materials will never be as powerful as meeting you in person.
Online video fits the criteria below extremely well.
1) It should contain enough to let them know if it's a fit.
An online video can give them a chance to get as much or as little information as you want.
2) It should be something that your existing clients will actively WANT to pass on to their friends.
A link to an online video is incredibly easy to send. Youtube.com has made it brainless. And it's becoming more and more common to do. People are sending each other videos all the time. Remember: your clients probably love you. They want to support you. They want to spread the word - but you almost certainly haven't given them the tools to do so.
And your website likely isn't exciting or novel enough to warrant them sending it to folks.
But a cool online video?
Why not create one about your business.
I know - you don't know how. I'll address that in a second.
But, imagine the email from your client to a friend of theirs . . .
"You remember that organic restaurant I was telling you about? Check this link out."
"You remember that practitioner I was telling you about? Check this link out."
"You remember that eco-friendly house cleaner I was telling you about? Check this link out."
3) It should be low risk (or ideally NO risk) for people to try out.
Is there anything less risky than watching a video on your computer? No pushy salespeople. Nothing to print off. You can stop it (and restart it) anytime you want. No obligation to buy.
And it doesn't have to be perfect.
You don't have to spend thousands of dollars. It can be a quick 7 minute video shot on a friends camera of you giving a tour about your restaurant or your clinic.
The point is that people get to meet YOU before they take the risk of meeting you in person. And, right now, YOU are likely the critical piece to your businesses success. People are likely buying YOU as much as they are your product and service.
Online video gives your clients an easy way to introduce you to their friends.
It gives you something you can send to someone you meet briefly so they can 'get to know you better'.
Remember the days where you had to be famous to be on film?
Well, now you can become minorly famous on sites like www.youtube.com
And now, after two years of scheming, I'm finally on youtube.
And finally, at long last, minorly famous.
About bloody time . . .;-)
I have created my very own youtube channel. You can find it at:
www.youtube.com/radicalbusiness
**What EXACTLY will you find at this link?**
You will find about two hours of footage covering the content of my free intro. You can watch it all for free. There's no charge.
You will also find a clip of a few testimonials from my weekend workshop.
You will ALSO find the only footage in existence of me doing sleight of hand card magic. And I bet you won't be able to figure it out no matter how many times you watch it.
**How can YOU put up your own online videos?**
To be honest, I have no idea.
But I recommend the services of my friend Todd who helps people like me (who have no clue at all) to get their videos shot and online.
I can't rave enough about Todd's professionalism, class and warmth.
I don't get paid to endorse him. This email isn't a joint venture. He didn't know I was going to send this out.
But, if you're interested in getting some video online, I recommend you shoot him an email at info@3Dplayground.ca
And let me know what you think of my youtube channel will you?
I'm very excited about it (even if I wish I'd cut my hair before I did it).
We'll continue with the Irresistible Offer series next week.
Warmest,
Tad Hargrave
Founder
Radical Business
"helping conscious folk make more money"
tad@tadhargrave.com
www.tadhargrave.com
P.S. Please consider the environment before printing this email - Thank You!
FREE 90 PAGE "THE WAY OF THE RADICAL BUSINESS" EBOOK: www.tadhargrave.com (sign up on left hand side)
FREE 'CONSCIOUS MARKETING' ARTICLES: www.radicalbusiness.blogspot.com
FREE RADICAL BUSINESS VIDEOS: www.youtube.com/radicalbusiness
p.s. Tell me what you think of my youtube channel? www.youtube.com/radicalbusiness
If you subscribe to this channel or rate the videos, it's a big help.
How many pink spoons do you have?
It's an important question. I'll explain in a moment.
If you want to skip the whole story you can jump to this link:
www.youtube.com/radicalbusiness
but it will really make much more sense if you read on.
Before I tell you about how I am about to become minorly famous (and how you can too) I'd like to make a few safe bets.
I'd be willing to bet that when people meet you they like you.
I'd be willing to bet that your marketing materials will never be as powerful as meeting you in person.
Sure, your website and brochures and ads might sound good, but people are going to doubt them - after all - you have a vested interest in them buying.
I'd be willing to bet that when you really have a chance to explain how you do what you do and tell your story - that people are impressed and far more likely to do business with you.
Isn't there something about meeting someone - and getting to read their vibe - that matters a lot?
How many times have you heard of people meeting celebrities and telling their friends, "Wow. He was so down to earth. He wasn't pretentious at all."
I doubt most celebrities are that pretentious.
But most people are naturally suspicious.
And, sad to say, they're suspicious of you too.
Which is a shame.
After all, you're nice. You have integrity. You'd never try to lie, cheat or steal from them. But, until they meet you in person, they just aren't really going to trust you.
People trust their experiences, not your rhetoric.
I can't tell you how many times I've had folks come to my free intro sessions and come up to me afterwards to tell me, "You know, I've been to so many marketing sessions and I thought, 'Hmm. This sounds good but maybe he's just another hype filled marketing ass****.' But you weren't. You were really down to earth. I like you and I think I'll be coming to the weekend."
How can you do create this personal connection?
This can mean:
1) Teleseminars
2) Speaking at events
3) Running free intro sessions
4) Meeting with people one on one
But all of the above are very time intensive. You have to actually be there in person.
What if there was a way for people to 'meet' you that required almost none of your time?
Wouldn't that be useful?
I recon it would.
Before I tell you what I did - let me come at this from another angle and then tie it all together.
Word of Mouth is powerful, right?
But, why?
Because, instead of people having to take the time and energy and risk of meeting you in person (and being trapped in a two hour seminar that ends up sucking) they can hear about your experience. And since you're someone they trust and since you're independent of the business you're recommending - you can be trusted.
But sometimes, this isn't enough.
After all, can't you think of times when you have recommended some workshop or seminar or restaurant to someone only to have them never act on it?
Of course you have.
Why?
They hadn't experienced it for themselves yet.
They weren't sold on the relevance or value or the product or service for themselves (and maybe you aren't as credible to them as you thought you were - owch).
Imagine you're at an ice cream shop with a friend.
You want them to try the Mango Tofulatti. They shrug. You tell them it's the most delicious thing you've ever tasted. They seem unimpressed.
"Think I'll just stick with strawberry."
You keep trying to convince them but you are afraid to push it too far. After all, if you push them too hard they might decide to never try it just out of principle.
So, why don't they try it?
Well, if they spend five bucks on the cone and they don't like it, they're out the money and they know they could have spent that money on something they know they would have liked. Right?
But, what if you said, "Here, try this little pink spoon."
They do. They're curious after all, they just don't want to have to commit their whole five bucks.
Pink spoon marketing is powerful.
You give people a sample - not enough to satisfy - but enough to let them make an informed decision about whether or not they want more.
Do you have any of these for your business?
What are YOUR pink spoons?
Your pink spoons should fit a few critical criteria.
1) It should contain enough to let them know if it's a fit.
2) It should be something that your existing clients will actively WANT to pass on to their friends.
3) It should be low risk (or ideally NO risk) for people to try out.
Now, there's lots of different things you can do:
- Offer people a free buyers guide or special report on a critical topic
- Free downloadable audio files
- A Blog
etc.
But there's a relatively new medium that's available to you now - for almost NO money.
And I've just gotten into the game.
Online video.
It's a powerful way for people to learn about you, who you are and how (and why) you do what you do.
Instead of simply reading words - they can see you, read your body language and get a sense of who you are.
Again:
I'd be willing to bet that when people meet you they like you.
I'd be willing to bet that your marketing materials will never be as powerful as meeting you in person.
Online video fits the criteria below extremely well.
1) It should contain enough to let them know if it's a fit.
An online video can give them a chance to get as much or as little information as you want.
2) It should be something that your existing clients will actively WANT to pass on to their friends.
A link to an online video is incredibly easy to send. Youtube.com has made it brainless. And it's becoming more and more common to do. People are sending each other videos all the time. Remember: your clients probably love you. They want to support you. They want to spread the word - but you almost certainly haven't given them the tools to do so.
And your website likely isn't exciting or novel enough to warrant them sending it to folks.
But a cool online video?
Why not create one about your business.
I know - you don't know how. I'll address that in a second.
But, imagine the email from your client to a friend of theirs . . .
"You remember that organic restaurant I was telling you about? Check this link out."
"You remember that practitioner I was telling you about? Check this link out."
"You remember that eco-friendly house cleaner I was telling you about? Check this link out."
3) It should be low risk (or ideally NO risk) for people to try out.
Is there anything less risky than watching a video on your computer? No pushy salespeople. Nothing to print off. You can stop it (and restart it) anytime you want. No obligation to buy.
And it doesn't have to be perfect.
You don't have to spend thousands of dollars. It can be a quick 7 minute video shot on a friends camera of you giving a tour about your restaurant or your clinic.
The point is that people get to meet YOU before they take the risk of meeting you in person. And, right now, YOU are likely the critical piece to your businesses success. People are likely buying YOU as much as they are your product and service.
Online video gives your clients an easy way to introduce you to their friends.
It gives you something you can send to someone you meet briefly so they can 'get to know you better'.
Remember the days where you had to be famous to be on film?
Well, now you can become minorly famous on sites like www.youtube.com
And now, after two years of scheming, I'm finally on youtube.
And finally, at long last, minorly famous.
About bloody time . . .;-)
I have created my very own youtube channel. You can find it at:
www.youtube.com/radicalbusiness
**What EXACTLY will you find at this link?**
You will find about two hours of footage covering the content of my free intro. You can watch it all for free. There's no charge.
You will also find a clip of a few testimonials from my weekend workshop.
You will ALSO find the only footage in existence of me doing sleight of hand card magic. And I bet you won't be able to figure it out no matter how many times you watch it.
**How can YOU put up your own online videos?**
To be honest, I have no idea.
But I recommend the services of my friend Todd who helps people like me (who have no clue at all) to get their videos shot and online.
I can't rave enough about Todd's professionalism, class and warmth.
I don't get paid to endorse him. This email isn't a joint venture. He didn't know I was going to send this out.
But, if you're interested in getting some video online, I recommend you shoot him an email at info@3Dplayground.ca
And let me know what you think of my youtube channel will you?
I'm very excited about it (even if I wish I'd cut my hair before I did it).
We'll continue with the Irresistible Offer series next week.
Warmest,
Tad Hargrave
Founder
Radical Business
"helping conscious folk make more money"
tad@tadhargrave.com
www.tadhargrave.com
P.S. Please consider the environment before printing this email - Thank You!
FREE 90 PAGE "THE WAY OF THE RADICAL BUSINESS" EBOOK: www.tadhargrave.com (sign up on left hand side)
FREE 'CONSCIOUS MARKETING' ARTICLES: www.radicalbusiness.blogspot.com
FREE RADICAL BUSINESS VIDEOS: www.youtube.com/radicalbusiness
p.s. Tell me what you think of my youtube channel? www.youtube.com/radicalbusiness
If you subscribe to this channel or rate the videos, it's a big help.
Monday, August 20, 2007
Your Irresistible Offer - "The Three Keys to Your Irresistible Offer" - Part 6 of 19
Hey there,
Last week I told you I was about to become famous.
In the most inconsequential of ways.
Well, it sort of leaked out today and I got an email from someone in California wanting to endorse me and my products to his list of 1200 holistic practitioners.
Never met the man. No effort on my part.
All because of this new project I'm just putting the finishing touches on.
And it actually ties in nicely to this whole theme of the Irresistible Offer.
He stumbled across something I did that I've been keeping under wraps.
And it impressed him so much he emailed me to ask if he could sell my products for me.
More on all that in a couple of weeks.
But let's back up on this whole Irresistible Offer thing and ask ourselves a very critical question.
What Is Marketing?
In a word? Education.
In a sentence? Establishing the value beyond the immediately apparent.
There are two realities we must squarely face:
1) We must create genuinely irresistible offers.
2) We must communicate these offers clearly and powerfully to our target markets.
And we must do both. Simply doing one of these is not enough.
In Latin there's a phrase “erase ipsa locator” -- it means "The thing speaks for itself". Many people are hesitant about marketing because they think, "Well, if my product’s good, shouldn't it simply speak for itself?" And there is a simple answer to that.
No.
**THE 3 KEYS TO CRAFTING AN IRRESISTIBLE OFFER**
Relevance. Credibility. Value.
When it is undertaken with integrity, I would suggest that marketing is just a synonym for "education". And when you are trying to attract more clients there are six specific things you to educate all of your prospects about. And this education must meet two criteria: It must be both POWERFUL and ELEGANT. You must help people to understand:
KEY #1: RELEVANCE:
“Why does this matter to me?”
They have a PROBLEM. That’s either going to be: A current pain or something they want but don’t have (which is a problem to them). It’s a need they have that’s not fulfilled. It’s a result they want but don’t have. It’s a goal or vision they’re working for. It’s a problem they want to solve. But there are two caveats here.
Just knowing they have a problem is no guarantee that they will act to solve it. The speed at which they move to solve their problems will be determined by how true the following to statements are for them . . .
1. It MUST be solved: even if people know there’s a problem, they won’t move, they won’t act if they think it’s just something that “should” be solved. This is not an intellectual thing – it’s emotional. REMEMBER: All decisions are made for emotional reasons and then justified with logic.
Think about it in your own life and you’ll see the truth of this (even if the emotional need is to feel “intelligent”). How can you help them to reconnect emotionally to the importance of this?
There’s really only two ways:
FIRST - you can create a safe space (where they aren’t scared of being sold or pressured) where they reconnect with the pain they’re in and share that with you (a conversation, telling a story that reflects their experience, having them fill out a diagnostic tool that helps them realize the reality of where they’re at etc.) OR
SECOND - you can create an experience for them that reconnects them to how good it could be (testimonials, a well done video of your work, free intro sessions, a complementary product of session, risk free offers).
This creates a natural gap which compels them to move forward. The key is to make it emotionally real.
2. It must be solved NOW: the truth is that people will procrastinate unless they sense some urgency. You must be ethical in handling this one and know that the more urgent they perceive the need the more likely they are to act. Sometimes urgency can be “There’s only 20 spaces.” Or “If you enroll before this date you get a free set of Ginsu knives.” etc.
3. It CAN be solved: this is crucial. Imagine someone with crippling lower back pain. They know they have a problem. They know it must be solved, but if they believe that “there’s nuthin’ to be done about it” then you are stuck. You must powerfully and elegantly educate them to see that it can, indeed, be solved. The most powerful ways to do this - in order are:
a) Give them the experience directly (i.e. you cure their back pain in a free session).
b) A referral from someone they trust.
c) A Case Study: tell them the story of people from beginning to end. It’s the “Before and After photos” principle. Give a lot of information, numbers and figures within the context of the story. Be specific not only of the results achieved (the more specific the better) but also the impact this had on their life (e.g. what did it mean to be free of back pain? able to go jogging again? able to play with kids? better sleep? etc).
d) A testimonial. This is a quote from someone speaking about their experience and what it meant. Make sure you give their full name, where they’re from, the name of their business and if possible ask them if you can include their phone number and photo.
e) Educate!!! Give them information. It’s better in story form but raw data can work too.
KEY #2: CREDIBILITY
“Why should I believe you?”
YOU can solve it: Everything before is a set up for THIS piece. You must show them that you are qualified and credible.
They must both like and trust you. Again, giving them the experience directly, referrals, case studies, and testimonials (in that order) are the most effective ways to do this. But you also want to look at this sideways too - the real issue is building up your identity, brand and reputation.
Anything you can do to build this builds up your credibility (e.g. public speaking, running events, writing a book, hosting a network, hosting a radio program, becoming a columnist, being featured on the news or a magazine cover etc).
KEY #3: VALUE
“How much? What am I getting for my money? What’s in it for me?”
You can solve it BETTER [more quickly, with more convenience, cheaper, etc.]: They can believe that they have a problem that must and can be solved now but . . . why should they choose YOU to help them solve it.
That’s not a rhetorical question.
Until and unless you clearly define your Unique Selling Proposition (USP) you shouldn’t be surprised to see business going to the competition.
Remember: #2 wasn’t chosen.
The prospect can only make one choice. Why should it be YOU?
Most businesses I meet have NO compelling answer for this. A good exercise for this is to challenge yourself to create a “Top Ten List” of reasons to do business with you.
Here’s a good example from a friend of mine who sells hand made jewelry - all made from salvaged wood and stones (literally stuff he finds under bridges, fallen trees etc.). He carves it, polishes it and it looks GORGEOUS. My first step in working with him was to change his company name from the abstract “Metamorph Designs” to “Salvaged Earth Designs”.
I challenged him to create HIS Top Ten List. He did and put it onto a big poster and hung it outside his tent at the Farmer’s Markets at which he sold (you can find this towards the end of this package). This allowed people to read it before approaching and be educated.
Don't be abstract. Be specific. You need to hit them between the eyes. Don’t be cutesy. People buy products, but what they want are benefits. They want a result that is self serving to them. Speak directly to that.
Relevance. Credibility. Value.
NEXT WEEK - you are going to learn four more secrets to crafting an effective and irresistible offer . . .
***the three critical key elements to creating your irresistible offer.***
I hope all is well with you.
Warmest,
Tad Hargrave
Founder
Radical Business
"helping conscious folk make more money"
tad@tadhargrave.com
www.tadhargrave.com
P.S. Please consider the environment before printing this email - Thank You!
P.P.S. In a few weeks, a handful of you are going to get the chance to receive an Offer Makeover from me. It could be worth thousands of dollars to you. Seriously. You can't sign up for it yet. So, don't try. I'll be offering the chance to my best clients first - and then to my entire list.
FREE 90 PAGE "THE WAY OF THE RADICAL BUSINESS" EBOOK: www.tadhargrave.com (sign up on left hand side)
conscious business marketing, eco-business marketing, ethical business marketing, green business consulting, green business marketing, sustainable business marketing
Last week I told you I was about to become famous.
In the most inconsequential of ways.
Well, it sort of leaked out today and I got an email from someone in California wanting to endorse me and my products to his list of 1200 holistic practitioners.
Never met the man. No effort on my part.
All because of this new project I'm just putting the finishing touches on.
And it actually ties in nicely to this whole theme of the Irresistible Offer.
He stumbled across something I did that I've been keeping under wraps.
And it impressed him so much he emailed me to ask if he could sell my products for me.
More on all that in a couple of weeks.
But let's back up on this whole Irresistible Offer thing and ask ourselves a very critical question.
What Is Marketing?
In a word? Education.
In a sentence? Establishing the value beyond the immediately apparent.
There are two realities we must squarely face:
1) We must create genuinely irresistible offers.
2) We must communicate these offers clearly and powerfully to our target markets.
And we must do both. Simply doing one of these is not enough.
In Latin there's a phrase “erase ipsa locator” -- it means "The thing speaks for itself". Many people are hesitant about marketing because they think, "Well, if my product’s good, shouldn't it simply speak for itself?" And there is a simple answer to that.
No.
**THE 3 KEYS TO CRAFTING AN IRRESISTIBLE OFFER**
Relevance. Credibility. Value.
When it is undertaken with integrity, I would suggest that marketing is just a synonym for "education". And when you are trying to attract more clients there are six specific things you to educate all of your prospects about. And this education must meet two criteria: It must be both POWERFUL and ELEGANT. You must help people to understand:
KEY #1: RELEVANCE:
“Why does this matter to me?”
They have a PROBLEM. That’s either going to be: A current pain or something they want but don’t have (which is a problem to them). It’s a need they have that’s not fulfilled. It’s a result they want but don’t have. It’s a goal or vision they’re working for. It’s a problem they want to solve. But there are two caveats here.
Just knowing they have a problem is no guarantee that they will act to solve it. The speed at which they move to solve their problems will be determined by how true the following to statements are for them . . .
1. It MUST be solved: even if people know there’s a problem, they won’t move, they won’t act if they think it’s just something that “should” be solved. This is not an intellectual thing – it’s emotional. REMEMBER: All decisions are made for emotional reasons and then justified with logic.
Think about it in your own life and you’ll see the truth of this (even if the emotional need is to feel “intelligent”). How can you help them to reconnect emotionally to the importance of this?
There’s really only two ways:
FIRST - you can create a safe space (where they aren’t scared of being sold or pressured) where they reconnect with the pain they’re in and share that with you (a conversation, telling a story that reflects their experience, having them fill out a diagnostic tool that helps them realize the reality of where they’re at etc.) OR
SECOND - you can create an experience for them that reconnects them to how good it could be (testimonials, a well done video of your work, free intro sessions, a complementary product of session, risk free offers).
This creates a natural gap which compels them to move forward. The key is to make it emotionally real.
2. It must be solved NOW: the truth is that people will procrastinate unless they sense some urgency. You must be ethical in handling this one and know that the more urgent they perceive the need the more likely they are to act. Sometimes urgency can be “There’s only 20 spaces.” Or “If you enroll before this date you get a free set of Ginsu knives.” etc.
3. It CAN be solved: this is crucial. Imagine someone with crippling lower back pain. They know they have a problem. They know it must be solved, but if they believe that “there’s nuthin’ to be done about it” then you are stuck. You must powerfully and elegantly educate them to see that it can, indeed, be solved. The most powerful ways to do this - in order are:
a) Give them the experience directly (i.e. you cure their back pain in a free session).
b) A referral from someone they trust.
c) A Case Study: tell them the story of people from beginning to end. It’s the “Before and After photos” principle. Give a lot of information, numbers and figures within the context of the story. Be specific not only of the results achieved (the more specific the better) but also the impact this had on their life (e.g. what did it mean to be free of back pain? able to go jogging again? able to play with kids? better sleep? etc).
d) A testimonial. This is a quote from someone speaking about their experience and what it meant. Make sure you give their full name, where they’re from, the name of their business and if possible ask them if you can include their phone number and photo.
e) Educate!!! Give them information. It’s better in story form but raw data can work too.
KEY #2: CREDIBILITY
“Why should I believe you?”
YOU can solve it: Everything before is a set up for THIS piece. You must show them that you are qualified and credible.
They must both like and trust you. Again, giving them the experience directly, referrals, case studies, and testimonials (in that order) are the most effective ways to do this. But you also want to look at this sideways too - the real issue is building up your identity, brand and reputation.
Anything you can do to build this builds up your credibility (e.g. public speaking, running events, writing a book, hosting a network, hosting a radio program, becoming a columnist, being featured on the news or a magazine cover etc).
KEY #3: VALUE
“How much? What am I getting for my money? What’s in it for me?”
You can solve it BETTER [more quickly, with more convenience, cheaper, etc.]: They can believe that they have a problem that must and can be solved now but . . . why should they choose YOU to help them solve it.
That’s not a rhetorical question.
Until and unless you clearly define your Unique Selling Proposition (USP) you shouldn’t be surprised to see business going to the competition.
Remember: #2 wasn’t chosen.
The prospect can only make one choice. Why should it be YOU?
Most businesses I meet have NO compelling answer for this. A good exercise for this is to challenge yourself to create a “Top Ten List” of reasons to do business with you.
Here’s a good example from a friend of mine who sells hand made jewelry - all made from salvaged wood and stones (literally stuff he finds under bridges, fallen trees etc.). He carves it, polishes it and it looks GORGEOUS. My first step in working with him was to change his company name from the abstract “Metamorph Designs” to “Salvaged Earth Designs”.
I challenged him to create HIS Top Ten List. He did and put it onto a big poster and hung it outside his tent at the Farmer’s Markets at which he sold (you can find this towards the end of this package). This allowed people to read it before approaching and be educated.
Don't be abstract. Be specific. You need to hit them between the eyes. Don’t be cutesy. People buy products, but what they want are benefits. They want a result that is self serving to them. Speak directly to that.
Relevance. Credibility. Value.
NEXT WEEK - you are going to learn four more secrets to crafting an effective and irresistible offer . . .
***the three critical key elements to creating your irresistible offer.***
I hope all is well with you.
Warmest,
Tad Hargrave
Founder
Radical Business
"helping conscious folk make more money"
tad@tadhargrave.com
www.tadhargrave.com
P.S. Please consider the environment before printing this email - Thank You!
P.P.S. In a few weeks, a handful of you are going to get the chance to receive an Offer Makeover from me. It could be worth thousands of dollars to you. Seriously. You can't sign up for it yet. So, don't try. I'll be offering the chance to my best clients first - and then to my entire list.
FREE 90 PAGE "THE WAY OF THE RADICAL BUSINESS" EBOOK: www.tadhargrave.com (sign up on left hand side)
conscious business marketing, eco-business marketing, ethical business marketing, green business consulting, green business marketing, sustainable business marketing
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Your Irresistible Offer - "Your Unique Selling Proposition (part 2)" - Part 5 of 19
Hey all,
Guess what.
At the end of this month, I'm going to become famous.
There. I said it.
Oh, I can hear you doubting from here.
Not famous like my brother Toby Hargrave who just had his own hour long comedy special on CTV (www.seetobylive.com).
No no no.
I'll be famous in far more minor way (but one that could be meaningful, rewarding and instructive to you). Sort of a D grade celebrity if you will.
I'll explain later.
This week we are going to keep focusing on your unique selling proposition (USP).
* * *
Seth Godin, marketing genius, writes in his book, “Purple Cow”:
“When my family and I were driving through France a few years ago, we were enchanted by the hundreds of storybook cows grazing on picturesque pastures right next to the highway. For dozens of kilometres we all gazed out the window, marvelling at how beautiful everything was.
Them within twenty minutes, we started ignoring the cows. The new cows were just like the old cows, and what was once amazing was now common. Worse than common. It was boring.
Cows, after you’ve seen them for a while, are boring. They may be perfect cows, attractive cows, sows with great personalities, cows lit by beautiful light, but they’re still boring.
A Purple Cow, though. Now that would be interested. (For a while.)
The essence of the Purple Cow is that it must be remarkable.”
The goal here is to create a remarkable business.
To be a remarkable business means that people are willing to make remarks about you. You are worthy of mention.
But not just remarkable. Being a Purple Cow might be neat and get people’s attention but is that enough? Do your customers want you to simply be different?
No.
They want their problems solved. They want relief from pain. They want results. So you must become remarkable at meeting their needs; remarkable at solving their problems. Remarkable at taking them from where they are to where they want to go.
To think you can separate marketing from the quality of what you offer is foolish.
To think that your business has no opportunities to innovate and add more value is probably mildly delusional and entirely self destructive.
The goal here is to make your business irresistibly attractive to your prospects, clients and yourself.
To do that may require a bit of stepping back and rethinking the way we do things. And, I would suggest, that it takes doing that through the customers eyes, not our own.
Most of us are far too close to our own businesses to make any sort of informed opinion about things. And we may be too attached. Sometimes we’re incredibly proud about things that no one else cares about.
For example, for years, Disney Hotels washed it’s bed sheets every single night for every single room. Then someone asked the all important question: “Do they even care?” And so they did an experiment. They put a sign on people’s beds saying, “In an effort to conserve water, we wash our bed sheets every three days. If you’d like them washed everyday, we’d be happy to do so, just call us at this number.” Out of 60,000 room stays only a handful of people took them up on it.
Can you tell me, in 30 seconds or less, what it is that makes your product or service so unique or valuable that I should put it at the top of my list? (And if you just said “quality”, “Service” or “dependability” you are in deep trouble because everyone else says that too. . .)
Why should I put you at the top of my list? Why should I buy from you vs. the competitors? Remember: #2 didn’t get chosen. As Jack Trout puts it so subtly in the title of his book . . .
“Differentiate or die.”
Of course, sometimes when people ask that question it can be very disconcerting. I remember one client who owned a carpet cleaning company. She called me after finishing a diagnostic that I gave her. She said, “I’m so depressed – I have no USP!”.
Owch.
But it’s good to know – sometimes you need to CREATE a U.S.P. by looking for gaps in the market place. Look at your industry - what is no one offering that is needed? We call this an innovation gap.
This may all seem a bit abstract and conceptual right now.
But don't worry - as we move ahead we are going to get into the nitty gritty of exactly how you can identify and powerful communicate your irresistible offer to the marketplace. It's simple enough, but it's a bit of work.
In fact, NEXT WEEK - you are going to learn about . . .
***the three critical key elements to creating your irresistible offer.***
And remember:
I WILL soon become minorly famous in the most obscure of ways.
I hope all is well with you.
Warmest,
Tad Hargrave
Founder
Radical Business
"helping conscious folk make more money"
tad@tadhargrave.com
www.tadhargrave.com
P.S. Please consider the environment before printing this email - Thank You!
FREE 90 PAGE "THE WAY OF THE RADICAL BUSINESS" EBOOK: www.tadhargrave.com (sign up on left hand side)
FREE 'CONSCIOUS MARKETING' ARTICLES: www.radicalbusiness.blogspot.com
* * *
a blog for green business marketing, and community-minded entrepreneurs, conscious business marketing, eco-business marketing, ethical business marketing, sustainable business marketing, green business consulting
Guess what.
At the end of this month, I'm going to become famous.
There. I said it.
Oh, I can hear you doubting from here.
Not famous like my brother Toby Hargrave who just had his own hour long comedy special on CTV (www.seetobylive.com).
No no no.
I'll be famous in far more minor way (but one that could be meaningful, rewarding and instructive to you). Sort of a D grade celebrity if you will.
I'll explain later.
This week we are going to keep focusing on your unique selling proposition (USP).
* * *
Seth Godin, marketing genius, writes in his book, “Purple Cow”:
“When my family and I were driving through France a few years ago, we were enchanted by the hundreds of storybook cows grazing on picturesque pastures right next to the highway. For dozens of kilometres we all gazed out the window, marvelling at how beautiful everything was.
Them within twenty minutes, we started ignoring the cows. The new cows were just like the old cows, and what was once amazing was now common. Worse than common. It was boring.
Cows, after you’ve seen them for a while, are boring. They may be perfect cows, attractive cows, sows with great personalities, cows lit by beautiful light, but they’re still boring.
A Purple Cow, though. Now that would be interested. (For a while.)
The essence of the Purple Cow is that it must be remarkable.”
The goal here is to create a remarkable business.
To be a remarkable business means that people are willing to make remarks about you. You are worthy of mention.
But not just remarkable. Being a Purple Cow might be neat and get people’s attention but is that enough? Do your customers want you to simply be different?
No.
They want their problems solved. They want relief from pain. They want results. So you must become remarkable at meeting their needs; remarkable at solving their problems. Remarkable at taking them from where they are to where they want to go.
To think you can separate marketing from the quality of what you offer is foolish.
To think that your business has no opportunities to innovate and add more value is probably mildly delusional and entirely self destructive.
The goal here is to make your business irresistibly attractive to your prospects, clients and yourself.
To do that may require a bit of stepping back and rethinking the way we do things. And, I would suggest, that it takes doing that through the customers eyes, not our own.
Most of us are far too close to our own businesses to make any sort of informed opinion about things. And we may be too attached. Sometimes we’re incredibly proud about things that no one else cares about.
For example, for years, Disney Hotels washed it’s bed sheets every single night for every single room. Then someone asked the all important question: “Do they even care?” And so they did an experiment. They put a sign on people’s beds saying, “In an effort to conserve water, we wash our bed sheets every three days. If you’d like them washed everyday, we’d be happy to do so, just call us at this number.” Out of 60,000 room stays only a handful of people took them up on it.
Can you tell me, in 30 seconds or less, what it is that makes your product or service so unique or valuable that I should put it at the top of my list? (And if you just said “quality”, “Service” or “dependability” you are in deep trouble because everyone else says that too. . .)
Why should I put you at the top of my list? Why should I buy from you vs. the competitors? Remember: #2 didn’t get chosen. As Jack Trout puts it so subtly in the title of his book . . .
“Differentiate or die.”
Of course, sometimes when people ask that question it can be very disconcerting. I remember one client who owned a carpet cleaning company. She called me after finishing a diagnostic that I gave her. She said, “I’m so depressed – I have no USP!”.
Owch.
But it’s good to know – sometimes you need to CREATE a U.S.P. by looking for gaps in the market place. Look at your industry - what is no one offering that is needed? We call this an innovation gap.
This may all seem a bit abstract and conceptual right now.
But don't worry - as we move ahead we are going to get into the nitty gritty of exactly how you can identify and powerful communicate your irresistible offer to the marketplace. It's simple enough, but it's a bit of work.
In fact, NEXT WEEK - you are going to learn about . . .
***the three critical key elements to creating your irresistible offer.***
And remember:
I WILL soon become minorly famous in the most obscure of ways.
I hope all is well with you.
Warmest,
Tad Hargrave
Founder
Radical Business
"helping conscious folk make more money"
tad@tadhargrave.com
www.tadhargrave.com
P.S. Please consider the environment before printing this email - Thank You!
FREE 90 PAGE "THE WAY OF THE RADICAL BUSINESS" EBOOK: www.tadhargrave.com (sign up on left hand side)
FREE 'CONSCIOUS MARKETING' ARTICLES: www.radicalbusiness.blogspot.com
* * *
a blog for green business marketing, and community-minded entrepreneurs, conscious business marketing, eco-business marketing, ethical business marketing, sustainable business marketing, green business consulting
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Your Irresistible Offer - "Avoid the Grammy Factor?" - Part 2 of 19
Hey everyone,
Welcome to part 2 of Your Irresistible Offer.
Today's will be pretty short. It's a brilliant article by Robert Middleton about creating offers that have more substance to them.
Enjoy!
_____________
Avoid The Grammy Factor
Robert Middleton
www.actionplan.com
I admit it. I watched the Grammy Awards last night. The whole thing. Let me give you a very quick rundown:
There were wall-to-wall musical performances. Some awards were given out. Heartfelt thank-yous were offered. Everyone looked beautiful. But the show is already fading from memory.
The Grammys, like most award shows, value style over substance. Lots of flash and glitz and "look at how passionately wonderful I am." It all gets a little overwhelming after awhile as one thinks, "But I don't even listen to this kind of music, anyway!"
However, I took away a valuable marketing lesson that I'd like to share with you: Most marketing messages are much like the Grammys: the substance is missing.
Everyone's trying to get the perfect marketing message, the perfect look, the perfect mind-blowing information that will compel prospects to respond in droves.
But it usually falls flat. Why?
Because it's often missing the most important thing of all: What the client actually gets from working with you. Don't think this is all that important?
Let me tell you a story...
One of the people in my current Marketing Action Group had been struggling with her marketing message. Nothing was really working. But finally she applied some of my ideas on creating a marketing message and told someone the story of a recent client success.
And the immediate response was: "Wow, I need your services. Will you work with me?"
And the great thing is that it wasn't a fluke. Now almost every time she uses the message, people want to work with her. Hey, her message was so great that I even decided to work with her!
How do you create a message with substance? Here's a 5-step process that will work for you.
1. Identify your ideal client
Your message will not work for everyone. You need to be clear exactly who your message is for. Who can you help the most? Who do you understand the best? Where do you have the most experience? Think all of this through and develop your message specifically for this ideal client.
2. Identify a client challenge
What does your ideal client want to do but doesn't know how? What's missing for them? What are they struggling with? What is confusing or frustrating for them? Clearly articulate this: "I work with these kind of clients who have this kind of challenge."
3. Identify a service and outcome
What specific service could you offer to address the client problem and provide a desirable outcome? Keep it simple: "I offer this kind of service and when clients use this service they will get this result." A service without a promised outcome is a wast of time.
4. Prove you can deliver the outcome
If you haven't offered this service before, then find an ideal client and perform it for them. If you need to cut your price or even offer it free to validate the outcome, so be it. But you need to be confident you can produce that outcome consistently.
5. Use your story as your message
The most powerful marketing messages are simple stories that demonstrate that you delivered a desirable outcome. "This was a client who came to me. They had this frustrating challenge. I implemented my service. These were the results."
This is the process my Marketing Action Group participant went through. She now has a reliable marketing message that's all substance, no style. She doesn't have to worry about perfect words or the "magic phrase." She just needs to tell her outcome story and get a positive response. Every time.
The actual response you get will depend on who your clients are, the depth of their challenge, their interest in getting an outcome, the actual service you develop and the kind of results you can deliver consistently.
But I promise you that if you follow these five steps to the letter, you'll emerge with a marketing message that's a quantum leap beyond what you're using now.
And that will always translate into more clients.
COMING NEXT:
Next week sometime I will send you the third in the series focusing on the most critical strategic mistake that conscious, green and holistic entrepreneurs make in their marketing . . .
Welcome to part 2 of Your Irresistible Offer.
Today's will be pretty short. It's a brilliant article by Robert Middleton about creating offers that have more substance to them.
Enjoy!
_____________
Avoid The Grammy Factor
Robert Middleton
www.actionplan.com
I admit it. I watched the Grammy Awards last night. The whole thing. Let me give you a very quick rundown:
There were wall-to-wall musical performances. Some awards were given out. Heartfelt thank-yous were offered. Everyone looked beautiful. But the show is already fading from memory.
The Grammys, like most award shows, value style over substance. Lots of flash and glitz and "look at how passionately wonderful I am." It all gets a little overwhelming after awhile as one thinks, "But I don't even listen to this kind of music, anyway!"
However, I took away a valuable marketing lesson that I'd like to share with you: Most marketing messages are much like the Grammys: the substance is missing.
Everyone's trying to get the perfect marketing message, the perfect look, the perfect mind-blowing information that will compel prospects to respond in droves.
But it usually falls flat. Why?
Because it's often missing the most important thing of all: What the client actually gets from working with you. Don't think this is all that important?
Let me tell you a story...
One of the people in my current Marketing Action Group had been struggling with her marketing message. Nothing was really working. But finally she applied some of my ideas on creating a marketing message and told someone the story of a recent client success.
And the immediate response was: "Wow, I need your services. Will you work with me?"
And the great thing is that it wasn't a fluke. Now almost every time she uses the message, people want to work with her. Hey, her message was so great that I even decided to work with her!
How do you create a message with substance? Here's a 5-step process that will work for you.
1. Identify your ideal client
Your message will not work for everyone. You need to be clear exactly who your message is for. Who can you help the most? Who do you understand the best? Where do you have the most experience? Think all of this through and develop your message specifically for this ideal client.
2. Identify a client challenge
What does your ideal client want to do but doesn't know how? What's missing for them? What are they struggling with? What is confusing or frustrating for them? Clearly articulate this: "I work with these kind of clients who have this kind of challenge."
3. Identify a service and outcome
What specific service could you offer to address the client problem and provide a desirable outcome? Keep it simple: "I offer this kind of service and when clients use this service they will get this result." A service without a promised outcome is a wast of time.
4. Prove you can deliver the outcome
If you haven't offered this service before, then find an ideal client and perform it for them. If you need to cut your price or even offer it free to validate the outcome, so be it. But you need to be confident you can produce that outcome consistently.
5. Use your story as your message
The most powerful marketing messages are simple stories that demonstrate that you delivered a desirable outcome. "This was a client who came to me. They had this frustrating challenge. I implemented my service. These were the results."
This is the process my Marketing Action Group participant went through. She now has a reliable marketing message that's all substance, no style. She doesn't have to worry about perfect words or the "magic phrase." She just needs to tell her outcome story and get a positive response. Every time.
The actual response you get will depend on who your clients are, the depth of their challenge, their interest in getting an outcome, the actual service you develop and the kind of results you can deliver consistently.
But I promise you that if you follow these five steps to the letter, you'll emerge with a marketing message that's a quantum leap beyond what you're using now.
And that will always translate into more clients.
COMING NEXT:
Next week sometime I will send you the third in the series focusing on the most critical strategic mistake that conscious, green and holistic entrepreneurs make in their marketing . . .
Your Irresistible Offer - "Why Should I Bother?" - Part 1 of 19
Hey everyone,
It’s an innocent enough question:
“Why should I buy from you vs. the competition?”
This is the first installment of the "Your Irresistible Offer" series of emails. Approximately once a week you will receive my latest thoughts on how you can make your business more irresistible to your ideal clients.
Before we get into the mechanics of creating an offer - let's take a look at what an Irresistible Offer is and why it is the heart of any marketing you will ever do.
Let's get right to it:
Every purchase is essentially an investment - and the prospect wants to know - “what’s the Return On Investment (ROI)? What do I get for my money? Why should I buy from you vs. the competition?”
Can you tell them?
* * *
To quote Seth Godin, “In the coming years, there will be more clutter, not less. There will be more interactions between customers, not less. There will be more upheaval, more inventions, more technologies, and more fashions, not less. And consumers have always wanted more than they say they want anyway ...”
In short - expect a lot more competition in your industry - not less.
“Why should I buy from you vs. the competition?”
When people ask this question, they want a real answer - not hype. Not slick marketing or fancy salesmanship. It’s a straightforward and totally legitimate question.
* * *
Sadly, all too often business owners create their products and services and then ask themselves, “now, how should I market this?” It’s much more powerful to start with the marketing first and ask yourself, “what is it that they want and need - and how can I give that to them?”
We need to start with the offer. The steak, not the sizzle.
I thought I would start off this series of emails with something really special.
It's hard medicine - but it's good for you.
* * *
An Edited Summary of the book:
Free Prize Inside!
by Seth Godin
Here's the quick definition of a Purple Cow: a product that's remarkable.
“Remarkable" simply means that a customer is willing to make a remark about it. If you can create memorable products, people will talk about them. If that happens, the word will spread and your sales will grow. That explains the success of most every fast growing company of the past ten years.
Lowering you prices without doing anything else is a game for desperate people lacking in imagination.
Most of the time, people are looking for marketing to serve as a magic elixer. They want to know how to use marketing techniques to make the business they've chosen work more profitably with the customers they're targeting. They want to change better-that commodity prices for their commodity products. They usually believe that it is the job of marketing to focus the spotlight on the things they've already decided to sell.
People want marketing to solve their product problems.
But today - it's all marketing because the product or service is the marketing. Marketing is no longer a separate division. It's the whole company. We’re living in an era where the real marketing happens inside the product, not in the ad pages of a magazine.
I say, if your product is not distinctly different, don't come up with better ads. Come up with a better product.
The simplest, fastest way to grow is to make your product remarkable. To make it worth talking about. If you make your product your service, your school, your church or your career worth talking about, the word will spread.
The only thing that leads to real growth is person to person conversation, word of mouth. And these only come about when you do something truly remarkable. Differentiation is not, by itself, remarkable. To be purple, you have to be more than different. You must be extreme. You must be on the edge.
Ask yourself: Are you invisible? Or are you remarkable?
In the world of the Purple Cow, where the product is the marketing, the winners are the people able to champion remarkable ideas and make them happen. And the astonishing revelation is this: Innovation isn't just fun, it's free!
If you can't make your product remarkable by changing the utility of the product or service, you must do it by one of three things . . .
1. creating a story: A story that transcends the utility of the product and instead goes straight to the world view of the user. See my book, “All Marketers Are Liars” for more information on how to do this.
2. by adding a free prize, a bonus, something extra, something worth paying for. What really works? No surprise, it's the soft stuff. The commonsense, creative stuff that requires initiative and curiosity, not an advanced degree to do. Most successes, though are actually the result of what I'll call soft innovation. Stuff like fast lube job shops, cell phone pricing plans and purple ketchup, or
3. by changing the way someone feels about what you do.
Here’s the good news: It turns out that there's a huge amount of inertia left in almost every category. Every product, service, feature, benefit is open for improvement. There's nothing that's finished, nothing so complete that it can't carry another free prize. No, not carry a prize, be transformed by a prize, transformed so completely that the product category finds new life.
Don’t Be Average:
Most companies focus on creating average products for average people.
The goal in Edgecraft is figuring out what people really want to buy, what they want to talk about and then giving it to them.
So, what you need to do is add a second benefit, a new edge, something your product or service does that is truly remarkable. You can only do that by going to the edges.
You must go all the way to the edge. Accepting second best doesn't make sense.
• Running a restaurant where your the free prize is your slightly attractive wait staff isn't going to work. They've got to be super-models or weightlifters or identical twins. You can only create a free prize when you can go all the way to the edge and make something remarkable. (note; the white hot essence, you need to fan it.) You don't create a better restaurant by serving better food. You can do it by serving remarkable food, or a remarkable location, or a remarkably famous chef. You don't build a better car but building a faster car, you do it by building the fastest car, or the least polluting car or the biggest car.
• Ergonomics that are slightly better are useless. Your product only becomes remarkable when you define the users experience.
• Ten percent more stock is invisible. When you have triple or ten times the stock of the competition (or 1 percent of their selection) people will notice. (note: be obvious)
Your innovations only matter when you can deliver an overwhelming distinction. Being somewhere near the edge is a very market-centric, self-aware thing that marketers do when they think people care enough to really dig deeply.
You can't achieve rapid growth by being just a bit better that the competition. It's not enough to get people to switch. You'll be ignored in favour of the incumbent.
The bottom line: If people aren't blown away, they won't talk about it. If they don't talk about it, it doesn't spread fast enough to help you grow.
Many people don't want this to be true. They don't want innovation to be the only path to growth. They believe that the market should reward earnest efforts at incremental improvement. Alas, it doesn't matter what you want... what we see is the market rewards innovation.
* * *
I know - it sounds intimidating and perhaps impossible.
But I assure you it's not. This series of emails will break down exactly what you need to do to get from wherever you are now to being 'absolutely irresistible'.
That's it for today.
It’s an innocent enough question:
“Why should I buy from you vs. the competition?”
This is the first installment of the "Your Irresistible Offer" series of emails. Approximately once a week you will receive my latest thoughts on how you can make your business more irresistible to your ideal clients.
Before we get into the mechanics of creating an offer - let's take a look at what an Irresistible Offer is and why it is the heart of any marketing you will ever do.
Let's get right to it:
Every purchase is essentially an investment - and the prospect wants to know - “what’s the Return On Investment (ROI)? What do I get for my money? Why should I buy from you vs. the competition?”
Can you tell them?
* * *
To quote Seth Godin, “In the coming years, there will be more clutter, not less. There will be more interactions between customers, not less. There will be more upheaval, more inventions, more technologies, and more fashions, not less. And consumers have always wanted more than they say they want anyway ...”
In short - expect a lot more competition in your industry - not less.
“Why should I buy from you vs. the competition?”
When people ask this question, they want a real answer - not hype. Not slick marketing or fancy salesmanship. It’s a straightforward and totally legitimate question.
* * *
Sadly, all too often business owners create their products and services and then ask themselves, “now, how should I market this?” It’s much more powerful to start with the marketing first and ask yourself, “what is it that they want and need - and how can I give that to them?”
We need to start with the offer. The steak, not the sizzle.
I thought I would start off this series of emails with something really special.
It's hard medicine - but it's good for you.
* * *
An Edited Summary of the book:
Free Prize Inside!
by Seth Godin
Here's the quick definition of a Purple Cow: a product that's remarkable.
“Remarkable" simply means that a customer is willing to make a remark about it. If you can create memorable products, people will talk about them. If that happens, the word will spread and your sales will grow. That explains the success of most every fast growing company of the past ten years.
Lowering you prices without doing anything else is a game for desperate people lacking in imagination.
Most of the time, people are looking for marketing to serve as a magic elixer. They want to know how to use marketing techniques to make the business they've chosen work more profitably with the customers they're targeting. They want to change better-that commodity prices for their commodity products. They usually believe that it is the job of marketing to focus the spotlight on the things they've already decided to sell.
People want marketing to solve their product problems.
But today - it's all marketing because the product or service is the marketing. Marketing is no longer a separate division. It's the whole company. We’re living in an era where the real marketing happens inside the product, not in the ad pages of a magazine.
I say, if your product is not distinctly different, don't come up with better ads. Come up with a better product.
The simplest, fastest way to grow is to make your product remarkable. To make it worth talking about. If you make your product your service, your school, your church or your career worth talking about, the word will spread.
The only thing that leads to real growth is person to person conversation, word of mouth. And these only come about when you do something truly remarkable. Differentiation is not, by itself, remarkable. To be purple, you have to be more than different. You must be extreme. You must be on the edge.
Ask yourself: Are you invisible? Or are you remarkable?
In the world of the Purple Cow, where the product is the marketing, the winners are the people able to champion remarkable ideas and make them happen. And the astonishing revelation is this: Innovation isn't just fun, it's free!
If you can't make your product remarkable by changing the utility of the product or service, you must do it by one of three things . . .
1. creating a story: A story that transcends the utility of the product and instead goes straight to the world view of the user. See my book, “All Marketers Are Liars” for more information on how to do this.
2. by adding a free prize, a bonus, something extra, something worth paying for. What really works? No surprise, it's the soft stuff. The commonsense, creative stuff that requires initiative and curiosity, not an advanced degree to do. Most successes, though are actually the result of what I'll call soft innovation. Stuff like fast lube job shops, cell phone pricing plans and purple ketchup, or
3. by changing the way someone feels about what you do.
Here’s the good news: It turns out that there's a huge amount of inertia left in almost every category. Every product, service, feature, benefit is open for improvement. There's nothing that's finished, nothing so complete that it can't carry another free prize. No, not carry a prize, be transformed by a prize, transformed so completely that the product category finds new life.
Don’t Be Average:
Most companies focus on creating average products for average people.
The goal in Edgecraft is figuring out what people really want to buy, what they want to talk about and then giving it to them.
So, what you need to do is add a second benefit, a new edge, something your product or service does that is truly remarkable. You can only do that by going to the edges.
You must go all the way to the edge. Accepting second best doesn't make sense.
• Running a restaurant where your the free prize is your slightly attractive wait staff isn't going to work. They've got to be super-models or weightlifters or identical twins. You can only create a free prize when you can go all the way to the edge and make something remarkable. (note; the white hot essence, you need to fan it.) You don't create a better restaurant by serving better food. You can do it by serving remarkable food, or a remarkable location, or a remarkably famous chef. You don't build a better car but building a faster car, you do it by building the fastest car, or the least polluting car or the biggest car.
• Ergonomics that are slightly better are useless. Your product only becomes remarkable when you define the users experience.
• Ten percent more stock is invisible. When you have triple or ten times the stock of the competition (or 1 percent of their selection) people will notice. (note: be obvious)
Your innovations only matter when you can deliver an overwhelming distinction. Being somewhere near the edge is a very market-centric, self-aware thing that marketers do when they think people care enough to really dig deeply.
You can't achieve rapid growth by being just a bit better that the competition. It's not enough to get people to switch. You'll be ignored in favour of the incumbent.
The bottom line: If people aren't blown away, they won't talk about it. If they don't talk about it, it doesn't spread fast enough to help you grow.
Many people don't want this to be true. They don't want innovation to be the only path to growth. They believe that the market should reward earnest efforts at incremental improvement. Alas, it doesn't matter what you want... what we see is the market rewards innovation.
* * *
I know - it sounds intimidating and perhaps impossible.
But I assure you it's not. This series of emails will break down exactly what you need to do to get from wherever you are now to being 'absolutely irresistible'.
That's it for today.
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
BUSINESS FEATURE: GreenMaven.com - The Google for Green Products and Services
From: Melissa.Mansfield
I thought you all would be interested in a website I''m working on with my Earthsite partners Joey Shepp and Stacie Wickham. It''s GreenMaven.com, a green search engine that allows you to enter any search term and get the green result. It searches a database of 5,000 websites that have been chosen for their focus on environmental and social values.
It''s great for greenies like us ;) who already know what we''re looking for, but don''t always want to deal with the gazillions of useless results that Google might pull up. And it''s great for newbies who know they want eco-friendly socks, for example, but don''t know to search for bamboo, organic cotton or hemp socks.
So, please check out the site and give a try! Also - make sure you submit your businesses so that our searches will turn up results from your sites. And, if you have a chance, any feedback from the green business perspective would be very appreciated.
(I''ve copied and pasted the press release below so you can get the more formal pitch, and some more details.)
Thanks!
Melissa
[b:4d3723160b]Green Search Engine makes \"going green\" easy[/b:4d3723160b]
[i:4d3723160b]GreenMaven.com searches websites screened for environmental and social values[/i:4d3723160b]
San Francisco, CA - March 15, 2007 - GreenMaven.com is the world''s most comprehensive \"green search engine\" which allows users to search the Internet for trusted websites and news related to environmental and social values.
\"People want to go green, but they often don''t know where to start or even what questions to ask,\" says Joey Shepp, founder of Green Maven. \"Green Maven makes searching for all things green as easy as using Google. If you search for socks, you get organic socks. If you search for cars, you get hybrid cars. Our mission is to make it easy for mainstream to go green.\"
Recognized in TIME.com''s Top Ten List of Best New Websites of 2006, Green Maven uses Google''s recently released Co-op Search technology to make searching fast, easy, and relevant.
\"Going green has never been easier than with Green Maven,\" reports Lee Ettleman, TIME.COM. \"Editors at the site hand-pick web pages and news items related to the environmental movement—about everything from eco-friendly cities to organic socks—that can then be searched using the Google tool on the homepage or browsed through using a directory.\"
Launched in late 2006 by a team of Green MBA graduates, Green Maven has reached a total of 5,000 websites since its launch. GreenMaven was designed with Open Source software by the leading sustainable website development firm, Earthsite.net, developers of Urth.tv and GreenFestivals.org.
Visitors can search on GreenMaven.com, or they can take the green web with them by installing an easy browser plug-in. Businesses who want their sites included in the green search engine can submit their URLs to Green Maven''s team of editors for approval.
GreenMaven.com is responding to a growing segment of the Internet community searching for news, products and services that match their environmental and social values. By making it easy to \"go green\", GreenMaven.com is making a green lifestyle available to everyone.
###
GreenMaven.com founder Joey Shepp is available for interviews. For more information, contact Stacie Wickham at (415) 259-4664 or info@greenmaven.com.
* * *
a blog for green business marketing, eco-business marketing, ethical business marketing, conscious business marketing, sustainable business marketing, and community-minded entrepreneurs who are struggling with their cashflow, not attracting enough clients and have mixed feelings about marketing - www.tadhargrave.com
I thought you all would be interested in a website I''m working on with my Earthsite partners Joey Shepp and Stacie Wickham. It''s GreenMaven.com, a green search engine that allows you to enter any search term and get the green result. It searches a database of 5,000 websites that have been chosen for their focus on environmental and social values.
It''s great for greenies like us ;) who already know what we''re looking for, but don''t always want to deal with the gazillions of useless results that Google might pull up. And it''s great for newbies who know they want eco-friendly socks, for example, but don''t know to search for bamboo, organic cotton or hemp socks.
So, please check out the site and give a try! Also - make sure you submit your businesses so that our searches will turn up results from your sites. And, if you have a chance, any feedback from the green business perspective would be very appreciated.
(I''ve copied and pasted the press release below so you can get the more formal pitch, and some more details.)
Thanks!
Melissa
[b:4d3723160b]Green Search Engine makes \"going green\" easy[/b:4d3723160b]
[i:4d3723160b]GreenMaven.com searches websites screened for environmental and social values[/i:4d3723160b]
San Francisco, CA - March 15, 2007 - GreenMaven.com is the world''s most comprehensive \"green search engine\" which allows users to search the Internet for trusted websites and news related to environmental and social values.
\"People want to go green, but they often don''t know where to start or even what questions to ask,\" says Joey Shepp, founder of Green Maven. \"Green Maven makes searching for all things green as easy as using Google. If you search for socks, you get organic socks. If you search for cars, you get hybrid cars. Our mission is to make it easy for mainstream to go green.\"
Recognized in TIME.com''s Top Ten List of Best New Websites of 2006, Green Maven uses Google''s recently released Co-op Search technology to make searching fast, easy, and relevant.
\"Going green has never been easier than with Green Maven,\" reports Lee Ettleman, TIME.COM. \"Editors at the site hand-pick web pages and news items related to the environmental movement—about everything from eco-friendly cities to organic socks—that can then be searched using the Google tool on the homepage or browsed through using a directory.\"
Launched in late 2006 by a team of Green MBA graduates, Green Maven has reached a total of 5,000 websites since its launch. GreenMaven was designed with Open Source software by the leading sustainable website development firm, Earthsite.net, developers of Urth.tv and GreenFestivals.org.
Visitors can search on GreenMaven.com, or they can take the green web with them by installing an easy browser plug-in. Businesses who want their sites included in the green search engine can submit their URLs to Green Maven''s team of editors for approval.
GreenMaven.com is responding to a growing segment of the Internet community searching for news, products and services that match their environmental and social values. By making it easy to \"go green\", GreenMaven.com is making a green lifestyle available to everyone.
###
GreenMaven.com founder Joey Shepp is available for interviews. For more information, contact Stacie Wickham at (415) 259-4664 or info@greenmaven.com.
* * *
a blog for green business marketing, eco-business marketing, ethical business marketing, conscious business marketing, sustainable business marketing, and community-minded entrepreneurs who are struggling with their cashflow, not attracting enough clients and have mixed feelings about marketing - www.tadhargrave.com
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