Most business actively search for customers. But only few businesses have customers who actively search for them.
Online marketing can be very challenging. For most people, it is not more than racing for more customers; juggling different tactics at a time; spending outlandish amounts of money; and implementing hacks after hacks.
This vicious loop is very common in the online world today. Every business is chasing one customer or the other; and because of this, most customers are fleeing!
But it’s not all businesses that are stuck in this rat race. Some are able to put in the right kind of strategy that doesn’t just help them get more clients or web traffic, but also supports their long-term marketing efforts.
These businesses have customers who are actively looking for them and would immediately subscribe to their offers. They may be spending money like everyone else, using similar tactics, or even making the exact same efforts. But they mainly focus on 3 important factors that set them apart from the rest.
How can your business achieve this? Let’s run through the 3 steps.
In a bit…
One thing that most marketers (including your company, brand, or business) don’t realize is that most customers already have an idea of who they want to buy from.
They may not know exactly who this person is or what her company looks like, but they have mental representations of what they expect. These mental representations are their values, personal interests, and beliefs.
Although it may not be clear from the onset, most customers have certain beliefs and values about the world and what they want to get. The decisions they make, the things they associate with, and the things they avoid are all dictated by their values.
When a person buys from you, what they are saying is that “you have a value that is similar to mine” or “something about you aligns with my own self.”
Is this just another ‘touchy-feely thingy’? No, it’s not. Decades of research into consumer behaviour has shown that all buying decisions are emotional.
Now, to the 3 tips…
1. Sell your story before you sell your product.
Your customer does not buy because of the extra cream on your doughnut or the free consultation that you offer. The buying decision is made because of the story you tell.
What is a story? Put simply, a story is a message that communicates emotionally with the audience. Now that we know that all buying decisions are emotional, it is only common sense to know that you must appeal to the emotional part of your customers first.
In this context, a story is not some made-up fairy tale. It is the deeper part of your business that connects to something beyond what you do. It tells your customers why your business exists in the first place.
When you tell your story, you send a signal to the world about what you believe and what your values are. A lot of people may see this signal, but only your true customers (those who believe what you believe) that will take an action.
Most times, effective storytelling is a product of well implemented branding efforts.
Successful businesses never cease telling their stories because they understand the effect it has on their marketing efforts. The more you can put out your signals to the world, the easier it will be for your customers to find you.
2. Stop being too logical
If you’ve made it this far, you probably already know that logic doesn’t sell anything. We may try to use logic to justify sales, but logic in itself is not enough to sell.
What sells are the illogical, emotional, and irrational parts. Buying decisions are made in the emotional parts of the brain and justified (once the buying is done) in the logical parts. What does this mean for your business’s success online?
It simply means that you should water down all the “our product is 2.356 mgHz/kg/s faster” or “we have the back handle is now improved with imported materials” or “our teachers are trained from the best universities in the world.”
You don’t need to get rid of all these. All you need to do is reduce the frequency at which you use them. Telling your customers a compelling story may prompt them to check you out, but if you don’t give them a subtle idea of what to expect, the funnel will be broken.
Mention features, but always remember to connect them to the deeper emotional need that they solve.
Here’s a beautiful extract from Seth Godin’s book, “This is Marketing”
The riff about the quarter-inch drill bit
Harvard marketing professor Theodore Levitt famously said, “People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill bit. They want a quarter-inch hole.” serve, and we do it by drive each of us
The lesson is that the drill bit is merely a feature, a means to an end, but what people truly want is the hole it makes. But that doesn’t go nearly far enough. No one wants a hole. What people want is the shelf that will go on the wall once
they drill the hole.
Actually, what they want is how they’ll feel once they see how uncluttered everything is, when they put their stuff on the shelf that went on the wall, now that there’s a quarter-inch hole.
But wait…
They also want the satisfaction of knowing they did it themselves. Or perhaps the increase in status they’ll get when their spouse admires the work Or the peace of mind that comes from knowing that the bed-
room isn’t a mess, and that it feels safe and clean.
“People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill bit. They want to feel safe and respected.”
Bingo.
3. Promote yourself online.
Here’s the most popular one.
Regardless of how well you tell your story or how much emotion you are able to communicate, your marketing efforts will still yield no result unless you promote yourself.
This involves all the things you already know about.
- Posting content frequently
- Engaging with your audience
- Providing valuable content
- Running ads (not just for products but also for awareness), etc
Everything comes down to how well you can communicate your signal to your customers. How high can you raise your flag so your customers can see it from wherever they are and move towards it? How bright can you make your North star so “lost” customers can find you?
Implement this 3 tips in your marketing strategy and watch how your revenue grows. Slowly? Perhaps. Surely? Absolutely!
