Imagine you walk into a busy train station carrying a small stool during the morning rush hour and wearing a T-shirt with your business name on the front and a list of your products and services on the back. You stop in the middle of the rotunda, place the stool on the floor, stand on it and hold up a brochure about your business's product or service. The number of people that are going to come up and talk to you is pretty much zero.
You might be thinking - "Sure, but that's not a real-world example of what business owners are doing to promote their businesses. And that is true but it is an accurate metaphor for what they ARE actually doing - which is:
This is what most business owners try to do with their advertising. They use Google ads, social media, radio, newspapers, and numerous other media to do nothing but shout out "buy my widget". And like the idea of standing on the stool, nothing sells.
So what is the alternative?
Instead of the previous example of standing in the middle of a large crowd and hoping (FYI - "HOPE" is not a viable marketing strategy), create a marketing message that ATTRACTS the exact person you want (your Avatar) and REPELS everyone else.
Here's what I mean:
Because once you have their attention, have gotten them to request more information and have received their contact information; you can begin following up and moving closer and closer to them becoming a paying customer, patient, or client.
The first thing you need to do is determine what the FUBU is for your prospect. FUBU is an acronym for:
* Fear
* Uncertainty
* Doubt
* Urgency
Ideally, you would want to determine an instance for each of these. In the earlier example, we offered "I have 20 copies of "The 5 Planning Mistakes Brides Make That Will Turn A Beautiful Wedding Into A Horrific Nightmare! First Come, First Served and they are FREE!"
Fear is the most obvious. No bride wants their wedding to become a nightmare. Urgency is created with "20 copies, first come first served". Uncertainty and Doubt are a little more subtle with the assertion that there may be things about the wedding the bride may have overlooked or there may be pitfalls they could have inadvertently created.
Next, once you have identified the FUBU, you go about creating the assets (called Lead Magnets) that your prospect could be interested in. Please note, it is "assets", not "asset". Your lead magnets are like fishing lures. When you are out fishing, the fish may not bite the yellow lure. You may need to switch to the red lure. If they still don't bite, you switch to the shiny chrome lure. The "bite" occurs when they give you their contact information in exchange for the "lure" (the lead magnet) you just presented to them.
PRO TIP: Having only one (or zero) lead magnets is one of the biggest mistakes many business owners make.
Last, every lead magnet is written to do TWO important tasks.
Successful owners of established businesses tend to dismiss this as "too much work", "too expensive" or "we've been in business for 20 years and have never needed to do anything like this." We can agree that all three of those statements are true.
Creating multiple, well-crafted lead magnets is not easy, will require a considerable investment in time and/or money and will most likely require you to hire a professional copywriter. And businesses that have been successful in the past without a lead magnet can - at least for a while longer - operate without creating a system to capture prospect information earlier in the sales process.
These businesses are relying on their past successes to carry them into the future but unfortunately, the future continues to evolve. 20 years ago, Google was still immature and getting lots of useful information about different products, services, and options was pretty hit-and-miss. No longer. Google is an information behemoth with access to millions of data points about your niche, products, and services. Facebook would not exist for another 2 years and Twitter would not appear until 2 years after that.
In contrast, look at businesses and individuals that embraced the changes in information dissemination and where they have gone in the market. Dr. Oz, Elon Musk, Tesla, and Amazon are all household names. Sure, they are multinational and you may dismiss them because you're "just a local business" but not too long ago they were all just "local businesses" too. Amazon started in Jeff Bezos' Bellevue WA garage in 1994.
These companies and individuals all grew because they found a way to continually stay in front of their prospects and kept delivering "Hey! Here's what's new!" messaging. Capturing your prospect's contact info is the easiest and fastest way to do that.
Starting this is not as hard as you might think. First, sign up to get our weekly "how to" emails HERE. Or, if you think you may want "hands-on" help, find out if we could be a good fit for you by scheduling a complimentary 15-minute call HERE