Getting a customer to spend that first dollar is an uphill battle. Sometimes it can even feel like a really steep incline that just goes on and on and on.
That “first dollar problem” is why branding and positioning and marketing are so important. And not just for big bad enterprises with tons of money, but for small businesses too.
Self promotion isn’t about taking two days a month to market yourself and your biz. It’s about the little actions you do everyday, and it’s about your sales pitch.
Selling yourself doesn’t have to make you feel sleazy or uncomfortable. In fact, it shouldn’t.
You’re good at what you do. You’re a pro. And your customers need you. They’re out there actively searching for the perfect you right now.
Creating that customer connectedness and developing a feeling of trust is difficult when you’re not face to face with a prospective customer.
So it’s your job to make sure that your message and your positioning is clear. Not just so that customers can find you, but so that the right customers can find you.
On your sales page and in all of your promotional material you want to distinguish yourself from the competition.
Now I don’t mean reinventing the marketing wheel and coming up with the next viral marketing campaign.
I mean communicating who you are, what you do, and the value your product or service provides, just like you would in person.
You want someone to go to your website, read your copy, and be hooked on you and your biz before they even think about the price.
Because at that point, the price is trivial. You’ve already got them nodding their heads uncontrollably and saying, “yes this guy gets it.”
But how? How do you get someone to go from concerned-about-price to could-care-less-about-price? That’s a big leap, right?
Well, I’ll tell you this, it’s not by having beautiful Pulitzer Prize winning copy or really ingenious and witty slogans.
It’s by listening to your customers and understanding what their pain points are.
Getting to the core issues behind why your customers buy takes time and it takes research. But if you don’t do your homework, you’re not only hurting yourself, you’re hurting your customers.
When your positioning and your marketing reflect exactly why your customers want your product or service, you’re not being sleazy or tricking them into making a purchase.
You’re telling them about a solution they desperately want to find and who (that’s you) is the best for the job.
P.S. Next week we’re going to talk about what you can learn from infomercials. It may sound crazy but those direct marketers know what they’re doing!
