OK, let’s dive right in. Today I want to talk to you about your marketing content. Specifically about a simple but very important and unique way to think about the content that you create.
The goal of this little tweak in perspective is to stimulate demand for whatever it is you’re selling. But done correctly, it can even create demand where it wasn’t before. This is, without a doubt, one of the most powerful concepts you need to think about and put to work in every aspect of your marketing.
Marketing 101
If you know anything at all about marketing, you know that the content you create has to be about more than just your product or service.
Most marketers will nod their head and agree with that saying, “Yeah yeah, I know all about features and benefits.” But I’m talking about something else.
The content you create has to provide “an experience” to your prospects and customers. (Incidentally, write that down and don’t forget it. The greatest assets your business has are your customers. You should always be marketing to your customers as well as your prospective market. Too many entrepreneurs make a sale and then just forget about their customers.)
Anyway, back to the experience your content provides.
The “experience” I’m talking about needs to create the easiest path for your prospect to become a loyal consumer of whatever it is you’re providing.
It has to be an experience that will make your prospects and customers want to buy from you. The products, programs, services, etc. that you provide.
The Marketing “Experience”
If that sounded a little confusing, let me give you an example of what I mean.
Some time back, on one of my coaching Q&A calls, a client of mine was complaining about slow sales. He felt like he couldn’t find a market for his product anywhere. He’d bought media all over the place where he was pushing his message. But no matter where he went, his results were lukewarm at best.
I asked him what he was selling and what his marketing looked like.
He told me he was selling a course on outsourcing. And shared a couple examples of different marketing messages he’d tried.
Now this was the interesting part. We were having this conversation right around the time Tim Ferriss’ book “The Four Hour Work Week” was becoming red hot. And if you’re familiar with that book, it’s all about outsourcing! Outsourcing every part of your life! And it was a best seller!
What my client didn’t understand, is that his marketing content was all about outsourcing. (Features and benefits galore.) But his market didn’t care about the “experience” of outsourcing.
The experience of a “four-hour work week”, on the other hand, was an entirely different matter. This idea was new and unique. Bordering on unbelievable. It brought buyers to the table by the thousands.
The Right Experience Will Bring Your Market To You
Now certainly this is more of a conceptual way of looking at your marketing. But if you fully grasp this idea of delivering the right “experience”, it can radically alter the results of all your marketing.
Let me be perfectly clear about one thing. Too many entrepreneurs confuse marketing with selling. They forget the fact that the goal of marketing is to stimulate demand so that you don’t have to sell. (Not that you don’t sell. There’s always the sale – the call to action.)
But what your marketing needs to do is create, stimulate and channel desire and demand for for your product, your service, whatever it is you’re offering. As opposed to searching for demand to sell into. And that’s the goal of the “experience” you deliver.
This makes marketing a whole lot easier.
Remember, whether or not your market wants what you have to offer right now, they always have some desire for something that you can connect your product to. And the experience you deliver has to spark that desire.
So let’s make this an interactive exercise in the comments section below. Tell me about the products or services you provide? Then tell me what kind of “experiences” your marketing of those products and services can give your prospective markets?
I’ll be back on Wednesday with a tip that will let you eliminate any and all doubt your from your prospects’ minds.