My notes on “Fascinate: Your 7 Triggers to Persuasion and Captivation” by Sally Hogshead

Fascination Scale

• Avoidance
  • You’ll take steps to avoid TV commercials
• Disinterest
  • You might leave the room during a commercial break to grab a bite
• Neutrality
  • You don’t really care if you watch the commercial or not. You’re not going to take steps to avoid it, or to watch it
• Mild Affinity
  • If a commercial happens to pique your curiosity, you’ll watch. Otherwise, eh, whatever
• Interest
  • Commercials entertain, at least the good ones
• Engagement
  • You actively enjoy commercials. During Super Bowl, you pay more attention to the commercials than the game
• Immersion
  • You go out of your way to watch commercials, even going online to search them out
• Preoccupation
• Obsession
• Compulsion

Trends Driving the Need for Fascination

• An overload of distracting choices
• The rise of the ADD world
• Earning attention, not paying attention
• The ability to shut out messages
• Shift from the information age to the fascination age
• The Fascination Economy

Golden Hallmarks of a Fascinating Message:

• Provokes strong and immediate emotional reactions
  • Polarising – love or hate
  • Eg Botox
• Creates advocates
  • Passionate, dedicated fans
  • Eg Religions, Nascar, The Da Vinci Code
• Becomes “cultural shorthand” for a specific set of actions or values
  • A reference point for how people define themselves and their world
  • Eg tattoo’s, Louis Vuitton, Virgin
• Incites conversation
  • Top of mind. Earns more attention than it pays for
  • Eg Twilight series, Grey’s anatomy, Richard Simmons
• Forces competitors to realign around it
  • Establishes new standards and criteria. Irreplaceable for audience. Cannot be exactly replaces or duplicated by inspires look-alikes, me-too’s, imitators.
  • Eg Microsoft, then Apple, then Microsoft. Wal-Mart
• Triggers social revolutions
  • Disrupts the status quo of accepted beliefs. Forces us to think differently about ourselves and our world
  • Eg Bono, Mini Cooper, Yoga, Prozac, YouTube

The Seven Triggers

Lust

If you trigger lust, you will draw others closer. They will crave your message, wanting more and more until satiated.

• Lust creates craving for sensory pleasure
• Stop thinking, start feeling
• Make the ordinary more emotional
• Use all five senses
• Tease and flirt
  • As a motivator, desire is more powerful than fulfillment (eg Monkeys like the sight of a luscious grape, enjoy the moment just before eating, but are a bit bored when eating it). Eg2 burlesque shows are rarely performed in the harsh morning light
  • Journal of Consumer Research says sex sells: A woman in a bikini increases man’s sexual stimulation and increase the likelihood of indulgent decision making. As the brain opens to possibilities, the wallet opens as well

Mystique

Trigger mystique, and you’ll encourage others to learn more about your message. They’ll be intrigued, and seek information

• Mystique lures with unanswered questions
  • Eg celebrity deaths
• Spark curiosity
• Withhold information
  • Information is the opposite of mystique
• Build mythology
  • Tell stories, don’t recite facts
  • Eg Coca Cola secret recipe
• Limit access

Alarm

With alarm, you compel others to behave more urgently. They’ll take action in order to avoid negative consequences.

• Alarm threatens with negative consequences
• Define consequences
• Create deadlines
• Increase perceived danger
• Focus not on the crisis most likely, but on the one most feared
• Use distress to steer positive action
  • Eg “The Tap project” charges for glasses of water, that money goes to Unicef to provide a child clean drinking water for 40 days

Prestige

A message with prestige will elevate you about others, inspiring covetousness or envy.

• Prestige earns respect through symbols of achievement
• Develop emblems
• Set a new standard
• Limit availability
• Earn it

Power

If you effectively trigger power, you will control others. They will defer to you and your message.

• Power commands and controls
• Dominate
• Control the environment
• Reward and punish

Vice

By triggering vice, your message will tempt others to deviate from their usual code of conduct. They’ll act outside of standard habits or norms.

• Vice tempts with “forbidden fruit” causing us to rebel against norms
• Create taboos
  • Eg reality stars fight for the notorious villain role – Simon Cowell
• Lead others astray
• Define absolutes
  • Eg “don’t look in the box”, “don’t do drugs”
• Give a wink
• How to encourage someone to want do break your rules:
  • Enforce rigid black and white rules. Exaggerate consequences (eg “if you kiss a boy, you’ll get pregnant)
  • Give a firm “no” without reasonable reasn why
  • Fail to establish trust (no familiar people or context)
  • Trigger mystique by telling them what not to do, without telling them why
• How boring brands can trigger vice
  • Electronic company: Include a secret “road to deafness” setting on your headphones
  • Car company: buy a private autobahn for people who buy a new car

Trust

With trust, your message will comfort others, relax them, and bind them more closely to you.

• Trust comforts us with certainty and reliability
  • Are your favourite brands the highest quality or just the most familiar?
• Become familiar
• Repeat and retell
  • You can dabble in other triggers, but you must establish trust with consistency
  • Hitler: “The greater the lie, the greater the chance that it will be believed” if it is simple and you keep saying it
• Be authentic
• Accelerate trust
  • By tapping into values
  • Bring back old marketing devices

Your Potential Fascination Badges

• Purpose: Your reason for being; your function as a brand
• Core beliefs: The code of values and principles that guides you; what you stand for.
• Heritage: Your reputation and history; the “backstory” of how you came to be.
• Products: The goods, services or information you produce.
• Benefits: The promises of reward for purchasing the product, both tangible and abstract, overt and implied.
• Actions: How you conduct yourself.
• Culture: All characteristics of your identity, including personality, executional style, and mind-set.

Steps to Find the Edge of Your Bell Curve

1. List your badges (both existing and potential)
2. Evaluate against the hallmarks of a fascinating brand
3. Plot on a bell curve
4. Push badges outward on the curve by infusing them with more of your primary trigger
5. Push badges outward on the curve by infusing them with a new trigger
6. Build your message around these badges

More Notes

Fascinating Faces

We are all find faces fascinating and we all consciously/subconsciously attempt to interpret facial expressions. Cutting edge software analysed Mona Lisa’s smile. The results: 83% happy, 9% disgusted, 6% fearful, 2% angry

The Fascination Economy

• Goods-based economy >> Service-based economy >> Information economy >> Knowledge economy >> Experience economy >> Fascination economy
• Fascinating company’s/brands:
  • Charge a premium
  • Command more influence in the marketplace
  • Build more loyal relationships over time

People Want to Connect with…

• Not brands. With each other.
• Fascinating companies create more opportunities for people to connect with each other through the brand (eg Harley-Davidson)
• For marketers, it’s not about marketing a message – it’s about getting the market to create messages about you.

An idea is worth…

• An idea is only as valuable as its ability to solve a problem
• Ideas don’t live in a vacuum. They only become precious only once they successfully answer a specific need; otherwise they’re just scribbles

Red-tape will kill your fascinating plan

• Avoid committee mentality. The most fascinating ideas are often fragile because they can easily be “dumbed down”
• What policies and protocol block fascination by forcing a “red tape” mentality, or an over-thought, over-controlled approval process?
• Are you so concerned with neutrality that your communication is diluted down to gray mush?
• Are you so focused on keeping a low profile, playing it safe, that you’re kill fascination opportunities before they’ve had a chance to hatch?
• Fascination requires putting yourself out there for remarkable ideas, accomplishments and innovations

Brand Example

• Cirque de Soleil: Mystique (tightly held secrets) + Prestige (high-end execution) + Power (extraordinary training and skill) + Lust (playful style, elaborate costumes, makeup, artistry) leaves the audience craving more at the end of the show

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You may have heard that money-back guarantees are a good idea but you are not sure if they are right for your business?

Perhaps you are holding back because you are worried it’s going to cost you money handing out dozens of refunds, right?

Offering any kind of money back guarantee is better than offering none at all because the main two things that customers care about is:

1. Price
2. Risk

And a money back guarantee helps with both.

A money back guarantee reduces risk for the customer because:

• It signals that you are confident about the quality of your product
• It reduces their nervousness about making a bad purchasing decision
• It goes beyond the normal offer of replacing the item if something goes wrong, because they can get their money back

A money back guarantee reduces the price for the customer because:

• There is a cost for returning something for a refund: time. Knowing that you are able to get cash back for your trouble is better compensation than a replacement
• Customers perception is: Price + money-back-guarantee = Free Trial. Free is a customers favourite price

These are all “up-front” factors that persuade a customer to buy in the first place. Which is great.

In fact, let’s just slap a number on it and say that offering a money back guarantee will generate 20% more sales for you.

But the real magic happens in the “tail-end”, a long time after the sale.

Let’s say you purchased the Ginsu 2000 never-needs-sharpening-can-cut-through-a-can knife with a 30 year money back guarantee.

And it’s year number 29 and you decide it’s crap. Do you ask for your money back? Hell no. For 4 reasons:

1. You forgot about the 30 year money back guarantee anyway
2. You can’t be bothered
3. You feel you got your moneys worth any way
4. You don’t want to impose or be a nuisance
5. You’ve had it so long it feels like yours, you feel like the owner. This reduces the obligation of the people you bought it from

Yes, it’s an extreme example but you get the idea. Let’s look at another:

Let’s say you purchased an ebook about Search Engine Optimisation for $19 with a 3 month money back guarantee.

It’s the 2nd month, and you only just got around to reading it and you decide it’s crap. Do you ask for your money back? Hell no. For 3 reasons:

1. You forgot about the 3 month money back guarantee anyway
2. You can’t be bothered
3. You don’t want to impose or be a nuisance
4. It’s in your possession and so you feel like the owner. This reduces the obligation of the author

Let’s just slap a number on it and say that you get 5% of customers that actually do go ahead and ask for their money back.

So to summarise, you are getting 20% more sales to get out 5% refunds… Ummm, that’s really good isn’t it?

Yes. Yes it is.

4 Ways to Make A Great Money Back Guarantee:

1. Make the expiry really really long. The longer it is the more chance of the customer forgetting about it, or feeling like they are imposing by asking for their money back
2. If a customer asks for their money back, provide it the same day. Don’t drag your feet and make them wait. You will impress them with your customer service, and this experience may trigger Word-of-Mouth so you might get new sales from people they talk too!
3. Tell them up-front how to get one eg “To get your money back, just call us on 0800 xyz xyz and you’ll have your money back within 24 hours”. You could just provide an email form for them to request their money-back, but in this case, I advise putting up a small barrier for them and getting them to talk directly to you
4. Arrange their refund over the phone, and when it’s finished and approved, at the last minute ask them why they asked for one. Their feedback might be valuable. Don’t ask this question upfront because it will make them feel more uncomfortable than they already are

What about services?

Money back guarantees can also work for services but you’ll have to go overboard with your offer Eg “If you are not happy with our car washing service we’ll redo it for free + give your money back”

What do you think about money back guarantees now?

What do you have to add to this? Will you give it a try for your business? What’s the most outrageous money-back guarantee you’ve ever seen?

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Over the last few years I have tried several ways of making money online.

I wanted to get rich quick. Don’t we all?

I fell for the hype and got out my credit card, but I’m not ashamed. I’m human, and the sales copy was brilliantly written and tapped into my psyche and convinced me.

I gave it a shot, and I failed many times, but I’m not afraid because that’s when I learnt my biggest lessons.

I have had a few successes and many failures.

3 Ways I’ve Tried (and failed) To Make Money Online:

1. Make Money Online Simply By Purchasing A Domain Name?

• If you are holding on to your domain names hoping for the day you get a big offer for it, don’t hold your breath.
• Ever been shocked that a particular domain name is still for sale? Ever been amazed that it hadn’t been purchased already by someone else? Don’t be. There are thousands of domain names like that
• No matter how exclusive a domain name you think you have, there are a million ways someone with real content will beat you in the search engines and sidestep you by merely adding a dash or another word to the domain name they buy for $25 to avoid purchasing yours for thousands of dollars

2. Make Money Online With Affiliate Marketing?

• There are lots of variations on this, one common example is that you are promised $1 every time you sell a digital product. Your task is to get your hyperlink in front of a large audience so you buy advertising space on big websites such as TradeMe, NZHerald, YouTube, Facebook etc using an ad network such as Google Adsense, AdBrite etc.
• Unfortunately the click-through rates are never as good as you thought they would be (the mega affiliates have already saturated the market and made all their money before you got your affiliate code) so if you ever make a sale, it’ll cost you $1.10 to make it (oops, you only made $1 on that sale so you just made a loss of 10c…)
• Another variation is starting a small blog and featuring your affiliate links in the sidebar (or in the articles themselves). Sorry, your web traffic levels probably won’t reach critical mass, and the poorer quality your content, the worse the future looks for you if you rely on free traffic from Google

3. Make Money Online By Blogging?

• Could you quit your day job and start writing full time and earn an income by selling advertising on your amazing articles? Probably not.
• It seems that the only people making money by blogging are those that teach others how to make money from blogging…
• I’ve written some pretty awesome articles over the years (if I do say so myself) and I actually have been able to turn one popular article into a small business, but I’m not going to give up my day job to write full time, are you?

My Slow-Cook Recipe For Making Money Online

I have had a small number of success at earning money online, so here is my recipe if you want to do the same:

1. Find a niche that lots of people are interested in (and ideally only a few people are servicing)
2. Do a better job than your competition at writing interesting, engaging content (eg articles, reviews, start discussions)
3. Attract the people that are interested in this niche (eg with organic search engine traffic, direct marketing, advertising, Facebook, Twitter)
4. Monetise the web traffic (with Adsense, or direct ad selling, or hold out for a buy-out of your business)
   • Sidenote: On average you need 300 visits to earn $1 with Adsense. Getting 40 visits per day? Hooray, you’ll earn $1/week!

There is no magic bullet.

And if you see a magic bullet for sale then that get-rich-quick gun fired a long time ago and you are too late to rake in a huge pile of cash.

What about you?

If you have tried and failed, or tried and succeeded at making money online, add your comments below.

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If you pay any attention to your webstats, you may have noticed that your About Us page is one of the least visited webpages on your website.

This doesn’t mean it is unimportant. It is vitally important.

The low traffic means that each prospective customer will visit it only once, so you’ve got one chance to give them what they came for.

So, what are they looking for?

When prospective customers visit your About Us page they are looking for 2 things:

1. Credibility cues
2. A story

3 Ways how you can build credibility on your About Us page

1. They want to know you are legit, with a real physical address (preferably nearby to them, and at least in the same country)
2. Use real names (not “us” and “we”). Certainly name everybody the customer may be in contact with, and it’s good to name all the support people too. Plus name the founders/managers.
3. Use official company names (not just your trading-as name) so they know they can check you out with the Companies Office if they wanted to

3 Tips for how you can tell a story on your About Us page

1. Lots of detail. On most web pages you need to be quite brief and get to your point quickly, but on the About Us page the rules are relaxed a bit because the web visitor is asking for a story so you can write as much detail as you like. Divide your “About Us” content into sub-pages if you need them eg “History”, “Founders”
2. Define your target customer (don’t try and be all things to all people). The idea is to be specific so your target customer sees themselves in your description and has confidence you will serve them well. And those outside your target will still see elements that match them so you win both ways
3. Convey your passion for helping people like them, perhaps you have an interesting story of why and how you got into this business that communicates that passion?

What more tips can you suggest for About Us pages? Add them to the comments below.

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My notes on “Socialnomics: How social media transforms the way we live and do business” by Erik Qualman

The story about bacon salt

• Bacon Salt was an idea that was born out of the minds of two Seattle buddies, Justin Esch and Dave Lefkow, who over a few beers jokingly posed the question – “Wouldn’t it be great if there was a powder that made everything taste like bacon?”
• They found over 35,000 people that mentioned bacon in their MySpace profile. They began reaching out to these people to gauge their interest in Bacon Salt, and not only did they find interest, they started receiving orders when they didn’t even have a product yet.
• It went viral.
• The spice that made everything taste like bacon incredibly sold 600,000 bottles in 18 months. “We didn’t even have a product at the beginning; instead, we bought cheap spice bottles, printed out Bacon Salt logos and scotch them onto the bottles.”
• Lesson: People are passionate about what they like. Each passion is a niche that can turn into a business.

The story about Matt’s funny dance

• Matthew Harding quit his job and began travelling.
• All of us are known for something quirky among our friends. Harding was known for particular dance. So, while travelling in Vietnam, his travel buddy suggested he do his dance, and they filmed it. The video was uploaded to his website for friends and family to enjoy, and they loved it! “the dance can probably best be described as a five-year old on a Halloween sugar rush” says a friend.
• Harding decided to perform his unique dance whenever he was visiting an exotic location on his journey. He later would up editing together 15 dance scenes in exotic locations. All the scenes had him centre frame, with the background music “Sweet Lullaby.”
• It went viral.
• Stride Gum saw a huge opportunity and approach Matt, offering to help sponsor his travels. Matt was delighted because he had been travelling on a shoestring budget, actually having to use a college travel company. With the help of Stride, Matt was able to produce a third video.
• This video was the result of travelling to 42 different countries over the prior 14 months and including shots from 70 different cities and locations.
• 33 million views later, for the nominal fee of sponsoring Matt’s travel costs, Stride was paid back in millions of dollars worth of brand equity.
• A main reason the campaign was successful was that Stride kept the integrity of the original concept – it was always about people – it wouldn’t be prudent to all of a sudden make it about gum.  In fact Stride helped Matt improve on his original formula by suggesting that Matt try to surround himself with locals also joining in the dance, whereas previously the somewhat reserved computer programmer would have, at most, one or two people in the video with him.
• Stride could have had Matt wearing a Stride T-shirt and passing out gum, but they were smart enough to leave well enough alone. Instead, they had a tactful message at the end of the video and also had a discreet logo in the upper right of some of the videos. Stride showed how successful a brand can be by simply associating itself with social media that is already virally successful, which gives other brands something to chew on.

The Lesson: If you push your brand too much when you associate with great content, it may inhibit the spread of the virus.

The story about Coke + Mentos = Exposion

• Two scientists experimenting in a lab one day discovered that if you drop 5 Mentos into Diet Coke, a fairly volatile chemical reaction would ensue. Since it was so visual and dynamic, YouTube was the perfect platform to make it globally famous. In the past, the CocaCola Company could possibly have handled this quietly behind closed doors, however, in today’s world with the heightened social media exposure., Coke was forced to deal with the situation.
• In the past, Coke would have been alarmed by this discovery. There was also probably good cause for this potential alarm because the public could jump to the incorrect assumption that Coke must be highly toxic and it would be undesirable to have this type of reaction going on in the stomach. The end result would have most likely been a long court battle by Coke to discredit and shut these activities down.
• The best results came from Diet Coke. Sprite, Diet Pepsi, Coke Classic and Dr Pepper didn’t produce quite the same dramatic effect but it was still spectacular.
• A window was open for Pepsi to do something if Coke didn’t. Coke decided to embrace the exposure of this experiment and actually hired the original scientists as spokesmen (Fritz Grobe and Stephen Voltz). They in turn went on to do a much more elaborate video on YouTube that got over 9 million views.

The Lesson: If you ignore it, it won’t go away, so embrace it instead.

The story of the the first Juke Box

Imagine the conversation when the first Juke Box Company approached a record label for songs

• Juke Box Company: “We could remove your songs, but then people will not be able to find them to listen to them.
• Record Label: “That’s ok, we don’t really see any direct revenue from the quarters they put into your machine, so why should users be able to listen to our music?”
• Juke Box Company: “At that moment in time it’s on the only place they can listen to the song. Even if they own the record, they aren’t’ going to carry their stereo around. Don’t you want people to be exposed to your music and if they like it they will come in an dbuy the record?
• Record Label: “meh”

This is what is happening between the Associated Press asking Google/ YouTube to remove copyrighted material.

The Lesson: Everybody has a different preference for consuming media. If you know your favourite song is on YouTube, and the radio, you still might buy the mp3 from Apple or the whole CD because you like to consume the song on your mp3 player or massive home stereo. Surely exposing your media to the biggest possible audience plus making it easy and cheap to purchase in the format they want it in, is more profitable in the long term than trying to squeeze a few dollars out of a small audience?

Other Interesting Bits

• About incentivising recommendations:
  • People don’t make recommendations for financial incentives, but because they like to be perceived as the expert on something.  Eg Contributors of reviews for TripAdvisor are simply compelled to give back to a community that has give to them.
• About leveraging your flaws:
  • “When you point out your flaws, people will give you more credence when you point out your strengths”
• About not leaving a vacuum on social networks:
  • What happens when a brand doesn’t set up a page on the major social networks? A user will set up either a positive or negative space for you if you choose not to.
• About user control in the future:
  • How many cameras do you need for a Masters Golf Tournament?
  • Imagine internet viewers being able to select which hole, which player, and which angle they’d like to watch from
  • Many people will be happy with the default choice, but others would like the power in their hands
• About hiring Ebooks from Libraries:
  • What if you could rent all books in electronic form from your library?
  • Imagine limitless supply because the more information that is free and available, the more society benefits (but how would publishers and authors be incentivised?)
  • Could you still restrict the number of electronic copies you rent out or how long you rent them out for?
  • How can publishers benefit from books passed from one friend to another (because they currently get nothing)
  • What if there was no renting at all, but you had to pay 20c for every book you want to “own” in electronic format? And you could pass it on, which saves your friend the download, but they still pay?
• About being the best at something, not everything:
  • Historically, we have seen the “we are the best at everything” messaging coming from corporate marketing departments.
  • In a 140 character world you have the chance to help the consumer retain something and pass it on.
  • Hyperfocus on your strengths or niche

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On the surface, the concept of “Email Marketing” is really attractive, isn’t it?

Perhaps you’ve come across these reasons before:

7 Reasons Why Email Marketing Seems Cool

1. Because sending emails is cheap (or free). It’s a cheap way to keep in contact with your customers
2. It’s scalable - if you double or triple the number of customers on your email database there is no extra effort for you
3. Because it reminds your customers about what you can do for them – it keeps your brand in their minds, it builds familiarity, relationship, trust
4. Because you could sell something directly
5. Because it’s fast. You can get your first response within minutes
6. Because it’s measurable. You can test various headlines and offers
7. Because it’s easy. You can do it yourself

But what you often do not hear, are some of the reasons why Email Marketing kinda sucks:

3 Reasons Why Email Marketing Actually Sucks

1. Because most email software is actually hard to use (despite what they claim!)
2. Because it’s hard coming up with ideas for new content every week/month (exhausting!)
3. Because building up your list of subscribers is slow (and why do people keep unsubscribing? annoying!)

7 Ways You Can Improve Your Email Marketing

1. Make your emails really short
   • 1 or 2 paragraphs is good
   • State your point in the subject line, expand on the point in the body, close with a call to action
2. Make your emails really plain
   • Which types of emails do spend most attention to: Ones with fancy graphics and big logos, or ones that are plain text? Plain text! You always read those first and leave the fancy newsletters for last, if you have time
   • No header graphics. No logo. You have your “from” address and your email signature to remind them of your brand. That’s enough. (Remember, this email is about them, not about you!)
3. Make your emails really personal
   • Make the email a 1 on 1 conversation between you and your customer/client
   • Use the recipients first name at least 5 times. Not just “Hi Bob” at the beginning!
4. Make it really easy to subscribe. Make it even easier to unsubscribe
   • Create links to your sign-up form everywhere: on your website, in your email signature etc
   • Put your unsubscribe link clearly at the bottom, or even better, as the very first sentence of your email – you only want people who are really interested in what you have to say so let the others go
5. Make it obvious why someone should subscribe
   • Don’t expect sign-ups just because your email newsletter exists!
   • Provide at least 3 reasons why they should subscribe. If you can’t think of 3 good reasons, pack up and go home, email marketing is not for you.
6. Brainstorm 12 months worth of content ideas before you send your first email
   • Get your friends, family and existing customers to help you generate a huge list of ideas
7. Make your emails really cheap
   • My favourite email marketing software is MailChimp. It’s not super-easy to use but it is super cheap: completely free up to 500 subscribers and 3000 emails per month

Now that you know all about how to set up your Email Marketing, may I be of help with any, or all, of these components?

Call me on (07) 575 8799.

Cheers,
Sheldon.

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After 14 months of trial and error, I’m ready to help you generate results for your business using Social Media.

Find out more about Generating Results For Your Business Using Social Media

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My notes on “Guerrilla Marketing in 30 Days” by Jay Conrad Levinson and Al Lautenslager

What is your competitive advantage? Is it enough?

• Write down every reason you can think of to do business with your company. Now do the same for your top competitors. Scratch off the common ones. Are the remaining reasons good enough to be your competitive advantage? Do you need more?
• Asking your customers why they do business with you will provide you with your competitive advantages

Template for an elevator speech

• Your name, company, challenge at hand, unique solution that implies an advantage for the customer
• Eg “My name is Lawrence from Maximum Benefits Insurance Company. We know there are many choices and much confusion when it comes to selecting health insurance. We’ve developed a menu of services based on 5 basic variables that cuts through the clutter and suggest the optimum plan for you instantly

Is purchasing based on emotions or logic?

• The most compelling benefits are those that provide emotional or financial return
• People make purchasing decision based on emotion first, logic second. Logic follows because purchasers will rationalize their purchase decision based on features and benefits

Benefits that lead to competitive advantages

• How to find the benefits of your products and services: Keep asking “so what?”. Once you are convinced chances are you’ve reached the benefit
• A benefit will improve the life, cost, health or well-being of someone
• A benefit you offer that the competition doesn’t is a unique benefit and a competitive advantage
• Creating an advantage that is difficult to duplicate is the ultimate competitive advantage

Do you have an identity or an image?

• An identify is what you really are. If you screw up then that’s what someone remembers, in that one person’s mind, your screw-up is your identity
• Image is often phony
• Customers and prospects are very good at knowing which is which

One-off advertising or repetition?

• Repetition establishes contact and starts a relationship with the prospect or viewer
• If your budget is tight, run frequent, smaller ads
• How many? Your target markets notices 1 in 9 ads. If it takes 3 ads for them to take action 9 x 3 = 27 repetitions

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Would you change the way you serve your customers?

Would you change the way you trained your staff?

Would you change the products and services you offer?

Would you quit your job and work for a different company?

What else? Add to the comments below.

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The next time you are writing an advertisement, or an article, or updating your website, choose your audience along the following grid of “usage” vs “loyalty”.

Choose just one and ask yourself “how can I modify my message to speak just to them?”.

Usage vs Loyalty: Where Are The Opportunities For Your Business?

Let’s look at each sector in more detail:

1. High/Med/Low User + High Loyalty To You = Your Best Customers

• This is where you are making all your profit.
• What else can you do today to keep them fiercely loyal? 2 ideas:
  • Keep adding value, keep improving
  • and keep putting your prices up (the best way to maintain or grow your profitability and signal to them that you are working hard to improve the value of your products and services)
• Don’t waste your money communicating to this bunch with mass-media. Surely you have their email addresses or phone numbers? But more important than a cheesy Christmas card every year is to keep delivering the top quality products and services they have come to expect. Keep up the good work. Nice job.
• High Volume:
  • If we all had lots of high volume / high loyalty customers we’d all be rich! But unfortunately they are hard to get, hard to keep and there are few of them.  So don’t retire yet
  • It’s a double edged sword: Does having just a few major contracts make your business secure and stable, or does it make you weak and vulnerable?
• Med/Low Volume:
  • Don’t neglect the little guy. They might never turn into high volume, but they are your bread and butter today. But you already knew that I’m sure.

2. High User + Low Loyalty To You = Your Competitors Best Customers

• Do you think you can win the most loyal customers of your competitors? You’re dreaming! They’re out of your reach
• Can you turn a Holden fan into a Ford fan? No, you can’t. So give up and pick a fight you can win
• But, be ready – wait for the competition to make a huge screw-up and be there with a smile on your face welcoming them home
• This group is completely blind to your advertisements. They have made their choice of supplier for this category/industry/niche. Life is easy and peaceful for them. Let them be at peace.

3. High User + No Loyalty = Attractive But Deadly

• This group is super attractive, because there are so many of them
• Your boss will put enormous pressure on you to do whatever it takes to make this group buy from you this week. Most of the time the only tactic that will work is a super special price (maybe at break-even point!)
• Sure, you might make the sale this week, but next week you’re playing the same game again and next time they’ll choose a different supplier
• These guys suck up your advertising budget and contribute little to your profitability
• They don’t care about the brand you’ve worked so hard to build. They don’t see distinction or differentiation between your brand and your competitors. “Who is cheaper this week? That’s the one for me!”

4. Non-Users + No Loyalty = Untapped Markets

• This group has never made a purchase
• They have the same problems and issues that all the other customers are facing, but not know that a solution exists!
• For example, one of the most popular websites in NZ is called 1-day.co.nz with half a million visits a day, but it seems that 80% of the people I tell about it, have never heard of it! Could the same be true for your business? What are they reading/watching/listening to that you don’t normally advertise in?
• The only bummer with speaking to the members of this new market is that you are breaking the ice for your whole industry and they may not choose you!

5. Med/Low Users + Low Loyalty To You = Your Competitors Bread and Butter

• This is where your growth can come from
• It’s about maintaining your high quality, providing remarkable service (even if only occasionally) and trying to activate Word-of-Mouth
• What can you do to turn your customers into ambassadors for your brand?

Need Help?

Need help analysing the opportunities for your business?

I’d loooove to help!  Call (07) 575 8799 or email sheldon@marketingfirst.co.nz.

Cheers,
Sheldon.

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