Marketing Made Simple: A Step-by-Step StoryBrand Guide for Any Business (Made Simple Series)
Metadata
- Title: Marketing Made Simple: A Step-by-Step StoryBrand Guide for Any Business (Made Simple Series)
- Author: Donald Miller and Dr. J.J. Peterson
- Book URL: https://amazon.com/dp/B07TBXBFHY?tag=malvaonlin-20
- Open in Kindle: kindle://book/?action=open&asin=B07TBXBFHY
- Last Updated on: Monday, April 17, 2023
Highlights & Notes
Asking for a sale is a relational proposition. And relationships have rules.
The stages of a relationship are: 1. Curiosity 2. Enlightenment 3. Commitment
People do not want to be enlightened about you (get to know you more) unless they are curious about you (you have something that can help them survive), and until they are enlightened about how you can help them survive, they will never commit.
A person, product, or brand that can help us survive or thrive activates a survival mechanism within us that piques our curiosity.
At the curiosity stage we are really only making two large piles: keep and discard. This is how our customers’ brains work as they scan the three thousand pieces of marketing collateral they encounter each day. The overwhelming majority of material gets discarded, but the occasional message gets sorted to the keep pile.
The point is this: if you don’t tell somebody how you can help them survive, they will set you aside—or worse, discard you. When it comes to marketing, the header on your website, the subject line of your email, the opening statement of your proposal, the title of your lead generator, your entire elevator pitch, the first line of your keynote address, and a thousand other things need to succinctly express one of the ways you help people survive. If they don’t, people will not listen.
I know it all sounds irrational, but very little of what makes us curious is actually rational. People don’t buy products, vote for candidates, or join a movement because they are thinking rationally. If you look around, that’s pretty obvious. Regardless, the point is this: to pique somebody’s curiosity, you must associate your products with something that will help them survive.
Your Customers Are Not Curious About You, They Are Curious About How You Can Solve Their Problem
Customers are not interested in your story. They are, rather, interested in being invited into a story that has them surviving and winning in the end. Instead of telling your story, the first stage of your marketing plan should pique a customer’s curiosity about how their own story could be made better.
Stage 2: Enlightenment This is the process by which your customer begins to trust you. If curiosity is what gets us to pay attention to a brand, enlightenment invites us into a relationship.
If you want customers to take the next step in a relationship with your brand, you need to enlighten them about how you can solve their problem and help them survive.
You sell a medicine that can cure a hangover. But how does it work? You can improve education without raising taxes. But how? You can safely rid their garden of pesky pests. But how? The next phase of your marketing should enlighten them about how your products work to solve their problems.
Notice I didn’t say that you should enlighten your customers about how your product works. That’s hardly important. You should enlighten your customers about how your product works to solve their problem.
Never forget, we are not telling our story or even talking about our products. We are always inviting our customers on a journey in which their lives are made better through the use of our products.
If they are confused about how our products can help them win, they will walk away without making a purchase.
The answer to confusion is always no. When you enlighten your customers, you lift the fog and help them see clearly how your product can help them solve their problem. If the header of your website, the first words of your proposal, or even the first thing you say in a keynote is meant to pique curiosity, the next idea you communicate should answer the “but how.”
- Impokrtante
As you think about your marketing campaigns, are you piquing your customers’ curiosity and then enlightening them as to how you can solve their problems, help them survive, and improve their lives?
The two main reasons customers do not place orders are because: 1. The brand never asked them for the sale, or 2. The brand asked them for a sale too early.
When the time is right, though, we have to make our intentions known or we will lose the relationship.
Why does commitment take time? Because commitment is the first stage in a relationship in which a person has to take a calculated risk. Commitment is when they put skin in the game.
Our sales funnels should invite people into a journey that never attempts to trick or coerce them to make a decision they will later regret. That’s one of the keys to staying in business for decades rather than months. When we push customers to make a purchase, we end up with frustrated customers—or worse, unhealthy customers who don’t have good boundaries. The latter tend to light up our customer service lines and create more problems than the sale was worth.
The key to marketing—and sales for that matter—is to invite the customer on a journey at the pace of a natural, healthy relationship.
So what’s the correct pace? In my opinion, for most products a customer needs to experience about eight touchpoints before they are ready to place an order. A “touch” in this context is an email, a visit to your website, a radio ad, a keynote that they hear, or any other piece of marketing collateral you send their way.
Assess the Strength of Your Marketing Campaign Are you piquing your customers’ curiosity with your website, your signage, the first pages of your proposals, and through the talking points your salespeople employ? Are you earning your customers’ trust by enlightening them about how you can solve their problems and help them survive? Are you inviting your customers to place an order through a complimentary and direct ask?
What if a significant amount of trust building could be automated? What if, by the time you or one of your sales representatives sat down with a potential client, it felt like that client was already on the fourth or fifth date with your brand?
Branding affects how a customer feels about your brand, while marketing communicates a specific offer. Branding concerns itself with fonts and colors and design, while marketing puts the right words together to pique a customer’s interest and close the deal.
That billboard needs to say “The oil you only have to change once a year!”
Good marketing is an exercise in memorization and successful brands know it. Repeating the same language in the same way in your one-liner, landing page, emails, and direct sales letters helps you brand yourself into your customer’s mind.
Before you create your sales funnel, come up with three or four things you want your customers to know about your brand. If you understand the StoryBrand framework this is simple. Just use the words from your BrandScript to populate your sales funnel. If you don’t understand the StoryBrand framework, consider answering these questions in your sales funnel: What problem do you solve for customers? What will your customer’s life look like if they buy your product? What consequences does your product help customers avoid? What does somebody need to do to buy your product? (“Click buy now?” “Call today?”)
In your marketing copy, don’t be cute, be clear. Simplify your message and repeat it over and over using the same language and customers will finally figure out where you fit in their lives.
If you want J. J. and I to take you through the Marketing Made Simple Checklist in video format, visit BusinessMadeSimple.com and register for our very inexpensive online platform. Use the code “Marketing” to get a buy-one-gift-one offer, allowing you and your entire team to use the platform for half the cost.
Again, the marketing tools you will create will be: 1. A one-liner 2. A website or landing page. 3. A lead-generating PDF 4. An email nurture campaign 5. An email sales campaign
Words create worlds—not only physical worlds but the worlds we perceive.
There is no hammer, no knife, no excavator more powerful than a spoken word. And yet every day we use them flippantly. The very words we could be using to build a better life we make no effort to channel.
A one-liner is a concise statement you can use to clearly explain what you offer. It is the most powerful tool you can use to make customers curious about your brand. A one-liner makes people lean in rather than tune out at cocktail party.
The one-liner is composed of three parts—the problem, the solution, and the result.
If you want to be remembered, associate your product or service with the solution to a problem. Why start your one-liner by stating a problem? (1) Because the problem is the hook, (2) because the problem adds value to your product or service, and (3) because stating the problem is a great way to be remembered in your customer’s mind.
Make Sure the Problem and Solution Are Connected
Don’t Get Cute or Clever Cute and clever language is almost always the enemy of clarity. Clarity sells, while cute and clever confuse.
State the product clearly, and after hearing the problem you solve, your customers will begin to associate you and your product with a solution to their problem. When stating the solution to your customer’s problem do three things: • Connect the solution directly to the problem. • Close the story loop. • Avoid using cute and clever language as a substitute for clarity.
When you write the solution part of your one-liner, you’ll want to get all the way to the end result your customer will experience. And you want that result to be tangible. Make it something they can see or feel.
Things to Consider 1. Make sure the success you talk about is directly related to the problem stated earlier. This keeps the story cohesive and shows the customer how their life will be better after you solve their problem. 2. The success should be about your customer, not your company. The one-liner should not end with something like “we can help you” or “and then you will be our favorite customer.” Speak to what their life is like after doing business with you, not what you do or how good you are. 3. Commas are not your friend. You may have a ton of success that you would like to add here. Keep it simple and compelling. By putting too much success in you actually end up diluting your brand. Focus on one or two success points and leave it at that. 4. Do not overpromise. Any success you state here should be something you are able to deliver.
Things to Consider 1. After putting all the parts together, make sure it not only makes sense but sounds good when said out loud. Sometimes what looks good on paper does not translate well when spoken. Say it out loud and see how it sounds. 2. Don’t be afraid to change things up after it is all together. You want to make sure you have all three parts in this specific order, but don’t be afraid to get a little creative. 3. Make sure it is easily repeatable. If after you put it all together it is hard to memorize or cumbersome, go back and simplify it so that everyone on your team can say it easily. 4. Check to make sure it is simple. If you tell someone your one-liner and they have to ask “what do you mean?” about any of the sections, then you are too complicated. Go back and make sure each section is clear. Refining is your friend.
Put it on the back of your business card. • Make it your email signature. • Print it on your wall in your retail space. • Make it the first sentence in the paragraph on your about us section on your website. • Use it for your profile descriptions on social media.
Here are a list of avoidable mistakes you’re likely making on your website: • You are using too much insider language • You are using too many words in the header. • The call to action buttons use passive language. • The call to action buttons are not repeated down the page • The images do not relate to the product or back up the words you’re using on the page. • The language is cute or clever but not clear. • The site does not promote a lead generator. • You’re using a slide show so the text changes too fast and frustrates potential customers. • The site tells your story rather than inviting customers into a story.
The biggest mistake clients make when it comes to websites is making them too complicated. Most businesses need a website that serves a single purpose: it creates sales. Creating sales may not be the main reason you are in business, but it is the main reason you will stay in business. Your website should be a sales machine.
Your website is not a place for you to celebrate yourself. Your website is a place where you sell your customer a product that solves their problem and makes their lives better. The right questions a designer should be asking are: What is the problem you solve? How does your customer feel after you solve their problem? How does somebody usually buy your product? Was there unforeseen value that was added to your customer’s life when you bought this product?
If you can create an artistic, beautiful website that still sells, that’s terrific. But in my view, the artistic statement is icing on the cake. I want your website to grow your business.
Remember, marketing is an exercise in memorization. That means you have to speak in simple, clear language. And that language needs to tell people how you can help them survive.
Could that caveman grunt the answer to these three questions: 1. What do you offer? 2. How will it make his customer life better? 3. What does he need to do to buy it?
A financial advisory may offer “A path to a better future” without realizing that could be confused for a gym, a college, a church, or just about anything else. Don’t use the header of your website to differentiate yourself from somebody else. Clarity itself is going to differentiate you—because your competition, I guarantee you, is being confusing.
What is your product or service? • Lawn care • Coaching • Copywriting • Clothing • Haircuts and color Take a minute and write down a clear and concise statement of what you offer. [Your Notes]
How does your customer’s life improve because they do business with you? Do they have more money? More time? A higher status in life? More peace? Better relationships? You will have space later to expand on other areas you improve their lives, but for the purpose of the header, lets choose one.
Compile your answers to the past two questions into a single statement like one of these: 1. Injury lawyers committed to helping you get your life back 2. Great managers aren’t born, they’re trained: See how we do it 3. Transform your health, regain your life: a proven, drug-free path of healing for all of your unresolved health concerns 4. Surprise and delight your guests with handcrafted desserts Your statement below:
The “buy now,” “schedule a call,” or “shop now” buttons are the cash registers of your online store.
Don’t Be Passive-Aggressive Calls to action like “Learn more,” “Find out about us,” “Curious?” or “Our Process” are weak and confusing. What a customer really needs is something to accept or reject. Until then, they are confused about what you want them to do or where you want this relationship to go.
Being friends with your customers is a great idea, but don’t forget, this is a business relationship and business relationships are, by nature, transactional. And there is nothing wrong with a transactional business relationship.
Below, list how I can purchase your product. What is your call to action button going to say?
There are two places we recommend placing direct and transitional calls to action. The first is at the top right of the page, which is by far the most valuable real estate on your webpage. The second is directly in the middle of the header beneath your headline and subtitle.
Few images work better than smiling, happy people enjoying your products. So if you can’t figure out what images to use, smiling happy people are a good place to start.
Looping images (silent film) are terrific on websites but make sure the text that floats over those images is fixed. Branding is all about repeating the same simple message over and over until your customers have it memorized. Sliding text, then, hurts rather than contributes to your branding effort.
Write out the headline for your header, plus a subtitle if you need one, and write your direct call to action in the empty boxes below. In the parentheses, describe what image (or looping film) you’d like to use in your header. If you build playgrounds, show children enjoying playing on your equipment. If you bake cakes, show some of those beautiful cakes being decorated and happy customers picking them up and gazing at them in wonder. Don’t worry about taking pictures just yet. You’ll do that later. Right now, decide what kind of images would best sell your product or service and describe those images in the header.
Visit MarketingMadeSimple.com to download a free “blank” sales funnel you can physically create on paper. Work with your designer to execute your sales funnel or visit MarketingMadeSimple.com to hire a certified StoryBrand guide who can create a sales funnel for you.
A story that fails to get started always has the same problem: there is no conflict!
In fact, most stories start with a character who wants something followed by a scene in which an enormous challenge is placed between where the character is and what the character wants. It’s the crossing of that distance that makes the story work.
If a positive scene followed by a negative scene is how enthralling movies work, then why not follow the same formula on our website? The first section of the website told our customers what their lives could look like if they purchased our product or service. Let’s make the second section of our website speak to the current pain our customers are experiencing because they haven’t bought our products yet.
When you help your clients understand how much it is costing them to live without your products, the perceived value of those products increases.
At our workshops, I teach that in a story there must always be pain and conflict, and yet when we talk about painful things in our marketing it can feel a little heavy. But don’t be tricked into telling a boring story. The stakes matter, and if you don’t let people know what pain you are helping them avoid you’ll lull them to sleep rather than stimulate them to place orders. What pain are you helping customers avoid? What pain are they currently dealing with that will be ended if they buy your products or service? Some examples are: • More wasted time • Missed opportunities • Lost business • Embarrassment • Loss of sleep • Frustration • Weight gain • Confusion • Isolation • Lack of access • Lack of guidance • Loss of status • Not reaching potential • Losing to the competition
I like to look at the components of a clear message like ingredients in a cake. To make a cake, you need cups and cups of flour (success) but only a tablespoon of salt (negative stakes). If you use too much salt, you ruin the cake, but if you leave it out, the whole thing tastes bland.
After all, the purpose of negative stakes in a story is to contrast with the happy ending we all want to experience.
Without overdoing it or exaggerating the stakes, what kinds of problems are you helping customers overcome or avoid? Examples: 1. No more sleepless nights, tossing and turning on a mattress that doesn’t work for you. 2. Most people don’t realize how much time they’re wasting in their email inbox every day. We have a solution. 3. We meet people all the time who are wasting their money because they don’t know how to invest it. 4. Are you tired of paying money for marketing that doesn’t get results?
What pain or problems are you helping your customers avoid? List the pain points and challenges you resolve in the section below: [Your Notes]
It’s this contrast that keeps the audience on their toes and paying attention. It’s as though the story works like this: Scene one (+): Our hero really wants something. Scene two (-): But the opportunity to get that something has been taken away. Scene three (+): An opportunity arises that might help the hero get what they want. Scene four (-): But that opportunity falls through.
Again, the simple use of contrast (positive and negative messaging) on our website will suffice, but directly writing the first three sections so they vacillate from positive to negative to positive is going to give your message a familiar and attractive flow.
For instance, if you’re selling your customer a maintenance package when they buy an HVAC system for their home, you’d increase the perceived value of that maintenance package if you listed a few benefits: • Never worry about your air conditioner breaking down. • Never have to schedule maintenance again. • Breathe cleaner air without having to change filters. Where some companies would simply mention they have a maintenance package, this company is “adding perceived value” to that package by listing other benefits the package gets me.
Customers are much more likely to buy a 200. By using words, we just raised the perceived value of our products and gave our customer a much better deal. How much would it cost you in overhead and supply to raise the value of your products by over 100 percent. You’d have to add a lot of gizmos and services to do that, right? We just raised the value of our product by more than 100 percent simply by using words. And words are free.
Tell Your Customer Everything They Get For some customers, the bottom line question is What do I get in exchange for my hard-earned money? In this section of the website, you’re going to tell them. • Can they save money? • Can they save time? • Will they reduce risk? • Are they getting quality? • Will this help them simplify life or avoid hassles?
If your product will help save your customer time or money, you want to say so. Avoid elusive language like “fulfilling” or “satisfied” and instead use specific language like “you’ll save time this summer” or “your lawn will make your neighbors jealous.”
Include a Headline Is there a common theme among all these problems? Is there one glaring header you could use to encapsulate the stakes? Remember to always include a headline above each section. A website section without a headline is like a newspaper article without a headline. People will skip it. Here are some example headlines that work great: “Our customers no longer struggle with …” “You don’t have to be confused anymore.” “The stakes are high!” “Act now and avoid the hassles.” “Our heart breaks when we see people struggle with . .
With a header and a list of problems you help people solve, you’ll demonstrate both your understanding of your customers’ problem and your compassionate desire to help them find resolution.
The day you stop losing sleep about your own success and start losing sleep over your customers’ success is the day your business will start growing again.
Empathy without authority falls flat, as does authority without empathy.
In this section of your website, you’re going to clearly express empathy and demonstrate authority (or competency). Here are a couple ways to communicate authority on your website: • Testimonials. All testimonials aren’t created equally—below we will discuss testimonies. • Logos of companies you’ve worked with. This works especially well for B2B. • A simple statistic. Talk about how many people you’ve helped, how many years you’ve been in business, or how many clients have worked with you. Examples: • This is why we’ve spent the last twenty years helping clients just like you get in shape. • Join the 100,000+ who have already changed the way they sleep at night. • With our collected 100+ years of experience in the industry.
Here are a few ways to communicate empathy on your website: • Mention their primary pain point. Few messages are more endearing than “We understand how it feels to struggle with …” • Testimonials in which customers state how much you cared for them are powerful. • Stating plainly “I feel your pain” helped Bill Clinton become president and will help you grow your business.
Here’s a trick: Complete this sentence: “we know what it feels like to ______________ .” Examples: • We know what it feels like to be overlooked for a promotion. • We know how frustrating it is to have a great looking website that doesn’t result in sales. • We know what it feels like to worry you’re not doing the right thing. Now It’s Your Turn What pain are your customers feeling? What problem is bothering them the most? And what single, short statement can you make to express the empathy you feel regarding their struggle?
Be careful. If you communicate too much authority and not enough empathy, you will confuse your customer about who the story is about. Is it about you or them? Always make the story about them.
The main problem we see when our clients use testimonials is they are too long. And the second problem is they ramble.
Here are a few different soundbites you can look for when collecting testimonials: 1. Overcoming objections. Look for (or ask for) testimonials that speak directly to a client overcoming the primary objections customers have about doing business with you. For example, “I worried this course was going to be a waste of time. I was wrong. I made more progress in six hours than I’ve made in ten years.” 2. Solving problems. Look for (or ask for) testimonials that speak to a specific problem you helped a customer overcome. For example, “I’m on my feet all day at work, so by 5:00 p.m. my lower back is usually aching. I wore XYZ shoes for the first time, and by 5:00 p.m. I felt like I could do another shift without blinking. I haven’t felt this good in ten years.” 3. Adding Value. Look for (or ask for) testimonials that help clients pass the payment threshold by speaking to how much value they received. For example, “I was skeptical at first because of the price. But I can’t tell you how glad I am I used XYZ lawn services instead of another company. I’ve never been so proud of my lawn.”
Including Images of Customer Logos on Your Site Adds Authority Another way to demonstrate authority is to include logos from B2B interactions, or even logos of press outlets in which you have been featured. The great thing about including logos is it doesn’t take up much room on a website and yet allows the person scanning your site to check off the “these people know what they’re doing” line item in their brain.
Show a variety of logos to show the breadth of your work.
Including Statistics Speaks to the Authority You Have Statistics can be another great way to demonstrate your authority. The kinds of statistics you want to share should quickly and clearly let people know they can trust you to solve their problem. Here are some examples of statistics that demonstrate your competency: • Number of years helping people (number of years in business) • Awards you’ve won • Number of clients you’ve served • Number of hours you’ve saved your clients • Amount of money you’ve made your clients
Never forget, you aren’t telling a story about yourself here, you are inviting customers into a story. In that story, you play the guide, not the hero, so position yourself as the customers’ guide and then get back to inviting them into a meaningful story.
Although it may be obvious to you how a customer can buy your product or service, it is not obvious to them. Remember, customers are bombarded with commercial advertising and pitches every day and they will not spend mental bandwidth “figuring out the obvious,” no matter how easy the obvious is to figure out.
When customers are thinking about buying, give them a few simple steps they can take to engage your brand and buy your products.
When you add a plan section to your website, it’s as though you’re saying to your customer, “It’s impossible to mess this up.”
The reality is there may be seven or eight steps a customer needs to take to do business with you, but do yourself a favor and combine some of those steps into three phases. Having three steps keeps things simple and easy.
Tell us about your event. 2. Let us create a custom menu. 3. Host the party of your dreams.
Keep the Plan Visually Simple You’ll want each step of your plan to be represented by a word or simple phrase. Remember, people scan websites before they read them so make your website easy to scan by putting key words in bold text or using bullet points for easy reading. You can also use icons for each step, bolded headers, and short descriptions so the visitor doesn’t have to burn very many mental calories to figure out how you’re going to lead them to their successful result.
Now that you have the words that represent each step, you can use a sentence or two underneath the headers to further describe each step. In these short sentences talk about the benefits the customer will see if they take these steps or share any information that will make the process more clear.
Each step of the plan should have a few words that discuss the benefits for the customer. Take a minute and brainstorm what benefits the client will get when they take each step?
Most people bounce from a website because there are too many useless words at the top. By designing your website the way we’ve recommended, your customer is already hooked. Because you’ve told them what you offer, how it can make their lives better, and what they need to do to buy it, we can further elaborate on your offer because your potential customers are willing to give us a little more time.
The Explanatory Paragraph Is Where Your SEO Will Come From
What your customer really wants is to be invited into a story. And your explanatory paragraph is going to accomplish exactly that.
Your explanatory paragraph is going to do the following: 1. Identify who your customer wants to become. 2. Identify what they want. 3. Define the problem setting them back. 4. Position you as their guide. 5. Share a plan they can use to solve their problem (which includes your product). 6. Call them to action. 7. Cast a vision for their lives.
A Sample Explanatory Paragraph At______________[your company name] we know you are the kind of people who want to be______________[aspirational identity. What kind of person do they want to become?]. In order to be that way, you need_____________________[As it relates to your product, what does your customer want?]. The problem is______________[What’s the physical problem holding them back?], which makes you feel______________[How is that problem making them feel?]. We believe______________________[Why is it just plain wrong that anybody should have to deal with that problem?]. We understand______________[Include an empathetic statement]. That’s why we______________[Demonstrate your competency to solve their problem]. Here’s how it works____________________________[What’s your three-step plan: step one, step two, step three]. So______________[Call them to action], so you can stop______________[What negative thing will happen or continue to happen if they don’t order?] and start____________________[What will their life look like if they do place an order?].
To do this, you want to start by listing the top five reasons why someone would not want to do business with you. What are the five excuses or questions you hear from customers who are unwilling to place an order? These questions could be: • The product is too expensive. • I doubt it will work for me. • What happens if it doesn’t work for me? • I doubt the quality is as good as they’re saying it is. • The process is going to take too long. • I won’t know how to use it once I place an order. • I’ve tried something like this and it didn’t work.
After you have listed the top five excuses, craft a sentence or two that overcomes each objection. For example, if the question is “Is the process complicated?” you could write a sentence that says, “We guide you through an easy process to help you use our product so you never have to worry about X again.” If the question is “What happens if I’m not satisfied?” you could write “we have a 100 percent satisfaction money-back guarantee.” Once you have those sentences written out, turn them into a paragraph that can go on your website. Below, list the top five reasons why someone would not want to do business with you, followed by your response to overcome this objection.
If you do use both explanatory paragraphs, just make sure to separate them by a few sections so your landing page doesn’t look like it contains too much text.
Hook the viewer: One study shows that 33 percent of viewers click away and move on after the first thirty seconds of a web video. Ensure you grab the viewer’s attention quickly. How? Make sure the first thing the viewer hears and sees is a problem. What problem do you solve for your customer? State it right out of the gate and move on from there.
The general rule here is that your video should be a sales pitch. It should help you close the deal. Don’t make the mistake of being vague and elusive in your video, turning it into some sort of brand identity art installation. Your customer wants to hear your pitch in a concise, clear, and interesting form, and your video is a great opportunity to accomplish this.
When listing the prices of your products, we recommend having three different options. Even if you only have one product, consider packaging other items or services with that product so you can have three different price points. Why? Because customers like having options, and when you give them a few options, they are more likely to choose and purchase one.
Speaking of three price points, many of our StoryBrand certified marketing guides have discovered that customers usually choose to buy the item featured in the middle. They don’t want the cheapest or the most expensive, but they do want good value.
People will scroll to the bottom to find a link to employment opportunities, contact info, and even “about us,” so reserve the top of the page for those who aren’t yet committed to giving you much time.
Simply move the contact, FAQ, about, employment opportunities, and so forth to the bottom of the page so that if people want to find them, they can. Use your junk drawer to clean up the clutter!
In business relationships, lead generators are a great excuse to exchange contact information without being awkward. Think of the exchange going something like this: “Hey, let me send you that information I was talking about. What’s your email address?” Lead generators that capture emails make sure that when someone finds you interesting you are getting their contact info. Stop missing out on the opportunity to get those digits!
PEOPLE WANT TO STAY IN TOUCH WITH YOU IF YOU ARE INTERESTING AND CAN HELP THEM SURVIVE
Think of the one-liner as the first introduction to somebody and your website as the first, second, and third date. Your lead generator, then, is going to be the first time your customer actually commits.
anybody who is willing to give you an email address is very interested in your product or service. The more culture changes and the less people want to give you their email address, the better the lead they actually are. How do we get somebody to give us their email address? We give them great value in return and we honor their inbox.
A lead generator is (usually) a free asset you offer potential clients as a way of building authority and trust. Your lead generator can be a PDF, a video series, a free sample, a live event, or anything you can give your potential customer that helps them solve a problem. We recommend starting with a lead-generating PDF.
From that PDF, we created more sales funnels that offered more PDFs, and then we added free video courses and webinars and even free live teaching events. Soon, we were collecting hundreds of email addresses each day and our business started to grow quickly.
Lead generators should position you as the customers’ guide, answer your clients’ questions, solve their problems, pique their interest, stir a sense of reciprocity, build trust in what you have to offer, challenge a potential customer to take small action, give them a vision of the successful result they could experience, and ultimately lead them to a nurture campaign, a sales campaign, and hopefully a sale.
“Give away the why but sell the how.” I like that rule, but I also like giving away some of the how just to be generous.
Be kind and generous to your customers and they will remember you when they are successful.
A checklist is often a great way to make customers aware of what they’re lacking—and how you can help.
Think of an area in your clients’ lives that you can help facilitate, and create a repeatable worksheet that solves their problem. A worksheet could be anything from a weekly marketing planner to a goal-setting page. Daily or weekly worksheets might take something overwhelming and make it simple. Have the worksheet be something they can use repeatedly so they’re reminded weekly or even daily that you exist and can help them.
After the webinar is concluded, you can also take the exact same information you shared and turn it into a lead-generating PDF that is downloadable from your website.
Delivering a keynote is an excellent way to generate demand for your services.
What are your potential customers curious about as it relates to your product or service and how could you turn that curiosity into a lead generator?
An open house doesn’t have to just be for real estate agents, though. Offering a free product demonstration, cooking classes, craft nights, inviting people over to your home to hear about what you do, all create a sense of community and build relationships.
What’s a good reason to invite people into your home or business to hear a pitch? What types of events could you host that might bring potential clients together?
PROMOTE YOUR LEAD GENERATOR We actually spend more advertising dollars promoting our lead generators than our products. They are that effective at leading to sales. Consider promoting your lead generators on social media or even using paid advertising. To promote our lead generators, we include ads for them on our websites, but we also create separate landing pages that focus on each lead generator exclusively. This way, we can link to specific pages in specific posts, ads, or podcast episodes.
The whole point of a lead generator is to get an email address. Remember, when potential customers gives you their email address you should consider them a hot lead.
In this section of the book, we are going to guide you through two kinds of email campaigns you can send. Both will grow your company. The two types of email campaigns we recommend are: 1. Nurture campaigns. These are designed to keep in touch with a potential customer and earn trust over time. 2. Sales campaigns. These are designed to close the sale.
Question: How Many Emails Do I Send? As many as you can while always adding value and staying interesting.
The reason a nurture campaign is important is because most customers don’t want to buy your product right away. Often, they have to hear about a product five or six times before they’re willing to make a purchase. Why? Because they trust the familiar and don’t trust the unfamiliar. And what makes something or somebody familiar? Hearing about them over and over from different outlets in different contexts.
PEOPLE BUY WHEN THEY ARE READY, BUT ONLY IF YOU ARE STILL AROUND
The truth is people buy when they’re ready to purchase, not when you’re ready to sell. It goes without saying, you are most likely to close the deal if you are around when they’re ready to buy. Sending out a weekly email ensures that when they hit the buying window you, and not your competitor, are fresh in their minds.
If you aren’t leveraging the power of an email nurturing sequence, and your competitor is, they will beat you in the marketplace. It’s absolutely essential that you are emailing your list consistently with valuable content.
Even though the point of a nurture email is not to sell product, you should still include a mention of your product at the end of each email. This mention is not a hard sell, just a small reminder that lets customers know what you do and what products you create that may solve their problems.
Here are a few kinds of weekly tip emails that have been powerful for our clients: • Weight loss tips • Cocktail recipes • Fashion tips • Leadership tips • Motivational Monday tips • Weekly activities to do with your kids • New yoga poses • Tips on social media marketing • Dog-training tips • Tips on personal safety • Each-week-of-the-year gardening projects • A parent-to-adolescent language translator
That said, including the occasional email about how your products are made (always to solve a customer’s problem) or tips for best uses of your products will add to the overall depth of your offering. And they will also add some personality to the brand.
The key to weekly notifications that feature products is to make sure you’re always letting customers know about something that is new and exciting.
Other types of weekly notifications emails that have been successful for our clients include: • Calendar of events for the week • Weekly specials for a restaurant • New weekly inventory • Plant of the week (for a nursery) • New houses on the market in your neighborhood • Stocks to watch • Specials such as 10 percent off this week • Weekly recipes • Weekly how-to videos
The bottom line is this: if you are not emailing your customers at least once each week, you’re missing out. And worse than missing out, you’re being forgotten.
If you fear asking people for money in exchange for your product or service, you do not believe in your product or service. You do not believe it will solve your customers’ problems, resolve their pain, or improve their lives. If that’s the case, find a new product. But if you truly have medicine that will take away people’s pain or problem, sell it to them! It’s the right thing to do.
There is a name for businesspeople who fear rejection. We call them broke.
Nurture emails contain calls to action, and so they do a pretty good job selling. But sales emails are different. While a nurture email is trying to add value by solving a problem and then adding a call to action at the end, a sales email is going to make the call to action its primary focus. It’s the point of the email. Every word, every sentence, and every paragraph must serve one purpose: to challenge customers to place an order.
A paradigm shift is language that says, “You used to think this, but now you should think this way.” It’s a powerful tool used to make people reconsider buying your product.
Once you know what product you’re going to sell and what your goals are, you can move on to clarifying your message around the product itself.
Ask these four questions to make sure your one-liner passes the StoryBrand test: 1. Does it sound normal when you say it out loud? 2. Is there anything that can be changed to make the one-liner sound more conversational? 3. Is it easy for your staff and customers to memorize? 4. Are all the parts simple but give enough info that nobody would need to ask the question “What does that mean?”
While creating a sales funnel takes creativity and hard work, it should not be hard. In fact, it should be fun.