Jumping right into marketing without having your foundations right is a recipe for disaster.
And that dish doesn’t really taste good.
The product-market fit is really important, no doubt.
But to make sure, that your marketing is fail-proof and it hits right on spot, you need to make sure that certain elements are in order.
Certain elements?
Let’s see what those are and how they influence your marketing.
Contents
The 3 Important Pillars
Those 3 pillars or elements are:
- Your offer
- Your audience
- Your Numbers
What happens when these 3 things are in order?
But when they are not in order?
Exactly.
There’s no spot to hit with your marketing.
It’s going to be a disaster.
And that’s precisely why you need them in order.
We don’t even touch a business and take them as a client if they don’t have these sorted.
We’d either help you get them in order or decline to work with you… whatever you choose.
So, let’s see how you can fix each of them one by one… and make sure your marketing efforts don’t fail.
Your Offer
If your offer is shitty, no marketing can save it.
But many people have a misconception.
They think that their product/service is their offer.
It’s not.
Your offer is:
- How you present your product/service.
- Something that makes it really difficult for your ideal customers to not purchase your product/service.
An irresistible offer + Great marketing = $$$$$$$
But how do you craft an irresistible offer?
Here’s how.
The differentiators
This is what separates your brand and product/service.
It has two aspects to it.
- USP/ Unique selling proposition: How the product/service solves a specific problem or fills a specific need better than anything else. Why you?
- ESP/Emotional selling proposition: What makes your audience connect to your brand? What emotions does your product/service evoke?
You need to focus on both of them while crafting your offer.
Proof of value
This is where you provide proof for what you say your product/service does is actually true.
Including testimonials, case studies, or other forms of social proof can help establish the value of your product or service.
Sometimes all it takes is one or two raving fans, to make a HUGE impact.
Premium/Bonuses
You see… people just love free stuff.
We cannot deny that.
Can you add something to make your offer more lucrative? A small bonus? Free shipping? Buy 1 get 1?
Just add a premium or bonus.
Pricing & Terms
It is one of the key components of your offer.
Too high. People won’t buy.
Too low. They’ll think it’s not valuable.
Plus, can you offer installments? Different payment options?
What about returns & refunds?
You need to mention all that important information.
Don’t hide anything!
Reason to respond now
Humans are big procrastinators.
If you don’t give them a reason to act now, they’ll just look for every reason not to do it.
But, here are two things you can do.
- Scarcity: Creating a sense of scarcity by limiting the number of available products or services can also increase demand.
- Urgency: Creating a sense of urgency by making the offer available for a limited time can increase the chances of a customer taking action.
Risk reversal
There’s always a risk associated when people are giving you money.
Is there a way you can eliminate or at least reduce the risk?
Offering a money-back guarantee, free trial, or other forms of risk reversal can help reduce the customer’s perceived risk of buying.
Keep in mind
You don’t need to have them all in your offer.
Have most that fit right with your product/service and try to make your offer as lucrative as possible.
Now, the second pillar?
Your Audience
You can’t sell even the greatest offer to the wrong audience.
So, it’s very important to understand your target audience if you don’t want your marketing to fail.
What do most people do?
They just create an imaginary “ideal customer avatar” based on their assumption of their ideal target customers.
Which often ends up in disaster.
Want to avoid that?
Define your target audience
This involves identifying the demographics, and psychographics like interests, and behaviors of your ideal customers.
By understanding your target audience, you can easily find them, attract them, convert them, and keep them.
Here are some ways to go deep into your audience research.
Talking directly to customers
If you can just find 5 true customers and talk to them about your product/service, it’d give you a shitload of insight.
This hardly ever goes wrong.
Most people get so lost in quantitative analysis that they completely forget qualitative analysis.
FB groups + subreddits + Quora
There’s literally a Facebook group or subreddit for almost everything.
Plus, on Quora, you can see what kind of questions people are asking related to your topic.
Great places to gather insights and target people as well.
(Answer the public is another great resource)
Niche forums
Just Google “[Your Niche] forums” and you’d know what I mean.
You’ll be surprised to see what kind of niche forums actually exist and the conversations that happen there.
Review mining
Go to the reviews of your competitor’s products/services.
Not only see what people are appreciating about them but also check out the bad/average reviews.
Look for unsatisfied customers and what they talk about.
This can be a goldmine of information to use in your marketing.
Sparktoro
SparkToro is basically an audience research tool.
It shows the websites your customers visit, social accounts they follow, hashtags they use, and more.
This will allow you to focus on those influences and do some social listening to gather further insights.
The more you know about your audience, the better.
But, try to focus more on their psychographics and behavior than demographics.
Once you are crystal clear on your target audience, the last important pillar is.
Your Numbers
Most people go wrong with this.
Do you even know what are you planning to be marketing FOR?
Because… If you don’t know your numbers, you can’t grow your numbers.
For example:
- Some businesses have to focus on one-time customers because they can’t sell their products to them again and again.
- Other businesses need to focus on repeat customers and increasing the LTV (Lifetime value) of a customer.
Knowing what numbers to focus on and track would not only smoothen your processes but also set the trajectory for your marketing.
Conclusion & Final thoughts
So, in conclusion, if you want to fail-proof your marketing, you need to make sure that your…
- Offer
- Audience
- Numbers
… are in order.
Or, your marketing will fail miserably.
Which I am sure you don’t want.
Do you?
Your next step?
Know what a full-funnel marketing strategy is and what it can do for your business.
And If you need some help implementing a full-funnel marketing strategy for your brand, book a free strategy call, and let’s have a chat.
0 Comments