Having made it clear that waiting for people to come to you and buy from you your exceptional products or services is simply not a strategy. That is just not going to happen. For sure, you need to have a great value ladder, and you need to understand how to build and use great sales funnels based on tried and tested fundamental rules of selling; you can learn all you need to about all of these subjects on this platform and they will certainly contribute to the success you will experience. There is, however, no getting away from the fact that before you can experience that success, you are going to need to be able to generate traffic. In this course, I will show you how.
I want you to focus on the two most important questions for this part of the program, and they are:
Question One:
Who is your dream customer?
Question two:
Where do your dream customers get together, and where do they network?
There is no doubt in my mind, and this is not a view that only I share; many experts in the field say the same thing; if you have a very clear vision of your ideal customer, it becomes a much simpler exercise to find out where they are congregating so that you can reach out to them with some great content based on the hook, story, offer model. Of course, the opposite is also just as true and if you do it have this clarity of who your ideal customer is, then it becomes a real challenge to find out where they are!
Who is your dream customer?
I need to share a story that I hope will get you thinking and give you one of those a-ha moments. Everything changes from the moment you get it; I hope this story helps you get it. A good friend from New Zealand took me on a series of calls when he broke into the world of major retail brands. On this particular occasion, we met with a modern publishing business making waves in the digital markets. Our meeting was with the board of directors. Steve started to talk to the board about some of the digital tools we were marketing, and the conversation became interesting, with the marketing director saying, ‘I don’t think Justin would like this.’
That comment hit home, but Steve didn’t react; instead, he adjusted his pitch and said something like that is fine; we can also offer this all-new… after he had explained this innovation, the members of the board looked at each other and volunteered that this may not fit in with Justin either. In total, this was mentioned four or five times in the meeting. Steve did well to maintain his composure. At the end of the pitch, after exhausting the tools he felt were a perfect fit for this business, he could not contain his frustration and asked if he could meet with Justin to understand better what the business was looking for, adding that he really should have had Justin at the meeting as his opinion was so important to the decisions that needed to be made.
That comment created a reaction that Steve and I were just not expecting. The members of the board exchanged glances and broke into laughter. Once they explained, it wasn’t long before we were laughing with them, and despite business being transacted, we both walked away, having learnt a very important lesson. I should explain. After the initial laughter from the members of the board, the Marketing lead said something like; don’t be offended by this, I am sure you will also see the funny side of this once you understand that Justin is the name we have given to our client avatar, our ideal customer. We take this part of our business so seriously that we give them names. More than that, take a look at this. With that, he stood and revealed from behind a screen a selection of wall art that was a visual representation of Justin and his counterpart Sophie. It even included pictures of Justin and Sophie that were taken from a google search using some appropriate keywords to match the pen picture of their ideal client.
Every decision their business made was done post asking and responding to these key questions, what would Justin want? What would Sophie think? If what they were talking about planning or selling would be loved by Justin and Sophie, then they went ahead, and that was the main criteria that concerned them.
In other words, they were not running a product or service-centric business but one that was customer-centric. I want you to be thinking in the same way. I want you to make the necessary adjustments or changes to make your business driven by your customer avatar. You see, the reality is that most of us make the mistake of running our businesses as if it is about us, but it is not. Your business is about your customer.
If you are following our lead, that means you are wanting to drive traffic, the right traffic to your various sales funnels. That being the case, you will have to find them and then make a concerted effort to understand them as intimately as that company in the story knew Justin and Sophie. Steve learnt, and now he heads up an. International billion-dollar advertising business. I learnt and took my struggling new business from zero to over £1.3m in new sales on average per month. Today I am on that path again with my new project, and proud you are part of it. To gain the results you dream about and to bring your vision to life, you are going to have to understand your ideal customer on a much deeper level.
Healthy Obsession is the key.
If you take some time to have a really good look around and consider recent history, you will recognise some truths; one of these truths is that businesses that are obsessed with their product or service are far more likely to fail than the ones that obsess about their customer, these are the businesses that build machines of immense value. It is less about the money you have at your disposal; although that can help, it is all about being truly customer-centric.
The word obsession can have negative connotations, and so I want to explain what I mean when I talk about being obsessed. I do talk about obsession frequently because it is that important. I want you to Obsess about your brand, marketing, about your vision, your principles and the building of your machine. But I also want you to base all of that on your obsession with your ideal customer; that is the cornet stone I want you to focus on.
In reality, this is the part that most will struggle with, and for good reason, because to get this right, you need to know your customer as well as you know yourself; some experts would even say you need to know them better than you know yourself and that is why it is so rare to find, few are willing to invest in this cornerstone for success. Most of us start our businesses based on a skill we have; this will be a skill we do not always possess; it will be one we learnt. If you are in that position, can you remember what it was like before you knew what you know now? Can you remember how it felt and what you wanted? If you can, that gives you a great start to understanding your ideal client. Once upon a time, you were your ideal client. This is the level you need to get to a level when you can not only understand the pain being felt, but you can feel it too. This is another great reason for becoming a student of EQ and its development. Particularly its development in you.
I want you to consider this paragraph very carefully; if this is your business we are talking about, then by default, you are in the world of marketing and sales, no matter what you think. In this case, as a marketer, you should not be trying to invent or create the next big thing or the next great funnels or ad campaign; instead, you should be learning how to join the conversations that are going on right now inside your customer’s minds. You not only need to join that conversation, but you need to see the world as they see it. You cannot afford to have any disconnect between you and them.
When you understand their thoughts, you will understand the pain they are navigating away from and their core desires and passions that they are moving toward. This level of understanding will also help you to discover where you can find them online and where they are congregating. This has to be detailed; for example, you can’t just say they are on LinkedIn or FaceBook; you have to identify where they can be found on those platforms. As soon as you know where they are, you can start to hook them with your well-placed stories and offers, directing them into your funnels. When they get to your funnels, you can then fulfil your purpose to serve them.
Core Desires
Just for a moment, I want you to consider that everyone will fit into one or more of the following key desires. Hopefully, you can see that this is true for you. If it is true for you, it is fair to conclude it is for others too. There are three core desires. They are in no particular order, and when people buy things, products and services, it will generally be to satisfy one of these core desires. The results they seek will fit into one or more of these in most cases. With this in mind, you need to be asking the following question:
- Which one of these does my dream customer try to satisfy when they buy my product or service?
This is one of the first steps of getting into the mind of your ideal customer. Many of you may find it easy to answer this question, and that is great, but just as many will struggle, and that will likely be for one of the following reasons:
Reason One – What I am selling fits into more than one area. That is fine and is often the case, don’t worry about that. Just remember your marketing messages need to focus on just one. as soon as you mix it up, you lose well over half of your interest, so the key here is not to mix your messages up, and if you need to appeal to two areas, have two messages. If you are advertising, have two separate ads running directed and one of the three only. Not only do you need two different ads, but you also need to direct them to two different funnels, not the same one. One desire, one message!
Reason two – My product doesn’t fit any of these desires. I would certainly challenge this thought process and offer that this is a false belief. Most products can fit into multiple categories, but your marketing message must focus on one of the three I have highlighted. Think about the range of different advertising campaigns you see relating to Gillette. Each of their campaigns has a different approach with a specific message directed at one of the big three. While they are very clear on the product, they run campaigns focusing on health and relationships and, albeit less frequently, wealth.
Now would be a good time to consider which of the three core markets or desires your product or service currently fits into.
Away from pain or toward pleasure
Once you understand the core motivations of your ideal customer and where you stand concerning your product and service, the next step toward being part of the conversation that is going on inside their head is to understand if they are moving away from a pain they are feeling or toward a pleasure they desire? I do not think it is unreasonable to say that every human on this planet is doing one or the other at any given point. That is certainly true in my case.
Moving away from pain – Many people on the same journey I am now on, once again, the journey of building a new business, will be feeling the pain, but later this will change to the pleasure motivation. I thought it might be worth looking at a few examples:
Health (moving away from pain)
I am overweight and don’t feel good about myself…
I lack energy and feel tired a lot of the time…
I don’t feel good about how I look and feel…
Wealth (moving away from the pain)
I have no money and am worried about the future…
I don’t have anything set aside for a rainy day…
All the people I know make more money than me…
Relationship (moving away from the pain)
I am in a bad relationship and can’t get out…
I feel alone and want to be with that someone special…
I feel self-conscious when around people I don’t know…
These are all conversations that people are having this their heads right now. Of course, these are only;y basic examples, but you will get the idea. I want to share with you what I did with my one business and what I continue to do today in the hope that it will spark your imagination so that you, too, can start to use this process to attract your ideal customers into conversations, ultimately into your funnels.
To help you understand the thoughts of your ideal customers in this regard, you should consider a series of phrases that might accurately relate to the thoughts they would typically have. in addition; you can also undertake further research and look online at forums, message boards and social media-based groups where these people are congregating and review the conversations and concerns that are being discussed, relating o the pain identified. The key to this is to put yourself into their shoes and give serious consideration to what they might be feeling and thinking.
Moving toward pleasure – In this case, the desire is not based on the levels of dissatisfaction they are feeling but because they are looking for more, health, wealth or more from relationships. Here are a few examples that I hope will get you thinking in the right way:
Health (moving toward pleasure)
I want to get more muscle tone.
I want to run a marathon.
I want o get fitter and have more energy.
Wealth (moving toward pleasure)
I want to buy my dream [insert].
I want to grow my business and be less involved in the day-to-day stuff.
I want to improve my skills so I can build my business.
Relationships (move toward pleasure)
I want more [insert] in my relationship(s).
I want to spend more time with my [insert relationship].
I want to meet new people for business.
I hope you are beginning to see how different these phrases can be but that they can all relate to everyone wanting to accomplish similar goals but with different motivations. To be effective, you must appeal to individual motivation with a focused message.
Technology has changed, but instincts stay the same.
For us to get involved in the conversations going on in the minds of our ideal customers, there are a few things that I would like you to recognise. One of these important factors is to understand that we are instinctive beings and always have been, we are always looking for solutions, and that desire to search for the solution is ever present in us. We all have desires, and we all have needs; how we get to find out about the solutions will come down to our preferred methods. You cannot afford the luxury of hanging all your hopes on one of these methods. You need to make sure you are active in both. To do that, you also need to understand that people will buy what they want over what they need simply because, in their minds, what they want is what they need! So we need to find a way of selling what they need to be wrapped up in what they want.
In most cases, this will be achieved by acknowledging the desire and educating them that your solution will get them closer to that end game. What they want, the desire, is more achievable or attained more quickly if they use your solution. This changes everything because they need what you have, which also becomes a desire. This process becomes that much easier with the use of technology, and today we can appeal to those who want to scroll to find solutions or wait to be told by being interrupted (advertising). You would be amazed at how many times a day we get interrupted by advertising, and we don’t even realise it! If you are not part of this, you could be missing out. This is where social media, a strategy of demonstrability and the use of Hook, Story, and Offer comes into its own.
Research or Interrupt?
Eventually, you will need to be and want to be doing both. Still, before we get to that point, there are some other things that you will need to get right first, such as your offering, value ladders, your funnels, and of course, the correct identification of your ideal customers. Search-based traffic is great because it is the equivalent of someone walking into your store. The obvious downside is that when people are searching, they have the ability to compete against other solutions, and these are not always your direct competition. This is where you will often find price competition, but we warned price competition is to be avoided. Being the cheapest and driving your income opportunity down is never a good strategy. Some may find me saying this to appear strange given our pricing, but I will just point out we are not involved in a price war; we are involved in a revolution. We are not competing. We are the vanguard of a new movement in how advice and support are offered to the world’s micro and small business owners.
When it comes to interruption (advertising), while there are many advantages, this does require, in some cases, a hefty budget and often, in the early stages of your development, this is just not possible. Of course, one of the big advantages is your ability to target the right people in your marketplace. Social media makes this a more attractive option as you can target warm traffic through groups and shared interests. One of the downsides is if you are not good at Hook, Story and Offer, you will struggle to compete with those who are. This is where it is important to refine your skills or find a writer who can replicate your authentic voice.
Once you have identified who your ideal customer is and understand the pain or pleasure they are thinking about, you next need to find them. That is what we will deal with next, but first, you need to do some homework…