Ride the Elephant If You Can't Get Rid of It!
Why is Social Media and building a connection (know, like and trust) more important than ever? Here’s a question from a frustrated marketer who knows that his product – video emails and video “web postcards” will increase sales and conversions at a very affordable price, using an easy system – but he has an elephant problem.
Q – “The most difficult challenge we face in our Internet marketing business is how to market and promote what we are trying to sell others. Wouldn’t life be simpler and our experience more successful if this challenge was eliminated?
Does anyone have any ideas on this? How do we best overcome this challenge?
What about testimonials from others? Do you think that would help?
How would you use a “case study” to market a product? A case study, to me, simply means much more detailed proof…
But really, I’m actually looking for a simple, hard hitting or more direct approach to marketing. 
“
A – Here are some thoughts about what needs to be visible and shareable when people “find” his solution, and why being “hard hitting” won’t get you there.
When you’re “selling” anything – imagine a pyramid of your “niche” market – 3% are buying now, additional 7% thinking about it, 30% not thinking about it, 30% not interested now, 30% definitely not interested ever.
Are the top 3% talking about it with someone else or searching for info? Are the 7% talking, searching, waiting for a trigger that now is the time? When they find you, does your message address their problem? This segment should be your focus, finding them, learning about what and who their circle of influence contains and making it easy for them to find you is a good investment of your time. They don’t need a hard hitting approach – they are looking.
Hitting the lower 90% with a hard hitting direct approach is a waste of time and may alienate them forever. Getting people talking and looking at case studies where your product or service solves a problem that is accompanied by more info and additional problems that need solving that they aren’t thinking about is a good solid, value adding resource.
To win people over, facts and benefits are important to have readily available and easy for researching people to find. Then beyond that, your material needs to have a personalization that people will identify that they know, like and can trust your solution because they are comfortable with you or they see that people like them think that it’s a good solution, price, value.
Yes, it would be lovely if you could instantly get their attention and show them that your solution is the answer and will increase sales and conversion rates!
But hard hitting is last century and really that was the only time it really worked long term.
I talked to a friend about this yesterday at lunch… she says she looks at web pages, tv commercials and any ads for about 2 seconds – trying to create an impact in that amount of time forces you to use such extreme images and/or language that you are going to alienate people who are actually looking for a solution and doing research.
Mass media is still tossing money at doing this and it doesn’t work. Being trusted, helpful, knowledgeable and very smart about reaching that 10% that are actively interested is the best use of energy and time.
The days of hard hitting are over, looking at why people make purchase decisions proves it, but no one at some big companies is willing to admit it…and media companies will still take their money very happily while the majority of people flip the channel or TiVo it all out.
This is hard enough to master and succeed with even when you have a product people need AND want that is in demand. But when there is something that comes along with your product or service that people dislike, are frightened of or don’t want to tell anyone about, this is the classic “elephant in the room” scenario and you can’t ignore it or get rid of it.
This is the big “elephant in the room” with his product. There are facts that this marketer through his company knows, that using his product/service can dramatically increase results in several areas, like SEO and sales conversions because it uses videos. That seems black and white – use it, get better results.
But the elephant is visible if you look at it this way… (the way his potential customers do) – Using public speaking as a more proven example of resistance: Do people who are good at public speaking make more $ and have better conversions and success? Yes. Do people fear public speaking more than death? Yes.
So there is a small % of people who decide the money is more important or they are naturally already wanting to be center of attention – if you’re selling public speaking classes, that’s your immediate, reachable niche. You still have to show them that your product will help them and build value, but the remaining 90% when there is a strong fear, are unreachable if you use standard marketing. If you can engage them and entice them, you may be able to “soften” up the 30% that aren’t thinking they need it right now.
You’ll Need To Ride the Elephant and Get Them Thinking They Can and Want To Ride It Too!
My best advice if you are selling video emails and video digital postcards would start here. One of the best examples I’ve seen for this is how Andy Jenkins sold his big Video Boss product with a super fun “Boss-A-Thon”. He had a couple days of “live” streaming video with clips, samples and lots of guests. Here is how he dealt with the fear that people have about looking stupid/ugly/fat/unprofessional on camera. (Go ahead and watch any holiday or wedding video and you can figure out your % of people who are interested in being filmed that are SOBER, and aren’t the bride and groom for example, who have no choice but to be on film and look like they are enjoying it immensely!)
Andy showed people how using his system could help them learn to make very, very professional high quality videos and how it was a step by step thing that they could go back to again and again. And then he showed how to start by using powerpoint or pictures and NEVER being on camera, he built confidence that just using these videos would still increase conversions and rankings, even though you get the highest results when you are on camera and make the connection.
And most of the rest of the time – and there were like 18 hrs of time – he went over those things now and then but had people in interviews talk about how much having videos helped them AND how stupid/ugly/fat/unprofessional their first videos were, how they just laugh at them now, how step by step they got skills and confidence and how his material builds value, creates community and gets rid of fear because you can start where you are comfortable and still get better results even not being on camera.
Hard hitting will not coax that small % to do what you want, but if they see value and you eliminate as much fear as you can it’s more likely you’ll succeed. Finding them and establishing know. like and trust is the quest.
How Will You Ride That Elephant?
The best way to design that is to use our NUTS & BOLTS model. This captures the very best features and benefits you have that people will want to share, and it creates a step by step plan for how your are going to use Social Media to reach your target market (that 10% – 40% of all the people who have use for your product) and get them to feel that they know, like and trust you.
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Great article! I think what the “frustrated marketer” was fishing for and trying to eventually get to was that there programs out there where the marketing is done for you. Consequently, this eleviates his dilemma
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Ha, ha, I’ve heard video marketing and social media marketing referred to in many ways, but never this: “You’ll Need To Ride the Elephant and Get Them Thinking They Can and Want To Ride It Too!” – Great analogy illustrating the ‘sales funnel’ and how very different ’21st century marketing’ is to 20th century. trust me, I got badly caught in the rip currents of the changeover !
Mandy Swift recently created..Video Marketing Secrets – Great Lighting Tips On A Budget
Mandy, I think no matter what industry you are in, because of Social Media and transparency when you have an “elephant” you can’t pretend it’s not there and you can’t just throw money into an ad budget to silence or distract. Not many have survived the rip currents you mentioned… but I think that connectors, people who are positive and consistent and looking for ways to make a difference shine bright!
Kathy,
Absolutely! All business, at least REPEAT business, is a result of building trust. The old adage, you’ll do business with who you know, like and trust. Once that is established you can bet the referrals will follow!
Good Stuff! Keep it coming!
Tom Burt
Tom Burt recently created..Aloe Vera
I talk to biz owners about converting their site to WordPress and/or even adding a blog to it. Believe me, it takes some time to do the job, but really… with 15% of the whole Internet powered by the CMS… it is becoming a lot easier to sell, especially with so many niche that it encompasses.
WordPress spread because of word of mouth. It was not easy and even WordPress had to deal with established communities like Joomla and Drupal, and even fans strictly for open source software. Telling people that they need to use WordPress is not enough. It is explaining what it can do for them that works… much like what you are trying to explain.
As you can see I am not a marketer, but I am a biz owner that makes money using WordPress, but even I have to have a marketing plan to convince people who have never heard of it.
Thank you for sharing this!
Nile recently created..5 Steps To Building A Business Plan For Your Blog