Let’s talk about why you might be leaving money on the table

But first, a disclaimer

Here at the Sublime Persuasion Porte, we make no pretense of being a billion-dollar marketing juggernaut. The only reason I’m even qualified to discuss this at all is because I have seen these silly mistakes being made repeatedly (either by myself in the past or by people I’ve worked with).

Below are 3 mistakes I’ve observed.

If you’re doing them, then as the Supreme’s Mowtown classic goes:

Stop! In the name of love!

Cut this crap out before you break your heart and your bank.

Honestly , just by NOT doing these 3 things, you can often resuscitate a dying sales strategy

1. Having a “if we build it , they’ll come” strategy 

I’m not going to pretend that marketing is the be-all and end-all of a business’s success.

You need to have a good product/service and give your customers a satisfying experience.

Marketing a garbage service is a recipe for long-term failure

So, marketing isn’t sufficient.

But it is necessary.

And just because you are good at your job doesn’t mean people will want to buy from you.

If you want to sell, you must first attract.

As the great David Ogilvy admonished: “Don’t bore people into buying your product. You can only interest them in buying it”.

People want the excitement of getting your service or product.

They want the dopamine rush of the flirtation, the chase…

At the risk of sounding like a pocket protector- wearing geek ,If you came over to my house, you’d see a whole lot of vintage comic books.

How did this happen, ?

I went into a old-school comic book store and bought be the Amazing Spider-Man Epic Collection: The Goblin’s Last Stand

Read it

Coughed up the dough in the same comic bookstore for X-Men Milestones: Fall of the Mutants

Read it

Then scampered to another comic book store in Bellevue to get Punisher Invades The ‘Nam

Read it

Then ferreted out another comic book store in Seattle asking for Chuck Dixon’s deliciously cruel work on the Savage Sword of Conan series.

The be-speckled, portly, pony-tailed owner looks at me and said, “ Yeah I used to sell those editions and I actually have a copy in the back. But now it’s become quite collectible.”

“Ok”, I roll out my shoulders as I warm up for a round of haggling, “so, your saying its gotten more expensive?”

“No”, Comic Book Guy flatly responds while not quite making eye contact with me , “ I’m saying it’s become…. collectible “

The shriveled, black raisin that is my heart drops

“Oh, balls.”

So then, I look online and see that there is an outright bidding war for these books

A bidding war that only pours gasoline on the flames of my excitement

But, to be honest, the delirium wanes after I “consume” the product

It’s the experience of acquiring it that gives us that dopamine hit

One of the subtle benefits of great marketing is rewarding people’s attention of your company with novelty and entertainment

Do this right, and they’ll keep buying from you to get repeated doses of that sweet, sweet dopamine drip.

2. Not understanding your market 

If you’re going to go through all the trouble of creating compelling marketing content, don’t just frantically disgorge it onto the face of anyone who passes by.

Be focused

Aim it at people who are not particularly price sensitive (cheap clients and broke clients are a nightmare to deal with)

Rather, you should focus on people whose purchasing decisions have to do with things other than price

Know who your ideal customer is

Understand their unmet need

Make sure your product and marketing is focused on fulfilling that unmet need

For example, like a lot of people, I go to the dentist.

But I’m also a big advocate of natural medicine and avoid putting toxic substances in my body like refined sugar, pesticides/herbicides, heavy metals, vacci- [ CENSORED BY THE MOST HOLY INQUISITION]

So, I don’t go to any ol’ dentist but a holistic/intergrative dentist specializing in providing the metal-free, BPA-free, and fluoride-free alternatives I’m looking for.

By the way, these guys are specialized enough that they take cash instead of insurance.

Their specialization gives them an opportunity to charge premium prices.

The upshot: Be like these hippie dentists.

3. Deemphasizing design 

Just to be clear , I’m a copywriter and not an artiste. However, working in the marketing space requires me to have some appreciation for how design and aesthetics contribute to a brand’s overall message.

After all, every advertisement you see on TV and print is a combination of words and some sort of visual design.

Anyway, you’d do well to keep in mind that the importance of design isn’t so much about how purty something is but rather about the kind of response you’re trying to get from the customer.

The response, by the way, isn’t just limited to positive emotions like pleasure .

It could be disgust , fear, curiosity, the list goes on.

It really depends on your business model and the target market it’s trying to serve.

For example my brand image is a reflection of my personality . You’ll notice that my website is quite modern and relatively user-friendly but you’ll also notice that I’ve sprinkled stuff in there that reflects my , ahem, unique personality.

My horrified website designer says it juvenile and weird.

That might be true but it’s unquestionably Wes.

Same goes with the design of my book.

After all, in the spirit of that 1980’s song by Cyndi Lauper, I just want to have some fun, dammit!

P.S. My book shows business owners and entrepreneurs the exact steps for using creativity to make lots of money. It costs around $30 everywhere else, but if you join my daily email list by clicking the link below, you can have a digital copy for free.

Get it here: https∶//powerpersuasion.net/ 

Once upon of time, I was the Tasmanian Devil tearing through the sleepy highways of Oregon.

This was before out-of-shape, purple-haired anarchists turned Portland into their private fiefdom.

So Oregon traffic cops didn’t have all that much to do back then, I guess.

Anyway, a lot of tickets piled up for me and things started to look grim.

I needed to get out of this. And me getting out of it certainly did not entail changing how I drove.

Does the Tasmanian devil cease to become a spastic, spitting tornado of incomprehensible speech ?

No.

What I needed wasn’t introspection or a lighter foot on the gas pedal.

I needed a hero.

I needed a smiling , suited, Superman who is a master of the legal arts and can get me out of this mess .

So I looked up traffic lawyers on Yelp and called one of them.

I expected to get a friendly, undefeated, Hercules

Instead, I got more of a dour douche.

He told me that he would absolutely not make any promises or predictions regarding winning any kind of case if I wanted to go to court.

“Your speeding ticket,” he growled, “is not worth me losing my license.”

He told me I just had to pay him and whatever happens, happens.

Anyway, I chose not to work with that guy and just went ahead and paid the fine

But it taught me about the need for certainty among buyers and how to navigate this ingrained human need for a Hercules to come to their rescue.

We hunger for information

We crave information for the sake of information

The human mind covets the tiniest bit of information about:

Enemy tribes

Terrain

Weather

Tools

Disease

Women…

Whatever it is that can impact a life, we’re genetically programmed to thirst for information

And that’s the problem, isn’t it?

That’s why customers never want to buy from you unless a bear is chasing them and you happen to sell bear-repellent spray

Or a booby-trapped “pic-a-nic basket”

Otherwise, they always want more information

They always want more data, more case studies, more testimonials,

I wouldn’t be surprised if some of them asked you to sacrifice a black goat on a moonless night to make sure the stars align.

But information is still necessary for us to react to change and navigate through life

It’s information addiction that’s the problem.

Lots of customers don’t know they have information addiction. They probably think they’re just doing due diligence

But they’ll never get the certainty they desire

The crucial piece is knowing how to step in at the right time and give certainty to decisively stop that information addiction once and for all

At least as it relates to your product or service

This is something I specialize in.

P.S.

My book shows business owners and entrepreneurs the exact steps for using creativity to make lots of money. It costs around $30 everywhere else, but if you join my daily email list by clicking the link below, you can have a digital copy for free.

Get it here: https∶//powerpersuasion.net/ 

Some things just make no sense.

With all the panic behind COVID, you’d think that the people trying to sell the vaccine would have a really easy job and that it would be impossible to mess up on selling such low hanging fruit.

Well, you thought wrong.

Exhibit A: This music video, titled “Pfizer Girl” (Barbie Girl Parody)

Now, I don’t know the intentions of the folks who made this video.

Are these businesspeople who are trying to create content that they hope will get them a lot of clicks and therefore an increase in revenue?

Or are they political activists trying to push a specific agenda?

I’m going to put on my Sherlock hat and Inspector Gadget pants and suspect that it might be a mix of both, with the truth sliding a little closer to option two.

The evidence: their entire YouTube play list!

If you glance at the YouTube videos produced by the, uhm, “Pfizer Girl,” you’ll see music videos titles like:

“Docta Docta Fauci-Lady Gaga Parody”

“Fauci Glow Up”

“I’m Loving CUOMO”

Boy did these age badly…

They even have a video titled “Ruth Bader Ginsburg-Destiny’s Child Parody.”

Now don’t get me wrong.

Pfizer Girl has every right to be an activist.

She has every right to shill for an experimental [REDACTED BY THE MOST HOLY INQUISITION OF SCIENCE] totally safe, awesome, and delicious vaccine.

You do you, boo!

But I also have every right-no, a duty, goshdarnit!-to illustrate why her advertising sucks so much:

As of this writing, the Pfizer Girl video has 497 likes on YouTube… and 2,800 thumbs down.

Here are some raving reviews from audience members:

“You have convinced me not to get vaccinated. Thank you.”

“The like to dislike ratio [of this video] is the only thing that gives me hope.”

“This is the sort of thing that a focus group of humorless government bureaucrats would develop and actually believe they created an effective new meme. You know, one that ‘appeals to the kidz.'”

As a practitioner of the marketing arts, I see past the cringe and into the deeper problem.

Clearly, Pfizer girl has a market she is trying to reach.

And despite the sheer “cringe factor” of the content she is producing, I’d actually go so far as to say that she has some talent.

Her problem is not being able to use creativity in a way that resonates with her target market.

Here is the issue with the Pfizer Girl’s approach: she’s clearly pro-vaccine and pro whatever the government is trying to do.

However, the creative choices she is making are not congruent with the message she’s trying to send.

What I mean is that, if her purpose is to make fun of or highlight skepticism of the government’s approach to COVID, then these music videos are perfect.

But she’s not doing that.

She is genuinely trying to get people who are on the fence regarding the COVID vaccine to be fully supportive.

It is the lack of congruency between her business (if we can call it that) and the creative choices that she’s making that are producing the cringe.

The upshot: Pfizer Girl’s lack of competence within the field of creative development is causing people to not just be ambivalent about her message-but downright scornful.

There is a better way to do creative development so that you are producing content products and services that people are actually willing to pay money for.

My book shows business owners and entrepreneurs the exact steps for using creativity to make lots of money.

It costs around $30 everywhere else, but if you join my daily email list by clicking the link below, you can have a digital copy for free.

Get it here: https://powerpersuasion.net/

In the previous post, we discussed the misadventures of the poor pickup artist, Sebastian.

 
We talked about how trying to copy the tactics of others without adding genuine value to your target audience often leads to a risk of “Not Gonna Make It” (NGMI is the scientific abbreviation).

We can see these same principles apply to someone in business

Let’s pick on a sales development rep. We’ll call him Sammy.

Sammy the Sales Rep is expected to make 50 cold calls a day for his SaaS company.

He is new to the role and really wants to hit his numbers, so he can get promoted to something higher paying and less mind-numbingly tedious, like an account executive.

 
His company gives Sammy a script and encourages him to study it, memorize it, maybe even eat it (like Francis Dolarhyde from the Hannibal series).

 
The script is pretty detailed. It gives Sammy minute instructions ranging from preparing for the call . . . to starting the call . . . to delivering the pitch.

He is told that “sales is a numbers game,” so he works his way down the list of leads, parroting the same script without doing any process improvement work to separate the qualified leads from the unqualified ones.

Sammy feels so insecure and eager for any edge that he tries to hide his southern accent, for fear of repelling his Kombucha-drinking urbanite prospects.

Sammy’s script gives him some questions to ask the prospect (e.g., “What are your main goals for next quarter?”). But, he is so hungry to close the deal, that he launches into the features and benefits of his product as soon as there is a pause in the conversation.

This is nothing more than an obnoxious attempt to steer the conversation the whole time—instead of listening to what the prospect has to say.

Now don’t get me wrong, for someone starting out, such a script might be necessary in the beginning.

But Sammy wants to climb the ladder of success. After getting dangerously close to being put on a Performance Improvement Plan (a warning to get better or get fired), he realizes that he is better off getting to know his market and cultivating within himself genuine expertise in his field.

There is no way around it. His job is a grind, but he likes his team and doesn’t want to let them down by giving up.

Sammy comes to understand that it’s not enough to blindly follow a script or cookie-cutter process. His market has changed dramatically in the last decade, and he wants to adapt and think for himself.

He decides to go beyond mere scripts and become an expert.

One of the fastest ways to be seen as an expert (or better yet, a leader) in your field is to grow your capacity for innovation.

Something I believe my free book  can help you with.

Here’s the link: https://powerpersuasion.net/

Good SaaS marketing is like seduction.

 
If you follow some basic principles and show how  your product is genuinely valuable, then you’ll have success.

 
If you blindly follow tactics and bring nothing to the table, however, you are liable to be all sorts of cringe. . . .

This post will look at the seduction side of the coin.

Let’s take your standard pickup artist (PUA) as an example. We’ll call him Sebastian.

Like any other business, Sebastian has a target market.

 
In this case, his market consists of women unlucky enough to make the mistake of giving Sebastian any attention.

Now Sebastian fancies himself a serious student of the seductive arts.

To prepare for his new “venture,” he:

• Read The Game by Neil Strauss to get a solid foundation,
• Spent countless hours in PUA forums harvesting techniques related to talking to the ladies… 
• And borrowed money from his increasingly concerned mom to attend a Mastermind on seduction.

His physical presentation consists of “peacocking” and includes accessories like hats, scarves, watches, and skinny trousers.

 
Heck, he might copy Neil (PUA codename: “Style”) and shave his head and grow a goatee.

From his “learning,” Sebastian creates a list of discrete tactics and scripts that he feels will work for him (because they worked for the popular seduction gurus).
Here’s an example:

 
Sebastian: “Have you ever met someone who you just feel so comfortable around? You know, you really connected with them?”

Her: “I totally know what you mean!”

 
Sebastian: “Yeah . . . I’ve never met a person like that.” (slimy smirk)

Can these tactics work occasionally? Sure.

But more often than not, they are cringe.

The reason: these tactics and scripts are all that somebody like Sebastian can bring to the table.

Instead of doing the hard work to cultivate valuable masculine virtues within himself so he can better attract high-quality women—virtues like strength, courage, self-respect, and competence—he spends his time, money, and energy trying to “up his game” with courses from Ross Jeffries’s Elite Speed Seduction® Super-Stars Academy.

By the way, in case you make the mistake of thinking Ross Jeffries is some sort of master seducer, here is what the  late great marketing legend, Gary Halbert, had to say about  Jeffries:

“He couldn’t get laid in a Tijuana whore house.”

I’d go one step further and say that such people  can’t even score a platonic side hug.

Remember, principles and sound strategy will always beat tactics. In order to really grow your business, you need to provide value for your target market. But first, your  prospects  need to find you interesting.  If they don’t, they’ll just go to your competitors. How can you learn these principles?

 
Subscribe to my daily email list here: https://powerpersuasion.net/. 

This will get you a free digital version of my book, Business Baroque, where you will find the exact steps for using creativity to make lots of money.)

Test out the book’s methods and concepts in the context of your business and market.

There are no guarantees about anything. You’ll just have to put a little bit of skin in the game and experiment.

Currently, I’m reading a book titled Can’t Sell, Won’t Sell by Steve Harrison

It pulls back the curtain on a lot of shenanigans in the advertising world.

I’m only 60 pages in, but the premise of the book is clear.

Harrison, an ad agency owner himself, doesn’t pull any punches as he explains that the modern advertising industry (both in the U.S. and U.K.) is dominated by narrow-minded, woke, “champaign socialists” who are out of touch with the markets they are supposed to serve.

Ouch.

It gets worse. These advertisers are using their platforms (and clients’ cash) to amplify their social and political ideas. These agencies are not actually doing anything to make money for their clients.
Instead, they are trying to push a very particular idea of social justice onto every campaign that’s supposed to sell something.

But . . . much of this work has minimal impact on the products’ target markets.

For example: in 2018, the female hygiene brand, Libresse, released a music video titled “Viva la Vulva.” 

Viewer discretion isn’t just advised; I’d say it’s downright required.

The ad’s purpose was to be “a joyous and bold ode to the female anatomy that seeks to fight against the myths, insecurities, and stereotypes that women are subjected to when it comes to their genitals.”
I’ll let Harrison quote Tom Callaghan (retired creative director at Saatchi & Saatchi), who examines the supposedly bold and groundbreaking nature of this ad:

“Libresse needs growth—however much current users like the product, they’re not going to buy more than they need. So growth and sales must surely come from emerging markets. This spot doesn’t do anything to convince Third World women that the product will benefit them during their “dirty time.” But hey, it won a gold, so everybody’s happy. Except perhaps the woman rinsing last month’s bloody rag in the river, so she can use it next time” (pg. 48).

So, if you want to sell pads to women, do it in a way that will get you sales.

 
Don’t waste your marketing budget on creating a piece that will only impress myopic urbanites at a film festival.

Trust me on this: the mother of five who is  farming rice in Nigeria couldn’t care less about your views on sexuality and body positivity.

What she does care about is solving her problems.

It is your job to communicate to her how your product or service can solve her problems.

If you can’t (or won’t) do that, your sales will suffer.

Here’s why I’m bringing this up:

SaaS leaders are starting to realize the harmful impact of woke activism on their brands.

The leadership of Basecamp, for example, has recently learned that you can’t really run a SaaS company  if social justice activism is eclipsing everything else.

If your employees get the itch to advocate for a woke (or alt-right) issue, let them do it on their own time.

Besides, you’re dealing with the rise of a globally distributed remote workforce.

Employees around the globe are going to have very different views on social and political issues.

So just leave that stuff outside the office (physical or virtual) and focus on the basics of good advertising.

When it comes to good advertising, nothing beats knowing your target market. . . .

Giving them what they want . . . and in the way they want it.

At its core, the best advertising is solid writing connected to a creative idea.

Speaking of which . . .

My book shows business owners and entrepreneurs the exact steps for using their creativity to make lots of money. It costs around $30 everywhere else, but if you join my daily email list by clicking the link below, you can have a digital copy for free.

Get it here: https://powerpersuasion.net/