Nobody Cares About You
The most powerful marketing and sales lesson I could ever teach you is this – nobody cares about you. Now I’m not trying to be a dick, there is a valuable lesson here so stick with me.
The biggest mistake that people make in their marketing is talking only about themselves and how awesome their business is. Whether we like to admit it or not we are selfish creatures and we only care about ourselves. That means you need to tell people what you can do for them instead of talking about yourself.
Nobody buys things because of what they are at face value. They buy things because of the result they will get. Many companies tried to take MP3 players to market in the late 90s before Apple created the iPod. The reason those companies failed is because they sold it as a 2 GB MP3 Player which meant nothing to anyone. The same thing applies to how you describe what you offer.
Apple took a different approach and sold the iPod as “1000 songs in your pocket”. Overnight the iPod took off because people understood what it did for them. You have to do this with your products and services as well!
Have you ever gone to the store and thought “I’ll buy this floor cleaner because I really like floor cleaners!”? I really hope not because if you do you have bigger issues than your marketing 😉
People buy cleaning products so that they can have a clean house and you can go even deeper into why someone wants a clean house. There was an ad in the UK for a toilet cleaner that insisted your guests are judging you based on how clean your toilet is. I thought it was weird because I would hope my friends aren’t that shallow, but I couldn’t deny that it was brilliant because it spoke people who want to impress their house guests.
Your product or service is just the vehicle to get your client to their destination. So, what is their destination?
It’s intervention time. Does your website (or your social media posts) read like this? “I studied for years, and I won this award and I shoot weddings in this particular style so book me now because I’m soooo awesome”? If your website contains lots of personal pronouns like us, me, we, I and our then your business has a nasty case of “Me, Me” Syndrome but there is hope, it’s not terminal (unless you do nothing about it).
Your content needs to pass the “What does that mean to me?” test. When you write, put yourself in your customer’s position and question every sentence with “What does that mean to me?”. What matters to you may not matter to them because they want to know what is in this for them. Make use of “you” and tell your audience what they will get from working with you. Speak to them, not at them.
This simple mindset shift and better understanding of human behavior is going to help you SO much in business. Make it about them, not you.
This is a POWERFUL concept so if you have any questions about it at all just leave a comment below. I want to make sure you have a firm grasp on this because it can change everything.
