Too many of us do marketing thinking solely about ourselves.
My wife Lindsey calls it “Selfish Marketing.”
And I’m not just talking about the profit-first-only-and-ever crowd of Internet marketers.
I’m talking about the rest of us who try to do good marketing but flop.
It’s an honest misstep all of us make. And one I’ve made (and make) more often than I can count.
The reason for our flops?
We start from where WE are, not where our prospects or customers are.
We go … “I need to pump sales this week” or “I need new clients.”
And then we log in to our email marketing software, or WordPress and we start working on the next campaign or blog post …. and naturally we start from our own position and thoughts.
Because we’ve started with US.
And that’s where jargon, insider exclusive talk, and mediocre “all about me” marketing gets inserted.
And how only the crickets end up showing up for your next product, or offer, or post, or [insert cool thing you’ve done but nobody showed up for].
Here’s one of my favorite examples of this … it’s an email from Zoom:
Now, I really like Zoom. I use it numerous times a day for all my meetings and my webinars. And it’s not just Zoom … it’s thousands of other companies, well-funded ones, too, that do this.
And my bet is … their open rate are abysmal.
Because no one cares about Zoom, they only care about what Zoom does FOR THEM.
Let’s Flip Our Perspective
Years ago, one of my business mentors shared a great question to ask ourselves (but in the context of team leadership that I’ve broadened out to almost everything, and now marketing).
Ask: What’s in it for them?
- Why should your recipients open that email?
- Why should they signup for your webinar?
- How does it help them make their life better?
- What transformation or relief does it offer them?
- How does it help them accomplish their hopes, dreams, goals and aspirations?
Or more direct:
Why should they care?
What compelling reasons do they have to do what you want them to do?
Asking first, What’s In It For Them?, is THE centering question of marketing (and yes leadership too).
I ask it when the moment hits that I want to get something our audiences, or even better, BEFORE we even start to create something for them.
It resets and centers us on EMPATHY — on THEIR perspectives and needs and wants.
But in the last year or so, I’ve added a key phrase to the end:
What’s in it for them RIGHT NOW?
To me, those two words add extra UMPH and focus us on the URGENT problems, issues, struggles our tribe has.
And it helps us PRIORITIZE what we’re doing FOR our community.
- Why does this matter to them RIGHT NOW?
- What does this mean for them RIGHT NOW?
- How does this email, blog post, infographic, webinar help my people RIGHT NOW?
- Why should they open this email RIGHT NOW?
- Why should they heed this email RIGHT NOW?
If you start asking these types of question FIRST, and create your marketing with the answers to those questions in mind, your marketing efforts will be much more aligned and effective to YOUR goals … because they are not about YOU.
Do this and you’ll start dwelling and simmering in your people’s PROBLEMS and ASPIRATIONS.
You’ll start asking questions like this:
- What are their struggles?
- What are their pain points?
- What are they trying to accomplish?
- Who do they want to become?
And content ideas will start overflowing when you tap into THEIR mindset and view.
If you do it well, they will say to you:
“You are reading my mind.”
“This is exactly what I needed to read right now.”
“Thank you for this! It helped me get unstuck.”
And that’s where the real fun is … because it’s validation that you are Making People’s Lives Awesome …. WHILE making money, hitting your goals too!
All by starting with:
What’s in it for them RIGHT NOW?
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This is Day 3 of My 30 Days of Clicking Publish
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