One Way To Get People Way More Excited About Your Product

Do you have a product or service that's valuable but people just aren't convinced?You're probably posting on social media or running ads. Maybe you're even calling people on the phone and having zero or little luck getting people interested.You feel like if you just keep trying it will eventually work because everyone is saying things like:"Consistency is everything."or"With persistence you will conquer."You're living these quotes and your effort still isn't working. At times consistency feels like banging your head against the wall and it can be just as unproductive. If you're truly trying as hard as you can and things aren't moving forward...... it's time to reassess.How To Self-Check With Success1. Are you being enthusiastic or has your frustration with how things are going interfered with your presentation like a dark cloud?If you aren't excited about what you offer, how can you expect anyone else to be?2. Do you experiment in how you post and pay attention to what people engage with the most?It's too easy to fall into habits - to feel like it's enough to just post something. Experiment with blog posts, photos and videos to add variety and depth to your company image.3. Are you being too formal?People are magnetised to friendly and unpretentious wording. A lot of times - I have been guilty of this - trying too hard and overthinking how you communicate can make you come off as distant.If you want to repel people, be sure to write properly and academically.4. Are you using proven sales formulas and methods?No matter the medium or the century, there are principles in sales that work, have been written down and are there for you to use. If you're trying to wing it, you might get there eventually but if you do your homework on sales, you'll get there a lot faster.Getting a company off the ground or out of a rut can be exhausting and frustrating and that's why it's important to be flexible.Repeating mantras or manifesting happy outcomes may make you feel better, but action and analysis are what you need to do to make tangible progress.Everything is always changing and you should be too.Get smarter - read books and blogs about sales and marketing - there's no need to reinvent the wheel. Be enthusiastic, inviting and authoritative in your posts - unafraid to experiment with photos, videos or blog posts.Above all rekindle that excitement for why you wanted to do this in the first place and don't be afraid to shift your approach when things aren't working.

Are These Observers Customers In Disguise?

Paying customers are a company's lifeblood. Discounts, limited-time offers and referral programs are some examples of how business owners spark interest to get new customers.When business owners place ads, most expect direct return on their spend (ie. new customers brought in by the ad) but they are neglecting to see one key fact - something that could lead to more sales and credibility:People always buy on emotion and justify it with reasoning.This "reasoning" is a process. Depending on the product and situation, the reasoning could take from 30 seconds to several months.Imagine you're walking through a bustling city and your stomach begins to rumble. It's 2pm and you missed lunch. Suddenly the smell of authentic Italian pizza fills the air.You glance to your left and see a pizza restaurant. The chefs are visible through the storefront window and you watch them throw dough into the air and slide pizzas in and out of the hot oven.The pizza smells irresistible and the price is reasonable so you head into the restaurant for a late lunch.Your decision-making process to award the pizza restaurant a sale was a quick one, but it was a process nonetheless.In contrast, when you want to buy a new car it'll most likely take you longer to decide - involving test drives and comparisons of brands and specifications.Your customers go through a decision-making process too and in focusing too much on getting an immediate sale, you may be leaving a potential group of buyers behind.How Do I Know Someone Is Interested If They Don't Buy?Finding a way to stay in touch with people who find you interesting but just aren't ready to buy can only be done when you get their contact information.- Phone numbers
- Email addresses or
- Street addresses... are things you can collect in exchange for something you give of value.For example - say you're a restaurant and you give away a free dessert coupon in exchange for a customer's email address. Then you could use their email address to send them information in the future about promotions or specials.You nurture them over time so that they don't forget about you. This builds trust and gives people a non-committal way to keep you on their radar.So whilst getting immediate sales is important, finding a way to collect contact information from people who might buy down the road is a potential gold mine and does wonders for your reputation.If you'd like any help crafting an offer that is designed to keep in touch with these interested observers, get in touch and we'll give you a free consultation - no strings attached.

Sell More With A Hidden Tool You Don't Even Know You Have

Running a thriving small business is in itself an accomplishment in adaptability and innovation. A business owner who has gotten to this point demonstrates successful traits like resilience and a strong work ethic.Having made it beyond the tumultuous company launch, many business owners begin to take their foot off the gas, stagnating their business growth.Expansion is a struggle and getting inspiration as to how to do it can be a challenge. Perhaps you can relate - I certainly can.Resourcefulness can transform seemingly ordinary information into extraordinary solutions. It takes a curious and creative mindset to be able to look at material through a fresh lens and uncover hidden potential.What if I told you that, with a little resourcefulness, you already have data sitting in your files that you could use to grow?Or that without an extensive monetary investment you could take a look at this data with a refined perspective and inspiration that could bring value to your current customers and simultaneously increase your profit?You do and you can.What Information Am I Overlooking?People who buy from you have been convinced by what you do and what you offer. Often those people will want to buy from you again. I know I don't like to shop around for a new supplier if I am happy with the one I have.Sell something to people you have already sold to.If you don't have anything in mind, you can create a product that will benefit your loyal customers and proceed to target them with the offer.I'll take an example of a dental office. One service a dentist offers is a dental cleaning. Most people return to the same dentist year in and year out but sometimes people may forget to make appointments and will thus skip a cleaning.When that happens, a patient's teeth are less clean and the dentist is not receiving payment for the cleaning.So How Do We Turn This Losing Situation Into A Win For Everybody?Let's create an example offer to make dental cleanings 15% cheaper on Fridays for the month of November (for example) for current patients. The pressure for a patient to make an appointment can be emphasized as there are limited slots available by design of the offer.This offer could be directly mailed, emailed or even communicated with a phone call targeting current patients that have missed their regular cleaning appointments.In addition, when the patient decides to take the offer and is making the cleaning appointment, the receptionist could try to couple an appointment for a dental check-up with it, creating even more value for the patient and revenue for the dentist.You can adapt this idea to your product or service, using the customer data in your files to segment customers into groups and figure out an offer for one or more groups.More value for your loyal customers and more revenue for you = win win - and this is all from data you already have plus a bit of creativity.

One Mistake That Can Render A Great Ad Useless

Even if you know the science of a good ad and understand the importance of hooking your audience, you may find that your campaigns still aren't attracting new customers.Maybe you used a professional video for your ad creative, thinking it would seal the deal and get new customers banging in your door but that didn't work either.What about branding campaigns?Many ad agencies convince companies that views and impressions generated by a branding campaign are worthwhile metrics to chase. Have you ever tried to pay your rent with impressions?Maybe you've tried some or all of this and you still can't attract new customers.I'm here to show you a different method - one that will make your ads profitable.What Mistake Is Ruining My Ads?You can test headlines, ad text and videos endlessly but if you're not asking potential customers to take an action toward your brand in every single advertisement you will continue to waste money.This style of marketing is called direct-response marketing and is anything but passive. It focuses on getting immediate responses from an audience and works in almost every niche.That means you get measurable data and get to see what works and what doesn't - in real time.So What Kind Of Action Should My Reader Take?There are different actions we can ask an audience to take, such as:- Filling in a form
- Messaging
- Exchanging their email address for a free guideActions can be tested against each other to see what a particular audience for a product prefers.Stop doing branding campaigns and keep writing those well-crafted advertisements - now with the discipline of adding an action step in every ad you run.If you discipline yourself to follow this method, your ads will become measurable, improvable and profitable.

One Way To Definitely Drive Skill And Build Character

We all know the old sayings "Money doesn’t grow on trees” and “The best things in life are free”. There is truth to them and an underlying message to only take what you need.It is generally discouraged to go after money - it’s immediately labeled as an act of greed by most when perhaps the drive is equally about the growth of yourself rather than just dollars.There is so much to learn in this world that it is never possible to be “done” and yet many people stagnate and stop learning. Money makes life easier and is a direct result of providing value. This ability to provide value lies within a skill or skills a person must learn and practice.Growth Is Multi-DimensionalImagine a tiny tree.The tree uses sun, water and nutrients from the ground to get bigger. As it grows, it provides more shade, fruit, branches to be climbed and, when it dies, more wood to harvest.During its life, growth is natural and undeniable for the tree, benefiting everyone.Growth of a person’s character, skill set and wealth can be looked at similarly.Money and a valuable skill set give you power to be able to do helpful or nice things for other people - things that make you feel good on the inside.Money also gives you the ability to buy nice clothes and dress professionally, which in turn earns you respect in the eyes of all that see you. This builds your reputation and elevates you.Exactly as with the tree, when people have a desire to grow without ego - thus work hard, increase their skill set, reap deserved rewards and with that make a good life and give to the world around them - there is zero downside.Money comes with a lot of benefits and is completely separate to greed. In the search for money one must become skilled.It’s important to distinguish growth from greed.Experience and knowledge increase the value you can provide. Increased value earns more money. More money leads to greater things and learning more skills.Don’t shy away from greatness.

The Real Reason Your Ads Aren’t Bringing Sales

A lot of small businesses wing it when it comes to marketing. Many businesses have enough clients to pay the bills and may not see a need to advertise. They certainly have enough on their plate just keeping their business running.Some businesses may not do online marketing at all - or else they resort to using the Boost or Promote functions on social media because they’re easy and quick to understand.I admit that at first using Boost makes you feel like you’re doing the right thing. Your ads are getting huge numbers of views and impressions and it’s exciting.But do views and impressions pay your expenses?If you’re not also raking in sales, high numbers of views and impressions are nothing more than a dopamine rush.How Can Advertising Get Me Sales?With the Meta ad tool you can start advertising and it won’t cost you an arm and a leg. You get to decide your daily, weekly or monthly budget.And one great thing is that you can tweak the ad or audience while the campaign is running, keeping the things that are working in place and stopping those that aren’t.The algorithm on Meta needs a bit of time to understand the audience you want to reach which means it does require an investment at the beginning. It’s important to put this in perspective - often business owners are happy to spend thousands of dollars on things they believe are important but only allocate $3 a day to Meta ads and expect to see big results.That’s not realistic.When I advertise on Meta, my goal is to double each advertising dollar. The road to get there is by constantly testing and tweaking ads until that goal is reached.The principles of advertising never change but each business has its perfect customer and with Meta ad tools you can now reach them more easily than ever before. If you’d like to see how we would strategize in ads for your business, get in touch by clicking here.

Invoke Imagery And Emotion To Get More Sales

It’s clearly important to know the ins and outs of any product that you are selling.If I were to sell bags of coffee beans, I would know the type of bean and roast. I’d know from where the beans were sourced and whether they were organic. If I went to design a bag for my coffee beans, my first thought would be to use all those facts to describe my product:Davinci Coffee
100% Arabica beans - Espresso roast
From a free-trade coffee farm in GuatemalaIn fact, most coffee beans are sold exactly like this.I bet a coffee bean company could outperform competitors if they would do one thing differently. One simple but powerful thing.They should sell the need - not list boring product details.Let’s ask the question first… what is the need behind coffee? The most common answer would be to wake you up. It’s also warm and has a pleasant flavor.Here is different proposal for my coffee bean bag:Davinci Coffee
Cure Fatigue With One Hot Cup
Richly Aromatic For Full-Bodied FlavorThen I’d put the product details (bean type, etc.) on the back of the bag so that consumers could find it if they went looking.If I saw a coffee bag with the second text, it would make my mouth water for a cup of coffee. It invokes imagery and sensory input - I can almost smell the fresh coffee and feel the hot mug in my hand. I’d feel like having a cup at that moment and I might just buy a bag to see whether its promises were true.Also, it would greatly stand out from the other coffee beans because most feature only the product details, as I showed in the first coffee bean bag text.This approach can and should be used to sell anything. You can see it as selling the need or the result and with it you actually trigger the customer to see himself using your product and benefiting from it.That’s clearly a stronger angle than a list of facts about a product. Give it a try in your next ad - I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

Views And Followers Won’t Pay The Dinner Tab

Money is at the heart of all business.It’s a display of the value of your product coupled with your reputation and it’s also a competent way to measure your marketing campaigns. That is…… when you aren’t taken in by the idea that branding should be used as a goal for advertising.Because the target of branding campaigns is to be seen, there is no tangible proof in the metrics to determine whether these campaigns are successful. Sure, you will be given the number of views and impressions your ads got, but what concrete information can we derive out of those metrics?Did someone see our branding post and scroll past as quickly as possible or did they disregard it? Or did perhaps someone take the time to read our post? We will never know and hence, it’s impossible to determine whether branding campaigns are successful.Is Lazy Marketing A Motivation Behind Branding?On a side note, advertising agencies that are not doing a good job can hide behind branding campaigns, showcasing high numbers of views as victorious ad campaigns. Incompetent advertisers love branding campaigns because direct sales as a metric is not being linked to them and thus the necessity to produce good marketing (ie marketing that generates profit) is absent.I’m not saying that branding campaigns won’t bring you followers or likes, but those things will not pay your bills - money will.If you have millions of dollars to spend on your marketing, then you can go ahead and brand because with that amount of money, you can actually achieve a decent level of awareness of your brand. Most people don’t have an exorbitant budget and would most likely rather have a measurable monetary return on their advertising campaigns.Your Business Needs Money To Function - Not High Numbers Of ViewsFor most if not all small and medium-sized businesses, the target of an ad should be to sell. Nothing else. It should be honest, clear, intriguing and should ask the reader to do something directly to make it measurable.It’s tempting to want to talk about your company and how great it is or about all the features of your product, but don’t give into the temptation to do this in your ad. Use your website and social media to expand on these areas.Your ad should…
… sell.Money makes your business run and you can’t pay the bills with a million views. Branding will be a side-effect of good marketing and good business practices in general.If you’d like some help putting together an effective ad campaign with tangible results, get in touch and we’d be happy to help.

This Should Be The One And Only Goal Of Every Ad You Run

I don’t know whether you’ve ever stared at computer code or ancient hieroglyphics, but, unless your life or job depends on you deciphering it, you will most likely brush over its complexity and move on to something else.Most ads I see are confusing, though not with a complexity like in hieroglyphics.Companies running ads feel like they need to brand. They get caught up and often become overly informative about their product in an ad - listing numerous, often unrelated benefits - or they put too much weight on proving themselves as a reputable company.All these examples dilute marketing potency - they make clear waters muddy.They kill your sales.Yes, branding is important, information about your product is important and social proof matters too. This is why you have a website, landing pages and social media, which are all fantastic places to showcase these aspects and more.There is a concept called Occam’s razor that states that if you have multiple explanations for a problem that are equally valid, you should always take the simplest one. In nature you can observe that if something can be done with 1 thing it will not use 2 things.So what does this have to do with my ad?An ad should have one target only: to sell.Stop thinking about branding, being highly informative or anything else that distracts from a clear and intriguing presentation of exactly what problem you will solve or improvement you offer a potential customer.Not only do people get confused when you start convoluting your ad with huge logos and random company history anecdotes, they do the worst possible thing for you -- they don’t buy.Confused people never buy - they simply scroll on.Focus entirely on selling by eliminating distractions. Recognize exactly the problem you will solve or benefit you will bring your client and then use this to write a captivating headline and a concise but intriguing ad text. The image matters too but the ad text matters more.Once people are truly interested in your product, they will be eager to learn more by visiting your website or checking you out on social media. You don’t have to shove it all down their throat in one ad.Stick to the marketing principles discussed in this blog and you will sell. Tell people exactly what they need to do, should they want to engage. Give them only one choice and move them to action.

The Tunnel Leads To Your Ideal Customer -
But You Have To Dig It

Digging a tunnel with a spoon isn’t ideal and it doesn’t sound fun. Marketing successfully doesn’t have to be as tedious as that and yet most ads aren’t intriguing anyone with their generalized use of language which does nothing to hone in on ideal customers.“We’re The Best In The Business” or “No One Can Beat Our Prices” - consumers are numb to these slogans, having heard them way too many times and yet small companies are still copying each other and using them regularly.Most large companies aren’t creating clever or well-targeted ads either but since they have a marketing budget the size of a giant elephant, their message is broadcast everywhere and so it is through relentless branding that they get sales.Why Is Advertising Generally So Mediocre?Big companies have big marketing departments with people having different opinions and ideas. A compromise needs to be made in every marketing campaign to please everyone involved and this usually results in a watered-down version of anything that once resembled a good ad idea.Small or medium-sized companies tend to want to prove themselves in their advertising, since they lack the world-renowned branding of large companies, and so they immediately state their strengths and try to establish themselves as credible by putting forth their logo or vision.Customers don’t care about you or your company (sorry) - they want to know what you can do for them.Add this all up and you’ll realize that most ads we see are ineffective and boring.How Can I Stop The Madness Of Ineffective Ads?The answer to this is straightforward and has withstood the test of time. If you stick to a couple basic advertising principles, you’ll already rise and shine brightly above the sea of mediocre ads.As I mentioned, your prospect wants to know what you can do for him.- What specific problem will you solve for him?
- What problem will you prevent for him?These are questions you can ask yourself to be able to formulate an ad that makes your prospect sit up and listen because he feels that you understand him.Your logo doesn’t matter, your list of credentials doesn’t matter and your company vision doesn’t matter so leave that stuff out.Make a strong impression with your ad text and try to talk specifically to your ideal customer. Don’t worry if your ad turns some people off. You won’t cut through the noise if you’re scared of offending people.It must be impactful.Not offending anyone won’t get you more sales because it’s a cold hard fact that only certain people will want or need to buy your product.Don’t be afraid - zero in on your ideal customer. Speak directly to them in your ads and grab attention with your message and you will stand out, attract more customers and generate more sales.There is no spoon. Or at least, there doesn’t have to be. Apply the marketing basics discussed in this article and you can dig a tunnel strongly and efficiently just like with a tunnel-boring machine straight to your ideal customer.

How To Effectively Use Your Time To
Create The Future Of Your Dreams

Consume Media Or Broadcast Your Own?Before social media this wasn’t even really an option. We had television and radio, movies and magazines, and I never really thought much about who created it all. It was a system and structure used by the majority.We watched the news every evening. We went to the movies for fun.People talked about the media they consumed - they discussed the latest Hollywood films and current politics.With the advancement of social media, we are beginning to realize that we too can be on the playing field of those creators. Social media allows anyone to develop any skill and showcase it to the world.What’s the difference between consuming media and creating media?The first and most obvious difference is that consuming media is passive and creating media is active. When you create you not only have to come up with the ideas of what you will create, but also how you will transfer your ideas to people. This is most likely going to lead you to develop a set of skills you didn’t have before.When you passively consume, such as scrolling on social media, you are opening your mind to many other people’s world views and opinions. Although you may believe that scrolling your feed isn’t affecting how you think, human behavior is notoriously contagious and those influences will enter your mind whether through the subconscious or the conscious level.Becoming a successful creator on social media requires a lot of hard work. We’ve all seen how many people are trying to do it and how much noise there is on every social media platform every single day. It is a place where true opportunities exist to be able to reach your biggest goal, whether it’s help the world, build a profitable business or become known as an artist, for example.So if we look at the pros of creating versus consuming, we see that creating:- puts a clear target into our lives
- forces us to learn new skills and be resourceful
- gets us in conversation with the world
- keeps us focused on personal development… as we make our way along our path as a creator.There are pros of consuming, but I do this with great care, knowing that even if I see something by accident it can influence my mind. I refuse to consume trends and politics and, if anything, I will consume a little bit from people smarter and better than me - people doing something that I want to be doing.What about only being a consumer and scrolling social media aimlessly - perhaps for inspiration? I don’t see any pros to that. Some people might argue that it’s relaxing or that they found a great new nail polish color. They might be right.Is your aim to spend your time in this life relaxing? If so, that’s fine. If not, I would heavily encourage you to think carefully about what and how much input you allow into your mind from others.If you want to stop mindlessly consuming, find purpose. This could be anything from growing your current business with a new marketing strategy to quitting your 9 to 5 and becoming a fitness coach. Once you have purpose, you can start creating and working towards your new goal.I invite you to consider the challenge of creating and questioning whether you live with purpose and how constructive that purpose truly is. You might just find that worthwhile inspiration and satisfaction don’t lie in the middle of your social media feed but rather in the act of development.

Drive Sales In Any Niche Using
Timeless Advertising Fundamentals

I used to overcomplicate marketing.I didn’t know whether to do branding campaigns. I pushed the boost button on social media because it was easy and learning in-depth marketing seemed too daunting.Now and then I read blog posts on marketing tips, but I never found anything I could implement well.Little did I know that stripping down to the fundamentals of advertising was the key to becoming better. I found out that a few core elements exist that work in every niche - they’ve been used for years and no technological advancements can or will change them.Say Farewell To These Typical Advertising PitfallsOne way I threw away money on ads is by making ads for too large an audience. You can’t sell to everyone because not everyone will need or want to buy your product.The same thing happened when I used the Boost button on social media - I relinquished control of who saw my ad and let me emphasize - the chosen audience is vital in determining how many sales you get.The Advertising Trinity(1) Message
The first core element in advertising is called “Message”. How are we selling our product or service? The message needs to be specific and it’s very important that you think about what problem you can solve for people and put that into the message. How can you get people excited?The message must be clear, persuasive and compelling. Every day we all receive a sea of input and if your message can’t cut through because it’s boring or unclear, it will be scrolled past.(2) Market
The second core element in advertising is called “Market”. To whom are we selling our product? To a certain extent we can rule certain groups out. If I were to sell hearing aids for example, I wouldn’t be targeting a young audience. Since the hearing aid would most likely need to be fitted, I would sell to people not terribly far from my shop. This kind of brainstorming should be done at the beginning of ad creation and can be refined once you make more sales and get a better profile of your perfect customer.(3) Medium
The third and last core element in advertising is “Medium”. How are we going to reach the people we want to reach? Do we want to run an ad in the local newspaper? Do we want to run Facebook or other social media ads?The Meta ad tool (Facebook and Instagram advertising) has made reaching your perfect customer so much easier than back before internet marketing was possible. The core elements were the same, but it’s gotten easier to figure out who your perfect customer is with a medium like this.Simplification For More SalesBreaking down advertising into these three simple categories gave me a much clearer overview of how to approach sales and ad creation. Some things take practice - like creating a compelling message - and some things can be easy - such as eliminating certain groups from your audience.Marketing and advertising, like anything else, improve with experience but when you’ve got nothing to hold onto and are bombarded with terms like “branding” or other mumbo jumbo, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. If you stick to the principles of the Advertising Trinity, you can make a sturdy plan that turns into an effective ad that brings you significant sales.

Boost Your Marketing Skills, Not Your Posts

As a small business owner or entrepreneur, you may lack the time to manage complex marketing.It’s crucial that you focus your full attention on core business activities first so that you swim and don’t sink.You probably consider marketing a key part of your business, and, considering that marketing is an entire branch in itself, using the boost function offered on social media platforms appeals as a good way to reach lots of people without having to spend hours learning complicated marketing techniques.The boost function is user-friendly and time-efficient, requiring only minimal set-up. The pricing is affordable and many companies would prefer to spend money on the boost function rather than on a marketing employee.The boost function will get you many views and it may even bring some results but more exposure isn’t equal to more profit (actual incoming sales is the only metric that truly counts). Most people can’t or won’t ever buy from you.That’s why you need to get your message to exactly the right people, which is something you’ll be able to hone in on by learning a bit more about full ad tools.It may sound complicated but it’s not.Most people expect to throw money away on marketing. This is truly unnecessary. Marketing should be an investment and not an expense.Using the boost function limits you in several ways that a full ad tool does not - you’re limited to one platform as well as to organic type posts. It makes it impossible to target specific audiences in some cases and all these limitations make it impossible to optimize your campaign.You never have to throw away your money using the boost function again. Follow along with our marketing tips because we will be addressing Meta ads and its full ad tool in the next few posts.

Humor In Ads - Do Or Die?

We want to get attention NOW with our ad. We want to stop people in the midst of scrolling. Intriguing headlines are non-negotiable but what about using humor? Humor gets attention and makes things memorable so it should be a viable way to stand out, right?People love to see some humor in their feed and it’s fun to entertain people. Often advertisers think using it will make them unforgettable and will lead to more sales.Jokes are a valid form of communication - they use relatability, stress relief, showcases creative thinking and can be persuasive.Using humor in an ad almost sounds like a brilliant idea but could it in fact overcomplicate the act of creating a good ad? Could it have more pitfalls than potential to make sales?There is a time and a place for humor.Many of us follow meme accounts for refreshing, light content in our feeds. I said meme accounts - we get our humor from people focused on making humor for our entertainment.Using humor in an ad is different…
… and dangerous.It almost never works.Why? Let’s say the humor in an ad was pulled off well (which is already a tough feat). Do you think people will remember the product or the joke? People might like the ad and even watch it for fun. They will probably tell their friends about it with a smile but will they buy the product?Ask yourself that question. Can you think of a funny ad you’ve seen and whether you bought the product? I can and I didn’t. No one will buy a product just because you got them to laugh.People buy things they need, not to reward a funny joke.There are rare cases where humor could be used in an ad because it would align with your perfect customer and their needs but 99,9% of the time, I would advise against integrating it into your ads. The stars don’t often align when it comes to humor in ads.Never underestimate the power of simplicity. It’s not only preferable - it’s often necessary so that potential customers don’t get confused. Confused consumers never buy. Ever.Our best results come from simple, straightforward ads that observe and follow proven scientific advertising methods. Scroll-stopping headlines and a clear call to action, showing people how they can get what I have are musts.Don’t let humor overshadow your ads and, if you do use it, pay close attention to the one and only metric that really matters - the amount of money it brings you in sales.

Stop People From Scrolling - Here’s How To Grab Attention

If the kiss of death in creating ads is being boring, how do you create eye-catching, scroll-stopping content that isn’t click bait, inappropriate or tacky?Digital marketing has potential like never before to reach thousands of people and connect you with your perfect audience at a reasonable cost. And that’s why so many people are using it.This means that people are scrolling and taking in hundreds of ads every day. If you create a boring post or ad, they aren’t going to stop scrolling and try to figure out what you mean.We both know that they will scroll past it.Because of this immense competition, you must GRAB people’s attention - but tastefully.I’ll talk about a couple things your potential customer will see first.- The image you use is super important.It needs to stand out in an appealing way. You can use bright colors, movement or show them something that they want. It could be a combination of these things too. Let an image be an image - don’t paste all kinds of text on it because that usually confuses people.When we work with our clients, we consistently test an ad’s creative to find out what works best. You can test yours as well.- Your headline is do or die.If you don’t catch someone’s attention with your headline, they will scroll past. Because a headline is short, you may dismiss its importance. You might get caught up in the overall act of making the ad.Please. Don’t. Underestimate. The Headline.A headline should awaken curiosity and convey clearly what you are about. It should be as compact as possible and address the people who need what you have.Here’s an example:“Are You Tired Of Coming Home To A Dirty House After Work?”If I didn’t work, I’d probably have time to clean and I would scroll past this ad. If I had a housecleaner already, I would scroll past this ad.But if I worked and didn’t spend much time cleaning, I would read this ad. It’s inviting, offers to solve one of my problems and the headline is clear.My rule of thumb is to brainstorm at least 10 headlines for each headline I make on an ad or blog post. Then I wait until I can reflect on them and I pick the best one. If none of them are good, I try to write more.The main message I’d like to get across today is to encourage you to put extra focus on your image and headline the next time you create an ad, a tweet or a LinkedIn post.Start to observe when your posts get more views and engagement and do more like that. Chip away at improving your ability to GRAB people’s attention immediately. And tastefully.

Thinking Too Much And Doing Too Little?

We want to do things right. Making mistakes doesn’t feel good and in some cases it can even damage our reputation so we tend to second-guess ourselves.The initial inspiration and confidence that motivated us to take a risk gets overshadowed by doubt and fear.We start to worry and our thoughts start spinning and don’t seem to stop. We delay action to think things over and when we do act, the results are often displeasing.It’s tempting not to take risks. Risks are scary. People might laugh at us or we might fail at what we were trying to achieve. We might have done all this work “for nothing”.The fear of risk is relative. One man might see skydiving as taking a big risk whereas another might see riding his bike to the local supermarket as taking a big risk. Everyone has a different threshold based on their own experience.4 Tips To Chip Away At InactionIf you want to increase your threshold to take on bigger risks you can do several things to help you.1. Get educated - read about the risks you are going to take as well as people’s personal stories about having taken that risk. This will reduce your fear.2. Seek out a mentor and like-minded people. You can share experiences and learn from other people’s mistakes and successes.3. Workout more to manage stress that builds up from taking risks or thinking about taking risks.4. Set clear goals, reflect and analyze what you do and adapt your strategy whenever necessary to keep on track as best possible. The ability to be flexible is non-negotiable when dealing with risk.Fear of taking risk lies at the root of a lot of overthinking. Setting time limits in your decision-making can help. You could set a timer for ten minutes to make a minor decision, for example. Bigger decisions will require more time, but having a deadline can discourage overthinking.Taking Risks Is More Rewarding Than It Is ScaryWhen you do rather than think about doing you gain experience and develop skills. You will be able to seize more opportunities because most opportunities don’t hang around waiting for you to make up your mind. Your confidence will increase. You’ll be pressured to creatively solve problems under time pressure.Ultimately you will develop a more empowered and innovative approach to life.Thinking about things too much puts you in a state of paralysis and by breaking down how to manage taking on risks, you can minimize inaction and maximize action, which will without question spur constructive self-development.

Learn Marketing Principles That Have Worked For Centuries

We may be technologically a lot farther than we were a few hundred years ago, but the way people think about value and currency haven’t changed a bit. That’s why it’s worthwhile to learn marketing techniques that have been successful for hundreds of years.If you are an entrepreneur or small business owner you are probably in charge of most, if not all of the tasks of running a business. Certain tasks take priority.If you are a hairdresser, your top priority might be giving high-quality haircuts and being friendly to your customers to ensure that they return. After all, having no customers means receiving no income.Another priority is bookkeeping. This is non-negotiable because if you don’t keep track or file your taxes, you’ll end up with a fine, problems and a big hassle at the end of the tax year.Learning the science of marketing is, however, not required. There is no marketing policeman checking your ads or ad spend at the end of each year to see whether you have marketed efficiently or effectively.This is why marketing often becomes a chore or a lower priority for many small businesses. There are simply too many other things that need to be done first.The mysteries of marketing can be unveiled by learning the science of advertising and sticking to its principles. You will not only STOP losing money on ads…- You’ll eradicate your insecurities in creating and running ads
- You won’t be tempted to use the Boost function
- You won’t have to create ads intuitively ever againYou will be able to work with systems over feelings. And systems always help make a daunting task do-able.There are four main elements of an ad:1. Headline
2. Descriptive Text
3. Image or Video
4. Action StepI recommend you read the more detailed blog posts, but in a nutshell the headline must catch attention, the descriptive text must clearly highlight the result you are trying to sell, the image or video can show proof of what you are claiming in the text and the action step should require the prospect to take an action NOW.Start internalizing these basic definitions and dive deeper into each one. You can immediately implement the tactics in your ads and you’ll see what a difference it makes to follow a system that has been successful for hundreds if not thousands of years.

Could This Misconception About Price Be
Stunting Your Business?

You may not know how much can be determined about you by how you price your product or service. Are you an expert in your field? Are you focused on offering value?Or are you focused and competing on price?Competing on price is a slippery slope and can lead to a downward spiral, devaluating your product and with it your dignity.It’s tempting to do, especially when starting out but I propose a different mindset – one that will make you spiral upwards.When you are new, you can’t charge exorbitant prices because price is linked to value and value is linked to experience. I am generalizing here, so if you only offer one service and you are highly specialized and educated in that service, this may not apply to you.Let’s take the example of a nail salon. Say you just finished nail design school and you want to open a nail salon with some school friends. You are all relatively inexperienced, though certified to do nails. This means that you can charge a fair price – the going rate - for your services.If you want, you can charge just under the going rate in the hope that you will attract more customers.But guess what?There will always be another nail salon willing to charge just under that. And another one that’ll charge just under that next one.Rather, you should charge a fair price for your experience level and focus on building your reputation. The quality and strength of your nail art, good customer service and how you conduct yourself as a business owner can all contribute to this.As your reputation rises, so can your prices. People don’t buy on price most of the time. They buy on brand, quality, strength or reputation.People who do buy on price often end up being problematic customers. Because they didn’t buy based on the reputation of the business owner or brand, they are very easily angered when the product doesn’t meet their expectations. They will not hesitate to complain.I see the most success coming from businesses that charge a fair price whilst building their reputation through true quality and value, and then raising their price as it makes sense to do so.You can adjust price or the value – both are currencies. People will buy something when they feel the value exceeds the price. If you work on increasing the value the price will increase as a by-product.

You Can Reach The Sky, But Will You Fall?

Eighty percent of people say they are above average.That’s clearly an impossible truth.The small percentage of people rising to the top – let’s call them the professionals – stand out because of their actions. It’s not what they say or what they say they will do – it’s what they do.A professional thinks of others first and foremost and is not moved by his own ego. He performs no guesswork – he has a working system that he employs and is confident in his abilities to accomplish. He is never done learning - he is open to change and he cares to keep all aspects of his mind and body in fit condition.Some professionals cannot be deterred from their path and they will rise to positions of prominence, power and prosperity. Others however will succumb to the pressure of the masses and will level-down to become average. Their dreams will be labeled as fantasies by the masses and their behavior will be shunned as extreme.They will be broken down until they no longer stand out.Let’s say it became fashionable to wear as many pairs of shoes at once as you possibly could. Everyone started doing it – even in the workplace – and now if you aren’t wearing several shoes at once, you become the odd one out. What will you do?The example given is ridiculous on purpose. I wouldn’t give in and wear lots of shoes and perhaps you think you wouldn’t either. But group pressure is a difficult thing to stand up against in the heat of the moment and many say they won’t conform but do then cave in. The masses don’t like it when you refuse to conform because they are afraid to be different.They don’t want to see that you are NOT AFRAID to stand alone.Do you want to spend your life worrying about what other people think and say about you? Do you want to live in hypocrisy by doing things you don’t stand behind just because everyone is doing them?I don’t think you do. The path to being a professional has its own set of challenges, but it’s certainly a respectable path and one that places you as a natural leader in many situations you will find yourself in.There are probably some areas in your life where you could pretty easily level-up. Try to take a look at yourself with as much perspective as you can, and write a list of places you have let slack.You’ll feel good about putting in energy to improve yourself.The best feeling is being as good as you can be in every aspect of your life, which takes hard work. Hard work brings satisfaction.In what area of your life will you try to level-up?

An Offer So Good It Would Convince A Vegan To Eat A Steak

The art of advertising is more complex than I ever expected and, now that I’ve learned the gritty details, I’d like to highlight one place in an ad where things can go terribly, dreadfully wrong.The offer.Let's talk about how to get this part so right that your ad could turn a vegan into a carnivore.Most business owners are giving their best when placing an ad for their company but they are not expertly trained in marketing.Why should they be?They are maintaining their business and delivering their services, which are time-consuming and crucial activities.The goods or services a business offers the public are all crystal-clear in the mind of the business owner but what about the potential consumer? What if this gets lost in translation?A confused consumer will never consume.I’m sure you’ve been here too. We are bombarded by posts, ads and videos every day. Say you see a candle in a Facebook ad that you’d like to buy your mother for her birthday. You click the ad and it takes you to a website only showing soap. Are you going to feel like searching for that candle or are you going to leave the site?Most likely you will leave.The candle may have just been one click away or a slight scroll downwards, but a lack of clarity will always drive potential customers away.A really important point about making an offer is that it should be clear. Don’t treat people like they are stupid when you advertise but do treat their time with respect.
I saw a guy selling coffee mugs in an ad. He had a great photo and convincing text describing the handmade mugs. What came next…<<drum roll>>… he described his offer with clarity – the handmade mugs were 10% off during the month of April if you would sign up to their email newsletter. You could fill in your email address for the discount code and then you were redirected to the location of the handmade mugs on their website – perfectly placed to purchase with the discount code in hand.The moral of this story is:
Create an offer that serves your business needs at that moment, describe it well and orchestrate the links to flawlessly take the customer to all necessary sites or forms so that they take action NOW. Put yourself in your customer's shoes and go through your own ad as a customer.Make it so they want to say yes and watch the vegan guiltlessly eat the steak.

Finding Your Perfect Customer

It’s true. You don’t want to hear it.Not everyone wants to buy your product even though it’s great. So why should you waste money and effort showing those non-buyers your ads? (You shouldn’t)Your ads need to be shown to people who will love what you do - people who will become lifelong fans of your product. But could it be that you are accidentally ignoring your perfect customers without even knowing it?You may find it hard to communicate your sincerity and simultaneously stand out amidst your competitors in ads. Or perhaps in trying to show the value of your product your ad text comes across sounding too sales-y.There are many businesses that have run failed ad campaigns online and simply don’t believe it is possible to make an ad campaign profitable. It is possible - with the right communication skills - to stand out in an ad and awaken the interest of complete strangers without gimmicks or marketing mumbo jumbo.These strangers can develop into your ideal customers for years to come. Often the hardest sale is the first one. Let me show you how to target those most likely to take the leap.Strategize To Find Your AudienceIf I were to look for you on a busy city street and I needed to get your attention I wouldn’t go around tapping everyone on the shoulder, asking whether they knew where you were.I wouldn’t hop up and down trying to catch sight of your face.I would shout your name. And that would get your attention.Your perfect customer has a particular problem or desire and it’s very important that you try to think from their perspective so that you can offer resolution to this problem right away to be able to demand their attention – just like yelling their name on a busy street.Don’t be afraid of leaving people out – sell to your perfect customer, not to everyone.Now, let’s assume you have thought up an intriguing headline that will stop them in their tracks. Let’s dive directly into the details of your audience selection, an area often overlooked.There are three main factors to consider:- gender
- age
- locationFor some products, one or two of the factors are obvious and for other products, more testing is required to sort out who best belongs in your audience.Let me take an example of a barber shop located in Munich, Germany. Let’s turn first to the easy part – men, not women, go to barber shops. One third of our audience settings are already in place without even having to put much thought into it.The barber shop is in Munich, so does it make sense to target the city of Munich? What about surrounding cities? What about the whole country of Germany?The most logical answer is to target men in the city of Munich because most people get haircuts near to where they live.Now comes the less obvious part. Age. The answer is not one-size-fits-all because we can speculate as to who will be responsive to our ad’s offer and style, but we’ll never know until we test it out.To start, you could run an ad shown to all ages 18 - 65+ and simply see which age groups responded the most. Then you could start excluding the less-responsive age groups.With a well-written ad and a clear offer you should be able to gather a sound amount of data fairly quickly and can use it to determine which ad was more successful – that is, which ad brought you more sales.Test Some MoreNow that you know which age group responds better, you could conduct another test. You could run the same ad to the more responsive age group using two different headlines, for example. As before, you would gather enough data on both ads and note what worked better, trying to analyze why so that you can repeat and enhance your success with each future test.I would encourage you to think about your own business and your current clients. Can you come up with any type of consistent profile of an average customer? This can help you when deciding what and how to test in your Meta ads.Meta ads are powerful tools for a small business when harnessed properly because nearly everyone is on Facebook or Instagram these days. Being systematic and active in testing is key to making more money. It may seem overwhelming, but the number of parameters to test is limited and once you get going, it gets easier.If you’d like any help in strategizing for your particular situation and business, feel free to get in touch with us – we’d be happy to help you out.

One Easy Tip To Get More Attention Than Your Competitors

We all know how much a first impression matters. In the online world of fierce competition for attention, a first impression is everything.People will scroll past a mediocre or unclear post. When I talk about first impressions, I refer to anything from a blog post title, a headline of an ad, the heading on an X post or even a subject line in an email newsletter.When we sit down to write for the public, we are diving deep into the matter and so we often mistakenly assume that our audience is just as interested as we are and will have patience to read through the entire post or email. This can lead us to underestimate the critical importance of crafting a great headline.Musts For A Solid HeadlineKeep in mind to convey what you can do for people in the headline as soon as possible. Catch them. Ask yourself whether, if a potential customer saw only your headline and was given a way to contact you, they would have enough information to understand what you are communicating or selling.If your headline reads, “You Need This NOW” it would not be enough information for a potential customer to know what you are selling without an accompanying descriptive text.If your headline reads, “The Fastest Way To Grow Healthy Tomatoes – 3 Unknown Tips” then a person would know enough about your offer to take it or leave it.The second example will get more of the right people to read further whereas the first will cause people to scroll past altogether.Strive to articulate the value of your offer from the perspective of the reader. How or what will they gain from you? You can play with angles like emotion, intrigue, urgency and usefulness when practicing writing titles and headlines.Turn Theory Into Practice – Get Better Fast!Be creative and experimental and for every post, ad or email that you write, make at least ten headlines and select the best one. Test your audience – they might gravitate towards a certain angle or style of writing.Test, document, reflect and move forward wiser and better.

Describe Your Product Better –
A Mistake You May Not Know You Are Making

When it comes to our own product or service, we often describe each advantage proudly. We have invested time, money and effort into it, and we therefore know it like the back of our hand.We fill the page confidently with bullet points of claims. We are enthusiastic to share the long list of benefits people will receive when they buy from us.For example, let’s say I sell a newly developed energy drink and decide to make an ad for it.The energy drink:- keeps you alert and active for 5 hours
- lifts your mood
- contains Vitamin C
- contains only natural sugars
- repairs gut damageThese benefits are quite different from one another and yet there is a temptation to list them all because we want to convince people of how great the drink is.It’s good to be proud of your product and in time you will get to describe more aspects of its benefits but first, a bit of perspective is in order.Put yourself in the shoes of a consumer for just a moment and consider how you would feel if you came across a drink that was described by the five points above. I would think, “Is this a juice? Is this like Red Bull? Is this a coffee drink?” I would feel confused.A confused consumer will never consume.Confused consumers move on, leaving you in the dust. Upon seeing five unrelated benefits, I would have moved on through my feed, never reading more about the new energy drink.When you have a product that you are proud of, its benefits will make you beam and want to get up on the highest podium to preach each and every one of them to your potential customers.The Rule of OneHere’s the part where you get to do that – knowledgeably and calculatingly.Having a product with several advantageous qualities can be marketed strategically by picking one of the benefits and highlighting it in your ad. Then create an alternate version of the ad, highlighting a different benefit and so on until you feel you are testing enough benefits against each other.You may only have two versions of the ad, or you may have five. That will depend on how strong the benefits are and on your ad budget. This “Rule of One” is a way to keep your marketing clear for the consumer and at the same time test which benefits consumers are more drawn to.The main thing is to create ONE ad with ONE overarching benefit. Focus to keep consumers focused. Test and see what performs best, noting what works for this ad as well as for future ad campaigns.If you’d like our take on how to structure ads for your products or services, get in touch and we can guide you through.

Little-Known Tips To Dramatically Improve Your Marketing Results

If you find creating effective ads, capturing people’s attention and getting more clients or fans difficult, this is the right article for you.I remember how overwhelmed I felt when I started running ads and promotions. When you think of ad campaigns run by huge companies such as Nike, Esprit or Coca-Cola, you have to understand that they are spending millions of dollars each year on ads. Most companies don’t have millions to spend on ads every year.The truth is, ads run by huge companies make up the majority of ads we have seen in our lives. So if you can't model your marketing on these, how can you become a successful advertiser? How can you stand out in an ad as a small business?The approach clearly has to be different – but how to do it?Most Ads Don’t Perform – Here’s WhyWhen I first embarked on marketing, some questions ran through my mind:What is my target audience?
Isn’t it better to try marketing to a broader group of people?
I’ve heard of branding – should I be doing that?I started researching not only these questions but how to create an effective ad, which led me into lots of confusion.I kept reading about branding, brand name recognition and top of mind awareness and not understanding how to quantify these or even apply them. The concepts seemed broad and vague.My conclusion was that these terms are a way that people justify failed or potentially failing ad campaigns. My definition of “failed” is an ad campaign that doesn’t at least bring in as much money as it costs to run.If you have millions per year to spend on marketing, yes - by all means, run a brand awareness campaign. But as a small business you want to squeeze the most out of every advertising dollar spent and thus advertise knowledgeably and consciously.Making Lucrative AdsStatistics and tests are required in every area of life to make sure things are up to standard. If you buy a plane ticket to New York, you expect to have a seat on an airplane and be taken to New York. If you order lunch at a restaurant, you expect to be brought the lunch you selected.A marketing campaign can and should function in exactly the same way.The sad truth is that most businesses throw away at least half of their marketing budget. I suppose they feel like if they throw enough money around, clients are bound to come at some point.I am here to tell you that it doesn’t have to be this way.Your ads can pay not only for themselves but can bring you two to five times what they cost in profit.How?The best thing you can do is to test aspects of ads and document every ad result tested. In this way you can get to the bottom of what your ideal target audience is, what images or videos perform the best and which headlines pique the most interest.What aspects does an advertisement include?Ads contain:- a headline
- a descriptive text
- an image or video
- an action stepAds can be shown to specific people in a specific place and this is another important aspect to test. If you are going to be selling hearing aids locally you don’t need to advertise to young people nor to people in all parts of the world, for example.Make marketing measurable because it can be.I firmly believe that a marketing budget should exist to leverage more profit for your company. Every ad should be able to pay for itself in some calculable way. It’s time to do away with fancy marketing terms or promises about branding. Tangible results are what we are after.There are many ways to go about doing this and it can be done for any and every business, including yours. If you would like to know how we would do this in your business, get in touch for a free consultation.

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