The Marketing 24-7 Podcast

Jerry McGuire is one of the best business movies ever produced.

Jerry's life changing mission statement scene is six minutes of pure entrepreneurial gold in this episode I outline why!

Show Links

Click HERE to watch the scene

Grab some great USP training here petergianoli.com/usp - How to Develop a Razor Sharp Unique Sales Proposition for Your Business to Stand Out From a CROWDED Market! 

Boomers are rich.

They bought houses when they were affordable and sold off at the right times. They purchased hovels downtown, they sold for millions. Didn’t know how to pick stocks so invested long-term, a boring yet profitable strategy.

Patience and delayed gratification have been virtues.

As the wealthiest generation in history, Boomers currently hold $2.6 trillion in buying power.

Today, Boomers are RE-INVENTING their lives.

They are finding NEW places to work, NEW places to travel to, NEW ways to spend their days, NEW ways to spend time with their children and grandchildren, and NEW ways to stay vital and connected as they age.

Each choice represents enormous business opportunity.

Today's boomers are planning their full retirement at 80, not 65, and are looking for second, third, or fourth careers or new businesses.

Shrinking, fixed incomes, minimum spending are out the window.

Ken Gronbach, author of Common Census: Counterintuitive Guide to Generational Marketing states:

"They know what they want. At this point in their lives they want only three things:

1. Life made easy.

2. Time saved.

3. Not to be ripped off.

Boomers already own a lot of stuff.

Their needs are getting increasingly fewer, thus they are less interested in or seduced by things.

Boomers are service consumers more than product buyers. They want nothing as a thing; they want a thing that gives time, convenience, freedom, or ease.

Boomers still think in terms of "classic credibility".

Brand names matter, credible, relevant celebrity endorsements matter, years in business, professional affiliations, access to live humans for resolving problems all matter.

Above all else.

Boomers have had enough life experience to have been disappointed or felt ripped off by a number of purchases and marketers. And they are not eager to repeat the experience.

 

We all know that a key component of any marketing strategy is to get your customers to talk about you and share what they have purchased with their network. But did you know this goes both ways? 

It takes more than just getting people to buy from you, it also means making sure they actually consume or use the products that they purchase from you as well! 

This is important because if a person does not use or consume what they have purchased from you then they will not experience any of the benefits. Hence, there's no reason for them to tell anyone else about it. As we all know referrals are an essential part of any business marketing mix. And by encouraging consumption or utilisation of your product or service, you are making it easier for them to refer others to you.

So, let’s look at a company that does this exceptionally well. Apple!

I love opening my latest Apple purchase, do you?

Why? 

1. Because everything is beautifully packaged.

2. Once you open the box - everything is intuitive as to what to do next

3. Once the product is turned on the instructions are clear, simple and bold.

4. Thanks to their exceptional marketing, I know the pleasure that lies ahead of me when I use it. 

In fact, consumption starts with the marketing. I like how Gene Schwartz said it, where “your ad is simply the functional product - details of what it does for them - sent to them in advance of the product itself”.

And while a lot of businesses are just glad to get a sale, and hope nobody refunds, that is playing not to lose instead of playing to win. 

Fact is that great marketers always think of two "sales" you have to make.

(1) The product sale, and (2) the sale of them consuming the product or service.

So how can you encourage your customers to consume what they have purchased from you? 

There are a few ways: 

• Offering educational materials or tutorials that show them how to use the product in an easy and fun way. 

• Making sure the product is easy to use, and if it's not give them support as well. 

• Make sure there are clear instructions that show how to do what they want or need to do with your product or service.

Once again, Apple does this exceptionally well - they are always innovating and creating new products that not only look great but are easy to use as well. And thanks to their exceptional marketing, customers know the pleasure that awaits them when they open the box. 

You can see this in action with the iPad - what's inside the box is just as important (if not more) than the product itself! 

So, if you want to sell your products or services, make sure that there are no barriers between your customers and their enjoyment of them by encouraging consumption every step of the way. 

One of the things we must keep in mind is that once a person makes a purchase in your environment, like in your store, on your sales page, in your Instagram feed or at a conference or in a sales office. When they return into their world the stresses and strains of their environment return.

Often, they purchased your product to improve their lives, but now their normal environment is what gets in the way of them using your offering. So, you need to have a plan to overcome this.

• A way is to follow up with them and remind them of the benefits of using your product or service. 

• Showcase how others are using your product or service in an inspiring way. 

• Use client testimonials to show how they overcame the same struggles by using your offering. 

The important thing is to never stop encouraging your customers to consume what they have purchased from you. This will create a stronger connection with them and make it more likely that they will refer others to you in the future.

Let me give you another example...

Recently I signed up for an online course called Ship 30. It is about content creation and it doesn’t start until next month. For the record it wasn't cheap and like any buyer it wasn't long before I started feeling buyer’s remorse. 

But thanks to some well-timed, well thought out emails, preparing me for next month I am now fired up and ready to get started.

It didn't take much, some links to helpful videos, some case studies of what others like me have achieved and it’s a wrap.

What about services how can you encourage consumption?

The best way to overcome the resistance that people have to consuming what they purchase, especially services, is by helping them see how easy it is to get started.

• Offer a free consultation or trial period so they can try out the service. 

• here too, provide educational materials. One great example from a local health club is to introduce 30-day or 14-day challenges for members with built in rewards and incentives.

If you are looking for great examples just watch what Netflix and Spotify do to encourage consumption. Being continuity services where you can easily cancel at the end of a month - these services are the master of keeping you engaged and of course subscribing.

So, in a nutshell, encourage customers to consume what they purchase from you, both in the moment and after the fact. 

The key takeaway here is that it's not enough to simply make a sale; instead, you need to think about your customer's consumption habits as well so that they will use what you have sold them and become fully satisfied with their decision. 

As has already been said - the only way you will grow your referral network is by having satisfied and fully engaged customers and clients.

The wealthy person is a complicated creature. 

Research indicates the typical top-end-of-towner seeks incremental steps up, in a lot of things, makes major steps up, in one to three things, and remains unmoved by luxury, brand, experience or other factors in many other purchase categories. 

The wealthy are selective in what they indulge in.

Price is literally out the window in the care and feeding of the poodle, but the wealthy often recoil at the price of a Lexus, often preferring a Toyota.

This makes marketing to the wealthy a strategic undertaking. 

Clever brands have worked this out.

Luxury-goods have caught on and are engaging in a strategy called "luxury drop-down". 

Luxury goods like Mercedes or Coach bags have created lower-priced products - usually smaller, with fewer features, but of the same quality and bearing the brand name - encouraging the affluent consumer to cross the luxury line without qualm. 

Further, some luxury brands have found enormous leverage in leaving a huge chasm between their top-priced items and their new lower priced merchandise. 

Women who can't afford one, and even those who can, might blanch at a $10,000 Vera Wang dress but be quite happy to pay $199 for a Vera Wang blouse. But without knowledge of the $10,000 dress, they'd balk at such a high price for the blouse. 

It serves to have an ultra-expensive offering.

Some marketers, even go so far as to create and promote red-herring-priced goods or services they hope no one buys, only to set a standard that makes their actual prices seem imminently reasonable by comparison. 

Take a look at the Fullarton Singapore’s wine list for a perfect example of this!

Most consultants post on their social media channels like episodes of a reality show — here’s what I think, here’s what I’m doing, here’s yet ANOTHER selfie.

That’s fine if it’s compelling, but in general it’s more effective to approach your social media channels as a magazine editor would.

Try to make your social media about more than just YOUR life.

Magazines aren’t all about their publisher’s life. 

Instead, they feature curated content that represents the viewpoint of the publisher and is designed to provide value to a specific target audience. Not every one of your social posts needs to be about you (and they probably shouldn’t be). 

Take a magazine approach and curate as much content as you create.

Curation of great content is about creating value for your followers. 

Magazines that are niche specific are making a revival.

Developing and curating niche content specific to your industry or market is a successful social media strategy. Doing so will make it easier to attract an audience and easier to provide value to them more frequently because you don’t have to create every single thing you share.

Become the purveyor of your niche's quality information.

Share stuff and watch your influence grow.

Important note!

I’m not suggesting you steal content from others. Share stuff with credit and drive attention to others — don’t pass it off as your own. No need to be an ass. But don't just flick out links - add interpretations, opinions, advice and your social media success will grow.

Treat your social media feed as your magazine!

If you’d like more social media strategies, visit my website petergianoli.com/social-strategy-for-consultants and download my latest resource. It's FREE!

 

In this week’s podcast, I go through the 4 key things I do when I take on a new marketing client. I believe you too, should do these 4 things in your business. Especially if you are looking for more clients, quick wins, and some instant cash flow.

These are the same 4 things that I implement with my fee-paying clients, which are on average $50,000 each and you are getting the advice for nothing thanks to this podcast.

All you have to do is listen and implement – go on I dare you!!

Here is the link to the blog post:

https://petergianoli.com/low-cost-ways-to-market-business/

The difference in results of your marketing is around the willingness to do deep thinking about your customer. To not be lazy, to not be sloppy, and above everything else not be guilty of Lazy Marketing.

Podcast Transcript

Here’s an example. You take two people.

They each make $300,000 a year. They each live in $1 million houses.

So demographically they’re affluent.

Now we’re going to market to them.

One of them travels incessantly. Five days a week on the road. Which they now hate. He’s overweight, unhealthy, eating bad food in airports, his relationship is in trouble.

The other one works from home, he loves it.

His desk looks out his window at his park across the road. He takes time off every day to take his dog for a walk. His marriage is in good shape.

Now - Do they feel equally affluent?

Demographically they’re affluent but we don’t want to be marketing to them the same way.

We’re going to fail with one.

Odds are we’re going to fail with both.

Bad advertising, bad marketing is simplistic and it’s lazy.

It always tries to lump too broad of a spectrum of people into one group and then to talk to them in a mass advertising mass marketing kind of way.

So, there’s not that many differences in structure in how you market to the affluent. In a broad sense there’s not much difference in what they want and what they don’t want than anybody else.

But there are nuance differences that really have big impact.

Remember they automatically have more choice.

So the more discretionary money you have to spend, the less price matters to you in a category, the more choices you have in that category and you can be more selective.

So marketing to them now means about being identified as for them and not for everybody else.

The difference in results is around the willingness to do deep thinking about your customer.

To not be lazy, to not be sloppy and so here’s a litmus test and it’s kind of the survey what do you know about your customer.

I can sit here, and with my customer I can talk to you about them for around three hours about who that customer is. I know that person intimately. I - so I can tell you demographics things. I can tell you psychographic things. I can tell you geographic things. I can tell you their pain buttons. I can tell you their desire buttons.

So if you can’t sit and tell me about your customer for three hours without running out of useful and relevant things to talk about, then I would say you’re not prepared to market to them effectively. If you have to put or you are putting a big umbrella over them you don’t have intimate enough information and your marketing could do a lot better.

Stop being safe…

 

Once upon a time, during the baby boomer era, being different was a badge of honor. Yes, guys wearing scholls, long hair, playing in your own band and we even had surfers at Hamilton Hill High School the home of the bogan.

In my opinion, this is one thing the baby boomers definitely got right. But their kids, brought up in an era where you get a trophy for just participating and playing football and netball with no scoring, are afraid to stand out. They are all about their network of friends and do not want to be ostracised.

Everyone’s afraid to lose friends. Everyone’s afraid to stand out. Everyone’s afraid of criticism. Kids don’t raise their hands in class because they don’t want to be seen as different, as know-it-alls, and better off playing dumb.

The conundrum, however, is to get ahead in business, or marketing, or in your art, we are looking for the new and different and if you don’t have people dropping their jaws, chances are you are not going to last, you probably won’t even be noticed.

Furthermore, just because no one likes what you are producing doesn’t necessarily give up right away. If you are not experiencing at least a little bit of resistance or if you don’t find people trying to reign you in, chances are you are not aiming high enough and will never cause a jaw to drop.

Dare to be unpopular… because that is where the germ of true popularity begins.

Sales are like legs day. Hard and brutal.

Punishment! Yet, when you work out legs, you're also activating muscle fibres in the rest of your body, arms, shoulders, and even back. Just the same fashion, when you work in sales, you're activating muscle fibers in your marketing skillset as well.

So, the best advice you could ever give a business owner is to start doing some sales.

The Tension Between Marketing and Sales

In most struggling organisations, there is tension between the sales team and the marketers.

Sales team complains that leads are lousy and insufficient. Marketing complaints that sales want everything handed on a plate.

Enter the entrepreneur to adjudicate.

Time To Get Back Into The Gym

Before making a call, to side with marketing and or sales, at least "sharpen your saw".

Do a small amount of selling, take a half day "ride along" with one of your sales team. It will fire up your other skills, like marketing. Learning to better understand your customers and knowing how to cut through with messaging will be forever helpful.

With time, this will make you a better business person.

The Bizarre Habit

Why is it that so many people brag about legs day on social media? 

Very amusing! 

Yet, there is a million-dollar sales and marketing lesson embedded in the legs versus arms debate.

A lot of people build their upper body and neglect their legs. Fact. Unfortunately, doing this sets them up to fail. Same for entrepreneurs who focus only on marketing and place no effort in sales!

I’ve noticed something about consultants.

Most of them have the same frustrations when it comes to social media. I work with a lot of consultants and hear the same issues over and over again.

Does any of these sound familiar?

• “I’m putting a lot of time and effort into social media but not getting any meaningful results.”

• “I feel stuck my business is stuck and doesn’t know what to do to get unstuck.”

• “I don’t really have any plan for how to use social media so I’m just randomly posting stuff.”

If any of these resonate with you (and I bet several do), then you’ve come to the right place.

There are 13 social media strategies I can share - here are just 3!

I know these work because I’ve seen them work over and over again for all different types of consultant clients.

1. Use fewer social media platforms.

You don’t need to use every social media platform. In fact, you shouldn’t.

Just because Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest, YouTube, TikTok, podcasts, and a thousand other platforms exist doesn’t mean you have to use them.

Any one of those platforms has more than enough people on it for you to achieve success beyond your wildest dreams so break from the feeling that you need to be everywhere.

2. Follow fewer people.

Don’t follow everybody who follows you.

Don’t follow random people in the hope they’ll follow you back.

Don’t follow anybody you’re not genuinely interested in.

And don’t be afraid to unfollow people – often.

The fewer people you follow on any social platform, the better your feed will become as the algorithm will learn to better serve you.

3. You don't need more followers, simply the RIGHT followers.

The first question I ask a consultant-client is always, “What are your social media goals?”

Their answer always includes some version of “I want to get more followers.”

That’s an understandable answer, but it reveals a crucial strategic flaw.

Because you don’t need more followers, you need the right followers to help you accomplish your goals.

If these 3 strategies made sense - read on!

If you’d like more hands-on help with these strategies, plus another ten more, visit my website petergianoli.com/social-strategy-for-consultants and download my latest resource. It's FREE!