Author: Ryan Dolotallas

I met with a business owner the other day who wanted to pitch her service to people commenting on her social media posts.

Demonstrate expertise on social media. Connect with people who engage. Pitch the service.

That’s not a bad plan.

The debate during the meeting was how to connect and whether to follow-up after the pitch.

She said she wanted someone to call the social media commenters, pitch the service and be done with them.

“They’re either in, or they’re out,” she said.

I encouraged her to ask the social media commenters for their email addresses.

“That way, you can build a relationship with them…” I said.

She didn’t like that idea. “I don’t want a relationship with them. I just want to see if they’re in or out,” she said.

Here’s the problem with that, and here’s the lesson for all of you:

Most prospects don’t buy the first time you contact them.

They might not have the time to participate in your program.

They might not have the money right now.

They might not have permission from a boss or a spouse or themselves.

They might be interested but hesitant.

So if you really want to see if they’re in or out, you must build a relationship with them.

Go ahead and ask them if they want to buy, but also…

…Get their email address. Stay in touch. Share valuable information. Continue to remind them about your products and services.

Some of those prospects will never come around. But many will — many more than you’ll land the first time you ask. 

Marketing, prospecting sales — it’s a nurturing process. It’s all about building a relationship.

Sure, it’s quicker and easier and less expensive to contact someone once, ask, “Are you in or out?” and be done with it.
But that’s no way to build a business.

Tom
MarketVolt

p.s. We help businesses figure out what they sell and how. Then we help them identify and connect with their target markets so people will view you as a welcome guest and listen to what you’re saying. If you want to discuss how to make it happen for your business, email me  at  tom@marketvolt.com. For no charge and no strings attached, we’ll discuss with you how you’re building email lists, generating new leads and generally finding and connecting with prospects.

If you like these emails, please do me this favor: Forward this to someone who might also enjoy it and encourage them to sign up for future emails on our website at MarketVolt.com.

A friend who works as a business consultant told me about his marketing challenge:

“My prospects don’t know what they don’t know,” he said. “They don’t know they need me.”

I hear that a lot. Business people get hung up on this idea: “How can I sell them my product or service when they don’t know they need it?”

My response:

Stop worrying about what prospects DON’T know.

Start focusing on what they DO know.

Here’s an example from my business:

At MarketVolt we have a feature called “Dynamic Content.” This allows users to show or hide content in an email based on recipients’ interests.

Many of our school district clients use the feature. They create a long newsletter with items about a variety of topics — news for grade school parents, updates for high school parents, topics that interest soccer moms, announcements relevant to marching band dads.

When our clients use Dynamic Content to create and deliver that newsletter, each recipient receives a customized version of the newsletter with content that’s relevant to them. If you’re a soccer mom, you’ll see that soccer topic; if you’re not, you won’t. Same goes for each item. You’ll see it if it’s relevant, you won’t see it if it’s not.

When we introduced Dynamic Content, none of our clients or prospects knew they “needed” it.

If I said, “We now offer Dynamic Content,” many would have shrugged — even as I described the feature.

But we don’t care about what they don’t know. We focus on what they do know.

Here’s what they know:

Parent engagement is critical to school districts. They want parents to open and read the email newsletters they send.

Many parents tune out when newsletters are too long and filled with lots of items that are not relevant to them.

Creating newsletters is already time-consuming. Creating countless personalized versions by hand (i.e. separate versions for different grade levels or interest groups) would be too time-consuming and costly.

We say to school districts, “We understand your needs. We understand your pain.” Then we say, “We can help you do better. We can help you engage parents with more relevant content so they’ll open your emails and read them. And we’ll enable you to do this without jumping through hoops and burning precious time and resources.”

That appeals to them. So they ask, “How do you do that.”

Then we describe “Dynamic Content.”

They often reply, “Wow. I didn’t know you could do that.”

Now they know. And they care.

I share this not to brag about MarketVolt (although we’re proud of that Dynamic Content feature). I share that to emphasize a key marketing lesson…

Prospects rarely know that they “need” a certain product, service or feature that you offer.

That’s not a problem because…

Your marketing should not focus on you and your service. It should focus on your clients and their aspirations and needs.

If you can identify what they need and what they fear, you’ll frame a true story in which your products and services fit.

Tom
MarketVolt

p.s. We help businesses figure out what they sell and how. Then we help them identify and connect with their target markets so people will view you as a welcome guest and listen to what you’re saying. If you want to discuss how to make it happen for your business, email me  at  tom@marketvolt.com. For no charge and no strings attached, we’ll discuss with you how you’re building email lists, generating new leads and generally finding and connecting with prospects.

If you like these emails, please do me this favor: Forward this to someone who might also enjoy it and encourage them to sign up for future emails on our website at MarketVolt.com.

I had a middle school classmate named David who was a lousy athlete. I remember the first time he took the field to play baseball with us. When he tried to throw the ball across the diamond, Jimmy, the class bully, howled with laughter and said, “You throw like a girl.”

Not nice.

I thought of David and Jimmy when I saw this video, part of a 2015 advertising campaign.

The advertiser invited young women, men and boys into a studio and asked them to demonstrate what it looks like to “throw like a girl” or “run like a girl” or “fight like a girl.”

The portrayals of girls running, throwing and fighting were, as you might expect…

…not nice.

Then they invited young girls into the studio and asked for the same demonstrations.

The girls’ portrayals were different.

Strong throwers. Powerful runners. Brave fighters.

It’s a powerful statement about about how society portrays and perceives girls, about how these portrayals chip away at girls’ self-confidence.

What brand produced this campaign? Always feminine products.

Lots of critics took offense.

In a 2017 Daily Beast article, critic Emily Shire ripped Always for the “shamelessly emotionally exploitative” campaign.

She wrote “The self-righteous tone of Always’ ‘Like a girl’ campaign is irritating, perhaps because the noble message has nothing to do with the product, tampons, panty liners, pads. Yes, I get that Always is attempting to build large, overarching connections between girls getting older and losing self-esteem. But how exactly are the products Always is hawking going to do that? If Always is going to peg a giant message about self-confidence without any actual mention of menstruation in the commercial, it seems somewhat deceptive.”

I understand the reaction. But I disagree.

This is a great campaign — full of valuable lessons for marketers.

Here’s the big idea: Always doesn’t sell feminine products. Always sells self-confidence and empowerment.

If a young woman buys Always products, she will be more confident and empowered. So messages about girl power are right in line with the brand and build connections with those whom Always targets.

Think I’m crazy? Flash back with me to eighth grade. I vividly remember the time Lisa had to leave social studies class because she didn’t have the feminine products she needed. It was too late for her to hide that fact, and as she slinked from the classroom, Jimmy The Bully snickered and made a snide comment.

Devastating for Lisa. I can only imagine how she felt every time she passed Jimmy The Bully in the hall or even when she simply walked into that social studies classroom.

That was a moment of shattered self-confidence that Lisa has certainly never forgotten.

I’m not some shil for the tampon company when I say: If Lisa had the right product, she would have been more confident, she would have avoided this disempowering fate, she wouldn’t have needed to slink off in shame.

So I think it makes sense for Always to proclaim, “Hey, young women, be confident; be powerful; don’t be ashamed.”

That’s a cool message perfectly aligned with what they sell. .

Tom
MarketVolt

p.s. We help businesses figure out what they sell and how. Then we help them identify and connect with their target markets so people will view you as a welcome guest and listen to what you’re saying. If you want to discuss how to make it happen for your business, email me  at  tom@marketvolt.com. For no charge and no strings attached, we’ll discuss with you how you’re building email lists, generating new leads and generally finding and connecting with prospects.

If you like these emails, please do me this favor: Forward this to someone who might also enjoy it and encourage them to sign up for future emails on our website at MarketVolt.com.

I received a mysterious email this morning:

“Hi, I hope this email finds you well and I can connect with you soon. I wanted to reach out one more time to see if we can interest you in some information about how we can help. Best regards, Claire…”

“Help with what?” I thought.

“…reach out one more time…” told me she’d emailed before.

So I searched for past emails from Claire and unlocked the mystery.

She wants to help build a website for my podiatry practice.

“…Our podiatry websites are uniquely designed to attract new patients to your practice,” she chirped in her first email to me last month.

(Sigh)

I’m not a podiatrist. And I don’t play one on TV. And I don’t help any podiatrists with their marketing.

So Claire is barking up the wrong tree.

List quality matters more than quantity.

Maybe Claire’s list has lots of podiatrists. I have a feeling, though, that her list is full of people like me, people wondering, “Why did she send this to me?”

I’ve seen countless marketers struggle because they target rotten, stale, poorly-constructed lists.

Then they blame the medium (“Email marketing doesn’t work!”) or the message (“This content didn’t resonate with the audience.”)

Speaking of content, this morning’s email wouldn’t have worked even if I was a podiatrist.

“I wanted to reach out one more time to see if we can interest you in some information about how we can help.”

No reference to the past email. No explanation of how she could help. No call to action.

That adds up to no sale.

Here’s the formula: Build a list of people who will truly benefit from your products or services. Deliver content that helps them discover how your products and services will help them. Request action to continue the sales process (schedule a phone call, offer a demo, etc.).

If you do that, email usually works.

Tom
MarketVolt

p.s. We help businesses figure out what they sell and how. Then we help them identify and connect with their target markets so people will view you as a welcome guest and listen to what you’re saying. If you want to discuss how to make it happen for your business, email me  at  tom@marketvolt.com. For no charge and no strings attached, we’ll discuss with you how you’re building email lists, generating new leads and generally finding and connecting with prospects.

If you like these emails, please do me this favor: Forward this to someone who might also enjoy it and encourage them to sign up for future emails on our website at MarketVolt.com.