Every business needs a promise. An Irresistible promise sets you apart from the competition and makes people pay attention and get attract towards you. It also avoids your business to be perceived as a commodity.
An irresistible promise has an emotional connection.
Disney: Happiest place on earth
To craft an irresistible promise list all the problems you solve, 3 core values of your business and avoide common place words like health, organic, fair price.
I like storytelling. I like the journey of the story, the surprises, when things go wrong, the possibilities for the end. I like the hero’s journey. That is one of the reasons I like NPR and Radiolabs. They are great storytellers. Storytelling is one reason why in our show we avoid telling at the beginning what we’ll talk about. Because in storytelling you don’t tell the end before it is time. Businesses need to incorporate storytelling. Some do it really well like Moleskine, Innocent drinks. Tom’s shoes. Do you use storytelling in your business? Stories create emotional connections and these connections will make people buy.
We hear a lot today about visibility and how it is important.
Visibility is crucial for businesses but the gold rush today is to get attention.
You can be visible to a lot of people but that does not mean they are paying attention. Visibility alone will not bring business, attention will. If people are paying attention in what you are saying, they are interested, they are more likely to take action.
The average American has today an attention span of 9 seconds. That is the same of a gold fish. It is not easy to sell to goldfish as you might imagine.
You need to be able to get attention, be interesting and relevant in order to have them buying from you.
Have as many friends, followers and viewers as you want but learn how to really get them paying attention to you and your business.
We just came back from ACLC event with Adam Urbanski where we spoke about having your own web tv show. We had the opportunity to see great speakers during this 4 day event. My favorite speaker was Lisa Sasevich so I decided to post here one of her articles:
The Invisible Close
Why do I need to make a Special Offer if my product is
great on its own?
Even if you have a fantastic product or service, which I’m
assuming you do, you need to have a reason for your
prospects to buy today, while they are inspired and taking
the time to consider your product. It has to feel like they
would be leaving so much on the table if they waited that
they choose to buy today rather than lose the deal.
People who take time “to think about it,” like I did at the
Pole Dancing class or the Best Selling Author’s seminar,
rarely go back-even though our experiences with the
businesses may have been great. When I left to go “think
about it,” I simply went back to my life, where the
priorities of being a wife, mother and businesswoman became
more immediate than registering for a class.
This is a crucial point: People usually don’t come back
after “thinking about it.” The most “action” you will ever
receive is on the spot.
Turning a great event into a profitable one!
Here’s an example of how I helped a client increase sales
from live events through the use of an Irresistible Offer.
As I go through the example, I’ll point out the key
elements that comprise a truly Irresistible Offer.
One client of mine had a cosmetic laser business. He had
been hosting a series of evening events in which mostly
women would attend and receive an education on cosmetic
laser treatments, nice appetizers and, in this particular
event, a free laser hair removal treatment. The event was
designed so that the guests would receive a great deal of
value out of the evening, even if they didn’t buy anything.
Although the events were fun and impressive, they were not
as profitable as they could be. The owner, who knew one of
my other clients and had seen the benefit of structuring an
Irresistible Offer correctly, hired me to make these events
more profitable.
So, I came in and I went to one of the events. They had a
great turnout. I found the presentation informative and
very well delivered with almost nothing to correct-which is
very unusual for Mrs. Betterway. However, when they got to
the end of the presentation, the problem was obvious. There
was no Tonight Only Irresistible Offer.
The company offered a couple of discounts and few package
deals, but the owner didn’t present the offerings as
“tonight only.” In fact, they didn’t even put a pen and a
registration form in people’s hands. They simply listed
their offerings and left it at that.
When I dug deeper, I found something else that is very
common. Because the crowd consisted of a high-end clientele
with some notable people on the guest list, the owner was
very sensitive to appearing pushy or salesy. Like most of
us who own businesses, he didn’t want people to feel like
they were being closed or pressured in any way.
I agree that making people feel pressured does not help
with sales conversion and can, in fact, hurt your results.
The problem is, because most business owners are
oversensitive to appearing salesy, they overcompensate and
end up killing their results anyway.
Today Only versus Time to Think About It; The no-pressure
way to sales conversion
The key to having people feel compelled to register without
feeling pressured has to do with how you structure your
Special Offers. In the case of this cosmetic laser
business, we structured the offer so that the customer
would get a significant discount and some great free
services if they purchased one of the three special
packages within a week, and a much more significant
offering of free services if they chose to purchase it the
night of the event.
This is a beautiful solution because the owner did not have
to apply pressure to his prospects. The guests applied it
to themselves as they attempted to figure out whether it
was worth it to them to leave hundreds of dollars behind to
have a week to think about it. In most cases, if they were
interested, they did the sales job on themselves.
This allowed the owner to remain relaxed and able to assume
the attitude, “These are great deals. You are welcome to
take up to a week to decide which is best for you. If you
are ready to go and would like to purchase tonight, you
will also get the additional savings and services we are
offering tonight.”
For the duration of the event, he remained relaxed and of
service, helping them figure out whatever they needed to be
able to make a purchase that night if they so chose.
The conversion results at these events went through the
roof by offering this no-pressure Irresistible Offer,
averaging a 60% close rate for packages that cost a few
thousand dollars each.
In “The Invisible Close,” I cover A LOT MORE about
Irresistible Offers, how to design them and how to present
them effectively. To give you an idea of what you can
expect in this chapter alone:
* I’ll show you exactly how we crafted the laser offers so
that if women bought within a week of the event, they
received a generous assortment of freebies, but the company
also presented a Tonight Only Bonus that included an
additional free service worth $1,000. Thus, if they were
even slightly interested, they had to weigh the fact that
they would be leaving $1,000 of service on the table in
exchange for a night to ’sleep on it.”
* You’ll know exactly where to start when designing
Irresistible Offers…your goals or theirs?
* You’ll see ways that you can give away a lot but have it
cost you very little.
* I’ll teach you how to identify and use what I call
“Little Soldiers” to get the word out about what you offer
* You’ll know how to distinguish if it’s truly irresistible
or a bundle of fluff? It’s important to see what makes a
package really attractive versus what cheapens it.
* I’ll reveal my number one source for perfecting an
already existing offer. It’s right in front of our face
most of the time, but we can’t see it.
* I’ll show you how to get people out of the “yes” or “no”
mindset and have them start shopping…the mode you want them
in!
* And you’ll get a copy of my FAVORITE registration form
which I have used to close millions of dollars of business
for clients in many different industries.
As I said, these are some of the topics covered under the
chapter about Irresistible Offers. “The Invisible Close ~
97 Closely Guarded Secrets to Using Irresistible Offers and
to Boosting Sales Without Being Salesy” contains 21
no-fluff chapters, each one more loaded with immediately
useful information than the next.
To purchase your copy, find out more about “The Invisible
Close,” and to see the Irresistible Offers available to you
if you purchase today, go to www.theinvisibleclose.com.
Stay in touch with your ‘Irresistible Offers’ coach
For some of you, what I’ve given you so far may seem like a
lot to digest all in one gulp, but who says you have to do
that? I recommend that you start with the ideas and
strategies that most inspire you. As you begin to implement
that which you’ve learned in this guide, you will start to
see the fruits of this simple, inexpensive labor come back
to you in spades.
No charge for reporting miracles!
Please share your success stories with me! I LOVE knowing
which tips really worked for you and what kind of increases
in sales conversion you’re experiencing from your efforts.
Who knows…maybe you’ll be one of the success stories I
share about in future trainings and guides. You can email
me anytime at lisa@theinvisibleclose.com. I do hope you’ll be in touch.
Jove is a site that invites scientists to post their research in video. Show instead of describing. Will this guide to scientific advances? Probably yes.
One person speaking can be seen by millions and create laugh, desire, share knowledge. Online video bringing face to face communication, community and sharing ideas. This phenomenon is known as Crowd Accelerated Innovation. A new way of learning. We as business owners need to understand all the possibilities of new media beyond leads and sales. We can make a difference
This post is from Seth Godin‘s blog. As usual to the point.
“Do a search on great jazz singer “Emily Barlow” in Amazon and you’ll find… nothing. That’s because her first name is spelled Emilie and Amazon gives up.
Do a search on Lord of the Flies and you’ll find tons of matches, but none of the top ones are for the book–they’re all for expensive annotated or educator’s editions. Broken search = no sale.
It’s extremely difficult to figure out why people walk out of your store, throw out your brochure, leave your site… but in fact, this is fertile territory for dramatically increasing sales. You won’t find what’s broken if you don’t look.”
Thought you’d enjoy this post.
Let me remind you that we have a webinar this week on Unconventional sales strategies and you need to register.
Many business owners would love to score free media publicity – who would say no to TV appearances, radio interviews or magazine and newspaper features?
But when it comes down to it, a good portion of entrepreneurs also feel uncomfortable about the hype, intimidated or fearful of reaching out to the media, and concerned that selling yourself means somehow selling out.
If you feel intimidated by the media, here’s how you can get out of your own way, become a star in the media and still be true to yourself.
Step 1: Overcome your fears and self sabotaging doubts by recognising your fear. Start by making a list of things you’d like to achieve in PR such as appear on TV or be featured in your local newspaper. If an automatic thought crosses your mind giving you a reason why you can’t do it, then that is the result of some sort of fear. Once you recognise your fears, you can work towards defeating them by taking action in the direction of your goal.
Step 2: Don’t be afraid to reveal yourself through your story Stepping in to your own power and greatness comes with firstly accepting who you are as a person. The media is looking for you to make a connection with their audience. The quickest and easiest way to connect is to reveal your true self. Highlight the things that are unique about you and your business. Tell your story in a way that inspires others. This strategy taps into the notion that if you can do it then others can too.
Step 3: Find a newsworthy story angle: Think yourself about the stories you see in the media and how you can shape what you provide to fit into am existing news story. Think about trends. What’s in the news right now? Can you offer a comment on any of these issues and relate it back to your product?
Step 4: Write a winning press release that focuses on the “Three C’s”:
*
Catchy: Use a headline that is short and sums up the contents of the press release
*
Conversational: Get to the main point of the press release in the first line – don’t bury it three or four sentences down. Use language that a 12 year old can understand – the simpler, the better.
*
Concise: A media release should be short – aim for one page of text, and no more than 1.5 pages or it just won’t be read.
Step 5: Determine your target media outlets Make a list of the media outlets that your consumers read, watch or listen to and create a list of journalists who regularly write about your topic. These are the media outlets you need to be contacting with your press release.
Step 6: Make the pitch and follow up Email first with a personalised greeting, a sentence about your story angle and where it fits into the media outlet, and a call to action for the journalist. Copy and paste your press release into the body of the email and send it. Wait a day and follow up with a phone call that’s made at a convenient time for a journalist. Be available to provide more information as soon as it’s requested.
Step 7: Maintain contact. Once you’ve made a media contact, keep the flow of information and communication going by sending them regular press releases or product updates.
The Final Word: Being a star in the media does not mean pretending to be someone you’re not. To have real impact means being your true self and tapping into your infinite power. A compelling story has the ability to touch lives and create a lasting emotional attachment between the audience and your business.
Sue Papadoulis is a contributing author to Align, Expand and Succeed; Shifting the Paradigm of Entrepreneurial Success. This “just released” book is based on the premise that the world is changing at a very rapid pace. We are starting to see that cooperation brings better results than old style competition. It’s a new era and we need to work together to create success for everyone, not just for a few.
This book features dozens of conscious entrepreneurs who share their wisdom, expertise, stories, lessons and insights about the new and exciting shifts that are happening for entrepreneurs worldwide.
This book is designed to raise the vibration of the planet like never before. Get your copy of Align, Expand and Succeed and enjoy an abundance of gifts with your purchase. http://www.aesbook.com
I had the pleasure of interviewing Stephanie DeGraw from PowerMedia Entertainment a few weeks ago.
We talked about the many possibilities that small business owners have to market their business with their own TV show.
It is a lot easier than most people think.
Listen carefully to this interview on Small business marketing with TV shows
Creating an irresistible business
You heard this one before: People are overwhelmed with information. Not only that, due to the recession, people are more anxious and more resistant to buy. They know we all have too much stuff and we don’t need more “stuff”.
If your services or products are seeing as “stuff” you are in trouble.
Add to this mix the fact that we are all ADD and just don’t pay attention anymore. In fact the average American adult has an attention span of 9 seconds. This is the same as a goldfish.
Yes, we are all selling to gold fish and they swim away really fast.
Combine the fact that people are not paying attention to the fact that they don’t want anything that is ordinary, that looks like more stuff and you find the reason why so many businesses are suffering.
The gold rush today is to get attention and to be found. Getting attention is difficult if you position yourself as a commodity. In fact, you need to work on your business and turn it into an irresistible business. A business that people notice, talk about and want to be a part of.
I know it looks like a complicated and expensive task but I can assure you this is not the case.
There are 7 components you need to make sure you have in your business and you will see how together they make your business irresistible to people, therefore attracting more and more clients with less effort on your part.
The components are:
1. Create an irresistible promise. A promise is not about how great you are but what do they get when buying from you. It needs to talk to an emotional level.
Ex: Disney promise is: The happiest place on Earth.
2. Unveil your core story. We as business owners need to master storytelling and need to have a story that will resonate with people. We need to be about something. People connect with companies that are about something they can relate to. Ex Thom shoes.
3. Find your unique voice. You need to find your voice in the crowd, need to show personality. Businesses that don’t have personality don’t do well in the new economy. you don’t need to please everyone, just the ones that would buy from you.
When marketing online choose a way to express your voice and become really good with the format. It can be audio, video or text. Ex: Innocent Drinks from the UK
4. Incorporate Mystery. Bring some suspense, tease with your audience. Leave some questions unanswered. The mind cannot live with unanswered questions, so they glue to you. Ex: The Coke formula
5. Become Uberpresent. Businesses today need to be everywhere. They need to be where their audience is. This is where you can use social media marketing and automation to do the work for you. Don’t forget to create a strategy that will not only create awareness but also conversion. Most businesses fail here. They assume that because social media marketing is free and seens easy to use all they need to do is set up accounts and give some tips. There is a lot more here and you need to design a path for people to buy or for you to build a list.
6. Incorporate business rituals. People stick to businesses that have rituals. Just take a look at multilevel companies and churches. Decide how you too can incorporate some rituals. Can be as simple as having an assessment before talking to a prospect.
7. Increase trust. You need to do everything you can to increase the level of trust with clients and prospects. People don’t buy if they don’t believe. Using testimonials is a good start.
These 7 components can change the face of your business and will create loyal customers and advocates that will spread the word about your business. To implement this system takes some brain power and testing but doesn’t cost money and will make all your marketing and advertising efforts more effective. Attracting clients is not about the tools you use but about the message you send.
E-Book Devices Expected to Reach 10 Million U.S. Homes 10.3 million U.S. homes will have an e-reader by the end of this year, Forrester Research estimates. E-reader owners buy an average of 15 e-books per year, and two-thirds of the e-readers already in owners’ hands are Kindles.
I love to read and think holding a book in my hand provides a better experience, but I have to tell you, I love my Kindle. It is a lot easier to travel and have my e-book reader in my bag, it is a lot lighter and in one small device I can carry several books, magazines and blogs I love to read.Allows me to consume information when I want, where I want and from different media options.
No wonder so many people are buying e-book readers. Some say by 2011 e-books will outsold paper books.
Now why is this important to your business? Because here lies a huge opportunity to market to all Kindle owners for free.
See the paragraph above where I mentioned I can carry in my Kindle books, magazines and blogs? Yes, blogs.
If you have one, you can submit to Amazon and have it available for Kindle owners.
People will be able to subscribe to your blog, free for 14 days and after that pay a monthly subscription to read your content. Amazon will share this subscription with you. Here is a revenue opportunity for your blog, but I think the best part is the possibility to reach an audience you couldn’t reach before.
In order to have your blog available for Kindle owners you need to go to Amazon, Kindle Store and then click on Blogs and set up a publishing account. After that you will need to provide some basic information about your blog like the RSS feed, how often you publish, what is the blog about etc.
Submit and after a couple of days Amazon will review and approve your blog.
You will be able to check later how many people subscribe to your blog. Note that the real reason you are doing this is because your blog will be on the search engine in the Kindle store and on Amazon. This is great in itself because is giving you visibility.
Don’t forget that your blog needs to be updated consistently.
