Have You Ever Done a 'Good Job', Then Been Chased Off The Premises?

My first real success in business was as a Google Ads consultant. I quickly discovered that working as a marketing service provider can be an emotionally hazardous occupation…

Imagine for a moment that you're a plumber. You go into somebody’s home to fit a new boiler. You know what you’re doing. You show up with the right kit and the right tools. You work efficiently. At the end of the day, the homeowner thanks you, and you go on your way.

By contrast, imagine you’re a Google Ads consultant...

You bring on a new client. You know what you’re doing. You show up with the right kit and the right tools. You work efficiently. At the end of the day, the business owner bars your exit.

“Where’s the conversions?” they growl, threateningly.

“Excuse me?” you reply.

“WHERE ARE THE CONVERSIONS?” the business owner yells. You begin looking around for emergency exits. The business owner bends down to pick up some nearby stones.

You bolt for the exit, climbing out through a window. You hear a ‘crack’ as a stone ricochets off the wall next to your head. “I’ll send you an invoice!” you yell behind you as you make your getaway.

I thought I had cracked Google Ads with my first few clients. I remember one time the client's spend was on track. The conversions were rolling in. Then one day my phone rang. “Sorry Rob,” they said, “but these conversions haven’t led to any business. We’ll have to end the project.” (The stones are emotional, not literal.)

There are various challenges with Google Ads, or any paid traffic source. The ‘high intent’ traffic is usually competitive and expensive, so you need high conversion rates to make the numbers work. Additionally, a lot of the traffic is what marketers ‘top of funnel’ – meaning people are in early-stage research mode. They’ve got 17 tabs open and you only get a fleeting slice of their attention. So you need robust follow-up systems to make the numbers work, and most small businesses don’t have these systems.

Looking back on my failed projects, it wasn’t that I did a bad job. I actually did a very thorough job! What was missing was a deep level of empathy with the end user seeing the ad.

Empathy is your ability (and willingness!) to properly understand your ideal client and the conversation going on in their head.

Empathy is not the same as sympathy. Empathy has nothing to do with outward displays of emotion. (Don’t come to me if you need sympathy…)

Some people are naturally more empathetic, but really empathy is a deep interest and attuned observance. When you meet someone in person (or on camera) you momentarily mimic their facial expression. For a fleeting moment you ‘try it on’, to see what it feels like.

As marketing is a communications solution to the problem of distance, you’ll rarely be in the same room as your target audience. You can't often 'try on' their expression. Consequently, you need to engineer ways to speak to people.

This means you can’t uncover the conversation going on in people’s heads by thinking harder or hiding in your cave. Sometimes, it takes years of experience and deep industry knowledge to understand your audience properly.

If you’re a business owner, you’re actually in a poor position to deeply understand the conversations potential clients have with themselves about your topic. After all, you’re immersed in it all day; they’re not. You know all the terminology; they don’t. You know the right questions to ask; they don’t.

This is why a time-based offer is often the correct offer at the end of your onboarding sequences. Getting on a call with people allows you to learn about them, listen to their language, and gauge their current level of understanding. These insights then feed back into your earlier marketing.

If you sell a product or membership, then you have a few alternatives. One is to offer a ‘time trade’ with your subscribers. With a time trade, you offer say 15 minutes of your consulting time in exchange for 15 minutes of their input. (Or 30 minutes and 30 minutes).

Another option is to add a survey question during your opt-in process. The question could be optional and be phrased: “What’s the specific problem that brought you to our website today?” Or: “What’s the biggest question you need answering about [your topic]?

Even having a small number of people complete this field will provide you with actionable guidance.

Rob

P.S. This article is adapted from my Lead Incubator Blueprint - my full multi-channel system for nurturing potential clients. Register here for a free copy.

Image credit: Vectorportal