Use These 7 Ways to Add Value to Your Marketing

I'd like to share with you one of the mistakes I see people make with their marketing

ADMISSION: I’ve made it too. Too often!

So, let me tell you…

Click here if you prefer to watch video

What the mistake is and then I'm going to give you seven ways you can use straight away to avoid this mistake.

The mistake is NOT making certain the marketing has value in and of itself.

So, what do I mean by that?

Well, whether it's a video, an audio, a written letter, an email, or webpage, or a postcard in the mail; whatever the content - it simply doesn't give any value.

It's just only about the offer!

It's only about the prices somebody wants you to pay them.

It's only about the product or the service.

It doesn't have any value for the reader, for the watcher, for the listener of the marketing piece.

This is a major mistake…

Because if we can make certain our marketing is so tasty people want to consume it. (i.e. we're giving them value in consumption of the message) then not only is the message more easily received, not only is the message more powerful, but the message is far more likely to prompt the reader, listener, or watcher to actually take the actions we want them to take.

So, here are ‘The 7 Ideas to Add Value to Your Marketing’

1. Explain an idea they can use immediately.

On one of my marketing videos for a webinar I use in order to promote The Author Society, I explain how it's a great idea not to only swap your time for money but to replicate yourself or to duplicate yourself.

One way to duplicate yourself is to teach other people how to do what it is that you do and have them do it on your behalf.

Another way is to replicate yourself to convert your information, your knowledge, your experience, your expertise into informational products.

Yet another way to duplicate yourself, is to have people pay you to learn what it is you do, and then they go off and do it for themselves.

So, I'm explaining these ideas within the promotional video.

That's giving anybody who watches it an idea they could use themselves. So, there's value contained within the marketing piece.

2. Explain to someone and give them greater awareness of a problem they might face.

In my marketing, I might explain to somebody - whenever you use a picture, whether it's a picture of a person, or a picture of a place, or a picture of a thing in your marketing you always want to make sure you put a caption with the picture. If we don’t then we're guessing what the viewer thinks about the picture.

They may look at the picture and be thinking, "What on earth is that about?" or "Who's that person?" because they don't know who it is.

So again, adding value for somebody.

3. Talk about the problems similar people have had to the person you're talking to in the marketing.

I'm giving you these examples to do my best to bring it to life for you.

One of the marketing videos I created - I stood at Birmingham Central Station, the new station in Birmingham, United Kingdom.

On the video I was saying…

“Of all the coaches, consultants, and speakers I've dealt with over the last 25 years, there were three major problems that they talk to me about and they often said

"Peter, how can I get more leads?

Peter, how can I convert those leads into actual paying long term clients?

Thirdly having done that, how can I make some money out of that while still having time for myself?"

Those are the problems they had before they work with me.

If you've had similar problems…

Then off I go talking about whatever it is that I was promoting at the time.

What I was doing was to make sure the person I was talking to through the camera lens could relate to these problems.

In other words, I was using parallel logic.

If this is you, as well as these people, then what I'm about to say probably relates to you in the same way that it related to them, and because these people had these problems, then you can feel comfortable about the fact.

So, this was something they were learning, these are problems people like me and you run into.

You’re giving good value within the marketing itself.

4. You could give part of a solution that you're going to give in full, perhaps on the webinar, or the seminar, or the product, or service it is that you're providing.

If there were three steps to solving a problem, you could explain number one.

if I was running a webinar on marketing

Or I was promoting one of my subscription products where marketing was covered in there, I could be saying on the webinar

“I'm going to explain the guidelines I use for writing powerful, passionate, persuasive headlines. On my checklist of the main five I do, number one is always for me - is the headline 17 words or less?”

The reason I use 17 words as a guideline, not a rule, is many years ago I interviewed Ted Nicholas. Ted is the world's most successful self-published author and probably, certainly for me the number one marketing guy in the world. He's just an absolute genius.

Ted taught me face to face when I interviewed him, and I got to know him, became friends over many years and he said, "Peter, the guideline is get the headline to 17 words or less."

5. Using a detailed testimonial

This is where you have a testimonial endorsing what it is that you're offering - but in the explanation of the testimonial, you're giving value, because the testimonial explains what the person has done from what you've taught them.

Therefore, the person listening, or watching, or reading can take it away as well.

Here's an example for you…

A testimonial might say, "Using Peter's idea about having a systemised referral process in my business, meant that in one week alone, I got seven new referrals of which two turned into business"

So, not only explaining the testimonial…

But the value the reader can take away from that is the fact that, have I got a systemised referral process in my business, or is it just too ad hoc?"

So, there's good value in there.

6. Provide a checklist or a survey

A checklist they go through as part of the marketing you're doing.

In answering the checklist or answering the questions on the survey, they are learning more about themselves, and therefore that's really powerful for someone to realise the way they like to learn things.

7. If in the course of the marketing particularly if you are marketing something about marketing, you're able to explain what you were doing and how you were doing your marketing.

This provides massive value.

So, for example…

If I was doing this on a video. I might use the idea of using blind bullets.

A blind bullet is where you explain what something is about - but you don't go into the details.

So, I might say…

“There's a three-step process in order to write a powerful headline. And I would say on the video ‘I used a blind bullet there, didn't I?’

And on the full webinar, I'll explain what those three steps are."

So, not only have I used the idea of blind bullets to promote what I'm promoting, but I've also explained, therefore I've taught, therefore I've given value blind bullets actually work as long as you don't use them too often.

To recap:

It's explaining idea that the reader, watcher, or listener can use.

Give them greater awareness of the problem they face.

Talk about the problems of other people so they feel good about it.

Give them part of the solution.

Use a detailed testimonial.

Provide a checklist or a survey, or even teach them something by the way of actually doing it to demonstrate exactly what they're doing.

I hope you can take these seven ideas away and use them.

Think about how you can bring value to your marketing because the more value we add into the marketing itself when somebody consumes it, and they realise they're getting value, then they're far more likely to respond positively to the actual marketing message itself.

I wish you every success in your continued journey to create for yourself a business and or career, and a life of choice where you have freedom from everything that might have held you back and freedom to be, do, and have. In that order, to be, do, and have everything you set your heart and mind upon.

Until the next time

Every Success

Peter

Peter Thomson

Editor and Mistake-Avoiding Publisher

tgiMondays

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