What Marketing Really Is About - Understand This And Grow To The Moon

Today I want to talk to you about what marketing really is. 

This might be a controversial subject so keep in mind that what follows is only the reflection of my personal opinions and experience. 

The analogies used, which may sound strong for some people, are only there to illustrate each point with the emphasis I felt was needed. No offense intended to anyone.

Onward.

Most companies make an immeasurable effort to attract as many people as they possibly can thought their marketing efforts, in the belief that this is the key to success.

They fail because they believe that Marketing is the science of attracting people. But truth is, Marketing is the Art and the Science of REPELLING PEOPLE.

And talking about Art, in any art, but specially in writing -either it’s novel writing, copywriting or screenwriting- the quality of a piece is defined not by how much of the raw material made it into the final cut -and thus, how “extensive” it is-, but, all of the contrary, by how good the artist or writer is to cut out all of the excess, allowing only the most potent ideas to surface and shine.

That is, more than anything else, what differentiates an amateur writer from a master.

In marketing, cutting the fat out means, in practical terms, architecting a message that repels each and every person who’s not part of your target market.

Just like the excess fat alter the natural harmony and efficiency of our bodies, the excess fat in our marketing messages make them weak, and negatively impact the overall health of our business.

The so-called first postulate of marketing “You cannot be everything to everybody” teaches us the value of laser focusing our marketing efforts in a well-defined segment of the objective market.

However, what many founders and entrepreneurs overlook, is the logic consequence of this principle: 

“If you cannot be good to everybody’s eyes, then the only way of being GREAT is to make sure you rub a big enough portion of the marketplace the wrong way.”

This might sound a little extreme at first, but believe me: it’s what it takes to become really successful.

People need to know what you stand for, and what you stand against. If you don’t get enough haters, you won’t have true lovers either. 

That’s why nobody cares about people that constantly try to satisfy everybody’s expectations and desires. They’re just shadows that pass though life deserving of no admiration nor hate.

In business though, this pathetic behavior will directly translate in a consistent (lack of) ROI.

It’s not only that if you cannot get a core of real fans that absolutely love your product you’ll end up out of business rather soon…

It’s also the fact that all of that extra fat in your advertising messages is turning what it could be a successful campaign into a real money pit.

If you have some experience running ads, you probably know that profitability comes when you cut out the segments or audiences that don’t convert. Depending on the advertising platform that you’re using, this may entail deleting interests, keywords or whole audiences showing unacceptable poor performances.

By doing so, you’re -even if you didn’t know it- cutting out the excess fat in your advertising, and most likely than not, you’ll be rewarded in exchange with a healthy ROI where before there were only red numbers.

But this is only the amateur way of going about this...

The way I’m teaching you today is 100x more powerful, and when you master it, you won’t need to use most of the targeting options that your ad platform provides you with.

That’s why I didn’t start this article talking about “targeting”, but about “marketing messages”.

Your marketing message IS THE BEST TARGETING TOOL UNDER THE SUN!

There are, indeed, two ways of targeting:

There is the simple way, the way that 99% of people use, which involves “reducing the universe” of people that will ever see your ad. You do this by using the ad platform’s targeting tools (think of “interests” and “demographics” and “behaviors” and “keywords”…)…

AND THERE IS THE RIGHT WAY.

How do you do it?

You craft your marketing messages is such a way that each person who reads it AUTOMATICALLY QUALIFIES OR DISQUALIFIES THEMSELVES.

When you become capable of creating such messages, you won’t need to use any other targeting options. You could even publish your ad for the entire universe of people in Facebook to see and do so profitably!

This, of course, cracks the gates wide-open for scaling…

But if you want to become a master of this underused and highly misunderstood type of targeting, you need to start by understanding that MARKETING IS THE ART & SCIENCE OF REPELLING ANY PERSON WHO IS NOT YOUR TARGET AVATAR.

Unfortunately -or, let me be sincere here, FORTUNATELY FOR US in the know- most marketers think that the reason to define an avatar in the first place is to be able to “target’ it with your marketing messages.

And this is true, of course, but behind it hides the real secret to get all the eyeballs your business will ever need, at break-even point or better:

Use your avatar’s definition to mercilessly and relentlessly repel ANYBODY and EVERYBODY that doesn’t perfectly fit with that description.

Notice that I didn’t say “overlook” or “don’t attract“”. I said “REPEL”.

Yes, this is a strong word, as it should be. It’s a action verb, BECAUSE REAL, POSITIVE ACTION NEEDS TO BE TAKEN TO MAKE IT HAPPEN.

That’s why is SO important to define the “borders” and the “hollows” of you avatar with the same, or maybe even greater precision than the avatar itself. 

I’d go as far as saying that YOU NEED TO BUILD YOUR ANTI-AVATAR with the most care you’re capable of. He/She will make or break your business, in the most real way.

Now, this is the good news: 

Most of the time, THIS IS ALL YOU WILL NEED TO DO to turn a campaign that’s losing money by the minute into a money-making machine.

Some examples, should we?

Ok, this is the most basic example but, nonetheless, the one that illustrate the point the best:

Let’s say that you’re selling coaching services for $5,000 -or any other high-ticket service or product, for that matter- and you decided to advertise in Google.

You may go about writing your ads like this…

(No good copy here, by the way, just some quick and dirty examples)

From Worst to Best:

“Grow your business with the personal help of the coach than mentored

10 out of the 50 fastest-growing companies in the US just last year. 

Book Your Free Strategy Session Now”

“Grow your business with the personal help of the coach than mentored

10 out of the 50 fastest-growing companies in the US just last year. 

CALL NOW TO RESERVE YOUR SPOT 555-555-5555”

“Grow your business with the personal help of the coach than mentored

10 out of the 50 fastest-growing companies in the US just last year. 

Book Your Consultation Now For Only $500 - Limited Spots!”

“Grow your business with the personal help of the coach than mentored

10 out of the 50 fastest-growing companies in the US just last year. 

$5,000 - Only 10 Seats Available”

Ok, I think that you got why I said that the first one was the worst of the pack, didn’t you?

EXACTLY: It says FREE.

There is no worse positioning on Earth! 

But let’s leave the big subject of “Positioning” for another day…

There is no better way known to humankind to attract A WHOLE BUNCH of people that using the word “FREE”. That’s why many people think that’s such a wonderful idea…

Until they figure out that they’ll have to pay for each and every one of those useless clicks!!

That’s what you get, when you think that the work of marketing is attracting as many people as you possibly can…

The last one, for contrast, will seldom get clicks from people that don’t have at least $5,000 to their name, and the specific kind of mindset required to invest that amount in such a service.

So, with this little Jedi trick you are now, all of the sudden, in the enviable position of only having to pay -for the most part- for the eyes of actual prospects to your business or product.

It’s just way too easy to go broke when 70%+ of the clicks and views you get in exchange for your advertising dollars are useless fat!

This is, once again, probably the simplest, more straight-forward example of all. There is a lot more to it than meets the eye when you really want to put this to good use in all areas of your marketing plan (and you should).

But the basic formula is quite simple: 

1) DEFINE WHO YOU DON’T WANT AS A CUSTOMER WITH MINUTE PRECISION, and

2) USE YOUR COPY TO MAKE THEM RUN FOR THE HILLS AS SOON AS THEY SEE YOUR AD!

That’s it. 

Do this, and scale it to the Moon!

Leonardo

PS: Remember: if you want real love, MAKE SURE YOU ANNOYED A LARGE ENOUGH NUMBER OF PEOPLE!