Marketing Isn’t A Formula

When you’re trying to generate revenue for your business online, it is pretty natural to want to go out and learn from other marketers.

Maybe even emulate them.

But, here’s the thing…

You can’t do so blindly. Marketing isn’t really a formula. It isn’t just about putting pieces in the right order and looking like another marketing campaign that does the work for you.

Let me give you some examples of what I mean…

I have had many students who have learned from myself and others about the topic of sales funnels. And the idea of a front-end offer (others call it a tripwire) is pretty well known. You’ve been taught about how you can kick off a sales funnel with a cheap, low-end offer. I’ve even talked about making it $10 or less.

Of course, now that I’m re-doing my funnel training inside THE LAB, I’m making it clear that this is not set in stone. I think I made the mistake in the earlier version of making it sound like this was a hard-and-fast rule. And, so people would move forward on two pieces of (inaccurate) information:

1. ​That you must have a front-end offer in your funnel. And…
2. That it must be super cheap.

Neither of those things are true. It works in many markets, but not all of them. And that’s because markets are made up of humans, and humans have a lot of variety.

The “front end offer” is not some slot in a funnel that you have to fill with something. I’ve seen too many people who will just spit out some PDF file, or grab something from their hard drive and spruce it up… just so they could stick it into that slot in their funnel. That’s not how this works.

And that’s because you have to truly know, understand and have empathy for the people you are looking to sell to. Only when you truly understand them and are looking out for their best interests can you truly understand how to structure your sales funnel. In some markets, a front-end offer under $10 would be so ridiculous that it’d be written off as a joke. In some markets, you’re much better off going right for the core offer and forgetting all about a front-end.

So, it isn’t so formulaic.

Another example…

Email sequences. People opt in for the lead magnet and you want to send them a few emails, pre-written, to hopefully get a sale. But, when you go out and look at what the fancy-dancy internet marketing twerps are doing and just follow blindly, what usually happens?

• You feel like you’re supposed to send them some “value” first, so you just send out 2-3 emails before asking for a sale. Rather blindly. Even if those emails essentially serve no function other than to fill in that slot called “send content first”.
• You end up losing their attention, then the transition into asking for a sale comes off as awkward.

It’s like… hey, here’s some content. Cool? Now, BUY BUY BUY! NOW! Here let me jam this countdown timer down your eye socket!

Doesn’t work.

That’s what happens when you try to blindly follow marketing like it is some kind of formula.

That’s what happens when you don’t truly understand your market. When you’re talking out of your ass. And when you’re concentrating so hard on just trying to make that sale that you’re forgetting to have humanity and manners.

Marketing isn’t a formula. It isn’t an engineering sequence.

We’re dealing with human beings here. And there’s no substitute for understanding. And understanding is made by communication, common reality, which therefore builds affinity.

You need to be able to have empathy with your audience. That’s harder for some than for others. But, the only way to get there is to CARE. And, from there, to communicate. To ask them questions. To learn to see the world from their eyes.

Then, only from the foundation of understanding your market and what they really need and want, only THEN… do you use the marketing tactics you read about as a medium to facilitate things.

I don’t care whether you read some marketing strategy from me, from somebody else, or some “7 figure earner” bloke. Doesn’t matter. Take what they say with a grain of salt. Realize they’re probably talking about their own experience, mainly. And put it through the filter of your own personal understanding of your “tribe”.

Note, this doesn’t mean you don’t make offers. I’ve seen some people just jump to assumptions that “my people don’t like to be sold to”. In 99% of cases, that’s bullcrap. You’re just hard-selling crap they don’t want. Or jumping to conclusions. Your problem is marketing, not the fact they won’t buy anything.