Marketing is just like Dating!

Why aren’t people responding to my advert?

It’s a question we’re faced with a lot. The long winded answer of course is let’s take a closer look, drill down into your content and find out for you.

Quite often though, we find the same mistakes. And our solution? 

The biggest piece of advice you should consider when trying to sell your product is this: Marketing is just like Dating!

People have a wide range of choices these days. They’re bored of been advertised to. They see advertising more times in a day than ever before.

Consider this: 

If you ran a shop in your local town 30 years ago – You’d likely have a nice attractive sign, your offers on a board outside and some products in the shop window perhaps. People would have to walk by your shop to see you. To get people to visit the town specifically to come to your shop, you might put an ad in the local paper and you might consider putting something in the yellow pages to let people contact you. People didn’t see your ad every day, or any similar advert for that matter.

Now think about how you could advertise that same shop today, there’s Facebook, Twitter, Google, Display ads that follow you around as you surf the internet. And these ads aren’t just for your shop, they are for any place your product might be. These adverts are been seen by people when they’re at work on their computer, when they scroll through their phones on their lunch break – advertising quite simply is everywhere.

So what are you doing that’s different to everybody else?

Let’s explore the dating analogy. Or more specifically, to begin with, the flirting bit. First up you need to create a good first impression and get people curious about you. On a dating site, this would come in the form of writing a catchy bio about yourself, or sending that initial first message into a person’s inbox.

If you say the same old thing that everyone says, a simple ‘Hey, fancy a chat?’ It’s not really an attention grabber is it? That person has already seen several dozen messages exactly like that!

Similarly you also don’t want to just sell the full package right there! No one wants to read your entire life story in that first message.

So think about the hook that can entice that person to respond to your message. Have you read their dating profile, do you understand their likes and dislikes, their needs? How can you identify with them and interest them enough to want to know more?

Too often people look to make the quick sale when really you need to be talking to your customer, understanding their needs, gaining their trust and letting them know that you’ll be there for them when they need you.

Eventually things might progress and you’ll arrange a meeting, they’ll visit your shop or ring for your services. Still don’t go into selling mode, just be there, be dependable and provide the solution to their needs. Suddenly you’ll find you’ve sold yourself and your product or service without even realising it, and your customer won’t even realise they’ve been sold to either.

So there you are – How to be successful at marketing, and dating!