My #5 Marketing Secret: Marketing to the “Not Me”
Let’s keep Glenn’s Money Making Secret count going:
#5 is something I call Marketing to the “Not Me”
Here’s the deal.
You’ve heard me say you’ve gotta find “point of difference benefits” in the marketplace… things your competitors are just not offering to your best customers.
You’ve also heard me say you need to connect these benefits to the emotional hot buttons which logically flow (the real human needs they serve)
But the thing of it is, those emotional hot buttons often come from very primitive places in the human soul.
Things we all shun from our day to day consciousness and characterize broadly as “darkness” for fear of ostracism and social punishment… what a famous psychologist named Sullivan calls the “not me”.
In simple English, the emotional side of purchase motivation can be damn ugly! We recoil from it and push it out of our awareness.
But thank goodness it is so ugly, because if it wasn’t, it’d be a LOT easier to recognize, and it wouldn’t be such a strong advantage for marketers who work hard to harness it constructively for all concerned.
Here’s the secret…
You can’t see the strongest emotional hot buttons in your market if you’re not open to the ugliest parts of yourself… you’ve got to be willing to admit that the “not me” really COULD be you if it weren’t for your commitment to be a socially valuable and loving human being.
You need to be fluent and intimately comfortable with your darkest thoughts and feelings. No matter how socially unacceptable they may be. (Greed, lust, envy, rage, sexual impulse in all its forms, disgust, mortifying despair, etc)
You need to have confidence that YOU CAN FEEL THESE THINGS without acting upon them, without sacrificing all that is good and praiseworthy about yourself, your goals, and your aspirations… without causing yourself ostracism from friends, family, and loved ones.
Because to ask and genuinely answer “what doesn’t my market want to admit about themselves… what don’t they want to think and feel?”… you’ve got to be willing to think and feel it yourself.
And then figure how to support their particular way of maintaining their self-perception in the face of these difficult thoughts and feelings, while simultaneously agitating them, and connecting their resolution to your offer.
(Example follows below)
Please note I also didn’t say you should ACT on these thoughts and feelings.
In fact, I don’t think you should share them with others at all, except for very specific and trusted loved ones and professionals. Because most untrained lay people won’t know how to accept these thoughts and feelings, and will only wind up helping you push them deeper into the “not me”.
Your power is in recognizing the “not me”, accepting it, and then channeling it into constructive aims (with the emphasis on constructive).
Only then can you do the same for your prospect. Here’s an example:
THE DARK SIDE OF THE GUINEA PIG MARKET:
Most parents got their children a guinea pig to help teach the kids “nurturing responsibility”.
Know what their big secret is? These little critters get so smelly when not cared for correctly that most parents can’t believe what they got themselves into, and would love to flush the damn things down the toilet.
(NOTE: I told you – not socially acceptable… and please, if you own a cute little guinea pig do NOT flush! There are easy ways to eliminate the smell – just read the FAQs online)
How to market using this insight?
Use a headline which immediately PROTECTS them from these dark thoughts, but also sets them up to experience and agitate them, with the solution naturally flowing into your product:
“How To Raise A Lovable, Playful,
Clean, Sweet Smelling Guinea Pig
Who Will Bring Years Of Joy
To Your Household!”
Inherent in this headline is everything the parent consciously wants. A long lived, loving little pet that smells like roses. The opposite of the foul smelling rodent they’d love to flush down the toilet.
The prospect is immediately relieved of the anxiety they’re experiencing in struggling with their dark side.
But we’re sure to arouse enough of that anxiety throughout the copy (by talking about a house which smells like a sewer or a barnyard, etc) to make them realize they’ve gotta buy our product if they want permanent relief.
And you emphasize that you’ll help them double their guinea pig’s lifespan.
Wait! Why would I talk about doubling the guinea pig’s lifespan when I just told you parents secretly want to flush the piggies down the toilet? (Ouch! I just know I’m gonna get hate mail from parents for this)
Because this is the “Not Me” parent’s are frightened of. It’s the evil part of their soul from which they want relief. So you use their unconscious desire to agitate the problem, then strengthen their conscious desire and connect it with purchasing your product.
It’s kind of like being an exorcist. You help purge the demon from them, but only in exchange for the transaction.
But remember, the REAL secret isn’t specific to this market… the real secret is, I’d never have understood this if I wasn’t comfortable with my own demons. If I couldn’t allow myself to identify with those evil thoughts of flushing piggy down the drain, fully confident in my ability to stay constructive regardless of what I felt.
How do you get comfortable with your own demons?
- PRIVATE JOURNALING: It’s especially helpful to keep a journal while you’re building a marketing project. Write down all your negative thoughts… about the project AND your personal life. Write down every time you get that “stuck” feeling… when you’re sure that what you’re thinking or feeling is worthless, invaluable, absolutely off target. (All signs of the “not me” at work). But write down all the positive stuff too. Just WRITE. Privately. In a secure place, with a password. Erase it afterwards if you have to. But get it out of you in words so you can see it in black and white
- PERSONAL COACHING/PSYCHOTHERAPY: A lot of you are probably going to hit me for saying this but, the 20 years I spent in my own personal psychotherapy has done more for me as a marketer than any book I’ve ever read, any course I’ve ever paid for, and any marketing mentor I’ve ever had. There’s something very special about the private space created by a competent professional. I think every marketer should spend a few years with a shrink. (God knows we’re nuts to be in this profession to start with!) (As an aside, to find a good psychotherapist, don’t ask so much about credentials, though you should definitely screen for those before you call… ask instead “how do you decide when to intervene and when to just listen”. The good ones will have a well thought out, organized, and cohesive answer which you resonate with)
- NATURE TIME: Remember, the “not me” is forced into the darkness by the demands of society. There’s nothing like getting away from the pressures of society for a while into the woods, in private with your thoughts. It’s the best environment I know of for “thinking new thoughts” and getting comfortable with what’s really going on in a market (and in yourself). When was the last time you got out?
For what it’s worth,
Dr. G 
My Best Stuff | Beginners A to Z | SEO Blueprint You Can Trust
PS – Please note, that if you have the feeling “this is bullshit”, well, that’s almost exactly making my point about how powerful these insights are. (I realize this creates circular reasoning which can’t really be logically disproved… but it’s true nonetheless)
Want to know how Google Instant affects AdWords?
If you wondering how the new Google Instant will affect your paid search – so are we…
No one knows what’s going to happen yet, but we can all conjecture.
David Szetela and myself recorded a radio show that is going to air today at 4pm EST on Webmaster Radio on the show PPC Rockstars. You can listen in from their homepage, and tweet any questions you have.
Feel free to listen in an share your thoughts.
As for more official news on Google instant and AdWords, here are the rules:
An impression is…
- The user begins to type a query on Google and clicks anywhere on the page (a search result, an ad, a spell correction, a related search).
- The user chooses a particular query by clicking the Search button, pressing Enter, or selecting one of the predicted queries.
- The user stops typing, and the results are displayed for a minimum of three seconds.
Google Instant Resources:
- Test Google Instant in AdWords
- Good post from Google Analytics team in regards to AdWords
- Google Instant – The complete user’s guide
- Google Instant – The power of suggestion
- Nice tongue-n-cheek response
And if you are sick of hearing about Google Instant, the best non-instant article of the week is the The Power User’s Guide to Google Analytics Hacks, Tips and Tricks.
| Read Brad's Newest Book: Advanced Google AdWords | |
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Advanced Google AdWords will provide deep insight into AdWords functionality and advanced features, explaining how they work and providing tips, tactics, and hands-on tutorials that readers can immediately use on their own PPC campaigns. |
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How to Set up a Google Instant Experiment for AdWords
Google rolled out a massive change yesterday, called Google instant. You can see a brief video here about the feature.
If you watch closely when someone is typing, not only do the results change as you type, so do the ads.
The way impressions are counted will change. An impression will be counted when:
- The user begins to type a query on Google and clicks anywhere on the page (a search result, an ad, a spell correction, a related search).
- The user chooses a particular query by clicking the Search button, pressing Enter, or selecting one of the predicted queries.
- The user stops typing, and the results are displayed for a minimum of three seconds.
It’s the last one that might change your impressions dramatically. If you happen to have some 1-3 word keywords in your account that are in the suggestion bar, then your ads might also gather more clicks that previously.
The easiest way to quickly see instant results is to either type them into the Google search box or use Web Seer. If you happen to find another tool that lets you easily download search suggestion variations – please let me know.
If your willing to do some testing on these new suggestions (you have a bit of money to test with); do this:
- Choose a few of your root keywords (generally the 2 word variety)
- Type these words into Google instant or web seer
- Make a list of these words
- Break them into appropriate ad groups
- Enable ACE (AdWords Campaign Experiments)
- Create new ad groups with these words
- Make these brand new ad groups part of your experimental campaign
- Let the experiment collect data
- Measure the results
Do your new keywords just have lots of impressions and few clicks?
Do your new words have lots of clicks and few sales?
Did both clicks and conversions increase?
If you have good clients, telling them about this type of experiment and how you are already working on testing a brand new search system to see if you can gather more conversions for them the day after something launches often gets you bonus points.
Note for Certified Knowledge members: If you need help with this experiment; please post in the forums and I’ll make sure to reply to everyone. I’m going to do some testing with this method to try and measure click, volume, and conversion changes – and I’ll let everyone know about my results.
More resources on Google Instant:
- AdWords help files on instant
- SEL Article: Will instant kill the long tail?
- SEL Article: Google instant user’s guide
- Inside AdWords blog post
- Tracking Instant in Google Analytics.
- Learn AdWords techniques with 70+ training modules
- Optimize your account with our PPC Toolbox
- Connect with marketers in the forums
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- For Urchin servers with the processing power, Parallel Profile Processing can give you a way to dramatically reduce the amount of time needed to process your profiles.
- The ability to segment your report data on the fly using Advanced Segments.
- Event tracking is now available in Urchin 7.
- More flexible Geolookup, allowing you to specify the level of geographic detail on a Global scale.
- The Urchin Data API version 2 has been significantly enhanced allowing for many more filters to segment your data.
Read Brad's Newest Book: Advanced Google AdWords Advanced Google AdWords will provide deep insight into AdWords functionality and advanced features, explaining how they work and providing tips, tactics, and hands-on tutorials that readers can immediately use on their own PPC campaigns. Certified Knowledge: Online AdWords Training, Tools, and Community Certified Knowledge is an online tools, training, and community site brought to you by Brad Geddes & bg Theory.
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What I believe about…. Work
My buddy Bryce is newly married, about 15 years younger than me. Getting a startup off the ground. Hot in pursuit of the entrepreneurial dream. All the usual drama of getting his chops busted, landing new customers, building a portfolio, scrambling for cash.
His wife is a schoolteacher and her day ends at 3:30. As soon as she finishes grading papers.
When does his day end?
If he doesn’t set his own boundaries — his day might never end. Just work work work, 24/7 :^> Do ya relate?
He comes up to me and says, “Man, this is challenging, keeping all these balls in the air. In my apartment, work is always 10 feet away, beckoning me. Bryce, Bryce, Bryce, there’s all this stuff you still need to do. It’ll only take a minute….”
I say to him, “You just put your finger on THE #1 professional challenge of the 21st century. The fact that if we don’t set up barriers for ourselves, work is nagging us. ALL. THE. TIME.”30 years ago only a few people had this problem. Now everybody has it. Add a laptop-based business to a personality whose energy never shuts off anyway, and you’ve got yourself a recipe for massive brain-overload!
“Bryce, I’ve got some advice for ya. Take it from a guy who’s ran 24/7 for years, that kind of pace takes a toll on your marriage and your family. At least one day a week you need to shut it ALL off and go have some fun.”
Here’s a contrarian way for you to think about work. It’s 180 degrees different from everybody else.
Most people think that work earns them a weekend. Work hard all week. Friday comes and it’s Miller Time. Sunday night comes and freedom is spent, time to go back to prison.
The problem is, when you run your own biz, Friday comes and you might not feel like you earned your day off. Maybe you didn’t earn a dime all week. TAKE IT ANYWAY. JUST DO IT.
And here’s the Big 180, courtesy of Dan Sullivan:
—> When you’re an alchemist, work doesn’t earn you free time and fun. Rather, free time and fun recharges your batteries so you can do your alchemy. <—
Sabbath rest or Sunday off. Backed by 4,000 years of tradition. You can laugh at them Jewish folks and their funny black hats, but they do know how to have fun and they know how to run a successful business.
Right?
When you come back rested on Monday, you’re less frantic, you’re more creative, more resourceful, wound less tight, more capable of tackling whatever comes your way.
Most of the creative people I know say their best creative ideas come when they’re playing.
Perry’s Dual Principles of the On/Off Switch:
1) IT’S IMPOSSIBLE FOR A HACKER TO BREAK INTO YOUR COMPUTER WHEN IT’S TURNED OFF.
2) IT’S IMPOSSIBLE FOR YOU TO CHECK YOUR EMAIL ON YOUR COMPUTER WHEN IT’S TURNED OFF.
So…. just turn it off. At least one day a week. That one day a week of having fun and spending time with the people you love is your fuel cell for the other six.
Trust me on this.
Perry Marshall
P.S.: Yes, I know, your computer brought you this message. You might even be reading it on your phone. Ah, the irony. Courtesy of a guy who believes you shouldn’t be chained to it. Same with your Smart Phone. Liberate yourself and watch your income rise.
P.P.S.: Yeah, I know…. you’re saying to yourself, “That’s crazy. It could NEVER work. My business is different.” I’m talking to YOU, pal.
P.P.P.S.: When your schoolteacher wife asks you why you’re suddenly taking Sunday off and taking her out for lunch and when she asks you finally paying attention to her for a change, tell her that Perry Marshall guy sent you an email and told you to. That’ll make her like me better. Then she’ll let you spend money at my seminars and stuff.
What I believe about…. Entrepreneurs
Some time ago my travels took me to the red soil of Nairobi, Kenya. A gracious schoolteacher named George ran a foster care program for AIDS orphans. He took me on a tour of his world.
How incredibly different it was from mine.
Someone had given George a Toyota station wagon, so we didn’t have to walk. He drove me through twisting back-county roads of Kukoyu, dodging potholes the size of bathtubs and showing me how the other half lives.
We would pass bands of children walking along that road and women balancing jugs on their heads. I met all kinds of kids without moms and dads, mostly living with relatives and hopefully holding body and soul together.
I met one kid whose most recent home was a rock quarry.
We visited a wooden hut where a girl, maybe 9 years old, was playing in the dirt in her filthy pink dress. She was mentally handicapped and there was no one else around. George spoke kindly to her in her native language. He gave her something to eat. Eventually, we left.
As we drove away, I thought, “I’d never leave MY kid here….”
I met a 7 year old boy who was dying of AIDS for lack of a $1 bus ticket to get a free shot.
It was gut wrenching. All these people staring at me with that blank gaze of poverty and apathy. Paralyzed by a belief that there’s nothing they can do to make their life better.
I asked George if he ever helped any of these people start businesses. “Yes!” he nodded excitedly. “I will show you some of our micro loan recipients.”
George drives me to another village. We walk into a cobbler shop. A guy named Paul is fixing shoes. Paul had polio when he was a kid so he can’t walk. His crutches are leaning against the wall behind him.
Paul does NOT have that blank hopeless stare. His eyes are clear. He’s alert and he’s aware. He’s proud of what he does. His kids have uniforms, they attend school, they are well fed. He’s a respected man in the community.
His legs might not work right, but he’s not a cripple.
George explains to me that with a $50 business loan, Paul founded that cobbler shop and became an economic pillar of his community.
By American standards Paul is poor, but he’s not living in poverty. Paul doesn’t speak the same tongue as me yet when our eyes lock we both sense that we share a common language: The language of entrepreneurship. He’s proud of what he’s accomplished and he’s not asking for handouts.
My friend, there is one and only one path out of poverty. It ain’t UNICEF. Or the United Nations. It’s not even jobs or technology.
It’s entrepreneurship. It’s brave people like Paul.
NOW:
Imagine for a moment that someone had taken Paul’s $50 and sold him a sham “business opportunity.” Big bag o’ smoke. Hit & run. Ain’t worth the paper it’s printed on.
How much would that scam have cost Paul… really?
For one thing he’d be a cripple living in a rock quarry today. Begging on the side of the street. Not a successful entrepreneur. Not a guy with a house and a kitchen and 3 beautiful kids.
His 3 kids would be living with who-knows-who, or maybe no one. Paul’s cobbler shop wouldn’t be there in the middle of his village. People wouldn’t be getting their shoes fixed. A certain school would be minus 3 students. A seamstress would have sold them three less school uniforms. The vendors who sell him soles and nails and leather would have one less account.
His kids might be stealing food instead of buying it.
Do you see how these little tiny hinges swing big doors?
That’s why it really frosts my cookie when snake oil salesmen and film flam men sell bad business advice. They’re teaching people s*** that doesn’t work.
Doesn’t matter whether it’s Africa or America or Antarctica, it’s still a crime. I hope them scammers end up living in a rock quarry. They sure don’t deserve to be making megabucks, that’s for sure.
I got fleeced real good for the first few years of my business career. You probably know that story and if you don’t I won’t bore you with it. But anyway, I’m one of those people who believes things happen for a reason. Maybe one of the reasons that happened to me was …. so I’d know what it’s like.
Cuz God forbid that I ever sell people big bags o’ smoke. Or that you should ever spend your money one of those bags o’ smoke.
I believe that when someone teaches how to fish, they should teach you with real boats and real fishing poles and real ponds. Not with a flight simulator. They should be able to prove what they do works. In real market conditions with real tools and real customers. Not shills.
Every time someone sells fake business advice, the world loses a few entrepreneurs. People who might have made it, but they couldn’t recover from that one loss.
Who knows… what might have been?
Every time someone delivers *real* business advice, the world gains a few entrepreneurs. More “Pauls”. More cobbler shops. More kids going to school. More food to go around. More for everyone.
I take my job – and your job – very seriously. What we both do matters. A lot.
If you have any kind of “real” business on the Internet; if you know that more clicks for less money, better sales conversion, improved follow up and a superior marketing strategy would put more money in your pocket; then I invite you to apply for this fall’s personal AdWords coaching session.
Not all are accepted, but if we let you in, I back it with a hugely ballsy guarantee and a promise that if you put in the effort, you’ll get the results. www.BobsledRun.com. Starts September 28.
Whether you live in Africa, Europe or America – whether you only learn, or if you teach as well – I hope you take your teaching, and your learning, very seriously. Because a very very important entrepreneur depends on the knowledge you apply:
YOU.
Perry Marshall
New Arrival! Urchin 7 Released…Sign up for "First Look" Webinar
Urchin version 7 is officially released. We're excited about the launch of this new version of software which has added many super useful analysis features. But before we get to the new features, we'll explain a little bit about the software and how it's used.
Urchin Software from Google is an enterprise level web analytics solution similar in scope to Google Analytics (Urchin is actually Google Analytics' predecessor), however Urchin is a software installed, hosted, and managed by the customer. Unlike Google Analytics, Urchin is not free (there is a $9,995 license fee) and requires experienced technical staff for installation.
Urchin helps website owners to better understand their online marketing initiatives, website traffic characteristics, and visitor's browsing experience. Those who benefit from Urchin the MOST would be those who prefer to keep their data on machines they control, those who would like to process historical data, those who need their data audited by third parties, and those who would like to track an intranet. Examples of companies who have purchased Urchin in the past are government institutions, large corporations, and universities and colleges.
Now for the good stuff - a few of the new and improved features of Urchin 7 include:
Be sure to save your seat for Friday, September 10th, at 2pm Eastern, for a look at the capabilities of the latest and greatest version of Urchin.Why Selling as you know it is dying a slow death
There’s nothing more scary in sales than mashing your foot down on the gas pedal, and feeling the clutch slip.
. . . then pressing harder and smelling the odor of your transmission starting to melt.
If your prospects smell a hint of desperation, it’s all over. They disengage more and more. The harder you chase them, the more they hide from you inside their Dilbert cubes.
In the spirit of the current age, nobody *thinks* they need a sales person telling them what to do. (Even if they DO need someone to tell them what to do. And let’s face it – some of them need to do what you’re telling them!)
As the economy toughens, it’s time re-think the way you sell in every medium you use, to attract and create new customers for life.
Ari Galper has a beautiful philosophy: “Get to the truth, not the sale.” It creates startlingly different results, and it makes it almost impossible to “burn out the clutch” with prospective customers. Because it’s all about pulling, not pushing. It’s congruent with the spirit of the age.
Ari’s warning to all sales professionals, business owners and entrepreneurs:
http://www.perrymarshall.com/salesbreakthrough/
(Be sure you optin so you can download Ari’s audio “7 Strategies For Making Selling Painless.” Read the part about his live event in November. I’m sending my staff & it’s going to be great.)Perry
The Cleverest Email Scam
This came to me today from one of our close personal friends. I thought, “Dang, I didn’t know she was going to the UK!” Almost fell for it. I hope you don’t….
The cleverest scam I've personally seen. Even better than them Nigeria emails....
