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April 6 - April 8, 2018
People buy from a brand because of the way it makes them feel and the meanings attached to it.
Nicholas J. Webb defines five touch points: Pre, First, In, Core, and Post.
Just because you run a business online doesn’t mean you neglect experience from your brand equation. Your brand should feel the same to your audience every time they interact with it.
Your brand is your reputation, and it lives in the minds of your audience. It’s what your audience says it is, not what you say it is.
You choose what attribute you lead your brand with.
So if you’re fun, you’re fun all over. This extends across every point of interaction with your audience from the pre-touch point to the post touch point.
But to do that you need to be clear about your brand attributes.
What words do you want people to associate with your brand?
The biggest branding sin is deciding on your color palette and logo before deciding on your brand strategy.
You only spend your time and resources attracting your ideal customer.
This person is someone who you love to work with and serve. If you had a “poster boy or girl” for your brand, this would be them. Often, it’s your style that attracts these people.
Imagine this person or if you have an existing customer like this, get ready to sketch this person out in as much detail as you can at the end of this section.
But what if I have more than one type of ideal customer?
CARVE A SPACE FOR YOUR STAKE
Quit trying to be better than your competitors. Think of how you can position yourself differently.
Your ideal customer needs to see how you’re different. You help him/her see this by finding that white space and putting your stake in it.
Once you do, you won’t ever fear that your competition has similar products or content to yours because you know that you target different markets and buyers who want different things.
Start by writing down 1–3 main benefits your brand offers your ideal customer. You want to stick with 1–3 of the most compelling and important benefits that will make people sit up and take notice.
What does your ideal customer gain from doing business with you? What are the advantages of doing business with you?
What you do - Who you help - Your benefit
I make powerful marketing ideas simple and accessible for solopreneurs and small business owners so that they get clarity and cultivate a standout online brand presence minus the sleaze.
I teach female creatives how to organize and declutter their homes so that they get unstuck physically, creatively, and emotionally. They go on to fe...
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This, together with your brand attributes, will guide your copy, your visuals, and your tone. It’ll also help you communicate your brand when you actively make an effort to be known, liked, and trusted by your audience.
When you get featured on a platform bigger than yours, with more social proof and a bigger audience, some of that rubs off on you. Your credibility quotient skyrockets and people start to take notice.
ACTION
It's interesting to reference a study by Everett Rogers. His research12 states that people fall into five different personality types when it comes to taking up any new innovation: 1. Innovators 2. Early Adopters 3. Early Majority 4. Late Majority 5. Laggards
Pre-Touch Point The content you will create at this stage is about becoming visible.
Premier (First) Touch Point This is where a casual reader is ready to become a subscriber. But you need to invite them to become a subscriber. This is where you offer a compelling lead magnet or opt-in incentive. Your site also has to be optimized and prepared to convert a casual reader to a subscriber.
Pivotal Touch Point I like to say that the magic happens when someone is already on your list. This is where you create content to give them a deeper glimpse into your values and teachings. This is where you nurture them through regular emails and sequences.
Prime Touch Point Now that you have engaged subscribers, what type of content will encourage them to become customers? Prime content pieces should nudge and guide your ideal customer through the buyer’s journey.
Category 1: They have no idea about the problem that your product or service solves or why it needs to be solved in the first place. Category 2: They are becoming aware of the problem that your product or service solves. They still have a lot of questions. But you’ve got their attention, and they are starting to trust you. Category 3: They are aware of the problem that your product or service solves. They trust you and love your content. Often, they feel the product is right for them, but they’re not quite ready to buy.
Category 4: They are ready to buy, but they have questions. Category 5: They’ve purchased. They are ready for more good stuff from you.
You want to move people from Category 1 through to Category 5. You want to build a relationship with your ideal customer by empowering and educating them with content so that they inch toward your solution. Your ...
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This is why building a pool of content surrounding your products is important because different pieces of content will appeal to different readers depending on where t...
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If they don’t know they have a problem to be solved in the first place, they won’t appreciate your solution. Some may be aware, and some may not be. You need to raise awareness of the core problem so that they recognize it.
Value doesn’t come from feeding your audience with free tips that everyone else is already saying. You provide value when you’re able to inspire a commitment to change. You add to the content literature in your niche when you have a distinctive point of view. This is also how you build content authority.
To get 100 repeat, loyal customers buying your products, your ideal customer needs to associate you with the topic of your offer. If you regularly publish posts, speak on podcasts, do guests posts, or share on a particular topic, you get associated with that topic.
It also gets easy for your audience to tag you in social media conversations. When people ask for help in Facebook groups on a specific topic, your ideal reader should be able to tag you as the “go-to” person for that topic.
But if you write on a whole range of topics, and your content doesn’t have a thread through it, you make it hard for your audience to associate you with anything. This is where you start to send mixed messages. It’s easier to convince your ideal customer to buy from you when your products and offers are on a topic where you’re seen to have expertise or authority.
Most people think of a blog when they think of content. But there are lots of content mediums your business can use. Podcasting, a YouTube channel, and micro-blo...
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ACTION
When you’re in the market to buy, you’re actively looking for information. You’re alert. It seems as if everywhere you turn, you’re finding information about your potential buying decision. But when you’re passive and not in the market to buy, the information can be right under your nose, and you’ll miss it.
But when your audience is not in a “buying mode” … When they’re not actively looking for information about your product or topic… You can have the best copywriter work on your sales page, you can even have the best product, but they will zoom right past it.
According to the Data & Marketing Association,16 when it comes to purchases made as a result of receiving a marketing message, email has the highest conversion rate (66%). And for every $1 spent, email generates the highest ROI of $38.17
When done right, email lets you capitalize on the mindshare of 90% of your audience in a nonsleazy way. It allows you to be top of mind by displaying your expertise and authority. In this section, you’ll discover specific principles and ideas behind email marketing that will help pave the way for your first 100.
People don’t mind being interrupted by email. They only mind if the interruption doesn’t make any sense to what they think they’re there for.
After clicking the link in the confirmation email, I was sent to a page that simply said, “Subscription confirmed!” That was about it. I did not get any follow-up email. I was not redirected to another page where I could get the promised download. There were no calls to action as well. It was a dead end and a missed opportunity.
There are two key factors with email—an invitation and a conversation.
For starters, you need to invite people who potentially will go on to become buyers.
The best way to invite your audience and the first step in growing your email list is to offer a lead magnet or an opt-in incentive. This is a crucial component of the premier (first) touch point.
