By Kevin Elliott
kevin@wewafilms.com
The world is not as excited about your business as you are.
In fact, they probably don’t think about you at all. It’s important you come to grips with that or you will never make a sale.
Humans are self centered. That’s no surprise, but I see lots of young businesses who, because they are self centered and forget that others are too, talk about themselves too much.
Nobody cares. At least not enough to buy from you. They may like your post about the new piece of gear you got or the work trip you’re on, but they will not buy because of it. And selling is the entire point of marketing, not likes and hearts on a social post.
Have you been marketing a while and not getting leads? You’re likely talking about yourself too much.
So is it possible to make people care about your business? Oh yeah. Here are three ways.
Show people themselves
Use peoples’ self centeredness to connect with them. Stop talking about you and show them … them.
For example, one of our most effective marketing tools at Wewa Films is our docu-series CRAFT. Each episode features an artist or artisan. It says nothing about Wewa Films. Here’s the trailer.
We published just two episodes and my phone started ringing. And ringing. Every time we dropped a new episode I got calls, even though my contact info is not in the videos.
Why? Because people responded to the beauty of the work and could see their project being shot in the same style. They could see themselves.
Don’t talk about you. Show people what their life could look like if they buy from you.
Tell (other peoples’) stories
I can’t say enough about storytelling in marketing (here’s one of the articles I’ve written about it). There is no better way. As long as the stories aren’t all about you. So how do you use stories to market?
Here’s an example. We periodically post stories on social media about our clients. What they do, what makes them special, maybe a little about the project we did together. We get great response every time we do this. And that’s because we take the focus off of us and put it on another person or organization that prospective clients can see themselves in.
Here are two posts, one about the artist Christon Anderson and another about Visit Gulf County, the tourist development council in Gulf County, Florida. They both got great engagement and interest in our work.
This is great because people see your work but you aren’t tooting your own horn. You are lifting someone else up. This does two great things for your marketing (other than just being nice). First, the quality of your work is on display. And second, people can envision themselves in the work, which ties back to the first tip.
Get 3rd Party Recommendations
I said you shouldn’t talk about yourself, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t get others to do it. Get in the habit of asking for Facebook and other recommendations after you finish a job. Don’t wait for them to offer. Simply ask. I’ve never had a client say no.
Notice I said “recommendation,” not “referral.” Asking a current client to send you other clients is creepy and uncomfortable. Simply ask people to report their personal experience with your company.
Recommendations show the world that others were happy enough with your work to take the time to tell others. Huge credibility boost. You’re not talking about you, they are. Here are a few of ours.
Don’t act desperate, even if you are
I know you’re scared you won’t get any leads unless you talk about yourself all the time. You will definitely not get any leads if you don’t market, but you can make people care about your brand without bragging or sharing stuff about you that doesn’t benefit them. Remember, everyone is always asking, “What’s in it for me?”
Answer that question and watch the leads roll in.
Kevin
kevin@wewafilms.com
(850) 819-4463
P.S. – Here are some related articles that might interest you.