This is what earns the big bucks…
Okay, so that’s a kinda cheesy way to say it. But it’s 100% true.
Way back when I was getting into marketing, I realized there were two kinds of marketers. And especially, two kinds of copywriters…
— Those who could sell to EXISTING customers…
— Those who could sell to NEW customers…
Here’s the thing: you need both. In fact, most of the PROFIT in a business isn’t in getting new customers. It’s in developing a lifelong relationship with customers that will keep bringing them back for more, and more, and more.
A really good marketer knows you don’t need to profit on the first sale. You’re getting a customer to start a relationship. Hopefully, you’re not losing more than an “acceptable” amount of money. Once you have the relationship, and you fulfill on your promises that got them in through the door, you’ll bring them back for more and the profits will flow.
That’s all absolutely 100% critical to the success of a business.
And yet, it’s NOT the most valuable skill.
The most valuable skill you can develop in marketing is to turn cold prospects into first-time buyers…
Go down the list of marketing “gurus.”
They didn’t build their reputation on selling to a current customer base.
They built their reputation on creating marketing campaigns where you could spend $1 (or whatever amount, it’s a freaking illustration, thank you very much), and have it generate a new customer, who’d be worth $1 and then some… If not immediately, then on a predictable basis when aggregated over all the respondents of a new campaign.
When I work with clients today, these are the campaigns where they WANT TO pay me the biggest royalties and fees.
They know all the back-end campaigns in the world are worth nothing if you’re not bringing new customers into the business.
Here’s what you need to know about selling to cold prospects…
It’s all about AWARENESS.
It goes all the way back to what Eugene Schwartz shared in Breakthrough Advertising.
Although I like how Keith Krance has been presenting this using the UPSYD acronym, so I’ll use it here…
Every market — and every prospect within a market — has to move through the same awareness spectrum to get to purchasing your product or service…
— Unaware
— Problem Aware
— Solution Aware
— You Aware
— Deal Ready
Whether consciously or consciously, this is what GREAT copywriters and marketers do. (Better consciously — it creates more consistent wins!)
You get someone’s attention at a point where you’re making them aware of a problem or an unmet desire.
That problem or unmet desire has to already exist, by the way — you can newly define it, but as Schwartz argues and I agree, you can’t really create desire in a market, only channel it.
You bring attention to that problem, and agitate the experience of the problem.
You identify the criteria of what a great solution would be.
You present your solution, and explain how its features match with the criteria of a great solution.
Then, you present your offer, your deal.
When you pull this off, that’s all it takes…
That’s how you create a marketing campaign that takes off.
This is the same essential arc that I cover in my book, The Ultimate Selling Story. If you don’t have it yet, get it from Amazon here. If you DO have it and haven’t yet left a review on Amazon, please do so here to help others discover the book.
I also incorporated this lesson into my webinar today for BTMSinsiders members. If you missed it live, you missed it live — but you can still join BTMSinsiders now and you’ll get a link to the recording in tomorrow’s weekly Insiders Update email.
But back to the main point.
Maybe you’ve heard the Gary Halbert saying that “You’re one good sales letter away from success.” Other Halbert students have often repeated it…
Maybe you’ve heard Russell Brunson’s co-opted version, that “You’re one funnel away…”
This is what they’re talking about.
If you create ONE effective selling message or selling system that moves cold prospects through the market awareness spectrum from unaware or problem aware to being ready to buy, you have enormous potential.
Because those are the campaigns that scale.
Here’s the thing — HOW to do this is changing…
The old-school direct marketers still do this with single sales letters.
Cream-of-the-crop copywriters still do this in one go.
Whether it’s a VSL, a direct mail piece, a letter on a web page, a webinar, or whatever…
It CAN be done with a one-shot selling message.
But today, it doesn’t have to be.
You can build selling systems that use retargeting, email marketing, automation, and more to move prospects from unaware, to problem aware, to solution aware, to you aware, to deal ready…
Over many touch points…
In many media…
In email, on your website, via ad buys, and a whole lot more…
And it never looks like long copy, or traditional direct response, or any of that.
In fact, you can even do this almost 100% with Facebook ads and smart retargeting at different points in the prospect’s journey of discovery.
Pretty cool, huh?
I think so.
And, it can be a pretty big breakthrough!
Yours for bigger breakthroughs,
Roy Furr