Today’s post comes with a warning. Don’t rely on general advice to solve a serious, specific problem.
I’m writing this, following a surge in emails from readers who’ve wasted time and money making the same mistake. I want to help you avoid this common and expensive error.
Let’s start by looking at the best way to mass produce cookies!
Cookie cutters are highly effective. They let you create lots of identical looking cookies, really fast, based on an identical template.
Of course, this means they’re of no value whatsoever, if you want to create individually hand-crafted cookies.
Why am I telling you about cookie cutters?
Simple. The marketplace is packed with cookie cutter guides to marketing. These marketing seminars, books and online courses are designed to deliver step-by-step instructions, which anyone can use to produce ‘marketing’. They’re strikingly similar and extremely general.
They have to be. Because they’re designed to be sold to as wide a range of business owners as possible.
This model works EXTREMELY well for those selling online marketing seminars, marketing programs and digital marketing products. Why? Because production costs are low and it scales to infinity! They create a generic product once, which can be sold unlimited times at an enormous profit. That’s why we’re seeing more and more of these products being sold.
However, it doesn’t work for the end user. I see this confirmed in increasing numbers, from readers who’ve wasted time, lost money and missed opportunities to grow, by following general, unspecific marketing advice.
Think about it: When your marketing is similar to everyone else who’s using these general marketing ideas, your marketing becomes camouflaged. Lost in an ocean of businesses, doing extremely similar things.
- This makes it way too hard for prospective clients to find you.
- And if they do find you, you’ll look too similar to your competitors, so there’s no reason to contact you.
- Oh, and if they do contact you, they’ll be price sensitive, because you seem like all the others. When providers look similar, prices or fees are used to determine value.
My advice to you?
Ignore the cookie cutter!
Successful marketing is always specific. It’s about getting noticed by your prospective clients and giving them compelling reasons to hire you or buy from you. It’s about developing marketing that’s focused on your unique business and your unique goals. It’s about identifying the exact type of clients you want to attract, then making your business irresistible to them.
So, ignore the cookie cutter.
Get intentional.
Rise above the noise of all that generic marketing, which is currently making you invisible to people who want to hire you or buy from you.
That’s the only way to get the attention you need, the sales you need and the results you need.