According to various advertising and marketing specialists, there are thirty tried-and-true triggers that influence buyers to engage. How many of them can you come up with (without help)?
Go ahead. I’ll wait.
There are the obvious ones, of course:
Appealing to your target audience’s curiosity, desire to belong or collect, emotion, greed, guilt, hope, or sense of urgency.
But there are many others. Here’s the rest of the list: authority, consistency, credibility, exclusivity, familiarity, harmonizing, honesty, integrity, involvement/ownership, logic, linking, mental engagement, objection raising/resolution, patterning, product nature, proof of value, prospect mindset, satisfaction, simplicity, specificity, and storytelling.
How many of the above triggers have you used with success, online or off, as a business owner, entrepreneur or copywriter ?
Can you come up with examples of each type? If not, hang with me for a week or two because we’ll be going through them one by one.
“You have two choices in life: you can dissolve into the mainstream, or you can be distinct. To be distinct, you must be different. To be different, you must strive to be what no one else but you can be.” Alan Ashley-Pitt
True, that. No two insurance agents are the same. No two Realtors are the same. No health coaches are the same. They may share and sell similar insights and services as their competitors, but they each attract different kinds of clients. You simply cannot please “everybody” who needs what you offer. People are picky.
So the first thing you need to do is find out why you should matter to your target audience. You need to brand yourself in your field–and the larger the field you’re in (the more competitors you have), the smaller the niche you should occupy first. Acing it (finding out all you can about it) will bring you more opportunities. Your niche will eventually have your name written all over it and few people will even consider doing business with anyone other than you. So for now put your laser focus on it until you have the chops (and the extra help) to branch out.
Find out who you are and why that should matter to your target clientele by asking yourself “Why?” Why did you choose the career you have now, instead of any of the hundreds of others that you could have chosen? There’s a great book called Start with Why by Simon Sinek that explains how your ‘why’ story can compel others to want to jump on your bandwagon, sing your praises, and help you get where you want to go.
Apple knew what it needed to do to inspire a cult-like following. So did Coca-Cola, Harley-Davidson, and Mary Kay. You need to find out, too.
But just a heads up: if you aren’t passionate about what you do and why you do it, no one else will be, either. Seriously. So stop spinning your wheels and choose some other way to make a living–one that floats your boat.
Because unless you do, it’s going to be a long, lonely struggle with very little to recommend it along the way. Love what you do and who you do it for and you’ll have the foundation you need to make a go of it.
[Are you already on fire for what you do and just needing some encouragement to keep on keepin’ on during the struggle to brand yourself? Try my book Settle For Best: Satisfy the Winner You Were Born to Be. You’ll find the link for it on the BOOKS page above this blog. It sat at #1 at Amazon in the Inspirational Self-Help category for three days when it debuted.]
In the meantime read Start With Why by Simon Sinek. There will be a test. 🙂
If you pass it, you’ll be a success. There is no better way to succeed than by learning what has worked for others–and you get to sidestep a lot of potholes this way, too!
