4 Blind Truths You Never Ignore About Direct Selling And Branding
Where do you fit in?
Are you a hard-core marketer whose daily chant is ” Sell, Sell, Sell?”
Or are you a marketer who would rather be brand-driven than ask for the sale upfront?
“Please don’t ask where I fall… lol
Have you considered ever holding on to the two kinds of marketing qualities?
In other words, it’s not about direct selling or branding.. it’s about doing both direct selling and branding.
There are certain marketers that have built up a stash of “goodwill” with their prospects and existing customers. In some cases, it might even be in excess abundance. For some others, however, the “goodwill” just doesn’t exist.
I love to sell directly to prospects and existing customers… and the claim that marketers make about “giving, giving , giving and eventually the market will buy – true as it may sound, it’s all a lie.
If you want to make sales, you must ask for it.
Asking for the sale most times draws down on your “goodwill” effectively, while efforts like content marketing and “branding” raises your “goodwill” to prospects and existing customers. And it is impossible to get one effort’s results from the other.
Choosing between direct selling or direct selling and branding is unsustainable. What if you can do both in today’s fast- paced, changing world, because the digital marketing or digital advertising landscape has evolved.
How?
Through Retargeting!!!
It’s a shift in the way we advertise and build owned media and place the right offer in front of the right person at the right time.
It combines the best of branding ( building goodwill) and direct selling ( making sales) and does this across the ad networks and customers you are serving.
There is a 4 step truth process that shows how ad retargeting merges direct selling with branding
Truth 1
You build goodwill for your brand by leading with value in the content you produce ( this content can actually stand alone in value).
Create content that entertains, educates, inspires and distribute it via your social channels like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram.
Make sure the content in itself is not disguised as a sales message –
How?
Use text content on your blog that your audience will find extremely useful.
Here’s an example article…
( An article on the iVEN Digital website designed to attract business owners interested in defining their ideal clients)
Commit measureable and significant time, energy and even running ads to your content marketing efforts – by boosting or driving traffic to the contnet to “catch” more eyes on it. You can boost with as little as $5 to increase the consumption of the content.
Sticky Point : Be willing to commit resources to promote valuable content because you know and understand that the rest of the process produces a return on your investment.
Truth 2
Some visitors to your content will end up becoming subscribers, leads, or customers directly from the content.
Remember: VALUE FIRST – So it is vital that you provide real value in your content, you shouldn’t be afraid to embed offers in and around your content. After all, it is a bonus if the offer included is relevant to the content that surrounds it. We call this embedded offer a Lead Magnet
Screenshot of Lead magnet which is the ideal client worksheet download.
( A relevant advertisement embedded in the post. This offer requires the visitor to give you their contact details to receive the piece of content being offered.
Truth 3
Now, you have time to build your retargeting “list”
When someone lands on your page and reads your content, you learn something very valuable about them. SSpecifically, you learn what topics interest them.
They are raising their hands and telling you that this content is of interest to them. But what use is this information, if you don’t have their email address?
How do you even know who hit what page?
RETARGETING
Ad retargeting networks like Facebook Custom Audience, Google Adwords Remarketing allow you to set a pixel on a visitor’s computer or mobile device and show them ads based on the contnet they have visited on your website.
Through this, the visitors are segmented, branded ( touch point with your brand) and reachable with direct selling style offers as they have been added to a retargeting list.
So the more visitors you get to your valuable content, the greater these segmented, branded and reachable list of visitors will grow.
Truth 4
Here, you are able to follow-up with these segmented and targeted visitors, even if they didn’t opt-in to your list to receive the offer in the content – all thanks to retargeting.
So those that didn’t opt-in to become a subscriber or a lead, will be retargeted back to the opt-in offer or lead magnet
Those who take the lead magnet are further followed up with a low-dollar, front-end offer called “A tripwire offer” and those that opted in and did not purchase the tripwire offer, are retargeted with that offer…
And that’s the 4 stage process that combines the branding campaign of your content ( by driving traffic to the valuable content) through retargeting, with direct selling, and ask for the sale.
Remember this combination was only possible after you have delivered VALUE FIRST.
In other words, you did both!
If you’ve got no idea of how to apply even two or three of these truths into your marketing strategy, let’s chat. If you are looking for a guide on how to start, there is no better time than NOW to get your strategy set up for this exciting year. Know who your ideal client is, know your clear concise message, and know WHERE you should show up online!
If you have any questions or simply want to chat, drop a comment below! Otherwise connect with us on your favourite Social media platform, as we are on nearly everyone!
If you don’t know how to pull this all together, we have trainings online focusing on different marketing elements.
So, if you are stuck or overwhelmed with creating the right marketing strategy for you and your ideal clients, we have Strategy Sessions available!
