It’s a near daily occurrence. My boys wake up, run to our bedroom and ask for us to put on a show. It’s usually an episode of Paw Patrol or Nature Cat that they have seen dozens of times already, but they’ll watch it with full attention, as if it’s brand new. As they are watching, I’ll make my way into the kitchen to start making breakfast for everyone. That’s when it happens.
“Hey Colten and Ryder, what do you want for breakfast?”
Silence.
“Hey Colten and Ryder, what do you guys want for breakfast?”
It’s as if I am not in the room at all.
Finally, I shout, “COLTEN – RYDER – BREAKFAST!!!”
And they look up, tell me they want cereal and they go back to their show.
I tell you this because this is exactly what is happening when you interrupt the lives of your clients, customers and prospects everyday.
When they scroll through their Facebook feed, they aren’t secretly hoping for an ad to get their teeth whitened or see a video from their financial advisor. They are there to look at photos and videos from friends, comment on a few things and check out what they want to check out.
When they open up their email they aren’t hoping to have your newsletter show up, along with the dozens of others that they don’t remember signing up for, but simply delete everyday.
The same scenario rings true when watching videos on YouTube, opening up their direct mail or browsing book titles on Amazon.
Everything we do as marketers, entrepreneurs and ThoughtLeaders® needs to break through and interrupt their attention for something better than they are doing right now.
Most of us never look at things this way. We just press on, sending out our newsletters, filming videos and putting out advertisements that blend in and fade away before ever getting our target market to pay attention.
Your new goal is to create something that snaps your market out of their zombie like state and get them into your world.
This starts by having a Big Idea. An idea that is so big, we have to stop, think for a second and pay attention.
Think about it like this.
Do you want to read a book on outsourcing secrets of the rich? Or are you curious about having a 4-Hour Workweek?
Tim Ferriss knew that having a 4-Hour Workweek was a big idea. So big that it stayed on the New York Times Best-Seller list for years. A book on outsourcing would have vanished as fast as it was created and put on the shelf.
How about this one…
Do you want to buy a newsletter that teaches you how to trade bonds? Probably not. But are you at least a little curious about how “Americans can legally piggyback Canadian Social Security.”
Ok, now let’s turn our attention to your marketing.
Look at your special report titles, your video titles and the last few emails you sent. Were you going through the motions, just to get something “out there?” Or did you put some time into thinking, “What’s the big idea that is going to get my market to pay attention?”
That is the question you need to pose every time you create a campaign, write an email, create an ad, film a video, go live on Facebook or do anything that you want to drive new clients to your business.
How do you do that?
You start by addressing the problem your market has and focus anything you create on them – not you. Never start by saying, “Here’s how I did this” or “Watch me do that.” Put the focus on the thing your prospect really cares about – them.
Then make it timely. What’s going on in the news? What’s happening in pop culture?
At this very second in time, as I am writing this, Star Wars: The Last Jedi just closed the fourth biggest opening week ever and BitCoin is about to hit $20,000. Those are two very big stories. How can I use them with my big idea?
Here’s one headline I am writing right now that goes along with the BitCoin story line:
How BitCoin Is Killing The Annuity Market
I am writing this for financial advisors and insurance agents. This will snap them into attention. It may get them riled up and angry. It will also get them to read the rest of the letter and see the solution I have put together to help them navigate the new waters that are out there.
A great question to ask yourself, when looking at news stories and pop culture is, what is the story no one is talking about?
Let’s look at my BitCoin headline example. Everyone right now is just talking about the stock price. And they are talking about the bubble. And they are speculating. Or they are trying to teach their friends what BitCoin and BlockChain are.
If I just jumped on the bandwagon, I’d look like everyone else and blend in. Instead, I see that no one is talking about how people are taking their retirement nest-egg and throwing it into BitCoin and risking everything because they didn’t ask their financial advisor what was best for them. Now I am the only one with this story.
Again, I urge you to look at what you are doing right now to attract new people into your business. Do you look like everyone else, with the same special reports and video titles and slogans that just blend in? Or are you presenting a big idea that they have to pay attention to?
That’s the same question I’ll ask myself this morning when I try and get my boys to snap out of their zombie-like state to eat some breakfast.
