The first thing to happen before any business takes place is you must capture someone's attention. Before someone buys from you or pays you, they must first hear about you. When thinking about business, I like to think of it as monetizing an audience. When most people think of "monetizing an audience", they think of selling ebooks to their instagram followers or blog subscribers, or allowing ads on their youtube videos. When you realize all business is just monetizing an audience you start to think much differently.
So that's where we'll start. With the simple idea that all business is monetizing an audience.
Your audience is whoever buys from you. Like I said earlier, you must capture their attention. Every business needs to know who buys from them. That is part of how you know to solve their problem in the first place and satisfy a need. But back to the idea about an audience..
Whoever buys from you can be limited in a number of ways. A local service business can only sell to people in their town. A fitness brand can sell to people anywhere but only is bought by people interested in fitness. Thinking in that way, every audience has one thing that unites them and that needs to be highly defined. The local business that washes windows in Seattle is not a window washing business in a marketing sense...it is a Seattle business. That is because they cannot wash windows in Pensacola or San Diego, only Seattle, which is very specific limitation to their audience than the fact that they wash windows. 30% of people may want their windows washed, but what percentage of people live in Seattle? That's the point. If they make an instagram page and post pictures of windows being washed, would they grow their business? Nobody wants to watch that crap, and if some people do, there's a 0.1% chance they are also in Seattle.
So, each business has an audience, which is defined by a limiting characteristic that allows for focus. Now, once we identify these things, we can go to the next part. Getting their attention...
Knowing that the local window washing business can only sell services to people in seattle. They realize that an instagram and facebook page all about windows and washing them was really a stupid idea. They decide instead to start a podcast about everything cool in seattle, and they bring on the most influential people in Seattle to be interviewed on the show. They focus all of their energy on making it an entertaining show that can entertain and capture the attention of all Seattle people. They don't use their time to talk about window washing. They deliver value to the audience and give them amazing and entertaining content that is all based around Seattle. Every once in a while, they mention they are a window washing company, and the thousands of people who enjoy their content hear that and many people reach out to them to do business.
Every business has an audience, which is defined by a limiting characteristic that allows for focus. In order to eventually create a transaction, you must get their attention. You do this by delivering value to them, which can usually be in the form of content. You get to know people by giving them what they want, and then you sell them something that you had all along on occasion when it's appropriate.
Every heard of the show "hot ones"? They sell their own hot sauce. How would YOU do trying to create your own hot sauce brand? It's easy for them. They have a show about hot sauce that brings on celebrities and is highly entertaining in many peoples' opinions. They have 5.9 million subscribers and a focused product in each one of their videos to sell to them. The marketing costs? They just film people eating wings at a table and put it on youtube.
You can pay for your customers through ads, or you can be the thing they wanted to watch or read in the first place...
And when you have a relationship built up, they come to you first.
If you are going to use a realtor to buy a house, you will likely use a family friend or a relative who is a competent realtor before you randomly call up some brokerage. That's because you knew them for reasons other than when you needed a house. That is marketing.
If you sell things to local people, you need to become famous in your town. If you sell things to interest based people, you need to become famous within that interest group. If you have a wide selection of possible customers, you have more to gain by being generally famous.
There's a reason Dan Bilzarian is "growing" a massive weed company so quickly... and it's much smarter for him to monetize his audience in a highly profitable way rather than just doing sponsorships and posting other peoples' ads or selling "merch"...
If I were to start a weed company, I would try to be more like Dan Bilzarian than posting pictures and videos of marijuana on social media.
I was working with an accounting firm in San Francisco and the owner mentioned the best clients were always large businesses but she had trouble reaching out to them because large companies has secretaries that filter out sales calls. I asked if she could perform services to people in any location or only locally and she said local only. I told her to start a podcast about all things San Francisco and to invite on large business owners frequently. They'd be happy to feel "mini-famous" by being on a podcast and it would be a hyper-personal way to build a relationship and mention your accounting services as a side note.
I was working with a new apparel brand who sold trendy, women's clothing. I told her she needed to make content that the people who would buy her clothes would want to follow. She mentioned she would but "what else?" I said to reach out to everyone who has the attention of her potential audience already (like makeup tutorial influencers on youtube and instagram) and create affiliate programs so they would get paid when their followers bought her clothes. Raise the prices a couple bucks and she'll never pay upfront for sales and marketing.
I have a local lawn care business. When I open multiple locations, each location's manager will be titled a "marketing manager" and their job will be to build an audience and build relationships in creative ways within the community. They will all be the face of the brand for the city in which they operate. They will be instructed via a marketing handbook created by me that has their schedule planned out for each year and how to do every single step. It will involve renting out a venue to host a party and inviting all of the people who go to the local church to the party for free, and personally meeting each and every person. It will include hosting a simple youtube show or podcast about the things going on in their city. My company's interest isn't "lawn care", its the city in which we operate, and the marketing should only be focused on that one area. I would have just as much success if each new location had a completely different name, but was ran the same way. It's about the local audience, not the "interest" based category of your business.
I am frequently regarded as a salesman. I really don't take pride in sales. Sales is squeezing the most juice out of one fruit. It's about being the best on a small scale. It's trying your hardest to get one girl to date you. For years I never could articulate that I enjoyed the idea of marketing much more. As competitive as I seem, I'm not. I don't focus on saving my money because it seems like small thinking. I don't run fast to get anywhere. I don't try to get one girl to like me. I don't like optimization and working hard and getting up early. Not because I'm lazy, but because focusing on the small stuff like a 5% increase just distracts you from the few simple major actions that will bring 80% of your results. I'm a marketer. I want 500 lemons to squeeze lazily. I want 500 girls to ask out with a "U up?" text. I want to sit back and not convince anyone and sound like a salesman. I'd rather have people busting down my door and I sell whenever I feel like it. I don't like chasing or optimizing. I like big margins and low effort. Sales is the closing ratio, marketing is how many people you get to talk to.
So that's where we'll start. With the simple idea that all business is monetizing an audience.
Your audience is whoever buys from you. Like I said earlier, you must capture their attention. Every business needs to know who buys from them. That is part of how you know to solve their problem in the first place and satisfy a need. But back to the idea about an audience..
Whoever buys from you can be limited in a number of ways. A local service business can only sell to people in their town. A fitness brand can sell to people anywhere but only is bought by people interested in fitness. Thinking in that way, every audience has one thing that unites them and that needs to be highly defined. The local business that washes windows in Seattle is not a window washing business in a marketing sense...it is a Seattle business. That is because they cannot wash windows in Pensacola or San Diego, only Seattle, which is very specific limitation to their audience than the fact that they wash windows. 30% of people may want their windows washed, but what percentage of people live in Seattle? That's the point. If they make an instagram page and post pictures of windows being washed, would they grow their business? Nobody wants to watch that crap, and if some people do, there's a 0.1% chance they are also in Seattle.
So, each business has an audience, which is defined by a limiting characteristic that allows for focus. Now, once we identify these things, we can go to the next part. Getting their attention...
Knowing that the local window washing business can only sell services to people in seattle. They realize that an instagram and facebook page all about windows and washing them was really a stupid idea. They decide instead to start a podcast about everything cool in seattle, and they bring on the most influential people in Seattle to be interviewed on the show. They focus all of their energy on making it an entertaining show that can entertain and capture the attention of all Seattle people. They don't use their time to talk about window washing. They deliver value to the audience and give them amazing and entertaining content that is all based around Seattle. Every once in a while, they mention they are a window washing company, and the thousands of people who enjoy their content hear that and many people reach out to them to do business.
Every business has an audience, which is defined by a limiting characteristic that allows for focus. In order to eventually create a transaction, you must get their attention. You do this by delivering value to them, which can usually be in the form of content. You get to know people by giving them what they want, and then you sell them something that you had all along on occasion when it's appropriate.
Every heard of the show "hot ones"? They sell their own hot sauce. How would YOU do trying to create your own hot sauce brand? It's easy for them. They have a show about hot sauce that brings on celebrities and is highly entertaining in many peoples' opinions. They have 5.9 million subscribers and a focused product in each one of their videos to sell to them. The marketing costs? They just film people eating wings at a table and put it on youtube.
You can pay for your customers through ads, or you can be the thing they wanted to watch or read in the first place...
And when you have a relationship built up, they come to you first.
If you are going to use a realtor to buy a house, you will likely use a family friend or a relative who is a competent realtor before you randomly call up some brokerage. That's because you knew them for reasons other than when you needed a house. That is marketing.
If you sell things to local people, you need to become famous in your town. If you sell things to interest based people, you need to become famous within that interest group. If you have a wide selection of possible customers, you have more to gain by being generally famous.
There's a reason Dan Bilzarian is "growing" a massive weed company so quickly... and it's much smarter for him to monetize his audience in a highly profitable way rather than just doing sponsorships and posting other peoples' ads or selling "merch"...
If I were to start a weed company, I would try to be more like Dan Bilzarian than posting pictures and videos of marijuana on social media.
I was working with an accounting firm in San Francisco and the owner mentioned the best clients were always large businesses but she had trouble reaching out to them because large companies has secretaries that filter out sales calls. I asked if she could perform services to people in any location or only locally and she said local only. I told her to start a podcast about all things San Francisco and to invite on large business owners frequently. They'd be happy to feel "mini-famous" by being on a podcast and it would be a hyper-personal way to build a relationship and mention your accounting services as a side note.
I was working with a new apparel brand who sold trendy, women's clothing. I told her she needed to make content that the people who would buy her clothes would want to follow. She mentioned she would but "what else?" I said to reach out to everyone who has the attention of her potential audience already (like makeup tutorial influencers on youtube and instagram) and create affiliate programs so they would get paid when their followers bought her clothes. Raise the prices a couple bucks and she'll never pay upfront for sales and marketing.
I have a local lawn care business. When I open multiple locations, each location's manager will be titled a "marketing manager" and their job will be to build an audience and build relationships in creative ways within the community. They will all be the face of the brand for the city in which they operate. They will be instructed via a marketing handbook created by me that has their schedule planned out for each year and how to do every single step. It will involve renting out a venue to host a party and inviting all of the people who go to the local church to the party for free, and personally meeting each and every person. It will include hosting a simple youtube show or podcast about the things going on in their city. My company's interest isn't "lawn care", its the city in which we operate, and the marketing should only be focused on that one area. I would have just as much success if each new location had a completely different name, but was ran the same way. It's about the local audience, not the "interest" based category of your business.
I am frequently regarded as a salesman. I really don't take pride in sales. Sales is squeezing the most juice out of one fruit. It's about being the best on a small scale. It's trying your hardest to get one girl to date you. For years I never could articulate that I enjoyed the idea of marketing much more. As competitive as I seem, I'm not. I don't focus on saving my money because it seems like small thinking. I don't run fast to get anywhere. I don't try to get one girl to like me. I don't like optimization and working hard and getting up early. Not because I'm lazy, but because focusing on the small stuff like a 5% increase just distracts you from the few simple major actions that will bring 80% of your results. I'm a marketer. I want 500 lemons to squeeze lazily. I want 500 girls to ask out with a "U up?" text. I want to sit back and not convince anyone and sound like a salesman. I'd rather have people busting down my door and I sell whenever I feel like it. I don't like chasing or optimizing. I like big margins and low effort. Sales is the closing ratio, marketing is how many people you get to talk to.
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