You’ve seen the statistics: the average person sees a zillion or something marketing messages every day.
Whether or not it’s true, you probably notice this general trend. You can’t watch a YouTube video, scroll through Facebook, or even drive down the highway without seeing some advertising.
Such ad bombardment causes a lot of business owners to feel timid about selling to their customers.
They get into this mindset where they have to provide lots of “value” and “content” with 0 CTA before they hesitantly ask for the sale.
Yet I think you’re shooting yourself in the foot if you do this.
You should be selling in every single piece of marketing you create, and you shouldn’t apologize for it.
I know that business owners are scared to do it (trust me, I’m introverted, not super outgoing, and hated selling all my life), but let me explain why you should sell in everything.
And we’ll do that with an analogy.
The Restaurant Analogy
Imagine you’re trying a new restaurant. Let’s say a steakhouse (mmm) so we can get nice and specific.
Your stomach growls like a pissed-off lion as you walk in and get smacked in the nose and ears by the wonderful fragrance and sizzle of ribeyes hitting the grill.
The host takes you to your table, and your server is soon tableside.
But before you get a chance to order even a drink (let alone some dinner), the server goes into a 10-minute long ramble… not about the drink selection, but instead, they go on and on about X ways to cook the perfect New York strip.
You don’t care about how to cook the perfect steak at this particular moment. Maybe you’ll learn how to another time. But, right now, you just want to order the darn thing!
The thing is…
You’re doing this exact same thing if you aren’t selling to your target market in every piece of copy or content you create.
Ok, the analogy breaks down a little bit because you do end up using content marketing in some way.
But it doesn’t really break down because you meet your potential customer where they are, and you move them towards the sales.
In the case of the restaurant, you’re already starving and want food. The restaurant should know that pretty well — the only “content” they should provide is answers to your questions regarding the drinks or menu items.
Thus, they should meet you where you are by answering any last questions you have before placing an order.
On the other hand, if you weren’t quite at the restaurant yet…
Maybe that restaurant would’ve sent out some direct mail to addresses in the area (including yours) with some “copy” about the restaurant themselves or maybe even the dishes they have. You get to learn briefly about the cuisine they offer, the history behind the food or the restaurant, etc.
They’d still sell you on coming in at the end, but the “copy” in the direct mail piece would be different than the “copy” that the server gives you, if you get what I’m saying.
Won’t I Piss Off My Customers?
First off, if it’s cold traffic, or someone who hasn’t explicitly opted into communications with you (I’m talking email, mainly), it logically follows that they can’t get mad at you.
Think about this: if they landed on a blog post of yours through an Internet search and you stuck a CTA at the end of the blog post, there’s no way they’ll get mad.
And if they do, you want to stay far, far away from them. They’re not exactly a rational individual.
The more common sticking point is that group of customers that raised their hand. and said, “yes, I want to receive communications from you.”
Again, emails. Although SMS works the same way.
Anyways, business owners are afraid of pissing off these people by selling too often. After all, people do hate to be sold to, right?
Well, that depends.
If you’re Giant Megacorp and your emails consist of “SALE SALE SALE” emails with 70% discounts on everything that never seem to end…
Yeah, people get fed up with those.
But that’s bad email marketing. Well, at least for your purposes. Maybe it works for massive companies with zillions of customers all over the world.
However, if you provide a mix of entertainment and value in your emails, you won’t piss off the vast majority of your subscribers (as long as you let them know in your initial welcome email that you will sell to them regularly).
At worst, most will just ignore your CTA — maybe they already bought or they’re not ready to buy yet — but get some entertainment and learnin’. That tightens your bond with them ever so slightly.
And yes, some customers will get pissed off. They might unsubscribe. They might even write you a nasty email whining about your selling frequency.
You know what I have to say to that?
Good!
Those customers weren’t going to buy from you anyway if they’re complaining that you’re selling them stuff.
Oh, the humanity! A business owner with a solution they genuinely believe in… trying to sell that solution to customers with problems they want to solve… and make a living for themselves while doing it! How could they? Think of the children!
You don’t want to do business with people that get mad when you sell. They might be looking for free stuff, or they’re trolls. Or they have terrible reading comprehension (assuming you warned them in your welcome email after they opted in). If they jump off your list because you’re “selling too much,” that’s their problem. Just replace them with someone who wants what you have.
After all, you have a solution you fully believe can help your target customers solve a burning problem. Failing to give them as many opportunities as possible to access said solution would be doing them a disservice.
Back to that restaurant example: imagine a guy walks into a restaurant and sits down, then gets mad when the server asks for their drink order. They’re so furious they stand up, demand the manager, rant about being sold to, and storm out of the place.
Who’s in the wrong here?
Hint: It ain’t the server.
Sell More and Forget the Haters
Trust me: I still have reservations about selling at times. I get it.
And even I get annoyed when the same damn YouTube ad occupies my screen for the 20th time in 2 hours.
But businesses quite literally CANNOT exist if they don’t sell.
Yes, you shouldn’t bombard your customers with “BUY BUY BUY” and nothing else. People don’t like the naked sale unless used in the right context. In most cases, you mix in the sale with helpful content and whatnot.
But ultimately, you should sell at every chance you get.
Speaking of that…
Need help putting together a case study or writing your next email sequence? I’m just a contact form away. Click here to reach me.
Hope you’re not mad at me for selling my services on my own blog 😉