A Blogger Marketing  From The Heart

i love marketingIf you’re a new blogger, marketing is one of those things you probably didn’t factor in when beginning your blogging journey. I know I didn’t.

And if you did you figured it was one of those things that scummy used car salesman types used to make you buy shit you didn’t want.

“Marketing is like a hammer. It can be used to build something amazing or used to hurt someone significantly. The difference is the intent of the one who wields it.

Back when I started blogging about 4 and half years ago, I just wanted to express how I felt about sales and the mind set of being in a home based business.

These days people intentionally begin blogging with the hope of making money, quitting their jobs and embracing a lifestyle without constraints. There’s nothing wrong with this at all but it’s having a crappy attitude about marketing that will kill that reality quicker than you can write your next blog post.

You’ve got to approach marketing purposely and strategically but how can you do this when so many people look at marketing as a nasty word or even non relevant to getting their message out.

I know because I’m on the phone almost every day with someone who has a message and product to get out to the world but when we talk about getting that message out via marketing they lock up. Immediately.

I’ve found a way to help overcome this impending lock out of profits and potential.

“Good marketing is communicating your entire message in a way that your prospect is able to take educated and confident action.”-Eben Pagan

The way I see it is how does one serve their audience best with their gifts in a profitable manner and do it strategically and purposely?

So how do you get to this point?

1. Acknowledge Your Own Current Perception of Marketing

This has to be the first thing you do. If marketing and sales is a dirty word to you, you have to acknowledge it. What you resist will continue to persist and you’ll continue to be the biggest clog in your system.

Correctly done marketing is a powerful tool in getting your message & products out to the market successfully however in my opinion you’re not fully serving your market without properly done marketing.

If you get that nasty feeling about marketing, chances are you feel marketing isn’t in your highest value.  If this is the case then you have to connect it somehow to your highest value. [Your passion/product/interest]

You will only act on what you perceive is in your highest value and most important to you. Otherwise the tool known as marketing will go unused.

“A person will only do something that they first see themselves doing in their own mind”

In this case I want to help you see how good marketing will actually help you serve your audience better.

2. See The Benefit Of Shifting Your Perspective

Ask yourself, “What would be possible if I was able to effectively connect and engage with my audience in a way that they really felt I understood their fears, frustrations, wants and desires?”

Take a moment and list out a few desirable outcomes that could result from this:

  1. Attract more clients
  2. They buy your products & services
  3. They get the result they want
  4. They have a transformation in their life

By attaching an outcome that is desirable to you and your clients (People getting positive results from your products/services) you’ll begin to see the benefit of learning and executing good marketing so that you can serve them more effectively.

3. Research Your Audiences Fears, Frustrations, Wants & Desires

Researching these 4 area’s is so critical to actually connecting with your audience through your marketing.

You won’t be able to connect with your audience by telling them what they need. They won’t hear you. You’ll only connect with them by acknowledging that you know what they want.

The want may be the freedom from their pains & frustrations. If this is the case, acknowledge you know exactly what that pain is.

You’ll be able to come from the heart in this manner and empathize with them and where they are. (empathize: identification with and understanding of another’s situation and feelings)

4. Know Your (Real) Role

Your role when marketing is not as the blogging expert or even as the trusted adviser in my opinion.

Your role is to help your prospects identify and bridge the gap of where they currently are and to project a clear picture of where they want to be.

You serve your prospects much more and even convert them at a higher rate by helping them fully experience the pain or frustration of where they are currently by asking one simple question.

If it’s the pain or or frustration help them by asking them what it’s costing them to stay there. This is the first step of helping them get out of their current fantasy.

The key here is that your prospects have to want to step out of their current fantasy. Unfortunately many people are driven by what they don’t want more than what they do want.

5. Put A Plan In Place (and Craft Your Offer)

When you realize your role in the marketing process, you discover there must be a plan in place for helping your prospects make the shift from mere observer of your stuff to seeing your products & services as a bridge to their desired outcomes.  (i.e.desperately wanting your products & services)

You’ve taken the time to understand their fears, frustrations, wants & desires so the point of crafting your offer is to present your solution in a way that it resonates as the solution to their problems or desires.

Your offer has to speak directly to your customers fears or desires.

This is known as crafting your offer and it’s the single best way to help them determine the greatest possible value for your interaction by determining the greatest possible cost of not working with you.

What are the steps you need to have in place so that your audience want to buy from you?

Many bloggers don’t have much planned out at all.

“Don’t I just do new blog posts and people will flock to me to buy my ebook on personal development?

Um, no. Doesn’t happen.

When you identify these steps your content strategy and your overall message will begin to mirror back to your readers and prospects that you know what they want. (Rather than telling them what they need)

6. Learn To Translate Your Value

This means you’ll want to learn how to craft what your product or service does in terms of saving your prospects dollars & cents or in a way they can understand.

Ways such as amount of weight loss, a new found spouse, number of dates they will receive are all extremely important.

You must communicate your value in a way that your prospects understand what they will gain or lose by purchasing your products & services.

I feel it’s also important to acknowledge the old price vs. cost scenario from ol’ Zig Ziglar:

  • Price is what you pay in terms of money for a service or product
  • Cost is what you’re losing such as time, money, or relationships that the product or service would help bridge to.

Generally speaking if you’re product or service truly provides value, the measurement would be that the cost of not having your products & services is far more painful than the price of your product.

Blogger Marketing – What Next?

If you’re a blogger, marketing from the heart is about truly providing value to your readers, prospects and even clients in way that is heart centered on them having a transformation of some kind. Yes this takes research and strategy as well as an empathetic heart.

So here are a few questions you need to ask yourself:

  1. What is my perception of marketing?
  2. How well do I know my audience?
  3. How well is your offer to them crafted?
  4. What is my role in my blogging business currently?
  5. What is my current offer and how well does it match up to my audiences desired outcomes?
  6. How am I currently communicating the value I offer?

What about you? Is there anything you can add to this list?

Please share this on Facebook, Twitter or just simply email it to a fellow blogger.