So many times when I meet business owners in person I find their personality is completely different from the personality displayed in their marketing.

Truth be told most display no personality in their marketing at all. The reason behind this is a perceived need to look “professional.” Their marketing is often bland and generic, and if you swapped out their logo and name from their marketing material, it could be anyone else in their industry.

It’s such a shame because if only they communicated in their marketing the way they do in person, they’d have much more success.

When you meet them in person, these people are often highly intelligent, interesting to listen to and passionate about what they do, yet when it comes to their marketing material and sales copy it’s like they freeze up.

All of a sudden, they try to sound “professional” and start using weasel words and phrases they would never normally use in conversation. You know the sort of words and phrases I mean, “best of breed products,” “synergistic,” “strategic alignment,” etc.‍‍

Do You Want to Grow Your Business Rapidly?

Then you need to market it. But not just any marketing will do. In my Lean Strategy Course, I show you the exact techniques I've used to start, grow, and exit several multi-million dollar businesses, so you can too.

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People buy From People

The fact is people buy from people, not from corporations.

Building relationships and rapport is well understood in the world of one-to-one sales, however for some reason when it comes to the one-to-many position of being a marketer, many business owners think they need to put their personality aside and behave like a faceless corporation.

Copywriting is salesmanship in print. You need to write your sales copy as though you were talking directly to a single person.

Using monotone, boring, “professional” sales copy is the fastest way of losing the interest of your customers and prospects.

Meaningless clichés and claims of being the leading provider in your category make you look like a “me-too” business.

“Me-too” businesses attract lowest common denominator clients who by necessity shop based on price as they have nothing else to differentiate you by.

Broadcast Your Personality

People love authenticity, personality and opinion. Even if they don’t agree with you, they’ll respect you for being real and open.

Being yourself and bringing out your personality will help you stand out in a sea of sameness and monotony.

Just have a look at one of the most consistently enduring TV formats – the news talking head.

Why waste such a large percentage of airtime on showing the face of the presenter? Using just their voice-over would mean that a lot more content and visual footage of the news story could be broadcast.

However, the reason so much time is allocated to just the video of a talking head is that it adds personality to often bland topics. It also adds authority and feels like a one-on-one conversation with a trusted source.

People respond to pictures and videos of other people. It’s no accident that YouTube and Facebook are two of the biggest online properties in the world. We’re extremely interested in what other people are doing and saying.

You can easily take advantage of this in your business. One example is by adding a video to your website. Use Loom to create it.

It can be as simple as a talking head video of you describing your products and services, which you can shoot and upload in the space of 5 minutes using a hand-held camera or even a smartphone.

Another example is using social media as a two-way communication medium for engaging with customers and prospects.

Doing just these two things will create deeper connections because you’re adding personality to your business.

Don’t use your marketing material as a screen to hide behind. Use it to give opinion, insight, advice and commentary and above all be yourself and be authentic.

This will instantly create rapport and will differentiate you from all the other boring and bland marketing material around you.

Many small businesses don’t have a reason to exist.

Take away their name and logo from their website or other marketing material and you’d never know who they were. They could be any of the other businesses in their category.

Their reason for existence is to survive and pay the bills of the owner who is usually only just getting by or possibly not even.

From a customer’s perspective, there is no compelling reason to buy from them and any sales they do make is just because they happen to be there.

You see a lot of these businesses in retail. The only sales they get is through random walk-in traffic.

No one is seeking them out. No one is actively desiring what they have to offer and if they weren’t there no one would miss them.

Harsh but true.

The problem is that these businesses are just another “me too” business.

How did they decide on price? How did they decide on product? How did they decide on marketing? Usually the answer is they just had a look at what their nearest competitor was doing and did the same thing or slightly changed something.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong in modeling something that’s already working. In fact, that’s a very smart thing to do.

However likely the competitors they are modeling are in the same boat they are in – struggling to win business with no compelling reason why you should buy from them.

They based their most important business decisions on guesses and on what their mediocre competitors are doing.

It’s the blind leading the blind.

Do You Want to Grow Your Business Rapidly?

Then you need to market it. But not just any marketing will do. In my Lean Strategy Course, I show you the exact techniques I've used to start, grow, and exit several multi-million dollar businesses, so you can too.

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Marketing Is Not The Savior

After some time of torturing themselves to death – making just enough money to survive but not enough money to do well, many of these businesses finally decide to “try marketing.”

So they start marketing their “me too” business with an equally boring “me too” message. As expected it doesn’t work and any extra sales it does bring in often doesn’t even cover the marketing costs.

Here’s the thing – the chance of you getting your marketing perfectly right – message to market and media match on the first go is impossibly small. Even the most experienced marketer will tell you they hardly ever hit a home run on their first go. It takes several iterations. It takes testing and measuring to finally get your message to market and media match right.

Yet these guys can’t afford the time, money and effort needed to get it right. Worse still with a “me too” style of offer they don’t have a hope.

Think of marketing as an amplifier.

Here’s an example. You tell one person about what you do and they don’t get excited. You then try telling 10 people about what you do and they don’t get excited either.

If you amplify this message through marketing and tell 10,000 people, what makes you think that the result will be any different?

Hey, I’m not trying to be a downer or discourage you. I’m trying to make you think.

Marketing is an uphill battle if you haven’t clearly clarified first in your mind why your business exists and why people should buy from you rather than your nearest competitor.

Start With Why

What is your cause? What is the reason your business exists? Why should a customer buy from you rather than your nearest competitor?

Clarifying these questions is the first step towards effective marketing and will put you far ahead of all your competitors.

The following video from Simon Sinek illustrates this well in the video below:

Only after clarifying these questions should you even think of amplifying your message by adding marketing.

Causes and beliefs are powerful. They draw a passionate crowd – the early adopters, the ones who will spread your message because it aligns with what they believe in.

Rather than saying, “this is what I sell and this is how much it is,” you have a much more powerful and unique message – “this is what I believe in and why I do what I do, this is the unique way I do it and this is the product that will deliver this result for you.” Much more powerful.

Now the correct prospect will be excited by this message, so now when you amplify this through marketing you’ll experience a very high return on investment.

Starting with why is the beginning of re-inventing your business and hence setting yourself up for marketing success.

We've covered the essential elements of crafting a good offer. Now you need to find out exactly what your market wants. But I want you to go deeper. When it comes to delivery of your product or service we need to sell our customers what they want, and give them what they need.

There’s often a big difference between what people want and what people need.

Let me give you an example.

Exercise Sales Example:

Let’s say you’re a fitness instructor. You improve people’s lives through better health, fitness and nutrition.

The concept of better health is too vague, far off, and long-term for most people.

Instead, you’ve got to appeal to vanity, performance or some other specific want that the prospect has. For example, this could be ripped abs, a toned body, or great figure.

So you need to give them what they need in terms of health improvement. But do it via what they want. And that’s what you sell them - the improvements in appearance and performance.

You need to understand both wants and needs. They are sometimes overlapping and sometimes completely non-overlapping.

So, sell your customers what they want. Give them what they need.

Most importantly, don't confuse them.

Do You Want to Grow Your Business Rapidly?

Then you need to market it. But not just any marketing will do. In my Lean Strategy Course, I show you the exact techniques I've used to start, grow, and exit several multi-million dollar businesses, so you can too.

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Treadmill Sales Example:

I’ve owned a treadmill for over a year but I haven’t lost any weight. So this proves that treadmills don’t work and are most likely a scam.

This is obviously a ridiculous statement. For my treadmill to “work” I’ve obviously got to turn it on. Run on it for a while. Sweat and repeat the process on a regular basis.

Buying it is just the first step. Putting it to its intended use is another.

This may seem like an obvious statement. But a big part of the battle you’ll fight is getting people to do what they should to achieve results with your product or service.

Some business owners feel like following through to implementation is not their responsibility. That their customer should be responsible for getting results with the product or service they have bought.

However, this is short-sighted. We live in a world that’s fast-paced with a lot of things competing for the time and attention of our customers.

You're In The Results Getting Business

A customer who buys a product or service and doesn’t use it or implement it correctly is highly likely to write it off as something that doesn’t work.

That’s the last thing we want. At best it ends up being a one-off sale and at worst it ends up being labeled a scam.

As ridiculous as me calling treadmills a scam because I failed to actually use the one I bought, a consumer can do the same with your product or service.

Except now the consumer has access to online forums and social media. Either, they will spread positive feedback if they got results or negative feedback if they didn’t.

Unfair? Maybe. But the mark of winning businesses is going to be turnkey solutions that help customers through implementation to the desired result.

In many cases, it’s going to mean you need to spoon feed them through the process of getting results.

Otherwise you’re in a low margin, commodity, transaction style business competing solely on price.

That’s a dangerous place to be with price comparisons being only a click away.

Sell Them What They Want. Give Them What They Need. Get Them To Do It.

So your job is now to find a way to sell what your prospects want but also give them what they need.

To get them to take action and do what they need to do to get results may mean that you have to package things in a certain way.

You may need to cut the process up into manageable bite-sized pieces so that it doesn’t seem so daunting.

1. Figure out who your ideal target market is and what really drives them.
2. Map out your 1-Page Marketing Plan Canvas.
3. Then hire a copywriter to help you create a stellar campaign message because you need to get your customer's attention first.
4. Market to them until they buy or die.

You may have the best vitamin in the world, but you need to make it taste sweet so the kids will eat it. That’s giving them what they want but also what they need.

Focus On Getting Your Customers Results

Leadership is an attractive quality and people want to be led.

Take the initiative of packaging up the implementation of your product or service. Anticipating roadblocks that will be encountered along the way. And having solutions to overcoming these roadblocks. This shows leadership.

Helping your customers all the way through to achieving results will have a big payoff for both yourself and them. Don't just give your customers what they want. Give them what they need.

Not doing so will shortchange the both of you.

If you enjoyed this article, you may also enjoy our article on Building Business Systems. It will help you to skyrocket your sales and attract investors.

One of the main reasons marketing campaigns fail is because the offer is lazy and poorly thought out.

It’s something crappy and unexciting like 10% or 20% off.

The offer is one of the most important parts of your marketing campaign and you need to spend much of your time and energy on structuring this correctly.

Do You Want to Grow Your Business Rapidly?

Then you need to market it. But not just any marketing will do. In my Lean Strategy Course, I show you the exact techniques I've used to start, grow, and exit several multi-million dollar businesses, so you can too.

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‍‍What Irresistible Offer Do My People Want?

Putting the right stuff in front of the wrong people or the wrong stuff in front of the right people is one of the first marketing mistakes made by business owners.

That’s why a few articles back we talked about the importance of identifying a specific target market for our marketing efforts.

Now we want to structure an offer that will excite this target market. One that will have them ready to whip out their wallet and one that will stand out from all the boring, lazy offers from our competitors.

One of the easiest and most common methods of finding out what your prospects want is by asking them via a survey or similar market research technique.

Unfortunately this is also one of the most unreliable ways. Most people don’t know what they want until they’ve actually been presented with it. Also when people are doing survey’s or responding to market research, they do so with logic, however when it comes to actual purchasing, this is done with emotions and justified with logic after the fact. So you will typically get very inaccurate results.

Henry Ford put it well:

“If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”

One of the ways I’ve done and recommend doing market research is analyzing search engine queries.

Some tools you can use for this are Google’s Adwords Keyword Tool or Market Samurai. You can also see what topics are trending on social media and on search engines.

Analyzing search queries and volumes is almost like tapping into the global consciousness and seeing what is currently in demand and being talked or thought about.

‍

Eight Essential Elements Of An Irresistible Offer

Now that you know what your market wants, you need to package it up and present it as an irresistible offer. So you want to craft it.

There are eight essential elements of an irresistible offer. Let's check them out now.

Step 1: Deliver Value

Firstly you need to think, what is the most valuable thing you could do for your customer? That’s question #1.

What is the result which takes them from point A to point B that you can take them through while making a good profit?

This really is the crux of your offer.

Step 2: Talk Their Language

If you’re not a member of your target market, you need to learn the language and jargon used within your target market.

Take this BMX video as an example. If you’re selling BMX bike’s you need talk about Endos, Sick Wheelies and Bunny Hops not features, benefits and specifications. See for yourself:

Step 3: Give A Reason Why

Believe it or not when you have a really good offer, you need to justify why. People are so used to being shortchanged that when someone makes a strong, valued-filled offer, they become skeptical and look for the catch.

I personally experienced this in one of my businesses where we were offering a much better service at a price that was about half the price of our competitors. People kept ringing into the sales line to recap the offer that was on the website and to ask what the catch was.

I don’t suggest you fabricate reasons for your offer but be ready to have a solid reason why you are offering a great deal e. g. clearing old stock, damaged inventory, overstock, moving your office or warehouse, etc.

Step 4: Add A Bonus

Packing bonuses into your offer to make it more appealing is a very smart move. In fact, I advocate making the bonus more valuable than the main offer. Infomercials do this well with phrases like, “We’ll double your offer,” and “That’s not all..."

Step 5: Upsell

When your prospect is hot and in the buying frame of mind, this is the perfect time to offer them a complimentary product or service.

This is where you have the perfect opportunity to tack on a high margin item even if the primary product you are selling is low margin. It’s the fries with the burger, the extended warranty. It gives the customer added value and gives you more profit per transaction.

Step 6: Offer A Payment Plan

This one is absolutely critical for high ticket items and can mean the difference between the customer balking and walking away or making the sale.

If something is $5,000, presenting it as 12 easy payments of $497 makes it a much easier pill to swallow. People generally think of their expenses on a monthly basis and $497 per month feels much easier than $5,000 in one lump sum.

Also notice that 12 x $497 adds up to more than $5,000. In fact, it makes it almost $6,000. The reason you want to do this is firstly to cover your finance costs if you are financing the sale.

Secondly, you want to incentivize the people who can pay in a lump sum to receive a “discount” by paying upfront.

Step 7: Choose An Outrageous Guarantee

As discussed in this article you need an outrageous guarantee. One that totally reverses the risk of doing business with you.

People have been disappointed so many times that they don’t trust any of the claims you make. It’s nothing personal, just the way it is. You need to make dealing with you a risk-free transaction. In fact, one where the risk is on you should you fail to deliver on your promises. “Satisfaction guaranteed” is weak and ineffective.

Step 8: Play On Scarcity

Your offer needs to have an element of scarcity. A reason why people need to respond immediately. People respond much more to a fear of loss than the prospect of gain.

However again you need a good “reason why” the scarcity exists as you don’t want to be disingenuous with your scarcity claims.

You have a limited supply, limited time, limited resources. Use this to your advantage in your marketing. If you can have a running countdown of time or available stock this can further turn up the heat on the fear of loss emotion.

‍

No More Lazy Offers. Make It Irresistible.

As you’ve seen there are many components to crafting a compelling offer. Taking the lazy, ill-thought-out road of “10% off” or similar crappy offers is akin to throwing your marketing dollars in the trash.

Take the time to craft a compelling, well-thought-out offer. Your conversion rate will skyrocket, and so will your bottom line.

If you enjoyed this article, you may also find great value in this piece How To Create A Sophisticated Marketing Plan in 9 Steps. As a small business owner, it’s the first step to effectively marketing your business.

There are hidden profits in your business. And failing to recognize them is costing you serious cash.

As business owners, we sometimes don’t see ourselves within the bigger picture of our customer’s buying behavior.

We just see their interaction with us and market ourselves to acquire more and more customer interactions.

There’s nothing wrong with that of course. But when we start to look at the bigger picture, we can start to uncover profits that were previously hidden.

It’s like finding a $50 bill in a jacket you haven’t worn in a while but on a much bigger and more profitable scale! So here's three ways to uncover the hidden dollars.

Do You Want to Grow Your Business Rapidly?

Then you need to market it. But not just any marketing will do. In my Lean Strategy Course, I show you the exact techniques I've used to start, grow, and exit several multi-million dollar businesses, so you can too.

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Step 1 - Find Those Hidden Profits: Who Has Your Clients Before You?

If you want to find your hidden profits you need to think about who your customer does business with.

Your's is one of many transactions they'll make that day.

Before shopping with you they did business with someone else. And after you they’ll do business with someone else.

The transactions may or may not be related. But one thing is for certain – someone had your customers before you did. In all likelihood, they spent a good deal of money on sales and marketing to acquire that customer.

Finding other complimentary businesses that your customer deals with before they deal with you can help you uncover untapped profits in your business.

You don't just have to rely on word-of-mouth marketing. Setting up a joint venture (JV) arrangement with one or more of these businesses that is not in direct competition with you can be a cheap or free source of leads.

If you’re a lawyer, an accountant might make a great source of new leads. If you’re a car detailer, a mechanic could be your source of leads. If you’re a pet food retailer, a vet might be your ideal source of new customers.

While this may seem obvious, it’s rarely done and it is even more rarely done well.

Read on and I’ll share with you some strategies you can use immediately.

Step 2 - Hidden Profits: Give Away Some of the Profit From A Sale You Never Had

Another great way to uncover hidden profits is to set up a JV arrangement. And this can be tricky.

The most obvious and direct route is to pay either a finders fee or a commission for incoming leads or sales.

Some business owners don't feel comfortable taking cash for leads they send you. And in some industries this may not even be legal.

While it’s smart to pay for leads of known buyers who are “hot,” there are other less direct ways that work just as well or better.

An Excellent Joint Venture Example

One awesome strategy involves creating a gift card or voucher for your products or services. Let’s say for example you’re business is “Mike’s Pet World” – a pet food retailer.

You could create an arrangement with a local vet. Find out what pet food this vet recommends to his clients. Then create a voucher or gift card that he can give away to new clients.

The beauty of this is that it's good will all round. No sales pressure. No conflicts of interest.

The vet could say something like, “I recommend XYZ dog food. You can buy it at most pet food retailers. Because you’re a good customer, here’s a $50 voucher for you to redeem at Mike’s Pet World who are down the road. They always carry plenty of stock of XYZ dog food.”

It’s a win-win for every party involved.

3 Ways JVs Are Win-Win Situations

Carrying on with our above example, here are three ways joint ventures are win-wins.

1. The vet creates massive goodwill with the customer because he is essentially handing them $50.
2. The customer receives an unexpected discount.
3. You, as the owner of Mike’s Pet World, acquire a new customer who’s lifetime value is potentially huge in exchange for a voucher with a face value of $50 (and a wholesale cost which is much less). You also get transferred much of the goodwill the customer already has with their vet.

Now it’s true not all customers will redeem a gift card or voucher.

But the vast majority will. It feels too much like throwing out money to throw out a voucher or gift card that you know has a monetary value associated with it.

Let’s say that you conservatively calculate that the average lifetime value of a new customer at your pet store is $5,000.

You’ve given away a part of the profit from a sale you would have never have had. Genius!

Step 3 - Uncovering Hidden Profits: Determine Who Has Your Clients After You?

Flipping it back the other way, to figure out where your hidden profits lie, you should analyze who has your clients after you.

You’re sitting on a gold mine. The by-products of your business are valuable to someone else. Don’t let them go to waste.

After you’re done servicing your customer, there's likely someone in a complementary line of business that would be willing to pay handsomely for hot, qualified leads.

This can be a great secondary source of revenue while increasing the value of your offering to the end customer.

Find New Sources of Revenue for Your business

Stop leaving money on the table. Start accessing those hidden profits.

Offering or referring complimentary products and services can enable you to offer a more complete solution. Your customers will thank you and so will your banker!

But before you start approaching complimentary businesses make sure you have your marketing plan mapped out. Does your target market really shop at these businesses? Have you got a offer that's going to convert?

Once you've got this all figured out, you can start looking at which businesses to approach about setting up a JV.

If you enjoyed this article, you may also enjoy our article, What is Direct Response Marketing? As a small business owner, it’s the smarter way to market your business.

What is a core value? Every decision you make in your life and in your business is governed by your values. As business owners we sometimes forget that people buy from people – not from businesses.

Customers and prospects are attracted to businesses and people within those businesses that have clear values that they identify with. Even more importantly, or at least as importantly, your values make up the foundation for your goals.

Sometimes our goals, or what we think our goals are, may not be congruent with our values. When you go against your values, the incongruence causes you stress, anxiety, and unhappiness. However, often our values are hidden deep beneath the surface.

The goal of this article is to help you clarify your values. Once you clarify them, you can recalibrate your goals and the way you run your life and your business. I recommend doing this on a regular basis, as the sheer pace at which we run our lives means it’s very easy to get off track. Before you know it a lot of time has passed with you heading in the wrong direction.

Do You Want to Grow Your Business Rapidly?

Then you need to market it. But not just any marketing will do. In my Lean Strategy Course, I show you the exact techniques I've used to start, grow, and exit several multi-million dollar businesses, so you can too.

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‍What are core values and why should you care?‍

You get personal core values and professional ones. Core values aren’t just fluffy words you slap on a website and forget about. They’re the non-negotiable principles that drive your business. They guide your decisions, shape your team culture, and determine how customers experience your brand.

Get them right, and they’ll help you attract the right people—both employees and customers. Get them wrong (or ignore them), and you’ll end up with a company that feels directionless and disconnected.

Examples of core values

Here are some rock-solid core value examples successful businesses live by:

• Integrity – Do what’s right, even when no one’s watching.
• Customer Obsession – Give customers an experience so good they can’t help but rave about you.
• Innovation – Keep improving. Stagnation is the first step toward irrelevance.
• Excellence – Be the best at what you do. Period.
• Accountability – Own your results. No excuses.
• Speed & Execution – Get things done. Action beats perfection every time.
• Adaptability – The market shifts fast. Stay ahead or get left behind.

Your core values should be clear, actionable, and brutally honest. If they don’t influence how you hire, fire, and operate, they’re just empty words.‍

‍Clarify your personal core values

To help you clarify your values, complete the following exercise. Make sure you set time aside to do this properly – it will help you build your own compass and help you find your way.

Step 1: How would family describe you?

Take yourself a long way forward in time; a very long way forward – to your own funeral. Imagine a coffin with your body in it and a group of people who have assembled to pay their last respects. There’s quite a large crowd. Four people who have known you move to the front of the audience and speak about you.

Firstly, a family member stands up and talks about having known you on an intimate basis.

What would you like this person to say? Not what you think they feel about you – what would you truly like them to say?

Write down the key elements of their speech. Don’t worry about sentences – just catch the important words.

Step 2: How would an affiliation describe you?

Now think about a person who has known you through a club or organization such as the local church or sports team.  moves to the front of the gathering and speaks of their experience with you.

What would you like them to say? Once again, not what you think they would say – what would you like to hear?

Write down the essence of their words.

Step 3: How would a close friend describe you?

A friend describes the nature of their friendship with you and how you have affected their life. What would you like to hear said by this person? Catch the key words or phrases on paper now.

Step 4: How would a work colleague describe you?

Lastly, someone who has worked with you speaks, recollecting working with you under pressure and during less urgent times. What would you like to hear come from this person’s mouth? Get the keywords on paper now.

Take a look at what you have just written down about the way you would like to be remembered. You will have in front of you a description of your highest values, the things you treasure most as a human being. Whether they are kindness, compassion, strength or intelligence, these qualities and attributes will form the basis of your goals (and your time management strategy) – after all, they are the things you cherish most about who you are.

Houses and holidays, cars and careers all lose their importance when compared with these values. After all, did anyone at your imagined funeral say people “he had a nice car”?

Now apply them to your company

So you've identified personal values that are important to you. Now use this simple approach for identifying your organization's values. It helps to answer these important questions.

• What kind of company culture do you want to create for people? What work life works for you?
• What qualities do you believe are necessary to build strong relationships?
• What qualities do you admire in other people or companies?
• What motivates you?
• What work environment do you thrive in? Can you create something similar for your employees?
• What habits do you believe create success in a work environment?
• How do you want to be perceived by others?
• What belief guide your decisions?

How to communicate your core values

Your core values signify how your organization operates. It's something that needs to be part of each and every new employee's onboarding process. 

Even in the developmental phase of identifying your core values, you should be engaging with staff members. Ask them what they believe your values are and why they say that. 

Here are a few ways to share your core values:

• Over email
• During a Zoom call or work meeting
• In a performance review
• On your website about page (usually under your mission and vision section)
• In your sales assets
• In a job description
• In a client presentation
• Or saved in your internal documents folder
• During interviews with prospective team members and new clients.

Don't be afraid to align with your team once or twice a year on your core values. Ask them, do you still agree that we're upholding these values? Are there new values you've identified that we need to consider adding. 

Lean Marketing values

To help you flesh out your core values, I thought I'd share Lean Marketing's. We don’t just put our values on a wall. We use them to hire, fire, and make decisions every single day. Our employees know that if you’re not aligned with our company values, you won’t last here (and that’s a good thing for both of us).

Not only does it ensure we deliver top-notch service to our clients. It also guarantees that we build an A-team. 

1. Speed Beats Perfection

We move fast and get things done. Perfectionism kills progress. Make the best decision you can with the info you have, then adjust as needed.

2. Own It (No Excuses, No Blame)

If you mess up, take responsibility and fix it. If you see a problem, solve it. No finger-pointing, no passing the buck.

3. Customers Pay Our Salaries

Without happy customers, we don’t have a business. So, we over deliver, keep things simple, and make sure they love doing business with us.

4. Be a Problem-Solver, Not a Problem-Finder

Anyone can point out what’s wrong. We value people who bring solutions and take action.

5. Simplicity Wins

Complexity slows everything down. Whether it’s marketing, operations, or product design—if it’s complicated, we simplify it.

6. Think Like an Entrepreneur

Take initiative. Make smart bets. Don’t just follow orders—own your results and act like you’re running the business.

7. No Jerks Allowed

We work with smart, ambitious people—but if you’re an arrogant know-it-all, this isn’t the place for you. We value respect, collaboration, and lifting each other up.

So those are Lean Marketing's core values. We keep these top of mind whenever we make important decisions, and you should too. 

Can your core values change with time?

Absolutely. The values I placed at the core for my company when I first began in the coaching business are very different to the ones I stand by now. Every year I'm refining processes, improving customer experiences, expanding our offering, the list is endless. While my mission for my organization stays the same, how I achieve that for my company has changed. 

That's why it's vital you continually reassess your company core values, and adjust as needed.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do core values differ from mission and vision statements?

• Core values define beliefs and principles.
• Mission statements describe what an organization does.
• Vision statements describe what an organization aspires to become.

How many core values should a company have?

Typically, businesses have 3-7 core values to keep them clear, meaningful, and actionable.

What happens when a company’s actions don’t align with its core values?

When a company’s actions don’t match its core values, trust takes a hit, employees disengage, and the brand’s reputation suffers. Smart leaders don’t ignore the problem—they step up, take ownership, and fix it with clear, decisive action.

How to identify a company’s core values before applying for a job?

• Check the company’s website, careers page, and social media.
• Read employee reviews on Glassdoor or LinkedIn.
• Observe how leadership communicates and makes decisions.

Why should core values be part of the hiring process?

Employees who align with company values perform better, stay longer, and contribute to a strong culture.

How can we assess if a candidate aligns with our core values?

Ask behavioral interview questions (e.g., “Tell me about a time you had to make a tough decision based on your values.”) And look for alignment in their past experiences and work style. This will give you a good sense of whether someone fits your business.

What are the risks of hiring someone who doesn’t align with our values?

When hiring someone who doesn't fit your company culture you run the risk of personality clashes, lower engagement, and potential turnover. To keep team members motivated focus on hiring A-players.

Don't Sell Out

One of the greatest causes of unhappiness in a person’s life is when they sell out – when they trade in their values for something they thought would give them happiness. To quote Jim Rohn:

“Judas got the money – a small fortune at the time – was this a success story? No it wasn’t. Why? because he wasn’t happy with himself. He had got his hot little hands on the money but he wasn’t happy with himself because he had sold out. He tried to take the money back but they just through him out and he hanged his worthless self because of the betrayer he had become.”

Consider the words of eighteenth-century writer and philosopher, Joseph Addison:

“When I look upon the tombs of the great, every emotion of envy dies in me…when I see kings lying by those who deposed them, when I consider rival wits placed side by side, or the holy men that divided the world with their contests and disputes, I reflect with sorrow and astonishment on the little competitions, factions, and debates of mankind.”

If you consider carefully your definition of success and design your own compass and roadmap for the future, you will avoid much of the misery. Joseph Addison describes fame, achievement, or money may not even be on the horizon anymore. As one man asked another on the death of a mutual friend, “How much did he leave?” His friend replied, “He left it all.”

Remember, crafting your core values means you're making a commitment to yourself, your team and your clients. It's a personal promise to run every decision you make alongside your values. Every interaction you have both internally and externally must be guided by your core values. 

So choose wisely.

When it comes to marketing and advertising, copywriting is such an invaluable and essential skill. Unlike other forms of writing, copywriting is all about persuading the reader to take action and buy your offer.

While there are many types of sales content, the most profitable remains to be direct response copywriting.

If you're interested in this craft, then here's everything you need to know about being an effective direct response copywriter.

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What is Direct Response Copywriting?

This type of content is specifically made to elicit an immediate positive response from the client. Because copy makes on-the-spot sales possible, copywriting is considered to be a very lucrative niche.

Anything that makes the customer purchase on the spot is called direct response copy.

Here are some of the most common examples:

• Product descriptions
• Brochures
• Fliers
• Magazine ads
• Pay-per-click (PPC)
• Ads
• Advertorials
• Email newsletters
• Sales pages
• Landing pages

Direct response copy often takes long form. That's because it's important to provide in-depth information to help the reader decide. If you only have a few words for the product for a buyer who isn't familiar with it, then you're less likely to convince him or her to purchase it.

The benefit of long-form copy is no mere claim as it has proven itself time and time again.

Neil Patel, one of the top digital marketing entrepreneurs of this generation, once ran a split test of two forms of content (1,292 words vs. 488 words). Unsurprisingly, his long-form content generated 7.6% better conversions than the shorter one.

The same result was seen in a Crazy Egg study—the long-form copy was a whopping 30% more successful than the short form page.

This goes to prove what the legendary ad maker David Ogilvy had once said: "The more you tell, the more you sell."

With the help of much (but not excessive) information, the buyer feels that he is making an informed decision. More often than not, this leads to an immediate positive response and the customer buys the product or service, which is the usual endpoint of direct response copywriting.

What Does It Have to Do with Direct Marketing?

Think of the big billboards in Times Square or the ads you've already memorized because you see them all the time. These all belong to powerful brands, the businesses that dominate their respective industries.

And while it can be tempting to dream about advertising in Hyde Park, spending a boatload of money on a billboard or a 15-second commercial isn't going to deliver the kind of success you're after.

If anything, as a faceless startup or small business you'll just lose money. A better way to market your business is using direct marketing.

Direct marketing works for small and mid-size businesses because:

• It's written for or focuses on a specific audience so marketers. to reach customers faster.
• It promotes personalized messaging and delivers value upfront.
• It's compelling so leads are more likely to take action.
• It's a cost-efficient marketing strategy.
• It has a high success rate than any other marketing strategy.

Unlike the previous example that appeals to a wide range of people, direct marketing aims to promote a product or service directly to your target audience—who will likely buy or build a relationship with your business.

Direct Response Copywriting: How it Came to Be

This lucrative field is made possible by David Ogilvy, who is largely considered the father of advertising. He is the brains behind timeless ad pieces, including Hathaway, Rolls Royce, Dove, and Shell, to name a few.

For Ogilvy, a direct response copy is more than just talking to the customers. It's all about appealing to them on a personal level.

As the late ad master once said: "Tell the truth but make the truth fascinating. You know you can't bore people into buying your product. You can only interest them in buying it."

The 7 Essential Things a Direct Response Copywriter Must Do

If you want to be successful in the field of direct response copywriting, then you need to do the following:

1. Master the Market

The first thing a direct response copywriter should do is master the target market.

You can do this by researching everything you need to know about your target audience, product or service, and even your competitors.

It would be best if you also studied the company's value proposition—the reason customers should do business with them. While talking to marketing directors and product designers is not mandatory, it can help you with your research.

Although the client has given you a wealth of information, you should not settle for this as a copywriter. You need to do as much in-depth research as you can.

That means scouring the web for white papers (authoritative report or guide), case studies, and market reports, among many other documents. That way, you get to know more about other things: consumer behaviors, industry trends, and the company's competitors.

2. Study the Buyer Persona and the Product

As a copywriter, studying the buyer persona is incredibly important.

You need to analyze the demographics, as well as their questions, pain points, and objections. You can do this easily by sending surveys or participating in forums (learn how to infiltrate your industry now). You can also navigate the company's social media pages and read through most of their product reviews.

By knowing the buyers on an almost personal level, you can create a customer avatar and come up with more relatable content for them. Understanding their problems will help you write copy that stirs emotions—the very element you need to make sales.

Apart from studying the buyer persona, you must do an in-depth study of the product as well. You should scrutinize the item's features, benefits, and price points to address the clients' pain points.

3. Craft the Best Headline Possible

Ogilvy once said that headline creation comprises 80% of the copywriter's work. This is 100% true, as most people don't read beyond the headline.  

And, if you don't manage to captivate their attention from the get-go, there's a possibility that they won't spend time looking into the smaller details.

While writing such is a trial-and-error process, several pointers can help you nail the perfect direct response copywriting headline:

• Keep it simple. There's no need for fluff or flowery words. As Ogilvy puts it: "Good ad: all facts. No adjectives. All specifics."
• Be unique. Avoid going for overused headlines. You'd want to write something intriguing—so much so that the client decides to read about the product even more.
• Be specific. Nobody likes vague information. You need to be precise. Include numbers and other pertinent information in the text.
• Ask a question. For your headline, try to make use of the questions you have collected during the buyer persona analysis. Doing so will pique your clients' interests. You're addressing their concern, after all.
• Create a sense of urgency. If you want to convince the person to do the action you want in your copy, you need to exploit the fear of missing out. Lines such as “Limited quantities available!” or “Only 2 left in stock!” are sure to get an immediate positive response.

4. Write Captivating Copy

In the world of direct response copywriting, you should address the reader directly. It's all about the client, and you could make this so by using the word "you."

Apart from using a second-person voice, it's also essential to make your content easily understandable. Keep it simple, but also find the right balance. You don't want to end up writing copy for a grade-schooler if you’re addressing a group of executives.

Here are some tips that can help you create well-balanced copy:

• Be direct and to the point. Tell how the product resolves the user's pain points and what other people think about it. Don't languish on fancy features. Avoid over-explaining.
• Everything should be clear and logical. While it's essential to tell a story, it should progress well. Your copy should be logical—meaning it should move from point A to point B with ease. People don't like reading something that's all over the place.
• Use legit facts. Use statistics that are supported by the case studies and white papers you’ve read. Embellishments and false info will eventually be detrimental to your product and sales.

Check out these Top tips for writing with influence.

5. Make an Irresistible Call to Action

A CTA is what its name suggests – it calls the reader to act upon your ad. It tells your customer what they should do next.

If you want a client to act right away, then your copy should end with a bang. That means you should have a CTA that’s persuasive, actionable, and concrete.

For example, while writing “Submit” is fine, it's not as convincing as it should be. In this case, it's a must to use more powerful text. For example, CTAs with phrases like, "Give me a discount" or "Get me free access," are more likely to elicit an immediate, positive response from the reader.

6. Edit, Revise, Repeat

A good direct response copywriter knows that each copy entails hours of editing and revising until it's almost perfect.

While capturing the gist with the first draft is the ultimate goal, it's not always the case. It requires hours and hours of writing, editing, and revising until you come up with a direct response masterpiece!

If you wish to ease the pain of editing, know that a readability checker tool is your friend. This can help you check the grade level and readability of your direct response copy. The higher the score, the better.

Remember, you want something that consumers will find easy to understand, even if the product you are presenting is fairly complicated.

Editing and revising are just the tip of the iceberg, though, as you need to submit your draft to the client for further scrutiny. This brings you to another round of edits and revisions until it's flawless.

7. Take it to the Test

Before you publish the copy you've worked so hard for, there's another thing you need to do: testing.

Claude Hopkins, another renowned personality in the world of direct response copy, is a firm believer in testing. He said, "Tests are important and help us to understand our customers. Good selling is based on good testing."

Testing is an opportunity to iron out the smallest wrinkles of your copy. With this, you can publish the best direct response ad that works for your readers.

How to Become a Direct Response Copywriter

Think you can do the seven vital things stated above? It's a good start! However, it takes more than just the basics to succeed in direct response copywriting.

If you want to prevail and make the big bucks, you need to do the following:

1. Study, Study, Study

In copywriting, as with all other things, practice makes perfect. You can't be a David Ogilvy overnight without burning the midnight oil and polishing your craft.

That said, you need to read as many direct response copywriting books as possible. These include books such as Confessions of an Advertising Man, The Adweek Copywriting Handbook, Breakthrough Advertising, Scientific Advertising, and The Boron Letters.

With these, you can learn more than just writing strategies. These books can give you a good understanding of the psychology behind marketing as well.

You should also read and study as many copy samples as possible. The most diligent copywriters usually keep a swipe file of the best copy pieces they've encountered and explore their techniques.

In fact, many copywriters even recommend hand-copying these pieces to really immerse themselves into the text and get into the mindset of being a direct response copywriter. Then, they create their own versions of these pieces of copy.

2. Put Up a Portfolio

Do you feel like you've already improved your direct response copywriting skills by reading books and copy? Then it's time for you to create your personal compendium.

Collate all the content you have written during your free time in your Google Drive or Cloud account. If you have a website, you can post sales copy samples there too.

If you don't have much to show for, then it's time for you to do as much as you can, as often as you can. For starters, you can create a landing page, write a blog, or sales letter for a fictional company.

Think of it as on-the-job training for when you do the real thing.

3. Sell Your Skill

Now that you have a portfolio, you can finally put your direct response copywriting skills to the test.

You can try and pitch your services to freelance job boards. If you want to join the big leagues, you could directly promote your copywriting prowess to publishers.

So how do you find these big-shot publishers? You can try searching Google for industry advertisers. Once you have a list, send an email of your personalized pitch.

When doing so, you don't need to create a complicated letter. In most cases, the simpler, the better.

Just tell the advertiser that you like their promotions and that you can assist them with your skills. Of course, remember to include a link to the direct response copywriting portfolio you have just completed.

Tying it Up

Direct response copywriting is a must for every company. Its ability to evoke an immediate positive response can help convince readers to take a specific action—it could be to opt into your mailing list, visit your website or call your landline and request a consultation.

Whether you're a seasoned copywriter or an aspiring scribe, following the tips above can help you excel in the field of direct response marketing.

Firing customers? That seems a very foreign concept to most business owners who are desperately trying to find new customers and new business.

However not firing problem customers is likely costing you huge amounts of time, money and aggravation.

You’ve likely heard that old business cliché, “the customer is always right.” I’m not too sure who originally came up with that, but I’m pretty sure they didn’t mean that you should behave like a doormat to your customers or anyone else for that matter.

Unlike red wine, problem clients don’t get better with time. So let's look at exactly why they're bad for business and how they affect your business goals.

Do You Want to Grow Your Business Rapidly?

Then you need to market it. But not just any marketing will do. In my Lean Strategy Course, I show you the exact techniques I've used to start, grow, and exit several multi-million dollar businesses, so you can too.

Tell Me More

Customers With Legitimate Problems

But first a clarification. I’m not talking about customers who have a legitimate cause for complaint. Customers who have a genuine complaint are valuable intelligence assets. It’s often these sort of customers that can help you uncover weaknesses in your business.

They may even reveal something that was causing you to lose business without you knowing because other unhappy customers didn’t complain – they simply stopped buying from you.

Fixing legitimate complaints from customers can strengthen your relationship with them and makes your business more robust.

A customer who sees you responding to, and resolving their genuine complaint is far more likely to buy from you again and recommend you to others. They feel validated, respected and taken seriously.

What are Problem Customers

Let’s define problem customers. For whatever reason there’s a percentage of the population who is never happy. They’re always whining, dissatisfied and feeling like everyone is out to take advantage of them.

You could shower them with gold and provide your product or service for free and they’ll find something to complain about. These people are like a cancer sucking the life out of you and your business. I suggest you cut them loose as quickly as possible.

I have without exception, across multiple businesses and industries, found that it’s the low value, price-sensitive customers who complain the most, waste huge amounts of your time and who always need to be chased for payment.

The high-value customers who are the most profitable tend to pay on time, treat you with respect and value your services.

It seems counterintuitive but it’s been proved true in every business I’ve ever been involved with.

I suggest that every 12 months or so as part of your house-keeping activities, you fire these low value, problem clients.

Three Reasons Why You Need To Fire Problem Customers

While there are many reasons why you need to fire problems customers, we're focusing on the top three.

1. It Makes Financial Sense

As business owners we often get faked out by thinking as long as we keep the gross sales numbers high, there’s bound to be enough net left over to make it all worthwhile.

However, if you ran a true profit and loss statement on these problem clients, which took into account all the time you spend chasing and appeasing them, you’d find very often that you make very little, if any, real profit on them.

In fact most of them would likely result in a net loss when taking into account the low value they bring coupled with the time and energy needed to deal with them.

2. You'll Lose Out On Lucrative Business Opportunities

Another reason you should immediately fire low-value customers is because apart from sucking up your financial resources, they are also causing you to lose out on opportunities.

Firing problem customers gives you more time to spend on acquiring high quality, high-value customers.

With the squeaky wheels taking up all your time and energy, it’s often the high value, respectful customers who suffer a lack of attention.

Firing them gives you the time needed to show more love to your existing top 20%, high-value customers.

This builds loyalty and can very quickly result in an increase in sales to these existing high-value customers that far outweighs any loss of sales that resulted in firing problem customers.

Another beneficial side effect of firing problem customers is that it creates scarcity without being disingenuous. It sends a message that you only have a limited supply. With limited supply, people have to play by your rules and pay accordingly.

3. Problem Customers are Emotionally Taxing

Problem customers are often the ones that make your life miserable.

Business should be fun. If you allow someone to suck the fun out of it, then you’re losing out on one of the major benefits of running your own business.

If it’s no longer fun, no amount of money can compensate for being miserable. If it’s no longer fun you’re likely not doing it right.

And this goes back to building out your marketing plan.  

• Which customers do you love working with?
• Which customers are profitable?

Having a clear picture in your mind of who you want to work with can ensure that you cut the losses early. Or better yet, you identify bad prospects and can avoid them entirely.

Start Reviewing Your Customer List

Take time out periodically to review which customers are causing you the most pain in your business. Then channel Donald Trump and deliver them the news they deserve.

You’ll feel like a huge weight has been taken off your shoulders and you’ll have renewed energy to focus on high-value customers.

If you enjoyed this article, you may also enjoy our article on Building Business Systems. It will help you skyrocket your sales and attract investors.

When I ask business owners who their target market is, many tend to respond with “everyone.” The translation is no one.

In their zeal to acquire as many customers as possible, many business owners try to serve the widest market possible.

This is a huge mistake.

By narrowing down their target market, many business owners fear that they will be missing out on potential customers.

Their reasoning is that if they go for the widest market possible, then they have a better chance of acquiring more customers.

This is a typical marketing newbie mistake.

Do You Want to Grow Your Business Rapidly?

Then you need to market it. But not just any marketing will do. In my Lean Strategy Course, I show you the exact techniques I've used to start, grow, and exit several multi-million dollar businesses, so you can too.

Tell Me More

What Is A Niche?

Before going any further let’s define what a business niche is.

A niche is a tightly defined portion of a sub-category. For example, think of the health and beauty category. This is a very wide category. A beauty salon can offer a wide variety of services including tanning, waxing, facials, massage, cellulite treatment and much more.

If, for example, we take one of these sub-categories – let’s say cellulite treatment, this could be our niche. However, we could tighten it up even further by focusing on cellulite treatment for women who’ve just had a baby. This is a tightly defined niche.

An Inch Wide And A Mile Deep

Now you may be thinking why on earth would we want to limit our market so much.

Here’s why.

Firstly by targeting a tight niche our message can be highly targeted. This results in far superior conversion rates and it grabs the attention of your market.

If you’re a woman who’s just had a baby and are concerned about cellulite, would an ad targeting this specific problem grab your interest? Most certainly.

How about if the ad was a general ad for a beauty salon which reeled off a long list of services, one of which was cellulite treatment? Likely it would get missed in the clutter.

That’s the secret sauce. As mentioned in our previous article on emotional direct response copywriting – we want to enter the conversation going on in the mind of our prospect.

Doing so is practically impossible if you are targeting a wide audience with a vague or general message.

A new mother with a cellulite problem will have a very different conversation going on in her mind than a single woman wanting to look a little more tanned.

Targeting a tight niche allows you to become a big fish in a small pond.

It allows you to dominate a category or geography in a way that is impossible by being general.

The type of niches that you want to go after are “an inch wide and a mile deep.”

An inch wide meaning it is a very highly targeted subsection of a category. A mile deep meaning there a lot of people looking for a solution to that specific problem.

Once you dominate one niche, you can expand your business by finding another profitable and highly targeted niche, then dominate that one also.

Now you can have all the advantages of being highly targeted without limiting the potential size of your business.

The Cost Of Customer Acquisition

Another massive advantage of targeting a niche is that your marketing becomes much cheaper.

Targeted advertising ends up being much cheaper than mass marketing because there is a lot less waste.

Going back to our previous example, instead of having a general beauty salon ad in the classifieds, you would have your cellulite ad in “New Mother Magazine.”

Your cost per lead will drop dramatically because your message to market match is much better and hence your conversion rate will be much higher than if you had a general message in your ad.

Your advertising cost would also be lower because your target market is smaller.

The entire goal of your ad is for your prospect to say, “hey that’s for me.”

Being all things to all people is unlikely to have the same reaction.

Making Price Irrelevant

If you had just suffered a heart attack, would you prefer to be treated by a general doctor or a heart specialist? Of course you’d choose the specialist.

Now if you had a consultation with the heart specialist, would you expect them to charge you more than a general doctor? Of course.

Your bill with the specialist would likely be much higher than with your general practitioner, yet you’re not shopping on price.

How did price suddenly become irrelevant?

That is the beauty of serving a niche. Whether you do heart surgery or offer cellulite treatment, you can now charge far more for your services than by being a generalist.

You’re perceived differently by your prospects and customers. A specialist is sought after, rather than shopped on price. A specialist is much more highly respected than a jack of all trades. A specialist is paid handsomely to solve a specific problem for their target market.

So figure out the one thing your market wants a solution to, something that they’ll pay you handsomely for. Then enter the conversation they’re having in their mind, preferably something they go to bed worrying about and wake up thinking about.

Do this and your results will dramatically improve.

If you enjoyed this article, you may also enjoy our article on What is Direct Response Marketing? As a small business owner, it’s the smarter way to market your business.