It’s overwhelming.
There are thousands of things you might do to grow a business. So there isn’t any shortage of options; in fact, it’s the paralyzing abundance of marketing tactics that poses a problem.
Should you write a blog post? Record a podcast? Make a video? Post to Instagram? All of the above?
The truth is that you shouldn’t do any of those things until you understand why you would be doing them. And to understand why you would do X, Y, or Z, it helps to have some understanding of the 30,000-foot view of digital marketing.
It begins with the fundamentals.
Three Ingredients of Digital-Business Growth
The three essential ingredients for bread are flour, yeast, and water. Without any one of those ingredients, you can’t bake bread. The same is true for digital business-growth: it’s impossible without all three of its ingredients.
To grow a business online, ALL of the following are required:
- Offer: What does the customer get?
- Traffic: How will customers know you exist?
- Copywriting: How will you articulate the value of your offer?
Again: without all three of these ingredients, growth simply won’t happen.
So let’s give some attention to each of those three ingredients—and today, we’ll begin by discussing the fundamentals of:
The Offer
When something isn’t selling, it doesn’t mean that the product or service you’re selling is “bad” or that people won’t want it. The problem might be the offer itself, or how you’re trying to sell what you sell.
The offer is a combination of:
1. The features and benefits of your product or servce. We’ll talk about this in greater detail when we talk about copywriting.
2. The manner in which that product or service can be acquired. Do I need to pick it up? Is shipping available? How long does shipping take? Do I need to assemble it? Is there a digital version? How can you reduce friction here to sweeten the offer?
3. The cost of acquiring that product or service. The sticker price does matter, but so do secondary costs like shipping..
Let’s take a closer look at this last component of the offer: The cost.
If something isn’t selling, try adding one or more of the following to your offer to fray the cost or reduce the risk:
- Payment Terms – For example, 3 payments of $295 or one payment of $795.
- Bundle – Bundle one or more products or services together. More on bundling here and here.
- Free Trial – Let them try before they buy.
- Bonus – Sometimes called a premium. What can you add to the offer to sweeten the deal?
- Guarantee – Reduce risk by offering a clear guarantee or return policy.
- Flash Sale – A deep discount (usually more than 50%) offered for a limited time (~3 days or so).
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