Month: February 2018

The true target prospects
for coupons and samples
aren’t bargain shoppers.

The true target prospects
are shoppers
who normally pay full price.

Coupons and samples
are one time tactics.
We offer a coupon
for $1 off our product.
The prospect uses the coupon
the first time
and then, in the future,
buys the product at full price.

Die hard bargain shoppers
don’t ever pay full price.

Will you attract bargain shoppers
with coupons and samples?

Yes, but they aren’t the people
you should be designing
your coupons and samples for.

Design your coupons and samples
to appeal to people
who normally pay full price
(i.e. often the people
who are interested in quality).

I sell Romance Novels.

You would think
today,
I would be posting
on social media,
asking readers
what they’re doing
for Valentine’s Day.

I’m not.

I assume everyone,
every reader (customer),
every potential reader (prospect),
is alone today.

I might send them Valentines.
I might post cute memes.
But all of this is designed
with that assumption.

This makes everyone
feel good.
The couples (or more) feel special.
The single folks feel normal.

Assume everyone is alone today.

Don’t do this.
It makes matters worse.

In our minds,
we think,
‘If our favorite customers
know times are tough
for us,
they will rally behind us
and support us.’

The reality is…
if our favorite customers
know times are tough
for us,
they will immediately start looking
for a business to replace ours.

I do this.
Almost everyone does this.

When I need to vent
about sucky sales,
I go to a group of my trusted peers.
Their sales might be sucky also
and they’ll sympathize
or, in the best case,
their sales AREN’T sucky
and they have ideas
to make my sales better.

Don’t tell customers
your sales suck.

I see this happening
more and more.

Someone posts
a question on social media
like
“What type of process cheese
do you like?”

Everyone answers.

Then the someone
who posted the question
replies back
to each person,
telling them why
eating process cheese is terrible
for people, etc. etc.,
basically humiliating them
in public.

This is unlikely
to change behavior.
People will continue
to eat the process cheese.

But now they will think of that someone
with hatred
every time they do this.

Ambush posts
won’t earn you customers.
Don’t use them.

We all know
we shouldn’t tell folks
(customers, prospects,
anyone)
on social media
that we’re going on vacation.

Criminals track
this information.

So how do people running
one person businesses
take time off?

I, of course, schedule posts.
But I won’t be responding
to comments
and that will be obvious
to many regular followers.

So I post publicly
that I’m taking
a social media vacation.

I DO recommend taking these.
They restore my creativity.

They can be great
for busy times of the year.

But I also take them
when I’m taking real vacations.

Consider
taking a social media vacation.

I tend to post
on social media
every day.
I also reply to messages
within a day.

If I go two days
without posting
or replying,
some readers (customers)
feel like I no longer care
about them.

I don’t want that
to happen.

Maintaining the same
level of engagement
with customers
and on social media
can be important.

When deciding
how often to post,
assume you’ll be posting
that frequency
forever.

(Which is why I only post
once a day.)