Seth Godin, one of my marketing mentors said “Why waste a sentence saying nothing? “ As a marketer and entrepreneur, it penetrated me to the bone. People NEED what you have and NEED what you do, so why are you struggling to sell, scale, and survive.

In many cases it is not your product or service that is holding you back, you worked hard to become an expert in your field. Marketing is not as complex as people will have you believe. As a point we have all seen remarkable financially successful products and services that are moderate at best in their value but man do they sell a ton, WHY is that?

Marketing is not only about A/B testing, developing the right AVATAR, scaling your advertising, determining your market, building a landing page, shooting video, expanding social reach, or creating the perfect FUNNEL. Yes, all these things might be important but they are ALL STOPPED RIGHT IN THEIR TRACKS when the messaging is not on point.

To make it even more clear: When your messaging does not mean anything to me you will NOT HAVE my ATTENTION no matter what your intention is. When your messaging is in alignment with “ME” (your potential audience and customer) you have my UNDIVIDED ATTENTION.

SO messaging works to either PAIN or PLEASURE. 

You get it now, Your marketing message needs to address either the pain or pleasure of the people. Now over 51% of people are driven by pain while under 49% are driven by pleasure. Results vary based on topic but they all fall here at some point.

STEP 1: KNOW YOURSELF FIRST, YOUR DNA MATTERS

Are you a pain solver or a pleasure seeker? A company run by a pain solver marketing as if it is a pleasure seeker will FAIL EPICLY. Do not celebrate yet sunshines, a company that is run by pleasure seekers that are leading with pain avoidance will CRASH just as hard.

This is because in most cases you will be creating competing messages within the timeline. So they see one thing online and they will HEAR another thing during the intake call. They hear and see the right things during the advertisement and the intake call but the messaging during the delivery is confusing.

Everything Matters, EVERYTHING! The entire timeline and process matter when creating messaging.

Hey entrepreneurs, you are the company in the early days and in the formative years (less than 25 million gross annual). I have worked with hundreds of companies and thousands of entrepreneurs and the majority get this wrong.

What makes me laugh deeply is they all think they are something that they are not. Pain avoiders think they are pleasure seekers and pleasure seekers think they are helping people get out of pain. It is beyond funny and extremely sad and concerning. These companies NEVER get their marketing on track because they are confused as to who they are and perhaps they have preconceived ideas and value judgments about it.

One is not better than the other. Know this, live this. Seeking pleasure is not better than avoiding pain. Avoiding pain is not smarter than seeking pleasure. We need them both.

ONCE you know who YOU ARE it is then that we unveil the secret. Great messaging is BOTH Pain and Pleasure but positioned in the way that it will be best consumed and digested by your audience. They NEED to see THEMSELVES in the messaging. The Marketing message must have meaning to them directly.

Step 2: CHOOSE THE RIGHT DIRECTION

Here is where your marketing messages is falling apart. You are not sticking to a single message theme and most likely it is because you or the people coaching you have not done the research and have not presented the right argument and thesis. You must choose a direction to go initially. Pain or pleasure. So choose one and stick to it.

For the people who are actually reading this, it is simple What pain are your people experiencing that MATTERS that is what your messaging will HEADLINE.. What PLEASURE are your people seeking that your solution gets them that will be your messaging HEADLINE?

STEP 3: CREATE THE RIGHT SEQUENCE OF WORDS

Marketers HATE THIS because the message (better known as SALES COPY) when reading changes everything and makes all the metrics and technology irrelevant. Another great marketing hero of mine Dan s. Kennedy said this and another deep impression was made upon me. He shared; “Always enter the conversation already occurring in the customer’s mind.”

Here is what that means, NEVER interrupt someone’s ideas, frustrations, dreams, desires, or conversation about them. ENTER the conversation where they are and you will get what YOU WANT because they are getting what THEY WANT.

This is the magic bullet about Marketing Messages that work vs marketing messages that waste your company’s Time, Money, and Reputation. Marketers hate great copywriters because today they focus too much on the process and not enough on the “CONVERSATION” going on in the prospect’s mind. They sell the PAIN of technology to their clients but never deliver enough results.

So now you have some fundamentals to get started. Determine your DNA. Choose Pain or Pleasure Messaging. Tighten the messaging to match the conversation in the prospect’s mind. Introduce the inverse (Pain brings pleasure, Pleasure eliminates pain)

I know this is just the beginning of your copywriting journey. Now you have an understanding of what great copy should feel like. Jump into one of my seminars, dig deeper and make a difference today. I believe in YOU!

Peter Anthony