Make Marketing Suck Less

Online business has messed with our heads, like seriously the way we are marketed to has had a pretty big psychological impact in the way we think we need to show up and market our business.

Recently I was listening to the Small Business Boss Podcast that is hosted by my friend, Maggie Patterson, who also co-hosts the podcast, Duped: The Dark Side of Online Business with me, and she had a whole episode on marketing claims, and you should definitely go check that out after you listen to this podcast, of course.

But in that podcast, she talks about the fact that income marketing claims have made us believe that we can't market our offers without relating the results of what we produce back to money.

If you've ever felt that pressure to make a big income statement so people buy, you're not alone. But here's the deal my Rebel friend, you can't promise anyone that they will make money, period. It is like going to the doctor and the doctor promising you that you'll never get cancer, you'll never be sick a day in your life. They can't promise you that. And we can't promise people money.

But what can you promise? And what's the reason that your clients buy from you? Let's talk about that and how to create your own,what I call “why buy statement,” and I'll be sharing my own as inspiration so you can see how it's done.

I believe that every program you offer should make a promise to your clients.

Tara Newman, the founder of the Bold Profit Academy, which I'm a member of, talks about this as a program promise. Marty Neumeier, the author of Zag, calls this the why buy statement, and this is what I call it in my work, too, because this is exactly what I do with my clients.

Your why buy statement is the most compelling reason why people should work with you. It's something that you feel 100% confident in delivering on. You know you can promise it because the results of that promise are in your control.

Now you might be freaking out a little bit about this, 'cause that seems really big, and you're like, "Uh-uh, Michelle, there's so much I can't promise," and yes, that's the point. There is so much that you can't promise, but there are things you can.

So before we dive into your why buy statement, I wanted to let you know, I am now taking one-on-one clients for July and August for the Three Word Rebellion Messaging and Marketing Intensive, and one of things we do in there is get crystal clear on the value you create for your client, and then that becomes your why buy statement. We also create all the key messages you need to grab people's attention and convert strangers into clients.

And at the end of the program, you'll be able to powerfully communicate the value your business creates in your marketing, your sales, your media appearance, and more. And as a head's up, now this is not a reason why you should buy, this is not a scarcity tactic, but I am increasing the prices of my one-on-one work on July 1st.

So if you've been thinking about working with me one-on-one and you wanna get in on the current price, you can go request a consult right now to lock in the current pricing, and then you can start in July, August, or even September. So go to drmichellemazur.com/3wr for all the details. 

All right, so let's go back into what we can and cannot promise to our clients, and if you've been in the online business world for any time at all, you know that the way programs are marketed is it seems like every program is the key to making six figures or 10-xing your revenue, or it's based on, "Hey, look at how much money I make. I make seven figures. You can too by following my process."

Now, this is problematic as fuck, and Maggie and I go into that in some depth in the Luxury Lifestyle episode of Duped. When we are marketed to with these income claims, buy my program and you'll make six figures, if you read the fine print, that's not what they're really promising, that's not what they're really saying to you.

There's a little something called an Earnings Disclaimer that might be on the sales page itself  or in the terms and conditions that you sign when you join the program. And an earning disclaimer goes something like this. This is pretty standard language, “Although we make every effort to actually represent the services presented on this website, we make no assurances, representation or promise regarding future earnings or income, or that you will make any specific amount of money, or any money at all, or that you will not lose money.”

Basically, this is the cover your ass statement, because they've been marketing this as like take this program, make six figures, but the income or the earnings disclaimer says otherwise. And these will even go further, like earning, earnings or income statements or examples of earning or income statements represent estimates of what you may earn. However, there's no promise or guarantee that you will have the same experience. Isn't that nice?

So here's the deal. You can't promise money.

You can't promise that people will make a certain money, you can't promise that they're going to get 10,000 followers from your process, you can't promise that they're gonna get all of their time back and they're gonna make money in their sleep or any of that bullshit that we are fed.

And the reason you can't promise that is because it's all out of your control, right? You can't control how your clients implement a system. You can't control how they show up to your coaching sessions. You can't control how well they know their message so that you can write their copy for a sales page. Like you can't control any of this.

So let's talk about what you can promise. What are you in control of?

And when we start thinking about this, this can then become the number one most compelling reason to work with you, and it really has to do with your process and thinking about what the result of your process produces within the container.

Let me break down what my promise or my why buy statement is for the Three Word Rebellion Messaging and Marketing Intensive. And if you've listened to the show or have been to my website, you have seen this before, because I use it everywhere. [laughs] More on that in a minute.

So the Three Word Rebellion Messaging and Marketing Intensive promises that you will powerfully communicate the value your business creates, whether you're marketing to one person or a million people. Now, all of that is in my control because number one, I am not promising that you will have an audience of a million. I'm just saying your message will be applicable if you're talking to the teeniest, tiniest audience possible, or a million different people.

Powerfully communicating is really the emotion and intention behind my brand, because I know that my process allows people to stand in their power and communicate their message because they are confident and clear.

When you are confident and clear in what you're saying and what you're selling, your audience, your potential client, they also feel confident and clear about the results your program delivers.

The next part of my promise is about powerfully communicating the value your business creates

 When people leave the Messaging and Marketing Intensive, they are 100% clear and confident about the awesome results, transformation, and the value their business creates in the lives and businesses of the people they serve. Sometimes we're so in the weeds about this because of all that online marketing bullshit that we don't know how to talk about that transformation, and it's so critical

Then the final part of that is marketing to one or a million.

Basically it doesn't matter. Like I don't care if you are speaking to one person, you're on a sales conversation, or you're standing on the TED stage and millions of people, your message is still going to stand up to that, and you're still going to be able to powerfully communicate that message no matter how many people you're talking to.

So is all of that 100% in my control? Hell yes, I am so confident in my process that I can promise that. Like I'm not promising a Three Word Rebellion, although all of my clients leave with one, but I know in my heart of hearts that they can powerfully communicate the value of their business. So I am 100% confident in delivering that, I'm confident every day of the week and twice on Sunday, and can I sell that promise? Yes, yes I can. Because I see that I have done this over and over and over again for my clients.

And while being able to powerfully communicate the value your business creates leads to confidence and clarity about what to say, I also know when you know what to say and start saying it, cool things happen, but I am not going to promise you that these cool things will happen because I've seen my clients land book deals, podcasts interviews, media features, get more of the right clients and make more money, but I can't promise you that, that will happen to you, and here's why, because if your message dies in your Google Doc, you never implemented in to your marketing, into your copy, even though during the program I'm setting you up for that, then none of that cool shit can happen.

I cannot control how my clients use their message. I really wish I could. I really wish I could just go and implement all of my clients' messaging consistently and market and sell for them, but I can't do that. I've actually seen this happen time and time again, where I work with someone on their messaging, we create their Three Word Rebellion, their why buy statement, their signature stories, their marketing plan, all of that.

Then they go and they enroll in some $25,000 mastermind and the coach is like, Hmm, that's not really a part of my formula, my plan, so you should do things this way. And then I see them out there struggling with this new kind of bland messaging that's not really about the value they're creating.

And then what happens is they try that out for, you know, six months or nine months, however long they're in the mastermind, and they realize, "Hey, this isn't working. I'm going back to what my message is." And when they do that, things start happening.

So using what your process creates to get other results is up to your clients. We can't control what they do with the work we do with them.

So how do I develop the program promise or the why buy statements for my clients?

Now, the why buy statement for me is something that comes directly out of discovering and unearthing your Three Word Rebellion, because once my client lands on, okay, this is what the Three Word Rebellion is, we've done the work, we've unearthed it, then it's about figuring out how to communicate the value of that so other people buy in.

My whole process is based on free writing and brainstorming,  so that means answering more questions, that means defining what their Three Word Rebellion is and isn't, the layers, the process behind the Three Word Rebellion, and what people should absolutely know about their message. And the cool part of doing all this free writing is there's usually a sentence or two that perfectly encapsulates the value their Three Word Rebellion creates, the most compelling reason.

So let's say you're not working with me, you don't have a Three Word Rebellion yet, what can you do?

So the first thing to think about is working with me. No, I'm kidding. Well, no, you can't work with me. But the first thing to think about is, what is in your control and what's out of your control. Like sit down and make a list. What are you 100% confident in delivering, and what is out of your control?

So for instance, let's say I'm a dating coach. I can't promise that you are going to get married and, live happily ever after, and you'll have the best life, but I can promise something like you're going to be super clear on the person that you're looking for, that you want to spend your life with. You're going to feel confident within yourself that you know what you're looking for, right? So those are two very different results. And the stuff that you can control can actually lead to the ultimate outcome that they want. So reflect on what you feel 100% confident on delivering.

Once you develop your why buy statement, your program promise, where should you use it? 

This is what I'm always asked, like, how do I use this messaging we've created or this messaging I'm creating? And you want to use your why buy statement freaking everywhere. This is actually one of the most versatile pieces of messaging outside of your Three Word Rebellion.

Use it in sales conversations. In every sales conversation I have with someone when I am transitioning from like understanding who they are, their business, and I've made the decision that I can help them, I start that transition with my why buy statement, like this is what we're going to do, this is what you're going to get. Your homepage, mine is on my homepage, your sales page obviously, you can talk about it in podcast interviews, your content, social media, literally your bio on Instagram or LinkedIn. 

You can use it everywhere.

And finally, now that we've talked about what's in your control and creating a why buy statement, I believe that online business would be less scammy and toxic if we stopped focusing on money, follower counts and all the other shit that internet marketers tell us we should say, and instead we started focusing on the value, we can 100% promise and that your clients can rely on.