Two months ago, on the first Monday in January, I began a series called “The 12 Marketing Fundamentals You Need to Succeed in 2021.“ Today, I’m going to reveal the 6th marketing fundamental you need to succeed this year.
If you haven’t read the other articles in this series, then read the next section. It will help you to understand the importance of the marketing fundamentals I’m sharing with you.
*Skip This If You’ve Read the Other Articles in This Series*
In my first article of the series, I laid an important foundation that I have continued to build on. In that article I said…
Based on some things I’ve been reading from the experts I follow, there are some interesting trends and predictions that are said to be coming our way in 2021.
These trends and predictions will be opportunities for people that know how to leverage them.
But I believe that the sweet spot in 2021 is the place where opportunity and the fundamentals meet.
You see, the people and companies that succeed the most are the ones that keep their eye out for opportunities and then take advantage of them by harnessing the fundamentals.
What fundamentals? The marketing fundamentals that have existed for at least 100 years and that will probably exist for at least another 100 years.
-Scott Aughtmon, The 12 Marketing Fundamentals You Need to Succeed in 2021.
Before I reveal what the 6th marketing fundamental is, let me remind you what we’ve covered over these last two months.
Because it’s important for you to have these in mind as you discover what the 6th marketing fundamental is.
Here are the first 5 of the marketing fundamentals you need to succeed this year…
The First 5 Marketing Fundamentals:
Here are the five marketing fundamentals that I’ve revealed so far are in this series:
- The first marketing fundamental is attention. Because without attention, there is no marketing.
- The second marketing fundamental is attraction. Without attraction, all the work you put into capturing their attention will be wasted.
- The third marketing fundamental is follow-up. Because two of the biggest mistakes many companies make are tied to follow-up. They don’t follow-up at all. They don’t follow-up enough.
- The fourth marketing fundamental is a unique selling proposition. Because if you’re ever going to get your prospects to choose your company, product, or service over your competition, then they have to know WHY and HOW your business is different and better than any of the other choices.
- The fifth marketing fundamental is your Who or what is commonly called your “target market.” Because if you don’t get this group of prospects right, then all of your marketing efforts will produce little results.
Now that you’re all caught up, you’re ready to discover the 6th marketing fundamental.
The 6th Marketing Fundamental You Need to Succeed in 2021
As you learned in a previous article, the most important element of a copywriting campaign is the list. The who.
Well, guess what the second most important element is? Again, if you asked a group of successful direct response marketers what the second most important element in a copywriting campaign is, after the list, they will tell you it’s this…
It’s your offer.
The offer is the 6th marketing fundamental you need to succeed in 2021. But, do you know what the biggest problem with offers is?
It’s the fact that many companies are confused about what an offer actually is. Most people believe that your offer is just the product or service you sell.
But that’s incorrect. An offer is much more than that.
What Is an Offer?
Yourbusiness.Azcentral.com gives this great explanation of an offer…
“An offering in marketing is the total offer to your customers. An offering is more than the product itself and includes elements that represent additional value to your customers, such as availability, convenient delivery, technical support or quality of service. A strong offering differentiates your products from competitors and creates value by meeting customers’ wider needs better than other options.”
So you see, your offer is much more than just the product or service that you’re selling.
But misunderstanding what an offer is is only part of the problem.
The next problem with offers is that many companies don’t realize an important fact. How you create and state your offer makes ALL the difference.
In other words, the offers you make in your company’s marketing shouldn’t be just an afterthought. Offers are way too important for that. They should be one of the primary things you should focus on.
To show you what an offer is and how a great, well-thought-out offer can impact your business, let me tell you a quick story of how a powerful offer accidentally started a business.
How Avon Was Accidentally Started
Have you heard of Avon? If not, here is how Wikipedia describes the company.
“Avon Products, Inc. or simply known as Avon, is a direct sales company in beauty, household, and personal care categories. Avon had annual sales of $5.57 billion worldwide in 2019.“
I’d say it’s a pretty successful company, wouldn’t you? Well, most people don’t know this but this successful company was started by accident.
It all started back in 1886. David H. McConnell was a door-to-door salesman who sold books. David was a smart man. He knew that an offer was more than just his product.
He also knew that in those days his main customers were women. (He knew his who.)
In order to attract female customers, he decided to offer little gifts of perfume. That made his offer much more attractive to his target market. Little did he know, this decision would change his life forever.
Because before long, the perfume he was giving away had become more popular than the books he was selling.
He wisely decided to shift his focus from books to perfume and founded the California Perfume Company, which later became Avon.
Think about it. If a powerful offer can accidentally start a company that’s now worth a billion dollars, what can a powerful offer do for your company?
In my upcoming articles, I’m going to reveal some things you can do to create powerful offers.
Until then, let me leave you with three questions you should ask yourself so that you can be ready to get the most value from what I’m going to share in my upcoming articles.
Take a Look at Your Business Through the Lens of Offers
Now that understand the importance of offers, I would encourage you to take a look at your business through the lens of offers.
Then ask yourself these three questions:
- Have we created offers for our products or services? Or are we just selling products and services?
- How effective are our offers?
- What are some things that we could add to our offers to improve them?
Don’t just answer these questions in your head. Write down some answers.
Write down some examples of the offers you’ve created and look at them separately from your marketing or your ads. Then judge whether they’re good offers or not.
Take a good look at the results these offers have brought your company. Would you say that they’re effective? Is there any room for improvement? Write down what you think.
If you think they can be improved, begin to think about things you can add to your offers or other ways you can improve them. Write down any ideas.
Once you have all of these things in mind, you’ll be ready for my upcoming articles that will begin to show you the elements of a powerful offer and much more.
Stay tuned.
Source for Avon Story: Mentalfloss.com
Catch Up on What You Missed in This Series
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