by Tom Ruwitch
A few weeks back, I saw a video on Facebook by a marketer named Victory.
The video begins with a camera panning across his well-appointed bedroom.
Victory strolls into the frame, sits on his king size bed, ties his fashionable shoes, and then marches from his room down the stairs and out the front-door of his large, modern, two-storey house.
We get to see a lot of the fancy square footage.
He gestures back to his house, and says, “Hey guys. This is my home. As you can see, it’s not the Playboy Mansion.”
That’s a cute touch. I guess it’s his way of saying, “I’m rich, just not filthy rich.”
He then points out his fancy, Range Rover SUV. Not a Mazerati so I guess that’s something.
Victory tells us he’s “keeping it real” and that he’s showing us this stuff because he wants people to “see for themselves that they can earn a substantial amount of money legitimately” if they listen to what he has to tell them.
Here’s the funny thing about that – especially that word “legitimately…”
I once got an email from Victory with the a subject line that said, “Receipt for P’pal payment…”
Several weeks before that, I bought an inexpensive software application from one of Victory’s companies.
I couldn’t understand why Victory sent a receipt now, weeks after my purchase. I worried that, maybe, I accidentally signed up for something I didn’t want.
So I opened the email and found…
…a screaming, in-my-face pitch for another product.
A receipt? Nope.
This was just a trick to get me to open the email.
How’s that for “legitimate?”
So I scrolled to the bottom of this rotten email and opted-out.
You know the old song, “Breaking Up is Hard to Do?”
This was NOT hard. Couldn’t have been easier. Scroll and click. Opt out. Bye bye, Victory. We’re finished!
I don’t like to be tricked — especially when the trick fuels anxiety (as in, “Oh no…Did I accidentally sign up for something I didn’t mean to buy?”).
I don’t trust tricksters — especially those who already connected with me and who already have some of my money.
And I don’t like marketers who show me their fancy houses and expensive cars, who tell me they’re “keeping it real” as they claim “ALL THESE RICHES CAN BE YOURS…”
Trust. It’s a big deal in marketing. Work hard to earn it. Work harder not to squander it.
Some marketers don’t care about that. For them, it’s all about quantity, not quality.
They’re approach: Mislead the masses and upset a few.
“No big deal,” they think, “There are plenty of suckers out there who won’t notice or won’t care. I’ll sell to the suckers.”
You don’t need to market like that.
If you need to trick people to open your email, your content probably wasn’t worth sending in the first place.
If you need to brag about all the riches you’ve earned, the value of your content and offerings is not speaking for itself.
You can attract new clients and build your business without tricks and without being a braggy bigshot.
Provide real value — by creating relevant, informative, entertaining content and building meaningful human relationships with your ideal prospects.
Tom Ruwitch is the Founder and Chief Story Officer at Story Power Marketing. He’s offering a free, 12-minute micro-training called “The 3 Most Important Storytelling Keys to Captivate Prospects and Inspire Them to Buy -- Without Pitching and Prodding.” Instant access at: StoryPowerMarketing.com/3keys.
Submitted 2 years 22 days ago