The smell of Jasmine and the look of soft velvet… I had to bite my lip to remind me I was still myself and not blending mindlessly and timelessly into the ecstasy she unknowingly bewitched me with…
Jasmine was the smell I just could NEVER get out of my head. She often wore it and, besides her incredible looks and her amazing mind, it was such an exotic turn-on for a newly-post-pubescent lad, there was nothing I could do but translate the chemicals in my head as “love”.
One day she stopped wearing it… The intoxicating aroma had gone.
So what was I left with?
Actually, I was left with everything that was truly important.
I loved her with every ounce of my soul regardless of the presence of Jasmine. Sure, the mindless intoxication was diminished, but I was reminded of the things that really mattered every time I caught a glimpse of her mental acuity and her love of creativity and simple romanticism. She was perfection to me.
But forget all that. This is not about her…
It’s about you. It’s about your business. Because this week I’ve encountered the “Jasmine” of our startup world — it’s an intoxicating promise of something special … but in MOST cases it does NOT deliver what is truly important.
So many email newsletters used to stream into my inbox everyday. So many signups and, with them, the hopes sewn up in what they originally promised.
Most startups lead in with a brand promise, a proposition, a positioning statement, a tagline, or at least a brief benefits list … whatever it is, beyond that point you need to remember TWO incredibly important things if you want your customers to love you obsessively and to ultimately buy what you’re offering.
1. Have substance
This is obvious to most, but still ignored by some… Find out what is REALLY important to your prospects (hint: it’s often not the exact same thing that is important to you). Ask people. Listen to their languaging. Give them what THEY want, not what you want to give, but make sure you can do that long-term. There’s nothing worse than buying whole-heartedly into a relationship for a reason that fades over time. Make their deepest, strongest desires (and values) your core promise — your core reason for existence — and your core offering.
2. Keep reminding me
This is the thing I’ve noticed is sadly missing from so many ongoing marketing messages (like all the many email lists I’ve unsubscribed myself from recently): the reminder.
Here’s the scenario I want you to get… I’m a researcher. The internet makes us all researchers now, because it’s easy to Google something you want and then compare a bunch of options. So I often find myself signing up for SEVERAL service providers at once to check out their systems or offerings and decide on a “winner”. The trouble is, most brand names don’t explain what they do. They’re “cute” or they’re “clever”, but not useful as a reminder.
It’s fine if you’re just in bricks-and-mortar retail, because when you pass a Starbucks store, you can smell the coffee as well as see it.
But email marketing? I get so many emails from uselessly-named “XYZ” brands and, because they don’t remind me what they do exactly, I have to think REALLY hard … and whenever I have to think that hard, I press the unsubscribe link.
That’s a sale you just lost, most likely gone forever because I’ll end up falling in love with a product/service that reminds me — at every interaction — why I chose them in the first place.
Selling doesn’t happen once.
…It happens at every interaction. If they signed up to your email list for a reason, remind them of that reason every time you send them another email. Usually it’s a simple tagline that will suffice — “We do X without the hassle of Y” — or sometimes it’s just an image of a coffee machine. (Imagine if your emails could smell like coffee… or Jasmine?!)
The embarrassing funny thing is…
I’ve only just realised the absolute importance of this myself. Until recently I was also guilty of sending out emails with just my name and website address… But I won’t make people work that hard to remember why they picked me ever again!
So drop me a line if you want help with a way to always be remembered… and, ultimately, be loved.
—Matt
Designer, Copywriter, Web Guy, Smart-Ass
I help online businesses captivate their core audience and convert browsers to buyers.
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P.S. Need a logo, website or book design or maybe just some more engaging words for your website?