Brian Basilico — July 6, 2018 — July 6, 2018
Buddy Guy – The Dog
Part 1: What Is The Perfect Marketing Strategy For Your Business?
Part 2: What Is The Perfect Marketing Strategy For Your Business? – Part 2 – Mining Your Sales Data
Part 3: What Is The Perfect Marketing Strategy For Your Business? – Part 3 – Targeting New Customers
Let me tell you a quick story. About six years ago or so, we adopted a dog. We posted a picture of up on Facebook so people could name him, and they named him Buddy Guy. He’s around 100 pounds, a Black Lab, and I’m a Blues player, so it made a lot of sense. So that’s his name, Buddy Guy. We don’t know how old he is, somewhere between 9 and 12 years, we’re not sure. Over the last year, he started having problems walking. Over the last three months, it’s gotten so bad that he could not get up and down the stairs. He was falling, planting his face into the carpet when he came down the stairs. Falling down the deck. When I took him on walks, they kept getting shorter, and shorter, and shorter to the point where the dog would come back, and his legs would collapse.
After a vet visit, we changed his meds, because he had been on pain medication and stuff like that, and it just wasn’t helping. So I got on Facebook and I asked if anybody knew anything about it. I was looking for something that was in-home that I could do with the dog, because 108 pounds is hard to get into the back of an SUV. I could not lift him. I could get a ramp, but his legs weren’t good enough to get up the ramp. So, I couldn’t take him in for laser treatments or any of the things that people were suggesting. Lo and behold, one of my clients knew of a guy who has this laser therapy blanket. Then, a lot of other people started talking about something called CBD oil, which is a hemp extract without the THC, so the dog doesn’t get high.
The Solution
So, about a week ago, we put him on the hemp oil, and we got this laser jacket. Now keep in mind, this is not a cheap thing. But we got it in, and we decided to give it a shot. Within a week, the dog is going on much longer walks, can get up and down the stairs by himself with no problem, and the results have been amazing. Now, I’ve been documenting this. I documented the first day on his walk before the blanket, and I showed how his legs were collapsing even after two blocks.
Then, I started taking pictures of him day after day, after day, It’s been seven days. And people on Facebook have been blown away by the progress. As a matter of fact, these posts that I’ve been doing have been getting over 100+ likes, plus maybe 50 comments, a bunch of shares, and a bunch of questions.
This story has resonated with so many people who’ve had pets who’ve gone through this, or even pets who are going through it now. People with big dogs, and small dogs, and cats, and whatever.
This has been an incredible story. And it’s actually helped land a client to help him sell more of these blankets.
What Is YOUR Story?
So let me ask you a question. Do you have a story like that? Do you have something that needs to be told to your audience that could help you sell your products or services? Do your customers have stories, maybe success stories of things that you’ve done for them? How do you make that emotional connection with an audience that gets them to take action?
That, my friends, is how you create the perfect marketing strategy, through using content marketing. By telling your story. Now there are lots of different ways to tell your story. You can do it through the written word, which is one of my favorite things to do, to create blogs. You could also use video, or you can guest speak on podcasts, or create your own podcast. Whatever it is, the bottom line is this: by getting these stories out there, you’re not selling anything, you’re giving social proof.
If you write it as a blog, the best part about that is it becomes additional content on your website that Google will index. If people are searching for certain things, yours might show up. Especially locally.
So think about that for a minute. This is a way, by telling your story, to get it in front of hundreds, thousands, even millions of people. Let’s talk about that. How do we create your story?
Create A Connection
First and foremost, as I said, you have to create that emotional connection with your audience. Obviously, the pet owners feel the pain of watching their dog slowly decline. Some of us, including me and my wife, have had to put dogs down. We have had them euthanized because their quality of life was so bad. And a pet’s quality of life has a direct impact on the owner’s quality of life from an emotional and physical standpoint, including trying to get a 108-pound dog in the back of a car. Other people have said the same thing even with small dogs.
So it created this incredibly strong emotional connection. And that’s what you have to look for, is how can your story resonate with people and make them feel something enough to want to engage. To like, to comment, to share. Or even more importantly, take action and purchase. So let’s talk about formatting in a way that’s going help you get that message across. Now I’m going do it from a blog standpoint, but nothing says you can’t do it in a video standpoint, or a podcast standpoint, whatever it is.
Parts Of The Process
The Headline
So the first thing you have to do is think about the headline, because the headline is the thing that gets attention first. What is your headline?
There’s a tool out there from CoSchedule called the “CoSchedule Headline Analyzer“. It will help you figure out whether your headline is going to be attractive to audiences. It’s a great tool. So you need to write a headline that’s going to get attention.
Opening Sentence or Paragraph
The next most important thing is the intro. Does the introduction have a compelling question? Does it have a message? Does that create an emotional contact that’s going to make people want to dig deeper into the article?
Then, you’d have to define what the problem is. What’s the problem that people are trying to solve? You could say, “Do you have an old dog with bad hip problems? Well, guess what? It may not be his hip and it may not be his knees, but it actually might be his spine. This laser therapy blanket actually does pain relief, and deep healing both on the bones, and on blood flow that helps your dog heal himself.” That’s the story, that’s the problem, that’s the solution.
Problem & Solution
So, with just those few words, I was able to tell the story, and of course, I can expand much more on it, but this the introduction and I don’t wanna go too deep. But if you really want to check it out, follow me on Facebook – send me a friend request, I’m happy to let you in – and take a look at some of these videos. And you’ll get a sense of what people are commenting on, what they’re saying, how many people are liking it, and how this story has changed so many people’s minds and potentially, their lives and the lives of their pets.
Call-To-Action
So, we’ve defined the problem, and we offer a solution. And obviously, I have to make more of a case as I go along as to why this thing works. But that’s up to the company that makes it.
The final thing that has to happen is the call-to-action. What do you want people to do? Do you want them to sign up on an email list for more information? Do you want them to follow you on social media? Do you want them to purchase now?
You have to decide what that is, and every blog, every story can have its own separate call-to-action. It doesn’t have to be the same thing every single time.
Final Thoughts
image: https://cdn.business2community.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/smartphone-2294899_960_720.jpg
So, if you want to grow your business, and you wanna build that perfect marketing system, what you need to do is learn how to tell your story in a way that emotionally connects with your audience.
I would love to hear your thoughts on this. Comment below and share your thoughts, ideas or questions about showing the concepts presented. Have you had to overcome any of the presented concepts? What worked and what did not live up to expectations? Do you have any ideas or advice you could share?
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