Here's What 60K of Marketing Taught Me

K.I.$.$ (Keep It STUPIDLY SIMPLE/Keep It Slinging $): What 60k In Marketing Education Has Taught Me

I keep these words and picture around me whenever I work. We've all, on this journey in marketing and internet, been caught in the Shiny Object Syndrome. But something else has happened. Something I call the big and loud syndrome and something I keep reminding myself I need to avoid.

And though this is going to be longer than I thought. i'm going to give my very simple check list at the end for what I look to do to get my ads converting well (for anyone that's struggling or annoyed like I was when I was in this group for the first time and trying to do this).

What is the Big and Loud syndrome? We're in a noisy world, with a lot of advertising competing for our prospects attention. It's easy to believe that we need to do something that's outrageous, flashy, or brazen to capture their attention to sell to them. And though Attention is important, we can often overcompensate in the belief that attention is all that matters. But, capturing someone's attention, whether you're advertising or doing anything interpersonal, is meaningless unless you guide their attention. And I'll explain.

This week I've been in full site building mode since my offer to businesses to run a free ad campaign if they pay ad expense. I want to get as many testimonials and success stories as I can (and honestly, most of them will want me to stay on and continue to run their campaigns and my fees will be marginal to their return). So, I've been thinking about what to write, how to design, how to make them stick out and make our offers pop. And I keep looking back up at my sign, any time I think about getting fancy.

Every fancy looking, colorful, and amazing funnel I created failed. In fact, I could say that with just about any of my endeavors that involve creativity on my part. Sans maybe my reports, since I can stick images onto word docs, and move them around fairly well. Now, I'm the world's worse creative, and there are a ton of people in here that can create beautiful things that are not hindering and complicated, and this is in no way saying don't make something beautiful.

K.I.$.$ is my reminder that you never want your opt in, your thank you, or any page you send a prospect to, to be too distracting and too busy. If they remember your video but not your offer, you did something wrong. If they remember the site for anything other than the service or product, you did something wrong. If the moment they turn away and someone asks, "What are you buying?" and they say, I don't know. You went for Big and Loud and captured their attention, but never took it anywhere.

Too many colors, too much movement, too many promises, too many offers, too many repetitions of the word too many. They can all be devastating to your ad, your copy, and your conversions and bank account.

Time and time again, across every business, for every type of service, and every kind of offer, I've found this to be the case. The simpler and faster the message can be delivered, the better the ads, conversions, and action requests became.

As I ran an ad for an elderly care home service company, I had created a book cover, with a title, for the lead magnet and stuck it on the left. It did 20 opt-ins on 100 dollars. I optimized it and 37 opt-ins for 100 dollars (given the targeting this was good I thought, not great, but good) and we got 3 clients from that. But I created a simpler looking ad and instead, focused on a picture and this week, we saw 89 optins for 100 dollars, versus, another 35 from the other ad we kept running (and we have 9 Assessments Scheduled).

It's time to return to form. Advertising 101. Great Image, Solid Copy, Offer, Call To Action, Reason To Act Now, Call To Offer Again. Don't get me wrong, I'm an advocate of video and it has it's place in this simple process as well (I use it in my ads, I use it on sales pages, I use it in follow up, I use it in some opt-ins, but, only when it helps to simplify the process, never to make it more fancy).

Stupidly Simple, doesn't mean you don't use the technology we have, it means, you don't use it simply cause it's there.

Today, as I am building funnels for businesses, from gyms, to coaches, to chiropractors, elder care, and more, I focus on four things, and three things only before ever considering, animation, videos, quizzes, or anything else to ad to the funnels.

The Headline (60% of my attention), The Offer (30% of my attention), the call to action (10% of my attention).

And when I'm putting together a campaign that I'm managing, I try to K.I.$.$ every campaign... Because STUPIDLY SIMPLE IS WHERE THE Money is.

So, knowing this went long, as promised, my check list:

Does My Headline Capture and Lead Attention To The Offer? Both are important and should be in that order, capture and lead attention. More times than not when any of my friends that I've made are struggling with their opt-ins, it's one of these mistakes. The Headline Captures attention, but doesn't point to the offer. Or it points to the offer without capturing attention. Like (Case Study: How A Restaurant Increased Their Business By 20% A Month Through Social Media). or, another one (I Couldn't Believe And Nor Could Anyone Else, But I Was Laughing To The Bank)... Headlines are read 80% more than any other copy. People make up their mind on the headline.

Does My Copy Lead Their Attention To Intrigue And Desire? The Copy must not just explain. It must entice, transforming Attention into Intrigue and Desire.

Does my call of action make them take action? AIDA (Yes, back to basics) Do they take action and does it urge them to.

That's my simple check list. I ask myself that each time I build a campaign for myself or others. Hope it helps you.