In the previous section, you learned that everything we purchase has a desire behind it.
A much deeper “why.”
A much deeper goal we want to attain, or negative result we want to get away from.
And your potential clients, your BEST clients, have the same.
The thing is…
They are already paying money to get what they desire.
But likely not from you…
Really think about that for a second.
These are people who are already putting money down to get the desire they want.
They are the most EAGER of buyers.
They put their money where their mouths are.
They are already seeking a solution to their goals or to get away from what they don’t want.
Yet, they don’t even know you can give them MORE of what they desire.
I call these “Hot Buyers with Desires”
The stressed out mom who just wants to feel appreciated may be buying her kids new toys, tablets and fancy watches.
The woman who wants to feel good about herself again and have self-belief is buying lip gloss, eyelash growing regimine, or even just whitening toothpaste.
The mom of a tween girl wants to feel like she’s being a great mom, and is buying parenting books, buying her tween new clothes, and putting her tween into every sport and activity imaginable.
The couple who wants the freedom to not be tied down to a location or mortgage is buying timeshares, campers (lol), or even a bike.
The “freedom” one isn’t exactly photography related…but the first three are. And they’re just the tip of the iceberg of what desires we can (and do) fulfil with our photography.
Your best potential clients are already spending money to get the result: a desire.
Yet they probably don’t know you can give them a better result, that they won’t grow out of (clothes)…
That won’t wash off (lipstick).
And that over the course of a year will probably cost less…
I mean, how much do we women spend on beauty products/clothing/things to make us feel confident every year?
I’m sure it’s a big dollar amount.
So the big question is, how do we LINK our photography sessions and products to the deepest desires?
Or, put another way, how do we fill in the gap between the sad face and happy face, much like what happened in the story of the big camper purchase for my husband and I?
It’s what I call Desire Linking. And I’ll tell you how to do that, after a quick sequel to my camper story. Camper Story Part 2: You may be wondering, what happened that got my husband and I from point A to point B…from never ever going to buy a camper, to being excited and doing it ASAP. The “magic” is in the arrow. The in between on the diagram above. We had experiences…which shaped our thoughts, beliefs, conclusions, and ultimately our behavior to purchase a camper. That, in a nutshell, is Desire Linking. It’s the experiences we had over two months,and the conclusions we drew. The experiences, conversations, realizations, events in life, ALL of those linked us to our final behavior – purchasing the camper. Here’s what happened: We talked about going on a summer vacation. Which brought up some not-so-fun vacation memories. Hotel vacations were never fun with our 3 children under 5. Being crammed in a tiny room while trying to put kids down for nap time always ended in tantrums, other kids waking up… We didn’t have a place to cook, and disliked taking our three kids out to restaurantes. So fast-food meals and takeout pizza was about all we ate, leaving us feeling sickly and grumpy. Our small pop-up camper wasn’t big enough. Our youngest was still sleeping between us, and we never got more than a few hours of sleep per night camping. And we could never find anything. Overall, the conclusion was “vacation isn’t fun…we’d rather stay home.” Which is, well, a really sad conclusion. It was Memorial Day Weekend in 2017, and things changed. We took a day-trip to our friends’ campsite. To grill some hot dogs, take a hike, and then drive back home. Our youngest (he was 2 at the time) needed a nap. We were smart enough to bring a playpen, but it was just too sunny with no shade at the campsite to put him outside. So our friends offered to let us put him and the playpen in their camper. It was close enough so we could hear him if he cried. He fell right asleep. I could walk around the entire playpen – it didn’t block getting to the kitchen or bathroom in the camper. I even sat on the couch inside while he fell asleep. I looked at the kitchen – all of the cupboard space. Room to cook any meal – spaghetti, mac-n-cheese, a steak dinner. It was like a second home on wheels. All while in the wilderness of Montana – just us, our family, our friends, and the wild. It may sound so silly – but it was like a revelation. That vacation could be fun again. That nap time didn’t have to be horrendous. That my husband and I could get REAL sleep on a decent size bed, while the kids slept in bunks…with PLENTY of room for our 2-year-old to sleep between us when needed. We could play games on the table when it was rainy – instead of having all of our luggage shoved in every nook and cranny. The conclusion was that a bigger camper would give us the freedom to go on vacation whenever we wanted to (at least in the summer months). We could even work while camping, and go during the week. I could do my editing, emails, and other work from my laptop. My husband, also self-employed, could do business from the camper, as long as we had cell-service. We could go wherever, whenever, with most of what we needed already stocked in our camper. It sounded like PARADISE! And so the decision to purchase a camper was set in motion. What’s that got to do with marketing? I was recently watching an informational video that top-level marketer Rich Schefren created. He says that we all value and purchase things because the experiences we have had in life have brought us to that conclusion. Which makes sense when you think about the experiences my husband and I had that led us to purchase a camper. So all that marketing really is, is compressing experiences into our marketing, to lead our potential clients to the conclusion we want them to have. That our product will bring them closer to their desire, and is totally worth it. Where this fits in with the camper story: In the camper story, it wasn’t marketing at work. It was our own experiences. Those experiences led us to draw conclusions. Those conclusions became beliefs Those beliefs, those NEW beliefs, directed us in the way of purchasing a camper. It sounds so simple, it is, but it’s not easy. But once you grasp this concept, you’ll have a massive let up on the competition. Because the competition, well, they aren’t doing this… Creating Experiences to Link Desire – How it’s done in marketing The best way I can explain desire directing in marketing, is to use the metaphor of a documentary. Some documentaries are unbiased – giving both sides of the story. But many or most have one goal: to get you to shift your belief to what they want. To believe McDonald’s is killing you . To believe cancer (and other health issues) can be cured or diminished with the Keto Diet . To believe T eflon is an evil company and Teflon pans are a source of bad chemicals . To believe lady Gaga is so very human, and a lot like the rest of us . For any of those conclusions to happen, you must have experiences. And those experiences in documentaries are based on many things. Storytelling. Scientific Data. Quotes from newspapers. Interviews with subjects. Before and after photos and videos. Dictionary definitions. Song lyrics. The documentary The Devil We Know shares heart-tugging stories about babies born with birth defects. About locals dying young of cancer. About a farmer who loses all of his cattle, and eventually his own life. Some of the experiences are also scientific data. Data about the water supply. About the amount of toxic chemicals in the mothers and babies born with defects. There are letters between the lawyers and the CEO’s. All giving you the experiences you need to not just think twice before buying or using a teflon pan, but to believe Tefflon is a monster. Now, our beliefs we’ll be creating, THANKFULLY, are on the much lighter side. But we can use all of the same strategies as documentaries use – from storytelling, to scientific data, to song lyrics, and everything in between. Giving hot buyers experiences that lead to our product. The reason most marketing fails, is because it’s just a tactic to get in front of people. To grab attention. To get noticed. In hopes that the more the marketer gets noticed, the more bookings they’ll gain. But there’s a big giant flaw in that. Attention alone isn’t enough. Attention without Desire Directing (creating experiences to link our product to what they desire), is just pointless visibility, that will barely move the needle, and is not sustainable. Telling random stories, giving too much information just to be “vulnerable,” and giving way too much “useful” content that never link to what people really desire? Is what I call the path that leads to burnout. With a little bit of moving the needle that is dangerous enough to make it feel like it’s working… …which leads you to your own experience and conclusion: I need to do MORE of that! But we DO need tactics – we can’t’ just sit on our butt and do nothing. We absolutely need to get in front of people. It’s just that tactics alone put us right back in the “Avatar Chaser” category. The “do more more more” frenzy. The competition with more and more photographers, for the same piece of the pie. The math will never work out in our favor, not in an oversaturated market. It will only get worse…It’s simple math. Instead, we use Desire Directing to create experiences in our marketing.We target those who are hot buyers – they are already purchasing products and services to get them closer to their desire – they just don’t yet know that our photography can get them there better. Those experiences create new thoughts. Those thoughts turn into conclusions. Conclusions turn to a belief. A belief that your products and services will get them closer to their desire. Even (and especially) when they hadn’t ever realized photography could get them there. Each email newsletter, social media post, even web page, has only one goal: To give the Hot Buyers with Desires you’re targeting new experiences, which link to your products and services. Each tactic is just a small microscopic piece of Desire Linking. And to the untrained eye it can’t be seen. It can’t be copied. The competition has no idea why you’re doing what you’re doing. Yet those you’re targeting with your marketing see you as completely different. Unique…one of a kind. It’s an invisible pull. They are pre-sold on what you offer before they even click send on an email. They are ready to buy and get closer to their desire. THE SYSTEM Let me introduce to you to a system I’ve named The Invisible Client Attraction Protocol (ICAP for short)Step 1 is creating a NEW venn diagram. Understanding what your potential client truly has a deep desire for. And targeting Hot Buyers with Desires…those that are already buying products and services to get them closer to their desire, but don’t yet know that you can give them a better result. Step 2 is creating a roadmap to link your products and services to their desire. You gather evidence that your products and services actually DO link to their desire. You gather stories – your own, past clients, or even celebrities. You gather data – scientific studies, newspaper or magazine articles, quotes from historical figures. You can even get more creative – gathering song lyrics, poems, brain science studies. Step 3: You create experiences for your Hot Buyers with Desires. Using your roadmap to craft your web pages, social media posts, email newsletters, even your voicemail message. This is where tactics come into play. But everything is crafted in a way to do less – but be more effective. “Do less better.” Step 4: Your potential clients now have the belief that your products and services will bring them closer to their desire. They think “I need that…it’s totally worth it!” This conclusion is what happened to my husband and I, the “We’ll never buy a camper” to “We need it now!” Step 5: You amplify your business, and create a BIGGER RESULT that gets them closer to their desire You’re getting more of the right clients, with less competition. Your clients value what you do more. You’re creating raving fans. This is when you start to add MORE of what people desire into your business. You’re giving them a bigger, better result. No “experience” for experience sake…no freshly baked cookies at ordering sessions and random gifts. Everything you add into your business does one thing only: gives them MORE of the result they desire. It gets them CLOSER to what they desire. It’s not just an empty “lets do more” for more customer service sake. It’s directed, laser focused. This is a very nuanced process. But the results are totally worth it. You transition from the Avatar Chaser to the Desire Director. From competing in the bloody red sea of competition, to creating a market of one. From targeting the same tiny pocket of people who value photography and can afford it… To targeting a group of people who a desire that you fill – and are already seeking the solution. From the “more more more” frenzy of marketing that leads to burnout. To being hyper focused, and doing less better…every piece of marketing has a larger purpose, instead of merely “attention” From getting ghosted when you send your pricing… …to having inquiries pre-sold on session and products before they even click send or dial your number. If this sounds like the business you want to create, then my brand new course the Invisible Client Attraction Protocol (ICAP) may be something you want to look into. I’m leading my very first group of students through this process, and the first few people who join are going to get some extra help… …And an early bird price for this first group of students only (Expires in a few days). Click here to check it out … The first three people get something extra special 😉
If you’re wondering specifically how I create experiences in my marketing, you’re in luck.
First, if you’ve purchased any of my courses in the past, the copy and paste email and social media templates, when looked at, should give you more than enough to make it obvious.
I tell stories.
I give my audience instructions.
I ask them questions.
I use movie quotes.
I show instead of tell.
I create a narrative that leads them to the belief that my photography session and products will bring them closer to their desire…
Be that feeling appreciated, feeling like a good mom, being happy with themself as they are, or taking a tiny bit of pain out of the life of their tween girl.
It’s created bookings of the right kind of clients, who value what I do and are pre-sold on me before they even inquire.
And even when people don’t book?
They still thank me for my marketing.
Even share it with others.
In one of my most successful booking campaigns yet (August/September 2018), I used this quote to create an experience for my audience.
It can relate to probably ALL women.
And can link in many different ways to many types of sessions and desires…
Think of this as just one tiny example of creating experiences with our potential clients:
““When we’re little girls, we have all the confidence in the world.
We let our bellies hang out, and we just dance and play,
Pick our wedgies, and then these things happen that make us question ourselves.
Somebody says something mean to you on the playground,
And you doubt yourself over and over again until you lose all that confidence, self esteem, all that faith you started with is gone.
But what if we didn’t let those moments get to us?
What if we were stronger than them.
What if we didn’t care about how we looked
Or how we sounded
What if we never lost that little girl confidence?
What if when someone tells us that we aren’t good or thin or pretty enough we have the strength and the wisdom to say –
What I am is BETTER than all that?
Because what I am is ME. I’m me. And I’m proud to be me”
-Amy Schumer in the move “I Feel Pretty”
SECOND SIDE NOTE:
If this “different” kind of marketing, that creates experiences AND leaves your potential clients thanking you for your marketing is something that interests you…
