The fear-based marketing myth
Create pain!
Do you recognize this?
☛ You are not visible in the market?
☛ You are not attracting enough customers because of this?
☛ Nobody knows you, nobody buys from you.
☛ You lie awake at night worrying about your finances.
☛ Will you still be able to pay the bills?
☛ What is your partner going to say? And the children?
☛And the friends, they’re gonna think you’re a loser, right?
☛ Maybe you are a loser.
☛If only you had never started a business.
Don’t worry, I’m going to help you! I have the solution.
I have been an entrepreneur for over 10 years and I help other entrepreneurs to build Personal Brand so that they can attract more customers and develop a thriving business.
Good news, I have a great program I’d like to offer you. In this program, I will teach you how you too can build your Personal Brand …….
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When you read this, what do you feel?
I am curious, does this make sense to buy? Suppose you don’t know me at all and you are indeed having a hard time finding customers, and you are reading this, would you buy?
Let me know.
This is an example of fear-based marketing.
I learned this from various coaches at the time, and I also applied it. Worse, I’ve taught others too. Mea culpa. I didn’t know any better then. ☹
This is the kind of marketing that was common a few years ago. Some still apply it now.
There are still business coaches who tell you to focus on the pain in your marketing & sales messages. In addition, they recommend making the pain worse, dramatizing it. Throw salt and acid on the wound. Then come up with the solution, the miracle cure that will help the wound heal.
I don’t know about you, but this doesn’t feel right to me.
When I read the case above, I get a bad feeling. And I don’t want to feel bad.
When I look at my business, and in fact my whole life, I want to build a long-term relationship with people, whether they are customers or not.
And that is particularly difficult if you make them face the painful facts right off the bat.
Suppose you have a first date with someone you have a crush on.
Are you going to make them face the painful facts straight away? I do not think so. You want to create a pleasant environment where it is safe, where it is cosy, where the future is discussed carefully, without obligations, no rush. Obviously, a bright future. You are not going to create an environment where your date feels like a loser and where he or she feels obliged to marry you because otherwise he or she will never be happy. The question is whether he/she will marry you at all and whether the marriage will last long.
That’s kind of what happens in fear-based marketing.
And I think it’s time for something else.
There are other ways to do marketing and sales.
To give you 1 tip. Why not start from the dream scenario instead of the pain and the drama?
Does that mean you shouldn’t talk about the pain? Yes, could, but in a different way.
It is not something you start with (that’s my personal opinion). And more importantly, you are not going to rub salt in the wound. You touch it gently to understand where the customer might be in pain, and then come up with a solution.
Compare it to a doctor. He will also ask you where it hurts, by gently pressing on the pain points. To then prescribe a solution to the problem. He’s not gonna pour salt and acid on it, will he?
☛I am curious – what are your experiences with this kind of marketing?