Marketing Lessons You Can Learn On A Date
Marketing and dating are similar in many ways. I was never a very suave ladies-man when I was younger and I wasn’t by any means a Casanova but I think if I knew then what I know now about marketing, things would have been different.
Here’s what I have discovered…
Picture this. You are at a party or event, you are scanning the room for new faces that catch your eye. People that you feel you can make a connection with that you have a natural attraction for. When you find that person in the room and you want to meet them what do you do? Do you walk over to that person and ask them to marry you?
You could do that but I don’t think they would take you very seriously and you might not have another chance at a relationship after that. The right move is to begin a courtship.
No one really does the "will you marry me" scenario if they are seriously trying to get a date. But this same principle applies in marketing too. And every day it plays out just like the "will you marry me" scenario above.
Someone runs an ad - full page, half page, quarter page – doesn’t matter. In their ad they ask the prospect to buy their product. They just come right out and drop the bomb - “will you marry me.” In the sales process buying is the same level commitment as getting married and just like in dating this is almost certain suicide – especially for products that are high priced, difficult to explain or generally have a long sales cycle.
Most people ask their ads to do too big of a job – getting someone to buy (stranger to customer.) What you should be doing is starting a courtship that sparks a relationship with a prospect that you can have for life. This relationship will be profitable for you many times over.
Pickup lines
We’ve all heard those cheesy pickup lines like, “What’s your sign” and “Hey, do you work at UPS cause I thought I saw you staring at my package.”
I’ve never used these lines and I’m not condoning the use of any of these to our single Gold Inner Circle Members. But pickup lines are a fancy name for headlines and if used properly in both dating and marketing can be very powerful.
The true ladies-men are experts at using headlines effectively. It’s the first thing said in an ad and the first line dropped in a dating scenario.
So, what is the most effective type of headline? The one that is focused on the prospect and delivers an irresistible offer or overwhelming benefit.
And the last thing that makes marketing and dating so similar is…
If you never go up to the other person you never get a date!
