Stayin' Alive Marketing

What happens when the tribute act doesn’t live up to the hype?

In this episode, Victoria shares how a disappointing Christmas party performance became the perfect reminder that all the glitz and glamour in business won’t save you if you don’t get the basics right.

You’ll learn:

• Why flashy distractions like new websites, rebrands and viral reels won’t fix your marketing
• The simple fundamentals that actually build credibility and trust
• How to spot when your high-ticket offer isn’t landing, and what to do instead
• The power of a low to mid-ticket “easy yes” offer that meets your audience where they are

If you’ve been polishing the glitter but neglecting the groundwork, this episode will help you refocus on what really gets your marketing “Stayin’ Alive.”

Grab free templates, checklists and guides at allstarmarketingclub.com/resources - everything you need to market smarter, not harder.

About Victoria: Marketing Coach & Trainer Victoria Vickery serves up marketing advice with fewer buzzwords, more belly laughs, and stories you’ll never un-hear... because memorable marketing starts with memorable lessons.

For More Tales, Tips & Tangents: @victoriav1ckery

Transcript

We left the Christmas party early because, quite honestly, the tribute act did not live up to the hype. And in business, all the glitz and glamour will not save you if you do not get the basics right. Welcome to what's that Got to Do with Marketing? Where we start with a story you did not see coming. It might be fun, could be funny, or even a little bit frantic, but in the end, it will all make sense, leaving you with a takeaway, a to do or a transformational way forward. And I'm your host, Victoria, and you, my friend, are here for unlikely lessons and unforgettable marketing advice. Just for small B2B expert led business owners. Let's get into it. This episode is called Staying Alive Marketing. Now, Christmas time, we as a team got ready for the Christmas party. Glitzy dresses, a number of glasses of champagne to mark the special moment that was Christmas and I absolutely love Christmas. And off we went for our Christmas party to a local hotel where we were going to be enjoying a tribute act. And that tribute, tribute act was none other than, than Barry Gibb from the Bee Gees. If you were like me, born way back when, it's not quite my era, it's more my parents. But Barry Gibb was a big deal, him and his. His band with the likes of Staying Alive and How deep is your Love and songs like Night Fever and Tragedy. I know you're singing along in your head right now, so we thought, brilliant, we're gonna have a great night at this Christmas pie party. Live music, what more could you want? So we enjoyed ourselves, had a great time having a few glasses of this, that and the other, and enjoying the food. And then enter the tribute act that is Barry Gibb or Baza Gibb as he was known. And I have to say, it was probably one of the biggest disappointments in live music that I have ever seen. Now, I personally think I'm quite qualified to comment on, on how good this person was, because back in the day, I was a lead singer for a couple of different bands and no one is stopping me from going to a karaoke when I'm abroad and belting out a couple of Whitney Houstons, all the warbling included. So I think I'm pretty well placed to be able to judge whether or not somebody is a good performer. As Barry was on the stage, all he did as he was singing was look down at his feet and he shuffled around apologetically whilst he was singing along to his various different songs. And I have to say, it was a bit like watching A reluctant uncle at a wedding, dancing. Such a disappointment. And me and the team, well, we could not help but just laugh. And it just wasn't enough to make me want to put on my dancing shoes and my disco helmet and boogie along. So I have to say we cut it short. And I have to say it. It was, like I say, a big disappointment. We left there in fits of laughter and proceeded to a local pub to carry on with the evening. Now, I think what this goes to show is that you can't just say that you are a certain thing in your business if you're not going to deliver. So that's exactly what this has got to do with market. Tell somebody you are the best at what you do, the expert, you've got all the accolades, you've got lots of clients, you can say that as much as you want to, but unless you actually can prove it and live up to the hype that you give, then it's not going to work for you. Now, this comes back down to really nailing the basics, because the basics are actually the backbone of, of your business and how it operates and the basics of what is going to actually break you through in your business to do all of the other stuff to a much higher level. You can have a dazzling website, you can have great logo design, you can be showing up in all the right places, but unless you've actually got that process and that amazing experience to go along with it that proves that you know what you're doing, then all of the rest falls apart. So I want you to have a little think about asking yourself something. Are you actually nailing the basics in your business? Have a little think about that. What are those basics in your business that you need to be thinking about? So if we have a little think about what those things might be, you can start to put some action around that and think about how you can really nail it so that you can prove that you are the real McCoy, the one that's got that great service and not a really bad tribute. So let's look at some of the glitzy distractions that are out there and some of the solid basics that you should be considering instead. So, first of all, let's start with a good old classic. A lot of the time people are saying, I need a new website. That's the first thing they think of when they think about getting out there and, and proving themselves to their customers. They think it's got to be the website first. That's the thing I've got to. Now, first well, actually, yes, you may need a new website. Yes, you may need to put your a better show on in terms of your visibility so that you can showcase your clients and your services and your products. But having a glitzy new website should be something that you continue to do and it should not prevent you from moving forward with everything else. It's a glitzy distraction. Okay? So, yes, work on that. That becomes a project that you have to work on, but don't let that be the thing that stops you from working on all of the other stuff that's actually going to get you leads and sales in the door. Another one, another glitzy distraction. Let's rebrand. We're going to go for a rebrand and you start going off on a tangent, getting a new logo designed, thinking up a strap line and working on this rebrand, when actually, have you even considered what your customers need and do they understand what you already do before you start thinking about, you know, this rebrand being the new silver bullet that's going to get you new customers in the door. So, again, it's a distraction. Work on that in the background, of course, but don't let that stop you from keeping that plate spinning of going out and getting customers into the business. Because these things, websites, rebrands, they're all projects. They're things that you have to have running alongside all of the other visibility pieces that you need to do to make sure that you're getting clients in the door. All right? So let's not get weighed back by those glitzy distractions. And the other one that I want to mention is thinking about, I want to go viral with my reels or with my, with my social media content. Again, that is a glitzy distraction. It's not that your content needs to go viral. You've got to have really, really good content and really, really good support for the customers that are watching you, that are right for your business. You don't need to go viral. That's just vanity. What we really need to be thinking about is how we get in front of the people that make that mean the most to us and make them think in a different way, Help them to take the next step forward in their journey, help understand what place we actually have in their world and how we can support them and take them further towards what they need and what they desire. Yes, of course. It's lovely to see your numbers going up and something that you put out there that's really resonated with people, they might have enjoyed it. They might have shared it, they might have commented on it. That is wonderful. Yes, of course it is. The numbers do feel good. But actually those numbers are secondary to people taking the right action that brings them more towards you and working with your business, because that's the true measure of success, is how many people take the action that you want them to do to come towards your business and allow them. Allow you to help them. Now, here's another one, another glitzy distraction. I am all up for this one, but a lot of people are there thinking, I just want to automate everything. I don't want to have loads and loads of work on my plate. I'm gonna get systems to do it all for me. And I have to say, I'm with you on that. I think where you can automate, where it makes sense in your business, that is the right thing to do. And there is so much that you actually can automate. You can automate your marketing from top to bottom of the funnel. You can automate all of your customer experience. But here's what I want you to think about first. I want you to think about building it manually and making sure it stacks up first of all. So do that first before you put everything on automation. And I see this time and time again. For example, somebody sets up a. A webinar and they re record, or should I say they record the webinar and they get that on auto so that it's evergreen. They could get it on a system so people can actually sign up for it, watch it, but they never spent the time creating that process manually, first of all, and seeing how many people attend, how many people ask questions, many people, for example, and go on to buy something afterwards. So they've set something up and they've not tested it first of all, to actually maximize that opportunity. Same with, for example, if you're putting out free content, have you looked at that process in depth to understand what it is that people truly need, what it is in terms of messages that resonate with them before you commit to automating everything and making it work. Okay, so for me, I think this bit is all about doing things a little bit manually first and making sure they stack up before you put all of the time and the effort and the money into that whole automation piece, because otherwise you build something and you've just got to rebuild it afterwards because it doesn't work. And another glitzy distraction here. Have you ever been in that situation where you go, let's buy some followers or let's buy some data so that we've got more people to speak to in our business so we can get visibility much quicker to a bigger audience. So that's another thing that lots of people do. And what that does is, well, it can have a really negative impact. Number one, if you're buying an audience, whether that's through various different platforms for social media or indeed buying data in for your email database, it can have negative impacts in terms of your data could be have massive issues with it in terms of usability, it could be that it impacts then your deliverability. Or in your email marketing system, it can have issues with lots of unsubscribes because they've not asked for what you've actually sent them. And when it comes to your social media, there's all sorts of issues with that as well, because you start to contaminate the pool of people that are already following you. So it can have quite a negative impact. So what I would suggest is that you think about the solid basics of building all of this so that you are getting those followers and you are getting that data in more organically. Okay? So people are actually coming towards you because they're interested in what you've got to say, they're interested in what you offer, they're interested in what you can do for them. And that's a much stronger and better way to scale your business rather than just buying in data, buying in followers that actually don't have any interest in you. So there is a place for it and I'm not saying it's the wrong thing to do, but you have to be cautious and make sure if you are doing that, then you're doing it in the right way and you're thinking of every eventuality and risk and negative impact so that you can think about how you overcome those. On the whole, for me, organic is best. So that's what I would encourage you to do. One of the main things that I want to talk to you about today on this episode is the true glitzy distraction. And that one for me is trying to sell a high ticket offer and it's just not budging. And you're wondering why now, just like in my story about Barry Gibb or Baza Gibb, in this instance, the good old tribute act, wondering why everyone is just leaving. And when it comes to this specific subject around trying to sell your high ticket offer and when it's not shifting, perhaps it's as simple as this, you are offering something to your customer or your client, but it's too soon in the process to be offering it to them. They're not there yet, they're not warm enough, they're not ready for it. So this is when you need to think about how you can change it up so that they're much more likely to give you a yes. And something that I want to make you think about here is a completely different angle of going in with a much lower ticket offer. So either a low price or a mid price offer that will allow them to absolutely give you an easy yes. They're ready to say yes to it because it doesn't feel risky to them. They feel like it's the next logical step in their journey. So rather than looking at that, a higher ticket and thinking that's way too expensive, I don't really know this brand very well at the moment. I'm not sure if it's right for me. It's quite a commitment. Instead of that, you just bring the risk down a lot and you say to them, I've got this particular thing for you, this is why you need it. And they're much more likely to say yes because it's more manageable and you've thought about how to de risk it in their brain as much as possible. So that's what I want you to have a little think about. How could you shake this up and think about a mid to medium or a low to medium ticket offer? So what I want you to think about here is when you're selling something of this nature, it's got to fit into a pressure point because people buy things when there is an urgency about it. So what is that pressure point that they're feeling right now, the pressure zone that they're in where they're much more likely to go? Absolutely, I'm in. I want to buy that, that fits where I am at the moment. Think about that. What fits that zone? So for example, if I think of the case of an accountant and I'm thinking about an accountancy client, their pain point might be I don't know how I'm going to pay my tax bill this month. I don't know whether or not I'm profitable. I don't know whether or not I can afford to pay my staff this month. Yeah. So there is a pressure point there. And when there's a pressure point, people are much more likely to take action because it's more urgent. Whereas if you're trying to get somebody to take action and there's no urgency there, then they're going to procrastinate or they're going to say not sure and they'll look around for different suppliers and so on. So we've got to think about where that urgency lies. So that's number one. Think about a low to mid ticket that has a level of urgency around it. Then once you've done that, I want you to think about talking about the outcomes. So if you were to put a new offer to them and it's lower ticket and it absolutely meets a very, very specific need right now, then have a little think about, well, what transformation will it give them? How will it alleviate that discomfort that they're feeling at this moment in time? You need to be able to describe that to them, describe the transformation that you're actually bringing to them. All right, so that's the next step. Once you know exactly what the pain point is, design something that's going to give them a very, very great outcome, that helps them with that immediate pain, then you need to show them that there is a clear process and a clear pathway for them to get from the pain that they're in now to where they want to go. You've got to show them that you are the reason that they can walk across from pain to pleasure or pain to result or pain to transformation very, very easily. So you are the reason that they're going to be able to do that. And you've got to show them that there is a process for them to be able to do so. And finally, once you've done that, you've got to create the pricing. Pricing is a difficult one because you can have something that is really cheap and it feels too good to be true and therefore people don't buy. And then you've got pricing at the other end of the scale where it's too expensive and therefore they don't. So what we're thinking here in our low to mid ticket offer is creating something that absolutely gives you some cash. Absolutely feels like you're selling to your value, but it's got to be de risked as much as possible. It's got to be a no brainer where they say, yeah, that makes sense. I feel like the value I'm getting is very, very high for the cost, for the price that I'm actually being charged for it. All right, so repeating that, you've got the pain, you've got the transformation. Show how you move them from one to the other by the process that you've actually got for them. So you are balancing them from their pain through to the transformation. You've got to show that that exists and that you can get them there. And then you're going to build out exactly how you're going to move them from that. With a fair price. Your offer is everything. If you don't have something that is going to compel them to take action, they don't act and then they fall into this position of saying no. So I want you to have a little think about what that offer can be and again, stop being distracted by all of these glitzy things that hold you back. Get your offer together, get it out there, trial it out, see how it goes. And remember, people don't buy unless you can clearly show them why they're buying it and the outcomes that they're going to get from it. So if you would like to know more on this subject and exactly how to make this work and how you can build an offer that is so compelling that people want to say yes, then drop us an email to infoallstarmarketingclub.com and tell us you want to build your mid ticket offer. And as always, we'll send you a little bit of gold that will help you to achieve that. We'll see you on the next episode.