A lot of things in life are easy, but not simple. Heck, learning how to play checkers is easy – but it’s actually got enough variables that it’s not simple to win.
It’s easy to get a domain name. However, it’s complicated – not at all simple – to do anything with that domain name.
It’s easy to know what you want to sell. But it’s not simple to find a buyer. For many, it’s also not simple to get a profit when you do sell.
Creating a video is just a few clicks on your phone – it’s really easy. But it’s complicated getting that video to be effective and get viewers and it’s no simple thing to set-up a YouTube channel or attempt to drive traffic to that channel. It’s really complicated if you need to do any editing, right?
Reading online articles, watching videos, or taking courses on how to do just about anything you can imagine is easy. Taking that information and applying it is not simple.
But the hardest part about growing your skill sets is finding information that is of true or useful value. It’s getting less easy as the “noise levels” increase and the marketing tools are more adaptable. It’s easy to find a source of information. Knowing when to trust your sources is not as simple.
False Promises
At some point in time, the internet has become a school of piranhas.
Everywhere you look, there is an advertisement following you around, offers for free downloads, and “challenges” and “contests” all designed to get you to purchase something, someday. That white paper on the “Ten Best Ways to __________” is similar to giving out a recipe without giving you all the ingredients. Quite often, that PDF is just a way to get you to do something that will help that marketer or get you revved-up to buy the rest of the story.
Mind you, I don’t think there is anything wrong with that if you get value. I do this myself in many different offers. For example, I offer a one-time free 30-minute business consulting appointment to just about anyone for about anything related to marketing. I consider myself a marketing therapist and that first free one-on-one is your session that may lead to more sessions or that might solve the bulk of your issues and keep you moving forward without more consultations.
I also offer a free review of websites with the same goal. You might want me to do some fixes or even help re-work the entire site. Or maybe I just give you confirmations you need to have peace of mind when I give you a big thumbs up.
What I never do (and what I am seeing everywhere!) is give false promises or insinuate instant solutions. For example, I won’t tell you your website sucks and needs a total overhaul just to get a paycheck. I won’t spend that 30-minutes free consultation with you trying to get you to buy something.
This happened to me recently when a “trusted” name in the marketing industry gave me a free 30-minute consultation. I was asked two questions and then endured listening to a virtual infomercial about books, courses, and other programs I might want to buy. Which is fine, but nothing being offered was related to my needs at all. And the conversation never got back to my specific needs.
I will never trust that person again. It’s why I don’t want to “use up” my trusted brand just to get a quick sale. However, I am beginning to feel like I am in a very small tribe. Here are some examples of what I have personally experienced in recent weeks.
- A podcaster who “promised” to share secrets of “How Do Busy Leaders Find Time for Social Media”.
After I carved out time to listen to his 30-minute podcast it turns out he, a busy leader, uses an assistant who does all of his Facebook administration. He was quick to share tools, like Hootsuite and Buffer (eye rolls from me) and other tips and tricks for getting those posts and tweets out, but when it the rubber met the road, he himself is not finding time for Social Media. He actually said that he didn’t have time, despite the title of his podcast “How Do Busy Leaders Find Time for Social Media.” What?! HUH? At least I was able to jump off at 15 minutes.
- An online interview on how to do Facebook ads. Titled something like “Effective Facebook ads on a budget”
Another 30 mins set aside. This time, I was nearly to the end (and granted, I had learned a few things here and there) when the “budget” part was discussed. The person said with a straight face something like, “I know that everyone says you need to spend many thousands, but with my clients, I recommend starting with just $30.” As the interview continued, it was made clear that to be really effective, you would want to use that $30’s as a way to test ads, but the goal amount for real success was $300. And then, a few sentences later came the words “Per Day”. $30 per day. $300 per day! Clearly, this person’s idea of a “budget” was $900 to $9000 a month being spent on Facebook ads to be effective. I had a full 25 minutes into this by then. I stayed long enough to hear the full pitch at the end and grabbed the free PDF. Yikes!
- Downloaded a free white paper: How to Launch an Effective Website
As with the above “research” projects, I am always ready to learn a new trick or two, so this one seemed worth my small effort. I entered my email address, which of course means I am on their mailing list now. I can’t wait to unsubscribe!
But, the joke’s on me. If I had spent a little more time on that website, I might have realized this was a mostly useless site with almost no substance. As was the one-page PDF with 5 bullet points. None of the bullet points had any worthwhile information about what a website needs in order to be effective. But they were willing to give me a discount on their SEO growth system.
Meanwhile, here’s my blog post on the subject of website effectiveness, called: “Why your website is not making you money.” Nothing to download. No tricks up my sleeve. Just enjoy.
The Takeaway
Be skeptical and don’t accept things at face value. When someone tells you they can cure all your business woes with this one (usually free) magical webinar or downloadable PDF, it’s easy to want that to be true.
We want things to be easy, but it’s never really simple to find an easy way to run a business.
However, growing sales, growing your brand, growing an audience who “Knows, Likes, and Trusts” (KLT) you means you need to give them things to know about, things to like about you, and then keep building on that until you are totally trusted. None of my encounters above met the KLT criteria. Make sure your marketing does.
Hi Mckenna,
I think this is a very timely blog post as I’ve also noticed a proliferation of people promising you online sales success and boasting huge numbers. There are always ad posts on my FB feed that are very eye-catching. I signed up for a webinar on sales success on FB that seemed to be saying all the right things but it was a waste of an hour. The “secrets” were not revealed but there was loads of backstory and outlines of courses you could pay to do – expensive ones. I didn’t sign up for them or go back and I unsubscribed from the email. Artists can be a bit of a vulnerable group when it comes to being gullible. We should always question where the advice is coming from and what qualifies that person as an expert. It needs to be weighed carefully with advice from other trusted sources. Recommendation is useful, too.
I love your blog because you actually tell us useful things instead of waving carrots that we will only get if we pay. I know you need to make a living but you have become a trusted source of information and that will pay long term dividends. You can also sleep at night…
I didn’t get an email from you today – just the wordpress notification yesterday – as you’re always like clockwork I wondered if anything was wrong…
Oh, the email just came through now!
I think you mentally tapped me on the shoulder since I hit send on the email almost as you must have been writing that other post. THANKS for the nudge!
Indeed. There is a proliferation because there are easy tools to create webinars and such. There’s a minefield of snake-oil sellers out there.
And yes, not only do I sleep well at night, but when someone actually connects for my help, they have no hesitation because of my blogs.
(Not sure that those less honest types don’t also sleep well. There’s the real issue. They really don’t care!)
OH…no…you noticed my tardiness! I was sure I had set the automated send, and then – like you – wondered where my email was? LOL… so yes… something was wrong. (Hope no one else noticed…LOL!!)
It’s my Thursday afternoon treat that breaks up the cooking chores so I would notice its absence!
McKenna,
This is so timely! Your blogs and emails are like a breath of good clean air. No big false promises just sound advice and points to ponder. Your guidance has been a huge help to me and I have shared your website with many others.
I review my 5E’s resources before every show and your suggestions for my website made a big difference. I still have lots of things I need to do but I am making progress thanks to you.
Thank you and keep up the great work.
Way to make a girl blush….! Thanks, Michele. THAT kind of testimonial keeps my engine revving. It’s great to be appreciated.
The only thing I can say is that I really do appreciate your blogs. They are so informative and … no pressure. This latest one highlights an increasing trend that I also found troubling. Lately I signed up for a webinar that promised to “help you getting in gallery”… honestly I got distracted and missed it. I still reveived a thank you email for attending and received the link to more information on how great this guy is! Truly, I am glad I missed it. LOL
There’s this whole “automation” thing going on now. I get emails that are SO irrelevant all the time now. It’s not really spam since I signed up, but it’s out of control “marketing” that is just poorly set-up. Sadly, the guy might actually be great – but his marketing machine is broken and his entire brand suffers.
The things you’ve outlined in this post Mckenna are the exact reason it’s getting harder & harder to get people to sign up for my e-newsletter! Even I am very selective in who I give my email address to. As always a few shysters screw it up for everyone.
Fiona, I tell all my clients the same thing: GIVE reasons and give value and getting people to sign up is really still as easy as it’s always been. Here’s what we all want: What’s in it for me?
If we are giving value, we will generally be “tolerated” or hopefully happily anticipated in that inbox. I get a couple of emails from Amazon every day…. but I have no intention of ever unsubscribing. What if my brand of whatever goes on sale? LOL.
In today’s world, it’s more important than ever to make sure people sense what to expect when they sign up. Let them know how many emails, what kinds of emails, any perks that will result – like subscriber-only discounts, etc. A best practice is to make it clear at the top of your emails that people can unsubscribe and have that button/link on the bottom that is very easy to see.
Jeez (said very sheepishly) – as always you are right Mckenna. I do know better. Thanks for calling me out on this. If someone is not signing up after I’ve had a good conversation with them, it’s because I have not done my job of caring about THEM properly…you don’t let me get away with anything do you lol?
LOL back atcha! In fact, if we can’t get an email address from a “serious” prospect, then they were either A) not that serious or B) the thing they need to think about is if they want to do business with you someday. In other words in case B, did you get that trust established?
Yep… It’s ALWAYS all about THEM! Nicely stated, Fiona.
Thank you McKenna for your persistence in giving us the “hang your hat on” insight to market our art. Your blog is one of the few I make a point of reading, after several years and many $$ of chasing the squirrels of promises by folks marketing to hopeful artists. The cream rises to the top, at least in this case.
This blog posts resonates a bit with me, as I am a bit wiser to the charms of the “make six figure income selling your art online” dime a dozen marketing coaches/gurus/Facebook experts etc. that pop up everywhere now. That being said, there are, really are, genuine gifted people who do know what they are talking about helping us artist relate to the tricky path of selling to collectors. I’m writing to one now, thank you. 🙂
Wow… thanks, Connie! I am actually tearing up a bit!
And what a cruel marketing ploy to insinuate that everyone is able to make six figures online? And of course, I really want to believe that, don’t you? I really want to do whatever it takes to make 25K a month…. LOL…And some are actually doing that, so we all get drawn into the dream state.
The only saving grace: it’s just (slightly) unbelievable. But be on guard: if we all read the same from multiple sources over and over again, it can gain momentum and begin to seem real. And then we will be buying into more webinars, books, courses, and mastermind groups and thinking we are “missing” some piece of the puzzle…if only, if only….YIKES!