Most businesses focus on branding and building top-of-mind awareness in the marketplace.
While it may seem like a common wisdom and a very wise thing to do… it’s really not something you’d want to waste your resources on.
First, creating brand awareness is very expensive. And second, even if you succeed and become “famous”, you may still end up dirt poor. Because brand recognition doesn’t necessarily mean people will buy your stuff.
It’s the difference between being famous versus being rich. Which one would you rather be?
Branding is focused on fame, thinking that it'll lead to more prospects calling you. People will often mail postcards, run ads, and manage campaigns that are just designed to get some visibility for their name.
On the other hand, direct response is really focused on building wealth. You don’t care about visibility. You care about getting people’s names and email addresses. You build a marketing process that works like a vending machine. You know that if you put X dollars in, you’ll get Y prospects out. It’s repeatable and predictable. And you know exactly how much it costs to start a relationship with your ideal prospects.
But here’s the thing…
You can only build your marketing “vending machine” when you know who your target market is. Profit Activators build on top of each other. And if your Profit Activator One (your single target market) is very broad, your marketing efforts will be very unfocused. When you try to serve everybody, your Profit Activator Two (compelling your prospects to call you) won’t be able to do its job.
You can only build your marketing “vending machine” when you know who your target market is.
If you have a business that gets people results, but you don’t have a predictable way to generate leads… then... forget about "building your brand" and “getting your name out there.”
Focus on identifying your ideal prospects, learning the message that will compel them to raise their hands and identify themselves to you. So you can start educating and motivating them to get started with you.
Focus on becoming rich, rather than famous ;)