Sometimes the easiest way to sell a horse is with a sign that says:
HORSE FOR SALE.
I learned this lesson in 1997 from a woman who lived between my condo and the golf course.
Every day I drove past her house and saw a little sign in the yard:
TUPPERWARE SOLD HERE.
That was it.
And I remember thinking how wonderfully clear that was.
If you wanted Tupperware, she had it.
Around that same time, Eben Pagan and I met a guy selling loft condos in San Francisco.
The developer was spending about $20,000 a week on a full-page newspaper ad.
The ad showed a turtle from above.
An arrow pointed to its head: “This is you.”
Another pointed to its shell: “This is your new loft shell.”
Very clever.
Very creative.
And virtually nobody was showing up.
So we wrote a tiny classified ad:
SoMa. Really cool loft. You finish inside. Details on voicemail. [phone number]
It cost less than $200.
That weekend, 28 people showed up to see the lofts.
There’s an important marketing lesson hiding in that little ad.
The purpose of the ad wasn’t to sell the loft.
The purpose of the ad was to get someone to make a phone call.
And the purpose of the recorded message wasn’t to sell the loft either.
It was to get someone to come see it.
Every step only had to sell the next step.
Today we have an even easier version.
We can simply say what we have…
…and give someone something to click.
Sometimes we get so wrapped up trying to be clever, persuasive, or creative that we forget the simplest possibility:
Just put up the “horse for sale” sign.
What would the “horse for sale” ad be for your business?
What could you say that simply tells the right person:
I have exactly what you’re looking for. Click here.