“Find one or two lifestyles that describe you, then the logic goes other neighborhoods that attract the same “Birds-of-a-Feather” lifestyle would appeal to you.”
An ongoing case study: How to convert thousand lesser fans into a thousand true fans, so they buy enough to support you and make a little profit?
Here’s the part I’ve always hated.
Crafting the sales message.
And, there’s a little irony.
To be successful you have to appeal to human motivations and I earned a masters degree in psychology.
The problem for me has always been that as a professional knowledge worker — in my case a consultant, coach and trusted advisor — we were trained not to advertise or to market ourselves
The path to a thousand raving fans was taken one referral step at a time.
Not by running ads.
Or by selling.
But by transforming clients with so much value they became enthusiastic advocates.
Can you advertise and sell online without crossing over into the “scam territory?”
Sure.
For the last few years I found plenty of information and inside intelligence that online marketers and other less scrupulous “Make Money Online” entrepreneurs misused.
But some of it could and should be used by legitimate consultants and lifestyle business owners.
How can you convert a thousand Lesser Fans into a thousand True Fans?
So they buy enough to support you and make a little profit?
Keep these tips in mind.
One of the things that motivates you is to avoid unpleasant things.
Will your “knowledge product” – book or ebook, for instance – save your true fans from making a fool of themselves?
Remember high school and how embarrassed you felt from time to time because you didn’t know or understand what everyone else did?
Television ads reminded us how bad our breath smelled or our stinky body odor offended the those around us.
We didn’t have a clue.
Others did though.
Or so the ads implied
There’s that whole wall of worry.
Stuff that makes us uncomfortable.
Things like worrying about having enough money …
- for paying our monthly bills,
- for our doctor visits,
- for the car payment and
- for what the insurance company won’t pay because of our high collision deductible.
As an entrepreneur you wake up abruptly at 3 a.m. in the dark doubting your ability.
- Money is running out.
Gotta Get Back To Sleep - Did you seriously underestimated the market for your product or service?
- Can your knowledge product or service offer peace of mind ?
During the Great Recession we all worried if we would keep our jobs.
If we lost them we worried we might not find another one that paid as well located within a reasonable commuting distance.
Just before the Memorial Day holiday a couple of years ago one of the Chief Marketing Officers who volunteers to mentor our Executive MBA students shocked me.
I knew he lost his job, which comes with the territory when you reach age 50 and finally pull in the big bucks.
What I didn’t realize was how traumatic his situation was.
He lost his house because he couldn’t make payments on his mortgage – a wapping $6,000 a month.
And he had to find and move into a two bedroom apartment that long weekend.
Plus lease a storage unit for all the stuff that wouldn’t fit.
Not only did he and his wife suffer the loss of their home and their wealthy influential lifestyle that came part and parcel with it, but their basic feelings of security disappeared that weekend.
Neither he nor his wife could qualify for for social security or medicare coverage.
At least not for another 12 years.
But, the truly shocking part he told me was he had taken out and spent equity loans while he drained his 401K accounts to make his lavish lifestyle “ends meet.”
In my chapter, “Why Careers Are like Real Estate Markets,” I described the dilemma many like my CMO friend faced.
They find themselves at the cross roads between “Doing What You Love vs. Doing What You Hate” and “Living in the Same Geographical Location vs. Moving to a New Preferred Community.”
“My passion and location stories described four different communities … ‘Wealthy Influentials,’ ‘Wireless Resorters,’ ‘High Country Eagles,’ and ‘Permanent Temporaries.’”
Here’s a snapshot of each.
“Permanent Temporaries don’t anticipate the future well and have a hard time adapting to new work realities.
Many become consultants and entrepreneurs because they can’t find full-time employment.
They aspire to live in, or return to, the guarded-gate communities of the Wealthy Influentials.
What if they’re forced to relocate, where do they go?
When forced to move to lower cost-of-living neighborhoods they choose small university towns populated with High Country Eagles in higher quality-of-life communities.
But, they long for face-to-face project-based work as a way of affiliating with other people on a more regular basis.
Succeeding at interim work demonstrates their value in a new organization.
What about the trade offs?
Between projects they miss the teamwork and seek to counterbalance the isolation and extreme independence they are forced to endure being on their own – no matter if they’re interim middle managers, trapped urbanites or just starting over in a new marriage, neighborhood or way of life.
Wealthy Influentials live in neighborhoods that showcase their status and affluence.
Viewed from the outside, it’s as if they’ve cornered the market with a wealth-generating machine.
Like my Executive MBA Mentor once was able to afford …
They find a safe haven for high margin income, pay for a high cost of living, accumulate peak real estate appreciation, and live in a secluded, secure, and mature suburbs or an upscale metropolitan center.
Selling products or services to this group means offering highly personalized, luxury, and one-of-a-kind experiences.
What if you found yourself in a similar situation?
How about …
Wireless Resorters share the love of a new quality-of-life community with High Country Eagles.
They realize that with the ability to operate anywhere there is Internet access, anyone can move to unspoiled smaller towns and rural regions.
Many moved to the mountains areas that became destination vacation areas like the ski resorts in Colorado.
All four lifestyles populate thousands of thousands of communities from coast to coast.
Across the western region of the United States you’ll find residents in Wealthy Influential neighborhoods like Del Mar or Coronado in California;
High Country Eagle towns like Sedona or Bisbee in Arizona or Angel Fire and Taos in New Mexico;
Permanent Temporaries parts of Reno, Nevada or Coeur d’Alene, Idaho;
or, in some of the better known ski resorts attracting the Wireless Resorters like Breckenridge and Steamboat Springs in Colorado.”
What if you could find the perfect town for you with just the right kind of neighborhood you’d love?
Claritas, now Nielsen Segmentation, helped pioneer market segments initially based on each new census update.
They linked consumer behaviors for “shopping, financial, media and much more …” with household lifestyles living in specific zip codes across the United States.
If you’ve ever received direct mail addressed to you or “current resident” those marketers are taking advantage of household data.
The key to their business model unlocks a specific zip code.
In their PRIZM segmentation you can slice and dice over 60 different lifestyles ranging from high to low degrees of affluence and status.
By age and life stage.
Type in your current zip code and they’ll supply you with the top four or five lifestyles in your community.
Find one or two lifestyles that describe you, then the logic goes other neighborhoods that attract the same “Birds-of-a-Feather” lifestyle would appeal to you.
Try to search for that lifestyle in their segmentation database and build a “Bucket List” of awesome zip code neighborhoods.
Can’t do it.
Doesn’t work that way.
- But, what if you devoted the time to reverse engineer it?
- And, you “mobilized” your lifestyle business?
- Once you authentically built your virtual community of a 1000 raving fans?
- You could move them with you, right?
And, you’d be able to zero in on regions and communities varying from …
- high to low density,
- from urban to suburban, exurban, rural and
- remote populations.
You wouldn’t have to worry about making a living solely from the locals.
Instead, you’d live that quality-of-life that can bring out the best in you.
More on that later.
An excerpt from Book Two in “The Knowledge Path Series” dedicated to helping you make more money from a lifestyle businesses you’re truly passionate about.