Yesterday I posted about how effective marketing is almost indistinguishable from propaganda once we get down in the dirt of the work.
I also told you that there were 8 steps to creating effective marketing (“ethical propaganda”) for your Expert Business. We’re going to go through each of them one day at a time, so you can absorb the concept before moving on to the next.
The 8 Components of “Ethical Propaganda” are:
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- Have a Vision Bigger Than Yourself
- Know Your Audience…
- … But Know Yourself Too
- Situate Yourself in the Zeitgeist
- Bring Them Into a Bigger Purpose
- Give Them What They Want
- Serve Them What they Actually Need
- Build a Movement
Today, let’s talk about the first component, which is to Have a Vision Bigger than Yourself.
To quote ad man Edward Bernays from his book, Propaganda:
“Modern propaganda is a consistent, enduring effort to create or shape events to influence the relations of the public to an enterprise, idea or group. This practice of creating circumstances and of creating pictures in the minds of millions of persons is very common. Virtually no important undertaking is now carried on without it… Propaganda does exist on all sides of us, and it does change our mental pictures of the world.”
It’s this creation of “mental pictures” which I want to explore today.
As an Expert — a service provider, consultant, coach, agency owner, or professional advisor — your ability to successfully create marketing that generates sales rests a large part on your ability to tap into and create a compelling image of the reality you want to create.
Because think about it: how can you create ads, social posts, essays, emails, webinars, or offers without having a clear vision of what kind of “after” state you bring your clients to? What kind of transformation you provide?
Without this information, how can you price it well? Heck, how can you even sell it at all?
The answer is, you can’t. Or you will, but you’ll rely on something far more nebulous: your own self-worth.
And if you’re anything like most of us, that self-worth is fickle and changing. One day, you’ll feel like a million bucks. The next day, after scrolling the feed and reading something awful about climate change or dying soil or genocide, you might decide that you don’t feel so confident at all.
This is why service providers find themselves saying:
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- “I just don’t think people want what I have to sell.”
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- “What I have to offer is unique — and can’t be described in marketing.”
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- “It’s so hard to know how to price what I offer.”
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- “I don’t know what to say in my posts.”
The successful Ethical Propagandist doesn’t have this problem, because they understand that they aren’t selling themselves; they’re selling the transformation their method, path, or program provides. They’re selling the tangible path from them being the person they are now, getting sub-par results, to becoming the person they want to be, getting better results.
As an example, I promise easier, faster, and more profitable sales from your marketing. I promise that if you work with me, you’ll understand who you speak with, what you’ll say to them, and how to connect what your clients need to see and hear with what you sell so that they see your option as the only one that’s speaking to their needs. You’ll walk away literally knowing something you don’t know how to do now.
In my marketing, I paint that picture in various ways so that you can feel what that means for your life and business. And where possible, I paint this compelling future as something you actually want to walk toward… rather than keeping you feeling like a terrible person for not having that future now.
Moths fly toward light, and your best clients will be drawn by the better life on the other side of working with you.
That’s having a vision that’s bigger than yourself.
Once you know where you’re taking clients, you can more easily shape the messaging, offer, and positioning which support that outcome.
Tomorrow, we’ll explore how you can better know your audience.
Until then,
