There is immense power when we see everything as interconnected with each other.
Your marketing is not seen as separate channels (social media, website, billboard, Google Ads, etc.) but as a system.
“A system is a set of related components that work together in a particular environment to perform whatever functions are required to achieve the system’s objective.” — Donella Meadows (Thinking in Systems)
When we understand this idea, we can create environments and situations that produce positive outcomes.
Let’s make this easier to understand with an example with an imaginary prospect, let’s call him Jeff.
Standard Marketing Funnel
Jeff enters a marketing world from a paid ad, an affiliate referral, an organic click from Google, an online article or blog post.
Jeff lands somewhere. Most likely a sales page (or a content page setup as a precursor to a sales page).
If he wants anything significant to sink his teeth into, to move closer to solving a problem he has — something beyond a blog post telling him about the problem he’s already aware of — the funnel will narrow to a gated entry point almost immediately:
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(And, don’t forget, Jeff sees a timer at the top of the screen reminding him that he only has 8 hours, 58 minutes, 32 seconds before the offer expires — DOWNLOAD NOW, before it’s too late.)
He’s on the marketer’s time frame, not his own. Everything is urgent (even if Jeff’s needs aren’t).
Jeff has to decide very quickly if he will hang around and jump through some hoops with the hope of maybe finding something worth his time.
Most likely he’ll bounce. Or he’ll decide to buy, and refund later because he was pushed — not pulled — toward the sale.
If he does sign up for some reason, he will be bombarded by offer emails (I like to refer it as a wheel of doom, where he’ll be rotated through a never ending offer sequence until he buys something or unsubscribes, exhausted).
This is a common marketing world, where pieces of your marketing all want to sell. Sell different things, sell different ways, to anyone. Channels don’t talk to each other, they just point.
Consider an alternative world.
Same Jeff.
Same entry point.
… And that’s where the similarities end.
Jeff has entered a “world” that is different, a world that he feels like he wants to be a part of.
Modern Marketing Funnel
One that doesn’t start selling anything until there is trust.
A world that makes Jeff think that it’s his idea to contact the company or buy the product instead of the business yelling to buy it.
It may not feel like a large difference. And the things you have to do to achieve it may not sound like much.
But going through your marketing with the goal of generating trust first is a total game changer.
Let’s see what happens to Jeff.
Jeff entered this marketing world the same way he entered last week. From a paid ad, an affiliate referral, an organic click from Google, an online article or blog post.
He lands on a page that starts him off on a journey to self discovery. Let’s say this page is about marketing.
Jeff lands on a page that shows you a fully functioning marketing funnel that was built for Jeff’s industry.
The copy of the page tells you that marketing is nothing more than consistency and optimization. Pick a direction and go whole hog on it.
It’s a different perspective that he’s never seen anyone talk about before. Interesting…
At the bottom it provides a Call-to-Action that tells you they will break down how to pick your direction in the next page…. So Jeff, intrigued, clicks on it.
The second page details a story of someone in Jeff’s industry struggling to understand marketing. The steps they took and the outcome.
Then this second page starts providing you with a list of action items for you to follow — but there’s a catch.
No it’s not a sign up to receive the rest. It’s an item in the list that the owner of this website does different than anybody out there. It separates this company from other marketing companies.
Click to the third page Jeff to learn about it.
This item gets explained in detail and it is only here, that the website provides Jeff with something to sell.
A $100 e-book perhaps, on examples and ideas for Jeff’s industry on what he can do to start marketing like a pro.
By this point Jeff has spent 10 minutes glued to the website, learning valuable information that nobody had ever given him.
No marketing company out there has every provided Jeff with so much knowledge for free.
This is a no brainer. If Jeff got so much information for free, imagine how much knowledge is behind a $100 dollar book written by the same business.
Attention was earned. Trust was established. Specific value was provided. Only after all of this happened, did the website attempt to make a sale.
There’s no trick to get your information to constantly hound you. There’s no need for tracking you every single moment of your life.
Marketing for this marketing company is simple — build trust first, ask for a sale after.
This is what it means to build a world. Everything is connected, coherent, and speaks to a specific audience. It’s meant only for some people. The ones that will appreciate what you have to say.
