The answer you’re not going to like: it depends.
Some of you will know what you want to help with and so in that case you need to find the audience that wants it. You don’t get to say, “They are just like me” because what does that mean?
They don’t know they are like you so you need to get a better understanding of who they are so you can talk to them more effectively.
Some of you will know who you want to help but are not sure what to help them with or how to help them. In that case, you need to figure out what they want help with so you plan out which offers to create.
Don’t Complicate It
It’s not hard to figure out what people want. They will tell you.
Check the comments on social media. People are begging people to help them with things.
And don’t think they need help with something deep and intrinsic. While people do want to live happier lives, at the moment they are thinking about one problem that they face that they want help with.
Then when that is solved maybe they can go on and live happier lives.
For example, with this course, if the marketing was, “We’ll help you live a happier life” then nobody would show up.
But if it’s changed to, “Make your first $100,000 online” then that is something specific that people can understand and they can figure out if that helps them with whatever problems they have right now.
What Really Comes First…
The truth is that the reason we can’t say that the audience or the offer come first is because what should come first is the Outcome.
Your whole niche is the outcome that you can provide your audience. If you want to get really fancy, your niche is Outcome + Mechanism.
For example, if you take a look at Pocket Business, I teach you how to build a solo business using Full Stack Engines.
So the truth is that what you really want to do is find your Outcome. What can you help someone achieve or who can you help them become? Once you figure that out then your audience begins to pick themselves.
The 10 Improvements
There is a concept that we believe in here at Odd Noodle and that’s how almost everything someone purchases is based on the 3 Egos.
Before we tell you what those are let’s first look at the 10 Improvements.
The 10 Improvements come from the book, Copywriting Secrets, by Jim Edwards. The gist is that people only buy things that do one or more of the following:
- Make money
- Save money
- Save time
- Avoid effort
- Escape mental or physical pain
- Get more comfort
- Achiever greater cleanliness, beauty, or hygiene
- Gain praise
- Feel more loved
- Increase popularity or social status
If you are trying to sell something and it isn’t working then chances are it’s because you’re doing a terrible job of tying it back to one of these 10 improvements.
Everything that you buy, you buy because you tell a story in your head in how it’s going to give you one of these improvements.
But we can simplify this even more by putting everything under the 3 Egos.
The 3 Egos
You should only build a business around something that you can tie back to:
- Love
- Money
- Health
Now, we get it. This feels like it limits your options greatly but it doesn’t because everything is tied back to one of these.
Even the niches that feel like hobbies (maybe woodworking) can be tied back to Love because it involves doing things you enjoy. That’s loving yourself, but then you also end up creating a beautiful chair that you show off on social media to get love from strangers online.
Maybe even sell it to make more money.
Basically, if you can’t find a way to tie whatever you’re doing back to one of the 3 Egos then you’re making your life harder.
And if you think you’re doing a great job of that but you’re struggling then look again. You’re probably not making it easy for the person on the other end to see the connection of how you can help them get more of those things.
WIIFM?
Every great marketer will tell you that people will always ask, consciously or subconsciously, what’s in it for me after they come across you. And it makes sense.
Think about it. You want them to take some sort of action that benefits you.
- like
- subscribe
- comment
- sign up for the mailing list
- make a purchase
- recommend you to a friend
But why should they do any of those things without getting something in return?
You simply saying you’re going to provide them with immense value isn’t enough. Get them to tell a story in their head on how they are going to get MORE of one of the 3 Egos and they’ll do whatever you ask.
Don’t worry. In other parts of the course we’ll show you how to get good at this.
What Next?
We’re going to take the approach that you kind of know what you want to do but you aren’t totally positive on the audience and offer.
So we’ll do some research on the audience first and then move onto the offer.
