Alright, so you now know that people only buy improvement and they buy a solution that helps them achieve that improvement by overcoming whatever is blocking them.
But how does a business put that all together?
It all comes down to a fit.
Before I tell you what that is, we need to understand the basic formula of business.
Every business in the world follows this formula. There is no other formula that they can follow.
What is it?
Offer x Audience = $$$$$That’s it.
It’s simple math.
Increase one of those variables and you’ll make more money.
Increase both of those variables and you’ll make a lot of money.
First, let’s talk about the Audience.
The Audience
Your audience is the people willing to pay for the solution that will help them get the improvement.
It’s not your subscribers or your followers or your family.
It’s the people that will spend money.
This is why you can’t go on social media and assume someone with 100,000 followers is making a ton of money.
I made over $100,000 in a week from an email list of 5,000 people.
It’s the number of people that are willing to buy a solution that matters. That’s your audience.
But what about the offer?
This is where things can get complicated if you don’t keep your head above water.
It’s very easy to think that the offer is the product (book, course, coaching, SaaS, whatever), but it isn’t.
- The product is part of the offer.
- The messaging is part of the offer.
- The design is part of the offer.
- The marketing is part of the offer.
All of those things combined are what people are willing to buy. I say this can get complicated because it’s very easy to look at what someone else offers and think that’s all there is to it.
If you see someone else selling a book on How to Succeed on Twitter This Weekend, don’t be fooled into thinking they are only succeeding because of that book.
People are buying the book because the overall Offer makes them feel like it will help them achieve the improvement that they desire.
The Fit
That brings us to the fit.
Your audience has a vision of a better future for themselves. If you can make them believe that you’ll help them achieve that vision then you’ll win.
That means your message has to match or exceed their vision.
This is what I call the Message-Vision Fit (MVF).
If you can reach MVF, then you win.
A lot.
Look at the people that are succeeding online.
- They have a message about achieving a particular vision.
- They present that message from many different angles.
- They offer you a solution to make that vision happen.
- People buy.
This is why so many people get tripped up on HOW to execute something.
“But I’ve been tweeting 10x a day for 3 months and not getting any traction. I’m doing exactly what everyone else is doing.”
By now you should understand what they are doing wrong.
They don’t have Message-Value Fit.
It’s like wondering why everyone else can cut down trees with their axe when you’re trying to cut down a steel pole.
This is why understanding what your audience wants (the improvement) and what is preventing them from achieving it (the roadblock) are more important than the product itself.
As long as the product helps with those two things you’ll be fine. Match that with your messaging/distribution and you’ll find success.
Mastering a LinkedIn content strategy won’t do you any good if the messaging is off.
Using a Twitter scheduler won’t lead to success if people don’t care about what you’re saying.
Once you know you have a message that matches the vision of your audience, all you need to do is be consistent with getting that message out there.
And that’s where Distribution comes into play.