Berman Creative

10. You can tell when you’re getting it right. You start to hear your values-based messages come back to you from your customers. Good marketing accelerates the business you get from referrals. The best predictor of future sales is when people tell other people about you.

9. Break it down into steps. No one goes from unaware to buyer in a single leap. If you understand where they’re coming from and what they’re looking for, it’s easier to get them to take the next step. OK, you got someone to click. What comes next without breaking the flow?

8. Companies don’t make decisions. People do. The only way to sell anything to a company is to pick someone inside who has a problem with a budget attached to it, and show them that you care about their problem.

7. Design matters. There is a discipline to getting the kind of attention that leads to growth. Good design attracts the eye, and can communicate the core of your message even when your audience is trying to ignore you. Which they are.

6. People aren’t rational. That goes for you and me too. How we think we decide: “I will weigh the advantages and disadvantages of each option.” How we actually decide: “I want that. What is it?” The desire comes before the thinking.

5. Think of your product as the tangible expression of a deeper value. This is the secret to getting attention. The ‘reason why’ is at the heart of the best brand messages: • Just Do It • Like a Good Neighbor • Think Different People trust brands that share their values.

4. How It Works is a losing message. Only 1 of 7 potential customers pay any attention to a How It Works message. The other 6 of 7 don’t have the imagination to connect your solution to their problem. A How It Works message is literally invisible to them.

3. Early sales are no guarantee of more. Your first sales are to neophiles. They try whatever’s new. As soon as they try yours, they move onto what’s next. Your brand is built selling to the problem solvers who come next. And they buy for different reasons than the neophiles.

2. Answer the question they’re already asking. Consider: • Who are the people you think can be customers? • How do they think about their problem? • What are they doing about that now? The better you understand their thinking, the more likely they’ll pay attention to you.

1. No one eagerly awaits your message. The people you’re thinking about as customers are trying to ignore you. They are not an audience. They are a busy crowd of passers by, each in a hurry to get somewhere else. The first thing you should ask is “Why should anyone care?”

If you define your brand as what people are thinking of you, it starts to sound pretty important. The failure to attract attention is the #1 reason why companies fail. It’s hard to get market traction. Here’s a 10-Point Guide to Not Failing.

THREAD: Good ideas shouldn’t fail for stupid reasons. Since I started working with startups in 2002, I’ve seen too many other good companies — often run by smart people with good ideas — go out of business because they weren’t able to tap into a market. That drives me crazy.

My dog also doesn’t understand it. Also, I don’t understand it.https://twitter.com/itsMaddieSpott/status/1323296292353662978 …