love potion - fairground mediafairgroundmedia.com/love-potion-chapter-1.pdf · love potion by Stephanie Peterson page 3 you are here. Hello and welcome! I hope you’re ready to cook

lovepotion

Creating Wild Customer Attraction

Stephanie Peterson, fairgroundmedia.com

page 2love potion by Stephanie Peterson

Contact Information

E-mail: [email protected]: @fairgroundmediaFacebook: facebook.com/fairgroundmedia

Necessary Legalities

Being unfamiliar with your unique backgroundand situation, I can’t make legal guarantees that any advice in this book will work for you. While I firmly believe in the information I provide to help and not hurt, should anything bad happen to you or your business entity that you assert has direct-ly or indirectly resulted from owning, interacting with, or acting upon the information in this book, you or your entity must be held wholly respon-sible. There also exists the possibility that there are errors or omissions in this book that I have overlooked. Should you come across any, please let me know by e-mail (address listed above).

© 2012 Stephanie Peterson

The reproduction, reselling, or sharing of this book-- in whole or in part, digitally or physically-- is prohibited. If you would like to experience this book together with a class or club, please ensure to purchase the appropriate number of copies.On the contrary, feel free to use quotations up to a few paragraphs long on your blog, on social media, or in information products along with clear attribution to Stephanie Peterson and a link to fairgroundmedia.com.

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you are here.Hello and welcome! I hope you’re ready to cook up some magic with me.

If you’ve arrived here because your business just isn’t being met with the enthusiasm (or sales) you’d hoped for, let me encourage you to take a load off at the door.

I realize you might still have some doubts about whether you can really make customers fall head-over-heels in love. You know, without a professional cauldron or rare, expensive ingredients.

But I’ve spent enough time with the DIY crowd to know it’s possible to cook up almost anything with what you already have. And I’m absolutely confident that, if you put my advice into practice, you’ll see positive results.

While creating this experience has taken more than a wand’s wave of time and attention on my part, seeing what you do with it will make it all worthwhile. The greatest accolade I could ever hope for is your success!

P.S. In this book, I often assume you have an online shop or blog website. Don’t have one just yet? That’s no problem. Check out this blog post to learn how you can! :)

http://www.fairgroundmedia.com/getting-started#diystarterwebsite


table of contents.

part one 6 Spell For One | your target customer

21 Discover Your Magic | your unique selling proposition

32 Seeing Past What Is | features + benefits

39 A Touch of Humanity | brand personality

60 Boiling It Down | your three defining attributes

part two 69 Clearing the Smoke | segue into visual branding

84 Preparing the Vial | a plan for consistency

95 Ingredients for Brewing | visual attraction

96 Branding with Color

111 Branding with Fonts

126 Branding with Imagery

135 Branding with Layout

part three 148 Numerology | pricing on-brand

170 Casting the Spell | putting it all to work

181 Fanning the Flames | maintaining attraction


part one do your prep work.The messages your business projects out into the world determine exactly what you get back.

When I say “messages,” I am referring to what you say, but also the voice behind your copy, the look of your website, the feel of your images, the colors and fonts that you choose, and more. Altogether, this is what you call your “brand.”

As a designer, I have promised to show you the way to craft a wildly attractive brand. However, what many people don’t realize is that it’s about more than just “prettying up.”

Have you heard the old saying about putting lipstick on a pig?

Unlike the broader classification of art, brand image and other commercial design requires a great deal of hard-focused strategy to ensure that the right message comes across in the right way for the right people-- and with little room for misinterpretation.

In order to make that happen, you’ll need to start with a foundation of thoughtful prep work about your business. Let’s get to that now.

the boy was riding. The man and the boy thought maybe the critics were right, so they changed positions.

Later, they passed some people who remarked, “What a shame! He makes that little boy walk.” They then decided they both would walk.

spellforone

Soon they passed some more people who thought they were stupid to walk when they had a decent donkey to ride. So they both rode the donkey.

Now they passed some people who shamed them by saying how awful to put such a load on a poor donkey. The boy and the man said they were probably right, so they decided to carry the donkey.

As they crossed the bridge, they lost their grip on the animal and he fell into the river and drowned. The moral of the story? If you try to please everyone, you might as well kiss your ass goodbye.

-- Unknown,as summarized by Michael Port

An old man, a boy and a donkey were going to town.

The boy rode on the donkey and the old man walked beside him.

As they went along they passed some people who remarked it was a shame the old man was walking and

page 7love potion by Stephanie Peterson page 7

I once read a true story about ayoung woman who made anextensive list of traits she wanted ina husband. She was young, around 16, when she first wrote this list but carried it with her through her 20’s.

The traits she included were extremelyspecific.

Brown hair. Blue eyes. Six feet tall.Athletic build. He had to like boating andknow how to ride a horse. He had to likepizza but not with mushrooms. That sortof thing. Of course she made a sweep overall the basics too: honest, kind, funny,ambitious, etc. etc.

I don’t remember every item on her list exactly, but I assure you that it went into great detail.

As I saw it, this young girl’s endeavor teetered between an experiment with the law of attraction and just a sad, frustrated exclamation of her will to not settle for less. Probably more the latter, knowing how angsty teens can get.

But as it turns out, several years after the list first came to be, this impassioned young lady was actually able to find this man.


And he wanted to marry her too. So they lived happily ever after.

(Yeah, I’m skeptical as well, but this is how the story was told to a younger me.)

While I wouldn’t tote this narrative to be a responsible message to send to teenage girls, it just might be a helpful analogy as it relates to your business! Similar in practice, any exercise that has you thinking about or listing in detail the possible character traits, attitudes, and life circumstances of your customers can be instrumental for knowing who you are for, and for whom you are not.

After all, it is time you faced the truth: your business is not for everyone. Or at least it shouldn’t be-- if you want to be truly valuable.

Your Target Customer

Whether you call them your ideal customer, your target market, your target customer, your niche, or that- segment-of-the-population-whom- you-want-picking-up-what-you’re- laying-down, you are going to need to narrow down and get specific


about who they are if you want to attract them. More specific than “men” or “women,” or “people who like [what you sell].“

Here are 9 good reasons why:

1. You will know where to start with your marketing efforts. You won’t be immediately overwhelmed like you would if you had the whole world or an extremely broad group like “adult women” to reach and sell to.

2. You can easily find targeted hotspots where your customers hang out most, online and off, and focus your marketing energies there.

3. You can quickly identify your customer’s biggest problems. By focusing on just a subset of people and putting yourself in their shoes, you can gain valuable insights about their specific needs that perhaps aren’t being met elsewhere.

4. You can tailor your message to solve those exact problems. Sometimes just small changes in wording or how you categorize your products can take your business from generic to just what your target customers were searching for but couldn’t find anywhere else.

5. You can tailor your offerings to help people better. For instance, let’s say you sell baby products to a target market of new mothers who are in their late 20’s to early 30’s and affluent.

You can offer them “must-have” checklists for new mothers, pro and cons


lists for different methods of feeding or changing, product comparison charts, and demonstration videos for how to use your best-sellers.

Since you have such a specific target customer, you can address her biggest problems: a. that she’s new to parenting and b. that she’s overwhelmed by choices, given she has the money to be particular. By offering the fix for these problems on your website, your business becomes her dream come true.

6. You can convert potential customers into paying ones more easily. While your customer base may be narrowed, your revenues as a small business should not suffer. After all, a 25% conversion rate on a small group of people is better than a 0% conversion rate on a large group of people! And targeted messages/service will always convert better.

7. You can create an experience that gets people talking. Because providing great products on a website that’s easy to use is a solid and necessary foundation, but providing the types of things mentioned in #5 downright excites people.

8. You can price higher because what you offer as a whole has more value


in the eyes of your customer than that of your generic competition.

9. You can gain the intuition to make good choices quickly. When you are specific enough about who your customer is that you can imagine her/him as a real person, all decisions become easier to make.

“What would ‘Joe the vacation-planning, middle-aged, family man’ like?” is far easier to answer than, “What would ‘an adult male’ like?” The Common Objection

It’s a typical concern of new businessowners that focusing in on a targeted customer will lose them too much business. However, it doesn’t really work out that way.

Remember: Attracting a small group of enthusiastic, paying customers is always going to be more profitable than wrangling many visitors but making no sales from them.

You don’t lose money by targeting. You gain it.

Trying to reach too broad of a group will cause you to send out a


soulless, generic message that will actually reach no one. It just won’t be motivating enough to make an impression on any one person.

Alternatively, the more you’re able to speak to the specific desires and preferences of a person, the more effective your brand will be at converting them. Even huge, broad companies focus in on narrowed-down, target customersas much as they’re able to.

For instance, a large department store like Macy’s will run one targeted ad in a women’s lifestyle magazine and a completely different, targeted ad in a home improvement magazine-- everything from the colors to the copy will have changed. Because they know appealing as specifically as possible to a target customer reaps the best results.

(As a small business, you probably don’t have the resources to individually target all the different customers that a store like Macy’s does, but as your


business and resources expand, so may you.)

Just to prove that this is all fact and not theory, consider a case study from Ramit Sethi’s website. Ramit is the author of the New York Times bestseller, I Will Teach You To Be Rich and conducts various trainings.

One of his favorite stories to tell is about Paige, a Pilates instructor who doubled her hourly rate and her class schedule due to demand when she changed her message from, “I teach Pilates” to “I teach Pilates for adults with chronic back pain.”

That’s it. She didn’t rework her method of teaching Pilates. She just started to specifically acknowledge this group of people who could use her services.

The Underdog Advantage

As a small business, consider that you actually have something of an advantage as well. I mentioned that a store like Macy’s has the resources to target many different types of customers, but they also have limitations that you do not.

Unlike the big-box stores, you can afford to focus in on a highly

http://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com


targeted customer with absolute laser precision, because you don’t have the astronomical overhead that they do. You need not rely on gigantic bulk orders and an obscene amount of revenue to keep your machine running.

You can focus in on as small a niche as you like, as long as there is a big enough market to fuel the business you want to run. If that’s just supporting you or your family, then so be it! Live your bliss!

On the other hand, you can take your early success with your first target customer and use it to expand your reach much wider later, if that’s what your goals are. But the fact is, you are free to do whatever lights you up.

Where to Start

So, how does one choose their target customer?

In the following pages, I have put together a list of questions you should consider in order to make the best decision for you.

Should you need to cut it up into different sessions, don’t be discouraged. It’s a good bit to wade through (but well worth the effort)!

Grab a notebook and pen, find a quiet place to think, and let’s get started!


####TargetCustomer

1.WhohaveIalreadyattracted?Individuals:JessicaS,Ruth,LisaOrganizations:TheGallery,Red’sBoutiqueDemographics’Women30-40,stay-at-homemoms:Attitudes

1.1 Questions for Choosing Your Target Customer

Question 1.a If your business is already up-and-running, ask yourself, “Who has my business already attracted?” Include:

• Individuals For example, your top 3 most loyal customers, and/or someone who gave you a major compliment or recommendation

• Organizations For example, businesses who have inquired about wholesale rates, publications who have approached you about advertising

• Demographics For example, young women (18-24), athletes, stay-at-home mothers • Attitudes For example, bargain-seekers, handmade enthusiasts, dog lovers, foodies

Question 1.b If your business is too new to have sufficient data, instead ask yourself, “Who have I had in mind so far?” Use the same categories as already described: Individuals, Organization, Demographics, Attitudes, though you may not be able to fill them all up.

The goal here is to make tangible sense of what your


vision looked like when you first decided you wanted to go into business.

Every new business owner has an inner vision of the outcome they desire, but not every one has taken the time to remove the fuzzy quality from their mental image and paint a clear picture!

Question 1.c What may have attracted these specific people, organizations, and “types” to your business?

Question 1.d For up-and-running businesses only, do you feel any person, organization, or “type” listed is actually totally wrong for your business? Do any of them feel like a perfect fit?

Question 2.a What big problems does your business exist to solve?

Question 2.b What type of person has these problems? Include:

• Demographics For example, young women (18-24), athletes, stay-at-home mothers • Attitudes For example, bargain-seekers, handmade enthusiasts, dog lovers, foodies

• Life Circumstances For example, a recent graduate, a man ready to propose, a couple deep in credit card debt

####TargetCustomer



Question 3 Who are you definitely not for?

The key to this exercise is to start out thinking in extremes and get progressively more specific.

For instance, you may start out geographically and culturally, then by age, then by life stage and circumstances, then by preferences and priorities, then by attitudes and beliefs. Write all these groups down, no matter how obvious.

Question 4.a What productive tasks do you most enjoy doing? Include:

• Daily Tasks for Your Industry For example, sewing, product photography, blogging, copy-editing, engaging on social media

• Occasional Tasks for Your Industry For example, event planning, public speaking, attending conferences, fundraising for charity

• Project Types For example, making dog clothes, baking fruit cake, designing art for nurseries, creating limited-edition product lines for football, basketball, or hockey teams in season

Question 4.b Are there any target customers which would allow you to do these tasks most often?

####TargetCustomer



Question 5.a Which target customers that you are now considering show an existing demand for your type of product?

Some people feel they will be able to convince people that they need a product of which they were previously unaware or have never expressed a need for, but this is exceptionally hard to do and should be avoided.

Rather, you should consider a rough category into which your product falls (apparel, accessories, office, beauty, home decor, sports paraphernalia, party supply, etc. etc.) and then gauge whether or not your potential target customer already routinely makes purchases in this category.

Question 5.b Which target customers that you are now considering realistically have the money available to buy?

Narrowing by constraints is even more important than narrowing by demand but can be easily overlooked.

Take, for example, an upscale aromatherapy business with an effectivecollection of stress-relievers. Maybe they want to target female graduate and pre-med students. These target customers are likely to routinely buy into the bath and beauty categories and can identify with a need for stress relief. But despite the demand being there, it is unlikely they have that kind of disposable income to spend.

####TargetCustomer



Question 6 Being as close as you are now to choosing a target customer, what combinations sound reasonable using a two-qualifier method (as demonstrated below)?

Using a two-qualifier method can help a lot of people creatively identify narrowed-down target customers. In action, it can look like this:

[Demographic] who needs [Narrow kind of product or service]

[Demographic] in [Life circumstance]

[Demographic] with [Attitude] [Attitude] who needs [Narrow kind of product or service]

[Life circumstance] with [Attitude]

You can combine these elements any which way. Just experiment with creating potential target customers by using two qualifiers and see what you can come up with!

Hopefully these questions have helped you to recognize all the different factors that should be considered and that you are

####TargetCustomer



well on your way!

Notes of Caution

A great way to test out your target customer without making too much of a commitment at first is to just start saying it and gauge people’s reactions! If you get the chance, introduce yourself as a “such and such” for “so and so” and see where the conversation goes.

Finally, if you find you have misjudged who your target customer should be, you can always “nudge” it later. I would just advise you to take it slow. +

This concludes your free chapter.

Want more? Get it now at lovepotionebook.com!

http://www.fairgroundmedia.com/love-potion

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love potion - fairground mediafairgroundmedia.com/love-potion-chapter-1.pdf · love potion by Stephanie Peterson page 3 you are here. Hello and welcome! I hope you’re ready to cook