“We don’t build houses.  We build neighborhoods.”
“We don’t sell draperies.  We sell luxury living.”
“We don’t sell sporting goods.  We sell healthy lifestyles.”
“We don’t sell vacation packages.  We provide precious family memories.”

Earlier this week I attended some seminars where a local expert delivered some presentations on marketing for small businesses, both specifically on websites and some larger-picture methods.

I did come away with some ideas, and the realization that Boyink.com is in sore need of an overhaul - both visually and in it’s messaging.

One of the recommendations I keep coming back to, though, is the whole notion of “upsizing” your marketing message, of “figuring out what you really sell” and promoting that.  You know - rather than telling people that I “build websites for small businesses” I’d say something like “I help clients better communicate their value”...or something…

This article has essentially the same message that we heard:

You are not really selling a product or a service. Did you know that? Count yourself lucky --because people don’t want it anyway. And they sure don’t want to pay you their hard-earned money for it.

What you are selling is Satisfaction, with a big capital S. Your product or service is merely a means to satisfy some set of motivations your customers currently have, like using a wrench to tighten a leaking faucet. Now if you sell lawnmowers, you might be thinking that your buyer’s Satisfaction comes from having a machine which cuts grass well. If you believe that, you are only looking at the surface of the psychological Satisfaction your buyer craves—and YOU ARE LOSING SALES because you are not looking deep enough into his mind.

I’m starting to really take note of this thinking in the marketplace, and I’m also noting that the more I encounter it the more negatively I’m reacting to it.

Why?

Two main reasons, I think.

For one - when I drive past a business and their sign has “We sell luxury living!” on it, I have no clue what it is that they actually DO.  They could sell million-dollar houses.  Or high-end cars.  Or cater $500 dollar a plate dinners for two.  It seems the first casualty of the “upsize your messaging” approach is immediately communicating your specific product or service.  According to marketing guru Seth Godin, people in the US are subjected to 3000 marketing messages per day (source).  Do you really get the time to “sell the experience”?

The second casualty is a findable website, because this idea of “selling the experience” is at odds with how people use the web, how they’re going to find your site, and how search engine optimization works. 

Lemme explain....

People on the internet are said to be “task-based”.  In other words, the whole notion of “surfing” the web is pretty much dead.  People have a job to do - check email, get the weather, see what a new dishwasher is going to run, or see if anyone answered their question about if they’re going to need a transmission jack to install a rebuilt transfer case into a 42 year old Jeep.

Well...ok...the last one is probably just me, but you get the idea—it’s all about being specific.  Specific tasks.  Specific questions in hope of specific answers.  People faced with naked windows aren’t going to go to Google and do a search on ”luxury living” when they really want to find a store in Holland, Michigan that sells drapes.

See the difference in those search results? 

Search engine optimization revolves around the idea that you, as a business owner, need to identify those words that people are typing into Google that should lead them to your site, and building your site such that it will be found.  So if you sell draperies in Holland, maybe you buy [url=http://www.draperiesinholland.com]http://www.draperiesinholland.com[/url] (which seems to be available, incidentally), and build a site for your business where the pages are titled “Draperies”, the page descriptions talk about “draperies in Holland” and the page content is about your business of “selling and installing draperies in Holland, Michigan”.

What I mainly what I don’t like about these “upsized” marketing messages is they both imply that I’m not smart enough to see the real value of your product or service, and make me begin to wonder if there is something actually wrong with the product or service and the upsized message is really an attempt to divert my attention away from the defect. 

Or as my southern friends would say, you’re trying to “put lipstick on a pig”.

So phooey—tell me what it is - specifically what it is you do or sell, and let me decide if it’s adding luxury to my life, making my lifestyle more healthy, or if it will provide a family memory. 

I’m tired of being sold the experience when I’m just trying to buy a product.