Instead of pushing prospects through your sales funnel, parrying their objections and practically dragging them along each stage, why not try a more natural approach? Let’s pull them in by telling engaging stories filled with empathy. Let's invite them into our world by sharing eye-opening insights that shift their beliefs.
A few years ago, something completely changed how I saw marketing.
I started my career at various marketing agencies, but nobody sat me down to teach me anything about strategy.
Eventually, I started teaching myself through books and courses and found some masters to learn from.
Now I love studying the true masters, many of whom have unfortunately passed on. But I also studied and followed the newer age "internet marketing gurus".
I learned a lot from them, but I quickly saw they were doing a lot of the same tactics, many of which left a bad taste in my mouth.
I now call what they were doing "Push Marketing."
Push Marketing
We've all experienced push marketing before. It's powerful marketing that is designed to overcome objections and persuade potential customers to take immediate action, fueled by a sense of urgency and scarcity.
When I was studying these internet marketers, I was learning from their books and courses, but I was also studying how they were marketing themselves live.
I was in their market, and they were selling to me.
And boy, were they selling hard. They had so many psychological tricks, gimmicks, and crazy funnels.
Here are a few things that bothered me:
Artificial scarcity. Everything was a "one-time offer" that they threatened to raise the price on or pull from the market later. These were usually info-products with huge margins, and the pricing was set by them, but they always acted like they were being forced to do this, and were on your side.
They would abuse things like urgency. Made up countdown timers and harsh deadlines to pressure you into a purchasing decision. Especially when they added tons of aggressive follow-up emails around the deadline.
They would employ lead magnets AKA "ethical bribes" immediately. The first thing they would do is dangle some bait in front of me to try and get my email address. It was transactional from the start.
They would often mislead you into thinking you were just getting educational content, and then it would be a nonstop pitch fest. I don't even mind being sold to, but only when the seller is upfront about their intentions.
After every sales pitch, product launch, or affiliate offer... came an upsell. And then a second upsell. I get it, they work, but it got old fast.
There's a lot more, but I think you get the idea. You've probably seen similar tactics in other markets too.
Truth is, Push Marketing has been around forever. The specific tactics and technology have changed, but the strategies and mindset haven't. They've just added a shiny coat of paint through online funnels and automation.
It's the same old tools like curiosity, urgency, and scarcity, used aggressively to pressure you into buying.
Now, does push marketing work?
Absolutely.
Push Marketing taps into primal human emotions, like our fears, insecurities, hopes, and desires.
But marketing at people instead of with them can only work for so long.
People are getting exposed to more advertising than ever, and are becoming more sophisticated prospects as a result. Many have been burned by shady business practices before, and so they have their guard up.
People don't like to be pushed.
But, I didn't understand that right away. Since every internet marketer was doing these Push Marketing tactics at the time, I started using them too. I used a lot of them with clients, and some of them did work, but I never felt great about it.
Even though I never did anything unethical, it still left me feeling kind of icky.
Pull Marketing
One day, I stumbled upon a different approach.
It was in a seminar from legendary Marketing Consultant Jay Abraham, one of the few living "true masters" I talked about earlier. One thing he mentioned resonated with me.
He was talking about the Strategy of Pre-Eminence.
"The strategy of preeminence presumes the attitude — that you look at everybody out there that you want to do business with — and that you make it a point of deciding you're not going to wait for money to change hands before you start contributing, guiding, counseling, advising, and protecting them."
He calls it a strategy, but it's more of a philosophy.
The goal is to establish yourself as the most trusted advisor to your market. You are there to make a positive difference in their lives and you're there for them whether they monetarily reward you or not.
You're not trying to sell them anything, you're there to serve.
With this concept at its core, I began to learn what I call "Pull Marketing".
Instead of pushing prospects through your sales funnel, parrying their objections and practically dragging them along each stage, why not try a more natural approach?
Let’s pull them in by telling engaging stories filled with empathy. Let's invite them into our world by sharing eye-opening insights that shift their beliefs.
The key here is the mindset we adopt when creating our marketing strategy.
Unlike the usual pushy tactics where marketers push prospects systematically in a predefined order, it's all about pulling them in with stories that matter to them and letting the prospect choose to move forward.
Flip Your Perspective
Instead of looking at your marketing system as a marketer, look at it through the perspective of your prospect.
What does your prospect want?
Create a marketing approach that's all about delivering meaning and value to them, without asking for anything in exchange.
That last part is key. This is the big learning from Jay Abraham's Strategy of Pre-Eminence.
You're not looking for a sale, or even trying to get their contact info. You're just there to serve.
When you put your prospect's needs first, magic happens. They won't be pushed; they'll feel an invisible pull, drawn deeper into the captivating world we've created.
You won't even have to try to sell. Eventually, they'll just want to buy.
Just Be Real
So, here's the game-changing question: How can we make our marketing so valuable that they can't resist being pulled in, craving more of what we offer?
I'm a firm believer in marketing that starts with generosity and empathy long before any transaction occurs. Done right, it invisibly pulls and tugs at your audience, without relying on sneaky tricks or coercion tactics.
It's about having a genuine conversation with your audience, not just talking at them.
You can't fake or half-ass this though.
If you try to pull them in by serving them, and then suddenly you start abusing that trust, it will dramatically backfire. Once your prospect starts losing trust in you, it's gone for good.
I’m going to teach you what I think is the single most important formula in business, R+R=Profit. This helped me create my first successful ad campaign back when I was a newbie copywriter.
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