Marketers in general, whether content marketers or direct marketers, sometimes believe a commonly accepted lie about what their marketing can accomplish.
They mistakenly believe that if they get their marketing just right, then people will be helpless to resist their incredible offers.
Yeah, that’s never gonna happen.
(And that’s a good thing! We shouldn’t want our marketing to hypnotize people and “force” them to buy!)
And that’ not just my opinion.
A little-known advertising legend named Theodore F. MacManus (1872–1940) said the same thing.
(Who is he? He was a copywriter who revolutionized advertising with his work on advertisements for luxury cars by General Motors which included Cadillacs.)
Listen to what MacManus said in his book from 1927…
“The Sword-Arm of Business” by Theodore F. MacManus
The False Assumption About Marketing
Here’s what he said about this commonly believed lie…
“This sounds as though the buyer were a helpless factor in the situation—that he must respond when subjected to certain influences in certain volume with a certain degree of skill and persistency. The word “must” does not apply. The buyer is always a free agent. He can refuse. “
-“The Sword-Arm of Business” by Theodore F. MacManus
How DO You Create Marketing That Influences People?
So, how can content marketers and direct marketers create marketing that influences (or at least encourages) people to buy?
The Real Secret
MacManus goes on to reveal the secret in that same book. He says…
“He buys because he wants to buy, and he wants to buy because his ‘want’ has been catered to in such volume and in such force that he has no disposition to refuse.”
– “The Sword-Arm of Business” by Theodore F. MacManus
The Place Where Powerful Content Marketing and Direct Marketing STARTS
That means that if we want to create marketing that gets people to buy, then
the place we need to start is with our prospects wants, not with our wants or the wants of the company we’re creating our marketing for.
Once we start at that place, we need to create content marketing or direct marketing that speaks and “caters” to their wants “in such volume” and in “such force” that they will fully understand how the thing we’re offering gives them what they want.
That’s when they will, in MacManus’ words, “have no disposition to refuse.”
It WON’T be because they’re helpless. I won’t be because they can’t resist.
The will respond simply because they want to… because you showed them that what you were offering them actually satisfied their wants/desires.
That’s the secret of getting people to buy.
It worked 92 years ago and it still works today!
