The Challenges of Marketing ThePowerMoves
E.g.
Power University Sales Page: "I started life as an underdog. Socially unaware, romantically mediocre, naive, and, of course, clueless about power dynamics.
The prospect sees three separate things that can lead to three separate inferences:
- Socially unaware: "OK, so maybe this guy is going to help me with my social life."
- Romantically mediocre: "OK, so maybe this guy is going to help me with dating life."
- Power dynamics: "Wait, what is power dynamics? Maybe that's the secret he says the top 1% want to keep hidden, but what is it? I'll keep reading to find out."
So, here, the "power dynamics" seems like a completely separate third element with an equally separate incentive that the prospect might get out of Power University.
And, to be able to know and understand the value of knowing power dynamics, they first need to know:
- What is it?
- What will it do for me?
Basically, there's not a whole lot of credit-revealing that needs to be done when one offers to help someone with their social and dating life. It's quite simple to imagine getting the girl one wants, or being "popular".
But, saying, "I was clueless about power dynamics" is nudging people to draw the inference "He'll help me understand power dynamics". And, how does one visualize that? They'll ask themself, "What will my life look like with a better understanding of power dynamics?"
They'll continue reading down the sales page to find an answer to that question, searching for clues that will help them visualize "a life with an understanding of power dynamics" so they can decide if the course is for them.
But, unfortunately, they won't find those clues.
And, that's because the prospect's journey through the sales page never makes it clear (for the new guys) what power dynamics is or how exactly it will help:
- The Course That The Top 1% Wants To Keep Secret: "OK, so this looks like a course teaching (1) social skills (2) dating and (3) power dynamics—whatever that is."
- Since then, my life has been on a continuous upward climb (I went for creating the job of my dreams): "Seems irrelevant to the three things he mentioned, how exactly did he do that? Is that what power dynamics is? A way to get a better job?"
- Since then, my life has been on a continuous upward climb (I went for being able to make friends and develop social circles at will, whenever I was): "So, he'll probably teach me how to get those social skills he was unaware of."
- Since then, my life has been on a continuous upward climb (I went for being able to meet and get together with the women I liked, whenever I was): "So, he'll probably teach me how to become better romantically."
- The top 1 % would rather keep you ignorant of power dynamics: "OK, now he'll probably tell me what exactly power dynamics is and how it might be able to help me."
- THAT is why I created Power University: "Wait, what? Did I miss something? What is power dynamics? He never says. So, how do I know if it'll help me?"
And, that's because power dynamics skills is presented as being separate from social skills and dating skills.
So, instead of framing power dynamics as a third, separate value-offering (with unclear benefit for the prospect), a solution is to make power dynamics seem like the "secret glue" to achieving the only two things the prospect already understands: a better social and dating life.
E.g.
And, this approach solves another issue that Kolenda often talks about:
Nick Kolenda: “If you sell educational products, teach something in your sales materials.” (See Sales Psychology.)
The prospect's underlying objection is, "How do I know I'll learn anything in this course?"
So, by teaching them something in your sales material (in this case, what power dynamics is), the prospect will rationalize to themself, "Well, I learned something just now, so I suppose I will learn something in this program."
I'm going to try and outline the rest of my thoughts here soon. If there's anything above that I can make clearer, please let me know.
Thank you, Ali!
Not gone through your message yet, but I look forward to lapping it up 🙂
Thank you so much, Ali! That makes a lot of sense and I amended it as per your suggestion.
Awesomesome analysis Ali. I agree it's pearls before swine at the moment that is the problem.
Hope don't sound like a dog with a bone.
I'm sorry I'm in a really tough contract right now I'm just don't have time to mock anything anything up.
I m thinking animated before and after visual might cut through. Something like go from this:
Before:
Guy surrounded by troubles.
Two houses - neighbor pops up. " You need to pay for your half of the fence." $ signs burning
Boss saying I ve got this rush project I need you to review tonight
Every trouble has a thought bubble from him. Your cousin Bob said be firm with people.
This article said always smile and nod when people are angry.
This is tapping into males deep fear of not being competent.
After:
Standing on a two step podium made up of the power university. Effortlessly juggling the heads of the characters from the troubles skit.
That would be stage 1
_______________________
Stage 2 as a head comes into focus coping tactics from PU appear on the podium steps
I think you have to push the value of having a framework and a system and push the fact that men like routine.
Otherwise a certain percentage of your site traffic I'm just going to see the forum think I can just memorize some magic words and I'm good to go.
Thank you, Kevin!
Those animations might be cool indeed.
Would you see them in the form of pictures with real people, cartoon styles, or a video?
I think cartoons are easier to execute. And you want to stress they learn exactly what to do. So many books and courses give you general principles or isolated examples and then somehow expect you are some kind of genius who can turn that into daily action
And probably a ticker of people's frustrations.
Tired of not knowing what to say?
Tired of not connecting with people?
Tired of seeing the smooth talkers get the promotion you deserve?
If you look at the forums these situations are emotional for people. Those emotions should be reflected in the marketing.
Love the idea, Kevin, would be curious to see what you come up with if you can get around to it.
TPM Homepage: "Learn how to manage your boss, promote yourself, handle manipulators, etc."
Those are some clear WIIFTs.
And yet, I think we can do better based on some of the copy Lucio's already used:
TPM Homepage: "How to get the raise you deserve, seduce the attractive partner you want, and build a social circle of cool friends at will."
It hits on the three main benefits of social success that people already know, understand, and care about:
- Career success
- Dating success
- Social success
And, that persuasive positioning would be that power dynamics is the secret ingredient people are missing to maximize their life in these three areas.
We talked about helping people imagine being inside the PU course to help with conceptual fluency.
And, I think we could apply that to other areas as well, such as Ultimate Power:
Amazon achieves this with their "Look Inside" feature. TPM could achieve this with snapshots of the inside of its ebooks.
At the very least, displaying part of the table of contents might help persuade more people to take action:
*Note: I might start new threads for Ultimate Power and DPD so I can do a teardown of the current marketing for them like I did with the PU sales page.
Thank you so much Ali for both these last two posts.
I already amended the copy as per your great suggestion, and these 2 book examples are awesome!