Why Creativity Matters More than Short-Term Profit
Listen on the go by downloading the audio of today’s video.
- Create something totally unique and artful, not just what will make short-term money
- You don’t want people to compare your products and strategies to other brands
Hey guys, how is it going? Matt Ackerson here, the founder of AutoGrow.co as you may already know. And in this video, I'm talking about how you create a compelling offer. Because marketing isn't just your ads, your blog content, or getting people onto your email list. Marketing is everything. It is the decisions that you make, the products that you make, and how you make them. How they look and how they feel. It is all marketing, right?
But how do you go about creating a compelling offer? Well, I'll tell you how NOT to create a compelling offer. I'm recording to you live, by the way, from beautiful Long Island, New York. I'm here visiting family, and have been on the road for the last year traveling through South America.
Now that I'm in a new place, I'm thinking about what the next phase is for the company. And as I said in January of this year, when we became a product business, I will be sharing the journey with you. I want to be transparent with you because I think that's what's interesting to you guys, right?
So on this point, it's been six months since we officially became a product business where we started selling our own products. And I was very proud to report this past month’s growth report (subscribe to our newsletter, if you'd like to hear about that an ongoing basis). The headline was basically, six consecutive months of growth, which is something I'm very proud of.
We're going to do everything that we can to keep that going by practicing what we preach, by putting our own ideas to the test, and getting better and growing together.
Making a unique offer for long-term gain
Anyway, I'm thinking about the next phase of the business. And I was talking to my girlfriend about it today--we're currently collaborating on launching a new company together, I'll have more to say about that in upcoming videos. And it's a good refresher for me, I'm also learning a lot. I was thinking about, what is a major problem that we want to solve as a business?
One thing is the predictability of the revenue. We have a sales funnel, and we have consistent traffic, so revenue is relatively predictable, just off of that alone. But because each of our products are one-time buys, there would be variation in that if we didn't constantly do new things every single month at each level of the funnel to grow it.
The thoughts that I was sharing in this discussion with my girlfriend earlier today were that we need perhaps more of a focused offer. Maybe a new membership offer, perhaps some sort of app or software tool. Something where we are delivering value to our customers on an ongoing basis, and therefore, something that we can charge monthly for. If it's a recurring monthly offer that makes revenue for the company more predictable month to month.
We've been lucky the last six months since we've seen such consistent growth--every single month, revenue has gone up. But I don't think it's luck, frankly. I do believe that it's because we are practicing what we preach. We are putting into place the auto-growth funnel framework, everything that I teach in the Sales Funnel Blueprint and in our premium training, The Six Figure Sales Funnel.
So what is this next phase offer? And how do we make it unique? What we don't want to do is just slap on a feature that I know in my heart is just from objectively observing what else is out there in the market. That people would just kind of automatically compare to another competitor, like, "Oh, you know, you're offering this kind of membership offer. Well, that makes me think of this company over here that has something very similar. So how are you guys really that different?"
Especially if our price point is higher, or even lower. I think that this is something we would probably start charging for, an entry-level price somewhere under $100 a month. We want to charge what it’s worth, but we also want to keep it affordable so that it can help a have a big impact and help a lot of people.
I think the best way to put it is, if we went down that path, where we're just slapping on features, we are chasing short-term money. And if you make a similar decision, you'd be chasing short-term money. And you'd always be behind the competition. You'd always be a comparison point to the competition, and what it is you're offering. And that is a terrible, terrible, terrible position to be in. You do not want to be in that position.
So don't seek to make your product better in order to simply make more money. Think about it in terms of, "How are we creating something that is unique? That is really worthwhile?” Otherwise, you're just chasing money.
And more money is always great, right? But not if it's short-term money, at the cost of long-term gains--permanent growth gains where you take the time to build and come out with something more unique. Like what we're going to do, where it's some combination of web tool application, plus membership resources, where you can log in and access it like Netflix for sales funnels. It's not worth the tradeoff, okay?
Next steps and takeaways
So my tip for today in this Matt Hack video is to not craft your product offer through the lens of what's necessarily going to give you that next boost in money. That's more okay in other parts of your funnel where there really isn't a long-term game. For example, say you improve the design of a landing page. That's a quick win that will permanently produce a net gain in terms of conversions throughout the funnel.
But in terms of your products, you don't want to be that comparison point. That's a terrible position to be in. Instead, think like an artist, craft your offer like an artist. Focus on the needs of your customers, develop it to that, but also balance it with being an authentic expression of your company's brand, your company's culture and personality, and what it is that you want to stand for. Because when you do that, you will carve out your own position in the market and it will almost be like you are your own little monopoly.
I'm reminded of Peter Thiel when I say that, because Peter Thiel, was one of the co-founders of PayPal. He had a sizable stake in PayPal, he was one of the earliest investors--I believe the first accredited investor--in Facebook, and he's invested in many other successful companies since then.
But if you look on YouTube at what Peter Thiel says when he gives talks, he likes to say, "I like to invest in companies that have monopolies or near monopolies." In other words, they have no competition. What they're doing has such a unique approach that they're able to come in and create the market, or even take over and carve out an existing one that is highly defensible.
Another good analogy would be when the iPhone came out. There were already smartphones out there, but Apple created the smartphone market because the experience was so completely different from typing on a clumsy Palm Pilot, where you have the keys on the phone, and/or a BlackBerry. The experience was something so unique, so completely different so that even to this day, it's either an iPhone or it's not. And that's the message that they are aware of, and they put it into their marketing explicitly.
So craft your offer like an artist. Make sure it's suited to the needs of your customers, but also have it be a reflection of who you are and be something truly new. That will make it more powerful and more defensible for the long term, okay?
So that's my Matt Hack for today. Let me know what you think in the comments, if you want me to do more videos like this one where it's a little bit higher-level strategy. And if you have a question that you'd like me to consider answering about how to create or optimize your sales funnel, leave a comment below or hit reply on the email newsletter.
So until next time, my name is Matt Ack in the Matt hat delivering your daily dose of Matt Hacks. Keep hustling, stay focused, and I will see you in the next video.
