How To Sell A ‘Boring’ Service (Find Your Magic)

If you worry that your service is too boring to sell ono you’re not interesting enough to sell, read on…

I talk alot about good girl syndrome and becoming iconic if you want to lead in your industry. A lot of the blocks around this are ‘I don’t think that I’m iconic’ or ‘the thing that I’m selling isn’t iconic’. If you think your service is too boring for Instagram, I want you to listen to this story. 

In 2019 I was working in an advertising agency as a Marketing Strategist. It was my job to look at a brief and find the magic so I could brief our design team. In this role, you really lean into storytelling and finding the magic that will create impact. I specialised in charity marketing where you have to be particularly good at this. You’re not actually selling a product, you’re getting people to part with their money without getting anything in return. You’re technically selling an invisible product. You’re selling a feeling. But whether you’re selling a product or something online, we’re all selling feelings. I learnt a lot in this role about how to market and how to market well. 

I got a brief on my desk one day. This charity was an animal welfare charity that supported donkeys in the Middle East. So random. I had absolutely no connection to this. This was not the sexiest brief. The challenge as a marketing strategist is you have to make a brief THE most exciting brief for the design brief, or they won’t prioritise your work. It was my job to get to the hook and the magic of the story. So I made this my mission. I started my research. How could I get people to empathise and feel passionately?

I quickly found out that the lives of these donkeys were HORRENDOUS. They’d be left for days without food or water. They’d have infections in their hooves but be forced to keep working. Often, these donkeys were the only source of a family’s income. If the donkey gets sick or dies, this family has NO source of income. They can’t survive if the donkey doesn’t survive. So by supporting a campaign like this, and improving the welfare of these animals, it doesn’t just help the donkeys, it has a HUGE ripple effect and creates huge amounts of wealth for these families and communities in the Middle East. 

So what landed on my desk as ‘save the donkeys’ became what felt like a huge international welfare project. As I was writing this brief I had tears in my eyes, I had no idea it was so emotional and such a big deal. I went on to create this campaign with the design team and it was INCREDIBLE. It raised over a quarter of a million pounds! I’ll say that again, a quarter of a million pounds! I’m telling you this because I want you to know there is magic in every single story. So if you think your service is boring, you need to go deeper. Sometimes stories are sexy and easy to find the hook, but often if it’s easy to find the hook it means it’s a well trodden path and it’s not going to cut through with the audience. 

Get detailed, get specific and find the magic. What is the ripple effect from the service you provide? How does it impact your clients, their families and beyond? It’s not just about services and systems, it’s about selling the FEELING. Really think about how your client is feeling – how does she feel when she wakes up in the middle of the night? When you get to the emotion of what it is that you do (whether the service it’s boring or not) THAT is where you find the magic.

So, what’s your version of the donkey story? If you can crack your version, this will make you 6 figures. If you can articulate the magic of what you do, this will make you 6 figures. This is the ROOT of marketing. This is why at Christmas time we all rush to watch the John Lewis advert, because we want to feel something. 

If you think you can run your business based on referrals and not bother with marketing, you’re kidding yourself. If you want to take your business to the next level and be an industry leader, being shit hot at what you do is NOT enough. You need to be able to shout about your work from the rooftops in order to inspire and motivate people so they take action and join your movement and community. They’re walking to the same goal as you, and they want to walk WITH YOU.

LET’S WORK TOGETHER!

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