Marketing Ostrich Theory
I blame my Mom.
I mean, she’s a sweet lady and I love her, but somehow she let me
get through 30 full years on this planet still believing that
ostriches bury their heads in the sand (she also let me believe
that Santa Claus existed until an embarrassing age and filled my
head with strange ideas about the Easter Bunny and classic
economics theory. Like I said, she’s sweet.)
The ostrich thing is a lie of course . . . a pop culture myth
perpetrated by Tex Avery cartoons and science teachers who don’t
believe in evolution (since any ostrich that *really* did bury it’s
head in the sand would be eaten right quick.)
What an Ostrich *really* does when it feels threatened is kick you
hard in the mouth and run . . .fast.
But still, every day I meet otherwise smart and savvy business
owners and marketers who seem to run their businesses on “Mythical
Ostrich Marketing Theory . . . “
What The Heck Does That Mean?”
It means that they bury their head in the sand (or in spreadsheets,
over-mined data a big ideas) and utterly fail to notice all the
other ostriches (or businesses) all around them.
And that they forget that *nobody* buys in a vacuum . . . and that
by the time a customer talks to them, they’ve probably already
talked to just about every other ostrich in the field.
Here’s What This Is All About
If a customer clicks on your PPC ad, clicks on a link in an email
or stumbles onto your page in the wild and gets funneled into your
lovingly crafted sales page you *don’t* just have to convince them
to buy from you . . . you have to convince them to buy from you
*instead* of somebody else.
And have to quiet the little voice in the back of their head that’s
doing backflips and throwing a fit wondering if they’re making the
right choice.
So how do you do that?
By hitting the objection head-on, making it really apparent what
separates you from the other guys and telling your customers in no
uncertain terms what your product or service is *not.”
Your weight loss pill is *not* “just another unhealthy scam that’s
going to wreak havoc with your body and leave you fatter than ever
six months down the line.”
Your real estate seminar is *not* “more recycled, overpriced drivel
you’ve already heard and ignored before.”
Your seduction ebook is *not* just more sleazy advice telling you
how to trick girls into going home with you . . .and making you
feel like a loser and a creep.
By throwing copy like that up nice and early on your page you
accomplish two big goals:
1. You establish that you’re different than all the other
ostriches out there.
2. You subtly (or not so) intimate that if this is what you’re
*not,* maybe it’s what all those other folks are.