EP 422 Captivating Your Audience with the Art of Teasing As A Marketing Strategy

The podcast episode discusses the strategy of teasing as a marketing technique. It explains how withholding information can create desire in customers and lead to increased sales. The episode offers tips on how to implement this strategy in various business scenarios and emphasizes the importance of taking action to see results. The Smarties candy brand is used as an example to illustrate the effectiveness of teasing. The episode ends with a reminder to leave customers wanting more and a promotion for a podcast program on launching and monetizing a podcast. Are you ready to take your marketing up to that next level and captivate your audience like never before? Then you're going to want to join us for this compelling podcast episode as we dive deep into the world of teasing as a smart marketing strategy. Discover how the art of withholding just enough can make your customers crave more of what it is you have to offer. In this episode, we will unveil the secrets behind the effectiveness of teasing and its profound impact on sales growth. You're going to learn how to create an irresistible desire for your products or services, leaving your audience eagerly coming back for more. We're going to share some actionable tips on how to implement this strategy in various business scenarios, whether you sell memberships, eBooks, services, or even consumed products. Do not miss out on this opportunity to revolutionize your marketing approach and witness a surge of customer engagement and sales. Tune in now and unleash the power of teasing to propel your business to new heights. Ready to learn how? Stay tuned and find out now. Being an entrepreneur sounds like, yes, another new client. I did it. But it can also sound like, I am really not understanding this technology, and I'm feeling so overwhelmed. Am I even cut out for this? That's where I started the Dark Horse Entrepreneurial Podcast to help infopreneurs, coaches, and course creators who want to build a business online, but are battling technology, overwhelm, procrastination, and even imposter syndrome. Think successfully, think differently, think bigger, and take action by learning tips from an array of business owners, all dropping knowledge on the Dark Horse Entrepreneurial Podcast. Check us out at www.DarkHorseSchooling.com. What is up? What is up? What the hell is up, my Dark Horse friends and family? Welcome back to another dose of teasing, marketing, learning. I'm your Dark Horse host, Tracy Merriman, and as many of you know, and maybe if you're new, I'll let you know right now, I have been in the marketing and online space since, like, the 90s. Oh, shh, don't tell anybody. So you could say, yeah, I've got a little experience under my belt, but here I am. I'm still learning, and that's why I'm here. I want to share with you what I have learned and what I am still learning about digital marketing, online marketing, coaching, course creation, entrepreneurship, and infopreneurship. Let's talk a little bit about teasing marketing. I want you to pause for me a moment, maybe even close your eyes, if it's safe to close your eyes, of course. And I want you to imagine unwrapping a roll of Smarties candy. You know, those colorful disc-shaped treats that have been delighting the taste buds of children and adults alike for decades. Each roll of these candies have 15 of assorted flavors and colors. What do you do? Yeah, you unwrap that bad boy up there, and you pop one in your mouth, and you're expecting this burst of flavor. No, but what do you get? Yeah, you get this subtle, mild taste that ends up leaving you wanting more. This, my friends, is a clever trick by Smarties, making you crave that full flavor experience and enticing you to consume more and more of their candies in just a few minutes, right? Remember, I can remember being a kid after Halloween, and Smarties was one of the ones I would just crack open right away. You dump your bag out on the floor, and you're rifling through everything, kind of sorting the good, the bad, the okay. Do you want to trade anything with your friends? Smarties is one I would not give up. And I would unwrap them, and maybe pop one or two in the mouth right away. And then what do you end up doing? You just take it all and dump it in your hand, just pop them all in your mouth at the same time. That's what they did, right? But how does this apply to your marketing, digital marketing, right? Maybe even your bricks-and-mortar marketing. Well, get ready to uncover the secrets of this Smartie teasing strategy. Let me go back for a minute. It's 1949. Edward Dee, a visionary candy maker, brought his family from England to the USA, more specifically to New Jersey. With two machines, he started producing Smarties candy, those beloved candy wafers that we know today. I was just talking about, remember all those Halloween adventures, right? The key to their success lies in this art of teasing. Now, just like Smarties candies leave you wanting more, you, my friend, as a marketer, need to employ very similar tactics to engage and captivate your audience. Let's think about this. Let's say you're selling memberships. What should you do? Well, you want to offer them an enticing glimpse into what's inside, giving them a taste of the valuable content that they could access just by joining. By providing teasers, you can create this desire for the full experience and prompt them to take the leap. Now, let's say you're selling an e-book. You want to offer them a tantalizing preview, maybe the table of contents, or maybe you give them the whole first chapter. Yeah. Leave readers wanting more. Do not give them all the goods in that first chapter. Leave them craving the resolution of a cliffhanger, and then they'll be eager to purchase the complete e-book. Now, for my service-based business entrepreneurs out there, maybe you do, we've seen it done so much, provide a free initial consultation. Now, what you want to do here is you want to showcase your expertise. You want to deliver them a mountain of value right up front. This not only establishes trust, it also leaves them wanting more of your services. It shows them, man, he's going to give that much away for free. How much goodness is there behind the paywall, so to speak? Even for consumable products, maybe, you know, the herbal supplements. I take a few supplements or face creams. Consider maybe adjusting the dosage or the concentration, or just give them really a small sample they can use once, right, to create that sense of wanting more. You see, by offering a milder version, or maybe even going so far as diluting the product, customers will be motivated to purchase in larger quantities to achieve that desired effect. Now, you're with me, right? You've got that kind of understanding of the power of teasing. Well, now here, I want you to go out and implement. Now, that's one of the things I've, the direction I've taken here with the Dark Horse Entrepreneur Podcast, especially of late here in 2023, is I don't want to just deliver your value for the sake of having you, you know, having myself whisper in your ears. I really want you to get out there and take advantage of the content that I'm just dropping out here. The ideas, new ideas, new ways to do things, maybe an old way of doing things. I'm going back and looking at old stuff and saying, can I still apply this today? This is a great example of that. Dude started in 1949, and Smarties are still around. Clearly, they're doing something right. What I'm saying here is, don't just sit here and listen to me passively. Really, take action. That's why I end every show with, think successfully and take action. It's one thing to think positively, to think successfully, and then do nothing. Yeah. So what? You want to think successfully and take action. Yeah, yeah. See, that's when you start seeing success and people are applauding you. So, I want to give you some actionable steps that you can take action today. Right after you finish listening to this podcast, you're like, oh my God, that was amazing. I'm going to do something about it. So, let me give you these two actionable tips that you can walk away with. Number one, let's create irresistible previews, whether it's a membership, an e-book, or a service. You want to give your potential customer a taste of what's to come. Provide valuable snippets. Provide enticing information. Provide a limited trial to spark their interest and leave them craving more. Here's where I'm putting my money where my mouth is in this one, right? So, I've created a how to start and launch and grow and monetize your podcast program. And we've seen them all out there. And if you're in the podcast arena, or if you've searched even once how to start a podcast, this fits for you, right? I want you to listen to this. There's an array of programs out there. Some of them are really good. Some of them, right? And I've taken a couple of them. And they range from, I don't know, 497 to 997 to 1497. I've even seen one that's $7,000. Yeah, $7,000. And I just spoke to a gentleman who's starting a next level version of his podcast program. It's $18,000. What? Yeah, $18,000. Now, I'm not saying there's no value in what it is each of these different levels are offering. What I'm saying is, I'm going to try this smarty tactic and do something a little different. Put my money where my mouth is. So here's what I'm doing with my program. I'm offering for $1, come on in, check it all out. All of it. Everything's going to be right there in the membership portal. You come in for $1, you check it all out. You don't like it, you leave. If after 30 days you still are hanging around and you're consuming the content, $97 a month. Bing, bang, boom. Right? You think I only get a couple of people in here? Well, I hope I do. I would think yes, because here's what I'm going to do past that, which is where we get to step two. Let me give you what step two is, or what actionable tip number two is. Foster an ongoing relationship. It's not about the sales, ladies and gentlemen, it's about the relationships that you build that lead to the sales. My man Joe Graham taught me that, and I've learned it before, but he reinforced that in a recent podcast interview that will be coming up in about two weeks here. What you want to do is you want to foster this ongoing relationship. You want to encourage repeat engagement by giving customers plenty of reasons to come back for more. Offer exclusive content, additional benefits, or personalized experiences to keep you and them connected, to keep them eager to explore what it is you have to offer. So in this very program I was telling you about, come on in, learn how to launch, grow, and monetize your podcast for $1. If you can get it all done in 30 days, and you can, I did mine in three weeks. This podcast when I first launched it, three weeks I had it up and going. So you could get in there, do everything for $1 and say, I'm out. Well, the sad part about that is you're going to miss all the rest of the content, because now that you've launched your content you're going to want to grow your podcast. There's content in there about that. Then you're going to want to monetize your podcast. Well, there's content in there about that. Then I'm going to add podcast marketing on top of it. Then I'm going to add podcast guesting on top of it. I'm going to keep adding into here so people are going to go, oh my God, I would be stupid to leave. And then on top of that we're going to be building a community of like-minded folks who are building and using podcasting as a marketing tool for their business. Do you think there's going to be some synergies there amongst the members of that community? Yeah, I can feel you nodding your head. So if you're interested in that, if you've considered joining a podcast or starting your own podcast as a part of your business, heck, as part of your hobby, I don't care, right? However you use it, it's yours to use. Let me go down to the show notes, check it out. It's $1, come in and check it out for four weeks, a month, however you want to call it. And then if you stick around, cool, it's $97 a month. If you don't, cool, no skin off my nose. I'm here to build a community of folks. So let's wrap this up in conclusion. The Smarties Candy experience teaches us, ladies and gentlemen, the art of teasing and leaving customers wanting more. I could just cut this podcast off right there and really drive this home. But by implementing these tactics into your marketing strategies, you can create anticipation, you can build desire, and you can ultimately drive more sales. If you want to learn more about the psychology of selling and discovering additional techniques to captivate your audience, go back and listen to episode 387. And for those of you that are listening on a platform where the episode numbers don't show, it's entitled Two Simple Steps to Selling Anything. You're going to want to check that one out. It really is simple, okay? So don't miss out on unlocking the secrets to boosting your sales and taking your marketing efforts up to that next level. Remember, the key here, my friends, is leave your customers pleased with the taste, but craving more. Yeah, I'm just hungry for it. So you're ready to apply the power of teasing to your marketing game? I hope so. Get on out there and tease to please your audience, my friends. And hey, look, if you're looking to launch and grow and monetize your podcast or a podcast for your business or a business that you're starting, check out the program I was telling you about and learn how to do that for just $1. I'll leave the link down in the show notes. In the meantime, I'm going to leave you as I always do, my friends, think successfully and take action. Thank you for listening to the Dark Horse Entrepreneur Podcast. Thanks for tuning in. Check us out at www.darkhorseschooling.com. My name is Tracy Brinkman.