ROH: The Secret to Truly Effective Marketing
We’re continuing our 4-part series with Jeff and Erin Youngren. In their second post, they dive into how you can effectively market your business and brand to attract your ideal client! If you missed out on the the first blog of this series, access that here. Happy reading!
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Businesses and corporations make decisions based on ROI – Return on Investment. They ask themselves questions like, ‘How much return will I receive if I invest some money in more equipment? If I build a new factory? If I hire a new employee?’
Consumers, on the other hand, make decisions based on what I like to call ROH or ‘Return on Happiness.’ If you are a wedding photographer, then your clients are consumers – not businesses or corporations – so they don’t make decisions the same way that corporations do.
As a consumer, I don’t walk into an Anthropologie store to buy a dress because I will receive a bigger financial return on my investment than if I bought a dress elsewhere. No, I buy the relatively expensive dress from Anthropologie because I believe that it will make me happier than other dresses. Are they quality? Yes. Do they look fantastic? Yep. Are there other less expensive dresses in the world that will look just as nice? Of course.
When I shop at Anthropologie, I have a picture in my head of what will make me happy, and through their branding, marketing, and email campaigns, Anthropologie has inserted themselves into my ‘picture of happiness’ and helped me feel that their clothes are the solution.
Anthropologie is an example of an effective marketing machine (as least as it applies to me), and I believe this to be true: Truly effective marketing is when your clients’ picture of happiness and your services intersect.
Related: 5 Ways to Create a Win with Client Referrals
Fulfill your Ideal Client’s Picture of Happiness
Guess what? As a wedding photographer, your ideal clients are consumers, and consumers have pictures of happiness in their heads that they are trying to fulfill with ideal vendors. Your goal, then, is to actively insert your services into your clients’ pictures of happiness. But you don’t want to intersect with just any picture of happiness out there. The ultimate WIN for your marketing strategy is for your business to fulfill the picture of happiness for your ideal client. [···]