Now many of you may know I do like a cake (or two) and so this explains the analogy I am using today, but if you're not a cake person don't worry - substitute 'cake' for your favourite dish or culinary creation. It will still make sense!
So here's what I see a lot... people marketing recipes: the ingredients for a cake - the step-by-step pieces you need. Which is of course helpful, as you need to know how to make a cake.
But what a cake lover is more interested in is the finished article - the moist yummy sponge and the gooey filling/chocolate chips/frosting/whipped cream/add in what makes your favourite cake just perfect here. That's what a cake lover buys - a CAKE! I get a lot more excited looking at a slice of carrot cake than I do a bag of flour, eggs, sugar, some carrots, a wooden spoon... and yet this is what I see a lot of people are 'selling' - the ingredients.
So if you have a 'list' of what you 'do' in your marketing materials, if when people ask what your business is about you reel off the 'ingredients' of what you do, then you are NOT selling a cake.
Here's an example of what my 'ingredients' looks like in my business:
- finding your 'Thing'
- marketing ideas
- business strategy
- speaking know how
- mindset focus
- visibility exercises
- choosing your 'right' media
- testing what works for your business
- working out your ideal client
- event promotion
- working out your signature system
- setting out your star plan of what to sell
- etc.
- etc.
- etc.
There are a LOT of ingredients in my business cake. But this is NOT what I market to catch my ideal client's attention (i.e. not in the cake shop window).
This is what I market:
Being a Business Celebrity - making your marketing easy, your sales effortless and your business fun by Finding your Thing and Getting Famous for it.
Yes, I do this by combining all or some of the ingredients I have to produce that person's 'Business Celebrity' but that's not what I market.
Now while some of my ingredients can sometimes be attractive on their own, it's the overall outcome and the transformation 'cake' that people are buying. They know a cake is made up of ingredients but on their own they just aren't as yummy.
So take a look at your marketing and see if you're selling ingredients or a cake.
Cake lovers like cake remember - so get that perfect frosting for what you do that's amazing.
Want to talk more about this?
Love it Lucy!!
Thanks Jools! Any excuse to think about cake :)
I loved this cake analogy Lucy. It’s true people want the transformation and not the ” how to do it” list.
Loving your blog work! BW. Ruth
Glad you liked the cake Ruth, and thanks for your feedback too, appreciate it! :)
Ohh Lucy, I can almost taste the cake! You are so right. It is the cake we are selling not the ingredients! I love the analogy and it has helped me put my marketing efforts into perspective. You are so good at this!! T :)
Thanks Tracy :) Glad you liked it and it inspired action (more importantly!)
Really like this blog post, am still working out my ‘exact’ thing and can see how getting that nailed will make a massive difference, I want to start selling cake! NOT ingredients – great food for thought! (sorry, accidental analogy ;-)
Yes the ‘Thing’ is the answer to lots of other things… :)