Hello friend! It’s been a red hot minute since I last spoke to you. I’m learning to take more time off, to listen to my body more, to create from a space of pure self trust on an even deeper level. I wrote a newsletter about it this week and shared how it has made me so much more productive, efficient AND joyous! So, I’ve taken some time away from this podcast. I’m super pumped to be back and talking to you now and excited to talk about today’s topic; Attribution in Marketing – what makes people buy. 

What is Attribition in Marketing

So firstly, what is the concept of attribution as it relates to marketing? To say it in a simple way; it’s what actions that contribute to a person opting into a desired outcome. So for example, if a person saw a TV ad about some specific roller blades, and then they saw a re-targeting ad on Instagram and then they received a newsletter about them …and then ended up buying those roller blades, we can’t know for sure what made them decide to take the action and buy. They might have DECIDED for sure on getting the roller blades the first time they saw them on TV, but life happened and they decided to get them on the weekend. Was it the TV ad, the Instagram ad, the newsletter or the CTA button in the newsletter that made them take the action and buy them? This is one of the hardest things to determine in marketing and even massive multi-national companies to this day haven’t figured out how to 100% attribute the desired consumer behaviour to one specific marketing effort. We simply cannot know for sure what people THINK. 

And here’s where I realized I HAD to make an episode about this. There are so many people out there selling “THE SOLUTION” to making people buy – and it’s generally a software or ad-related service.  Or it might be a 5 step process to setting up a sales funnel. And I just can’t stand by and watch you all buying into it anymore! 

I’ve had quite a few people ask me to help them with marketing funnels such as “Click Funnel”, specific CTAs (call to action) and other very specific, technical marketing stuff. And while I could very well teach all of that – it’s not what’s going to get you clients if you don’t have a huge audience or created a SOLID foundation yet. And it kind of breaks my heart when coaches who are just starting out, or have less than 5-10 clients, think that they need to learn all of that crap. Listen to me; YOU DO NOT! This is coming from someone who’s been working 10+ years in the digital marketing industry and has a masters degree in it. 

Yes, I’ve seen the ads, I’ve seen the workshops that self-proclaimed marketing gurus sell – I’ve even worked with click funnels for some of the companies that I’ve done digital marketing for. And, I see so many people being deceived into believing that if they set up a Click Funnel clients will come rolling in – and quite frankly it makes me mad. It’s a classic example of bro-marketing. 

Setting Up a Marketing Funnel

Here’s the truth: when you set up a click funnel, people don’t just magically find it and translate into paying clients. Unless you have a ton of organic traffic to your website every day, you need to market that funnel. So, now you need to learn to set up ads on Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok, Google or other platforms. So, not only will you be paying a monthly subscription for Click Funnels or other kinds of marketing  funnels, you also need to put in a SPEND for the ads (what you’re paying to keep the ads running). But that’s not all, you’ll be spending HOURS AND HOURS of precious time learning all of this – and my friend, at this stage of your business it’s a waste of time, effort and money. I know … I’m a learnoholic and sometimes live in a perfectionistic fantasy too – thinking that I might as well do the heavy lifting right away. But doing this is like building a house of cards with a freaking forklift. It doesn’t make sense to do it this way! Once you have a ton of people who knows about you and thousands of visitors to your website – it’ll call for more automation. Just like when you’re building a real house, you’ll need more heavy duty tools than building the house of cards. 

Also, let’s talk about calls to action. It seems like a lot of ya’ll are thinking that if you’re nailing your CTA – and even that you have the right COLOR on the CTA that people will buy. HOLD YOUR HORSES MY FRIEND! This is NOT where your focus needs to be! It’s kind of the same thing as going to the gym and doing a bunch of biceps curls and really getting the RIGHT muscle tone because you want to get good at playing tennis. NO! While a good tennis player has great arm muscles, that’s not what makes them a good player. What makes you good at tennis is to actually play the game – over and over and over again!

What ACTUALLY Makes People Buy

Think about yourself – you might be considering me as your coach. If you’re certain that I can help you with your digital marketing… if you love my unique blend of science, spirituality and expertise that I share… If what I’m saying is resonating with you on a deeper level… You are not going to give one single piece of shit about what color my CTA button is, or if I phrase a CTA one way or the other. 

You are going to sell yourself on hiring me through the BODY OF WORK that I put out. One piece of content at a time. It’s WHO I show up as over and over again – it’s the spirit of my business and offer that will make you hire me. And, the body of work that we put out is a reflection of WHO we are – our energy and approach to this work. We are essentially selling ourselves and our evolution; our continuous breakthroughs. 

Digital marketing is truly a marathon with millions of micro adjustments. Even the biggest, most renowned brands in the world adjust their message all the time. It’s like being a scientist. When you’re always creating value and always playing with how people might feel compelled to work with you – that’s when you’ll see results. That’s when requests for consultations will start trickling in. 

Marketing Attribution Summary

So, to quickly summarize for you. If you think that 

1. You’ll sign more clients by getting the “RIGHT” call to action at the end of your email 
2. That you need to subscribe to expensive software such as ClickFunnels 
3. That there’s a 5- or 10-step marketing formula that will have clients line up to work with you…

…you’ve been deceived. Attribution in marketing – or in other words what actually makes people buy doesn’t come down to one single “correct” CTA, the “right” color of a button – it comes from continuous exposure of something we find compelling.  

We, as human beings, are so much more complex than what bro-marketing will have it. Most of you have fears that you can’t guarantee great results for your clients, that other coaches are better than you, that people don’t actually want to work with you…

Cleaning Up Your Beliefs Around Your Business

You need to clean all of that up first, because THAT energy is going to seep into all the marketing that you do. Even if you set up ads or funnels, it’s still YOU and your energy that comes forth. And, most of the coaches who are attracted to work with me don’t even like the technical stuff all that much. Their strengths are human presence, energy work, connecting deeply with people. Yet, while learning all of these technical things stresses them out, they force themselves to do it because they think this is the ONE thing that will take their business to the next level. But it’s not – it’s actually slowing them down. It’s taking them out of alignment with themselves. It’s not an energetic match to inspiration and creating their unique magic in the world. 

Okay, my friend – I hope I’ve saved you some time, money and not to mention – overwhelm by telling you this today. 

AND; if you’re looking to improve your marketing without ads or technical bullshit, I’m happy to help you out! You can book a free consultation through my website martinethomassen.com. I’ll give you one full hour of my time to help you get really clear on what specifically has to happen in terms of YOUR marketing and mindset to grow your business – and how I might help. 

Until next time … bye!