What’s In It For Them?

One of the biggest issues I’ve seen when it comes to my own ad campaigns (or with clients) is trying to promote something that WE are interested in instead of what our ideal customers are interested in.

Essentially having a big “mismatch” between us and our target market.

What do I mean by that?

Well, let me give you an example.

Let’s say you run a roofing company.

You’re looking for more roofs to replace (of course).

You launch an ad campaign basically saying “give us a call, or fill out this form if you need your roof replaced”.

Why?

Because you want more customers.

To do that, you need more calls and/or more people filling out forms.

That’s what’s in your best interest.

Really, that’s what's in the best interest of your business.

And as a by-product, that’s the type of advertising that interests you.

But you know what typically happens?

Crickets.

OR, best case scenario…

If you do generate leads (or calls), they end up being WAY MORE expensive than they need to be.

Why is that?

Well think about it from your prospects point of view.

What’s in it for them?

Why should they immediately pick up the phone and call you off an ad?

Why should they fill out a form?

What do they get in return?

For most prospects, they already know the “next step” in that type of process.

(Or what they think is going to happen).

In their mind, if they fill out that form, they’re going to have their phone called from now until their last day here on earth.

Feeling like they have a company “breathing down their neck” to have a salesperson come over and sell them something they might not need.

Constantly hitting the “block” button like it’s their full time job.

And even if your team isn’t the type of business to do that, they don’t know any different.

And you know what?

We can’t blame them.

How many times does your phone get called from unknown numbers on a daily basis?

Kind of makes sense that you would end up having to spend quite a bit of money on advertising just to get one person to fill out a form (or make a call) from an ad like that, right?

What would be a better alternative?

Good question.

My first answer would actually be to ask yourself the following question:

“If I were in my prospect's shoes, what type of ad would make me want to willingly (and happily) fill out a form or make a phone call?”

The “what’s in it for them” concept.

What do they get in return in exchange for filling out a form, or picking up the phone?

Well, in this case, let’s say you are that homeowner who is wondering if their roof may need to be replaced.

What are they currently thinking about as it relates to their roof?

Maybe something like…

“Well, the roof does seem pretty old, but maybe they last longer than I think. How would we even know if it needs to be replaced without having a roofing company come out here and try to sell us one whether we need one or not”.

Or…

“If we were to get our roof replaced, what would that even cost?”

Or…

“How does it work when it comes to our insurance? Do our rates go up? Do we come out of pocket for the cost?”

And on and on you can go, right?

And if you’re in the business of roofing, you’ve probably heard all of the questions you could ever imagine when it comes to prospects wondering “how it all works”, right?

→ By the way, I’m not in the roofing business, if you have already guessed! (so my apologies if I don’t have the terminology/concepts of roofing dialed in - but hang in with me here)

So what if, instead of creating an ad that basically said “fill out this form, or call us so we can replace your roof”, you made an ad that directly addressed the things that your prospect is already thinking.

Like…

Addressing their worry about wondering if their roof needed to be replaced with some sort of “free guide” that had a title like…

“Free Roofing Guide: The Top 5 Ways Dallas Homeowners Can Know If Their Roof Actually Needs Replaced Before Calling A Roofing Company”

Or…

Addressing their concern about wondering how much it costs to get a roof replaced on a home like theirs, in their specific location with some sort of free guide that had a title like…

“The 2025 Dallas Homeowners Roof Replacement Pricing Report”

And on and on you can go.

By the way, I don’t have the correct answers on which type of lead generation offer would work best, but you know who would?

Your target market.

They’ll ALWAYS tell you which one works best.

You know how you’ll know?

When you see which one gets you the most amount of leads, and which one turns into the most amount of new customers.

As a rule of thumb, not every lead generation offer you make that generates the most amount of leads will also turn into the most amount of sales, but in general…

The more leads you generate, the more customers you will have. (assuming you have good “nurture” follow up systems in place)

On average.

But, it’s important that you first sit down and ask yourself the question…

“What’s in it for them?”

“If I were my prospect, what would I be interested in?”

And make your offers (and your ads) around those questions.

That should help when it comes to your lead generation efforts.

Hope this was useful!

Until next time,

Colin