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Customer Journey
The Secret of Customer Loyalty and Not Having to Discount
This is why advertisers try to make their ads sound exciting.
(1.) Adrenaline is a neurotransmitter that increases blood flow to the muscles during times of excitement and creates involuntary recall of events.
When there is adrenaline in the blood, you are more likely to remember the moment. This is why advertisers try to make their ads sound exciting.
(2.) Oxytocin is a neurotransmitter that produces feelings of connectedness and bonding.
This is how powerful brands are built.
More than 240 years after the fact, we continue to admire John Adams and his amazing wife, Abigail, because they left behind words of bonding, both to one another and to the ideals they shared. John said, “I believe there is among our people a fund of wisdom, integrity, and humanity which will preserve their happiness.” John Adams wanted the best for us, and he believed the best about us.
We likewise admire Thomas Jefferson because he, too, gave us words of bonding that showed us his heart. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, and were given by their Creator the right to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Thomas Jefferson wanted the best for us, and he believed the best about us.
These people showed us what they valued.
They showed us what they believed.
We call them Patriots and Founding Fathers.
They gave us oxytocin.
But we have no deep admiration for Thomas Pinckney, although he served with distinction during the Revolutionary War, then became Governor of South Carolina where he presided over the state convention that ratified the United States Constitution. In 1792, George Washington appointed Thomas Pinckney ambassador to Britain and envoy extraordinary to Spain and in the Presidential Election of 1796, Pinckney gathered almost as many votes as John Adams and Thomas Jefferson! But Pinckney was a man of action – adrenaline – rather than bonding. Pinckney gave us no oxytocin.
Bonding – that feeling of connectedness – is a product of oxytocin.
And bonding produces loyalty.
Bonding and loyalty… what words those are to a marketer!
Are you sharing words of bonding in your ads?
Are you encouraging your customer?
Do they believe you want the best for them?
Sadly, most ads are built on logic and adrenaline. “Act now! Save money! Don’t miss this event!” But the best marketing is built on stories that trigger the release of oxytocin.
“The human mind is a story processor, not a logic processor. Everyone loves a good story; every culture bathes its children in stories.” – Jonathan Haidt, The Righteous Mind, p. 287
When a person proposes marriage – the ultimate expression of bonding and loyalty – they choose not only their words, but also the time and place of expression.
- What is the Emotional Environment that will precede your advertising? What will the customer be feeling in that moment before they encounter your ad? What chemicals will be flowing in their blood?
- Emotional Environment is dictated by where you spend your ad budget.
- Adrenaline in the blood (excitement) will give your message a higher likelihood of recall.
Oxytocin in the blood (bonding) will give your customer a feeling of connection to your brand. - Sporting events provide adrenaline excitement mixed with the oxytocin of bonding (with a team.)
- Romantic stories, romantic TV shows and movies, and romantic music provide adrenaline excitement mixed with the oxytocin of bonding (with a lover.)
- Adrenaline without oxytocin is “fight or flight.” Politics make us fighting mad and fear makes us feel like running away. Mix your ads with politics or fear and you will be remembered, but never loved.
- Words of bonding are the essence of Community Content.
- Words of bonding are the keys to not having to discount.
- Words of bonding are expressed by characters in stories.
- Bonding and loyalty are triggered by the stories you share in your ads, videos, podcasts, and blog posts.
Are the characters in your ads interesting and credible?
Does the public love and trust them?
I leave you now to do with this information as you will.
If you're struggling to craft killer direct response ads for your business, Ryan Chute from Wizard of Ads® can help. Book a call.
Sales
The Source of All the Confusion
These are the reasons you struggle as a salesperson.
Two brothers were locked out of their home, so they climbed onto the roof and entered the house through the chimney. When they crawled out of the fireplace, one of them had soot on his face, the other did not. The clean-faced brother immediately went into the bathroom and washed his face. The brother with soot on his face did not. Why?
We are confused by the actions of the brothers until we put ourselves in their shoes and see the world through their eyes.
The clean-faced brother looked at the sooty-faced brother and assumed they were both in the same condition, so he went and washed his face. Likewise, the sooty-faced brother did not know he needed to wash, because he was looking at the brother whose face was clean.
We assume that we are like other people, and that they are like us.
This is the assumption that misinformed the brothers.
This is the assumption that misinforms the salesperson.
Do you put yourself into the shoes of each customer and see the world through their eyes, or do you assume that they are like you?
Do you unconsciously assume that your customer has your financial limitations?
Do you secretly believe that they should do what you would do?
These are the reasons you struggle as a salesperson.
You believe you are being empathetic, but you are not.
You aren’t putting yourself into their shoes; you’re putting them into yours.
If you're struggling to craft killer direct response ads for your business, Ryan Chute from Wizard of Ads® can help. Book a call.
FAQ
Who does the Wizard of Ads® for Services work with?
Are you an ambitious entrepreneur looking to 4X your revenue? Wizard of Ads® for Services may just be the marketing and branding solution you’ve been looking for.
Wizard of Ads® for Services works with healthy, growing service-based business owners, hungry to grow by multiples, like you.
Here are a few examples:
Professional Services
- Insurance Companies
- Healthcare Practitioners
- Law Firms
- Accounting Firms
- Funeral Homes
- Mortgage Brokers
Residential Home Services
- HVAC Contractors
- Plumbing Contractors
- Pest Control
- Electrical Contractors
- Roofing Contractors
- Garage Door Contractors
You are ready, willing, and able to grow your business. You are open to change and are seeking a distinctive angle of approach to capture the time and attention of a too-busy public.
You know that lasting relationships take time, patience, and good energy to nurture and cultivate. We carefully enter into every arrangement with the intention of working with you for as long as you own your business. You prefer lasting partnerships.
You are already a solid operator. You have successfully grown your business and appreciate the impact the right brand story will have to get to the next level in your operation. You know a strong relational message takes time to gain momentum, but it’s worth the one-time short-term discomfort for the endless long-term gains.
You’re looking for a holistic solution. You’re tired of cobbling together a bunch of independent ad-hoc tactics in the hopes of improved lead flow. While you understand that Wizards of Ads® for Services is not a full-service agency, you do know we will build a single, fully aligned sales and marketing strategy that can be implemented with confidence and 100% commitment.
You know great marketing will not fix a failing business, but that’s not your company. Sure, you are a work in progress, but you’re operating with an accurate moral compass and a strong work ethic. You know how to identify and improve gaps of service, and are actively in your business daily.
You’re focused on lasting change that leads to exponential, profitable growth, not just sales at any cost. Intuitively, you know that communication that enhances every element of your buyer’s experience and your employee's culture is the key to your success.
If this sounds like you, it’s time to reach out and connect with Wizard Ryan Chute to see how we might take your business and your brand to the next level.
Advertising
How to Walk Through an Advertising Minefield
Have you been avoiding advertising because everyone keeps telling you how dangerous it is?
If you are going to communicate effectively with a person, you need to know something about their beliefs.
Most writers assume their readers see and believe as they do. And when they knowingly write to people who believe differently, their writing often takes the tone of an argument, leaning heavily on evidence and examples, with undertones of disparagement and mischaracterization. Such writers persuade no one, but rather drive the wedge deeper.
1. To make the sale, you must win the respect of your audience.
2. Belief is never a matter of evidence; it is always a matter of choice.
3. You cannot take a person where you want them to go, until you first meet them where they are.
4. (A) Perspective: You have to see through their eyes.
(B) Empathy: Feel what they feel.
(C) Use the words they love. When you meet your customer in that safe place, and establish the bond of a common perspective, then you can gently begin to give them new information.
5. People never change their minds. If you give them the same information they were given in the past, they will continue to make the same decision they made in the past. They will continue to disagree with you.
6. When a person appears to have “changed their mind,” they have simply made a new decision based on new information. And this new information should always be shared from the platform of a common perspective.
7. Win the heart and the mind will follow.
The mind will always create logic to justify what the heart has already decided.
This will be the first ad in a one-year series:
My name is Tim Schmidt and you’ve probably never heard of my company. We teach people how to avoid danger, save lives, and keep their loved ones safe. We currently have nearly half-a-million members. But still, you’ve probably never heard of us. Because our members are trained NOT to talk about it. Chances are, some of our members are friends of yours. And they’ve never told you. Because talking about it is NOT what we do. What we do is avoid danger, save lives, and keep our loved ones safe. Our members are doctors and single moms and firemen and grandmothers and Veterans and Democrats and Republicans and members of every faith. We are thoughtful, responsible, and non-violent. But when you are with one of our members, you are safe, because they know exactly what to do if something crazy happens. More importantly, they know exactly what NOT to do. We are the United States Concealed Carry Association. See what we’re all about at USConcealedCarry.com.
DEVIN: Discover the little-known backstory of the US Concealed Carry Association at USConcealedCarry. com
Here’s an interesting question:
Q: Why would anyone ever knowingly walk into a minefield?
A: Because they need to get to the other side.
Is there a minefield you need to cross?
Have you been avoiding it because everyone keeps telling you how dangerous it is?
Are you ready to get started?
Unless you work with seasoned marketers with rich experience writing irresistible advertising, like Ryan Chute’s teams at Wizard of Ads®. Book a call.
Advertising
10 Tips for Advertisers
Advertiser, you can’t afford to reach everyone. You’ve got to choose who to lose, here are 10 tips to help you 100% of the time.
- Bad ads waddle like a porcupine and make lots of little points.
Good ads charge like a rhinoceros and make a single point powerfully.
This is true regardless of your choice of media.
- Ad budgets are like that, too.
When universities ask me to address their Advertising & Marketing majors just prior to graduation, I always warn those young “advertising experts” never to give advice to friends or family members who are involved in a local business. “This is because everything you have been taught assumes you will go to work in marketing for a Fortune 500 company, or for an advertising agency that places the media for large, national brands. You have not been taught how to grow a local business.” And then I ask their professors – in front of the students – whether they agree or disagree with what I just said.
One hundred percent of the time, without exception, every professor has agreed with me. Most of the time, they start nodding their heads in affirmation when I say, “…everything you have been taught assumes you will go to work in marketing for a Fortune 500 company…”
- The most dangerous of these Fortune 500 concepts is the idea of a “media mix.”
The widespread belief about the value of a “media mix” has caused small business owners to sprinkle their ad budgets across several different media because they are worried they are going to “miss” someone. After all, “Not everyone listens to the radio.” “Not everyone watches the news.” “Not everyone looks at billboards.” “Not everyone blah, blah, blah.”
Advertiser, you can’t afford to reach everyone. You’ve got to choose who to lose.
Would you rather reach 100% of the people and convince them 10% of the way, or reach 10% of the people and convince them 100% of the way? Repetition is effective. Repetition is effective.
Don’t be a porcupine. Be a rhino.
- If you sell a product or a service that most people will need sooner-or-later and you suspect you’ve been sprinkling your ad budget, “a little bit here and a little bit there,” try spending 80% of your ad budget on a single mass media and the remaining 20% online. The choice of mass media is up to you, but it’s hard to go wrong with local broadcast radio or television newscasts. People rarely record the TV news on their DVRs. They watch it live. The same is true of live sporting events.
By the way, in case I forget to tell you this later, repetition is effective.
- “Wait a minute,” you say, “you told me to be a rhino and not to sprinkle my budget, but now you’re telling me that 20% of my budget should be spent online! What’s up?”
Google is the new phone book, so you must have an online presence. Properly used, mass media will make you the provider that people think of immediately and feel the best about, but the first thing those people are going to do when they need what you sell is go online to look for your phone number, or your store hours, or your street address, or at your online reviews.
You’ve got to show up when your customer is looking for you.
- There are instances – particularly in the home service categories – when it makes sense to use geotargeting. If time and energy are an underutilized resource, the placement of door hangers and lawn signs and the slipping of flyers under windshield wipers are old-school techniques that still pay big dividends. This is what I call, “shoe leather on the sidewalk.”
The geotargeting of neighborhoods can also be done online, and geofencing will even allow you to target the people who enter and exit a specific building. Cool, huh?
- “But what if I sell a product or a service that only a tiny percent of the population will ever want or need?”
Friend, that’s when you bet your entire ad budget online. But make sure that your gross profit margin will allow you to spend 25% to 33% of total top-line sales on advertising, because when all the shouting is over, that is what you’re likely to spend.
(Meanwhile, those local advertisers who are betting on the effectiveness of mass media are spending only 6% to 12% of total top-line sales on advertising.)
- Mild surprise is the foundation of delight.
In your ads,
A. if you say what your customers expected you to say, they will be bored.
B. if you make unsubstantiated claims, they will not believe you.
C. if you speak to anything other than a felt need, they will ignore you.
D. if you say something new, surprising and different, you will gain their attention.
E. if you give them reasons to like and trust and believe you, they will.
9. If you win the heart, the mind will follow. The intellectual mind will always create logic to justify what the emotional heart has already decided.
10. Repetition is effective,
repetition is effective, repetition is effective.
Book a call with Ryan Chute of Wizard of Ads® today.
Entrepreneurship
Train Tracks and Race Cars
What happens when an overwhelming force enters the marketplace? What is your strategy?
An overwhelming force enters the marketplace.
A train is coming. You wish it wasn’t.
1. Will you stand on the track with your back to the train and deny its existence?
This business owner is saying, “Their customer is not our customer. They will not affect us.”
He is doomed by his delusion.
2. Will you denounce the train to everyone who will listen?
This second business owner says to state and local government, “We don’t want them here.”
He may win a battle or two, but he will always lose the war.
3. Will you face the train with one foot on each rail and say, “Bring it on”?
This third business owner is saying, “I’m better at this than you are. I’ll make you regret coming to my town.”
I’ve occasionally seen this business owner defeat the giant, but only if the giant was sick, distracted, or not in the mood to fight. Usually the little guy loses.
There are two proven ways to defeat a giant:
1. Go where the giant cannot.
Trains run on rails. The rails dictate where the trains go.
Sam Walton was a small-town retail hustler in a hillbilly state. The giants who occupied the promised land were Sears, Kress (K-Mart), and J.C. Penney.
Big department stores need big populations. As a general store, Sam could operate profitably in towns too small for Sears, Kress, and J.C. Penney. Sam opened his first stores outside of Arkansas in Sikeston, Missouri and Claremore, Oklahoma; towns of about 10,000 people.
Sam Walton grew Walmart to $8 billion – a size equal to Coca-Cola at the time – before he opened a store in a town large enough to have more than one McDonald’s.
2. Let the giant show you the way.
Stand alongside the track and grab hold of the train as it passes. This is a strategy that businesses owners 1, 2, and 3 never considered.
Once aboard, stand between the train cars where you don’t have to fight the wind. Let the train cut a hole in the wind for you. You are riding in the slipstream. Haven’t you seen race cars pull up tight behind the leader and ride along in their slipstream until the time was right to slip to the inside and slingshot past them?
Walmart was slow, but they did act in time. They studied Amazon and saw what was working. Then they committed to upgrading their online shopping experience.
They allowed the giant to show them the way.
Wal-Mart wasn’t able to slingshot past Amazon,* but they were able to retain their status as a giant. They did not become a has-been like Sears, Kress, J.C. Penney, or Blockbuster Video.
Is there a train headed your way?
What is its name?
What is your plan?
Book a call with Ryan Chute of Wizard of Ads® today.
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Frequently asked questions
Questions? We’ve got answers.
Why Wizard of Ads®?
Are you ready to transform your business into a distinctive, emotionally resonant brand? Here's why hiring Ryan Chute and Wizard of Ads® Services is the game-changer your business needs:
Distinctiveness Beyond Difference: Your brand must be distinctive, not just different, to stand out. We specialize in creating emotional connections with your customers to make your brand unforgettable.
Building Real Estate in the Mind: Branding with us helps your customers remember your brand when they need your service again, creating a lasting impression.
Value Proposition Integration: We ensure that your brand communicates a compelling value proposition that resonates with your audience, creating a powerful brand strategy.
Who Should Work with The Wizard of Ads®?
Wizard of Ads® offers services that start with understanding your marketing challenges.
We specialize in crafting authentic and disruptive brand stories and help build trust and familiarity with your audience. By partnering with Wizard of Ads®, you can transform your brand into one people remember and prefer. We understand the power of authentic storytelling and the importance of trust.
Let us elevate your marketing strategy with our authentic storytelling and brand-building experts. We can take your brand to the next level.
What Do The Wizard of Ads® Actually Do?
Maximize Your Marketing Impact with Strategic Alignment.
Our strategy drives everything we do, dictating the creative direction and channels we use to elevate your brand. Leveraging our national buying power, we ensure you get the best media rates for maximum market leverage. Once your plan is in motion, we refine our strategy to align all channels—from customer service representatives to digital marketing, lead generation, and sales.
Our goal is consistency: we ensure everyone in your organization is on the same page, delivering a unified message that resonates with your audience. Experience the power of strategic alignment and watch your brand thrive.
What can I expect working with The Wizard of Ads®?
Transform Your Brand with Our Proven Process.
Once we sign the agreement, we visit on-site to uncover your authentic story, strengths, and limitations. Our goal is to highlight what sets you 600 feet above the competition. We'll help you determine your budgets and plan your mass media strategy, negotiating the best rates on your behalf.
Meanwhile, our creative team crafts a durable, long-lasting campaign designed to move your brand beyond mere name recognition and into the realm of household names. With an approved plan, we dive into implementation, producing high-quality content and aligning your channels to ensure your media is delivered effectively. Watch your brand soar with our comprehensive, strategic approach.
What Does A Brand-Foward Strategy Do?
The Power of Strategic Marketing Investments
Are you hungry for growth? We explain why a robust marketing budget is essential for exponential success. Many clients start with an 8-12% marketing budget, eventually reducing it to 3-5% as we optimize their marketing investments.
While it takes time to build momentum, you'll be celebrating significant milestones within two years. By the three to five-year mark, you'll see dramatic returns on investment, with substantial gains in net profit and revenue. Discover how strategic branding leads to compound growth and lasting value. Join us on this journey to transform your business.
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