Halloween is my favorite holiday, so this week, I want to talk about magic. Specifically about my magical philosophy.
The Magical Power of 3
I’m going to step out of the proverbial broom closet here and reveal (for those who may not know) that I am a witch. Specifically, I am Wiccan. This is a legally recognized, earth-based, pantheistic religion.
Most people would call me “Pagan.” Others might call me a “tree hugging dirt worshiper.” Both labels apply.
As a Wiccan, I practice magic. Not the creepy kind that involves eye of newt and toe of frog. My magic revolves around raising energy toward a positive intention.
When I practice magic, I do it at 3 levels.
I set one intention for myself.
I set one intention for my community
And I set one intention for the world.
The goal of this is to bring positive energy to each of these intentions so that I, my community, and the world benefit in some way.
Tying Magic Into Email Marketing
I do this in my email marketing too.
Whenever I write an email, run a sales campaign, set up a marketing system, I look at it from these 3 perspectives.
How will this benefit my customers?
How will this benefit my community?
How will this benefit the world?
This may sound a bit grandiose, but it’s pretty simple. My goal is always to make sure that everybody wins. Everyone gets something out of whatever it is I do, even if it’s a long-term after-effect.
Immediate and Long-Term Benefits
Long-time readers of my emails will know that I am forever going on and on about making sure you show the immediate and long-term benefits of whatever you’re selling.
I did this in the second issue of this very newsletter. That issue focused on AI slop and why I feel strongly that every business owner should personally write one email a week to their subscribers.
Much of this revolves around answering the “What’s In It For Me” question. Every one of us asks this question, consciously or subconsciously, every day.
The best way to do this is by showing the immediate and long-term benefits of whatever it is you’re offering. I even demonstrated this in that issue by talking about the immediate and long-term benefits of using immediate and long-term benefits in your marketing. Very meta, I know.
Here’s the magical bit…
You can use my intention practice in immediate and long-term benefits too.
I’ll use a random example of single-serving applesauce cups as an example:
One for Yourself
The immediate benefit is how your product or service helps your potential customers… well… immediately.
It’s usually the problem they want to solve and the reason they’re interested in your product or service to begin with.
To use our random example, let’s say your target audience is parents who want to give their kids nutritious snacks and lunch options. The problems they face is satisfying their kids and making sure they’ll eat the healthy food instead of junk food.
The immediate benefit of single-serving applesauce cups is that they’re a fun, sweet treat that you can put into your kid’s lunch box and they’ll actually want to eat it instead of trading it for junk food.
One for Your Community
A long-term benefit is how your product or service helps your potential customers further along in their journey. Think weeks, months, even years down the road.
Back to our example: Applesauce cups will give your kid a healthy boost of energy during the day, so they’re more engaged at school. This means they’re learning more and contributing to their classes, and gaining confidence in themselves.
This helps the community by being good role models for their fellow students and helping other kids be equally engaged. It also helps the teachers, who almost certainly appreciate having students who pay attention and participate in class.
One for the World
This type of long-term benefit is future-casting. It’s showing the benefits that will occur long past the time that someone uses your product or service. These benefits may not have direct correlation to that product or service, but you can still legitimately tie them to your original premise.
To return to our applesauce cups example…
By raising a healthy, happy child to become a healthy, contributing, confident adult, you are helping the world. Your child, whatever they choose to do with their future, will have similar values to yours and will carry those into the world with them. They’ll have a wonderful life and give back to their community and the world in turn.
All because you made the right choice by giving them applesauce cups in their lunch box.
Is that a stretch?
Maybe, but not really. Companies do this all the time in their advertising in blatant and subtle ways.
Buy-One-Give-One Programs
A lot of companies have Buy-One-Give-One programs where if you buy their product, they’ll give another of that same product to someone in need.
Here are a few examples you may have heard of:
TOMS Shoes: TOMS is the company that made this type of giving famous. Every time a customer buys a pair of shoes, TOMS donates a pair of shoes to organizations that distribute them in impoverished countries.
Warby Parker: For every pair of glasses purchased, they donate a pair to partner organizations that distribute them to people in need.
FIGS: If you’re in the medical field, you’ll recognize this name. FIGS makes scrubs for healthcare professionals. When someone purchases a set of scrubs, they donate scrubs to healthcare workers around the world who can’t afford or can’t get access to these uniforms.
Companies Partnering with Charities, Nonprofits & Civic Organizations
Lots of business, from multi-national corporations to your local plumbing company sponsor everything from major events to the local little league team.
Others may make regular donations to these types of organizations based on events within their own schedules each year.
Businesses that do this benefit by improving their brand’s image to their customers, their employees, and the world at large. (Immediate benefit)
They also get a nice tax break for their charitable giving. (Long-term benefit)
And they can feel good about the good they do in the world, whether it’s local or thousands of miles away. (Future-casting benefit)
See, it shows up everywhere if you look for it.
There are lots of ways to use the magical power of 3 model.
Applying the Magical Power of 3 Model to Your Own Marketing
As I mentioned, I use this model all the time.
One of my clients is Humanity’s Team, a nonprofit that promotes conscious living. Their primary product is a streaming service of transformational education programs.
Their mission is to make conscious living prevalent by the year 2040.
So a way to express the benefits of this mission would be:
When you live consciously, you change yourself for the better. You find your own peace, balance and connectedness to everyone and everything. You live from a higher state of being and find your true purpose and joy.
This carries over to your friends, family and community, who not only feel the positive effects of you living this way, but start to live this way themselves. The ripple effect spreads out to the entire world, so we all take better care of ourselves, each other, and our beautiful planet.
I realize this is a very specific example and it may or may not apply to your business.
However, I’m sure you have some way you can use this magical power of 3 model in your marketing.
My “spooky challenge” for you this week is to look at your own business model and figure out the immediate and long-term benefits your product or service offers to your customers.
Then go further and find the benefits that it provides to your community and to the world.
Then look at ways to incorporate these benefits into your next email.
The best part of this is, you don’t have to be a witch to do it, nor do you have to wait for the magic of Halloween for this to have a positive effect. This is magic you can do year-round and its effects keep growing.
This week’s ecosystem picture is from a trip I took to Highgate Cemetery in London in 2016. We went on Halloween, so it’s very appropriate for today’s issue.
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