logged
How to turn flaws from your offers into features people actually want
I've got a confession to make about The Nature of Marketing community.
It's small.
Like, really small.
Right now there are only about 16 members inside.
Most "gurus" would hide that fact. They'd use vague language like "join our thriving community" or post screenshots cropped just right to make it look bigger than it is.
But that's precisely what I've learned not to do from legendary copywriter Gary Bencivenga.
Because sometimes your biggest liability is actually your biggest asset.
In one of Gary's issues of his famous Marketing Bullets, he shares a story he once learned from Don Reynolds Jr. about an advertising exec who moved to New Mexico and bought an apple orchard on the side of a mountain.
He called them “Uncle Jim’s Mountain-Grown Apples” and he always offered an unconditional money back guarantee.
Well, one year during a large hailstorm, all the apples ended up with little dents and marks all over them.
The apples were otherwise normal and delicious like always…
But our advertising exec was concerned that people would not like the look of them and ask for their money back on his otherwise good and delicious apples.
Most farmers would've tossed them or sold them at a massive discount.
But Reynolds did something different.
This year, he shipped them with a note that read:
===
Notice the hail marks on these apples. These are proof of their growth at a high mountain altitude where sudden chills from hail storms help stimulate the natural fruit flavors which give Uncle Jim’s apples their incomparable taste.
===
Instead of apologizing, he leaned into everything that made them different. The high altitude. The harsh mountain weather. The smaller size. The tougher skin. The more concentrated flavor.
And those hail marks?
They became proof the apples survived the elements.
A badge of honor from nature itself.
He didn't hide the flaw, he featured it front and center. And that year, his “damaged” apples received fewer refund requests than ever before
Which brings me back to my small community.
Here's the truth most people won't tell you about massive online communities...
They're noisy, overwhelming, and your questions get lost in a sea of notifications. The people with answers to your questions can't possibly give everyone the attention they need to get results. And 75% of the members are lurkers who signed up months ago and never came back.
But a small community?
Everyone knows your name. Every question gets answered… usually by me personally. You're not shouting into the void. You're having actual conversations with people who are on the same journey.
Your questions don't get buried under hundreds of comments.
Instead, we go deep, we workshop ideas together, and we celebrate wins as a group.
Instead of a stadium, it’s a campfire.
And yeah, I could wait until I have 500 members to tell you about it. But then you'd miss out on being here during the most valuable phase… when it's small enough that I can actually help you one-on-one.
Those "hail marks" on Uncle Jim's apples weren't flaws at all.
They were proof of something real.
Same goes for the community, and same goes for you and the next time you want to hide something about your offer because you think it’s a flaw.
Instead, ask yourself this:
"How could this actually be exactly what the right person wants?"
Maybe your course is shorter than everyone else's… which means it respects people's time. Maybe your service is more expensive… which means you can afford to deliver better results. Maybe you're newer to the industry… which means you're not stuck in outdated methods.
That "flaw" might be the whole reason someone chooses you.
Anyway, if you want to join a small, focused community where you'll actually get personal attention while you're building your email list and content strategy on Threads…
Here's the link:
Talk soon,
Kevin Hood
P.S. Oh, and just so you know… once we hit about 40 or 50 members, I'll probably have to raise the price and dial back the one-on-one attention. So small is definitely the feature right now.