02 | The Problem With Income Claim Marketing
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One of my biggest pet peeves about the online space is income claim marketing.
Income claim marketing is when someone shares how much money they, or their clients, are making in an effort to prove how successful they are. Usually, when trying to sell the consumer on their offer or service.
It’s the phrases you see like…
“I made 6 figures in 6 months and if you follow this strategy, so can you!”
“How I made 20k in one day”
“My client made 30k following my launch method”
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, I’m sure you’ve seen this marketing method being used in the online space, but how do you feel when you hear these messages?
At some point, they may have been a source of inspiration, motivation and a look into what could be possible for you. However, constant exposure to these statements can often lead to feelings of jealousy, anxiety and wondering what you’re doing wrong if you haven’t achieved a certain level of success within a certain timeframe.
In this episode, I'm sharing my take on income claim marketing, why it can be damaging if not used the right way and what to look out for.
But first, a disclaimer.
Before I officially start this episode, I do just want to put out a short disclaimer.
I am not saying that income claim marketing is bad or that you shouldn’t share your income online. If you want to share your income in the hopes to inspire others, absolutely do it!
But the problem I’m seeing with income claim marketing is that it’s often not done with the best intentions. Unfortunately, a lot of people do use this as a way to make themselves seem more credible and they’ll misrepresent what that income actually means, whether intentionally or unintentionally.
So I’m not saying don’t share your income, I’m saying that there is a problem with income claim marketing because of the things I’m about to discuss and at the end of the episode, I’m going to share a more ethical approach to sharing your income online if that is the route you want to go down.
1. Income claim marketing can be misleading.
I’m sure you’ve seen at least one entrepreneur on your timeline say “all I've done this week is sit on a beach and sip margaritas and I've made 20k”. This is honestly one of the biggest lies out there.
Money doesn't just fall out of the sky and into your lap while you're relaxing. It comes from all the work you did beforehand in order to get there. If someone is claiming to have made 20k in one week, it's likely because that's when they opened the cart to their offer, or that’s when their clients paid their invoices.
But what they haven't shared is the time they spent on creating content to market that offer… the amount of time the offer or programme took to create… the amount of time that they'll still have to spend working inside the programme, whether it be through client support or course updates or something else… they haven’t shared whether they have a team or how big that team is or what their team is doing behind the scenes.
So, no, the person that said that did not make 20k in one week. They were PAID that week. The days, weeks, months of work they - and possibly their team - put into creating, marketing and selling is what made them that money.
So when you are seeing income claims like this, please don’t think that that person didn’t put in any hard work and still made 20k in one week because there is a lot more going on behind the scenes there.
2. Income claim marketing often promotes the unhealthy narrative of the overnight success.
One of the hottest topics right now is business coaches claiming to have made ‘6 figures in 6 months’ and creating courses and programmes claiming that anyone who goes through them can achieve the same.
Now I know that building a 6 figure business in this timeframe is completely possible and I admire anyone who has achieved this. But I also know that building something this big requires a hell of a lot of work and dedication. So when I see these flashy programmes promoting hitting 6 figures in 6 months and making out like it's the easiest thing in the world and that you can make all this money in your sleep... it just doesn't sit right with me.
This concept is so widely circulated within the online space, and because of this, so many new, or even seasoned entrepreneurs come across that content and see these entrepreneurs saying things like "building a 6 figure business is easy", and it often makes them feel less than if they haven't achieved those same results in the same amount of time.
The reality is that most business owners don't hit this milestone within 6 months of starting their business. In fact, most business owners won't ever reach this milestone.
The truth is that hitting 6 figures in 6 months is a benchmark of success designed by business coaches to get you to join their coaching programmes and it's such an unhealthy narrative. Because of the stigma surrounding this fast growth and income being the go-to definition of success, a lot of entrepreneurs are forgetting why they started in the first place and striving to achieve someone else’s version of success.
Success isn't just about building this massive 6 figure business. Success can also look like making a few hundred dollars on the side each month or freeing up more time to spend with your family and friends. It could look like making just enough to replace your salary so that you can work for yourself or simply waking up every day and getting to do something that you love.
Don't get caught up chasing a dream that was never yours to begin with… and please remember that this journey is different for everyone. The most important thing is that you focus on what makes sense for YOU.
3. Income claim marketing often isn’t the entire story.
We've all heard the saying "it takes money to make money" and it's so true! Income claims without transparency on what it cost to get there are completely unfounded.
Here’s an example: A coach may say that they made 20k one month and that might be true… but what they haven’t shared is that they spent 10k on ads and 7k on their team and marketing, leaving them with a profit of only 3k.
Now there’s nothing wrong with a profit of 3k, but it’s a significant drop from that initial 20k that they claimed.
The amount of sales you make is only one part of the story.
4. Income claim marketing can’t be proven.
Something I really should not have to tell you is this: You can't believe everything you see and read in the online space.
Anyone can say they made a certain amount of money - that doesn't make it true. Remember that the online space is filled with people trying to make money online, and whilst there are a lot of business owners who show up with authenticity and integrity - unfortunately, there are a few that slip through the cracks and will say anything to make themselves look better.
This actually leads me to a story… it was probably a couple of years ago now, but I followed this coach on social media and she put up a post claiming to have made something like 10 or 15k that month, and she created a free resource to breakdown her process and teach others how they could do the same.
Hundreds of people signed up for that resource and she was receiving a lot of DMs from people wanting to hire her to help them achieve the same. A couple of days later, she posted something else and she basically said that her claim the other day about making 15k this month was a lie. She wanted to prove how easy it is to lie in the online space and how quickly people will be to believe you.
She had multiple business owners in her DMs wanting to work with her because they thought she’d made 15k that month and wanted her help to get them there. But she hadn’t actually made that money and she didn’t know how to get them there… so they were hiring her based on a belief that wasn’t true.
The moral of that story is that you need to look beyond the income claims when it comes to hiring a coach or mentor for your business.
Don't hire someone simply because they claim to make 10, 20 or even 50k months. Do your research. Make sure there are more than just income claims there. Make sure you align with them and how they’re building their business. Don’t get blind-sighted by income claims because there is so much more to them than what’s often shared.
How to ethically share your income online.
To recap, the problem with income claim marketing right now is that it can be misleading… it can promote the unhealthy narrative of the overnight success… it often doesn’t share the whole story… and, perhaps the biggest reason is that it can’t actually be proven and can easily be manipulated.
At the beginning of this episode, I promised to share some ways that you can still share your income online ethically. And I think the most important thing if you do choose to use income claim marketing is to simply be transparent.
Don’t just share the income, show the full picture. Share the backstory behind that income, share your privilege… because saying that if you can do it, anyone can do it, simply isn’t true when you take into consideration other people’s backgrounds, location, lifestyle, race… all these different factors.
Also, make sure to share your expenses and what it took to bring that income in. Be transparent about the profit that actually came, not just the income as a whole. So if you spent 2k on ads or 1k on softwares, disclose that!
When you’re sharing how much income your clients made, make sure that directly links to YOUR input, firstly, but also share where they were before working with you. Were they a complete beginner, or did they already have a few launches under their belt?
When you share your income online, simply ask yourself… ‘what information do I need to share for this to accurately represent its role within my business?’
And the last thing I’m going to say on this topic is don’t rely solely on income claim marketing. There are so many other valuable wins and transformations your clients will experience when working with you that aren’t necessarily monetary. There are so many other types of wins that your clients appreciate and your ideal clients need to hear as well.
What you do for your clients is so much more than the numbers.
So there are my thoughts on income claim marketing, and I’m interested to know what yours are. Do you love it? Do you hate it? Has this episode made you think any differently? Send me a message on Instagram @marketingwithtish and let me know!
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I'm a marketing mentor for ambitious entrepreneurs who want to create more time, freedom & profit in their online business, in a way that feels good to them!
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