In today’s blog—I’m gonna break down what you can learn about website design & marketing from Harry Potter
You’ll learn:
- The reason why you should Horcrux-style repurpose your content 👻
- Why being the lowest-priced offer won’t help you stand out as the best in your industry 💰
- That your website photos won’t magically explain what you do unless you have copy beside them🧙🏻
- How to say wingardium leviosa the right way 🪄
(Never watched Harry Potter before or need a refresh? Click here, here & here for the summary.)
Let’s start with the marketing & launch for Harry Potter.
Based on the best-selling book series by J.K Rowling—the first Harry Potter movie premiered in November 2001, followed by seven sequel movies released from November 2002 to July 2011. And the spin-off Fantastic Beasts prequel films from November 2016 to April 2022.
Saying that the Harry Potter books & films were a success—is kind of the ultimate millennial understatement. Breaking almost every record you can think of, the series of 7 books is the best-selling series in history & the movies are the 4th highest $$$$$-earning film series ever. And July is often referred to as the Harry Potter month.
And starting with The Goblet of Fire, Harry Potter books had midnight releases & the movies had midnight showings when they first premiered—that I somehow missed the memo on while growing up (I arrived at Hogwarts 20 years too late oops). Setting records for selling out in less than 24 hours.
In fact, the books were so popular that booksellers were competing with each other for who could offer the lowest pre-order price to try & gain more sales. One person even being quoted saying, “You are not only lowering the price of the book. At this point, you are lowering the value of reading.”
^^^ Which is exactly why you shouldn’t price compete with your services & products—because it’ll devalue your offers.
Now, of course, you can’t necessarily overcharge either, 10x of what your industry peers are charging (in most cases)—BUT you definitely shouldn’t be competing for being the lowest priced. <<< Not only will it devalue what you’re offering, but it’s probably going to lead to less-than-ideal clients who don’t appreciate your work like they should.
During the making of the first movie the title was changed, from The Philosopher’s Stone to The Sorcerer’s Stone, for the American audiences—shooting the scenes twice whenever the stone was mentioned.
Now, I’m by no means saying you need to create double the content for your business…
BUT you should be careful about what kind of jargon you use in your website copy—based on who your ideal client is.
The stage of awareness your ideal client is in can also make a difference in what kind of language you use in your website copy.
For example, let’s say you’re a social media manager. If your ideal client has used something like ManyChat for their Instagram account—you probably need to explain what that is vs if you’re ideal client has dabbled with it but wants to refine their strategy.
If you analyze the plots of all the Harry Potter movies—you quickly notice the basic storylines are kind of the same in all of them (new school year = new teacher = save the wizarding world again on repeat for seven years) …
^^^^ Don’t be afraid to repeat your content in your marketing.
As much as we’d all like to think that everyone is reading every.single.word on every blog post, newsletter, Instagram carousel, about page, etc.—most people are probably only reading about 20% of your copy (I bet half of you reading this blog probably didn’t even read this whole paragraph 👀).
I mean, let’s be real—I didn’t even notice Dumbledore changed actors in The Prisoner of Azkaban the first time I watched all the movies lol.
Not to mention that stat about having to hear something seven times before it really sinks in—so if anything you should be repeating your content at least twice if not four or more times.
^^^ Now that’s not to say you post the exact.same.word.for.word Instagram caption 3 times in a row—but you can change up the beginning of the message to make it seem different, but keep the core point of the content.
One way to make this is to start with one main piece of content & segment it Horcrux-style into multiple different posts on other platforms. I prefer starting with a blog post or newsletter (a bigger, probably evergreen-style piece of content) & turn that into smaller posts for social media.
It’s common to hear when a book series gets turned into a movie—for fans of the books to say something like, “The books were BETTER!”. And my theory on why is that some things are better explained with words than through visual aids.
Take the Sorting Hat scene at the beginning of the first movie—there’s not as much dialog about Harry not wanting to be in Slytherin House. And there’s not an explanation of hierarchy & competition between the Houses.
^^^ Which is just like how photos on your website (while important) aren’t enough to explain why someone should choose YOU to hire over someone else.
And to finish off this newsletter…
Here are some notable quotes & plot points from the scripts of Harry Potter that can help you with your website design & marketing.
Quote: Harry Potter: “I’ll be in my bedroom, making no noise & pretending that I don’t exist.”
Business Lesson: While pretending you don’t exist might work with the Dursleys (or when trying to hide from Snape with your invisibility cloak)—you’re probably going to have “make noise” on the internet somewhere to reach your ideal clients, so you stay tops of mind. The details of where & what you’re posting don’t matter—you just need a way to get in front of your ideal clients & remind them that you can help solve their problems. Obviously, my favorite ways to do this are websites & email newsletters—but if Instagram’s your jam go for it.
Quote: Kingsley Shacklebolt: “You may not like him, Minister, but you can’t deny: Dumbledore’s got style.”
Business Lesson: Especially, when someone lands on your website—but in general when someone interacts with your brand, you want to have your own unique style. How you illustrate could be having a brand color palette that’s different from anyone else in your industry. Or it could be how your voice in your copy is more fun & upbeat compared to your clinical competitors. Bottom line: you have to have something that makes you STAND OUT with your specific “style”.
Quote: Remus Lupin: “It is the quality of one’s convictions that determines success, not the number of followers.”
Business Lesson: Can I get an amen? How many followers you have (on Instagram particularly) doesn’t matter. What *does* matter is that you’re helping people solve their problems. <<< And that might mean that you have a “small” tight-knit group that supports your business or it might be 3 trillion people—but the number really doesn’t matter.
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