The psychology of marketing is the part of business that I find most interesting. Great marketing is like a social experiment, if not an art form, to geeks like me. We think we are a hard sell until we are ready to buy and then we have expectations for how our relationship will continue to grow. It’s a unique blend of business and relationship building that buyers and sellers have, though best practices correlate well to any form of communication. As we walk through life, we are pelted with marketing everywhere, much of it annoying until we seek it out or it finds us at just the right moment.
I appreciate a well-executed message or business process because efficiency drives results. As a consumer, efficiency feels smart and empowering. Thank you, thank you for anything that saves me some time, decision-making, and clicks. Marketing and advertising achieve this engages with me, and shares three key elements:
Knows the Audience
Some of the best professional training I ever received was from Darrell Elliott. An expert in competitive proposals and presentations for billion-dollar contracts, Darrell’s work and teachings were full of precious gems of information to deliver very memorable material. One critical guideline he taught is to know the audience and their familiarity with your topic. If you aren’t sure, survey them with a show of hands in response to a key question. It works great on two levels: 1) the audience’s response lets you know its familiarity with your content, allowing you to tailor information real-time to them and, 2) your audience will be more attuned to your presentation because you asked them. We all love being consulted on our opinion. Even a quick question to a room of people of any size gets them thinking about their relationship to your content and how they feel about it. Both benefits are worth grabbing when the stakes are high.
Marketing plans and data analytics are the same way, with more scenarios of hands up across marketing channels. When users can contribute, they enjoy, if not expect, the opportunity to contribute to your brand. The more known data that allows for segmentation of audiences, the more precise the marketing experience can be. It saves the audience time and drives Return on Investment when we are on the nose with our market.
Intersects Existing Preferences
Changing behavior is hard. Most of us are deeply committed to our ideas, and psychological studies have shown that the more you try to convince me that my ideas are wrong, the more committed I become to them. It can be more effective to meet people where they are and complement their existing habits whenever possible. Not only is it best to give your target consumers multiple ways to find and interact with you but also to make conversion to your brand as smooth and as simple as possible. We all like people who are easy to work with and be around and who are available and super accepting of us. This applies to media outlets, email delivery preferences, simple forms, payment options, and feedback opportunities.
Loves Me Back
Nothing makes me more excited than when someone smiles back at me when I have an open, honest grin on my face. From my Instagram feed to my next-door neighbors and all the brand interactions in between, a little friendly validation feels so good. It lets me know you are paying attention and we are in this experience together. A little marketing automation and behavior monitoring is fine when it’s not creepy but brief and helpful. I’m certainly willing to share some information or feedback to get some good content or deals.
Who Does it Well?
These are some of my top marketing preferences from the perspective of my inner marketing geek. A few brands that demonstrate the concepts well include:
· National Geographic uses Instagram stories to get my attention, and engage with and educate me. They also use live stories for real-time Q&A with their experts on location. I’m a big fan on every level of this well-executed engagement.
· Wework, who demonstrates worldwide customer success stories, really emphasizes the connectedness of their remote workforce through user-generated content that drives engagement. The experience demonstrates the ease of access and interfacing anywhere, exactly what you want with professionals on your team.
· ThredUp, perhaps the largest online thrift store, excels at keeping the customer’s attention all the way through the purchasing process. No easy feat. They offer big first-time discounts and a personalized shopping experience to get the right items in your cart and on your person as quickly as possible.
What about you? What marketing approaches tend to get your attention most often? Share your comments below.