Marketing Magic: Hit ’Em Where They Need It

(Image courtesy of  Anastase Maragos on Unsplash) You are a content creator or marketing expert. Perhaps you’re an entrepreneur. And high-ticket marketing efforts carve out a pound of flesh from your budget. Often, your ads and posts, commercials and pitches, miss the mark. You post, you pay for ad space, you cut checks for your 1099 marketing consultant…and the phone doesn’t ring. We’ve all been there. If you want to maximize your marketing impact, spend some time understanding your target customer or client. Marketing experts chat about identifying your customer or client persona. This basic concept — proven over and over — is that once you know to whom you are selling, you can craft your message to attract that person. Those same experts advise you gather demographic information (age, gender, income), career or education data, hobby data. And that’s all good. Yes, if you are selling hot dogs, you might want to place your ad at the next ballgame — so you want to find the baseball fans. Yes, that’s great. If you are selling luxury cars, you want to find your high-income customers. Economic data is important. Each of these aspects of that customer/client persona allow you to market right place, right time, to those who want and can afford your product or service. Yes. But that demographic data will only take you so far. It tells you where the person is. It informs as to other behaviors he or she may exhibit. Demographics tell you some likely problems seeking your solution. Yes. You want to stand out? Close every sale? Then take the next step. I advise my clients to add personality characteristics to their persona description. Personality characteristics include risk tolerance, cognitive complexity, and temperament. And personality characteristics let you get inside your customer’s head. Respect Human Needs Preferences I’ve written many articles about universal human needs (Your Personal, Powerful Needs Formula, Seven Keys to Happiness & Balancing Your Needs) and a system I call NAM — the Needs Alignment Model. I wrote these as an invitation to coaching, yes, but also as a cornerstone for my content clients. You can get detailed information from those other articles. For our purposes, understand that every human — no matter demographics — has seven universal needs: Marketing experts know this information — and use it to help you craft your problem / solution approach. The consumer is concerned about personal safety, so you sell them an alarm system. The consumer is concerned about personal appearance, so you sell them makeup or a cool watch. But that’s just the surface approach. Try these ideas: Respect Cognitive Complexity Over the years, as a business consultant, professor, and attorney, I’ve also written extensively about how to persuade others. (See recently: Touch Them!and Persuade Them Powerfully) I’m pretty damn good at it and have sworn to use my powers for good. But here’s something I don’t always share: Most people think simply and are swayed emotionally. So drop the facts and logic. Sometimes. Cognitive complexity is the psychological characteristic that measures the simplicity or complexity an individual’s perception and processing. Cognitively complex people perceive nuance and interpret the world along continuums. They process information across intricate mental webs. Cognitively simple people do not. As an example: Your team must vote on a new logo and they are presented with two options. The cognitively complex person will consider an unfathomable amount of data. She considers history, other companies, color, shape, music she likes, other ideas that failed or succeeded, how the logo will make others feel, how the logo performed in focus groups, and how the logo will be interpreted in a dystopian future. The cognitively simple person will react emotionally: I don’t like the green tone. Or, Wow, that’s pretty! Why should you care about cognitive complexity aside from dating a person who is cognitively similar? Because when you are romancing your client or customer, you are not selling to a cognitively complex person with an emotional appeal. You need more. You need logic and facts and data and… sound reasoning. You want that person using the web inside his mind. And you want to satisfy all his questions. As a cognitively complex person, you can get me to testdrive the sexy red car because I am a human and have emotions (somewhere in here…). But I’m not parting with my dollars until you show me the data. Because when I’m driving that car, the web of information in my head is exploding with questions that need answers. Respect Consistency Humans universally yearn for behavioral consistency. If Sally is a vegetarian, you are not selling her a steak anytime soon! She can’t eat meat and maintain her self-image. She must maintain consistent attitudes, values, and opinions. We call this attitude consistency. And you have to shift an attitude to shift a behavior. You’re selling organic toothpaste? You have to sell the value of organic first. You have to change that attitude. And that’s where you must respect the human proclivity for consistency. Let’s take an example: Fred always goes to the local-smocal tax prep guy who has one of those cubicles at the food market. You’ll discover Fred chooses this because it’s cheap, convenient, has had good results in the past (the IRS is not hunting him). So, you are not selling Fred a $500 tax advising service. No matter Fred’s demographic profile. Even if he’s a millionaire. What you do is sell Fred on cost, convenience — and trigger his security need. What are the percentage of audits for those grocery tax prep places? Oh, Fred… you are in danger! Then, you sell him a small step he can tolerate. Don’t expect him to flip and hire an accounting firm. Sell him a tax review package for $80. He’s likely to change that little step. Ultimately, if I were advising that client, I’d ignore Fred. It’s too much work. Focus on the customer that is already behaving close to what you offer. Focus on the client who is unhappy with his accountant. Who got audited after going to the market… Who’s almost sold.

Persuade Them Powerfully

A recent study from the Journal of Marketing makes it clear: Feelings over Facts when persuading last-minute donors. The researchers found at the start of a campaign, logic motivates donors: I’ll donate if the organization proves its initiative is likely to succeed. But at the end of a campaign, to reach that big goal, emotion motivates donors. If I donate, am I part of something I value? What does this tell us? If you have a short-term campaign – days – use emotional appeals. If you have a long-term campaign – months, years – reason and logic win the day. Why did I already know this without spending years on some research project? Because the nature of persuasion is bifurcated. People are persuaded along two routes: a logical one and an emotional one. This Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) is long-appreciated by those of us who rely on persuasion. What the hell is that? you ask. Bear with me. This is vital information for all entrepreneurs. ELM states that in some cases, logic is persuasive. A logical – or cognitive – appeal triggers central processing. The listener evaluates or elaborates on the information. Elaboration takes time and effort. It takes context and, often, basic knowledge. And for a person to think about anything, he or she has to be invested – he or she has to care enough to take the time and energy to think. Elaboration also takes some cognitive ability. (Smart people choose central processing over emotional processing.) ELM also states in other cases, emotion is persuasive. An emotional – or affect – appeal triggers feelings. The listener does not consciously evaluate a thing. He or she reacts. Scientists call this peripheral processing. Aspects like attractiveness or likability are emotional appeals and have nothing to do with logic. They do not ask the listener to elaborate or logically evaluate the proposal. In my textbook, I have multiple chapters on this stuff! And, in my workshops, I share a personal story to illustrate: When my teen sons were buying a game console, I couldn’t care less which one we purchased because I rarely play video games on the console. I relied on the peripheral route: That one looks cool. I like the pretty lights. My sons, however, urged us to choose the system with the best ratings, most game choices, and most options. They used central processing, cognitively weighing the information because the decision was very important to them. Most persuasive marketing depends on affect appeals. Quick! Now or never! Isn’t this sexy? Isn’t this fun? Do it for the children! I’m handsome, trust me! Emotional appeals work when the person has low or passing interest, lack of knowledge, or lack of time. So, in those last-minute moments of any campaign, the listener does not have the time to use central processing. Lack of time equals defaulting to peripheral processing. Period. How can you take advantage of this human foible? Contact me to be your personal content consultant. I’m a professional persuader and will use my skill for your benefit!