Marketing Success, Part 1

Marketing

Marketing is anything you do designed to let people know what products, services and/or events your business has to offer, in an attempt to convince (not just encourage) them to buy from you.

I love pithy quotes. One of my favorites from another Jay – Jay Abraham, the highest-paid marketing consultant in the world – is:

“Marketing is the opportunity you give someone to discriminate in your favor”

Marketing Effectively: Put Your Marketing In Front of People Who Want What You Offer and Are Qualified to Buy

In order for your marketing to make a difference in your business, you’ve got to market in ways that actually reach your prospects and your customers. Any act of marketing that doesn’t get into the eyes, ears, minds and hearts of potential buyers is highly ineffective, and a waste of resources.

And any marketing that attempts to convince people to buy something that YOU believe that they need (and they might) but THEY don’t yet want, will be far less effective than marketing that speaks to what people have already said that they desire and are ready and willing to pay for.

When you market, make sure to do so in a way that gets your marketing message directly into the path of people who have already demonstrated interest in what you have to offer and are qualified to buy from you.

Marketing Changes Perceptions

Another of my favorite quotes about marketing is from my mentor Alex Mandossian:

“Marketing changes minds. ___________ changes behavior” (I’ll fill in the blank in a future article / post.)

I agree with Alex. And to expand on this, I believe that marketing is meant to change minds AND hearts. It must speak to the intellect as well as to emotions. In short:

Marketing changes PERCEPTIONS. (Yes, you can attribute that to me…)

The Three Keys for How to Change Perceptions

There are three means that you can employ to influence others to change their perceptions (which includes creating perceptions from scratch):

1. INFORM

Information about your products and services falls into two categories: Features (which speak to people’s intellect) and Benefits (which speak to people’s emotions).

Effective marketing must include both.

But it’s important to know that the vast majority of buying decisions are made based on a feeling – not on facts alone. Even if that feeling is simply one of confidence that the features are exactly as you say they are, and that they’ll do exactly what you say they’ll do.

Marketing that focuses only on features will seldom be anywhere near as effective as marketing that includes or focuses fully on the benefits someone will receive when they have your product, use your service, or attend your event.

2. INSPIRE

Inspiration touches people’s hearts.

People like to feel good.

Use your marketing to uplift people’s spirits. Let them know how good they’ll feel and how much better their life will be when they have your product, use your service, or attend your event.

3. MOTIVATE

Motivation touches people’s minds and hearts.

People like to feel desire.

Use your marketing to create a sense of desire within people.

There are two types of motivation:

A. “Moving TOWARD” (increasing pleasure)

B. “Moving AWAY FROM” (avoiding pain)

Be aware that unfortunate as it may seem, most buying decisions – indeed, most decisions in general – are made out of fear, and a desire to avoid something. some pain. Some decisions are made simply to increase pleasure, of course. But if you focus your marketing ONLY on people’s desire to “move toward” something, you’ll be missing a significant portion of your buying prospects, and a significant set of reasons that they have for wanting to make a purchase.

So use BOTH types of motivators in your marketing.

Provide people with reasons (which touch people’s intellect) why not having your product, using your service, or attending your event will have one or more high costs to them – personally, psychologically, emotionally, physically, financially, in business, etc. The high costs you describe will cause them to feel a burning desire within themselves to avoid the pain that would come from those things coming true, or already being true.

Provide people with reasons why having your product, using your service, or attending your event will make a positive difference in their lives. The positive differences you describe will cause them to feel a burning desire within themselves to have and experience those things.

Marketing Only Changes Perceptions

Someone can sit in front of the television and watch a program that causes them to be fully informed, feel totally inspired, and be truly motivated to do something. Then the phone rings, or someone calls them from another part of the house. And just a few minutes later, after the interruption, they’re getting the pretzels out of the cupboard and the soda out of the fridge and sitting back down in front of the TV, like nothing happened earlier.

It’s true that hey WERE informed, inspired and motivated. All good things. All valuable. All necessary. But not enough. Because they didn’t ACT in harmony with their perceptions. They didn’t take even the first step to move away from the perceived pain or toward the desirable pleasurable outcome.

Remember, even the most effective marketing will only serve to change people’s minds and hearts – their perceptions.

You want people to TAKE ACTION. To be successful in business, you NEED them to take action. You want and need them to at least initiate a contact that will lead to a future sale, if not actually make a purchase right then and there.

So Marketing is essential, because through information, inspiration and motivation it lays the foundation and prepares people to take action.

But marketing alone is not sufficient. You need another element – a specific reagent that will catalyze people’s behavior.

What is it? If you’ve heard Alex Mandossian, you already know how to fill in the blank. If not, I’ll reveal it in another article.

What Do You Think About Marketing?

Do you agree with Alex and me that marketing is necessary, but insufficient; that marketing only changes perceptions, but doesn’t change people’s behaviors?

Do you have examples – your own, or about others – of ineffective marketing attempts? Of highly effective marketing?

Do you know what changes behaviors? What’s your guess?

Please leave your questions and comments on this Web site in association with this post. I look forward to reading and commenting on them.

Jay Aaron
Strategic Visionary / Visionary Strategist
Follow me on Twitter:  http://Twitter.com/newthoughts

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