One thing every online marketing specialist has to understand is that no matter what he does he is always dealing with individuals. Once you get involved with analytics, one of the first mistakes some marketers make is to start thinking that since you can track behavior as a group of users, all users are the same. It is very critical to understand that in the marketing business you assume that a market has similar needs and desires, and that they want to fill them with a great sense of urgency. The more they wait to fill their desires the more stress they receive, until they release the tension by fulfilling them.
We all have real needs such as: a car, a house, a cell phone, a lottery ticket, friends, love, hosting, bananas and others. It can be an abstract desire as well: “I want to know a secret just because it is a secret.” For example: a TV show host says: “In a few seconds we are going to show you the biggest secret of all times!” and instantly they create in the viewers the abstract desire of completion. You want to know what it is. What for? It doesn’t matter. In fact before you started watching the show, you probably didn’t even have an interest. The same is applicable with sports. You may not be interested in a particular sport, however if you start to watch it, soon you’ll side with one of the teams.
The abstract desires can be created at any given moment by your website as well in many different ways. You can create these desires by creating inconclusive statements to marketing phrases, for example: “This product comes loaded with all your favorite features! What features are they talking about? Your favorite! How do they know my favorite features? By inconclusive statements you transform the perception of the customer, because no matter what your copy says the brain has to process it and agree or disagree.
For example, right now you can agree or disagree with this article, but by reading it you are changing your perspective because you ask yourself if you agree or not. The moment you say: I don’t really care, that would mean that you are responding to the article.
You can direct the attention of your online users by the way you transform their emotions. For example if I say:
“Think for a second about the smell of the ocean, the warm sand and the breeze; feel the sun burning your skin little by little, think about the feeling you’ll have later when your skin is all red and it hurts to touch anything.“
If you read the last paragraph, you don’t only read it but you actually set yourself in the picture because most of us has experienced that and it is painful. That pain has created a powerful memory marker in your brain and so it is easy to recall.
You can use online copy to create sensations that will move the understanding of your audience in many ways. Some will make them buy, some can prevent them from doing so.
If you go into a sweater store in the middle of the summer and it is 115 F outsite and the store has this huge carpet with long hair and you happen to realize that the A/C is broken inside you probably won’t buy. That is why retailers make sure to set their A/C to 72 degrees or cooler.
Same situation, the hottest day ever, you look up an you see a beach bar selling bear for half price, the bear is 33F. just when it is starting to ice, you can feel the little pieces of ice – yes, it is very probable that you’ll buy.
Statement number one in Marketing: Life is about value. You, as everyone else, is fighting to be: to become. Things give us pleasure because they allow us to get closer to becoming or being. We buy food, cars, houses, pens, cds, magic cards, plastic bags, ice, cheese, stationary bikes. Just to become. The value of everything is determined by the ability to give that power. A bottle of water from a friend won’t be of value most of the time, however think of the value that it creates if you haven’t had any for a week in a remote desert…
The same bottle of water, but the value is very different when you really need it. The perceived value is based on a few things including: 1. The location, 2. The especial conditions or circumstances 3. The belief system and others.
Imagine what happens when somebody writes an ebook. The ebook itself is written once. In other words the main effort is done once. There are no printing costs and very slight distribution costs. But why is it that many people can buy this book over and over, year after year? Where is the value? What you effectively have done is create perceived value. A new reader can use your information to his benefit and therefore in that moment, value is created. Most importantly value is rewarded.
Create perceived value for your products or services today. Let me leave you with a few last thoughts: If I want a nice lawn, I can hire a company to come and take care of it for me. Also, I could instead buy a book or a course that teaches me how to make my lawn be all I want. Finally, I could hire a professional lawn care guy to help me with my lawn.
There are different levels of perceived value in those examples. So try to differentiate between creating value for people by doing their things for them. Creating value for people by helping them specifically do their things. Or creating value for a group of people that happen to have the same problem.
If you want to learn more about how to execute a professional digital marketing strategy in your business contact Merkados today.
