Marketing Building Blocks #3: Want something? Just ask for it.

Words are very powerful. They can drive people to the brink of death, or float them straight up into the clouds. With a carefully constructed message, you can easily overthrow regimes or incite change. A badly placed word can destroy you and everything you built. That is why I scrapped a lot of the headlines playing off of my cute cover photo of a dog having fun with the series' title. No matter how much my readers love and respect my work, I don't think I can get away with inferring that either they or their audience are of the canine variety.

But the worst thing your copy can do is incite no action.

Even a bad action, to an extent, can put your marketing in front of more eyeballs that might not see eye-to-eye (I dare you to dismiss this amazing pun!) with the angry activist trying to cancel your business.

Indifference will lead your brand to slowly vanish from both the minds of your audience and the market shelves.

In previous entries, we mentioned the 3 simple concepts behind any marketing activity:

1. Message
2. Target audience
3. Response

If you're thinking to yourself that this is the first time I've mentioned these, you should probably hop onto the first and second entries of this series. I heard the guy that wrote them knows a thing or two about marketing.

In this third installment, we will discuss the importance of driving action from every single piece of text (or more properly called "copy") you produce.

Now read the headline below this line...

The Trinity of Persuasion

See? Asking you to read the headline worked... Now read the next paragraph about some old dude from Greece that studied persuasion. I'm sure he's better than me at it, he's wearing wicked sunglasses.

Persuasion is the simple act of changing a person's attitude towards some event, idea, object, or other people by using communication mediums such as written speech. Aristotle identified that the art of persuasion consisted of three parts:

1. LOGOS, appealing to Logic
2. PATHOS, appealing to Emotions
3. ETHOS, appealing to Ethics, Morals, and Character

So which part should you appeal to?

The SEO in me wants to tell you that it depends on your audience, and how important it is to know who your audience is, and link to my previous article (seriously, read it!).

But the truth is, research has shown that in B2B more than in B2C, purchasing decisions are influenced by emotion the most.

But don't go breaking the heart of every customer out there just yet. You still need to understand your audience to better choose which emotion to appeal to.

For that, we are going to summon the help of a nice pyramid that has all your needs. No, not the one on a dollar bill, that one summons other things. I'm talking about Maslow's hierarchy of needs.

In fact, this is not the first time I invoke this pyramid in one of my articles (Check out my other series). It is relevant across a lot of disciplines of business.

Placing your target audience correctly on this pyramid will make the choice of emotion a piece of cake. So take the time to do the exercise with your first couple of copies for a specific audience. With enough practice and feedback, you will be playing on their heartstrings just by looking at your keyboard, the words will write themselves...Trust me.

Emotional manipulation works too well

Unless you are currently wearing a tinfoil hat, your purchasing decisions and consumption patterns are never of your own volition. Every sandwich you eat, every shoe you wear, and every movie you watch are being chosen for you.

Ever since Edward Bernays, in the 1930s, realized that using propaganda techniques to sell consumer goods to the masses, we haven't been the masters of our own consumer choices.

Have you ever considered why your favorite shampoo is indeed your favorite? You might be quick to come up with a list of reasons. That's because you were fed those reasons by multi-billion dollar corporations with access to the best manipulation tools known to man.

Copywriters. These wizards are adept at using your emotions against you:

• Anchoring
• Commitment and Consistency
• Loss aversion
• Need to complete
• Reciprocity
• Scarcity
• Social Proof
• Triggers

Why am I mentioning this? To show you that it works, and it works too well. But just like the illusion might be shattered for some of you right now, it is very easy for one of your readers to exit the matrix and realize that you have been manipulating them all along.

So relying on these manipulation tactics might seem like an amazing shortcut to manipulating the emotions of your potential customers. But unlike giant corporations with millions of customers, us little guys can't afford to lose ours one by one, never to buy from us ever again.

Playing by the copywriting rule

The most prominent rule you will come across in marketing is the AIDA rule. It describes the four stages that a successful copy goes through to generate a specific response.

Attention

This is the first step. Getting the attention of your reader in a sea of media noise is crucial. This is why the practice of clickbait has become prevalent for websites that rely on your clicks. Starting your copy by an attention-grabbing lie is a quick way to losing your credibility, so make sure to avoid lying.

Make sure your first section and headline are:

• Attention-grabbing
• Relevant to your customers
• Leading your reader down to the next section

Interest

After grabbing their attention, it's time to pique their interest. This is the time to bring up your potential customer's pain points. Describe how these obstacles are negatively affecting their personal life or their business. Connect with them, make them feel like you understand their struggles.

Key points to include:

• Highlight pain points/obstacles/struggle
• Connect with them and share their pain
• Offer them hope for a solution

Desire

Their pain points are now in their consciousness, they are longing for a solution. Thankfully, you are here to save the day. You have the solution, and you have proof of its effectiveness. Your previous customers are so happy with your product and/or service that they wanted to share their success stories.

This is where you make them want it:

• Offer your product/service as the solution to their problem
• Share testimonials/social proof
• Make them ready for the next move

Action

This is the moment you've been waiting for. You got their attention, they realize they have a problem and they know you can fix it. All that is left for you to do is tell them what is the next step. If your customers are ready to buy, then this is the time to tell them where and how.

Not all action needs to be a commercial transaction. But it does need to be a measurable action. Social media is full of calls to action that do not lead directly to a sale. Following your marketing channels, engaging with your content, or sharing it with their circle are valid actions that can move your marketing forward.

This brings us to the end of our third marketing lesson. This wraps up the three basic pillars of every marketing activity.

In the next entry, we will start learning about basic marketing strategies. If you are finding yourself learning from these articles, consider sharing them with a friend.

If you feel, however, that getting a lesson once every 3 weeks is too slow for you, I might have something better in store. An in-depth series about organic marketing, only available for subscribers to my email list. Don't worry, it's free.

I'll only use it to slowly get you hooked to my teachings and make you want to hire me as your coach or consultant.

Or you can skip the wait and reach out to me now...

DO IT

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