The Marketing and Communication Mirror. Learning to Reflect.

There are lots of courses, advice, and 'tips' on how to communicate and market effectively. Long-form copy, short-form copy, video ads, multiple impressions, 'copywriting secrets', etc. There is no shortage of information about how to connect with people and get them to engage with what you're selling or communicating. I have seen almost all of it. And do you know what the common denominator is in all of the most effective communication and marketing? It allows the listener to see a clear reflection of themselves.

If you can create a clean mirror that accurately reflects back the image of the one looking at it, then you have done your job well. Marketing and communication are about understanding people. As I say repeatedly, great marketing is psychology+math. Simple. Understand your audience, know what moves them, and then measure it, report on it, study it, and then scale it as desired.

The psychology piece is about communicating so clearly and effectively to the specific person that they can actually relate to exactly what you are saying, or see themselves using your product or service. In other words, you have given them a mirror to see themselves.

So what are the elements of the human mirror of effective communication and marketing?

I believe there are 4 things that are required in order to build a clean mirror for the desired audience you are communicating to.

1. Human Connection
2. Relevancy
3. Reflection of myself
4. Reflection of other people

Let's briefly go over each of these.

Human Connection: Everyone who sees or reads your communication or ad will be a human being. So they first and foremost are connecting on a real human level and filter. If they can't feel that reflecting back to them in your presentation whatever it may be, then you have little hope of engaging at all.

So how do you do that effectively? Simple. Act like a good human. Be empathetic, be kind, be authentic, and be vulnerable. Show weakness, not just strengths. Connect emotionally. One tip is to show human faces as much as possible. It's proven in study after study that people connect almost immediately to another human face, whatever it may be.

Relevancy: The question that you are always answering in your communication or advertising is, Is this relevant to my life? Or, does this pertain to me? So practically, when a school teacher is seeing an ad for the latest skateboard, that probably won't be relevant to them. ( Not that school teachers can't also love skateboarding, but in general that is not the perfect target). This is where data (the math piece of the marketing formula) comes in. Speak to the audience in front of you or who you are trying to reach. Know their likes and dislikes. Know when they are online. Learn how they think.

Reflection of myself: Once you have covered being human and relevancy, the next important piece of the mirror is to make sure your listener or reader can actually see themselves with your product or service. It's not enough to just be human or even relevant. Even if it is the right audience, if they can't see themselves using or purchasing your product then you have not accurately given them a mirror to reflect. Just because someone is an interior decorator doesn't mean they are going to want your toilet seat covers. And this is not just products, but it also pertains to communication. If you are trying to connect with an audience through a speech you are giving, in order to truly connect on a deep level, your audience must be able to relate by seeing themselves feeling or doing what you are describing. Again, this is getting deeper into knowing the data and Psychographics of your audience.

Reflection of other people: We are living in what I refer to in my book, Finally Human, as the Recommendation Age. We all want social proof. It is more important what other people say about your product or service than what you actually say about it. This is why reviews are so important now. It's why we care more about the ratings and reviews on Amazon than the actual product description. It's also why user groups and communities are being created around companies and products that people identify with. If you can create a community of like-minded individuals using your product then you have covered all the bases of giving an audience a mirror to reflect back on themselves.

If you can keep these 4 things in mind while creating your marketing or communication plan, you will be well on your way to giving people a mirror that they can reflect back on themselves. And when done correctly, that reflection will be positive and engaging.

Thanks for reading. Feel free to reach out to me in the comments below or at [email protected]