Show me where it hurts... Pain and Pride in marketing.
Hi, my name is Janet and I'm addicted to marketing. Hi Janet!
And shoes... But that's a story for another day.
I love marketing in all its messy, confusing, wonderfulness. The problem for many is they get caught up in the messy and confusing but fail to get to wonderful. It's so easy to do and happens to the best of us! We, as marketers, have a lot of information to convey, options to sell, and demographics to target. But, if we aren't careful, it can quickly become all about minutia with the core strategy lost.
Say you are a flower shop and you want to make a brochure to sell floral arrangement services for corporate clients. You can include pictures of every arrangement, you can espouse on how your flowers are the prettiest, the freshest and how many delivery trucks you have but in truth no one cares about that stuff until they have already made a buying decision and probably not even then. Once you strip away the extraneous information, what's the strategic marketing goal? Simply, what do you want the person to do next? More importantly, what is going to motivate the person reading your marketing materials to take the next step today?
Here are two top motivational triggers that will give your campaign immediate results.
- Pain
- Pride
Pain motivates when and why people consume and is a perfect trigger for creating urgency. Are they worried something bad will happen if they don't? (i.e. insurance) Are they spending too much time working on tasks they hate? (i.e. cleaning services) Are they spending too much money and need a lower cost alternative? If you can make it stop hurting you've got 'em today but if you continue relieving their pain, you keep 'em forever.
Secondly, keeping up with the Jones' is a thing. A very real thing. Pride, ego and vanity are superb motivators for those wanting recognition for success or those seeking to be built up. Are they going to miss out if they don't buy? (i.e. limited edition) Will it give them prestige within their peer group? (i.e. luxury ) Will this purchase give them self satisfaction? Do they deserve this? When used strategically and tastefully, pride triggers can be extremely effective for business continuity and for building long term brand loyalty.
Now, back to the flower shop. By committing to her corporate flower service her customers will have more time (pain), spend less money (pain), will build greater credibility with current clients increasing retention (pride) and will impress prospective clients resulting in increased revenue (pride). Oh and that daughter of yours? This flower shop does weddings too.
Avoid the mess and confusion and get to the wonderfulness! Focus your marketing strategy on these two primary motivational triggers for fast and effective results.
If you'd like more information on this or any marketing strategies get in touch! hello@janetjorgensen.com