Photo by Rosie Hardy

Someone recently asked me if the only way to cause people to react emotionally to your marketing message is by using fear (fear of the unknown, loss, death, family, job, etc.).

As humans, we are wired to respond to fear by producing adrenalin. Fight or flight. Protect yourself at all costs. However, once the adrenalin tank is empty, the reaction is over.

Many television news shows focus on bad news. As people get used to bad news, the “thrill” is gone, and people need stronger stimulation to create a reaction. This is true for scary movies, MTV videos, etc. You need to keep upping the adrenalin trigger. Eventually people get tired of the fear/adrenalin reaction, and start tuning out. You’ve lost them.

Fear is a great short-term motivator. But it’s not a good long-term motivation. Researchers have studied what message would motivate people who had heart attacks to make healthy changes in their lifestyle (to live longer). Fear of another heart attack/death produced short-term behavioral changes, but once people got used to the fear, they reverted to their older (bad) habits. Only by having people focus on keeping/growing the love in their life, they were able to make long-lasting behavioral changes.

Remember that fear is only one of the basic human emotions that you can use in your marketing. The others include: love/sex, anger/hate, wealth, freedom for mind & body, desire for life after death, self-preservation, recognition/self-expression. Make sure you choose your emotional “hooks” well, both for short-term and long-term results.

Photo by Frank Busch

When most people think “elevator pitch”, they think of a paragraph that they can utter in about 15 seconds that tells people what they do. I’ve written previous articles on how to craft a pitch and how to judge your pitch’s effectiveness. But what most people forget is the goal of the elevator pitch – to start a dialogue.

Let’s say I’m at a mixer, and I ask the person standing next to me what they do for a living. They respond with their elevator pitch. And unless it’s a great pitch, it’s likely that I’ve tuned them out. Why? Because they didn’t tailor their pitch to me.

In all your marketing communication, you need to ensure the message matches your target’s needs. If you don’t know their needs, all you can do is talk at them, and hope that the message somehow “sticks”.

How can you create an elevator pitch that’s memorable? Start slowly. Describe who you target clearly and a single benefit you provide. For example, I’d say: “I help small businesses around the world make more money.” In this simple sentence, I’ve identified my target audience (small businesses), where they are located (around the world), and a single benefit (make more money). Notice I also put in clear clues to help the listener to see if their problems fit my business offerings (this helps the listener frame the dialogue better). Instead of adding any more to the pitch, I now wait for the inevitable question, “How do you make more money?” (I could loan money, steal money, print money, or provide services).

My next sentence is a bit more specific: “I plan and implement creative marketing strategies.” Perhaps they’ll hear the word marketing or creative or strategies. It doesn’t matter much, because I immediately follow up my answer with a question, “What’s your #1 business problem?”

I’ve just created a dialogue around a prospect’s business. The more I find out, the better I can now talk about how my offerings can help their business (or not). The result is a memorable message that’s tailored to my prospect’s needs.