(Photo by utpal)

Does your marketing clearly state who your customers are likely to be? If not, be specific in stating who is likely interested in what you’re selling. Once stated, the next step is to build social credibility. Can your prospective customer see themselves in your offering?

Since numerous psychological studies have shown that people have a propensity for preferring to look at people “like me”, make sure you don’t simply say who your target audience is, show them. Where possible, show your (prospective) customer demographics. What is their gender? Their age? Their race? Their weight? Their attire? The more people can imagine themselves with your offering, the easier it’ll be to sway them to buy from you (all other things being equal).

A picture (or two) can be worth a 1000 sales.

(Photo by Sarah Witherby)

If you say “I’m the best Realtor”, why should someone trust you? Maybe you even have a long list of testimonials, where everyone writes, “She’s the best!” – is that enough to convince someone to trust you? In a world where anyone can publish their thoughts and beliefs and get followers, how can you prove what you say is true?

Use the power of three to triangulate your proof.

The power of three means you need three distinct types of information to make your case. Having three testimonials is great, but not enough – since you may be good at influencing people to write you testimonials, but bad at producing results. So, besides testimonials, what other proof can you highlight?

Statistics showing your results is more proof. If you’re a Realtor, you might show how your closings are 25% faster than average or you’ve sold more properties than your competition. But since statistics can be manipulated (remember the quotation “Lies, damned lies, and statistics“?),  statistics alone isn’t enough. But testimonials + statistics paints a stronger case, but still not an airtight one.

What other “angle” of your efforts can showcase that you get the work done, as promised, and with integrity? You might showcase how you help those that have no vested interest in your work, but whose lives you’ve changed. For example, you might showcase charities you actively volunteer for or non-profit organizations that you have leadership responsibility for. Showcasing volunteering alone shows a caring spirit, but not necessarily an effective one. Showcasing volunteering and testimonials shows that you’re a “people person”, but not necessarily a bottom-line producer. But showcasing volunteering + testimonials + statistics proves your point.

The power of three won’t suddenly bring clients to your doorstep. But it will remove all doubt of what you can do for them, and allow you to convert prospective customers into future testimonial-writing clients.

“…You know, if one person, just one person does it they may think he’s really sick and they won’t take him. And if two people, two people do it, in harmony, they may think they’re both faggots and they won’t take either of them. And three people do it, three, can you imagine, three people walking in singin’ a bar of Alice’s Restaurant and walking out. They may think it’s an organization. And can you, can you imagine fifty people a day, I said fifty people a day walking in singin’ a bar of Alice’s Restaurant and walking out. And friends they may thinks it’s a movement….”

– Arlo Guthrie, “Alice’s Restaurant”

(Photo by Martin Thomas)

Everyone is truly in their own world. People are focused on their needs & their problems. Online, this is exacerbated with search engine filter bubbles (search engines that show information that the searcher is likely to be interested in and agrees with their viewpoints). So, how can you burst people’s attention bubbles?

First, you need to appear within their bubbles.

With social media more prevalent, people are self-publishing their thoughts all the time, but not interacting as much. That means that people are literally telling you what you need to know to reach them: start a dialogue about the things that they are interested in.

Next, you need to give them a reason to continue the dialogue.

Start your marketing with their problems and gradually shift to your solutions. While your solution may be obvious to you, it’s clearly not obvious to your target audience (otherwise, they wouldn’t have the problem). Explain that your solution is well-tested, safe, guaranteed, and validated by lots of people like them.

The solution to attracting new clients is at your fingertips.

(Photo by Send me adrift)

With the average consumer facing a daily deluge of marketing and advertising, how can your company hope to ensure that its marketing and advertising is memorable?

Psychologically, after we get used to something, we tend to ignore it – no matter how luxurious it is.  Our brains are wired to notice differences. Once we see a pattern, our brain categorizes it and files it away. But a new pattern causes our brain to spend time to understand it, make connections to other similar patterns, and then categorize it.

Supermarkets know this well – that’s why they’ll regularly rearrange products to capture new attention on existing offerings. So too in marketing – you need to continue to experiment to change imagery, marketing channels, copy, timing.

Changing the appearance of your offering may help your business short-term. But if your offering isn’t keeping pace with the competition, then it’s simply like putting lipstick on a pig. Make sure your offering is divine, not a swine.