Every day I receive marketing reports full of statistics and numbers that seem relevant but in fact simply mask the true meaning of what is important: Human emotions, not rational reasoning, are the subconscious basis of most marketing. decisions.
Reliance on rational quantitative analysis leads people to ask the wrong questions, implement the wrong solutions, and produce disappointing results.
Your website presentation is how you tap into the subconscious desires of your audience. If the feature-benefit approach hasn’t produced the results you want, maybe it’s time to try something different, and that starts with asking the right questions.
Website presentations are evolving
The way in which material is presented on websites is evolving; Delivering your core marketing message effectively requires the use of multiple presentation options, each targeted to a section of audience that prefers that particular information delivery method.
Some people prefer text as a way to get their information, however the vast majority of Internet users find reading on a computer screen tedious, due to the resulting eye strain. Some people prefer audio, which is easier to digest, but in a multitasking environment where attention is asked, engagement can be problematic. Then there’s the video that has the potential to have the biggest impact if done right, but is often implemented in the most monotonous and mind-numbing way.
Getting it right involves understanding more than the technical issues involved in production; doing it well involves understanding how to maximize the psychological impact of content, performance, emotion, and perception.
A tool is only useful if you understand how to use it effectively. In that sense, we have developed a series of questions that help companies form the basis for generating an effective web marketing presentation.
Questions that need answers
Who are you really?
One of the hardest things website companies have to do is earn people’s trust. Unlike face-to-face sales, websites are remote and often lack compelling properties.
Your website should present a personality that your audience can identify with. What we are talking about here is the personality of the business, not yours; it’s your brand image that’s important: Betty Crocker, Geico Cavemen and the most interesting man in the world of beer ‘Dos Equis’ don’t exist, but they represent the brand’s personality. .
1. Describe the identity, character and personality of your company.
2. Is that personality presented in a way that effectively captures the imagination of the Web audience and sticks in their memory?
3. Does your website presentation take a strong position or point of view?
What do you really do?
Telling people what your company does seems like a pretty fundamental question that all business owners and executives should be able to recite without hesitation.
Responses to this question often fall into four categories: the one-word answer from those who think it’s all a trade secret; an incoherent technical explanation of everything that has ever been done or intended; a series of witty-sounding platitudes that sound impressive, mean nothing, and are instantly forgotten; or simply a presentation of products and services without reference to how they serve the interests of the audience.
4. What is your business model?
5. What is your core marketing message?
6. Does your marketing message resolve a conflict, solve a problem, tap into some deep-seated desire or deeply influential experience?
7. Does your marketing pitch feature a surrogate personality that your audience can indirectly relate to?
8. Does your marketing message offer the hope of improving the business or personal lives of your audience?
Why should anyone care?
A cell phone allows you to make phone calls, send text messages, and take pictures; lipstick colors your lips; and the perfume makes you smell good, so what? What is the real reason people buy what you sell? What is the underlying need that your offer satisfies? Cell phones provide a sense of connection and even security; lipstick makes a woman feel confident in her appearance; and the perfume triggers the pheromones that lead to attraction.
9. What is your psychological and emotional attraction?
10. What makes you special, unique, or different from others in your business?
11. What draws your audience in and keeps them on your website long enough to listen to your marketing presentation?
12. Which element prompts viewers to tell colleagues and friends about your website/business?
Why should someone remember you?
Every company wants to make money, that is not an objective, it is an imperative. But making money depends on the decisions you make and your ability to present what you do in the most engaging, compelling, persuasive, and most of all, memorable way. After all, if no one remembers who you are and what you do, your business won’t get very far.
13. Does your website tell a story?
14. Is your website delivery a bold, unexpected, entertaining or emotionally charged experience?
15. Is your website psychologically and emotionally memorable? Does it tap into the hardwired desires and life experiences of the audience that shape attitudes and behaviors?
Deploying your content
The above are just questions; it’s how you implement the answers and how you turn them into an effective presentation that counts. Try to take some risks and think outside of your common frame of reference.
The answer to how to offer persuasive marketing lies in discovering and presenting the emotional and psychological motivation. Success in business is about solving people’s problems; try to use that perspective when answering these questions, keeping in mind that most decisions are made on an emotional level rather than a rational one.