Let’s be clear, when John Lewis release their Christmas advertising which gives us a warm and fuzzy feeling inside, and when WestJet Airlines buys all of their passengers a Christmas presents and capture the sheer delight and surprise on their faces, it’s for one reason and one reason only; To make a return on their investment.
Marketing departments are in the business of manipulating human emotion for the benefit of their strategic objectives.
We now produce more content every 48 hours than was ever produced from the dawn of mankind up until 2003. Our marketplace is becoming ever more congested with fresh content competing for the attention of our audience and it’s becoming exponentially harder to break through and communicate effectively.
Creating an emotional connection that really resonates with your audience enough to be acted upon, shared and talked about it is the most powerful ingredient we have in our marketing mix.
'Getting Goose Bumps' will provide you with an insight into what it takes to ensure your content has the greatest chance of being found, appreciated and shared by a relevant audience that matters to you and your business.
This presentation will help you put the emotion and the art of storytelling into your content marketing to create more authentic and engaging connections which have a chance of converting in to sales and lasting business relationships.
By show of hands who’s in the audience. B2B or B2C. agency, brand? SME or Corporate.2 things I’m afraid of.1. Our audience is getting harder to reach. prove it with what’s happened over last 10 years. Email, Groupon, 2. Our competition is going to be horribly harder to beat. me / FACE + 14 year old kids & their ROI (boobs and hearts). I grew up changing the VHS digital clock for my dad, these kids are growing up ready to put us out of business.
Simon Sinek Start with why….
Based on human biology and chemistry
Why – emotion – limbic part of the brain
What – rational – neo cortex
Apple v the Competition, other computer companies
Uncover your why….
Ask you people… why do you work here… simple question
Look out for answers that include ‘feel’ … I feel you help me….
WestJet master stroke
They cared about their audience, they did a lovely thing for some passengers.
They made a promise to do a good deed based on the number of shares.
Who came up with the idea?
The customer service department?
The HR department?
THE MARKETING DEPARTMENT
They made damn sure they caught every second of the experience on camera and even filmed the ‘making of it’ too.
I’m not being cynical, I’m demonstrating the corporate value of understanding how to manipulate human emotion.
I’m highlighting the value of building this into a plan, a process and an outcome that adds value to a business – otherwise what’s the point.
JOHN LEWIS CORE VALUE IS PROFIT.
WestJet master stroke
They cared about their audience, they did a lovely thing for some passengers.
They made a promise to do a good deed based on the number of shares.
Who came up with the idea?
The customer service department?
The HR department?
THE MARKETING DEPARTMENT
We need to focus on the emotional drivers that create ‘emotionally charged events’ in our brains
MRI scans show that with emotion we literally lighting up our brains
Think about it – when we share funny images, videos – it not the image we are sharing – its how it makes us feel (refer to shipped pants)
Build these emotions into your marketing and communications to candidates, you content, videos,
Sharing is how we pass on our ‘personality’
Create emotionally charge connections
People will care and share you content, amplify your brand and turn candidates into fans
Lets be clear, our job as marketers is to manipulate your audiences emotions in order for them to take an action which benefits you financially.
From Good convincing copy writing to an elaborate video campaign to capture audience reaction.
Its all the same.
SEO and being found is great… but then what?
Whats the messge?
So what do we have to do…
We have to get to know those that we want to connect with…
Its not B2B or B2C its about People to people…
By getting to know the we can then create world class digital experiences
To help us to become digitally famous… and connect with people
But its not about identifying the masses
Behind every digital experience is a human being…. The keyboard is the biggest conversation killer….
Its about focusing and understanding the individuals…
This is about connecting with people
So; Who are they?
Ask ourselves … What makes people tick…?
I’ve spent the last few years, research and understanding all the factors and the key ingredients
Looking at the Art and Science
Understanding the best bits, the ingredients that make us tick…
If we can understand Humans…. We can fine tune our marketing into the minds of people
Go back in time
My research started in 384BC
Aristotle the scientist, a famous Greek Philosopher
Founding father of communication
Aristotle stated…
That human persuasion occurs with 3 ingredients
Ethos – persuasion through credibility and trust
Logos – persuasion through logic, facts and figures
Pathos – Art of appealing to emotions
Studies and research have shown most powerful ingredient….
Is the Power of Pathos – the power of persuasion through emotion
If we look at the high engaging stories, Hollywood films, presentations
The most successful are 65% Pathos…. They lead with emotion
Engage people through emotion and you will be more likely to engage and persuade them to listen and act how you want
Fast forward to now…. We have learnt more about the human brain in last 10 years….entire existence
As marketers – take what biology and neuroscience tells us – understand the human brain
Understand peoples behaviour, how to influence and persuade them
And what makes people tick we can aim to make emotional connections that resonate and
Connect through the power of personality....
Unlock the human algorithm
Dr Steven Peters - sports Psychiatrist –working with elite athletes (Luiz Suarez story)
Chimp Paradox – talks about 2 key areas of brain:
Click
Limbick – The Chimp
Emotions, feelings and impressions, gut instinct, that love at first site
Click
NeoCortex – The Human (past the emotional reaction)
Rational, plan and consider, facts and figures, seek the truth
In a talk at Inbound Uk – I laid out 9 digital ingredients to create world class digital experiences
Helping us to connect with both the human and the chimp to help us connect with people
The human part of our brains – the thought leader
When the human mind makes decisions –we seek out expert opinion
In our efforts to confirm to ourselves we are making the right choice
This is where your candidates are carrying out research to their problems
Top of funnel content
Become the expert in you space
Martin Lewis started 2003 as a forum to help people save money
He wanted to become the go to, expert in ‘helping’ people save money
Also, one clever thing – he provided content ready made for Journalists…. His target influencers
Influencing the influencers to accelerate and amplify his content along with his brand
He built content, added value, forums, make content valuable to the community and the influencers of the community
Sold for 2012 £87m – he doesn’t give a shit about saving money now!!
But here’s the thing – if we want our audience to connect with the human parts of our brains
We have to get past the chimp first! – the emotional part of our brains, the neocortex acts 5xs faster than our human brains
Its that gut feeling, emotions and impressions – and we cant stop it from happening
We have to connect with our chimps to reach the human parts of our brains
Emotional Drivers – People feel first, think second
Think of it as ‘Digital love at first site’
Influence the influencer / Influencer marketing
A marriage, not a one night stand… don’t go for the quickie
Humans are at the other end… be nice, interested in them,
Make friends before you need them
When we are married to someone – we demonstrate loyalty (its hard to break)
But like all marriages you have to work at it –it take time and we have to put effort into it
Influence the influencer / Influencer marketing
A marriage, not a one night stand… don’t go for the quickie
Humans are at the other end… be nice, interested in them,
Make friends before you need them
When we are married to someone – we demonstrate loyalty (its hard to break)
But like all marriages you have to work at it –it take time and we have to put effort into it
HOLLYWOOD MANIPULATE OUR FEELINGS FOR MONEY.
We need to focus on the emotional drivers that create ‘emotionally charged events’ in our brains
MRI scans show that with emotion we literally lighting up our brains
Think about it – when we share funny images, videos – it not the image we are sharing – its how it makes us feel (refer to shipped pants)
Build these emotions into your marketing and communications to candidates, you content, videos,
Sharing is how we pass on our ‘personality’
Create emotionally charge connections
People will care and share you content, amplify your brand and turn candidates into fans
And in a digital world – you can never underestimate the power of the sticky note!
In the world of increasing technology, our ability to empathise is becoming more important
You do that… by become the candidate you want to be – stand in their shoes
And be the difference between a one night stand, or relationship that matter and make a difference to you
Empathy mapping, as humans we are hard wired to avoid Pain and seek Pleasure
We want to avoid pain more than seek pleasure
Bride story… feel good…click into…
By show of hands who’s in the audience. B2B or B2C. agency, brand? SME or Corporate.2 things I’m afraid of.1. Our audience is getting harder to reach. prove it with what’s happened over last 10 years. Email, Groupon, 2. Our competition is going to be horribly harder to beat. me / FACE + 14 year old kids & their ROI (boobs and hearts). I grew up changing the VHS digital clock for my dad, these kids are growing up ready to put us out of business.
By understanding the personas and people we want to connect
join and influence the conversation going on in your audiences hearts and minds
Identify the emotional drivers you candidates feel and experience; and put them into your stories,
helping you connect through the power of personality
humanise and bring emotion into you marketing and your people propositions....
Share genuine, real stories - bring authenticity into your brand be genuine, be sincere, be authentic….
People love what you do and how you make them feel; you benefit from the greatest marketing channel of them all ...
Word of mouth…
People may forget what you said or did… But the won’t forget how you made them feel….
She wants a lovely day – she wants it to be just like she imagined. SHE WANTS TO FEEL AMAZING
BUT MORE THAN ANYTHING, SHE JUST DOESN’T WANT TO FEEL SHIT.
WHAT MUST YOU AVOID… OR DEMONSTRATE IS NOT A RISK?
WHAT CAN YOU USE AS SOMETHING TO BRING YOUR AUDIENCE PERSONAS CLOSER TO YOU?
We can also consider the different buying modes and motivators behind the persona’s
Are they thinking fast - competitive, spontaneous
Are they thinking slow – Methodical, humanistic
Are they driven by emotion – Spontaneous, humanistic
Are the driven by rational thinking – competitive, methodical
In marketing with have buying funnels or
This a funnel shows the ‘considerations stages’ people go through
Passive candidates are at the see stage and the delight stage – delight is your twilight zone
A shelf full of ken and barbies just dying to be taken of the shelf!
Big content and visual or interactive assets can speak a 1000 words and
Entertain, inspire; educate and convince your candidates ….
Edutainment – those ‘types that get shared the most.
Convince people to ‘do’ what we want – case studies
Power of social proof – get customers / candidates to tell the story
Selling – social proof
But here is the thing…
Everyone is talking about content marketing… and what do they need to do to engage their audience…
When we talk about producing content… what are thinking?
What do we see when we talk about content marketing
Are we creating great content
Are we really thinking about what we are producing….
or
Or are we just satisfied with what we are producing?
Being satisfied just isn’t anywhere near good enough. You need to think differently.
Content goes much, much deeper than that… it’s a commitment, not a campaign
It doesn't mean everyone has to write but it requires an interest and collaboration.
This is because content isn't just marketing it also culture.
Create a content culture in your teams.
Great content can attract great people and help you become digitally famous
We don't need more content. We need content that does more.
A brilliant way of engaging you audience with content is thought the power of
Telling a good (authentic) Story
Tell stories to engage your audience that resonate with them
Who have been some of the greatest story tellers over the years….
Identify influencers – think about those that influencer your target persona’s
Charlotte Caldwell Story
Recruitment, In-house – we decided to target Employment law partners…
Explain why…
Tell story of how how…
By show of hands who’s in the audience. B2B or B2C. agency, brand? SME or Corporate.2 things I’m afraid of.1. Our audience is getting harder to reach. prove it with what’s happened over last 10 years. Email, Groupon, 2. Our competition is going to be horribly harder to beat. me / FACE + 14 year old kids & their ROI (boobs and hearts). I grew up changing the VHS digital clock for my dad, these kids are growing up ready to put us out of business.
Hollywood….
If we learn from those that have been telling stories for decades…
Hollywood film has 6, themes, formula's they follow to build emotional drivers in their audience
And they do it very well
The make the hero’s and the characters reflect those they want to connect with… click
Their customers….
In the films, they have characters that will mirror or resonate with the customer of the films they want to attract
Its why avengers had the female character
Aliens – sci-fi (typically a male dominant genre) – female lead – my wife loves Aliens (especially for hangover) days!
So, put the spotlight on your customers and you benefit by attracting those you want to engage with
This is backed up in science and neurology …we can get people on our same same wavelength
MRI scan from research by D Hassan – midn sync
When we tell stories both the storyteller and the listeners brains respond.
Our minds actually ‘synch together’… its know as neurocoupling We are hard wired to try and understand each other (scouser)
Stories activate parts of our brains that allows the listeners to connect and form their own ideas and experiences around the story being told
This is marketing’s very own ‘vulcan mind meld’
But we have to be very careful not to hit…..
In the NLP we have something called the critical faculty – it’s the human bullshit monitor
As marketers, we are the greatest bullshit trainers in the world
People see on average 10000 links a day... The average human attention span is 7 seconds – a gold fish has 8!!
Who remembers the billboard / xfactors / sky +
How many of you have the ‘good old staged corporate videos’ how often do you see videos about companies – who really watches !
Do you ever see a bad job advert – someone should write a crap advert and I reckon it would go viral!
Tell the truth… part of the human brain seeks the truth – this is how we are hard wired
Include the audience when crafting a story. Allow them to fill in the gaps.
Use nostalgia to attach a powerful emotion to your marketing based on what your aduience remembers about their childhood or past experience.
HOLLYWOOD MANIPULATE OUR FEELINGS FOR MONEY.
We need to focus on the emotional drivers that create ‘emotionally charged events’ in our brains
MRI scans show that with emotion we literally lighting up our brains
Think about it – when we share funny images, videos – it not the image we are sharing – its how it makes us feel (refer to shipped pants)
Build these emotions into your marketing and communications to candidates, you content, videos,
Sharing is how we pass on our ‘personality’
Create emotionally charge connections
People will care and share you content, amplify your brand and turn candidates into fans
Rule of three etc
People want a tailored,
Personalised experience.
Give your best stuff away for free.
Stories can help you build you brand proposition
MRI scans show that when we evaluate brands, we primary use emotions and how we ‘feel’ rather than logic and facts and figures
It not what you think or say it is… it is what they say it is…
You can’t control your brand, you can only influence it…Its what people say about you, when you have left the room…
Your employer brand doesn’t stop with pass or fail. It isn’t just about recruitment.
Its retention, experience and communication from them moment they touch your brand – for their life time.
Makes sure that your telling the stories that resonate to what matters to you audience
Helping you to get on their wave length and becoming a contagious and magnetic brand
By show of hands who’s in the audience. B2B or B2C. agency, brand? SME or Corporate.2 things I’m afraid of.1. Our audience is getting harder to reach. prove it with what’s happened over last 10 years. Email, Groupon, 2. Our competition is going to be horribly harder to beat. me / FACE + 14 year old kids & their ROI (boobs and hearts). I grew up changing the VHS digital clock for my dad, these kids are growing up ready to put us out of business.
By show of hands who’s in the audience. B2B or B2C. agency, brand? SME or Corporate.2 things I’m afraid of.1. Our audience is getting harder to reach. prove it with what’s happened over last 10 years. Email, Groupon, 2. Our competition is going to be horribly harder to beat. me / FACE + 14 year old kids & their ROI (boobs and hearts). I grew up changing the VHS digital clock for my dad, these kids are growing up ready to put us out of business.