The Three Lefthanded Laws of Marketing
1. The likelihood of your prospect taking action is inversely proportional to the number of choices you give that prospect for acting.
Every marketing piece is an opportunity to persuade your prospect to take action. It should attract their attention, engage their interest, evoke a desire and channel that desire into a specific action.
Your entire piece should work to create momentum. But each option you provide creates a pause in which the prospect must evaluate and make a decision. By giving them options, it seems like you are making yourself more accommodating to the reader. But, each decision he or she must make is a large chunk of that momentum wasted. If you are going to do the work to build up that momentum, you ought to channel it all into a single, simple action that will carry them to the next stage of the process. Maybe it’s to buy now. Maybe it’s to visit a website for more info. Maybe it’s to call and speak with a representative. But it should just be one, not all three.
2. You can’t make anyone to do anything they don’t already want to do. Conversely, you can’t stop someone from doing something they really want to do.
This seems like bad news for marketers, but it’s actually very good news. You just have to understand what many marketers fail to realize. I don’t care how good your marketing is, it is impossible to make anyone buy your product. But that’s okay. All you have to do is make them want to.
If you can make someone want your product badly enough, nothing will stand in their way. And making them want to is actually quite simple, if you understand the Third Law.
3. People don’t make rational decisions; they make emotional decisions and rationalize them.
If you don’t believe me, talk to any psychologist or psychiatrist. If you don’t believe them, observe the world around you for a bit. People who complain about a $300 a month car payment will buy a $400 iPod for their pre-teen. People buy SUVs as their family car in spite of research that shows they are actually less safe than the average sedan because it makes them FEEL safer.
Humans are emotional creatures who also possess the power of rational thought (this isn’t a criticism in any way…I’m in this boat, too). If you want to persuade someone to do something, whether it’s getting employees to take better care of customers, or getting customers to buy more product, you first have to engage them emotionally and create the desire to take that action. Then, you simply have to provide the information necessary to help them convince themselves they are making the right decision. Grab the heart, then convince the mind. (This is as true for B2B as it is for B2C. There are just different emotions driving the business customer.)
With an understanding of these three laws, it is possible to create powerfully winning marketing pieces that will help you grow your business not only faster, but in the right directions. I’ve done it for more than 50 clients across a dozen different industries. I’d love to talk to you about your marketing and how I might help you.