Issue #3: Marketing, Why Nobody Cares
Question of the week: Is your marketing doing its job?
Over and over again, we hear that marketing is a challenge, that it just sucks up money and doesn’t deliver results.
How is yours?
Here is the most important thing you can do today to improve your marketing
Once upon a time, humans lived in caves. Remember that? We all ran around in deer-skin loin clothes armed with hunting clubs? The big challenge of the day was to survive to the next day…
Well, that is how we imagine it anyway, it was before our time too…
But from a geologic history of the world perspective, that cave-dwelling stage was yesterday, more or less.
Now, you care about this because our brains are pretty much the same as those of our club-brandishing ancestors, even though the tools we use and the problems we solve have changed a lot (now we have mortgages and tuition bills)
In fact, the part of the brain responsible for absorbing information is pretty similar to the brain of a reptile.
This means that whatever message you put out there that you want people to relate to must make pique a reptile’s interest. You are appealing to this guy:
3 Reptilian Parts of the Brain
So it is important to know that the reptilian part of the brain processes a ton of information but only decides three things:
- Should I run away
- Should I fight,
- Or, last (and as far as that inner reptile is concerned, definitely least), think about it.
Your first job in sales and marketing is to appeal to the reptilian brain. Only then will your prospect (well, anybody really) listen to you.
The best way to do this is by relating to their problems and talking about their world, not what you do or how you do it.
Also, follow these six steps outlined in this blog post.
(Get the Cliffs Notes one-pager here).
Crafting an Engaging Brand Story
Crafting an engaging brand story is one way to appeal to the reptilian brain.
It turns out that storytelling is something that humans have been doing since we lived in caves and is one of the most powerful tools to engage the reptilian brain.
According to research from Stanford, humans are 22 times more likely to remember something if it is structured as a story. Research from UCLA suggests that humans are programmed in our DNA to relate to and act on information in a story.
The best marketing of all time is structured using story techniques. This doesn’t mean that you are telling a story. Instead, it means that your brand and your marketing are structured as a story.
Want to know more? Sign up for the free preview of our BrandStory Course here.
From Around the Web
🤔 2020 Doesn’t Have to Be an Ugly Sweater
- Ready to throw out every lasting memory of 2020? We’ve certainly been tempted… but Cristina Digiacomo has another take on reflecting on 2020 and the value of reflection for leaders. Read her post here.
🔎 Are you using Google fully?
- Check out this great post on how to use Google for more specific searches. It is a quick and thorough overview of some of the more powerful Google operators and how you can get better search results for prospecting or finding that muffin recipe that you made last year and just can’t find again… Read more here
