I know you don’t want to hear this but I’m going to say it anyway…
You are SO predictable.
And you know what? So am I, and so is everyone else…
Ask a bunch of people to think of a handyman tool and over 90% will say ‘hammer’. Now think of a vegetable – most will answer ‘carrot’.
It’s even got a special name. This ‘predictability’ stuff, magicians and ‘mind readers’ make the most of this phenomenon… it’s called The Prototype Theory.
I’m not going to explain it – just trust me or Google it if you want to know more but it’s pretty nerdy.
More to the point though…
As a business owner, can you use this plain old human behaviour to your advantage – of course you can!
Well, easy-peasy, when it comes to your marketing, start thinking like a customer and not as a ‘seller’ and offer your customers what they are looking for.
Forget telling your market all about you, or your company, or your wonderful service, or bragging about your latest achievements ..boring blah blah blah…..
Who cares?
Your potential customers don’t!
Your customers have got problems and they need solutions – they need someone to ease the burden of their problem.
Someone to take away their pain.
Someone who’s marketing yells out ‘I’m here on a white charger and I’m going to make everything better for you!’
What they don’t want is some business that just talks about themselves and preens and gloats and puts out how wonderful they are, how professional they are… (argghh… it’s a business – that’s a ‘given’… really!) without offering up any solutions, without addressing or acknowledging the customers ‘pain’.
If that’s what you do in your marketing then don’t be surprised when you don’t get much response.
Your marketing is NOT about you – it’s about your customer- capeesh?
The more customers you have , the more people LIKE you, the more pain you take away for the most people.
So back to ‘predictable…’
This ‘sheep mentality’ really comes to the fore when you look at online habits. The media call it ‘Social Proof ‘ Yes there’s a name for everything these days.
When it comes to where your website ranks in the Search Engines, this is pretty important. Google and the like build their ranking algorithms around this predictability, around basic human behaviour.
So if what you are saying to the market is based in tradition, or on the type of image you’d like to portray, maybe it is time to check the market. Trends change, language changes, buyers change – think of the growth of social media – 20 years ago who would have imagined?
Do Your Homework
Keep checking the trends and what your customers are chasing.. and the words they use too.
Tips:
- Follow some of your top fans, engage with them on social media, and listen to what is going on.
- Keep up to date with your industry and draft website content around current issues.
- Adding new content to your website or blog? Google the topic and see how popular the subject is.
- Assumption is the mother of all **** ups… if you’re thinking of launching a brand new product or service, ask your loyal customers for their feedback before wasting a lot of time or cash..
- Remember, check out the basic psychology of the market you are trying to reach.
Search Engines
As SEO experts we try to keep up to date with the latest search engine algorithms and determine what they like or don’t like when it comes to ranking a website.
They don’t like being fooled by Black Hat SEO people – these are slime-balls who do all the underhanded stuff to get your website highly ranked. But, you could end up losing it completely and being banned from the search engines- not worth it. It’s important to know and trust that your SEO people are strictly White Hat experts.
OMG – search engines like the ‘social proof’ too and give real credence to those websites that have link backs from social media and have some popularity within the social media scene. Getting conversations going, engaging your fans, regularly posting and communicating…. search engines feel this is pure gold.
So you see, predictability and understanding human behaviour are vital to your marketing – both online and off-line. And, it’s part of human behaviour to think we know what’s best for our business, and that isn’t always true- especially with marketing in such a challenging and growing playing field.
