The Most Powerful Marketing Strategy Ever Discovered

As marketers, most of us have learned a scientific formula to try to convince customers to buy our products: list a bunch of benefits and features, a few bullet points, close the sale, upsell, and basically use a bunch of “techniques” to try to draw customers into our products.

But why are we settling for outdated marketing strategies, when there’s something MUCH BETTER we could be doing, that’s much more natural, and will create a level of results and success in your business and marketing that you’ve never even dreamed of.

To start off, and prove my point, before I teach you these secrets, here is Apple’s 2012 revenue comparison to other top companies:

Apple made more $7 billion more in 2012 than Microsoft, eBay, Google, Yahoo, Facebook, and Amazon COMBINED”¦ and in this article I’m going to show you how they did it; what they’re doing differently from every other marketer and business on the planet, why they’re so disproportionately successful than anyone else, and how you can apply their secrets to your blog or business.

They did “marketing strategies” the old way-Apple did things the new way”¦ this is the PROVEN success formula for marketing and advertising your business in the 21st century, and the most powerful marketing strategy EVER CREATED–and it’s the FUTURE of marketing.

In a moment, I’m going to go into detail and break down this formula step-by-step, but to sum it up:

It comes down to building relationships with people, instead of trying to “sell” your products to them, and involves adopting a whole new way of looking at marketing, thinking of it as an emotional relationship, and making it about connecting with people on a core emotional level.

Emotions are what motivate us, and drive us to make most of the decisions in our lives; we usually do something because the results will provide a positive emotional experience, and selling an emotional experience, life-transforming experience is much more powerful than selling a product or service alone.

Three of the biggest areas I learned good marketing methods from are also the most popular forms of entertainment, relationships, and storytelling:

Music, television, and books.

And what do all three of these things have in common?

Well, there’s actually a few things:

1. They hold our attention and focus
2. They give us bonding tools
3. They stimulate EMOTIONS.

Go back to that third one, because it’s the key to capturing a person’s attention and getting them drawn into anything you have to say.

Why do we pay attention to the things we do, and feel a bond and connection with things in our lives?

You know that EMOTIONAL CONNECTIONS are much more powerful than logical ones… so why aren’t you integrating this into your marketing strategies?

We Connect With The Meaning Of Things

Which of the following means more to you, and would help you connect with a blog, brand, or business more:

1.    We build music, photo, and movie editing software. (company says what they do)

Or”¦

2.    We all have unique skills, ideas, and talents; and it’s the expression of those talents that give us the ability to create, invent and inspire others with the art, music, images, and movies that make us laugh, cry, share, and create moments that we’ll remember for the rest of our lives”¦ and we build software people like us who want to express themselves [connecting with your reader], who want to share their creativity with others, to transform lives, and to transform the world”¦ basically, we give people the tools to turn their dreams and visions into reality. (company talks about their passion, and why they’re doing what they do, connecting with customers, building loyalty, and gaining followers)

Now, which product would you want to buy?

Who are you going to instantly TRUST has your best interests at heart?

Which company are you going to believe would be devoted to YOUR needs, and to building the best product?

Marketing method number one; which connects with your logical brain, and offers you a piece of computer code and machinery?

Or marketing method number two; which tells a story, hits with your emotions, core beliefs, creates an EMOTIONAL bond, and inspires you to do something that will change the world by sharing a grander vision for the world?

YouTube is a perfect example of this; you see all sorts of people expressing their comedic talents, their musical talents and unique sense of humor (like Gangnam Style), and inventions like the video camera, the internet, and the computer give them the tools to turn the ideas they have in their head into a reality to share with others, and make others laugh, learn, simple, connect, share with the world, and love.

Now how does that compare in terms of meaning, and emotional connection, with “we build music, photo, and movie editing software”.

Just like with Microsoft you don’t feel anything for their products, but with Apple you can FEEL the passion and attention to creating amazing products that you can fall in love with, because Apple has communicated this, and has made a human connection with you as an individual, rather than just as a company who is pushing out Windows because of their financial timetable or the holiday season; Apple communicates a passion for changing the world customers can personally connect with and get behind.

Apple clearly communicates their desire to make the best products on the planet, and to create revolutionary products that change the world; how many other companies do you know that communicate anything about why they do what they do in their marketing, advertising, and branding strategies?

For example, BMW might associate their brand with “luxury”, but we have no personal connection with a passion or mission for why they build cars in the first place (other than because they need to make money, which isn’t a reason we can personally or emotionally connect with); 99% of companies NEVER try to actually build a connection with their customers; they never create a REAL HUMAN CONNECTION with their customers.

In every area of our lives, except marketing, we focus and prioritize emotions and relationships in our decision making, and our whole lives are about relationships and connecting with other human beings, so why don’t we try to connect on a human level in our marketing?

Humans Love Stories

We watch movies, read books, and listen to music because we love stories, we love emotional connections, and we love things that capture our imaginations.

When people talk about “long vs. short sales letters”, think about how an 800 page novel can keep your attention, while offering nothing new (other than emotional stimulation), and not giving any value other than entertainment, storytelling, and stimulation of your imagination that builds a story and pictures, and entertains your brain.

We connect with others by understanding their passions, ambitions, dreams; what inspires them, and how they think about things.

We don’t just want to be sold a product; we want to have a memorable life-changing EXPERIENCE with the products, businesses, and connections in our lives.

As humans, we crave story, meaning, and entertainment. People don’t just want products, they want a history, a story of passion that drove the creation of a product, or a story of one man (or woman)’s vision to change the world; and we love hearing about how they overcame the odds and fought so you’d be able to benefit from their product today.

How would that change the meaning of the product, and how would you feel about trusting the company who built it to have the best products on the planet, because while the first company just says, “we design movie software”, you can only assume their purpose is to put out products so they can get paid and make money.

But the second business, like a friend, created an emotional, human connection, where you can feel their passion, and you’re no longer skeptical, because your mind has a reason to justify why they created the product, so you know it will be good,

because they conveyed that they have a sense of PURPOSE that is driving them to create the best product on the planet for you, and because the second person fought so hard to overcome the odds because they believed in their product so much; they gave you a very real, human story you can connect and empathize with.

Especially in today’s impersonal, over-saturated internet world, where everyone is making questionable claims, trying to compete with each other for money and sales, and customers are naturally skeptical, in today’s world good marketing and sales is all about TRUST and EMOTIONAL CONNECTIONS.

Everyone is focusing on winning over readers minds; trying to convince them that their product is the best on the planet”¦ but all the pitches look identical!

If you win over your readers hearts, and really make them feel a deep connection with you, your sense of purpose, and why you do what you do, and you aspire to create the best products on the planet, people will naturally want to buy whatever you have to sell, not only because of your product, but because they feel a personal connection with it.

It’s like someone buying a song not because the song is the best, but because they connect it to their first song they heard on their wedding night; people are humans, and they connect products with MEANING in their lives.

Building a modern marketing strategy is about forming an intimate, personal bond with people; like a feeling they would have for a best friend, where everything you say cuts directly to the core of their emotions; it begins with being PASSIONATE and creating an amazing experience for your customers.

The problem is that most business and marketing has gotten to the point where it actually TRIES to be impersonal to create a “professional” imagine with boring, lackluster, or over-hyped language (like the kid who tries too hard to be cool but just looks desperate)”¦ and it’s BORING because it’s been overdone so much; this marketing strategy just comes off as TRY HARD.

Good marketing, when done right, is so good it looks invisible; like your friend telling you about how great the new iPhone is, showing you his, and everything it does, and making you want the product, but never trying to convince you to buy it, or that you need it.

It’s marketing; selling a product, but it’s so well done and natural that it’s invisible, and this marketing approach feels just like a friend telling you about an amazing passion project they built, and how incredibly proud of it they are.

Promoting Anything  Is All About Connecting To Emotions

Everything we do is for some sort of positive emotion, and everything we avoid is associated with some negative emotion.

But what causes emotion, and how specifically do you create emotions in someone else, get their attention, and make them FEEL compelled to read whatever you write about?

It’s actually incredibly easy once you understand it.

But first, you have to understand exactly what causes emotions… because emotions are the key to getting rapport with people, getting them personally and emotionally involved in and connected with whatever you’re doing, and making them want to share your message with everyone they know.

The key to holding someone’s attention (versus boring them) comes down to the difference between abstraction and tangibility.

So let’s get that out of the way quickly… but this is the KEY to getting people interesting in what you’re talking about, and getting people to like you and actually getting them interested in what you’re talking about when you talk to them.

Abstract: Existing in thought or as an idea but not having a physical or concrete existence (ex: communication).

Tangible: A thing that is perceptible by touch (ex: handshake).

We, as humans, value things that we can interact with on a one-on-one, personal level.

Basically the difference is, if I put 100 people in a row, showed them two other people, and said, “are these two people communicating?”, you’d get 100 different answers and maybe even an argument, because communication is an IDEA that doesn’t have an exact physical equivalent, which means the brain can’t produce a picture, which means there’s NO EMOTION to the conversation.

However, if I said, “are these people shaking hands”, everyone could reach the same conclusion based on what they SEE, because a handshake is a physical, visible gesture… it’s a little detail in social situations that makes a BIG DIFFERENCE when you’re talking to someone.

It gives your mind a picture of something you can FEEL during the conversation, rather than just saying “interacting”… which brings me to the next part of this topic

Blogging Is About Connecting With Other Humans

The key to making people feel emotions is to use as much PHYSICAL detail in conversations as possible… and putting as much emotions into whatever you say to people as possible to make sure you get their attention in any situation.

Here’s a simple breakdown:

I’m going to show you 3 easy but powerful “levels” of being descriptive during a conversation to make whatever you’re talking about more interesting.

The first level is being descriptive when you talk to people:

For example if I say eating food, your brain could produce a picture of anything.

But if I say eating a soft, creamy banana notice the detail in the picture in your head?

The word food really has NOTHING in terms of connecting with you, or producing feelings in your body… and if there’s no emotion, there’s no connection with the person you’re talking to.

But the word soft, creamy banana has a smooth almost sexual emotional feel to it, and creates a sensation in your body because it creates a PICTURE in your head that causes feelings.

Suddenly, you’ve turned “food” from a general word that could mean anything, into a specific word where both of you are sharing the same picture during the conversation… this sharing of the same thing is what creates an emotional connection when you’re having a conversation or talking to someone.

In a nutshell, you were able to build a picture in your mind that stimulated your EMOTIONS and drew your attention into the conversation.

Now, let’s take it even deeper, and add an ACTIVITY to the sentence:

Imagine that soft, creamy banana, and feel your fingers running down the soft, smooth, yellow banana running past your lips, as you chew on the soft, white delicious banana slowly.

Level of Emotion = Amount Of Connection/Rapport

How much more interesting that conversation was that than, ” eating food?”

And did you notice how it made you FEEL a lot more connected with me as you were reading it… instead of it just being a mundane sentence, because it stimulated your emotions, built pictures in your mind, and connected you on a one-on-one personal level to what I was saying.

For example, when you’re talking, instead of saying, “I went to a game yesterday the went out to eat”, what you want to say is:

Or do you say, “I went to a football game yesterday, it was intense, it was sunny out, there was THOUSANDS of people around, and I was sitting with my three friends in the fifth row of the stadium surrounded by cheering people… one of the players made a slide tackle that just dug 5 feet of grass out of the ground with dirt flying everywhere… and we were all laughing about it… the afterward we went out to McDonalds and had the most amazing cheeseburgers ever”.

Marketing isn’t the same now that the entire world is connected; the social media and the digital age have redefined the personal human experience forever, and as long as your marketing strategy is to do things in an impersonal “professional” way, your customers are going to feel a disconnect, aren’t going to be interested or entertained, and you’re not going to have any way to connect with your readers or customers.

Remember:

PEOPLE LIKE TO FEEL EMOTIONS.

If you give them something to connect with in what you do, something to relate to in what you do, and something to believe in, and make them feel like your business or blog, is a close, personal friend, you will instantly stand out, and win people over.