Author: Ryan Dolotallas

I caught a radio ad recently for an ear doctor who encouraged listeners to get their hearing checked.

She said most people will rush to the eye doctor if they have fuzzy vision.

But when people notice their hearing get fuzzy, many will put off a checkup. Sometimes they’ll wait for years.

Don’t wait, she said. If you wait too long, minor hearing loss becomes major.

Good point, Doc…

…but bad marketing.

By highlighting people who wait for their checkup, you imply that waiting is normal.

We humans want to be normal. We want to join the crowd.

So if you describe a crowd that waits to visit the ear doctor, we’ll join ‘em. We’ll wait, too…

…even if you tell us that waiting is a bad choice.

So what’s the poor doctor to do?

Encourage listeners to get their hearing checked…

…without telling them about the crowd that puts off checkups.

Better yet, make hearing tests the “new normal.”

Tell listeners about the “crowd” that rushed to get their hearing checked. Tell them how you’ve treated hundreds (or thousands) of people whose lives improved following the test.

Emphasize how those people made the “smart choice.”

That’s the crowd you want your listeners to follow.

Marketers and behavioral economists call this “social proof.” 

Smart communicators use social proof to make their copy more persuasive.

Highlight the wrong crowd, and you encourage the wrong action.

Use social proof to highlight the right crowd, and you encourage the right action.

By the way, you are not encouraging the “right” action if you trick people into acting against their interests.

Unfortunately, some marketers use social proof and other persuasion methods to “trick” people into buying stuff they don’t need. 

This gives all marketers a bad name, and it gives “persuasion” a bad name, too. 

Using social proof and other persuasion techniques is not a bad thing…

…unless you use them for a bad purpose.

If you intend to provide value and to offer something for those who need it, there’s nothing wrong with making your copy as persuasive as it can be. 

Social proof is one way to make your copy more persuasive. See the p.s. below if you want to discover other ways…

Thanks for reading. 

Tom
MarketVolt

p.s.Here’s a free report that might interest you: “7 Ways to Make Your Marketing Messages More Persuasive.” 

I got a call last month from my son, Jacob, who declared, “I’m never flying United Airlines again!”

Here’s why he was so upset…

Jacob was at the Denver airport, at one of those self-serve check-in kiosks. It was crowded and hectic. There was a long line to get through security. He was frazzled. He worried he might miss his plane.

Jacob had one bag to check so he needed to run his credit card to pay for it. When he reached down to insert the card into the slot, he found a previous customer’s card still in the kiosk.

He pulled the card from the slot and looked around for a United attendant.

He spotted one across the room, caught her eye and raised his hand, waving the previous customer’s credit card in the air.

The attendant’s shoulders slumped. She frowned. And then she stormed across the room toward Jacob.

As she arrived at the Kiosk, Jacob said, “Someone left his credit card in the…”

The attendant wasn’t listening.

Without a word, she snatched the card from Jacob, pressed the pay now button on the kiosk screen and inserted the card into the slot.

Transaction complete.

“Ummmm…” Jacob said. “That wasn’t my card. I found it in the slot when I went to check in.”

Slumped shoulders again. As for the frown, it never left, but now it was bigger.

“Why didn’t you tell me that!?” she barked.

“I tried to tell you but…”

Again, she wasn’t listening. She grabbed Jacob by the arm and yanked him toward the check-in counter.

After a few minutes of furious typing, even-bigger frowning and lots of heavy sighing, the attendant undid the previous transaction and charged Jacob’s credit card.

She tagged the bag, tossed it on the conveyor and handed Jacob his credit card.

Her only words: “OK. You’re all set.”

She didn’t say, “I’m sorry.”

She didn’t say, “Thank you.”

After Jacob told me the story, I told him that United’s slogan is “fly the friendly skies.” 

Jacob laughed. “Yeah, right,” he said. 

What’s the lesson for you? 

The United attendant could have prevented so much damage if only she hadn’t assumed my son was a dummy who didn’t know how to operate a kiosk.

If only she asked the customer, “What do you need?” If only she listened to the customer when he told her what he needed.

So it goes with marketing and sales.

Too often we assume we know what the prospect or customer wants. We act on assumptions. We act without listening. And then we cause damage.

Smart marketers devise strategies and tactics

…to converse with their prospects and customers…
…to listen to them…
…to learn what they want and need…

And then smart marketers respond accordingly.

Want to discover how B2B and B2C marketers use email to converse with their customers, listen to them and learn what they want and need? Register for one of our on-demand webinars (see below).

Thanks for reading.

Tom
MarketVolt

p.s. Our on-demand webinars reveal great ways to build connections with prospects and customers. We’re currently running two webinars. We’ll be adding other topics soon. 

• 5 Ways B2B Businesses Use Email Marketing To Simplify & Accelerate Connection-Building & Sales
    
  
• 5 Ways B2C Businesses Use Email Marketing to Increase Profits

Baseball great Albert Pujols got his 3,000th hit earlier this month. 

I’ve rooted all my life for the St. Louis Cardinals. So it broke my heart when Pujols broke up with the Cardinals in 2012 to join the Anaheim Angels.

The heartache reminded me of my ninth-grade girlfriend, Susie Wallace. Susie and I had just finished a slow dance at the mixer when she broke the news: She was dumping me for Stevie O’Shea.

“Why?” I asked.

“Because he appreciates me,” she said. And then she strolled across the dance floor, grabbed Stevie’s hand and left the gym without looking back.

“But I DO appreciate you,” I mumbled. Too late.

After signing a $254 million contract with the Angels, Albert said he might have taken less money if the Cardinals had appreciated him more.

“But we DO appreciate you, Albert,” Cardinals’ management said. Too late.

Albert and Susie have me wondering:

Do you appreciate your customers? Do you show it?

If not, brace yourself. They might bolt to Anaheim or run to Lover’s Lane with Stevie O’Shea.

Customers break up with businesses for various reasons. A vast majority of them will bolt when they feel unappreciated, perceive indifference or simply forget about the previous business.

In fact, many will forgive a service slight or tolerate a slightly inferior product – as long as they feel appreciated.

That’s why you need a customer appreciation communication plan – before it’s too late.

Whether you communicate by email, snail mail, social media or some other medium, here are four tips to guide your customer appreciation plan:

1. Stay in touch – at least monthly. If you don’t have an email or print newsletter, you need to launch one.

2. Educate and entertain. If all you do is pitch products, your customers will tune out.

3. Be interactive. Let customers post on social media, in online surveys, in comments on your blog. Thank them for praise. Thank them for constructive criticism. Show them you’re listening. Appreciate their feedback, and they’ll appreciate you.

4. Get personal. Use personalized salutations in your emails. Tailor your content and special offers to specific audiences. Don’t send everything to everybody. The more you tailor content to customers’ interests, the more you say, “I know you and appreciate you.” They’ll feel the same.

Want to learn more about how to appreciate your customers so they’ll appreciate you? See the p.s. below…

Thanks for reading.

Tom
MarketVolt

p.s. Our on-demand webinars reveal great ways to build connections with prospects and customers. We’re currently running two webinars. We’ll be adding other topics soon. 

• 5 Ways B2B Businesses Use Email Marketing To Simplify & Accelerate Connection-Building & Sales
    
  
• 5 Ways B2C Businesses Use Email Marketing to Increase Profits