You, Your Marketing and the Role of Psychology

I suspect I’m not the only one gets so caught up in the frenzy of crossing stuff off my to-do list that I lose track of my bigger goal—actually reaching my clients with great information. We need to be sharing insights that will help users do their jobs, showcasing expertise that will make us look like heroes. All of this, of course, has to be immediate—we have three seconds to put this all together to capture audience attention. 

Reaching your audience on an emotional level; identifying the pain

We’re appealing to the emotions of our audiences. Those emotions are processing information five times faster than our brains, and they make a more lasting imprint. Whether you’re writing a blog, a newsletter, an ebook or a social media post, the principles are the same.

If you’re writing a newsletter, the subject line should be reach people emotionally—initiating excitement, urgency—even low-level anxiety. They’re all motivators. 

Our brains love images

• Brains process images 60x faster than they process text; 90% of all data that the brain processes is visual. 
• We form gut reactions in three seconds or fewer.
• We’re much more likely to remember pictures with text than either element as a standalone item.
• The primitive brain is particularly drawn to images of sex, danger and food. Before you begin adding irrelevant images of sexy people eating lavish meals in dangerous situations to your social media posts, know that this is the lowest form of clickbait and has fallen from favor. It lacks authenticity and it’s dishonest. This is not the way to build loyalty.
• We also gravitate to images of people. We are all looking for connections. I write a weekly blog for a legal services company. I thought that for Living Trusts my limited image options included boring pictures of legal documents. I had an epiphany and realized that Living Trusts are really all about people. They are about families, the people we love and want to protect. This opened up a huge resource of image opportunities.
• We read expressions on faces—they become road maps to what we will encounter within. All images of faces get our attention, but faces of babies light up emotion receptors.
• Include a face that’s looking toward you, establishing eye contact, so there’s a sense of talking to your audience, building a relationship. This is also a great place to sneak in a call to action!

Color is a strategic element of your marketing message

Colors and emotions are closely linked. Some estimate that as much as 62-90% of a product’s message is determined by its color. Companies choose colors that they believe will motivate customers to buy their products and improve brand awareness. 

• Yellow activates anxiety.
• Blue builds trust. Strong blue stimulates clear thought, light blue has a calming influence.
• Green is the color of balance and growth.

Let’s make the most of your three seconds to get in front of your audience! 

Contact Top of Mind Marketing. We’re writers and content marketing specialists. 

Facebook, YouTube and Election Security

The Iowa caucus got off to an inauspicious start, but it officially kicked off the 2020 Presidential race. Let’s take a look at how people are getting their election-year news.

Facebook leads social sites as pathways to news 

Facebook and YouTube are the most-used social sites for accessing news—43% of US adults use Facebook and 21% turn to YouTube for their news. 

YouTube is taking a very responsible position on disinformation

YouTube has pledged to remove digitally altered content, alluding to the rising use of deepfakes– media in which a person is replaced with someone else’s likeness. Those with advanced video and photoshop abilities are skilled at swapping out or doctoring photos.  

YouTube will not allow content that:

• Has been technically manipulated or doctored in a way that misleads users and may pose a serious risk.
• Aims to mislead people about voting or the census processes—providing an incorrect date, for instance.
• Advances false claims related to the technical eligibility requirements–claims that a candidate is not eligible to hold office based on false information about citizenship requirements.

Content that violates these terms will be removed

YouTube promises to remove content that violates these rules or that “impersonates, misrepresents, or conceals association with a government.”

Facebook has 35,000 people working on its security team

Founder Mark Zuckerberg made an earlier announcement that Facebook would not monitor political ads because it would be interfering with free speech. A massive outcry appears to have had an impact. Facebook reportedly now has more than 35,000 people working on its security initiatives, with an annual budget well into the billions of dollars. 

After 2016’s Cambridge Analytica meltdown, Facebook apparently has become better able to seek out and remove foreign influence networks. It’s relying on an experienced team of former intelligence officials, digital forensics experts and investigative journalists. These aren’t a bunch of kids with some social media savvy. These are experts across a wide range of disciplines who come with a big collective price tag. 

Elections are being won and lost on social platforms 

Trump and Clinton together spent $81M on Facebook ads in 2016. But social app policy decisions have global impact and these new guidelines are impressive. Yet social is still in the business of driving engagement. They love to promote or host controversial content because it drives engagement and satisfies their performance goals.

Controversial content: The Trump campaign’s specialty

Trump runs Facebook ads that drive users to interactive polls that collect email addresses. In this way, his campaign has been able to collect millions of names, location markers and email addresses. They feed this information into their databanks for ad targeting and email marketing. 

Emboldened by the impeachment results, we can expect more Trump ads to focus aggressively on divisive and sensitive topics that will spark debate on social platforms, further dividing the country. This will delight Trump and his supporters and drive more users to Facebook. 

Breathe deeply. The stage is set for a particularly bitter election-year battle. 

Contact Top of Mind Marketing for help with your marketing strategy. We’re writers and digital media specialists. 

Single-Page Website: The Right Strategy for Your Business?

I’m working with a client who has a new business that he wants to promote. It’s related to his existing business, but we decided to brand, launch and market this as a standalone entity. We also decided that a one-page website was the perfect solution for his online presence—at least for now. 

Is a one-page website right for you?

How does a single page site work? It’s simple. There’s no clicking. Ever. No complex navigation schematic or buttons. Everything lives on one page. All you do is scroll. 

There’s lots to love about single-page websites

• Professional-looking sites; can be built in a matter of hours; they’re easily updated.
• High conversion rates—no distractions!
• Fall within mobile-friendly guidelines, look great across all browsing devices.
• Ideal for those who need a quick site for a promotion–a pop-up event or store. 
• Perfect solution for an artist, for instance, who might be doing a gallery showing. User lands on the site and simply scrolls down the page. 
• Call out contact information on the header and footer, plenty of room for featured information. 
• Ideal way to set up landing page for a campaign.  A single-page site lets you create messaging and efficiently run A/B tests.

Ideal for users accessing information on mobile devices

Another thing that makes this model attractive is that with an increasing number of users accessing information via mobile rather than their desktop computers, information delivery has been reengineered from a formal dropdown schematic with drilldown to one that is less structured and relies on scrolling. A single-page site fits perfectly into this design model.

Drawbacks? You’re missing out on search engine optimization opportunities (SEO)

Single-page websites are designed around a central topic or theme—a keyword–so single-page websites can only target that single phrase. Multipage websites have more chances of ranking higher in search because they’re optimized for more keywords.

Something else to think about: We’re on a site to find more information

On a single-page website, it’s generally hard to find specific, comprehensive content–there isn’t space to create a separate page for each topic. It can be frustrating to land on a site and find a couple of sentences that really don’t provide enough details to answer our questions. For a single-page site, you really need to think about key messaging, then minimize everything else. 

Include a strong call to action

On the other hand, with single-page sites, there’s nowhere for the user to get distracted — every part of the page leads them toward a conversion point, driving more leads and business. 

The right tool for the job: Single-page design deserves a place at the table 

While single-page design won’t take over the future of web design, it likely will continue to be included in web development conversations because it fulfills a genuine need. 

Do you have a business or product launch that would be a good fit for a one-page website? Contact Top of Mind Marketing about a one-page website for your business. We’re writers and content marketing experts.