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.