When you know things others don’t, it can put you ahead – but there’s a limit.
There’s a limit because everyone is getting smarter every day. And those in your target, your category, your tribe are getting exponentially smarter.
And there’s the crux of what makes marketing so difficult (and maybe, also, so easy).
Marketing leverage used to be applied with information. I could inform you of stuff you didn’t know and it would intrigue you to purchase it, it would make it easier to upsell, it would get you to tell your friends (because information becomes more powerful when it’s shared).
But now the marketer has lost that leverage.
There’s nothing you can tell your core target about your product that they couldn’t have found out on their own (or fact check). Chances are they’ve already asked their friends, done a google search, read some content about your product, service, widget, app.
So where does that leave the marketer? What do you have to offer other than information?
That’s what people want when they engage with you, send an email, leave a voicemail.
I’ll even go so far as to say the response they get isn’t as important as the fact they get a response.
“Confirming receipt” is an extremely powerful statement and requires no lift other than the few finger strokes to type it or breath to say it.
“I apologize, but I can’t get back to you until X date” is also powerful, mainly because it provides a promise to them of when you will get back to them. People love promises (that are kept, specifically).
Communication is a quirky thing and it can be broken up into three categories.
There’s the stuff we wish we would have said. This happens when we regret not being vulnerable. I was actually in a high school play wherein the entire premise was a series of people saying the things they never did – it was eye opening.
Then there’s the stuff we do say. It is what it is.
Lastly, there’s the stuff we think we shouldn’t have said. This often weighs us down as heavily as the stuff we wish we would have said. But here’s the reality – it’s far more beneficial to feel the concern of having said something wrong than to not have said anything at all.
It’s the vulnerable communication that helps everyone move forward.
Stay Positive & Is That Your Heart On Your Sleeve?
Changes are more inevitable today than they ever were before.
And the degree of change is more extreme.
People don’t change machines they are working on; they change entire industries – and every handful of months instead of handful of decades.
People are ready to leap to a different brand tomorrow with the slightest prompt; those dishwashers won’t stay in a house for 40 years even if they’re built to last 40 years.
The key then is to be ready for the leap. A whole lot more difficult than the actual leaping, IMO.
