Is 70% of YOUR Marketing Missing the Mark?

Answer this question: Why do you buy what you buy?

 It’s commonly thought people buy for two reasons: Desire for Gain (also known as pleasure), or Fear of Loss (pain).

What is not commonly known may be causing 70% of your marketing to miss the mark

. In his work on Influence, social psychologist Dr. Robert Cialdini uncovered the forces behind the phenomenon of pleasure/pain. If you dig deeper into his research, you can find out if 70% of your marketing is missing the mark.

People do buy for pleasure or pain. Some of us want to increase or improve our condition, seize opportunity, and make life better. Always on the lookout for a way to be better off, we are attracted by possibilities.

Others of us buy to preserve what we’ve got, avoid risk, and keep ourselves from becoming worse off. Always on the lookout for what can go wrong, we are attracted to preservation.

 Let’s assume these groups are split evenly, 50/50. Here’s how marketing money is wasted…

The "be better off" marketing completely misses the "preserve what I’ve got" group; people who want to avoid losing, and who buy to maintain status quo. In 22 years as a consultant, most of the marketing I have seen is aimed at the "be better off" people. That’s fine, if you’re willing to accept that your message is missing half the people YOU ARE PAYING to reach.

Look at your own marketing. How much of what you say speaks to people who want to avoid losing and preserve what they have? Then, compare that to how much of your marketing speaks to people who want possibility; to feel better, look younger, be richer and achieve more?

Dr. Cialdini research revealed an even more startling finding that the simple distinction between "avoid loss/seek gain" buyers. It is this unexpected finding that could alter your marketing success forever.

 These two groups are not equal in numbers. To his surprise, 70% of the buyers fell into the "avoid loss" category, with only 30% of people buying to be better off.

TWICE THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE BUY TO PREVENT LOSS THAN OUT OF A DESIRE FOR GAIN!

For each person who wants more possibility, two want prevention and preservation.

Now, go back and take another look at your marketing. Read every line, look at every document, scour the latest proposal on your desk, and see what percentage of your message speaks to the 70%. If the answer is "very little" you can be sure that 2/3 of the people who get your message NEVER READ IT! It doesn’t enter their perceptual range if your value proposition conflicts with their unconscious drive for preservation.

If they don’t read it, it’s pretty unlikely they’ll buy into it!

As you prepare your next marketing message, consider these two suggestions:

1. Craft the message from two points of view. Seek out existing customers who represent both camps, and use their feedback to help you hone your message to the "no worse off" and "be better off" people. If the buyers of your product or service are clearly and predominantly in one group, send a message with benefits more heavily weighted in that direction. But for most products and services, buyers fall into both groups. Make sure your messages reach the seventy-percenters who aren’t interested in being, doing or having more.

2. Whether face-to-face, phone, email, ads, mail, fax, website, or whatever medium you use, find out early in every interaction what a person’s primary buying motivation is. Skillful questions and a desire to listen empathically (seek first to understand) are the one-two punch of building trust and cred-ability.

It’s in everyone’s best interest to quickly identify the primary buying motivation, as it establishes common ground for your conversation to have mutual benefit. Otherwise, the buyer is disengaged, and you waste your time.

When done ethically, this dialogue builds a bridge of understanding and a bond of relating between buyer and seller. This is the foundation of a solid, longer-term, mutually beneficial relationship.

 Use this insight to help you improve your direct interaction (face-to-face meetings, phone conversations, email), and in your indirect marketing like ads, postcards, mail, web pages, seminars, telephone messages, and any other communication where the message goes one way.

 If you want your marketing to hit the mark with every possible buyer (maximize your gain), and avoid missing 70% of your prospective audience (minimize your loss), revise your message with these guidelines in mind.

Coming next… Are you a smuggler, a bungler or sleuth? Stay tuned for more powerful influence principles in upcoming issues.