Let’s talk about our feelings
This week we’re celebrating Valentine’s Day. It’s a day where most people enjoy the benefits of the Hallmark ads or the Pro Flowers marketing campaigns.
It’s the day where it’s more than appropriate to talk about our feelings. For some it could be love and others, well, let’s just say that they wish this day would just end.
But have you ever thought about your customer’s feelings towards your business? We all love to open those emails singing our praises about something cool that we did or how our product helped someone do something. Sometimes just an uplifting comment on our blog is enough to warm our hearts.
And yeah, they’re those negative ones too. Those are the messages that make you want to crawl into a hole and wonder why you’re in business. When I get one of those, I make myself take a deep breath, really read through the message and then thank the person for their honesty.
Those negative messages remind me how sometimes I get lost within my own stuff and forget to think about what the end user, my customer, really wants.
Now let’s think about that feeling a customer of mine has about my services and then they see an image I pinned on Pinterest to promote my new marketing program. Their emotions will automatically interpret their perception of this image.
But what if that image was funny and engaging and pulled them in to learn more? Then can we say that my image either reinforced their positive feelings about my company or – something we all hope to happen – it actually changed their negative feelings about my services?
That is the power of images.
Think about it this way – Your company’s promotional images should create a connected feeling for your customers. Your image triggers an emotion and that causes them to ignore it, hit the share button or impacts them enough that they click on the link.
That feeling is what makes your fans come back and buy what you’re selling.
The science of Design Thinking
There’s a whole bunch of research out there about how the design of your marketing message impacts the way people feel about your company. And some of it is such a small piece of the message like a font color or font style but yet, it can create a negative or positive perception of your business.
Don’t worry, I’m not going to get all scientific and Doc Brown on you here. But I do want to introduce you to Dr. Don Norman.
Dr. Norman studies how real people, like your customers, interact with design. He looks at the ways business owners intended for their products to be used and what the customers really wanted.
I disappeared for hours one day reading his articles. And then I stumbled across this TED Talk of his called “3 Ways Good Design Makes You Happy.” He’s very entertaining and as he walks you through his thought process, he’ll make you think about how many of the things you buy are for image purposes rather than function.
As you’re listening to Dr. Norman, think about how you’re creating your marketing images and the way you’re presenting your business to your customers.
The Obvious Questions
Sometimes the obvious questions we ask to learn more about our customers are not so, uh, obvious.
Let’s really take a look at the feelings that your customers have about your business. Take a moment to think about how to connect with your customers by finishing these prompts as best as you can:
My target audience is
and they use my product/services to
I want my customers to know that my business can help them with
The reason they buy from me is
My customers feel _______________________________ about my business
but I know what they really want to feel is
Knowing all these things about my customers, my marketing messages will look like
I’ll use copy that talks like
and helps them feel like
Write out your answers on a piece of paper. I find when I write something instead of typing it, it connects with me more. Maybe it’s the actual act of writing vs just hitting flat keys on a laptop that make me feel more a part of the process.
Think about what Dr. Norman said and look over your answers to the prompts.
And then ask yourself, is your business really connecting with your customers?
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