motivational marketing

When you hear motivational marketing, you’re probably thinking something like huge rallies and motivational, inspirational speeches telling people why they need what you’ve got to sell and they need it now. Kind of like door-to-door salesmen trying to sell you something you must have.

Motivational marketing utilizes simple language so that anyone may be interested in your product, not just the industry professionals. It’s something everyone can agree with, or follow. It emphasizes the everyday actions we can take to interact with and engage our client base. The key to motivational marketing is not extending your budget, but rather working with what you have in your tool belt. What do we mean by that? Let’s start by thinking about your buyers/clients.

Buyer Persona

When you work in the world of marketing, the term “buyer persona” is thrown around like candy. But what is this buyer’s persona and what does it have to do with your marketing practices?

A buyer persona is a representation of what your ideal customer base is–determined on market research in your field and data you have acquired on current or preexisting customers.

Your buyer persona is dependent on a lot of things and no two companies will create a buyer persona the same. However, there are things to keep in mind when creating your company’s buyer persona including current customer demographics, behavioral patterns, and the customer’s goals.

Here’s an example. Say you are the retailer of historical romance novels. Who is your target audience? Well, based on market research, we know that women aged 42 are the typical demographic. Further data shows that romance book buyers are more likely to be from the South and Midwest regions.

So, now we know who is buying–we’ll call her Riley the Romantic– but how do we get on Riley’s radar?

That’s where the buyer’s journey comes in.

Buyer’s Journey

There are three stages to the buyer’s journey, all of which impact your marketing efforts. The three stages are awareness, consideration, and decision. Let’s break them down a little bit for you.

  1. Awareness: Your buyer has a problem or need, but they aren’t too sure what it is yet.
  2. Consideration: Your buyer knows what the problem or need is and is now researching options.
  3. Decision: Your buyer has come to a decision and is ready to buy!

So for Riley the Romantic, it works something like this:

  1. She feels like she’s missing something. An emptiness in her heart and bookshelf.
  2. She now realizes it’s been weeks since she picked up a great romance. She’s searching for new romance novels, bestsellers and local outlets she can buy from. (She even sees some of your social media posts, PPC ads and stumbles on your website, too.)
  3. Riley has stumbled across one of the titles you sell and is ready to purchase the book, even signing up for your romance releases email list after her purchase.

But what does this all have to do with motivational marketing? And how can we take this general knowledge of content marketing to optimize our motivational marketing strategy?

Creating a Motivational Marketing Strategy Without Stretching Your Finances

Let’s roll back to that simple language used in motivational marketing strategies. It’s all about a balance, making your buyers feel in control, but inspired to do something–ie. buy your product, utilize your law firm, or employ you for services.

Using phrases that use balancing actions tends to get people to buy and buy more, often. When writing your marketing materials focus on three things: punctuation, rhythm, and meaning.

Punctuation

Take a look at this line from John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address: “My fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” Powerful right? Now read it again, but this time with periods instead of commas.

“My fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country,” not the same. The pauses would be different and in turn, the delivery would change.

Rhythm

Rhythm is important in music and poetry and it should also be important in your marketing, too.

Take a look at how Bounty captures us in TV and radio ads: “The Quicker Picker Upper…” and you’re sure to chime in, “Bounty!” Why? Because it sounds good. It’s meant to be repeated and remembered.

Meaning

This should be obvious, but you want your marketing slogan and taglines to mean something to your potential clients. Look at the original Lexus’ slogan, “The relentless pursuit of perfection.” That makes me want to buy a luxury vehicle. Who doesn’t want perfection? We all have visions of what it means to be perfect, and if perfect is buying a new luxury SUV, Lexus may be that for you.

Alright. You have your roadmap to motivate your consumers with a tagline and slogan. Now let’s chat about a call to action before we hit ‘ya with ours.

Call To Action

Your call to action would be something simple and powerful–enough to get a lead generated, a buy made or a client booked. You want them to feel knowledgeable– that your website, social media post, etc. has given them the tools to hold their own when it comes to making a purchase.

There are three things to remember when creating a call to action:

  1. It has to be no obligation, or have an alternative option. If you are utilizing pop-up windows, make sure the visitor can do something other than fill out the form or leave your site. A high bounce rate will not bode well for your search engine rankings.
  2. “Sign up”, “Join our…” etc. has to be delivering the customer something of use. Customers want something–especially if that something is free or comes as an added bonus after purchase. Make them think they are getting a deal. Because your knowledge is something of value.
  3. Urgency without being hostile. You need to make the customer or visitor move quickly without it seeming pushy. For law firms, the phrase, “act now before it’s too late,” is a great way to push urgency on a legal need without saying, “or you’ll end up behind bars.” Fear tactics do not work.

Need an example–back to Riley the Romantic. I’d bet she’s a fan of Harlequin romance novels. And do you know what their call to action is? “…experience the rush of falling in love!” Swoon. She loves it!

Now you have the tools and are ready to write your own call to action. Let’s get you ready to motivate your clientele to take the next step with you!