Did you know that your personality is the future of marketing? It’s true! And there are lots of ways to use your personality for marketing your business.
In this blog post, we’ll discuss a few ways to use your personality to get more customers and make more sales. So read on to learn more!
But first, back to basics.
Marketing is about attracting prospective customers to your business.
While sales is converting those prospects to engaged customers, marketing is about gaining interest and attention before building the desire to take action.
When we attempt to generate that attraction, we must keep in mind the effectiveness of personal connection. People buy people.
One of the marketing influence weapons that will boost your small business’s success is likeability. Dr Robert B. Cialdini wrote about the importance of likeability in his excellent book, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion.
Likeability matters because it is much easier to say yes to someone if you like them. Share on XScience tells us that we tend to like people who are a) similar to us, b) pay us compliments, and c) cooperate with us so we progress towards common goals.
But how can we possibly know whether we like someone unless we get to know them? This is where so much of the marketing we see falls short; it lacks personality.
At the same time, the rising popularity of social media has made it easier than ever for people to connect with each other. We go online to share our thoughts and experiences.
Think about your process for buying decisions; where do you start?
Based on my conversations, I’m not alone in searching for the services I need (thanks, Google!) or asking for recommendations on Twitter or Facebook.
In fact, I would say that 90%+ of my buying decisions start with a Google search or social media question.
When I shortlist the businesses I might buy from, I’m instantly wary of those where I can’t find out anything about the people behind the brand.
Websites without individual and team profile photos are an instant turn off. The impression they give is one of secrecy about the person or people with whom you will be working.
Another red flag is social media content that is ‘corporate’ and generally dull.
We want to feel connected to brands. It’s why successful brands, from businesses of all sizes, go the extra mile to appear quirky, personal and, dare I say it, fun.
We want to buy from businesses that share our values. Share on XIt all boils down to trust; do I trust this small business sufficiently to buy its products or services?
Putting your personality at the forefront of your marketing helps engender that trust, removing the otherwise anonymous experience you risk when dealing with a faceless corporation.
So, put your photo on your website. Make sure your colleagues are photographed too.
Use video to introduce personality to your marketing. Video is an excellent tool because it allows prospective customers to see the whites of your eyes.
Embrace audio podcasting in your personality marketing. A podcast allows prospective customers to get to know, like and (hopefully) trust you as you speak directly into their ears each week.
Allow a little personality to shine through in your social media marketing. A good mix (we find) is 80% business and 20% personal, depending on your platform of choice – personal content on business-centric platform LinkedIn, for example, doesn’t always perform so well.
We’ve just scratched the surface of how you can use your personality to get more customers and make more sales.
Personality-based marketing is becoming increasingly popular, so there are plenty of ways to take advantage of it.
How will you inject more personality into your marketing? Let us know on social media, @bearcontentden.
