Hunka Hunka Burning Love w/o Elvis – SCN Encourager 5/22/2014

I wonder if Elvis would’ve been a marketing guru today.

No doubt his “emotional marketing” workshops would pack ’em in.

As Seth Godin, in one of his most popular books, challenged every contemporary marketer to strategically plan out and create a unique “purple cow” for their business or organization, Elvis simply demonstrated how a pair of blue suede shoes could advance your profile and personal brand… about 50 years earlier!

But Elvis had more going on than just his unusual footwear, of course.

He wasn’t too shabby at being able to connect emotionally with his fans.

This is why I’m convinced his marketing workshops would’ve been big draws.

The ability to connect our marketing to the emotions of our intended audience is one we need to keep building.

And I’m not sure about the most effective way to go about this.

Some communication strategists say that our first step should be to take a researched-based “marketing love” assessment, as love is the basis of positive emotions and feelings.

But when I discovered that this activity would require all of us to participate in something akin to an online GoToMeeting “group hug” – I clicked back to experts more in line with my comfort zone.

Thank goodness I found Brooke Ballard, the digital strategist for B Squared Media, where the tagline is “Think Conversation, Not Campaign.”  (Dang, that’s good.)

Brooke offers a better way for us to gauge our “emotional marketing” level.

She contends that most of us graduate through these four basic stages when we compose messages for Twitter, Facebook, and other social media.

We start out with clichés and facts… and eventually, and ideally, make progress toward opinions and feelings.

In a sense, our messages start with us and later – still end with us.

Brooke believes that once we get to the level where we are comfortable sharing our feelings, we’ve got the chance to really begin connecting.

From the springboard of our own feelings, we will be better able to connect with the feelings of our audience, and then be able to move on to what they believe in, value, and think.

Clichés and facts are where we begin, but we shouldn’t be content to stay here.

Connecting with what our audience values and thinks is where we must strive to be.

I hope this news helps you in some way.

It’s rather distressing to me.

My topic for tomorrow was scheduled to be  “There’s no I in the word Team.” 

Now’s a heckuva time to learn that clichés are on the outs.

Tom Page, SCN                   Find love with SCN on Facebook.