We introduced you to the concept of using “why” instead of “what” to boost your content engagement in a previous post but there is so much value in that one little word that we wanted to delve a little deeper and give you some solid ways to put it into practice to accelerate your business growth. Author and inspirational speaker http://sumnerdigital.wpengine.com/boost-content-engagement-with-this-one-small-word/Simon Sinek has the third most popular video ever on “TED Talks” about inspiring action as a great leader based on his book “Start With Why.” Being the avid marketers that we are, we could see pretty quickly how this information could transform inbound marketing practices and grow your business faster than ever.
A Quick Lesson in Biology
One of the most important quotes from Sinek that applies to marketing is “People don’t buy what you do; people buy why you do it.” While most of what you do when trying to nurture your audience along the buyer’s journey involves a great deal of psychology, the principle of “why” has biological indications. Our brains are made up of three sections: a neocortex that analyzes and rationalizes thoughts and processes language and two limbic sections where feelings are formed, such as loyalty and trust. These two segments are also responsible for decision-making, behavior and they don’t process language at all. That means two-thirds of the human wants to know “why” before making a decision!
Determine “Why” you are in Business
That’s easy enough to do- you’re in business to make money! While ultimately that’s true, you likely have a deeper reason for choosing your specific products or services. If you consider a big box store with thousands of items for sale, they can’t very well base their mission on their products to be successful; they have to find a reason “why” their products are the best ones for their consumers. Use this same approach to determine why your business is the best solution for your target market.
Redesign your Inbound Marketing Content
Rather than putting your focus on convincing your target personas that your products or services are feature-laden and the best of the best, shift to explaining why your offerings are the best solution. Make sure your content is relevant and highlights how it will improve their lives or solve problems your audience faces before making the hard sell. Create that feeling of loyalty and trust; the emotional responses needed to trigger the positive decision by the rational portion of the brain.
Get Closer to your Buyer Personas
Take a deep dive into getting to know your buyer personas so you know the emotional responses that are most likely to bring about the positive decision to meet your marketing goals. Delve deep into the persona psychographics so you can understand them on a level that runs deeper than pure statistics. Once you get close to your buyer personas and can relate to them, creating the content that inspires them emotionally is a lot easier.
As a marketer or business owner, you don many hats when developing your inbound marketing strategies and now we’re adding a little biology to the mix. Knowing that the human brain is geared towards emotional response before making rational decisions, however, helps you understand how these three key takeaways from the principle of “why” can accelerate business growth exponentially.