 There is so much psychology around words, and we all understand why. Words have power in many ways, including the weight behind interpretation of meaning and generation of a response. You've likely heard advice encouraging people to quit thinking about "negative" words that hold them back from "positive" words that inspire meaningful action. For example, it's easy for someone to automatically view a layoff as a "job loss" by focusing on the idea of "loss." This could negatively impact motivations to make something good come out of the situation. So, viewing the layoff as a path toward a "new opportunity" can empower better motivations and create greater outcomes. That's why motivational speakers encourage people to change their words to change their lives. For example, Tony Robbins says, "The human brain likes to take shortcuts. It conserves energy – and it also keeps us stuck in patterns that don't always benefit us."  The Harvard Business Review points out that our brains tend to stop paying attention when they think they've seen enough of something and know everything they need to know. "This phenomenon — the general neuroscientific term is habituation — probably points to an efficient way in which the brain operates. Neurons stop firing once they have sufficient information about an unchanging stimulus. But this does not mean that habituating is always our friend." So, what does this have to do with the business of marketing? Today, many businesses need help making meaningful connections with their consumers. This is because consumers demand more from them now than they did 20 years ago. And even if a business knows it needs to evolve, it may struggle. Why is that? It could be the words marketers use to define their work - words that have been used so much the brain doesn't think about them anymore. For example:
It may be time to get marketing brains to think about them again. Maybe these words provided everything they needed long ago, and it's time for new ones. What if we could change those words in ways that can turn struggles into successes? Let me explain what I mean. Change "Marketing" and "Marketing Strategy" The Oxford definition of marketing is: "The action or business of promoting and selling products or services, including market research and advertising." The Oxford definition of marketing strategy is: "A plan of action designed to promote and sell a product or service." The emphasis is on promoting and selling - the very things that annoy today's consumers. Even if marketers know things need to change, the exact words marketing and strategy have inherent connotations that can keep their mindsets focused solely on self-serving goals and turn consumers (people) into numbers and wallets. As such, plans are developed to get specific amounts of money and generate stats. Just knowing a job is rooted in a selling and promoting construct can create barriers between marketers and human beings. If the brain is limited by outdated concepts rooted in selling, promoting, money and stats, it will be reflected in their communications with their audience. In turn, this creates challenges and frustrations for businesses and consumers. New Terms: Sparketing and Relationship Foundation Consumers hate the number of promotions and advertising they are bombarded with daily. To cope, they will do everything from skip, fast forward, ignore or pay extra money to remove them. Too many marketers spend time trying to intensify efforts and force ads on them anyway. On social media, studies show consumers hate to be told what to do ("click," "buy," "come to our sale," etc.), but we still see plenty of that on the internet. So, it's time to stop the "marketing" and start the "sparketing." That's right. Marketers need to become Sparketers.
Instead of a marketing strategy focusing on what needs to be done to get consumers to realize they need something or achieve a numerical goal, let's work on a relationship foundation. Dr. Jenny Palmiotto is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist known for effectively using well-researched treatment methods, including Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), Relationship Development Intervention (RDI), Behavioral and Brief Models. She says three qualities essential for creating a healthy, enduring relationship are respect, friendship, and trust. Marriage has been an excellent analogy for the modern marketing era because many companies try to get consumers to buy (accept a marriage proposal) before building a relationship (going on some dates). So, let's apply Dr. Palmiotto's essential qualities and apply them to marketing. Respect - Respect the consumer's intelligence and their ability to know when you're trying to trick them with clickbait, SEO-stuffed blogs, gated content traps and more. Also, respect them enough to ask and answer questions, and avoid dictating what you think they need to know. Friendship - Consumers want relationships with the people at a company. This is demonstrated in why people follow brands on social media. Trust - Consumers want to see a genuine interest in addressing their needs through a relationship that builds trust over time. These three qualities can spark the consumer's emotional and logical responses that go into making a buying decision.
Side note - Sparketing Strategy could also work as a replacement term. Change: "Lead Nurturing" and "Conversion"I'm not saying "lead nurturing" campaigns are doomed to fail. However, it can fall into an unhealthy emphasis on numbers that disrupt opportunities to build relationships. Ethan Beute explained the issues this causes in email campaigns during our conversation on Get the Message. "And then all of a sudden, it takes new stat updated. It's 15 touches to get a prospect reply. And now it's like 21. And then what's the logical conclusion? Are we going to get to 65?" He points out that businesses focus on more of everything, including touches and posts. This looks like a classic case where the brain tells people they need to succeed by constantly focusing on the numbers.
That leads to increased odds of getting blocked and ignored. It also contributes to what he calls "digital pollution." If more businesses added that term to their terminology (as something to avoid), it could dramatically improve consumer results. So instead of focusing on numbers, sparketers can focus on people and long-term success. Ethan said the key to a change for the better is focusing less on how much is achieved by aligning the odds of success with extensive lists of names and spending more time on getting the most out of quality engagements. For example, he says if a goal is ten deals from a list of 8,000 people by automating all of the touches or closing ten deals or ten transactions, try spending human-focused time and energy cultivating better lists and messaging by making more personal, specific engaging touches. When re-thinking the process, Ethan says it's about lifetime value as the thoughtful approach to a hundred or a thousand people instead of the automated machine-driven system to 8,000 or 10,000 people to get the same initial closes, number of closes, and the same value. How comfortable would you feel knowing someone said they're trying to convert you to something or put you through some form of conversion? In most cases, probably not very comfy. In pop culture, I think of the 1980s sci-fi series V when the aliens "converted" humans to their side through extreme psychological torture. The Oxford definition for conversion is: "the proportion of people viewing an advertisement and going on to buy the product, click on a link, etc." So the psychological torture of spamming people with ads in hopes that it makes them do something that benefits the advertiser, right?  V (1984) - NBC/Warner Bros. TV That might be a bit extreme, but I do think ads can sometimes make consumers feel like this. New Terms: Value Cultivation and ValidationInstead of a term sounding like the company is nurturing something for its own benefit, value cultivation is about a genuine effort to prove value and spark more impactful responses and actions. As Ethan said, the change can empower long-term value in a way where the consumer is always engaging and coming back when they need something. Instead of efforts to convert someone, companies can work to prove they're worth the consumer's time, money and loyalty through validation efforts. This is about trusting the consumer to know value when they see it, and the company knows how to communicate proof that they have the consumers' best interests at heart.
Change: B2B/B2C and Branding You've probably heard thought leaders like Marcus Sheridan or Heather Garcia-Meza say that marketing isn't B2B or B2C. What kind of visuals can these terms create when our brains think more about it?
It's not hard to imagine the barriers these concepts can create. It can actually cause a real problem on social media. As consumers want to keep in touch and build relationships with brands on places like Twitter, it feels odd when a consumer thinks they're talking to a logo. Putting branding on the list might surprise you. However, I will say it may not be as disruptive as some of the other words. What I'm talking about is an overabundance of branding rules or structures. If you couple that with some of the problems caused by other words on my list, you might be piling up the consumer challenges.
Website A/B testing specialist Chris Dayley has conducted tests with website colors that are so over-branded that they blend so much that color-branded CTA buttons get lost. Instead, a CTA with a completely different color generates better responses. Even though it doesn't "perfectly match" the brand colors - it stands out. And remember what Ocean Spray learned from Nathan Apodaca. He created something that wouldn't have fit their "branding" per se, but it did wonders for their sales, stock and awareness. Two good reasons for branding are to help consumers recognize a brand and associate it with certain qualities. However, if those qualities include building relationships, having conversations, being people-focused, showing humanity and standing out, a different word may be needed. New Terms: P2P and Distinction So Marcus and Healthier have said it's about being P2P. P2P makes a lot more sense and is less likely to create communication barriers - as long as you change your approach with the new word. Don't say you're P2P and take a "talk to the wall approach" to communizing with the Ps. P2P is person-to-person. You could also make it H2H (human-to-human). Meanwhile, instead of thinking about branding, you could focus on distinction. The Oxford definition of Distinction is: "Excellence that sets someone or something apart from others." With this, a people-centric sparketing department can communicate to consumers how they're different without over-branded content that looks extremely redundant. A Big Step Forward for People and BusinessesImagine if businesses could change their marketing terminology and experience the same dramatically positive changes that Tony Robbins and other experts discuss every year. I absolutely can because even the most fundamental challenges and results are present in the situation. We're talking about a business setting, but it still involves humans with brains that can get stuck and benefit from a change. Teacher, author and founder of the Genius Institute, Giorgio Genaus, provides simple advice that improves life for businesses and consumers:
Genaus says, "Reframe your thinking, and you'll be surprised with more realistic and helpful statements. Although it will take time and practice to retrain your brain, eventually, those self-defeating thoughts will become less and less frequent. Just like they say, a little progress, no matter how small, is still progress." This sounds like a significant first step for a business that either knows they need better results from marketing or have been trying to change, but something is still holding them back. Change the words + change the thoughts = empower the improvements. New Terminology is Subjective My first social media job was working for a training company. Instead of giving me a dull, overused and common social media job title, my boss called me the Social Learning Evangelist. That sounded more impactful and helped me get into the right mindset about my job. While I made some new suggestions on marketing terminology, I understand my new words may only resonate with some. In that case, create your own versions of new terms or think about words that would change how your company culture thinks about your most important audiences. That is the most significant change of all. If I can help you develop new ways to connect with your consumers, feel free to reach out to me so I can learn more about you. You might also like
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