You're in an alternate universe. Tony Robbins is now a motivational speaker who helps marketers improve their success.
You learn Tony is a keynote speaker at your next content marketing conference.
Whelp! Now you're intrigued.
How is Tony going to provide you with insight on how to improve your marketing?
Sure, he markets himself well, but what does he know about content marketing strategy as a CMO, content marketer or other professional in the trenches?
Well, he actually knows a lot, and while he doesn't share that knowledge as content marketing advice in the real world - you can take what he teaches and improve your content marketing results in real life!
How Can Tony Robbins Help Your Content Strategy?
One of the most powerful tools Tony (and other motivational speakers) uses to improve people's lives is changing their words.
He points out that the English language has about 500,000 words, but most people use only 2,000 of them regularly, which is just 0.5% of the total.
Why is that?
Habituation.
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.
Tony says our habitual vocabulary consists of only 200-300 words.
So, what does this have to do with marketing?
I'm suggesting that you change some common words that might be holding you back and apply that proven motivational speaker approach to create better results for your business.
EXAMPLE: Stop Using the Word "Marketing"
Why?
Well, let's examine the word's definition and consider how it might negatively affect business.
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 things that annoy your consumers, customers and clients today.
How can your brain think about anything else if that's where the content creation process starts?
🧠 Even if marketers want to evolve their strategies to impact change, the word marketing has connotations that keep the mind focused on promoting and selling - especially when coupled with "strategy."
What happens?
The brain focuses on numbers, algorithms and old marketing science instead of empathy, modern trends, community, connection and behaviors.
Consider changing how you label your work, team or strategy to something that focuses less on promoting and selling and instead focus on:
Connection
Resonating
Value or helping
Communicating (like humans)
What changes?
👉🏻 So, with "marketing," the brain focused on drivers like:
"How can we achieve these numbers?"
"How can we get them to click?"
"They need to know this."
👉🏻 Now, with a more audience-focused word, a new mindset focuses on drivers like:
"How can we tap into their needs and pain points?"
"How do we lower their skepticism?"
"How do we generate the best reactions?"
NEXT EXAMPLE: Stop Saying "Lead Nurturing" and "Conversion"
I'm not saying that "lead nurturing" campaigns are doomed to fail.
However, it can fall into an unhealthy emphasis on numbers that disrupt opportunities to build relationships.
What happens as a result?
When I talked to Ethan Beute about his book on Human-Centered Communication, he pointed out that numbers can chaotically dehumanize a marketing strategy.
Just in the last year, I've had discussions with companies and marketers who take a numbers approach (instead of value/reader-focused) approach to blogging that looks like this:
STAT: We wrote 10 blogs. We got 2 leads.
CONCLUSION: We need to write 30 blogs in order to get 6 leads.
This is a classic case where the brain tells people they need to succeed by constantly focusing on the numbers.
Ethan shared an example of an email marketing goal focused on closing ten deals from a list of 8,000 people by automating all of the touches or by closing ten deals or ten transactions.
Most marketers know the return on these automations is going to be low. It's just accepted with no intent to change anything - except adjusting more numbers.
"It was 15 touches to get a prospect's reply. And now it's like 21. And then what's the logical conclusion? Are we going to get to 65?" he said.
He said a better idea is to spend human-focused time and energy cultivating better lists and messaging by making more personal, specific, and engaging touches.
And conversion? Come on! We can do better than that word, right?
After all, how comfortable do YOU feel knowing someone is trying to convert you to something or put you through some form of conversion?
t sounds like we're trying to force people into something instead of empowering them to make a decision naturally.
So to re-cap:
➡ "Lead nurturing" can put the marketing brain into a locked mindset that:
Focuses on numbers that diminish humanity
Focuses on scale over effectiveness
Risks a high threat of negative response
➡ "Conversion" can put the marketing brain into a locked mindset that focuses on making people want something.
💡 What if you changed LEAD NURTURING to VALUE CULTIVATION or something similar that focused on:
A human-focused effort
A lifetime value for both parties
A set of mutual benefits
💡 And what if you changed CONVERSION into something like VALIDATION (like proving your empathy, authenticity, transparency and value to consumers)?
NEXT EXAMPLE: Change B2B and B2C to P2P
➡ Business to Consumer sounds like a building/wall/group talking to a person.
➡ Business to Business sounds like a building/wall/group talking to another building/wall/group.
At the end of the day, we're trying to communicate, connect and help people.
So why not say you're P2P (Person - to - Person) or something similar?
NEXT EXAMPLE: Stop saying BRANDING.
Seriously, think about it - What might be the reason to drop "branding?"
The habituated view of branding creates TONS of barriers between marketers and modern audiences.
🤔 Think about the overabundance of branding rules or structures.
Many of those rules may only mean something internally but nothing to the people they're trying to reach.
For example, I've seen companies constrain themselves by thinking everything they do has to be "branded."
On social media, all their posts have almost identical graphics, the same colors, fonts and backgrounds, with little to no variety.
🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦
Couple that with a social media feed that is doing nothing but automating one-way communications and promotions, and it struggles to make people stop and take notice of anything "different."
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.
Obviously, branding helps 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.
➡ What about something rooted in DISTINCTION?
The Oxford definition of Distinction is:
"Excellence that sets someone or something apart from others."
This means communicating to consumers how you're different without over-branded content that looks extremely redundant and leaves no room for creativity or adaptability.
When I worked for public broadcasting, one of the most popular self-help shows on television was called Change Your Brain, Change Your Life.
Changing the habituated marketer brain could be a game-changer for your business's success while your competition remains confined to habituations they've yet to recognize or address.
If I can help you break old marketing habituations to improve your content results, reach out to me today, and let's talk!
This article was also featured in Humanized Content Insights (my LinkedIn Newsletter).
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