At about 3:00am this morning, after the 2-year-old had climbed in bed and started staking his claim to “his” space by kicking me, my brain turned on. Most of the time, I hate it when this happens because I can’t get back to sleep. This morning I came up with something useful.
For a long time I’ve told marketing clients, especially in admissions marketing/higher education, that the goal was simple. We simply show the prospect other people who were happy with their decision to attend the institution in question. Specifically: “That person reminds me of me and they are obviously happy with their decision, so I think I’ll make the same decision and attend that school.”
What I realized this morning is that I’d hit on a simple formula for almost every marketing problem. It’s a syllogysm.
[Variable A: person, business type, situation, goal, etc.] is like me.
[Variable A] is [Variable B: happy, smart, sexy, rich, efficient, etc.] for having decided to [Variable C: buy the product, attend the school, invest in the company, hire the consultant, etc.].
Therefore, I should [Variable C], because then I will be/feel [Variable B].
The only hard part about this formula is filling in the three variables:
A: What NICHE are you targeting?
B: What EMOTION are you trying to connect with your product/service?
C: What RESULT are you promising?
Those three decisions are the most important decisions you’ll make in your marketing adventure.