Business Coaching

HALT Emotional Weakness & Marketing

I've written a few blogs recently about the power of emotional marketing recently and today I have learnt about the HALT acronym.

HALT is a way to help you to recognise your emotional weakness so that you can take steps to bring yourself back under control rather than reaching out for another fix. HALT is a method taught by Alcoholics Anonymous and other emotional support bodies.

HALT usually stands for Hungry, Angry, Lonely and Tired.

It's a pointer to help keep you aware of your emotions and an instruction. To halt and ask if you are giving into weakness.

Without trying appear too cynical, these are triggers that can make people buy.

Suspending Disbelief In Your Marketing

The sales letter has a headline that demands attention because you desperately want what it promises and the opening sentences create curiosity and intrigue about the possible benefits.

What next?

Do you toss the letter in the bin thinking "not more hype and scams trying to take my precious money"...

...Or do you suspend your disbelief for a few minutes and continue reading?

The Power Of The Damaging Admission

You make your money by marketing and selling your product or service and that means communicating very clearly how what you sell can benefit your customers - how it can make them richer, thinner, happier, have more sex...

But people are tired of braggers and wary of hype.

They've been taken for a ride too many times and for too long.

So how can you be more convincing?

Dan Kennedy - Psychological Manipulation Business

Here is a short video from Dan Kennedy at the Glazer-Kennedy Info-Summit 2009 for information marketers and Dan explains that, regardless of how uncomfortable it feels, marketers are really in the psychological manipulation business.

Selling Hope - A Legitimate Practice?

Charles Revson, the founder of Revlon, is quoted as saying "In our factory we make cosmetics. In the store we sell hope. "

Is this selling of  hope the cynical exploitation and manipulation of buyers or a legitimate business practice?

It's a tough question.

I Feel Good - James Brown's Marketing Lesson

I've been listening to Glenn and Sharon Livingstone talk about Emotional Marketing today and whilst I didn't get as much out of the two hours as I'd hoped, it did remind me that the emotional end benefit of buying something is enhanced self esteem.

When you strip away the layers you buy when it makes you feel better about yourself.

Sharon Livingston has identified four basic categories:

Using Brain Based Marketing to Engineer Irrefusable Offers

The first free League of Extraordinary Minds web broadcast on Getting Customers To Choose YOU Over Everyone Else was a huge success as the website became the ninth most popular on the Internet.     

Details of the second broadcast from the League have been announced and the subject and the collection of experts sound just as fascinating as the first.

It's titled, "Using Brain Based Marketing to Engineer Irrefusable Offers: Getting People Who Don't Buy to Buy Enthusiastically".

If that sounds a bit too intellectual, let me explain why I have been drawn into marketing psychology and why I think it is a fascinating subject.

How Your Market Makes Irrational Decisions

Very interesting - and funny-  video from Dan Ariely, the author of Predictably Irrational (affiliate link).

Persuasion Videos with Dave Lakhani - Persuasive Storytelling

One of the topics that I am most interested in is persuasion and influence as it underpins much of what is happening in sales and marketing.

Dave Lakhani is a recognised expert and leading author in persuasion and has a fascinating personal story having been raised in a cult. This triggered his interest in Mind Control.

I wanted to bring the videos of Dave Lakhani into one place for my own purposes and of course, I realised that you would benefit from these ideas as well.

Models of Persuasion - Elaboration Likelihood Model

This may be a bit "academic" but I want to start looking at models of persuasion to see what psychology can offer to sales, marketing and managing a business and I start with the Elaboration Likelihood Method.

It is common to see in marketing and sales books and training the idea that decisions are made emotionally and justified rationally.

To persuade someone to buy, you need to build up the emotional motivation by focusing on some combination of the pain of the problem or the gain of pleasure from the solution.

You then need to provide the logical reasons to buy so that the buyer can justify the emotional decision to buy to themselves, and often even more importantly to someone else.