Color Matters

Lately I’ve found myself involved in a number of new branding initiatives. New companies seeking to create a compelling brand…  and existing firms trying to become more compelling by investing more thought in the branding exercise.

The topic of color comes up frequently in these projects.  Does color actually matter? Is it a significant variable in the persuasion formula?

The answer is, yes. Color does matter.

Our brains are wired to associate specific feelings with certain colors. Most of us are aware that colors can evoke certain emotions, but it may surprise you to learn that color accounts for 60% of a person’s acceptance or rejection of another person or object.
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How to Be the Most Believable Marketer in Your Industry

A short while ago, I wrote a post discussing one of three key marketing principles discovered and well-documented by the Eureka! Ranch (Overt Benefit). I’ve gotten a lot of feedback since, and thought it would be worthwhile to complete my review of all three principles as we should all have them at the forefront of our minds as we undertake our work.

The second principle speaks to the skepticism that all of us feel when confronted with marketing.  Let’s face it… life experience has taught us to believe little of what we hear from marketers.

For this reason, strong statements of benefits – no matter how compelling – fail to move people to action without the help of REAL reasons to believe what you’re saying.

The benefit is what your offering.  The reason to believe is HOW you’re going to make good on the promise.  We simply have to provide both.

As I watch the marketplace today, I find that this issue – the real reason to believe is the greatest weakness of new business concepts.
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How Can We Make Our Prospects Believe Us?

If only they would believe everything we say. How easy selling would be.

After years of being conditioned to believe that marketers are liars (and sales people are worse), we as consumers have evolved into a very skeptical breed.  Sadly, our skepticism is often validated and reinforced by real-word experience in the marketplace.

So what do we do about it?  How do we differentiate ourselves and our message as simply being believable?  If we can figure this out, we’ll sell more (online and offline).  We’ll increase our conversion rates.  And we will be more profitable.

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Are You Ask Too Much of Your Marketing Materials?

Twice in two days, I’ve had the same conversation with marketers suffering from the same confusion. Both are organizations that rely on lead generation as the first step in their sales processes. That is to say, they expose prospects to their marketing message in an effort to move them to contact the company, learn more, and finalize a sale.

The problem both companies had (and I see this all the time) is they were falling into the trap of over-communicating in their marketing materials… telling their whole stories… every detail… forgetting that the goal of their marketing is not to close the sale on the spot. Rather, the goal is to motivate a prospect to call and engage in the sales process.

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Rewarding Referrals – the Power of Sincerity

When small businesses and high-touch service businesses mimic the referral rewards programs of big businesses, I would argue that they cheapen themselves and fail to maximize the potential yield of their referral sources.

What the heck am I talking about?

I’m referring to the difference between sincere yet deliberate (orchestrated) gratitude and what I call a “transparent referral economy.”

If you’re managing thousands of referrals and referral sources, at some point you may find that you have no choice but to build a simple referral economy. Refer a friend and get $10 off of your next purchase.  Refer two friends and you pay nothing for ….  A referral economy is a publicly stated formula for compensating referral sources.

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