Trust Archive - Page 3 of 6 - The Art of Communicating

What selfish marketers overlook

Some marketers treat us as kind of dumb.

For example in the way they try to persuade us by hiding their cons and exaggerating their pros (if not downright inventing some).

Let’s call them the “selfish marketers”.

The fascinating part is how much effort selfish marketers invest into this. They spend huge resources on inventing promises that sound irresistible or stories that create buzz – not to mention all the money they throw towards marketing agencies who give them more of that.

By doing that, they try to decorate a product they don’t trust in themselves to be good enough if they told us the truth.

In my experience, your effort is better spent in telling a true story and making it work. That involves refining your product so that you can actually trust it to be good. It also involves listening closely to what your customers actually want (and need). It doesn’t stop with the quest for clarity to find the words that make your customers see what you see.

The selfish marketer starts from building something and puts all their effort in crafting a story on top of that something.

The honest marketer starts with empathy, uncovers what matters to the customers, builds a special thing that delivers exactly that … And then they tell a true story about it … using words they trust in and believe, themselves.

The best products are those that customers love even more when they know the complete truth. They are not irresistible because the promise sounds irresistible but because it is. And so, your customers support you in creating the buzz.

What’s a product where that’s the case for you?

The comfortable place of honesty

You’re an honest marketer. That’s why you don’t overpromise. You care for keeping your promises.

I do, too.

But still: could your promises be bolder?

The reason I’m asking is that I’ve met quite a number of brilliant people for whom the noble statement to “underpromise and overdeliver” has become a place to hide. A comfort zone. They play it a bit too safe.

The problem is that they fear not keeping a promise so much that they promise only the things that they can comfortably keep. They only ever promise something that’s easy to keep.

But there’s an alternative to overpromising. And that’s to promise big. Promises that are outside of your comfort zone, yet not so far as to be unrealistic. Promises for which you don’t know all the answers, yet, but know where to look for the answer. Promises that lead you to try harder and push your own boundaries.

This is what differentiates people who care from “overpromisers”. The latter put all their effort in finding excuses why it wasn’t their fault if a promise wasn’t kept. People who care put all their effort in finding ways to keep the promise regardless. That’s why they are able to make bold promises and still be able to keep them. (And, at least in my experience, they usually do.)

Persuading people

The moment you try to persuade your customer you essentially admit that …

i) either you don’t fully understand what really matters to them or
ii) you don’t trust your product to deliver on what matters to your customer.

(Or both, obviously.)

If you fully understand your customers’ needs and desires and if you also trust in your product to deliver on that, then you won’t need to persuade. You only need to make them see by telling a true story about your product.

Because once they see it, it becomes totally obvious: This is the product that serves my needs. They’d be fools not to buy it, right?

That’s why it’s so much easier to start with that story in mind and build your product so it delivers on that story – rather than the other way around.

When you first build the product and then go looking for a story, you might end up discovering that it’s, well, not that great a fit after all. Hence, the need for persuasion techniques.

But when you do it the other way around, then all it takes is to speak with clarity.

How to outcompete bullshitters

Whatever industry you’re in, you will be competing with bullshitters: people who promise big but don’t bother whether they can actually deliver big (if at all).

I see two theoretical ways to outcompete bullshitters out of which only one is practical:

First, patience. The one problem that bullshitters can’t solve is trust. Sooner or later, people will start to discover that the bullshitters just, well, bullshit.

However, that doesn’t really solve your problem. For two reasons: First, the Lucy approach – which basically means that they will try ever harder to bullshit even better. Second, the next bullshitter is waiting around the next corner.

Therefore, I think it’s best to just face this: There’s always going to be bullshitters around trying to catch your customer.

Which leaves the second approach as maybe the only way to outcompete bullshitters: Become so good at telling true stories that they resonate better than their bullshit stories.

Brutal honesty

Do you trust you customer with the decision to buy from you? In other words: If they knew everything you know, would they buy?

If not, then why not?

The best way to find out whether your product is breathtakingly good, is to tell a brutally honest story about it (even if it’s just to yourself). Then, observe what happens.

The best products are those which people fall in love with even more after they’ve been told the complete truth.

What was the boldest promise you ever made to a customer?

Why didn’t you make it bolder?

Bold promises are a competitive advantage. Too often, though, we leave that advantage to the bullshitters.

Bullshitters don’t care for keeping their promises. They care for getting the deal. And so, they will make whatever promise their customers need to hear to close the deal, the bolder the better. These marketers are super creative at coming up with excuses why they couldn’t keep the promise. For them, it’s about the deal, not the promise.

And yet, it’s who you have to compete with. The good news is this: When you make bold promises, you care to actually keep them. Instead of being creative with excuses, you get creative with keeping them.

Honest marketers often struggle with making bolder promises because they are not 100% sure to be able to keep them. The problem is when you keep this 100% in your comfort zone.

So, here’s a challenge: Which promise can you make outside of your comfort zone? What would need to be true so that you can be sure to keep it?

We need to spice it up

The whole piece needs to be more emotional to get people interested. Let’s add some in. Juice it up with some nice storytelling. And gorgeous images.

Also … count me out.

Because if you need to decorate your story with emotional bits, it means that your story is flawed.

A way better approach would be to EXTRACT the emotional aspects, not add them.

What’s the spice INHERENT in your idea? Surface that!

Of course, the obvious question is what to do if you feel that that’s exactly the problem … because it feels like there is no inherent emotion.

I don’t believe you.

If your product is the solution to an actual struggle that actual humans have, then there is no way that there are no emotions involved.

Surface them! Make me feel the pain of my struggles, make me feel the happiness once I get rid of the struggles.

Add-on emotions might give you attention, inherent emotions drive action.

Most storytelling is selfish

Let’s face it, storytelling in business is mostly selfish. It’s about getting attention, engagement, and ultimately, the deal.

The childhood stories people tell, the holiday stories they share, the family stories they post, these are often (not always) just an attention grabbing packaging to trigger emotions so the marketer can sneak in a call-to-action.

How often have you found yourself disappointed after clicking on “read more” when that cute little story was just one more way to grab your attention and get you to click on something.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not arguing that emotions wouldn’t have a place in business or that you should stop sharing your private side.

Actually, quite the contrary: Do more of that. Trigger more emotions. Deeper emotions.

But do it respectfully.

Tell stories ON BEHALF of your audience – as opposed to exploiting them.

Great stories don’t trick us into an action that’s in the marketer’s best interest. Great stories move us to take action that’s in our own best interest.

Fake tension vs. real tension

Bad newspapers lead with fake tension.
Great newspapers lead with real tension.
What’s the difference?

Fake tension is created by holding information back.
Real tension is created by the information itself.

Here’s an example:

A. Scientists made a sensational discovery. Click to learn why space as we know it is about to change.

B. Scientists were able to create a wormhole in the lab. Read on to learn the story behind the discovery.

The first version doesn’t tell me what’s so sensational. I’ll have to click to find out. Most of the time, I’ll be disappointed because, well, wormholes aren’t the usual reveal. More often than not, what the writer called sensational, turns out to actually be lame to me.

The second version does tell me what’s sensational. The crucial difference, though, is that it trusts the reader to judge this. It doesn’t pretend to know better than me what I find sensational. It trusts me with that decision.

The problem with fake tension is that it easily becomes addictive for the writer. Because it works. At least for a while. People do click to find out. Which makes it appear as though the readers appreciate that kind of writing.

Real tension, however, is a lot harder to create. Because it requires empathy. What is it that my readers are actually interested in?

But when you consistently figure that out, not only do you get rid of fake tension. But because you deliver on your promise of real tension, you create trusted long-term relationships.

So, what do your customers actually find sensational? What creates real tension for them?

Silly Faces

Making a silly face and writing a provocative statement beneath it is one of the best ways to get people on YouTube to click on your video thumbnail.

If silly faces are what you want to be known for, that is.

Not everything that works needs to be done.

What do you want to be known for?

(Also: if you’re on the other side, the audience’s side, it’s your decision to click on that silly face or not.)

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