Marketing is a funny thing. On the one hand, it seems hopelessly technical. You have to spend your life collecting data, analyzing sentiment, and tweaking Adwords. But on the other, it is surprisingly human. You’re just having a conversation with people who can derive value from what you sell.

Please don’t misunderstand: collecting metrics is still essential, and all the most successful companies do it. But if you really want to compel people to buy your stuff, you have to delve deeper into the murky depths of their psyche. 

Point Out Your Shortcomings

Pointing out your shortcomings might sound like a bad idea, but it can have two positive effects: 

1. It makes you appear more authentic 
2. It helps to manage expectations

Telling a client that you can deliver the world automatically makes them suspicious of you. People are generally savvy, and they understand that you can’t get something for nothing. If you present yourself as someone who has all the answers, you look inauthentic and set yourself up for a fall.

If, however, you point out your weaknesses and then deliver in a way that blows your clients’ expectations out of the water, you’re in business. You’ll give them the feel-good factor, and they’ll know to return to you in the future. 

Focus On Scarcity

Whenever you design a PPC advert, you want to communicate scarcity in some way. It doesn’t actually matter what form it takes, so long the customer believes that they need to act fast to take advantage of whatever you want to sell. 

NetSearch Digital Marketing – a PPC agency – points out the fact that you should never just “set and forget” online advertising. You should, in their view, always rotate it, bobbing and weaving with the times. An approach like this helps you to continually emphasize scarcity. Saying that an “offer ends on Sunday” or that “stocks are running out” is a good example.

Do Not Talk About Your Competitors In Your Pitch

You might offer goods and services identical to the next business, but that doesn’t mean you should mention them in your pitch. Research shows that when companies talk about their products in isolation, customers focus on them more. However, when they name drop their competitors, suddenly, their interest plummets. 

Keep your pitches simple. Focus on what you can offer. And don’t provide prospects any reason for their minds to wander. 

Come Up With A Catchy Opening Gambit

The hardest part of marketing isn’t selling, it is grabbing the attention of customers in the first place.

Researchers have looked into how companies might go about doing this. Investigators, for instance, approached people to hand over their email addresses in exchange for a bottle of free soda. Around a third of people took the experimenters up on their offer. 

However, when they approached customers with the question: do you consider yourself an adventurous person? they handed over the email addresses two-thirds of the time. 

Asking the question was a way to align prospects with the brand image.