Content is the cornerstone of marketing, IMHO. With that being said, it MUST have the power of persuasion and that requires psychology. That’s what I refer to as Content Psychology. The practice of putting two strategies together to produce effective powerful messages.
Content Psychology
How do you proactively create content that’s persuasive? Here, we’ll talk about the steps.
Social Media
Social media IS the great persuading tool of our time. There’s no greater channel to deliver content. Social media is all about influence. If you want to truly get people to listen to your message and feel a certain way, you have to leverage your social channels. Believe tend to believe what they see on social media because of how it influences. Recommendations, reviews, tagged photos, hashtags, and most importantly, real-world user experiences. If your followers and customers are talking about you, trust me when I tell you everyone else is listening.
Verbiage
Content psychology is all about getting into the audience’s head. So speaking to them in a way they will be most receptive to the message. You can’t do this is MOST cases without speaking in a complex way. It’s basically Readability, which is something I talk about a lot. Don’t try and sound smart just to do it. Unless there’s a proven need to use big words and MLA style formatting, don’t do it. Everyone has met that guy at a party that just tries too hard. Your readers can feel like that with content too.
Have Transparency
You can’t expect people to trust you if you aren’t authentic. People don’t like feeling like they were misled. Don’t bait and switch your customers with a whole different persona. Be who you really are and fight for what you believe in. Sure, I’m a private person to an extent but I share a LOT because I want to remain fully genuine. Completely on display to be judged. Because I only want to work with people who have the same ideals as me and it’s easy to achieve if people know exactly who you are. But don’t it because it’s content psychology, do it because it’s honestly what’s best for you and your customers.
Consistency
It’s really important to be consistent in your messaging. This helps to solidify who you are. But it also helps validate what you can offer. If I were on a soapbox about content but then dissed it a week later, I’m throwing mixed messages and certainly signaling a red flag to readers. But also think about this, if you don’t set the example of the level of service you provide, how will your future customers know to chose you? I’ve seen real estate agents never use social media and wonder why they’re not getting any listings. Actuaries who are really closed off and unapproachable wondering why their business is dropping off. Imagine if I had no recent blogs. How would that reflect on me as someone who offers blogging services? As a mechanic, you can have a car that doesn’t run but what if most of your shop didn’t?
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There are a lot of ways that you can influence your audience outside of these steps. I’d love for you to share some of the strategies you are doing to accomplish this. What worked for you, and what didn’t? For more content like this and to share your thoughts, visit me on LinkedIn. If you need help improving your content psychology, use Morse Code to send me a complex message!
