Is Your Content Creating The Right Perception?

Scott: And one of the first things I wanted to talk to her about today was how the communication and attitudes about audience internally are going to automatically impact the content that's created from that same organization.

I mean, as a consumer, as a content consumer, and even maybe as a marketer, you've likely experienced both. You might have been in a culture that was just constantly saying, you know, oh, they won't figure this out, or, oh, they don't know this, or, oh, we know better. Or maybe it's something where you're saying, okay, we know they have this problem, so we need to continuously make content that helps them understand that we are the ones they want to fix the solution.

To fix this problem, you know, they, they need to understand, they need to get, we need to make them understand that they need us. And when there is internal dialogue like that about the audience,

it's impossible for content not to be automatically created with something that sounds like that's exactly what you're saying. You can put all the creativity or marketing dressing on it that you want. It's still gonna come across that. That's your attitude about the audience, and they're already expecting that from most people.

So it's gonna be easy for them to look at that content and interpret it that way. So not only do we need to have humanized company cultures, in order to create humanized content, we have to have the characteristics of a humanized culture, which starts with self-awareness. Being able to say, wait a minute, what?

What's going on in my head right now as I create this content? And you're able to say, I'm really making this about me and I need to make it about them.

Shira: Well, it's more than all that too, right? Even if we think about how the other person on the other side thinks, we need to understand that they may not think the way we do. There's a difference between hint and ask culture. There's the difference between nice and kind cultures and you've got collective and individual, all these different things.

And that makes a difference also in how you communicate to the person on the other side. Who are you talking to? How did they respond to things? You don't own your perception. You don't own your brand, you don't own your perception. The person on the other side does. And with perception economics, it's the reason why box water can charge one amount.

And the one that I buy at Safeway for 25 cents a bottle, charges a different amount. The perception is different for whatever reason, even though it's the exact same item.

And I have the perception formula, which I've developed in order to. After so many decades in sales and marketing and working so much in account based marketing, which is very relationship driven, and you need to build better relationships and understand who's on the other side.

And a lot of the time that's global. So you're speaking to a global audience and they. You know, a lot of the time don't think the way we do in the United States. So how are you going to message to them if, especially if you don't necessarily have a marketing team based in every location that you're selling to.

So with the perception formula, it's a framework and its perception is equal to the function of heuristics, which are mental shortcuts, hormones. And because it's a practitioner's formula, I'm not talking about all of them. I'm basically talking about the ones you could trigger. Through either experiential, uh, events or through the way you're messaging, you know, different things that you could trigger through either your product or messaging or experience.

And then there's the history, the history, the person or the brand has with you if you're doing B2B, how your two companies have worked together previously. If you're doing B2C, how the person views you or if they've had previous experiences with your ads or read about you or whatever. Then heritage, cultural background and you know, like we said, people don't think the same way.

There's a lot of different cultural things out there that you need to consider. So with all of that, with the framework, you're able to better communicate and message and understand who's on the other side and influence your perception accordingly.

Scott: I mean, there's a pretty deep explanation as to why you can't just have a one message like that. Everybody needs to know why we're great, or everybody needs to know why they need us. And put it into content and hope that lots and lots of people, especially if you're on a global scale, are gonna go, oh yeah, we do need them.

Right? And sometimes that's just marketing habituation. That's just, you know, being in that, autopilot that marketing gets us in sometimes. But even if we're not talking about a global audience, it still applies. And even in my long career as a content creator. I had pushback at times when I ever suggested that we shouldn't have a universal message that just goes in all of our content.

Another way that you can self-sabotage your ability to connect with audiences is by recognizing when maybe you're too obsessed with the competition. Yeah, because then you're not even thinking about the message so much anymore. You're just trying to think about how you can outdo them.

If you're going to focus on competition, instead of looking at them and say, okay, we need to do better than what they're doing. It needs to be maybe a little more focused on, okay, they're not talking to people in a humanized fashion, or they're leaving all these things out, or they're still, they're still talking to them like, an advertisement.

There's our opportunity, you know, looking for these opportunities and these gaps.

Because I'm willing to bet that in most industries, opportunities like that are just everywhere because people are just so used to being in a marketing culture. That's about the very thing we're saying, don't do. And you can look at your competition and go, holy crap, they're doing that. So if we don't do that, if we fill that gap.

That our competition is just leaving for us. That's where we can gain an advantage.

Shira: Focus on what they're not doing. Focus on what they're not saying. If they're not properly taking care of the customer, there is something for you to be doing there. You know, turning everything into a commodity does not help you. So if, if a company is just going and saying, okay, here's what our competition is doing, we should be doing this as well, that's commoditizing your product.

Looking at what the competition is doing, understanding your customer and what they actually need, and building accordingly is turning you into a product that is not commoditized because you're doing things differently. You're listening to what the customer needs, and you're building what the customer needs.

Scott: Okay, so if we start getting ourselves into a self-aware mode of being consciously aware of what we're doing and where we're starting, some of the next phases have to involve being aware of our word choices. Sometimes it's as simple as, does this sound like marketing or does this sound like I'm talking to somebody I'm trying to help?

 And that's even true when you're reading texts because marketing language is so familiar that you don't even have to be speaking it in a video for someone to interpret it as marketing language. It's almost like you could read an email or even some social media post, and the brain's reading it almost with a voiceover.

That sounds like an advertisement because that's the way it sounds.

And if we start thinking about ways we can evolve our word choices to be more human, we also have to think about maybe how some of those words can generate emotion, which I feel like gets so overlooked in a lot of today's content, and part of it's because. We really kind of minimize not only the impact of emotion and decision making, but we also forget just how unconscious emotion is in our daily lives. 

One of the fundamental things that gets lost when we get into our marketing habitations, our autopilot and marketing, is the power of words, not only from an interpretation standpoint, but an emotional standpoint.

Shira: It plays a huge role. So in cybersecurity, you end up using the word risk a lot because companies want to de-risk. Another company that's really great at this, if we're looking at the consumer side, would be Allstate. Okay. Most of their commercials about the chaos guy, I. So they start off with something that is gonna trigger cortisol and norepinephrine stress and paying attention.

And then they end it with endorphins, which is laughter because you've got the chaos guy at the end making fun of whoever it is that something bad happened to. And then the feeling that you're left with are the endorphins. It's the laughter. That laughter makes you feel good. Feeling good is what you end up associating with Allstate.

Allstate making fun of chaos. It may seem counterintuitive, but it works. It works really well. So figuring out where your consumer or customer lies, right? Because not everybody's B2C, they could be B2B, and how you end up pulling them in. And then you may wanna be counterintuitive to the rest of your industry as part of your differentiation.

Humor's hard to do though. So you need to have pros doing that.

If you know that the industry itself, I was actually just writing about this, if you know that the industry is in a state of distress, all right, so then you're gonna have to think, all right, if the industry itself is down and they're going through a downturn and there's a lot of stress inside of the companies that you're looking to sell to, then you need to add things that will cut off cortisol and will make them feel better.

So the more things that you have that make people feel good in your sales cycle, in your marketing, in your communications, the better it is. 

Scott: I love the depth of context that Shera is putting into emotion in content. Because like, again, I think one of the, the challenges with people thinking about emotion is they make emotion like this one dimensional thing and emotion is complex and it's powerful and it's unconscious.

There's, there's just so many elements to it. So while we're thinking about this, I think another. Thing to examine is maybe some of the situations where we know emotions evolved, we just don't think much about it. And that's some of the behavioral science that goes into some content marketing strategies.

Even if they're not, you know, having their marketing meeting, talking about emotion per se. But they might be saying things like, oh, that'll make them do this because they're gonna be worried, content with negative themes meant to generate negative emotions that are meant to generate a response that says, oh, I don't want that to happen, so I need to, you know what I'm talking about. So some people say, that's good. Some people say, oh no. Avoid negativity at all costs. So I had to ask Shera, what's her take on that?

Shira: So scarcity, right? The whole 15 minute thing comes from I implementing scarcity. You've got 15 minutes. This is a limited time offer. Figure it out by now, then buy that false scarcity. After so many times it kind of loses its.

 It may work once or twice with people and look, it will work in that you will sell more, but eventually it wears off. There are some things that wear off over time. There are some things that we still like. Progress bars. We like to see progress bars end up at a hundred.

That one still works. Scarcity. I think with the 15 minutes, it depends on what the item is, how badly you want it. Yeah, it may work, it may not. Um, because I think it's a pretty common understood, trigger if you will, or tactic. So it depends. It depends. But yes, you watch it over time and you'll see if it goes up or down or if it stays the same.

There's also testing. You should be testing all the time. So if you're not testing and you're just assuming everything's going to stay the same, you could be missing. You could be missing on. Maybe it's gonna do better without it. Maybe it's gonna do better with it. Take it off, see if it does better or if it does worse, how are people reacting?

Are you getting better customers with this? Are you getting worse? So, you know, there's a lot to it. 

Scott: Boy, this is a great point because what's another thing marketers have a tendency to do when we talk about habituation? Without considering, without being self-aware enough to go, wait a minute, we're doing what everybody else does, or We're doing what we've been doing for the last three or four years.

It's just that. It's constantly doing things. We've always done things that feel safe and things that don't require a lot of thought because we're not having to change anything. But then to her point here, we're not testing anything else, so we don't even know if something could work better. I'm currently working on a book right now, and one of the things that.

I do is talk about this very thing because it just makes me crazy. How much repetition is involved in, in what people do over and over and over again when it comes to content, and then how much of that comes from seeing other people do the exact same thing. For example, YouTube videos. How many times do you open your YouTube channel as a YouTube consumer to see lots of shocked faces on thumbnails?

How many of those videos start with people going, Hey guys, even though they should be talking to one person, how many people make the mistake of telling people to like and subscribe and do all this stuff for them first before they give you what you were there to get? And it's because that's what they've seen so many other people do.

I actually have a highlight in this book that I'm working on about the shocked faces thing. Just as an example of what can happen if you're not paying attention or at least thinking about doing something different every once in a while, and it was talking about regarding the shock faces. I found this, um, experiment that Mr. Beast supposedly did, where he decided to do a few shocked faces with his mouth closed instead of open. And those did better.

I mean, so the change doesn't even have to be radical.

 One of the things I don't understand is why we're so focused on, oh, well, I have to make a shock face because that's what you do on YouTube. We don't go, well, my viewer sees that all the time. What could I do differently? 'cause I also, by the way, I see lots of thought leaders and other people that create content that aren't making that face and they're killing it.

So it's not like a necessity and nobody believes You're really shocked Anyway. We had Matt Lock just recently on the show, and he was talking about cliches, what he called cliches. Things that people in your industry are just constantly doing that make you nuts when you're a consumer and to make that list at work so you can say, okay, what do I see all the time and what am I tired of seeing and what turns me off?

Maybe we shouldn't do that. Maybe it's email spam, maybe it's gated content, and maybe even some of the gimmick things that people think are always gonna work well. End up being just that gimmicky things.

Shira: So I'll tell you, if I see that turning thing that that wheel on a website, I'm automatically assuming that your item is cheap and I'm not going to buy it.

And that is through experience. I bought a backpack when that first came out and I'm like, oh, this is neat. And then I tried the game thing. Backpack was terrible. And that was it. I had that bad experience and from that moment on, I never bought anything when I saw that twirly thing again. So that's the other thing, if you are doing something that's a gimmick to get people to buy, understand the gimmick will only last for so long.

Scott: Yeah, I think there are some great brainstorming sessions at companies or just, you know, if you're a solopreneur where you start thinking about differentiation, that's such a great place to start is just start thinking about some of those experiences or attitudes people have about gimmicky things are just.

Tactics that just hit people all the time. It's like clickbait. Why do you think people stop and think whether they click on something anymore Because they've been bit, you know, or as I say, they've been punched and they don't wanna be punched. 

And I told Shira about an experience I had as a freelancer one time working with a company that offered people a chance to see their credit score and said they wouldn't charge 'em anything for it. And then after they entered in all their information, you had to put in a credit card number because they wanted to secretly subscribe you to something. And they were more focused on how, uh, friendly they could make people look on the website.

Hoping that that would make people trust them when they pull the bait and switch.

I mean, in a case like that, you don't even have to think about previous experiences of being trapped into something where you were told upfront you weren't gonna have to pay anything. , that's just a bad experience, whether it's your first time or your 10th time.

Shira: I mean, come on. Nobody likes a bait and switch. If you have to manipulate people in order to do something, maybe you shouldn't be doing it. So there is a lot of just common sense in there. And at the same time, sometimes we think to ourselves, everybody thinks like we do.

So never do a bait and switch, never manipulate that. Those are two things that are just. Common sense in my opinion. But on the other hand, sometimes we're gonna think to ourselves, oh, well everybody's gonna think like I do about this, and they may not. As a matter of fact, maybe you think like this and nobody else does.

You can't make these gross generalizations about any of it. Right. Um, which is the reason why the perception formula. Works with the heritage and the history. 'cause when you put all of that together, then you have a better idea of what their framework is in their head and how they think.

There is no point in manipulation. I think of things in terms of building relationships and long-term value.

Now, if it is a cheap item that you only buy once and you expect to have no relationship with them afterwards. Then, well, I am not your marketer, but also you could do unethical things if you can afford the chargebacks. Do I recommend it? No. But also I am not your marketer.

The reason why I like. Perception and influence and ethical relationship building and ethical influence is because with stronger relationships, you get a better team. With stronger relationships, you get a better customer experience. With stronger relationships, you get better referrals, higher customer lifetime value.

 If something goes wrong in the account, if something, if there was a bad hire or a mistake happened inside of the system or there was a bug or whatever, if you have an ethical relationship and a strong relationship, you will wary that storm considerably better than if you. Didn't have that relationship at all and there was no trust established.

With higher trust, you have a stronger relationship. You understand each other better, and you both get more. All boats rise.

Scott: I feel like relationships is one of those words that we hear a lot in marketing and sometimes on the surface. Just as human beings, we understand what a relationship is, but for some reason we struggle to figure out how we can have a relationship through content marketing. With another person. And maybe sometimes that might depend on, where your business is at right now, or your industry.

But it's always possible.

The opportunity is naturally there..

Shira: I would like to think that people understand that they wanna build a relationship with the customer and with their team and leaders want to build relationships. Maybe I'm just thinking higher of people, but I do believe that this is kind of our go-to and our natural state. I think where we lose ourselves is when we get so immersed in our company culture and drinking our Kool-Aid, that we forget about the person on the other side and that they aren't us.

Um, a great example of this is most startups, okay? Most startups or junior marketers, they will write something purely from the point of view of, we wanna sell to these people, so we're gonna tell them what we do.

 That's not going to get you much, 'cause you're not telling me. Why I care. I used to have a talk when I did, uh, startup talks that basically started with, um, the only person who cares is your mom.

 Everybody else you need to convince. So what? What am I getting out of this? If you are not one of my two sons, why do I care? 

So years ago. I was talking to a guy who has a startup and he was super frustrated and I'm like, what's going on? And he's like. Well, we have this product and it's for enterprises and it does this, this, and this, and it costs less and it does less, but it costs less.

And we're selling to enterprises and I'm like, wait a second, you're selling to enterprises. Do you offer all of these things? No, but you cost less. Yeah. Enterprises have money and they want these things. Why do they want your product? And he starts screaming at me. He's like, these, the VCs are saying the exact same thing.

 Why is everybody saying this to me? And then I'm like, alright, calm down. What's going on here? Why did you build this? Why do you think there's a market for this? And he's like, well, there are these smaller enterprises and they don't need all that stuff. They need this stuff and they can't afford , those other.

Uh, solutions. Anyhow, it's too much, but they could afford us. And I said, okay, that's a different frame. Now you have a specialized product for an underserved market. And his whole face changed. He then reframed his pitch and got funding.

 His goal at that he was already selling his product 'cause he knew he who he served, but he wasn't able to get financing. He wasn't able to get VC money because he couldn't explain his frame of why what he was doing was important. 

 and then they grew. We do things like this every day. We, we don't frame things in the way they need to be framed for the people. We're aiming to explain what we're looking forward to. If you talk at people, they're not going to listen.

If you. Make declarations and push your own agenda without explaining anything behind it. Why is anybody going to care?

Scott: Yes. And speaking of explaining things, another thing that people don't like to explain upfront, like let's just say on your website or maybe any type of content that the audience generally wants to know are things like how much something costs.

And there's all these behind the scenes reasons for why they think it's not a good idea to share it. But again, what we're talking about here is what your audience wants,

 Just tell people why something costs, what it does. 

Shira: Exactly. Oh, a great example of this. Um, clothing brands, you know, if, if something is, and it may not be expensive, it may be that it's, the value is there. We source organic materials, we. Manufacturing the United States, we pay a living wage. The people who work for us have health insurance. This, this, and this.

That means we're going to cost more than, this is not fast fashion, hence it is smaller runs. Smaller runs mean you don't get the economies of scale. No. Economies of scale means a higher price if you explain this from the get go. People can understand what you're doing, why you're doing it, and the bonus of working with you and your ethical, you know, if, if their, if they're mores and taboos work along with yours, if their ethos matches yours, they are more likely to buy from you and more likely to be loyal to you.