Social Savvy: Apply brainy basics to better connect with customers – October 2024

By Irene Williams

How our brains function is so fundamental to how we experience life every day, I think everyone should take a Brain 101 course or at least be provided with a simple user’s manual. For any of us in business-and especially those of us in the business of marketing-a basic understanding of the brain can open new inroads for customer connections and unleash fresh approaches for effective selling. Follow along for a few facts and tactics to help you and your team keep the brain in mind as you create selling messages and marketing materials.

BRAIN FACT #1: Brains have limited working memory.
The brain can hold no more than three to four items in working memory at any given time. This limitation applies to everyone; it’s a matter of biological evolution, even for the smartest among us. Kind of like how a computer’s operations slow or cease if its RAM (random access memory) is maxed out, our brains can only manage so much. However, while it’s possible to add RAM to a computer to get it running more efficiently, we don’t have such an option for our brains. When presented with too much information or too many options at once, we not only lose track but also experience decision fatigue, which can derail sales opportunities.

As a marketer and business leader, it’s essential to apply this knowledge when crafting customer communications for best results.

• For social posts: Keep messaging to one key point and/or invite only one action. Within someone’s social media feed, you’re already competing with hundreds if not thousands of other posts. By sharing a single message at a time and inviting just one response, you have a better chance of garnering a spot among the three or four items in your customer’s working memory. That succinctness could make the difference.

• For blogs: Convey a main point with three supporting points, followed by a conclusion. Turns out, our brain’s working-memory constraints are a core reason for the standard five-paragraph essay format that many of us learned in school. It has staying power. This basic structure is a brain-friendly way to inform and persuade.

• For email newsletters: Showcase only three or four points or products. Any more than that may be merrier, but it won’t be memorable. Select what you feature strategically and place it in order of importance. By starting an email with your primary content, even readers who skim and don’t scroll will have the chance to see and recall it. Send your emails early in the workday so your messaging has less inbox competition.

Bonus tip: For sales presentations, use the “three to four items” rule when presenting product options or selling points to give clients options without any overload.

BRAIN FACT #2: The brain applies emotion in decision-making.
The brain is known as a “prediction engine” and a “decision-making machine,” and it uses emotion as fuel for both functions. When a life experience is coupled by strong emotion-positive or negative-the brain stores it in long-term memory with the purpose of predicting how you might feel in future situations so that you can make decisions accordingly. You can apply this knowledge to infuse your marketing with emotional threads to guide customers’ responses.

• For brand positioning: Does your brand evoke positive emotions? Based on neuroscience, it should! From your logo and visual representation to the tone of voice in your marketing materials, your brand is the personality customers come to know and, hopefully, trust. Review your branding elements to be sure each one supports a positive emotional connection with customers.

• For advertising: The use of emotion in advertising is very effective. As you create any type of ad for your business, weave in emotional components to support customers’ decision-making. Show smiling faces and attractive images and use copy that appeals to your audience’s need for assurance in their purchasing choices and that conveys the happiness and satisfaction of outcomes in working with you.

• For social content: Factor emotion into all your social media posts to help “stop the scroll.” As you create content, begin by asking what emotion you’d like the audience to feel as they see what you’re sharing. Emotional connection is often what it takes to stop someone from scrolling and tune into what you post. This is one reason video content is so effective; it engages more senses-and senses help in emotional memory recall.

Bonus tip: Emotion helps the brain decide in advance, even for new experiences or interactions someone has never encountered before. Be bold in telling prospective customers the positivity they will feel by choosing to work with your business.

BRAIN FACT #3: The brain defaults to efficiency.
The brain uses more energy than any other organ in the body, accounting for 20% of daily caloric expenditure (or more if a person’s engaged in active learning or deep work). That’s why the brain always seeks ways to be efficient. It will automate, habituate or avoid anything it can to conserve energy. As a matter of fact, this is likely the reason for the working-memory limitation discussed in point one. This simple understanding can greatly inform your marketing efforts.

• For all messaging: Keep it simple! Get to key points quickly. Shorten the word count of your materials. Use bullet points and put core information in bold. Use photos and graphics to support your storytelling. All this helps your customers’ brains receive your info without extra effort.

• For online content: Standardize formats and structures for your posts and other online messaging and use these consistently. This familiarity helps your online audiences jump right into your core messaging without having to expend any extra brain energy to assess or understand.

• For your internal audiences: Simplify communication and trainings for your staff. Parse out product introductions so team members don’t get overloaded. Set basic protocols and systems that are relatively easy to learn and replicate.

Bonus tip: The brain seeks efficiency so it will have ample energy when required. If you have an announcement or rollout to share, communicate strategically to assure your audience that it’s worth their while to invest more time, attention and effort to learn about and take action related to your big news.

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