Some people choose fear. They choose to give themselves a good scare,
whether it’s from watching a horror movie, reading a suspense novel, or strapping
themselves into a thrill ride.
But not many, if any, people make that
decision when they read their mail, scan emails, or skim any other marketing
materials that cross their paths. And
yet, marketers use fear-based marketing all the time.
Why?
Considered to be one of the more powerful
emotions, fear can motivate consumers to make a donation, join a cause, order a
service, or buy a product in an attempt to avoid an undesirable situation.
Can you make fear-based marketing work for
you? Absolutely, as long as you observe
a few guidelines:
- Have a legitimate purpose, a real problem you can solve: don’t use scare tactics simply for the sake of a sale.
- Understand your market. Know what motivates them.
- Make the solution easy to achieve or implement.
- Provide a specific action your audience can take to prevent the feared action from occurring.
- Communicate realistic, not exaggerated, consequences for not taking appropriate action.
Like the adrenaline-seeker at the end of a thrill
ride, your market should feel like they’ve accomplished something with their
decision to respond to your offer. They
should feel good about evading an unpleasant situation.
Now that’s something worth getting worked up for.
No comments:
Post a Comment