The MondayMorning Marketing podcast is brought to you by Esther of IPA Group, bringingpremiere online promotion to your business.
And Melanie of Stump Social Media training, who empowers business owners to manage social media and marketing for themselves. And we'reback with another episode of the Monday Morning Marketing podcast. Today we'retalking about what sells better, the positive or the negative. What do youthink, Melanie?
I honestly think it's probably the negative that sellsbetter. Although I personally don't like doing it. But when you see emblazonedon the screen or you hear somebody shouting out the five things you're doingwrong with such and such. For some reason, we all like a bit of drama. I thinkthat pulls you in because it sounds like dramatic, something fixable. I supposeyou're problem solving, I suppose.
I've heard from NLP practitioner, which is Neuro LinguisticProgramming. So they're like these people who mess with your mind. Not true.But Jeez Louise. But they were actually saying that, if you say don't dosomething, then people are automatically going to do it. It's like, when you'reon a diet, let's be honest here, people, when people say you're not allowed toeat cake, what's the first thing that comes to your mind that you want to eat?Cake. So if you're sending out your messages in a negative nelly way, and I'mthe biggest pessimist in the world, then you're more than likely going to getthe opposite response to what you expect. So if you're thinking, don't thinkabout the pink elephant, you're just going to think about a pink elephant. Soit is one of those things that, yes, my Facebook feed and well, basically justFacebook feed, it's always the happy happy stuff at the top and then thereally, really sad stuff at the top. So, you know, like babies, weddings, theyall get lots of views and stuff because it's happy and it's positive. But it'salso not always something that you can keep doing, sharing the positive.
So a case in point is, is anything that makes people feelsomething, correct? Yes. Something that makes them feel happy, something thatmakes them feel cross or frustrated. So emotions, in your socials?
Yes, share emotions.
But that could be a positive or a negative thing, couldn'tit?
Well, it could. It could. You don't want to be going on andbeing all, Oh, I have this really bad client, or I had a really severe problemwith one of my products and it just doesn't work. You don't want to be going onsaying.
All that. Well, you certainly wouldn't want to say that,would you?
No, definitely not. But it might be how you're feeling andit might be... I think what we're getting at here is that you have to regulate.We know you can't always be happy and positive all the time. That's not realeither. But there are good things that you can share about your business andpositive things. And there's some negative things that you just shouldn't shareabout your business.
It depends on how you do it. We're not talking per se aboutbusiness, but how we approach our customers. Like I said, the five thingsyou're doing wrong with your website, and this is how we fix them. The firstthing you're saying is you're doing it wrong.
And you're making them feel bad.
Yeah. But for some reason, people tend to look at thosethings first. This is a psychology again. Remember we did a podcast on thepsychology of marketing. I guess you have to be in the right mindset for it. Ithink there needs to be a little bit of both in your life. I think five ways...To improve. Five case studies that we've done with some really successfulclients, and then the six ways that you're currently doing WordPress wrong orwhatever. I just think doing a little bit of both, you catch people indifferent mindsets and different searches.
Exactly. yeah, if you're writing a blog about it, thendefinitely do both. Like you say, your clients might be really positive peopleand always looking for the positive things, or they might be negative Nellieslike myself and always going, oh, what have I done wrong this time? Yourclients, your customer avatar, we've talked about this until we're bloody inthe face, you must be bloody in the face listening to us. You just have toaccommodate both their needs. Like I said, you can't always be mis positivityor Mr. Positivity because that's just not real life either.
What do you think sells better than arrested?
I will go with you and say that it's the negativity thatgets more clicks and gets more sales because it's that fear factor that you putin people.
It's the imposter syndrome.
Yes, oh, I'm doing it wrong, and they might not be doing itwrong. But it's one of those things that you need to talk to somebody about itbecause you've seen six or seven videos pop up about the same thing, or five orsix articles just appear at the same time talking about the same thing, or it'sall what you're doing wrong in your business, what you're not achieving, howyou're not getting to that next level. It's all things that make you doubt andmake you think, Well, maybe I do need that extra help. And you might do. So thenegative message might be useful for your business to give you that push to thenext level.
How would you go about doing that positive and negativemessaging? Would this social posts enough or would you write blogs? Youpersonally, you could probably dedicated whole landing pages, couldn't you?Because of your background. What works?
Again, that comes down to who your customers are, where theyare. Are they searching for you on Google, so your blog posts or are theysearching for you on social? Your social posts. Are your videos popping up withthe caption at the front?
I think videos show up more readily, especially if they'renegative. Just explaining, this is how we can help you improve something. Idon't think they tend to get viewed as often as the six ways you can chop basiland not rip your fingers off. It's one thing I can't do is chop herbs and thatstuff with, well, with the ultra sent, sharp knives or fast anyway. I thinkpeople are so more visible these days. They much prefer to see a video. And wetalked about this before as well, with the links, that people want to see stuffas well as read it these days. And I think even like Andrew and Pete, we followAndrew and Pete in Atomic a lot. And even when they're saying, These are thesix ways you can improve your business. That's still a negative spin, if youlike. But because it's a video, you think, Well, I'm going to get instantgratification. Get the answers immediately. And so that's putting a positivespin on a negative vibe.
Okay, so it's back to that mixture again. It's back to that,you know. But should it be 50 50, 60 40, 70 50? I mean, what percentage shouldbe more positive spin? What should be more negative? What should be... I mean,is there a magic number?
I'd think it maybe depends on so many different things, thetime that you have, the equipment and tools you have, because frankly, youdon't have the right tools to do the job. You're not going to do it very well.Also, you probably need training. A lot of people are still trying to get thehead around the old video thing. Not that I'm talking about anybody specifichere.
Nobody in this room anyway.
There's just so much to think of these days. Current markettrends, whether the economy is in an upturn or a downturn. I think there's justtoo many variables. But you know what? I don't see any harm in doing a littlebit of both over a period of time. We recommend to people all the time toforward strategise. So add it into.
Your strategy. And a bit of A B testing, a bit of does thiswork? Or does the other work? Send both out at the same time, see which onegets more clicks, see which one gets more views, study your analytics. Wetalked about analytics before. I just think, yeah, I fully agree with you thatit totally depends on what's going on in people's lives. So if your audience ishaving a good day, if they've seen lots of fluffy kittens that morning, thenthey're more likely to click on something more positive. If they've had a fightwith their spouse or with their friend or with their next door neighbour, thenthey're more likely to look for stuff that's negative just to suit their mood.So what we're saying, guys, whatever a great marketer says, it depends. Theanswer to the question is, it depends. But that shouldn't put you off doingyour own research. And if you yourself are a more positive person, definitelyuse that spin. And if you're more of a pessimist, then use that spin. You haveto put your own personality and your own personal touch into your marketinganyway.
I think we've wrapped this up.
I think we have. Finish it off for us there, Melanie.
Well, thanks for listening to this week's podcast. We'll beback very soon with another podcast, and it will, I'm sure, be some exciting,exploding, mind bending topic for next time.
Or not. Bye bye.
See, you never end like that, do you?
No. See? Pessimist. Just, yeah, come back. Please come back.
We're like chalk and cheese, really, aren't we? Yes.
Can I be the cheese?
I was going to say you were, actually. But.