Safety, belonging, and mattering are three things that humans crave.
Once we feel that our core needs are met and that we’re going to survive, we can then turn our heads up and find community. Once we find our community and feel loved and supported, we feel like we matter.
So whether you’re selling a water bottle, an online personal growth course, or a technology service…
How can you make sure your messaging (and ALL of your marketing collateral) make your clients and potential clients feel safe, like they belong, and like they matter?
I don’t think there’s a one-size-fits-all method to this. But just like with music, art, or even fashion- you can try things out and see how it sounds.
The key word to compare your copy, content, and marketing collateral to is this:
Resonance
Does your message resonate with the people you want to serve?
Your business, as much as you put into it, isn’t about you- it’s about them.
Maybe I’m old-school and too poetic but I believe the customer is always right. Without them, does your business matter? Without them, does your business feel safe? Without them, does your business have community?
No.
So the next time you need a campaign for your new product/service/offering, remember the three key points you want them to FEEL as they read your words and take in your images.
Safety
Belonging
Mattering
I’ll break it down a little further because if you’re still reading this, you’ll want me to.
Safety: For your target market or your most viable customer, what does safety look like, for them? What would their life feel like, if they had all their needs met? Can your thing/service/product help them feel more safe and if so, how can you communicate that to them?
Belonging: What do they want to belong to? Are you a tech company and they want to belong to a group of people who value the ease that technology can bring to their business? Are they lonely introverts who want a physical community that they can grow with and how can you cultivate that for them? If they truly felt like they belonged, what would that look like?
Mattering: What matters to them and what do they want to matter to? Are you a recruiter and they want to matter to a potential employee? How can your marketing convey that your thing can help them find their purpose or their sense of mattering?
Let’s loop this back around to innovation.
What if an innovative business is one that speaks to the fragility of the human experience that’s happening right now?
What if an innovative business was one that they didn’t recognize as a business but as a friend or potential peer?
Innovation doesn’t mean you have to invent something totally new- it could be about communicating in a way that many businesses aren’t-
With the authenticity and richness that most of your potential clients appreciate.
Business can be heart-centered without hiding it.