How to sex up (to sell) anything

Why should I care?

Yeah that’s a cute cat, oh that video of the baby was so funny! But how on Earth does that help anybody’s business? That’s the one question I get more than any other on my social media marketing workshops in Thailand.

Social media is marketing, that’s why we call it social media marketing! Duh! But what are you marketing on social media? That is the question.

Have you heard the term “Any publicity is good publicity?” and if you subscribe to my blogs or have watched a Television advert in the past 40 years, you will know that more than half the time an advertisement’s subject can have little or nothing to do with the product as such, just as long as you, the gullible audience that has for over half a decade been hypnotized by the little box in the corner, can make a neural link between the emotion and the brand so you can be sold the idea to live the kind of lifestyle someone up there in the top elite echelons of society has dreamed of, so they can stay rich!

Sorry but sometimes we all have a little of the conspiracy theorists about us.

To be successful online you have to create a story with some emotion, feelings of the good life, pets, and children are all emotions, good deeds between men, bad deeds, feelings of recognition (all the Countries got talent clips, I swear if one more person uses the worn out surprise emotion: ‘they were blown away’ heading I am going to rip up my laptop forever!)

A sale has always been about emotion, nothing is sold without feeling! Ask yourself what was your feeling last time you bought something regardless of size and price everything to do with sales is tagged with emotion!

OK So you sell screwdrivers? Where’s the emotion? Well if I was given the marketing budget of a screwdriver company I would look for a word, an emotion that a screwdriver would give me, satisfaction comes to mind, and from that comes, recognition, and a whole branch of emotions stem from recognition, like family comforts, love, security, yes all from one little screwdriver!!

My Screwdriver advertisement would go something like this:

“Bob needs a friend in his toolbox” (emotion No. 1; Friendship) yeah I know a screwdriver, bear with me! We are not selling screwdrivers remember!

“When Bob puts up a shelf he needs to feel that it’s safe, after all he doesn’t want it falling down on top of his new born baby (Emotion No. 2; Pain and  No. 3; Shame and Guilt)

“That’s why he has an Acme Screwdriver, to make sure the jobs done right” (Emotion No. 4; Satisfaction) and end shot of his family hugging him for a job well done (Emotion No. 5; praise and satisfaction and Emotion No 6 the killer blow; love!!!)

6 Emotions in one simple screwdriver advert. We all understand emotions, you don’t need an education or know any language to know pain or pleasure, it’s innate in all of us, and is the universal selling tool.

When you have the emotional advertisement you are on to a winner, then you can share this to social media and you will be more successful than just posting an advert for say a Condo in Bangkok, post how people will ‘feel’ living in a Condo in Bangkok.

One of my all-time favourite TV advertisements, which was a touch of genius; was the Bank advert in the early eighties selling the ATM card to the otherwise uninitiated British public at the time, the basics of it was:

Impossibly handsome guy wakes up in his own flat/ apartment/ Condo (freedom and privacy a hugely underrated emotion) He obviously has a job and financial acumen, as rent at that time compared to salaries had not caught up, and there were just fewer people living on their own then, so they were selling a future prospect as well. He goes to his fridge and has no milk so he puts on some designer clothes to wonder to the bank machine (what like we didn’t notice?).

The last scene is he’s sat at home with his empty cereal dish paper and his contented kitten in total bliss. (Yes what compassionate handsome men we all are with perfect hair when we get up!!!) All the time Lionel Richie croons ‘Easy like a Sunday Morning.’ This advert is so hypnotic and me as a young adolescent in the eighties thought; oh that’s a lifestyle I want as soon as possible!

So if a bank can make an ATM card sexy, you can make anything sexy.

Point is you have to have the content and the emotion BEFORE you share your ideals to social media, and generally you have to have a lot of social media to get a good reach or loads of money to pay Facebook promote feature or Google’s pay per click, either will do!

So stop posting features post emotional benefits!!!

To have Thailand’s leading Social Media Marketer come and have a look at what you are doing to make your products more appealing and to sex up your brand contact Netmedia