Why Marketing is Very Much Like Seduction

Marketing nowadays almost sounds like a dirty word. We tend to associate marketing and advertising with deceiving to sell. We think of hard selling techniques and even more specifically, the annoying guy calling us at dinner time, in the middle of cooking our meal, trying to convince us to subscribe to something (we end up with a burnt stir-fry). But this outbound and dated technique are becoming less and less effective as people begin to become more aware of such marketing and place greater barriers between themselves and the marketer.

Marketing is the management of a relationship of exchange, and to ‘attract’ should be the first and most important principle of marketing as it is with inbound marketing strategies.

Let’s change the topic for a second: have you ever heard of love strategies? For some lonely hearts out there, they are simply put, planned actions that are likely to increase your chance to attract the person(s) you want. The method is based on the psychology study about the way our brain and emotions work together to drive our decisions. 

Maybe you’ve also heard the expression “in love the winner is the one who flees”, right? Some indeed, believe that if the person is not immediately interested in our attention that means we should leave it and flee, instead of keep chasing. 

But you might end up fleeing for a very long time, with the other person still not chasing you. Why? Simply, you have not met the right potential. I’ll explain. 

It is very simple but yet not easy: sometimes you are lucky enough that the person you are looking for it is already interested in you; therefore, all you have to do is to make sure that there are no misunderstandings about what you can offer and that the communication between you two is encouraged. 

Outbound techniques can harm your brand and image

But what if the person you like is not yet interested in you? Let’s say your first instinct is to chase who you want, but your beloved does not seem to respond very well to your approach. Your second instinct might be to put more effort into chasing so that seeing the other person avoiding you even harder; you will probably tell yourself “the winner is who flees, so I must do the same.” 

However, when you start to ignore the situation, most of the time you don’t get the result you were hoping for (meaning the person beginning to chase you). 

It is somehow true that becoming insistent does not work. We all have a fight-or-flight primordial attitude that induces a feeling of “being caught in a trap” when someone is putting pressure on us. 

But indifference in seduction, I’m afraid it doesn’t work much either. 

The first thing you need to do to attract the person you want (which is true also for your target customer), is to build a strong attraction potential towards that very individual. The attraction for business could include the use of a content strategy to build your ranking in search, holding SEO authority on topics of importance to your prospective clients, or creating engaging advertisements to grow the awareness of your brand and increase your potential.

Potential is the totality of the means you have to reach your end. But not just that, a potential is also a variable amount of accumulated power, that when released, it expresses a derivative force related to the initial and final positions in the system of reference. 

Human relationships are always relationships of power and your position within will determine your potential. For example, someone who is having a speech in the center of a stage has got different potential than someone else sitting in the crowd. 

Likewise, when conquering the interest of someone else, the first step is putting yourself in a position that allows your potential to grow. For instance, if you are in a bar full of people, you might want to sit with your friends at the counter with your shoulder slightly turned towards the crowd – rather than standing among the crowd like anyone else. That gives you the chance to check and to be checked out too. 

The second step is to be aware of what you can offer and ‘engage’, the second step of inbound marketing (starting to see the connection?). If you have a nice smile or if you are an acculturated person, you want to cultivate your strength and work on the weakness. 

Furthermore, you will want to understand and analyze the person of your wish. Why? Because, although he or she is not interested in you in particular so far, he or she is surely interested in meeting someone. So rather than chase and scare him/her off, try to be visible and available at your best with the resources you know he/she is looking for in a relationship. Example: if he is a guy who love to shop for rugs online, make sure he will see you showing an interest in the same activities. Does it mean you have to change personality? 

No. You must clearly understand what your personality is (it is called branding), and what your objectives are. Confidence is very sexy. But I am assuming you are looking for someone (as your target customer) who is coherent with who you are and what you can give. 

Consequently, the communication must be effortless and intriguing. People these days are busy; they are stimulated constantly with proposals and choices. But still, they are looking for something (as nobody is sufficient, right?). 

So, when this person that you really want is looking around, perhaps distracted or unenthusiastic, regards the magnitude of possibilities presented before their eyes, you want to be in the right place looking your best (without showing off, of course), “casually” presenting the tracts or the features they were secretly hoping to meet. Behaving in a way that is friendly, open, and that subconsciously encourages them to take action: come to talk to you. 

Do you see the pattern now? Your customer is your beloved. The person you always dreamed of. And the funny thing is that they are dreaming about you as well, but just don’t know it yet. 

Inbound marketing is a more effective marketing strategy that builds trust and credibility by addressing the problems and needs of your ideal customer. This helps your prospect realize what they are looking for; therefore, choosing you and your services. 

Obviously, like in a relationship, you must make your customer’s choice worthwhile and bring them ‘delight’, which is the last step of inbound marketing. Delight is about making the relationship last by providing a good experience for your customer time and time again by providing quality communication in your service, as well as collecting and responding to feedback. 

Although, consider the phase of attraction as the most crucial component.

Do you need help to attract? Ask for our help.