People are busy. We’re all preoccupied with our own stuff. When trying to get the attention of our market, we first have to break them out of what they are currently thinking about.  We can’t get them to listen to what we have to say if they (figuratively speaking) have their headphones on with the music blaring, right?

Our challenge is to get them from where they currently, past the neutral zone and into a more receptive frame of mind concerning what we want to communicate to them.  When we interrupt people from what they’re engaged in, whether verbally or in print, they automatically and subconsciously ask themselves these four questions:

1. Why are you bothering me?
2. So what? Who cares?
3. Why should I believe you? In other words, “What’s in it for me?”
4. Why should I do something about this now?

If we can’t give good answers to those questions, and do it very quickly, our chance of getting them to give us any more than a cursory look or listen will rapidly vanish.  A proven way to dramatically increase our chances of getting and holding the attention of our best prospects is to connect with what they desire (that we can help them with, of course) at an emotional level.  Facts, figures, and features usually don’t cut it.  So what do I mean by an emotional level?  I personally find the breakdown of seven emotions provided by Denny Hatch in his book “Method Marketing” to help considerably:

1. Greed — getting more of something
2. Exclusivity — being one of the few that own something or belong to something
3. Salvation — being saved or rescued from something negative or harmful
4. Fear — being afraid of missing out on something or having something negative happen
5. Guilt — feeling remorseful about doing or not doing something
6. Anger — being upset, irritated or mad about something happening or not happening
7. Flattery — made to feel good about something you did or you have

So take a look at your marketing, are you successfully breaking the preoccupation barrier by connecting with your audience on the “wavelength” of one of the above emotions?  If you’re not sure, I encourage you to request a copy of “The Seven Levers of Profit Growth” (to the right of this post) for more ideas.

Next post, generating more leads without spending a dime!