Do you know exactly what your business is selling?
An online-shop may sell leisurewear but fans follow their social media channels for completely different reasons. Millennials buy feelings, emotions and experiences – not necessarily just products.
Purchased emotions ring the cash register. Entrepreneurs should determine if they’re actually selling feelings in exchange for dollars. If they are, it’ll drastically change the way they think about acquiring new customers through emotive experiences and outcomes. Think ice cream. Or perhaps even yoga pants.
Selling Confidence
After suffering through a yoga-pants rut, Alison Lumbatis founder of Get Your Pretty On, an innovative personal styling membership program, built a seven-figure business by sharing challenges and lessons from her style journey. Something that resonated immensely with audiences.
“I started seeing members tell us that they felt ‘seen’ for the first time in a long time, that they were getting compliments from their spouses, kids, perfect strangers, or many of them embarked on weight loss journeys or career changes and some went back to school to finish a degree. And all of it started by taking the one simple action of getting dressed every day. They had to believe they were worth taking the action and that’s where the life changing confidence happened,” says Lumbatis.
The lesson is this: Entrepreneurs shouldn’t assume that customers are simply buying clothes when lifestyle platforms are doing more than providing outfits. If athletic wear is helping someone get to the gym and get into shape, for example, the clothing they’re purchasing may hold much more value to the consumer than simply the material item itself.
In today’s marketplace, a shop owner can attract business by truly understanding customer needs and by creating an amazing, nurturing experience.
Authenticity Is Key
“Millennial women are the core of our audience. They appreciate authenticity and honesty. We don’t promise immediate results with no efforts. Instead, we emphasize that after our workouts they’ll be healthier and feel better. Also to make their weight loss journey easier, we try to add a bit of humor to our posts to make them relatable. Entertaining pictures work perfectly for the generation of emoji and memes who appreciate authenticity,” says Victoria Repa, CEO and co-founder of BetterMe, an ecosystem of health and fitness apps.
90% of millennials say that authenticity is important to them when deciding which brand to support. They appreciate companies that help them to achieve internal peace and happiness in a world that can be stressful and exhausting. Your business can attract online traffic by positioning products and solutions that help self-care fit into consumer’s busy schedules.
Empathy As A Marketing Tool
“Empathy is the number one most overlooked marketing tool. In fact, female leaders have this powerful tool at their fingertips because they are already using it organically in their work and personal lives every day,” says Rebecca Smith, Founder and CEO Recliner, a digitally-native sleepwear brand. “Too often, brands and advertisers see customers as numbers to be ‘acquired’. Customers today, more than ever before, will feel that. Find out the things that bother your customers related to your industry or lifestyle. Then bring these problems to the forefront of your campaign and think about creative ways to inspire conversation around these problems.”
The marketing campaign you generate with this information in mind will resonate with your potential customers on a much higher level. Matching your creatives – such as visuals and copy – to the same marketing theme will set your campaign apart. Creating an engaging story using real consumer survey data, results in consumers having an authentic connection to the campaign.
Empathetic content marketing allows you to put yourself in your audience’s shoes, and as a result, it becomes easier to identify struggles and think strategically about the best solutions.
Lead Followers To Grow. Lead Leaders To Multiply.
One entrepreneurial couple leverages elite military and culture change expertise to help organizations succeed in sales and leadership, scaling past revenue barriers. Anne Yatch is a behavioral-change expert and a team-performance trainer. She and her Navy SEAL husband Larry Yatch created SEAL Team Leaders to bring freedom and time back to the business owner with a proven system of activating leaders at every level.
“Leaders create the environment that enables followers to make the right choices,” says Anne Yatch. “The faster you activate leaders at every level, the more these leaders overdeliver for your business, building team responsibility for higher productivity and profits.
What is a value driver? It’s something that adds financial worth to a product, service or brand. Entrepreneurs can scale their company by identifying exactly what it is they’re selling, by designing and selling a better mousetrap, and by over-delivering on quality, speed and service. Helping people feel good about themselves and their experiences helps a lot too, of course.
