How to Resist Persuasion

Resisting PersuasionYou may not always be aware of all the persuasion efforts that go on around you all day. 

Every day people are subjected to persuasive messages. It has been calculated that each person sees more than 300 of these messages each day. The majority of these messages come from advertising mediums including the television, radio, newspapers and magazines, billboards and on the internet and social media. 

Persuasive messages take many different forms including the more recognisable ones of commercials and advertisements that aim to make you want to buy things. Other forms of persuasion include those social messages that encourage you to take specific actions such as losing weight, avoiding drugs, stopping smoking or ‘going green’ campaigns. 

When you think about it the amount of persuasion we are bombarded with every day is almost overwhelming.  

While some of these messages are helpful, the daily dose of ‘Buy this!’, ‘Buy that!’ can get very annoying for everyone. 

Even children are targeted by persuasive messages. Cereal manufacturers advertise free toys on the outside of their boxes so children will pester their parents into buying them. Then there are those car commercials just making you want to go out and buy that brand new car! 

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So how can you manage to resist all of this constant persuasion? 

Well, first of all, you need to be aware of the fact that you are being persuaded. This will help put you into a defensive mode and make resisting much of it easier. 

You can easily recognise this situation when you are at the car dealership or dress shop looking at cars or outfits. Immediately a sales person is attempting to persuade you to buy that new car or outfit. When this happens ask for a time out or back away from the situation. Tell the person you just want to look and you are not ready to make a decision yet. If necessary walk away from the situation. 

Another way to master resistance includes not shopping for items when you are tired or hungry. If you do, you may be rushed into making a decision that you will regret later on.  

This also applies when a work colleague is trying to persuade you to do or say something that you are not sure about.  If you are tired, or angry about something which has happened, it is easy to rush into a decision you may later regret.  Be firm about taking your time to make your decision so you have the opportunity to consult others and consider all the options.  There is nothing worse that a leader who is swayed by the last person they spoke to. 

Want to know more?

And if you want to know more about Persuasion for Busy Leaders, check out our guide here…  http://kmginfo.com/go/persuasion

Business Blogging – Internet marketing tips – part 2

Blogging is a huge phenomenon on the Internet today but what about business blogging?  People all around the world have blogs, but can blogging be beneficial to your business?

Online Marketing Tips

Yes, it can!

If you build up a following of people who read your business blog on a regular basis, you and your business can gain allies, partnerships and referrals – as well as more clients or customers. As readers get to know and trust in you, they are far more likely to buy from you and refer others.

Business Blogging Works

 

“Companies that blog have 55% more website visitors than those that don’t.”

– Hubspot, State of Inbound Marketing Lead Generation Report, 2010

 

Business blogging can be used to help keep your existing clients up to date with your services or new products you are offering, as well as to answer their questions and offer support or customer service.  A good business blog can mean your prospective clients and customers find the answers to their questions without having to call you – saving both your and your prospects time.

 

Avoid making your business blogging too personal. Your customers do not want to read about the new car or kitten you just got.

Instead, use your business blogging to share the resources you know of that deal with your specific business area and talk about your dealings with those resources and how you rate them. Don’t be afraid to make recommendations of other business products and services that might interest your customers, as well as offering updates on your own products and services.

Business blogging can be used to announce freebies, contests or even coupons that you or other companies are offering. Write an informative column with tips and information that others can put to use in their own businesses and you will attract loyal clients who want to do business with you.

Try to keep your business blog on track. Readers will come to expect and like your blog entries, so don’t steer too far away from what they like.

Update your entries regularly to avoid losing readers – weekly is the best frequency, unless you have the time to do it multiple times every day. If you have the same old stuff on your business blog for weeks at a time, then people won’t bother coming around to read it anymore.

When you sit down to write a new entry, write an extra one for the times when you are rushed, away on holidays, or ill. You can save it as a draft or keep in a folder on your computer so you are able to quickly copy and paste the pre-written blog entry in just a couple of minutes.

If your business blog is not already a part of your website, don’t forget to include the link to your blog on your website.  And remember to promote your business blog in your email signature, on your business card, and in all your other marketing materials. To gain a following of readers, you have to advertise.

When KMG Consulting builds your business website we can include your business blog as an integral part of your website. So, we can show you how to schedule your blog entries in advance so they continue to appear when you are away on holidays.   Contact us today for more details about how to use business blogging in your web marketing.

See Part 1 in this series of Internet Marketing Tips.

And remember, business blogging really should be an integral part of your web marketing strategy.

Congruent messages

positioning strategyMessages are conveyed in a wide range of ways, not just by our words. Any conflict between all these messages which are being conveyed simultaneously by different means will make it much more difficult to get your message across successfully. This becomes especially important if the organisation is involved in any crisis or controversy but it is also central to your marketing andpositioning strategy.

To ensure that your message is being conveyed clearly and consistently, check for congruency between any of the following aspects of your business which might be applicable in a situation:

  • words
  • comments
  • actions
  • public statements
  • media releases
  • interviews
  • gestures and body language
  • tone of voice
  • facial expressions
  • attitudes
  • sponsorships
  • profile
  • image
  • past reputation
  • advertising
  • market position
  • expectations held by the community
  • status of spokesperson
  • gender of company representative
  • staff dress and uniforms
  • logos
  • pictures
  • illustrations
  • photographs
  • other visuals
  • physical presence
  • buildings
  • entrance or foyer
  • facility
  • legal actions or statements
  • business cards
  • stationery
  • publications.

Internet marketing tips – part 1

Over this series we will look at some internet marketing tips to boost your business into high gear.

Online marketing tips

If you are wondering why your business doesn’t seem to be working out the way you imagined, maybe it’s time for an overhaul of your internet marketing strategy!  In particular, whatever sort of business or organisation you might be, your should regularly review what your online presence says to prospective clients and business partners about you.

The most fundamental part of your online marketing strategy is your website.

The majority of small and medium sized businesses, associations and service organisations already have some sort of website, but unfortunately many appear quite unprofessional and dated.  Have you really thought about your website’s impact on your clients?  So the first of my internet marketing tips is to:

Review your website

Some common pitfalls of websites are:

  • unappealing colours
  • ugly graphics
  • poor or inconsistent navigation
  • broken links
  • too many advertisements
  • overused flashing items (even more critical now that iPads don’t handle flash)
  • too many different fonts
  • spelling/grammar errors
  • having to scroll a lot to read things
  • an abundance of unrelated material
  • unsightly or intrusive pop-ups
  • every link opening in a new window
  • image overload

Your website is a reflection of your professionalism, and if it isn’t up to par, you could be losing money. Go to your website now and view it with a critical eye, or have a critical friend give you their honest opinion. You might not want to hear what they have to say, but it’s only going to work for you, not against you.

Visit your favourite websites and really look to see what it is that makes their website so appealing to you. Are the colours relaxing? Do they have good, related content? Can you read through a page without being bombarded with spelling errors or advertisement?

Once you have an idea of what’s working and what’s not, make a list of all the things you can do to improve your website, and then do them. Keep it clean, simple, easy to read, and you will be well on your way to website success.

If this is all too hard, or you are too busy running you business to have time to manage this, one of the best internet marketing tips I can offer is to Contact us immediately about a marketing audit including a free website assessment so we can turn your website from an expense into a high performing profit centre as soon as possible.