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BEST PRACTICES & STRATEGIES

1. Earn attention In conversation marketing, speaking human dictates
that your customer’s needs, not your own, are top
To gain attention in today’s crowded marketplace, it’s priority. Your audience wants to know what you can do
prudent to do the opposite of what most everyone else for them, and that means stop talking about yourself
is doing. That means, don’t deliver clichéd, boring and drop the megaphone. Instead, embrace a different
content that’s written for robots—search engines or approach that thoughtfully and humbly explains why
otherwise—and for generic consumption. It’s you do what you do and why it can make a difference in
unsustainable for you and your brand as well as someone’s life instead of focusing on your bottom line.
frustratingly futile for the audience you’re trying to Stop beating them over the heads with the fabulous
reach. Instead, speak human by engaging your features and benefits of your products. Instead, tell
audience with eye-level language in order to gain their stories that inspire and resonate with their own life
attention and set your brand apart. Learn to use experiences.
language that educates and entertains the audience.
4. Pick your party
Earning attention starts with asking yourself what you
and your company are passionate about and conveying Equally important to the “how” of your conversation is
that genuinely in that all-important “handshake moment” the “where.” It should all fit seamlessly together and
of first contact—online or otherwise. Assume you’re feel natural and organic in that moment. Part of
meeting the person on the other side of the screen for learning how to talk to your audience and engage them
the first time. Think of what you can say that’s new, in any form of conversation is deciding where to talk to
memorable, a standout, and jargon-free. Also, them in the first place.
understand and adapt to your audience. You wouldn’t
talk the same way to an aging Baby Boomer as you This means doing the footwork to learn where your
would to a teenager. potential customers gather and meeting them on their
own ground. Where do your potential customers hang
2. Tell a story out on social media? What are they saying, and what
challenges are they discussing that you can
How do you hold someone’s attention long enough to compellingly weigh-in on? Easily available research
break down a topic and engender his or her trust, but tools can help you join the right conversation at the
also in a way that’s unforgettable and leaves that right time and in the right place with consistency.
person feeling more knowledgeable than before? The
answer lies in good storytelling. 5. Be relevant (on a molecular level)

Good conversations are filled with good stories and True listening is about far more than hearing words. It’s
anecdotes. But be mindful that the hero of the story isn’t also about fully understanding the message and
your company or its products, but rather how your concepts being imparted—whether they’re needs,
product or service will have a positive impact in your wants, desires, or even complaints. Being relevant
customers’ lives. If you can elicit an emotional means making sure you’re talking about topics that are
response, you’re onto something. Some standout of sure interest to your audience, and that’s often
companies have figured this out. Apple’s story, for achieved by addressing their pain points. Before a
example, isn’t about devices. It’s about innovation and marketer can aptly communicate and speak to such
how our lives are being changed for the better with pain points, however, he or she must first hear what the
Apple technology in them. Learn how to make your prospect, customer or marketplace has to say. It can be
story short, to the point, and easy to share online. dangerous, expensive and ultimately futile for
companies to presume to inherently know what should
3. Stay humble be said in conversation marketing.

Being humble begins with letting go of ego—that 6. Start the conversation
instinctual part of the psyche that screams for a
marketer to make too much noise about products or How do you gain audience attention in a way that
services and brag about themselves. Sigmund Freud prevents you from just being part of the noise? It’s no
developed a psychoanalytic theory of personality he longer a question of whether you should insert yourself
coined the “id,” and marketers often tap into their own into the world of content marketing. It’s a matter of
ids by telling the world how great their company and its when you’re going to start talking, what you’re going to
products are, and how great a potential customer will be say, and how you’re going to say it. One good
for buying them. The id operates based on the pleasure approach is to base that initial conversation on your
principle, which demands immediate gratification of unique value proposition for the given audience.
needs.

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