Is it Memorable?

There is increasing research showing a connection between strong emotions and the creation of vivid memories. Specifically, those memories born in the adrenaline filled moments of our lives.

When you reflect on life, you tend to remember the significant events; your first love, graduation, or a life changing moment. To be sure, these events loom large in our memories compared to the day-to-day routines that blend.

You generally remember the first time you did something interesting or exciting. For example, you are going to remember the first baseball game you went to with your father. If you regularly go, you don’t remember the 9th or 24th time. That is unless something unexpected made it memorable.

The Power of a Great Story

You may be thinking, “what do memorable life moments have to do with marketing?” It has everything to do with it because today’s marketing is trends to focus on a narrative and telling stories.

Great storytelling is what makes marketing exciting. It is stories that allow audiences to connect with a concept emotionally, and that is what makes it memorable.

Evidence shows that stories increase retention and engagement. Undeniably we are natural storytellers. We connect with stories on many deep levels. Indeed, history is the story of our past told generation after generation filled with heroes and villains. In fact, stories help us define who we are and what is important.

Evolution of Marketing

Marketing has changed. It’s focused on the personal relationship between people and companies. It’s important to remember that our audience is more than a demographic. They are real people. What’s more, most people can’t connect with facts, data, and general information without context. It takes the power of a story to bring it to life.

EQ (emotional quotient) becomes as important as IQ (intelligence quotient) in making decisions because emotion has always been part of the buying decision.

Breaking Through with a Good Story

There is a growing wall of information to deal with every day. At a high-level, most companies’ marketing is the same as their competitors’. And it makes total sense for that to be the case. For one thing, the audience is the same. In fact, for the most part, the products and the value proposition are nearly the same. Additionally, we have grown skeptical about the world being presented to us online and in other media. Entertainment and marketing no longer have borders.

As a result, as a consumer, I rarely have a vested interest in content directed to me. As a marketing professional, I need to create a vested interest for my consumer audience.

Not only does a story need to be good, but it must also be meaningful to your audience.

For some, this will be a difficult change from the model of trying to hammer a message home. You may have to redefine your benchmarks and your path to conversion and sales.

The Path Forward

Yes, it’s easier said than done. There will always be pressure to get things done and meet deadlines! However, if your goal is to create something meaningful for your audience, you have a greater chance of doing it. A well-made story will not only give your audience useful information, but it will also help them connect to you or your product. Besides, it offers the best chance of breaking through the wall of content.

The most important take away in my opinion, is to be aware that your marketing efforts create an experience for your audiences. Still, it may not have meaning for them. Your marketing is vital to you. But if it’s not interesting or exciting for your audience, then you need to rethink what you’re doing. Work to see things from your audience’s perspective. Ask yourself, are you excited about your marketing?

The new goal to aspire to has become to have your tweet re-tweeted, your post reposted, your story retold by others. But before that happens, you need to understand that people will only do that when they care about your story. And for that to happen, you must make it memorable.