How to Move People to Action

One of the biggest marketing challenges is moving someone from hesitancy to action; calming all of their doubts. It’s especially difficult to engage those who are reluctant, capturing their attention, and getting them interested enough to make an inquiry.

Working with marketers and helping them craft videos over the years has enabled me to see a few of these steps unfold. I believe there are four key elements of all effective marketing efforts:

1. Engage them emotionally

To truly engage someone emotionally, you need to communicate with a story. Studies show that stories bring people together to align beliefs, emotions, and thoughts. It’s important to address someone’s emotional reluctance—to help enter into where they are, and to align them with where you are.

2. Quiet their doubts

There needs to be an understanding of what your prospect is uncertain about. What’s keeping them on the sidelines, and what questions are they not asking? It’s important to know why someone is nervous to make the investment in your product or service. This helps shape the story, as you will know what information to include, as well as what subject to pick.

3. Provide them a next step

Too often marketing campaigns are done without a clearly defined call-to-action. Do you want someone to sign up for an email newsletter? Do you want them to visit your website, and where would they go from there? All touch points should have a step to move the individual into or down the sales funnel.

4. Give them a person

It’s important to introduce them to someone within your company. It’s vital to showcase someone within the organization who is relatable and relaxed, yet eager to help. This helps alleviate all tension on the potential buyer and yet brings about the human component of your company. After all, business is people. We’ve seen this done in a number of ways—through personal emails to videos that introduce people within the company to websites with elaborate “who we are” sections.

These four aspects set apart the successful from the struggling businesses.

Ryan Gates is the Creative Producer and Director at Moving Edge Media. They work with agencies and middle market companies to tell human stories that inspire action. He can be reached at [email protected].