When it comes to marketing, we often hear about the importance of understanding our target audience and coming up with ways to persuade them. We do need to know what they want and need so that we can create content that appeals to them. But what if we went beyond understanding our target audience? What if we truly connected with them on a human level? When we market from the heart, that’s exactly what we do. We connect with people on an emotional level, and in doing so, we create content that matters to them. And when our content matters to people, they respond positively to it. They buy from us, refer us to their friends, and come back for more. Marketing from the heart is one of the most powerful ways to connect with your target audience and has inspired us at Marketing Boss to team up with NLP expert Val Alino to develop training to help businesses learn to market from the heart. In this blog, we will provide an overview of some tips you can apply to your marketing.

Research your target audience

You can use research tools like Google, Semrush, Sparktoro, and even facebook’s analytics platform to research trends and get a better understanding of what your audience is interested in. But the research goes beyond just understanding their demographics or what they like to buy. You want to understand their hopes, dreams, and fears. What motivates them? What keeps them up at night? Once you have a good understanding of your target audience on this level, you can begin creating content that truly resonates with them.

Connect with yourself so you can connect with others

Once you have developed a sense of what your audience wants, needs, and feels, you can use another powerful research tool to explore creative ways to connect. You can connect with your own inner wisdom. Val Alino recommends using meditation and breathing to think about your customers and get insights above and beyond what you can see in the data. As you clear your mind and focus on your customers, pay attention to the thoughts, images, and feelings that come up for you. These are clues about how you can best connect with them.

Use powerful language

The words we use matter. They can influence our own emotions as well as the emotions of others. When marketing from the heart, we want to use language that is going to inspire positive emotions in our target audience so that they feel good about doing business with us. This is where NLP comes in. NLP stands for Neuro-Linguistic Programming, and it’s all about understanding how people process information and how we can use language to influence them. There are many different techniques you can explore, but a few key things to keep in mind are to use positive language, make sure your message is congruent (meaning that what you say, how you say it, and your nonverbal communication all match up).

Use strategic questions in your messaging

Questions are a powerful way to provoke thoughts and inspire action. Be aware of the Meta Model for questions so that you can avoid questions that might limit your target audience’s ability to see new possibilities. For example, instead of asking, “Have, you tried XYZ product?”, which presupposes that they have not and limits their thinking, you could ask “What would it mean for you to use XYZ product?”. This question opens up the possibility for them to explore what the experience of using the product would be like and how it could improve their life.

Use storytelling techniques to deliver content

Val Alino recommends working on your confidence as a storyteller and marketer so you can come up with creative ways to communicate your marketing messages through stories. Stories are a very powerful way to connect with people on an emotional level and inspire them to take action. If you can tap into the power of storytelling, you will be able to create content that truly connects with your target audience. In order to do so effectively, you have to believe in your own ability to tell stories. You can use fun tools like Story Dice to practice and improve your storytelling skills.

Understand the difference between story branding and storytelling

Mastering storytelling is a must, but to be truly effective, you must also understand how to leverage story branding. In Building a Story Brand, author Donald Miller explains how brands that develop customer-centric stories for their brands and apply them across all marketing channels are more popular, memorable, and profitable. Margarita Eberline teaches a story branding workshop inspired by her experiences as a Public Speaker and the best practices outlined in Donald Miller’s story branding best practices. In the workshop, she walks business owners through the process of identifying their target customer’s personal story and using it to create marketing messages that connect with their target audience on a deeper level. “Most companies have it backward, they think that their brand story should be about them and their history. But story branding is about creating messaging around their customer’s story and inserting their brand into their target customer’s journey. That is what I teach people to do in my Story Telling Workshop for Brands.

Explore marketing channels that your customers like.

Find out where your target audience hangs out and what marketing channels they are most responsive to. If you’re not sure, ask them! You can survey your current customers or use social media to reach out to potential customers. Once you know where they are, focus your marketing efforts on those channels. It’s also important to keep in mind that people consume content in different ways, so make sure you have a mix of content types (e.g., blog posts, infographics, videos, etc.) that appeal to different learning styles.

Create content that adds value and audit performance regularly

Your marketing content should always add value to your target audience. That means providing them with information, insights, or entertainment that helps them in some way. Resist the temptation to put a call to action or sales offer on everything. Make sure that your primary type of content is intended to connect you with people rather than sell to them. It’s also important to audit your marketing performance regularly so you can see what’s working and what’s not. You can use Google Analytics to track website traffic and engagement, for example. If you’re not sure how to interpret the data, hire a marketing consultant who can help you make sense of it all and create a plan for moving forward.

Work on yourself and your intentions regularly

When you know who you are, what you are about, and what that means for your business, you are in a much better position to put out content that is relatable. It becomes easier to understand what marketing messages will resonate with your target audience when you know yourself and your business well. Consider what marketing from the heart means for you, and make sure that your content marketing strategy is in line with your personal values. Take some time each week to work on self-improvement so you can be the best version of yourself. You can hire a life or spiritual coach to help you with this process. This will help ensure that your marketing efforts are coming from a place of authenticity, which is essential if you want to connect with people on a deeper level.

Develop your public speaking skills

Whether you are creating content that features you or now, connecting with your customers confidently is important. If you’re not comfortable speaking in front of groups, start small by practicing your elevator pitch with friends or family. Then work your way up to speaking at local meetups or events related to your industry. The more practice you get, the more confident you’ll feel when it comes time to speak to a group of potential customers. Not only will this help you connect with people on a deeper level, but it will also make marketing from the heart much easier, especially if you are speaking to large groups.

Work on your on-camera presence

If you are creating video content, set yourself up for success by working on your on-camera presence. In our joint workshop, Video Marketing for Entrepreneurs, we teach techniques to stage, record, and edit videos for popular platforms. And we also coach participants through techniques to conquer fears, insecurities, and more using Neuro Linguistic Practitioner strategies. If you’re not comfortable in front of the camera, start small by recording yourself on your phone. Then work your way up to higher-quality cameras and equipment. The more practice you get, the more confident you’ll feel when it comes time to film a video for marketing purposes.

Put your heart into your marketing

Marketing from the heart is about combining marketing best practices with the power of human connection. By creating content that matters to your target audience and leveraging Neuro Linguistic Programming techniques that actually make an impact on your customers, you can expect better results from your marketing efforts. If you want to learn more about marketing from the heart, Margarita Eberline offers a free course that covers the basics of story branding and how to apply it to your business. Click here to enroll in the course now.