Good day loved ones!
As the month of love kicked off and the most romantic day of the year is on its way, how about we share some love?
If you are wondering what does Valentine have to do with marketing, let me clarify it in a few words. We have reached an era as most of you know, where marketing is acquiring a new understanding and a new reason for being. When once marketing was purely about selling, today, marketing is all about loving.
Yes, loving.
Take Brian Sheehan’s insightful book “Loveworks” for example, about how top marketers create emotional bonds with consumers. Aside from its content of course, the title itself and the subtitle, pretty much sum up why brands use marketing today.
With the daily increase of connectivity and smart phone usage, consumer behaviors have shifted immensely, relying on the web as their primary source of what we traditionally call “word of mouth”. But of course, it goes way beyond that, exposing users to endless stories and information about a myriad of brands and products. This amalgam of brands, channels and information has made the once powerful hard sell technique almost obsolete. Which leaves us with what? The one and only soft sell. As its name refers, soft sell relies on emotional selling propositions rather than unique features. This is where brands and marketers should shift their whole online strategy into one that accompanies the user 24/7 in a 360 experience. If we try to dissect how users make purchase decisions online, we end up with the 4-stage consumer journey based on the “Moment Of Truth” or MOT.

In a nutshell, the Moment Of Truth takes users into 4 different stages. The zero moment of truth happens when the prospect researches the ideal brand to purchase following a stimulus (the very first stage in the journey) triggered by his or her specific need.
At this stage, the brand with most exposure and information will surely catch the researcher’s attention. This is the most defining moments of all, because it will convince the prospect to convert and become a customer. Once this is accomplished, the user buys the product, and through experiencing it, becomes an influencer for other prospects, assuming of course that he or she likes what they bought.
This Zero Moment Of Truth focuses on attracting consumers through useful and engaging stories.
For those reasons, content marketing has proven to be most effective. Activations, videos, user generated content (UGC), infographics and endless other types of content, all blend together to tell a brand’s bigger story. Brands and people have become in a way “one”, sharing stories, information and emotions to create and sustain everlasting bonds.
What I’m stressing on here, is the importance of relationships in our marketing world today. No partner likes to be cheated in real life. Consequently, no brand or consumer likes to be cheated by their other half as well. Brands should consider their audience’s needs and what they are seeking, in order to make their relationship not only work, but bloom, into a forever after love story.
So dear marketers, go out there, share your love and most of all enjoy it!
And happy Valentine in advance.
Tony Raad
Content Creator and Creative Writer