For the week of June 1st, here is the winner ( in our terms, the winner is actually a loser). Picking a weekly winner is hard because there are so many to choose from.

Take a look at this banner ad that is currently running on the front page of the online version of the Denver Post.

Its a banner ad promoting the Denver Museum of Natural Science’s new exhibit. The banner ad takes the award home because it:

1. Has no interrupt – there is no headline to hit the reticular activator.
2. No engaging follow on
3. No education
4. No offer or call to action
5. Is located at the foot of an online page, about the worst position possible.

Whom ever created this ad should turn in their marketing badge and go mow lawns. Whom ever bought the position, a footer banner, should be taken out back and given a few lashes.Why would you listen to the sales rep and buy into this placement? Bottom of a page, you must be kidding!

It’s rare that an ad breaks all five rules, but this one does it in style. Creative dollars flushed down the toilet, ad placement dollars also flushed.

Good thing school field trips keep the museum in business because if they had to rely on this ad, its time to close the doors. keep up marketing like this and your on your way out of business. True culling of the herd.

Want effective marketing that converts? You must hit the reticular activator, engage the target audience, educate and offer.

Need to know more?

Connect with us and we can show you how.

In the previous post, we talked about the first step of getting the attention of the target audience and activating the reticular activator of the brain. If you are just jumping in and did not read that post, I recommend a quick review of the step 1 post.

On to step 2

Now that your content has gotten the attention of the target, or made the first attention connection, it’s time to get them engaged in a conversation.

This can be called engaging the customer. Hopefully your headline that pulled them out of the comma created by information overload has them on their heals a bit and now starts the education process.

In the engagement step, you need to tell the target that solving the problem  or concern you raised in the headline is easy with you use the product or service you are presenting. Let’s go back to the meal replacement example.

if you used the headline of:

Three reasons why most protein shakes taste like ground up chalk

A good engagement statement that starts the conversation might be:

It’s easy to enjoy a great tasting protein shake that meets your nutritional needs when you learn about the science behind a well made shake. Lets us teach you about what is inside.

You have yet to sell them anything, made any claims, your content just started them down of path of the target wanting to learn more. Education marketing is the key. Teach them and they will follow you to the sale because its an educated choice the buyer makes, not a sale.

The engage step of content, regardless of if it’s written, audio or video is essential to  transitions the target to a conversation. This is the bridge from interrupting them to conversation, a two way conversation to educate the customer.

The next step is education..

Connect with you tomorrow.

The first step in writing content that jumps off the page and gets the attention of the target customer could be the hardest one to complete.

In order to get the attention of your target, you need to hit their hot button of things they are interested in, or activate the reticular activator. Most of the time this is a email subject line  or ad headline that must be strong enough that their brain locks on.

For most people who have any background in marketing, this may be a bit uncomfortable as it can be seen as negative marketing. But the thing to consider is, does the message work? Does it get the attention and invite you into a conversation?

I have a friend, Shawn Phillips, who is a thought leader, author and well known  in health and fitness. He and his brother Bill were the founders of EAS, the supplement company.  Let’s use his product as an example. Shawn has the world’s best tasting  meal replacement or protein shake, Full Strength. Hands down, the shakes rock.  I know, I drink one each day. No kidding, they taste like ice cream shakes.  The challenge  is, Shawn is in a crowded market with hucksters galore, many selling “potions and lotions” that are just one level above snake oil.

Let’s say for example sake that the target Shawn wants to own is people who use protein shakes each day. (Sorry for over simplifying this Shawn, I know its really performance food but I needed a real example…). Here is the one of the biggest down falls of protein shakes, most of the taste like ground up chalk or something that had been filtered through sweaty gym socks. I can remember tasting shakes and nearly having to hold my nose to drink them. Yuck.  For example sake… here we go.

Shawn needs to poke the protein shake drinkers in the eye and tell them he has the best tasting shake on the planet. But if Shawn makes that claim in an email headline “best tasting shake ever”… its just marketing noise. Everyone claims that.

So here is are a few sample headlines that rocks someone who likes protein shakes but hates the taste:

1.Finally a protein shake that tastes better than sawdust and milk.

2. Don’t drink another horrible tasting protein shake.

3. Three reasons why most protein shakes taste like ground up chalk

4. Meal replacement shakes: Which Ones Actually Work…And Which Ones Are Guaranteed To Torture You, Cost A Fortune, And Leave You Fatter

You get the picture? Each of these headlines grab your attention if you are a protein shake user and begs you to learn more. They poke you in the eye and instead of making platitudes  and fluffy claims, they make you read more.

I know this may feel uncomfortable,  or a bit abrasive but that email subject line or ad headline needs to wake you from the information comma. Its an art and skill in its self.

Tomorrow, we will take a look at the next attribute, Engage. Now that you have poked them in the eye…

Connect with you later.

…he leads him down the hill… (silence…) John?, Can you hear me? John?

Rats! He’s gone. Darn cell phone!

This scene plays out all the time. A cell to cell phone conversation where the connection drops. I find this happening where I am having a conversation and the line drops, so the two way conversation turns into a monologue.

Is this spotty connection also playing it’s self out in your customer communications?

The biggest challenge we have today with marketing and sales communications is the ever increasing difficulty in maintaining the attention span and conversation with the customers. We are all overwhelmed with the amount of information overload that comes to us everyday.

Smart companies are now analyzing their content to make sure it attacks the attention of the consumer or customer and then constantly reconnects to them during the buying cycle.

Effective content must do four things:

1. Connect – it must activate the reticular activator in the brain. Forcing you to pay attention
2. Engage - now that you have the customer’s attention, you now must keep it by telling them, come learn more.
3. Educate – you need to teach the customer how to buy from you. Tell them the things they need to know.
4. Offer – This is the call to action. Unless they are ready to buy, this call to action must be to offer more education.

Each of these are blog topics themselves and I will walk you through this process over the next four days.This is not new science. What is new is the fact that this is now a two way conversation. Marketing is not a monologue.

If you want attention, you must pay attention and constructing your content so it works for could be the most important thing you do in 2009.

Don’t let your communication to your customers end up like the cell phone conversation, a dropped line and when you call back, you cant reach them

Connect with you tomorrow.

What if I can get your attention any time I want to? It’s easier than you think and content is key.

It’s called tapping the Reticular Activator.

Reticular Activator

THE RETICULAR ACTIVATOR is a section of the brain the stays on alert. It’s function is to make you notice some things and ignore other things (if you noticed everything, you’d be too distracted to function. Many of those with ADD have problems with this section of the brain) When you buy a new car, it seems like the whole world has bought the same car you did, because you notice them everywhere. That’s the reticular activator at work.

If you have the goal of starting a new business, for example, you will start noticing things you’ve never noticed before. It seems the world is conspiring to help you out. You’ll meet just the right people. You’ll run into the right partners, the right accountant, the right legal council.  You’ll happen to stumble across a magazine article that tells you about a software program that will help our business.  And so on.

All these things are happening because your clear goal has set up the conditions for your reticular activator to work well. That’s how it works. When you know exactly what you want, your reticular activator goes to work automatically to help you get it.

For the most part, you run on “automatic pilot.” We all do. You tend to think the way you have always thought. You tend to notice things you’ve always noticed. And you tend to overlook things you’ve always overlooked.

But when you have a new, clear, definite goal, you start noticing things you would “normally” overlook. And that makes all the difference.

The term “reticular activator” comes from the name given to the part of the brain primarily responsible for arousal and motivation in animals (including humans). It’s called the “reticular formation” and it’s located at the core of the brain stem between the medulla oblongata and midbrain.

You can’t be aware of everything all the time. The reticular activator is your first line of defense against the overwhelm of stimuli. The reticular activator decides what will get into your awareness (what you will become conscious of), and its decisions are based on survival instincts plus anything else you deem as really important.

For example, a woman is a sound sleeper. She has been all her life. Then she has a baby and the slightest cry, sniffle or coo, wakes her up.

How does this happen? The reticular activator never sleeps. It is always active.

You can use your reticular activator as a powerful force for good in your marketing and sales communications. Every communication you send to customers needs to leverage the reticular activator. Out smart your competitors who are spending thousands of dollars on creative folks to write snappy content and intelligent lay out by focusing your efforts on the hot buttons of attention your customers.The most creative content and smoking lay outs will just be noise that the reticular activator blocks out.