G'Day everyone.
Speaker:It's Coach Michelle J Raymond, your trusted guide for building your
Speaker:brand and your business on LinkedIn.
Speaker:And listeners, we've been doing a series of having my guests who are experts
Speaker:who also happen to be my friends, and I am so lucky to have this person
Speaker:coming on the show for the second time.
Speaker:Nancy Harhut, welcome back to the show.
Speaker:Oh my gosh.
Speaker:I am so excited to be here.
Speaker:Michelle, thank you so much for calling me a friend and for
Speaker:having me on the show again.
Speaker:Really appreciate it.
Speaker:Look, I am so glad that we got to actually cross paths at Social Media
Speaker:Marketing World earlier this year, and unfortunately we won't get to do it next
Speaker:year, but it was one of those sessions that when I was sitting in the room,
Speaker:I just watched people around me as you were speaking, scribbling so many notes,
Speaker:like they were going mad, like, don't forget this tip that Nancy's giving them.
Speaker:And for people that weren't in the room.
Speaker:You should go and buy Nancy's book, which is called Using behavioural
Speaker:Science in Marketing, and I'll put all those details in the show notes so
Speaker:that people can go and check it out.
Speaker:It is just jam packed full of so much goodness.
Speaker:And you said you are gonna share a little bit about that today in "How Brain Science
Speaker:Can Teach Us About LinkedIn Marketing".
Speaker:Are you ready?
Speaker:Nancy?
Speaker:Are you ready?
Speaker:I am ready.
Speaker:Yes, let's do it.
Speaker:Alright, let's do it right after this short word about
Speaker:our podcast sponsors Metricool.
Speaker:Okay, Nancy, we are back and we are going to get into this one.
Speaker:And unlike Jay Schwedelson, there are no weird things that you need to
Speaker:eat or hot wings challenges coming.
Speaker:This is straight into it.
Speaker:Your best tips and I wanna ask the first question because my audience
Speaker:are B2B marketers and they're often responsible for all kinds of things.
Speaker:But one of the problems that I see keep popping up that I learned from
Speaker:you is that I think most B2B marketers out there still think that B2B
Speaker:buyers just make rational decisions.
Speaker:I'd like to know from a brain science point of view.
Speaker:Why is that such a dangerous marketing assumption, especially when it
Speaker:comes to their LinkedIn marketing?
Speaker:Sure.
Speaker:I mean, it is absolutely a very common misconception, no question about it,
Speaker:and there is an element of truth to it.
Speaker:Certainly B2B buyers make decisions for the good of the company.
Speaker:So they're thinking about things that, you know, in, in rational terms.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:But it doesn't stop there.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:At the end of the day, people are people, whether they're at home, whether
Speaker:they're at work, people are people, and behavioural scientists have found that
Speaker:we all need to access the emotional parts of our brain in order to make decisions.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:There's a researcher named Antonio Demasio.
Speaker:And he conducted research among people whose, uh, brains had been damaged
Speaker:and it was the part of the brain that was damaged that controls emotion.
Speaker:And what he found was they were virtually incapable of making a decision,
Speaker:even a very simple decision like, what would you like for lunch today?
Speaker:They couldn't decide.
Speaker:They go back and forth and back and forth.
Speaker:They couldn't land.
Speaker:And he found that we, people, humans, need to access the emotional parts of
Speaker:our brain in order to make decisions.
Speaker:So if you are, a B2B marketer.
Speaker:And you're thinking, oh, it's all about facts and figures and speeds and feeds,
Speaker:and let's just keep this very rational.
Speaker:You are going to leave money on the table.
Speaker:Some of your messages will connect.
Speaker:Sometimes they'll just happen to land right in front of someone who's really
Speaker:interested in that topic or ready to buy.
Speaker:But you are not gonna reach as many people.
Speaker:You're not gonna build the connection with as many people, and you're
Speaker:not gonna convert as many people.
Speaker:Even the, The B2B Institute has found that emotion in B2B messages drives seven
Speaker:times the sales, the revenue, and the profitability of the marketing messages.
Speaker:So, you know, it really, it's, it's proven.
Speaker:In market, it's proven by behavioural science.
Speaker:We really want to have some of that emotion.
Speaker:We don't wanna walk away from the rational sales points, but we want both.
Speaker:We, we know that people make decisions for emotional reasons and then quickly
Speaker:justify those decisions to themselves and to other people with the rational reasons.
Speaker:So what we want is that nice balance of both of them.
Speaker:Are we better off speaking to the fear side of those emotions or the
Speaker:positive side, like are people.
Speaker:Looking for confidence boosters or, uh oh, don't let me make that bad decision.
Speaker:So I look like I've made the wrong one to my peers.
Speaker:Uh, you know, it depends.
Speaker:People are looking for a little of both.
Speaker:Very often we wanna be reassured, uh, we don't wanna look bad to the boss.
Speaker:We don't wanna look bad to our peers, we don't wanna look bad to the board.
Speaker:We don't wanna make a, a decision and then find, oh my gosh, getting this up the
Speaker:food chain is just an enormous amount of work, or onboarding people is, is keeping
Speaker:me here nights and weekends, you know?
Speaker:We're looking for reassurance.
Speaker:But we also, don't wanna miss out on things.
Speaker:And behavioural science has shown us that people are actually twice as
Speaker:motivated to avoid the pain of loss as they are to achieve the pleasure of gain.
Speaker:And in marketing, we usually focus on the gains, the advantages to benefits, all
Speaker:the wonderful things that will happen if you just choose me, become my company,
Speaker:my customer sign up for, uh, my service.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:And I, I don't think we need to walk away from that.
Speaker:In fact, I know we don't want need to walk away from benefits, but there
Speaker:are times when a little well-placed loss aversion can go a long way.
Speaker:And so maybe what you wanna do is you wanna point out the pain someone will
Speaker:be in if they don't do what you're asking them to, or point out the
Speaker:pain they can avoid if they in fact do what you're asking them to do.
Speaker:So sometimes people need that reassurance.
Speaker:They wanna feel like, okay, I'm making a, a good decision and
Speaker:there's not gonna be a problem.
Speaker:Other times they need that little extra nudge of, you know, being faced with the
Speaker:pain of loss that they're likely going to encounter if they don't make the move.
Speaker:If they don't, click the button if they don't, uh, become a customer.
Speaker:You wanna judge the, the context and the market and have a little bit of both.
Speaker:The FOMO is real.
Speaker:You guys have had Thanksgiving offers, we've had Black Friday offers,
Speaker:we've got the Christmas offers, soon we'll have the new year offers, like
Speaker:there are offers coming like left, right, and centre every which way.
Speaker:And I'm a sucker for when it is, you know, we're down to the last few available, the
Speaker:time's running out, these kinds of things.
Speaker:That's when I am going, uh oh.
Speaker:If I don't do this, I'm gonna miss out on this deal.
Speaker:And it may not come around.
Speaker:Knowing full well that the game is, it's gonna come round in about
Speaker:another five minutes if I just wait.
Speaker:But patience isn't my virtue, my friend.
Speaker:Shout out to all the marketers who prey on people like me, poor, innocent
Speaker:people like me, who can't wait.
Speaker:But you know what, Michelle, it's not your fault because human
Speaker:beings are actually hardwired to want that instant gratification.
Speaker:behavioural scientists talk about something called present focused bias,
Speaker:and we want what we want and we want it now, and we don't like to wait and
Speaker:we will discount, uh, later rewards.
Speaker:So we'll take a smaller but sooner reward.
Speaker:Over a larger but later one.
Speaker:Experiment after experiment after experiment has proven that.
Speaker:So you're not alone.
Speaker:You know, we want what we want, we want it now.
Speaker:And uh, and if we think that we are, we're about to lose it,
Speaker:that's when we're gonna grab it.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:Oh my God.
Speaker:I'm gonna take this clip and I'm gonna play it for Lil every time
Speaker:I'm doing my online shopping.
Speaker:So thank you for this clip if nothing else.
Speaker:The other thing that I think comes up, Nancy, in a lot of conversations,
Speaker:so I'm helping people say with their LinkedIn company pages, we are writing
Speaker:content, putting it out there and obviously that frequency piece comes up.
Speaker:What happens is we come back to the conversation around, we've already
Speaker:said that we've said it before.
Speaker:Oh, do we have to, you know, show up that often?
Speaker:Why does repeated exposure matter so much in B2B and how should marketers think
Speaker:about that when we are using LinkedIn?
Speaker:Because this is another clip that I'm gonna want to use with my clients and
Speaker:say, we can't just post once and then expect that message to get across.
Speaker:But I know you and you always come and bring the receipts of why this
Speaker:is gonna be worth it for people.
Speaker:One of the reasons is the effect that repetition has on the human brain.
Speaker:So when we hear something often, it becomes familiar.
Speaker:And when something becomes familiar, it feels more truthful, it feels
Speaker:more real, it feels more trusted.
Speaker:And as a result, we're much more likely to accept it.
Speaker:We're gonna remember that name, we're gonna remember that company.
Speaker:We're gonna remember that product or that service.
Speaker:It's gonna feel familiar and it's gonna feel right.
Speaker:It's easy for us to recall something.
Speaker:And when it's easy for the brain to recall something, easy for the brain to process
Speaker:something, it feels right and it's not a big leap to assume that it is, right?
Speaker:So suddenly this, this is the right choice.
Speaker:And then I think, the other reason simply is people are scattered.
Speaker:Their attention is, you know, divided across so many different things.
Speaker:You post something once, if it doesn't happen to pop up when somebody is
Speaker:scrolling at that particular moment, they're just not gonna see it.
Speaker:And you're like, well, I've, I put it out there.
Speaker:It's like, well, good for you.
Speaker:Repeating our message, it, it reinforces it for those who have seen it.
Speaker:And we know that that's good.
Speaker:And it also widens the chance that we're gonna reach our market and
Speaker:we're gonna at least get some of our messages in front of them.
Speaker:It might feel like a little bit more work on our part, but
Speaker:we absolutely need to do it.
Speaker:The wonderful brain science benefit is the more someone hears our name, our product,
Speaker:our, you know, our benefit, our value proposition, the more real it becomes,
Speaker:the more likely they are to believe it.
Speaker:And that's a good thing.
Speaker:I have a question for you.
Speaker:'cause there's some stats that get thrown around from time to time on LinkedIn and
Speaker:I don't even know where they started, so I'm just putting it out there.
Speaker:I can't quote it.
Speaker:But once upon a time, it used to be, you know, people need to hear something
Speaker:seven times before they remember it.
Speaker:And then someone would say a year later, it's 14 times and
Speaker:then it was like 32 times.
Speaker:Like have we gotten worse at being able to remember and recall stuff as a human race?
Speaker:Or is there something that we can do that's like, no, this
Speaker:is the number or frequency.
Speaker:What are your brain science things?
Speaker:Tell us about this.
Speaker:Yeah, that's an interesting question.
Speaker:And I have seen those varying stats, whether it's seven or 14 or 21 or 30,
Speaker:there's definitely some truth to them because we're not completely focused.
Speaker:We're cruising along on autopilot and we may or may not engage.
Speaker:There is some research that shows that even if you remember something,
Speaker:if it's not relevant to you, it kind of doesn't make a difference.
Speaker:If I can recall the message in the brand, but that brand didn't make
Speaker:an emotional connection with me, it's not really gonna be helpful to
Speaker:me, and as a result to the brand.
Speaker:And there's some research that also shows that even if you can't immediately
Speaker:recall something, but it's more something that you notice subconsciously, it
Speaker:still can impact your behaviour.
Speaker:Again, going back to repetition, this is a very good thing, right?
Speaker:So it's, it's hard to say, you know, what that magic number
Speaker:is, but what we do know is.
Speaker:We wanna be out there with our message.
Speaker:We wanna be out there with our message, but it, it's gotta be the right message.
Speaker:It's gotta be a message that connects with people that has some emotion
Speaker:that maybe has a good story, so that people feel that the relevance is
Speaker:there, and if the relevance is there, our brain encodes that message.
Speaker:Because we know we're going to need it for the future.
Speaker:It's like, oh, this is gonna be important to me.
Speaker:This is something I'm interested in.
Speaker:This is something that can help me either achieve something or avoid something
Speaker:painful, but it's relevant to me.
Speaker:And so it gets kind of tucked away in our brains, and it's
Speaker:there for us when we need it.
Speaker:Relevance is something Nancy, that is definitely I'm gonna say the
Speaker:topic de jour on LinkedIn right now.
Speaker:So if we rewind the clock a little bit back to June, the
Speaker:world changed on LinkedIn.
Speaker:So once upon a time we could rely on certain reach ie our content being
Speaker:shown to as many people as possible that, LinkedIn determined and then
Speaker:they shifted everything and they were moving it towards relevance.
Speaker:So not as many people, but hopefully the right people and
Speaker:it's been an interesting year.
Speaker:I am gonna put it out there that I've really struggled with this
Speaker:change because I was addicted to the impressions just like everybody else.
Speaker:But tell me from a behavioural science point of view, why might niche and
Speaker:specific messages outperform kind of more broad thought leadership that used
Speaker:to, you know, hit a wider audience.
Speaker:Will I be seeing results from this relevance play that
Speaker:LinkedIn tells me I will?
Speaker:One can never say for sure if what LinkedIn says is actually going to, you
Speaker:know, perhaps, you know, let's hope.
Speaker:But what I can say is that brain scientists talk about something called
Speaker:self-concept and that is this idea that people will seek out, products and brands
Speaker:that reflect well on them that either reflect how they see themselves or how
Speaker:they would like the world to see them.
Speaker:And so when we stop casting that really wide net and we get a little
Speaker:bit more niche and a little bit more specific, it gives us the opportunity
Speaker:to build that community, to have people say, yes, that's the company
Speaker:for me, that's the brand for me.
Speaker:That's the the one that I wanna be associated with.
Speaker:That's the community that I wanna be part of.
Speaker:And that can be a very good thing because.
Speaker:Once you can make that connection with a, a customer or a prospective customer,
Speaker:uh, it becomes really sticky, right?
Speaker:You get that emotional bond and people are kind of wed to you.
Speaker:If you can get that customer, you're gonna keep that customer.
Speaker:So having that more specific, more niche content helps build those smaller
Speaker:communities, where people are attracted by this is the brand that reflects
Speaker:who I am, or this is the brand that reflects the way I'd like to be seen.
Speaker:So it builds that exclusivity, which is another thing that
Speaker:behavioural scientists talk about.
Speaker:If everybody can have something, well we may or may not be interested, but
Speaker:if it's only for certain people and we wanna be part of that exclusive group,
Speaker:that can be very, very, very motivating.
Speaker:So when you start to craft your content set up those guardrails that you're
Speaker:not trying to be every, everything to everyone, but you're for a very specific
Speaker:kind of person or group of people, that kind of adds to that exclusivity
Speaker:and, that makes people feel good.
Speaker:It is one of those things that I would have to say over the last few months for
Speaker:myself and my own business right now that I've been reflecting on, because I think
Speaker:it's easy when we're creating content and often on the fly, we start off with great
Speaker:strategies and then life happens and then we move into just get the post done or
Speaker:something grabs our attention, and then all of a sudden you drift off course.
Speaker:That tightness in your message of who you're speaking to all of
Speaker:a sudden dissipates over time.
Speaker:And I think that's what I've noticed with my own content is that it starts
Speaker:off small and it's just like just one post here, and then it's one post
Speaker:there, and then all of a sudden those posts get a little bit closer together.
Speaker:And we're at the end of the year and I'm thinking.
Speaker:I love my audience of B2B marketers like they are my target.
Speaker:And if I go back and specifically look at some of the content that I've been
Speaker:putting out, and whether that's the podcast, whether it's videos, whether
Speaker:it's LinkedIn posts, I realise that I've probably become a little more
Speaker:everything to everyone as you said.
Speaker:And that is where the power is lost.
Speaker:When I was the Company Page Queen and that's all people knew me for, like
Speaker:the opportunities come flooding in, whether it's speaking, whether it's
Speaker:clients, it was really clear in that clarity I think is just what sells.
Speaker:And you know, me.
Speaker:I'm here for how can marketing help me sell more?
Speaker:I make no apologies for that, but I, I think I've just noticed it for myself.
Speaker:Do you do check-ins with your clients?
Speaker:Like how do we get people back on track?
Speaker:Yeah, that, that's a good question.
Speaker:I've had this conversation with a couple of clients actually,
Speaker:where I used to phrase like, you want that steady drumbeat, right?
Speaker:You've decided what it is you wanna be known for what your,
Speaker:you know, your message is, your value proposition, your promise.
Speaker:Call it what you will, but you know what you wanna be known for
Speaker:and you just need to stick to it.
Speaker:And it's tempting to say, but I couldn't do other things.
Speaker:Or I have a perspective on, other issues and, you know, why not expand?
Speaker:The problem is you start to dilute the message, and that's not gonna
Speaker:serve you well in the long run.
Speaker:You know, you might pick up another person here or another person there, but
Speaker:it really does start to dilute things.
Speaker:And if you have that, that, that focus, that steady drumbeat where this is
Speaker:who I am and this is what I stand for.
Speaker:And, uh, you know, every piece of content that you put out there,
Speaker:every post that you comment on.
Speaker:, comes through that lens with that perspective.
Speaker:That just keeps reinforcing who you are, that adds to how you're gonna
Speaker:be thought of, how you're gonna be remembered, and it actually makes
Speaker:you more likely to be remembered.
Speaker:As tempting as it can be to broaden that tight focus, that steady
Speaker:drumbeat is what's gonna pay off.
Speaker:Because, you know, again, we were talking about this earlier, but.
Speaker:People have a lot on their minds.
Speaker:There's a lot, trying to, uh, compete for their attention and they're not
Speaker:spending nearly as much time consuming our content as we are creating it.
Speaker:They don't spend as much time thinking about it as we spend thinking about it.
Speaker:And so by coming back to the same essential message, you know, just
Speaker:over and over and over again, that's what serves us well.
Speaker:I found with a few clients recently, and these are multinational global brands.
Speaker:And when I say to them, okay, tell me about this particular product
Speaker:that they're offering and where is it most likely to be sold into?
Speaker:And it is always everyone, everywhere we can sell this thing and asking them to
Speaker:narrow things down would mean saying to somebody else in a different department,
Speaker:actually, we're focusing on this, not that because we know it will work.
Speaker:And trying to get people to understand that this will help them sell more, not
Speaker:less, is a really tricky concept to get across the line because they're like, no,
Speaker:Michelle, we can sell it to this industry, that industry, this country, that country,
Speaker:you know, everyone, senior people, junior people, like there's everyone involved.
Speaker:It's when I start rocking in the corner because I intuitively
Speaker:know that that's not the case.
Speaker:And I'm really thankful for one of my clients 'cause they're entering
Speaker:into a, a new industry where there's two key players already established,
Speaker:been in the market 25 years.
Speaker:They're the new kid on the block, have an amazing product.
Speaker:I'm like, if you try and compete with them on same, same, I know
Speaker:that you're gonna do it because your content's gonna look the same.
Speaker:You're gonna sound the same.
Speaker:You're gonna talk about exactly the same stuff.
Speaker:And why would I choose the new person over the two existing players in the business
Speaker:that have those long term relationships and have built a brand in that industry.
Speaker:And thankfully we found a little niche that we're gonna carve out.
Speaker:They trusted me on that and very quickly where they haven't been able to get
Speaker:traction over a, you know, a year or so.
Speaker:Now they're starting to see it.
Speaker:Their sales team are now connected to this is the campaign that we are doing.
Speaker:Because before they were like.
Speaker:It's all a bit blah, you know, like it was their kind of words.
Speaker:We don't wanna share it with our audience.
Speaker:They were reluctant to sell the story.
Speaker:They didn't want to put the content out on their company
Speaker:page or their personal profiles.
Speaker:And so it was just this whole stagnant, they got stuck.
Speaker:And so I, I think there really is so much power in what you've just shared here.
Speaker:That I want people to know that I know intuitively that your gut is gonna
Speaker:tell you, but I can sell anything to everyone and especially at a time
Speaker:where it's probably tough for a lot of people out there and it makes your
Speaker:brain see the bigger the pond, the more chance of catching the fish.
Speaker:Actually, no, let's go fishing in a really small pond, because you've just got such
Speaker:a bigger chance of actually winning.
Speaker:So thank you for my personal reminder again, uh, this is a clip I'll play
Speaker:to myself, just so you know listeners.
Speaker:Thanks Nancy as always.
Speaker:As you were saying that, I was thinking of this one client I had where we
Speaker:literally went to them with data.
Speaker:Data saying this is who's buying and this is who's not.
Speaker:So let's save money by only focusing on these people and Yep, yep, yep, yep, yep.
Speaker:They're nodding through the whole presentation.
Speaker:Yeah, that makes perfect sense.
Speaker:And then at the end they said, but you know what?
Speaker:Just in case someone over there decides to buy, we should just keep
Speaker:doing it the way we've been doing it.
Speaker:And it was, it was like, oh my gosh, you know, we just spent an hour.
Speaker:With all of the data, but you know what you're saying, good for you
Speaker:for convincing your client to, to do what you know, what the what's right.
Speaker:Um, but people get nervous that they either are overconfident and
Speaker:think, yes, I can do it, or they're afraid that they might lose that one.
Speaker:One person, that one company, that one sale, and it's like,
Speaker:oh, it's not gonna happen.
Speaker:You know, it's gonna be a much more efficient, much more effective
Speaker:sell to narrow things down.
Speaker:But it's hard.
Speaker:We're human and we're either, like I said, either over overconfident or
Speaker:fearful, we're gonna lose someone.
Speaker:So, good for you for, uh, getting your client on the right track.
Speaker:I did not succeed with that particular one for, for me, but hey.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:'cause we're humans like, and I have so much empathy for people out there
Speaker:because this is something that, like I said, goes on in my own business.
Speaker:Like my head knows what I should be doing in this circumstance.
Speaker:So if anyone out there is listening to this and you're struggling having
Speaker:that conversation with your managers or your team about going narrow.
Speaker:I feel for you because this really is something that is so
Speaker:powerful if you can nail it.
Speaker:But at the same time, getting everyone in line to think that
Speaker:going narrow is going to give you a higher chance of increasing sales.
Speaker:That's a tough call.
Speaker:So hopefully what Nancy shared today is gonna help people out there.
Speaker:But Nancy, I wanna move on to something else that you talk about, which is, mental
Speaker:friction and you talk about trying to reduce that rather than persuade people.
Speaker:What is that exactly?
Speaker:And what might that look like on LinkedIn for a post or a campaign?
Speaker:So when you think about it I wanna persuade people.
Speaker:What does that mean?
Speaker:That means I'm gonna try to sell someone and no one really wants to be sold.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:When we push too hard, uh, what happens is something called
Speaker:psychological reactance, right?
Speaker:We're pushing someone so hard that they turn around and they push back.
Speaker:And if I really am trying to sell you this, they're really not gonna buy it.
Speaker:So we're much better off taking the approach where we allow people
Speaker:to come to their own conclusion.
Speaker:And what's wonderful about that is, you know, people may argue with what you
Speaker:or I tell them to do, but they rarely argue with their own conclusions.
Speaker:So if we can, create our posts, set up our content so that people
Speaker:start to go through it and they're nodding and they're coming to their
Speaker:own, oh, this would be good for me.
Speaker:This is, oh, this is what I should do.
Speaker:You know, we're not telling them to do it.
Speaker:They're thinking it on their own.
Speaker:And that's what is so valuable.
Speaker:So instead of coming on strong, and I, I get it, we all wanna sell.
Speaker:I mean, that's how we stay in business.
Speaker:We all want to, but instead of coming on with this idea of, I need to
Speaker:persuade you, what we wanna do is we wanna just present the information
Speaker:in an interesting, informative, educational, entertaining way.
Speaker:We wanna have a lead that pulls people right in.
Speaker:Maybe we wanna tell a story because stories allow the reader, the listener,
Speaker:to put themselves in the shoes of the main character, which of course
Speaker:means that the main character should not be the company or the product,
Speaker:but it should be the customer.
Speaker:The customer succeeds because of the product, but the
Speaker:product itself isn't the hero.
Speaker:We wanna create content like that where people can place themselves in the
Speaker:shoes of the customer and come to the conclusion on their own that, yeah,
Speaker:this is something that I should do.
Speaker:And it, it's not easy because the temptation, of course, is I wanna sell,
Speaker:I have numbers I need to hit, I've got all this great stuff I wanna say.
Speaker:So we're very tempted to just lead with that, shove it out there.
Speaker:But, it really doesn't work because nobody wants to be sold to.
Speaker:And if we, if we push too hard, they're gonna push right back.
Speaker:I just read an article, this morning actually it was published
Speaker:on the, new Newor Marketing Blog, which comes out of the Netherlands.
Speaker:And they were citing some 2025 research, this year's research that said that if
Speaker:your social platform gets too salesy.
Speaker:What happens is, ironically, you make fewer sales, right?
Speaker:People go on and they want, you know, information and
Speaker:they, they want the community.
Speaker:And if the balance starts to to tip over towards too salesy.
Speaker:What happens is they pull back and they'll comment here and there, but the engagement
Speaker:isn't as strong and the sales drop off.
Speaker:That's another reason why, you know, not only do I have to be careful about
Speaker:which particular platform we choose and what's going on, and keep our eye on
Speaker:that, 'cause context is important, but it's another reason why we don't want
Speaker:to get too salesy, because that's just gonna not only ruin it for us, but for
Speaker:everyone else on the platform, right?
Speaker:If everyone on LinkedIn is sell, sell, sell.
Speaker:Based on this research, you know, people are gonna be pulling back
Speaker:saying, eh, you know, I, I don't, I don't have that same feeling.
Speaker:I don't have that same trust that I used to have.
Speaker:When I would go here.
Speaker:I don't feel like I'm exchanging information with my peers or with
Speaker:the people that I respect and follow.
Speaker:I feel like somebody's trying to sell me.
Speaker:Someone's trying to persuade me, and I don't like that.
Speaker:It's a very natural human feeling, and so we have to be careful about that.
Speaker:There was something that you slipped in there that I wanted to go Yes, yes, Nancy.
Speaker:That is it.
Speaker:You made a, a comment, I won't quote you, but it was like,
Speaker:literally, if your product or service is the hero of your post.
Speaker:I think you've missed the point, and I would agree with that.
Speaker:I think that's why LinkedIn Company Pages get such a bad rep and the
Speaker:content doesn't really travel as far.
Speaker:'cause too often the company or the product or the service
Speaker:are the hero of the post.
Speaker:And everybody else is like, eh, who cares?
Speaker:That's got nothing to do with me.
Speaker:That's not helping me get closer to my goals.
Speaker:And I think when you have the ability to take that out and make your customer
Speaker:or your customer's customers all of a sudden be the focus on how they
Speaker:got there so that they're the hero.
Speaker:You're right.
Speaker:That is so much more relatable and the kind of content that resonates.
Speaker:And that is when brands get trusted and that's when brands can create community.
Speaker:And it doesn't have to be all on the personal pages like people
Speaker:would have you believe, but if you just talk about yourself.
Speaker:Yeah, it's like when you're at a party and someone just does that and what do you do?
Speaker:Excuse me, I gotta go grab a drink.
Speaker:You don't want to be that person when it comes to your LinkedIn content.
Speaker:I like to give people actionable tips.
Speaker:You know me, Nancy.
Speaker:That's how I roll.
Speaker:And if you had the opportunity to speak directly to B2B marketers, which we do
Speaker:on this podcast, and you could change just one thing that about how they either
Speaker:write their content or structure their LinkedIn content to work the brain instead
Speaker:of against it, what would you recommend?
Speaker:Well, I mean this, this is a perfect segue actually, um, because what I
Speaker:would say is, uh, as you're developing your content, the one thing you need
Speaker:to do is you need to be more customer focused and less company focused, right?
Speaker:There's plenty of things that you want to say, wonderful things about your company
Speaker:and your product, and you are excited about it, and you wanna share all that.
Speaker:But we need to think about not what we, we wanna say, but what our
Speaker:customers and prospects wanna hear.
Speaker:And if we start to filter things through that lens.
Speaker:So we get a very different kind of content.
Speaker:We'll find ourselves using the words I, we insert company name right?
Speaker:Far less.
Speaker:We'll find ourselves using the word you far more often.
Speaker:We just need to start to see things through our customer's eyes.
Speaker:And even though there are 20 million things we wanna say about our product,
Speaker:because it's so wonderful, we need to restrain ourselves and zero in on the
Speaker:two or three things that are really gonna resonate with our customers and
Speaker:prospects that are really gonna make a difference for them, that are gonna be
Speaker:the, information that they're looking for.
Speaker:Because that's, that's when they're gonna engage.
Speaker:And so again, less company focused, way more customer focused.
Speaker:You are not gonna get anything but a huge ditto for me on this one as well.
Speaker:No surprises there.
Speaker:You're the expert in this space, but I just see it happen all
Speaker:too often where it is just all about company, company, company.
Speaker:You can still talk about the same topics, but you can flip that angle and really
Speaker:get into the shoes of the person on the other side, and that's what I'm trying
Speaker:to teach my clients when I'm working with them, especially for company pages, is why
Speaker:does the person on the other side care?
Speaker:How are you helping them make more confident buying decisions
Speaker:or get them closer to their goals?
Speaker:What are you doing that's helping them, rather than just talk about yourself?
Speaker:And it can be talking about exactly the same topic, but flipping the script.
Speaker:Everybody wins.
Speaker:And you know what?
Speaker:I'm a fan where everybody wins.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:I mean, it could be, this is a bad example, but it could be as simple as
Speaker:instead of saying, we're so excited to tell you about our whatever, it's like
Speaker:you'll be really interested to know that our whatever can help you in this way.
Speaker:Again, bad example, but it does represent the, the two different ways to get into
Speaker:something, and our, our temptation is because we're so excited, we, we, I wanna
Speaker:tell you about this, you know, and it's like, no, no, you might be interested
Speaker:in this and it's like, oh, I might, why?
Speaker:Let me find out more.
Speaker:Why might I be interested?
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:It's all about the customer.
Speaker:In fact, we can even list a couple of bullets about why our particular
Speaker:product or service is so good, but there's been scientific research that
Speaker:shows three is the optimum number, not four, not five, not six, not the 10 or
Speaker:20 that you have on your sales sheet.
Speaker:Zero in on the three.
Speaker:Three has critical mass.
Speaker:One, two, it's a little watery where like, I don't know, maybe
Speaker:not, not, you know, hasn't really, jelled three is where you wanna be.
Speaker:4, 5, 6. It starts to just be too much and the scientific research shows
Speaker:that, people start to just tune out.
Speaker:But, so you can talk about your product and service, you can have
Speaker:those three key points and they could be different from, one segment to
Speaker:another, from one product to another.
Speaker:You know, zero in on what is gonna be most relevant to your target.
Speaker:But again, always through the target's eyes.
Speaker:It's not about what you wanna say, it's about what they wanna hear.
Speaker:I think we should just leave that there, because I know you said it's not a
Speaker:great example, but if we could just get our listeners of this podcast to make
Speaker:that change and shift that language.
Speaker:One, it doesn't cost anyone anything, so there's no reason we can't do it.
Speaker:It is such a simple and effective change that you could implement that I absolutely
Speaker:concur with everything Nancy's saying that it would make such a big difference.
Speaker:And I'm, you know, I spent 20 years in sales.
Speaker:I love selling.
Speaker:But we don't need to always punch people in the face with everything that's so
Speaker:amazing about our products and services.
Speaker:And if three's the magic number, I'm on board with that one.
Speaker:But Nancy, like, you know, I just wanna sit here and nerd out on all of this
Speaker:behavioural science stuff with you.
Speaker:I can't do that 'cause I have to wrap the podcast up.
Speaker:But I am going to encourage everybody to go across to your profile,
Speaker:connect with you on LinkedIn, and definitely grab a copy of your book.
Speaker:So many simple, small changes that would be so effective to really help
Speaker:people get better results from their marketing efforts in 2026 and beyond.
Speaker:And I think I am calling 2026 the year that we need to get
Speaker:back to foundations of marketing.
Speaker:The year that we have to stop being distracted by all the shiny toys that are
Speaker:out there and build that solid foundation.
Speaker:So Nancy, you've helped us a lot here.
Speaker:I wish you every success in 2026, and thanks for coming back on the show.
Speaker:Oh my goodness.
Speaker:Thank you so much, Michelle.
Speaker:It's always a joy to speak with you and, and by extension to your listeners.
Speaker:So thank you, thank you, thank you.
Speaker:And I wish everybody wonderful success in 2026.
Speaker:Amazing.
Speaker:So until next week, cheers.