Marketing Clique

Today, Shirley S. Wang of the Wall Street Journal published an article in the Health Section entitled Why So Many People Can't Make Decisions. The article discussed how our approach to decision-making can affect our lives and relationships. Some people make decisions rquickly, while others take longer.

• Some people are what psychologists categorize as ambivalent. They tend to weigh both the pros and cons when making decisions. And they take longer to make decisions.
• Other personalities see decisions as being more black and white. These folks tend to have strong positive or negative views, and require less time to make decisions.

The article caused me to consider both of these camps when thinking about sales and marketing campaigns, especially when we're using marketing automation applications like Eloqua, Marketo, and Sliverpop. Likewise, our general email marketing outreach should be segmented based on the different types of decision-makers. At the very least, we should be testing different messaging that appeals to these different buyer behaviors. The black and white-minded decision makers are probably going to respond more positively to a direct response type of message, while an ambivalent decision-maker is more likely to respond favorably to more information and time.

The Take Away

Always be testing. Adapt your marketing message to speak to both types of decision-makers.

• Think act now direct response messaging for the black and white decision makers: special offers, incentives, discounts.
• Use more of a progressive approach with the ambivalent people: white papers, case studies, statistics.