Legendary sales trainer and motivational speaker Zig Ziglar often stated that selling is essentially a transference of feeling.

While logic is part of our decision making equation, people are more often moved to action for emotional reasons – and that includes responding to your social media marketing.

Understanding how to create contextual experiences that move people to action is what relationship selling is all about. This is why I like to say social marketing is the new relationship selling.

The reason in a nutshell is that the content that drives social marketing accomplishes what has traditionally been the responsibility of the sales team: engaging buyers with logic and emotion by building meaningful relationships with them.

What’s interesting is that unlike traditional selling, digital social marketing starts developing relationships with buyers even before the company is aware of them. Consider the significance of this.

It’s necessary to consider the customer experience your marketing will deliver – and the feelings your buyers will have in response to it.

What Do You Want Your Customers to Feel?

This is one reason why I interview people from my live audiences prior to building the presentation that I will deliver to them live. The better I can get to know them, the more easily I can visualize and feel a connection with them when I am onstage.

Understanding your customers is a never-ending practice for every business. Everything changes, so it’s up to business people like you and me to stay in touch with the most intimate feelings of our customers.

Once you clearly define both the logical and emotional needs of the customers you serve, you can be sure your marketing will speak directly to them. In particular, the more specific the language the better.

What Outcomes Do They Want to Experience?

The outcomes your customers desire will determine their most receptive emotional state. For example, if you are in the business of selling life insurance, it’s doubtful your audience wants to be revved up and excited.

More important for them is probably that your business is personally interested in them and respectful of their views on life, death, and family. The practical approach for most companies is instilling confidence that earns the buyer’s trust.

The truth is this:  Feelings and experiences move people to action, but trust is what gets them to sign on the dotted line.

Share Stories That Inspire Actions

It’s one thing to build traffic to your website and social media channels, but unless you are also sharing stories that will hold their attention and create memorable feelings, it’s unlikely that traffic will convert to profitable outcomes.

Now, before you start thinking you don’t have a lot of good stories, let me share my personal experience.

While writing my first book was a wonderful experience, the editing process was challenging. One of the reasons for this was that in addition to reconciling hundreds of technical corrections per chapter, the copy editor always came back to me for more stories for each and every chapter!

You know what? To my surprise, when put to the test I was able to deliver; and you will do the same if you make the commitment. The reason for this is writing is remembering.

You’ve already experienced thousands of stories worth sharing. All you have to do is commit to writing them down. You too will discover that once you get going it is not that difficult.

Just commit to getting them into your content and social media marketing to make the connections that will not only inspire your potential buyers – but also move them to action.

About the Author:  Jeff Korhan, MBA, is the author of Built-In Social: Essential Social Marketing Practices for Every Small Business – (Wiley 2013)  

He helps mainstream businesses adapt their traditional growth practices to a digital world.  Connect with  Jeff on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.

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