Interest before education — Kelford Labs Daily

“The fastest way to be ignored by anyone is to start talking about something they don’t care about.”

— Josh Kaufman, The Personal MBA

Back in my ad agency days, we’d often get assignments from clients to “educate the customer.”

The product or service wasn’t selling, or there were too many customer service issues, or customers would churn too quickly.

The point was, the client felt that the solution was to “educate” the customer so they’d better understand how to buy, use, and maintain whatever it is they were selling.

The problem was, nobody can be “educated” who didn’t sign up to be taught something. And nobody likes feeling like they’re just one of a million all being told the same thing.

In fact, the cognitive bias called “reactance” means people will reject being taught something if they feel like it’s being imposed upon them against their will or inclination.

So if sales are slow, or you’re launching something new and novel, the solution isn’t to “educate” the customer.

It’s to interest them.

If you want someone to learn something, step one is getting them to want to learn it. Which means appealing to their own interests, their self-interest, and their pre-existing concerns.

To enter the mind and stick there, ideas and concepts need something to stick to. And the best place to affix our messages is on top of something our audience already cares about. They’re already holding onto ideas and preferences, which will make ours that much easier to grasp if we make a connection between them.

So let’s say you’re selling a technical service that’s hard to explain and understand. And let’s say your instinct is to do an educational campaign to inform your audience of the right way to think about it.

Try this instead:

Identify the pre-existing problem in the life or work of your audience, and find out how your solution specifically addresses it in a way you’re uniquely suited to provide.

So instead of saying, “Here’s what we want to tell you about our service,” you say, “I see what you’re currently struggling with, and here’s why our solution is ideal for you in particular.”

Education starts with motivation. And motivation is personal.

So our messages must be, too.

Reply to this email to tell me what you think, or ask any questions!

Kelford Inc. shows communicators the way to always knowing what to say.