Skyrocket Your Marketing with Communication Tips from the 2016 Presidential Race
Every four years the United States goes into a transformation. The cable news networks and the front pages of our newspapers feed us with the DAILY pleas of candidates running for office – in particular, for the Presidency.
You have Trump, being very controversial and unconventional – causing attention and discussion. You have Sanders whose very liberal views about banks and corporate America are even too liberal for Hillary Clinton at times – yet they help his poll numbers rise. And you have Ben Carson, who was rising in the polls early on, but due to some perceived missteps and his soft spoken demeanor, has bored the American public and media.
Presidential campaigning is all about communication. Successful communication gets attention (and poll numbers) while failed communication can turn voters away. Communication is also important in business – so much so that presidential campaigns and marketing campaigns have many similarities.
[Tweet “What the 2016 presidential race can teach us about #marketing #communication:”]Communication Lessons from the 2106 Presidential Race
1. Communication skills are important. You can be a nice person and have the best ideas, but HOW you communicate your ideas and thoughts can be the difference between acceptance or rejection.
2. If you want attention for your idea – be attention grabbing. You don’t have to be nasty – but you do have to get attention. I attend and facilitate many meetings. Some of those meetings you have 60 percent of the room who don’t raise their hands and just speak out. The other 40 percent have a hard time breaking through the noise and being heard. Which are you?
3. How you LOOK is important. Having a well polished external image is essential to helping others give you a CHANCE to be heard.
4. People have short attention spans. Our short attention spans mean there is often little time for long discussion – for example, look at the rise of Snap Chat, Instagram and other “micro” media services. Good candidates know this very well. There’s a place and time for long winded communication – but when in doubt – be brief and to the point.
5. Communicating what people already know might be safe – but it won’t be effective. How can you add VALUE to a conversation? How can you cause people to sit up and listen?
These observations about the 2016 presidential campaign can help you run better marketing campaigns for your business. Just like the right communication skills and content will resonate with the most voters, using effective communication in your marketing will help you win more customers and boost your sales.