What online marketers can learn from Obama

By Mark Kimathi

In the speech to the Muslim world last week, US President

Barack Obama displayed such astute salesmanship, it was riveting.

In marketing, it is very important that we sell them what they want, and not what we have.

But entrepreneurs do get stuck up in a subtle but related nuance, trying to sell what the market needs, rather than what it wants. And yes there is a difference. Allow me to illustrate.

Among the seven issues Obama discussed was freedom of worship in Islamic nations.

Early in his speech, he vividly described the great contribution that Islam has given to civilisation, from calligraphy to the compass all the way to the science of disease.

He further went on to glowingly applaud the religion’s history of tolerance as he affirmed their right to worship as they please even within the US boundaries.

As a Muslim, especially in these times, this is what you want to hear. Obama just agreed with your paradigm, pulling at your core beliefs.

And with it, the high emotions attached to them like the need to be accepted and appreciated. So at this moment you are receptive because this guy is on your side.

　

Peaceful coexistence

It is only after connecting with his audience that Obama introduces the needful — the need to allow other religions to practice, peaceful co-existence with the Israel etc. The great oratory skills aside, online marketing can learn a bunch from the structure of his speech.

Being gang-ho with our products is the reason "experts" often are not good marketers.

They might have the better remedy, but fail to connect and the transaction fails in the early stages of the buying cycle.

In the report "The Marketing Voodoo" Eben Pagan shows how a models weight loss book trumps an empirically based weight loss book by two PhDs.

And it all came to communicating what the market wants to hear. According to Amazon.com ‘A Thinking Person’s Step By Step Guide To Weight Loss & Exercise Program’ by the PhDs is their number 437, 317th best –selling book, while Skinny Bitch by the model is number 56.

Both Obama and Skinny Bitch’s author have something in common. They both make their offers resonate with their audience.

Put more plainly, they give them what they want. Appealing to the deep-seated emotions that make them move this way or that way.

In the case of the weight loss books, women do not want to think or exercise. Muslims on the other hand, just need to be appreciated and respected. The closer you can come to telling them that, the more willing they will be in listening to you.