In this episode, host Jay Schwedelson dives into the world of aspirational marketing and shares how it can dramatically boost engagement and conversion rates.
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Best Moments:
(00:40) What aspirational marketing is and why it’s effective
(02:00) Statistics showing how aspirational subject lines outperform others
(02:15) Examples of aspirational subject lines that resonate with both B2B and B2C audiences
(04:10) How tapping into ambition and creating emotional connections can transform campaigns
(05:11) A comparison of standard vs. aspirational testimonials, and their proven impact on conversion rates
(09:56) A quick promotion of exciting, free virtual events like Eventtastic and the Guru Conference
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Transcript
Foreign welcome to do this, not that, the podcast for marketers.
Speaker A:You'll walk away from each episode with actionable tips you can test immediately.
Speaker A:You'll hear from the best minds in marketing who will share tactics, quick wins and pitfalls to avoid.
Speaker A:Also, dig into life, pop culture, and the chaos that is our everyday.
Speaker A:I'm Jay Schedelson.
Speaker A:Let's do this, not that.
Speaker A:We are back for do this, not that, presented by Marigold.
Speaker A:And I'm excited to share some tips today about aspirational marketing.
Speaker A:Like what?
Speaker A:This is like game changer stuff.
Speaker A:It's so easy, it costs you nothing.
Speaker A:And it couldn't be simpler to test.
Speaker A:Okay, what does this all mean?
Speaker A:Listen, in life, what do we all want?
Speaker A:We all want a promotion.
Speaker A:We want our businesses to grow faster.
Speaker A:We want to be wealthier, healthier, smarter, more fashionable.
Speaker A:We aspire to things.
Speaker A:And we just finished this big review of a ton of marketing campaigns that were focused around leveraging aspirational marketing tactics.
Speaker A:And it was really, really eye opening.
Speaker A:So here's some secret sauce type stuff.
Speaker A:If your database on the business side is made up of people that are, let's say, director level, that's their titles, pretty much your director level, you should be talking to them at the C level.
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker A:If your database is, let's say on the consumer side, beginner level, you should be talking about expert level stuff.
Speaker A:Why?
Speaker A:Because we all, whether it's business or consumer, we want access to the next level.
Speaker A:We want to know what the next level is reading, what the next level is doing, what the next level has access to.
Speaker A:So let me give you some examples of what I'm talking about.
Speaker A:But first let me give you the stat in email.
Speaker A:Specifically, subject lines that mention aspirational elements increase email open rates 28% on the business side, 24% the consumer side.
Speaker A:So let me give you examples of exactly what I mean.
Speaker A:So on the business side, if the subject line said the CFO guide to automation, okay, but your database is not made up of CFOs, it's made up of people in accounting that are maybe managers, senior managers, directors.
Speaker A:But what do they all want to be?
Speaker A:They want to be a CFO one day.
Speaker A:So when they see a subject line, when I am a senior manager in the accounting department and I see a subject line that says the CFO guides automation, I'm like, oh, I want to check that out.
Speaker A:Because if I am able to read that and understand it, learn about it, maybe this is going to let me level up.
Speaker A:Or on the consumer side, what top chefs use in the kitchen.
Speaker A:But your database is made up of, you know, the everyday person who cooks.
Speaker A:You know, they just bought some basic pots and pans.
Speaker A:They're not the top chef.
Speaker A:But what do they want?
Speaker A:They want, what are the top chefs doing?
Speaker A:So that way I could learn from it.
Speaker A:I could do it.
Speaker A:I can get better, right?
Speaker A:So if you saw an email that said, top CMOs favorite podcasts.
Speaker A:Well, I'm not a CMO, but if the CMOs are all in these podcasts, what are they?
Speaker A:The five favorite newsletters of Fortune 500 CEOs.
Speaker A:Well, that would be cool to be a Fortune 500 CEO.
Speaker A:What newsletters do they read?
Speaker A:The biggest influencers love this new brand.
Speaker A:I want to.
Speaker A:I want to know what they're into, because whatever they're into is probably the hottest new trend.
Speaker A:You aspire, right?
Speaker A:Whether you know it or not, you aspire to these things, and you react to these things.
Speaker A:And that's why the percentage of people that open up emails goes up over 25%.
Speaker A:Just by positioning your emails and your content, the title of your content, the same way, right?
Speaker A:So you don't want to tell people where they're at right now in life.
Speaker A:You want to give them access to the information, to the tips, to everything of where they want to get to.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:So what does aspirational marketing really do?
Speaker A:It taps into ambition, goals, and dreams.
Speaker A:It creates an emotional connection, right, by aligning your message with the recipient's desires and their.
Speaker A:And their values.
Speaker A:And then also it builds your brand identity.
Speaker A:All of a sudden, your brand is.
Speaker A:Is now associated with this ultimate level of thinking of the type of products that you have.
Speaker A:And it creates this quality in the individual's mind that, wow, I want to buy this stuff.
Speaker A:I want to use these products and services because that's where I want my business to get to.
Speaker A:That's where I want my career to get to.
Speaker A:And it's not just subject lines.
Speaker A:It's everything.
Speaker A:You want to also try to get testimonials that you could use in your marketing that are aspirational, okay?
Speaker A:Have testimonials that show people that they can get the thing and get to the place that they want to be, right?
Speaker A:So, for example, this stat's pretty wild.
Speaker A:All right?
Speaker A:This stat's pretty wild.
Speaker A:You have standard testimonials versus aspirational testimonials.
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker A:Standard testimonials versus aspirational Testimonials.
Speaker A:We studied 300 different landing pages that had testimonials, and we broke them down.
Speaker A:They were broken down into two buckets.
Speaker A:Standard versus aspirational.
Speaker A:The aspirational testimonials on landing pages increase conversion rates by 17% versus a standard testimonial.
Speaker A:So what does that mean?
Speaker A:A standard testimonial would be something like this.
Speaker A:Easy to use and saved us thousands.
Speaker A:A game changer or another standard testimonial would be most comfortable hoodie ever.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:An aspirational testimonial would be Acme product was instrumental in my promotion to Chief Revenue Officer.
Speaker A:Or ACME Product helped me achieve my fitness goals faster than I ever imagined.
Speaker A:These are aspirations like, wow, if I buy this product, I'm going to achieve my fitness goals.
Speaker A:If I, if I use this service, maybe I'll become Chief Revenue officer.
Speaker A:People want to dream.
Speaker A:You don't wake up and say, I hope I stay in the same job for the rest of my life.
Speaker A:I hope I never get a raise.
Speaker A:I hope I stay the same weight and I never, ever do anything in the gym ever again.
Speaker A:I hope I can never learn how to cook anything.
Speaker A:Nobody says that.
Speaker A:You wake up in the morning, you're like, I'm going to do these things to get here, there, or wherever.
Speaker A:Show people a peek behind the curtain of what the most successful people and companies are doing, and then you win.
Speaker A:All right, before we get into.
Speaker A:Since you didn't ask the crazy, ridiculous portion of this podcast, I need to let you know.
Speaker A:This podcast is presented by one company, one amazing company called Marigold.
Speaker A:What's that?
Speaker A:What's a Marigold?
Speaker A:It is an email sending platform that has loyalty, marketing, retention, marketing.
Speaker A:And this is where you're like, I'm zoning out.
Speaker A:This is an ad.
Speaker A:No, I feel it.
Speaker A:Your email sending platform is not that good.
Speaker A:You don't like it that much.
Speaker A:It doesn't do what you want it to do.
Speaker A:It doesn't have all the features, all the bells and whistles Marigolds does for consumer, for business senders, okay?
Speaker A:For small, medium, and large companies.
Speaker A:I am telling you, I've been using Marigold for years.
Speaker A:I send out billions of business and consumer emails.
Speaker A:You got to check them out@meet marigold.com.
Speaker A:that is meet marigold.com and if you want me to introduce you to them directly, just DM me on LinkedIn.
Speaker A:I will connect you.
Speaker A:Amazing platform.
Speaker A:Meet marigold.com.
Speaker A:all right, let's get into.
Speaker A:Since you didn't ask, I have nothing planned to talk about here.
Speaker A:So I'm just going to share with you what is going on with me right now.
Speaker A:So very upset because last night I did my fantasy football draft.
Speaker A:I've been in the same fantasy football league for, I don't know, 25 years or whatever.
Speaker A:And to be honest with you, I don't.
Speaker A:I should be out of this league because I watch football, but I'm not like, oh, my God, I have to sit on my couch all day Sunday.
Speaker A:I'm into it.
Speaker A:I like the Dolphins.
Speaker A:But when you do fantasy football draft, you have to know all these players.
Speaker A:And by, like, I don't know, you do 16 rounds, which is ridiculous.
Speaker A:By the third round, I don't know who anybody is.
Speaker A:I literally don't know who anybody is.
Speaker A:And then what happens is there's a chat going on, so then you pick a person to go on your team, and then all the other people in my league make fun of me.
Speaker A:Oh, Jay's an idiot.
Speaker A:He doesn't know what he's doing.
Speaker A:And it's like demoralizing.
Speaker A:But I guess I do it to stay connected with these people, but I don't even know what I'm talking about, what else is going on with me.
Speaker A:The other thing is that.
Speaker A:So the Bachelorette had, like, their most recent episode and I didn't see it.
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker A:I'm not kidding.
Speaker A:The reality show and I follow everybody on, like, Instagram and social media.
Speaker A:And now I can't go on Instagram because I didn't.
Speaker A:I'm not up to date.
Speaker A:So if I go on Instagram, I'm going to see everything.
Speaker A:And this is a very annoying thing about social media.
Speaker A:For any show that you watch, it's that instantly it's on social media.
Speaker A:So if you're not like, saying up to date on everything, then you can't look at social media.
Speaker A:We need like a.
Speaker A:Maybe there's a filter out there that you, I don't know, do something so way when you go on social media, you're not caught up that, like, you don't see all the stuff.
Speaker A:Is this a problem?
Speaker A:I don't think this is a real life problem.
Speaker A:It's a problem for me.
Speaker A:It's definitely problem because I watch some epically horrible shows.
Speaker A:All the reality.
Speaker A:Oh, best show, don't get me started, Is Love is Blind uk.
Speaker A:I am not done with it.
Speaker A:I know all the episodes are out there.
Speaker A:Another shiny example of why I have to avoid social media.
Speaker A:I am in the wedding part where people are either gonna get married or not.
Speaker A:And this is awesome.
Speaker A:I'm strong, strong recommendation.
Speaker A:Love is blind uk.
Speaker A:All right, listen.
Speaker A:I have absolutely no idea what we just talked about.
Speaker A:And in terms of aspirational, I aspire to be somebody that watches much more intellectual tv.
Speaker A:I'm going to watch what is intellectual?
Speaker A:I have no idea.
Speaker A:Masterpiece Theater.
Speaker A:Is that still around?
Speaker A:I'm going to watch that because that seems smarter than what I normally watch.
Speaker A:I appreciate you being here.
Speaker A:A couple of things.
Speaker A:Pre Reg is open for our new free giant crazy event called eventtastic.
Speaker A:The world's largest event about events is going to be free.
Speaker A:It's going to be virtual.
Speaker A:That's eventtastic.com and then we have Guru Conference coming up.
Speaker A:Free virtual email event guruconference.com Sarah Jessica Parker is going to be there.
Speaker A:I'm going to be there.
Speaker A:A lot of people are going to be there.
Speaker A:Check it out.
Speaker A:You're awesome.
Speaker A:Keep it real.
Speaker A:You did it.
Speaker A:You made it to the end.
Speaker A:Nice.
Speaker A:But the party's not over.
Speaker A:Subscribe to make sure you get the latest episode each each week for more actionable tips and a little chaos from today's top marketer.
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