Inception, Trust Agents and Wedding Marketing in the Age of Social Media

I watched Inception over the weekend (yes I know, I’m late to the party). I am also rereading Chris Brogan and Julien Smith’s Trust Agents and ran across this “Trust Agents don’t just evangelize; in fact they plant seeds”

There is a scene in Inception where they are talking about how to plant an idea in someone’s mind. As they explain it, you can only plant the seed of an idea and hope that it grows in the way you want it to grow. If you try to implant the entire idea, the mind will automatically reject it as foreign.You can, however, very carefully craft the seed using what you already know about the person you are trying to plant it in.

Taken together , this got me thinking about how we market today vs yesterday. Time was that marketers just screamed “Buy My Product Now.” It was all about The Call To Action. dun, dun dun! That doesn’t work so well anymore.

Marketing today is more about listening, hearing and understanding. You have to keep your ears open to how people are talking about the kind of product or service you offer. What issues do they have, what do they love and what do they hate. Once you know that, you can start crafting your message and planting your seeds.

Remember, great businesses are built on giving the client what they want in the way they want to receive it. Listening more, will help you determine just what that is.