In The Who’s rock opera Tommy, the main character experiences a trauma that leaves him deaf, dumb and blind (though he sure plays a mean pinball).
Don’t leave your audiences in the same position. You want to get all their senses going to trigger an emotional reaction and act — hopefully to buy your product or service – or at least find out more.
Sight: There are some extreme and obvious examples of using sight to get a response, but also some of a more subtle nature. Color, for example, can play a major role in how customers feel when they view your material – digitally and in print. Whether you have a neutral gray background or a red background will both attract a different audience and make each person feel a very different way.
The images used on your pages play a major factor for sight. Are people smiling, are they sad? Are there people on the materials at all? Connotations play a HUGE role here.
Sound: You know the members of your audience. How long is their attention span? Perhaps some form of multimedia is the better way to get your message out. If you have a video or audio clip a user can click to play, you might get to your audience more than you would with traditional text. Multimedia can work well in concert with text elements to highlight and make tangible the products or services you offer.
Touch: A Kindergarten teacher had a desk drawer for her kids who stood out. If you did something nice, you got a soft white cotton ball. If you were bad, you got a prickly pine cone. Is your mailer glossy and shiny? Is it textured to scream recycled paper? Is it thick and beefy? Is it 3D? All of these describe marketing materials that stand out when someone touches them. How are you standing out from your competition?
Smell/Taste: If you like wine, you know that most of tasting wine is smell. Try plugging your nose and taking a sip. You’ll find it “tastes” remarkably different. If you want your potential customers to walk away with a good taste (perhaps even literally), some form of scratch-and-sniff or fragrance printing might be the way to go.
Curious about making senses work well in your marketing materials? Let Burst Marketing help.