It’s really (really) hard to get people to do things in their own best interest, so how do you get people to care?
This is a question Margo Aaron has been investigating and working to answer for years. A psychological researcher turned marketer, writer, speaker, and teacher, Margo has helped thousands of students learn to sell honestly, market ethically, and use words to inspire action. She’s the co-host of the popular YouTube show Hillary and Margo Yell at Websites (#HAMYAW), and her website That Seems Important was named one of the top 100 websites for solopreneurs. She’s also the teacher of The Copy Workshop, the newest offering from Akimbo that launches this fall.
In this episode of In Trust, we sat down with Margo and explored how you turn information no one cares about into something people care about.
If you’ve ever been in the role of trying to get someone to give a hoot about something, you’ll want to give this episode a listen.
Overview of Episode 48: How To Get People To Care with Margo Aaron
Talking Points
- How Margo fell into marketing by accident and how she sees the field as being applied psychology
- What marketing really is
- Why we don’t have an information problem
- How Margo built such a strong voice and why she chose to do it with playfulness and lightness
- The importance of communicating in a way that is effective
- What makes copy a special form of writing
- How treating people like humans makes for more effective marketing and copywriting
- How self-doubt holds many people back from marketing and selling
- The importance of trying again and having creative allies
- The Creative Process Map and developing the backbone of being able to throw your hat in the arena
- The importance of auditing stories so you can make an impact
- Why marketing has to come from a place of generosity and empathy or it just doesn’t work
- How to take what Margo calls The Copy Posture
- How evidence can help you overcome imposter syndrome
- Marketing and copywriting are not rocket science
Quotables
“Here’s the first thing that people misunderstand: you can’t actually make people care about stuff they don’t care about. It’s impossible. It’s not possible. What you can do is connect what you care about to what they already care about. And that’s the skill of marketing. It’s being able to bridge that gap.” – Margo Aaron
“We all want to feel like we matter.” – Margo Aaron
“There’s a missing link between what we cognitively understand and our application of those things.” – Margo Aaron
“If I want something to permeate that barrier for you to actually listen to what I have to say, it can no longer be about being right and sounding smart. It has to be about what is effective.” – Margo Aaron
“In copy, it’s a type of writing that is designed to inspire action. It’s different from other types of writing. And the reason it works is because it considers the impact you want to have on the person sitting on the other end, the receiving end.” – Margo Aaron
“In terms of effectiveness, it works a lot better if you treat people nicely and with respect and talk to them like humans.” – Margo Aaron
“I had so much of my ego wrapped up in what I thought people should want and how I should present myself that I thought I was thinking about the people on the other end, but I wasn’t. I was thinking that I need to be taken seriously as a marketer. I need to be taken seriously as an academic. If people are going to believe that I know anything about psychology, I need to flaunt certain things. And so that really guided my decision making and clouded my judgment, so I wasn’t able to really listen to what people were saying.” – Margo Aaron
“Someone saying no to your offer is not about you. It has no reflection on your value as a human being in the world.” – Margo Aaron
“That’s where marketing storytelling, the truth telling, all of it has to come from a posture of generosity and empathy. Otherwise it just doesn’t work.” – Margo Aaron
“It’s a long term play. You don’t wake up one day and discover you suddenly have confidence and clarity. It is bought in increments over time.” – Margo Aaron
“People who put you down, tear you down, or kind of troll you – even if the trolls only exist in your mind – that’s not who you want to spend your time with. And those are not people who are actually in the arena. The people who have been there, who have done things, built things, made the thing that you are trying to bring into the world, they are always going to only ever tell you one thing, and that is keep going. Try again. You’re doing great. Keep going. Try again. You’re doing great. That’s all they will ever tell you because they know what we know, which is the only way out is through.” – Margo Aaron
“Marketing and copywriting is not rocket science. It’s not something that’s locked in a book that you’re not going to understand that you need to pay for. Youm as a human being are wired for connection and are wired to understand other people. You have what it takes.” – Margo Aaron
Show Notes
- Margo’s website, That Seems Important
- Subscribe to Margo’s newsletter
- Margo’s YouTube show, Hillary and Margo Yell at Websites (#HAMYAW)
- Akimbo Workshops
- Dan Ariely’s Predictably Irrational (affiliate link)
This episode sponsored by:
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