I love analogies. I really realized my love for analogies around 2001 when I told a school board I was pitching a website to that a poorly designed website was like eating oatmeal without water. I feel that the great teachers and religious scholars in history used fables and parables, and analogies are simply bite-sized chunks in a similar vein of these. When I was doing end-user support, I felt like equating something these folks understood with something they didn’t built a bridge to understanding for them.

Selling via social is no different. Analogies can be a very powerful tool in reaching out to your customers and potential customers because you can build that same bridge to equate something they don’t understand with something they do. True to form, I’m going to give you a quick example and some analogies. Ready?

  • Your company sells running shoes, but they also sell rain-resistant hats for runners to wear to avoid catching pneumonia when they run. Your customers are hardcore runners who feel like hats are for wimps, so your hats are selling poorly. You need a strong comparison to help the customers understand the need while helping you sell more hats. So what’s the message to promote? “Running in the rain without a water-resistant hat is like trail running without bug spray.”
  • Your Non-profit needs to raise money for building a shelter for homeless kids. Instead of the traditional “1 in 5 kids is homeless…” an analogy works better. Try “leaving kids homeless is like leaving kids hopeless.” See how that makes a bigger emotional impact that calls more people to action?

I use social media as the avenue for my examples, but really they are applicable to any vein of marketing, outbound or inbound. Finding something that reaches your customers and potential customers at a deeper level of connection not only shows that you know and can relate to their passion, but it also might just have the potential to land you some sales. Failing to relate to your customers correctly is like shouting instructions in an empty room…great plans, zero ears.

What’s your secret for using analogies or for selling via social? There are a ton of ways to sell in a less direct way, what makes yours the best? Let me know in the comments!

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