Harnessing the power of loneliness

“Loneliness is a better predictor of early death than smoking a pack of cigarettes per day.”

Since returning from the 2017 INBOUND Conference in Boston, I’ve started most of my marketing-driven planning with a focus on this impactful statement from the incredible Brené Brown.

Loneliness can better predict someone’s early death than smoking an entire pack of cigarettes every single day can! Let’s just take a moment to let that sink in…

Incredible, isn’t it? Loneliness is a painful and powerful thing. As human beings, at our very core, we have an innate need to belong to each other. It’s such a requirement that it can actually impact the length of our lives.

LONELINESS IS POWERFUL

How can the power of loneliness help positively impact your business outreach?

Your clients and prospective clients are no different than anyone else. Just like you, they are likely drowning in a sea of marketing and advertising material, piled-up emails and unanswered voicemails. They simply don’t have the time it would take to properly digest that amount of communication.

As a society, we reach out to people and get reached out to all the time. More than ever before. At any given point throughout the day, there are tons of conversations, (written, illustrated and verbal) going on around us—so many that maybe, just maybe, we’ve lost the personal touch it takes to have genuine conversations and build authentic professional connections.

THE EMPOWERMENT ADVANTAGE

Your clients and prospects want to make real connections. They want to understand the people behind the products they buy, and to be understood by them. They want to work with companies that they feel like they can belong to.

As Jeff Rosenblum of The Naked Brand reminded those in the INBOUND audience, brands that focus on empowering people outperform others 8 to 1. Why? Because in order to empower your audience, you have to understand them, connect with them and care enough to want to see them succeed. You have to provide them with quality outreach and products. Your offerings should meet their needs, show an understanding of their pain points and answer their questions. Finally, your audience has to be able to know that you will listen, that they can depend on you and that they can trust you. Knowing them this well is the only thing that will allow you to provide them with a valued service.

AN EMOTIONAL FOCUS

It’s hard for your intended audience to hear you with all of the communication “noise” that is out there today. How are you supposed to get your messages through?

According to Rosenblum, your tactics require a re-focus: a shift from working to obtain transactional relationships and, instead, a push to cultivate emotional ones. He cited empowering your audience, improving lives and building a “passion brand” as other keys.  

In forming these emotional relationships, you can learn your clients’ and prospective clients’ hopes, dreams, aspirations and goals, and work to emphasize them with each interaction. This forms an authentic connection and produces the feeling of being wholly understood.

So many people today are feeling lonely among all of the “noise” surrounding them, but there’s no loneliness in being completely understood and supported. That’s exactly what people want.  It’s time to use the power of loneliness to inspire you to reach out, create real connections and build a business structure that feels more like family—where your customers and clients truly do belong.

What do you do to encourage authentic connections with clients and prospective clients? Leave a comment below!

Lindsey is a proud wife and mom with a passion for culture, travel and carbs. When she isn’t planning her next Disney cruise, she’s usually chasing her dogs, hanging with her children or anxiously awaiting another date night with her husband.