The Emotions of Your Market Are Your Market
This topic goes deep.
Deep enough that I could write on this, and only this, for a year and still not say everything I want to say.
So I’ll be selective.
You have probably heard the Zig Ziglar quote…
“People buy on emotion and justify on logic.”
Which means emotions are front and centre when making a decision.
But emotions are influenced by all sorts of things…
Not just how they feel about your service, or the results you promise.
All sorts of stuff that might be coming up for them in their personal lives.
And while you can’t hope to control everyone’s emotional buying environment…
You can always do your due diligence in not making a situation worse.
One of the most important things any online business owner could do before publishing any marketing material…
Social media posts, emails, ads etc.
For your hit post on ANY of it…
Get a feel for the market’s emotional state first.
Take the temperature of the room.
It’s a process I’ve come to call “pulse checking”.
What Is Pulse Checking?
Pulse checking is simply taking the time to check the general consensus around a topic before publishing.
Not publishing about that topic.
Just posting anything at all.
Think of it as a primer.
Here’s the frame: “Is my audience ready to receive what I have to say, today?”
The good news is…
You already have this skill.
In real life, you’d probably do this without even thinking about it.
Imagine it.
Your partner comes home after a horrible day at work.
They’re short tempered, curt, and ranting.
You wouldn’t interrupt their “and another thing”ing to tell them about something frivolous or funny that happened during your day.
You’d just wait.
Tell them later, when they’re more receptive.
It’s the exact same skill.
How Do You Pulse Check Successfully?
“Pulse” is 1 of 3 layers of pre-posting checks that I have my clients run before they post anything.
I’ll save the 2 for another day, but pulse is the most general.
It’s simply done.
- Time: Spend time on the platform you want to post on.
- Topic: Get a feel for what people are talking about.
- Temperature: What’s the general feeling about it?
This week, it could have looked like:
- Take 20 minutes to scroll through Instagram.
- Notice most people are talking about a highly emotionally charged topic.
- Note what most people feel about that topic.
You can then make a decision about what you want to post – if anything.
This is one of several reasons I don’t recommend scheduling your posting ahead of time.
Why Is Pulse Checking Important?
A failure to pulse check can be catastrophic for an online business owner.
Not only might you seem insensitive or crass to how your market is feeling right now…
Destroying empathic trust that can take years to build…
But it actually looks lazy.
That you’ve been tone deaf, and failed to check on the most fundamental elements of a relationship:
How they’re feeling.
Now, since coaching is such a personally intimate relationship…
One that requires you to have a leadership standard of emotional intelligence…
This hurts coaches even more than other industries.
And while some of your prospects won’t quite be able to put their fingers on what feels off about you…
It won’t matter. Those leads will simply go cold.
A Final Word Of Caution
It’s not just the thing you post.
It’s the stuff that’s either side of it.
So if you’re talking about something serious and heavy – and then immediately, you’re posting about something flippant…
It just magnifies how inappropriate and shallow the gesture is.
By all means, take a stand on public events if you want to.
I won’t tell you your social media needs to be politically sterile.
But make sure the next thing you post is congruent, tasteful, and doesn’t hurt your brand.
No damage should be done unintentionally.
That’s a wildfire, not a controlled burn.