Why Sensory Marketing is a Must for Those Selling the Invisible

INTRO: After generating over a million dollars in sales and selling one of her businesses with a single email, your host, Kathryn Thompson, takes an unconventional approach to marketing and sales. So if you're ready to tap into a more powerful way to be seen, heard, and a sought after entrepreneur in your industry, without having to spend endless hours marketing your business and chasing clients, you're in the right place. Be The Sought After Entrepreneur Podcast is here to help you ditch the cookie cutter, one size fits all approach to marketing and use your unique energy to effortlessly attract the most aligned clients. When you do this, you can spend less time marketing your business and more time doing your soul work and enjoying the richness of your life. Welcome to Be The Sought After Entrepreneur Podcast. And here's your host, Kathryn Thompson.

Kathryn Thompson: Hey, hey, super stoked that you're tuning in this week's episode. I cannot wait till I'm in today's [00:01:00] topic because I want to break down for you. Two ideas that have sort of been percolating within my community and with some of my private clients as well as my Spellbound clients.

And that has to do with what I call sensory marketing in a lot of ways. And if you're in the healing space, you're a somatic healer, maybe you're holistic nutrition and wellness, whatever it might be that you're more so in working with people on a body level versus maybe like a mental level, like very strategic, analytical, psychological, it's more so like somatic and whatnot, then this is going to be really appealing to you because this is something, like I said, that's been coming up within my community of coaches and also my private clients.

And I think it's just a really cool way that you can start to look at your marketing because What I find a big issue is amongst the people that I support who are selling the invisible is that a lot of people teaching business coaching and [00:02:00] marketing and sales are supporting people that are also in that sort of business coaching.

They're selling, they're coaches helping coaches make more money, let's just say. But if you're not in the quote unquote niche of helping people make more money and the results that you're creating aren't tangible and the work that you're doing isn't sort of like the five steps or the hacks or the tricks or whatever it is, then that type of content actually isn't going to necessarily work for your business because it's incongruent with what you're actually selling in the first place.

So I want to break down what I mean by sensory marketing. And by what I mean by that is tapping into the senses, sight, smell, you know, what you hear, all of that, and tapping into that to create your content. Storytelling is a really great way to sort of play into the senses, especially if you can get really visual with that and paint a really beautiful picture that allows somebody to sort [00:03:00] of really feel and And feel like maybe they're right there with you within that story.

So storytelling is a really great way, but I want to offer some different perspectives on this because I think storytelling is again, something that's quite mainstream in that lots of people talk about creating the story, right? And oftentimes the story is your own story. Sometimes it's your client's story.

But can you write a story from a very different perspective? And I think you absolutely can. I think you can use elements of storytelling in your content that has nothing to do with you leading somebody to a sale or to buy, but rather have somebody feel something so deeply that they want to click through and sort of learn more into what it is that you're doing.

But I'm also talking about other sensory methods that has somebody feeling something so deeply that they're like, heck [00:04:00] yes, I need to learn more or I want that. And I want to share an example with you because it's something I saw on social and I thought it was absolutely brilliantly done. And I'm not saying when I share this, I'm not saying that you need this type of production per se, but I just want to give you an idea of what's possible in a different format, in a different way of expressing, compared to the, you know, the five tips to regulate your nervous system, let's just say, which is very mental, right?

It's a very mental, it's coming from that sort of teacher mode, it's five steps, it's very practical, and I'm not saying we don't want things to be practical, but I'm going to share this example with you, and you're going to see how freaking powerful it is, because you will feel it when I share it. So, I was, You know, perusing on the internet, I'm always looking at the creative ways people are, you know, creating content, but also doing it in a way that also is sort of selling what they're selling without it being so obvious that they're selling it.

And I've shared this before, when we evoke emotion, [00:05:00] when we create a deep feeling within somebody and we have that emotion sort of arise, They will take action. Emotion is the thing that helps someone take action. Telling somebody the five steps they need to do in order to to regulate their nervous system is just mental.

And we all know that If we just intellectualize what it is that we're learning and we don't actually integrate it, we're gonna have a hard time. Creating any real change in our life. It doesn't happen on the mental plane. Like it can start there for sure, but we actually have to integrate it so that the behaviors then sort of last.

It's why a lot of times, you know, you might think, oh, I need to work out more, or I need to prioritize my health more, and then. we slip back into these old habits, we know better, and we know what maybe we need to do, the steps we need to take, right? Prepare food, whatever it might be, and yet we're still not doing it, and there's a reason why, right?

And so we've got to [00:06:00] integrate this into our life, and that is through action, that's going to be through creating the habits in your world, but that also is if there's something somatically within your body that is not on board for it, you ain't going to change it, which is why A lot of people will stay stuck in this, what I call the seeker loop, where they're restless, they're unfulfilled, they don't feel that great, and yet they're reading all the self help books, they're meditating, they're going to the spas, they're doing all the things, but it's actually not helping them.

And that's because we're not getting to that integrative state, but we're also not getting to the deep, deep, deep places within our somatic, our body. our emotions, all of that, that's being, that's stored over time. And that isn't allowing us to sort of release any of that. And I'm sharing this with you because if you're in this space selling the invisible and you're finding that it's hard to create content because it doesn't really sound like you, or it feels maybe markety, or it kind of feels [00:07:00] womp womp, like a little bit boring.

There's nothing really creative about it. Then I want to invite you to get. Creative with this, and I wanna share this example with you 'cause it's so, so powerful and hopefully it sparked something within you that you're like, wow, I could, I could see this working for my business in some way, shape, or form, and I could see myself.

You know, creating something similar, maybe not the exact same, but like, I could see how this translates into the work that I do. So, I saw this really beautiful post that, um, if you're familiar with the men or the women, the humans that dress up in like the blue spandex, There's like the green spandex I think you've seen.

Anyways, if you haven't, they're basically in a full spandex suit. They have no face. It's just literally like a spandex suit with that covers your hands, covers your feet, covers your whole face. Well, there's the blue ones and the green ones that I've seen, but this particular video had a woman sitting at her desk and she was just sitting there typing on her computer and she had this.

person that was in a fully black spandex suit, again, no face, covering the hands, [00:08:00] kind of resting on her shoulders. And all the text said was, this is what trauma feels like. And then there was another cut to her walking down the street, and the person like basically having a piggyback on her back. And then there was another cut to her at the grocery store and the, and this, you know, black person on, in the Hispanic suit basically wrapped around her at the grocery store and she's sitting there trying to get like the groceries and stuff like that.

And it just said, this is what trauma feels like. And it was so potent because the visual, right, the woman wasn't saying anything, there wasn't anything that was, you know, there was no profound opinion, there was no, like, earth shattering, like, quote or statement, or this is how I do trauma work differently, like, there was none of that, it literally was, like, a very short sentence, this is what trauma feels like, and then it was a video of basically trauma attached to this woman as [00:09:00] she's going through the basic day to day stuff of her life.

And I was like, whoa, like, I felt that. I don't know if you're feeling that right now, where you're like, wowzers, like this weight, right? You could almost feel it. This thing that's weighing you down, that makes going for groceries hard, that makes working at your desk or working at your job hard, that makes doing just daily stuff, like going for a walk.

And then in the caption, it said comment the word guide to get my free resource for X, Y, and Z, whatever it is that she was doing. And I was just like, how freaking moving was that? But the thing that got me was, this combination of the visual, which is video, right? This very potent visual that was a representation that evoked emotion without the words, right?

The words combined with the visual absolutely evoked the emotion, but it was kind of like, Even just seeing the video without the [00:10:00] words, you would have felt the heavy weight of this person because you could just feel this person carrying this other body around in their day to day stuff, you would feel it.

And then the words with that as they came across the screen, this is what trauma feels like, was like, oof, it's like this weight or this punch in the gut or this like heavy thing on your heart, like I could feel it. And, I mean, the post had hundreds of thousands likes and tons and tons of comments. And there's no wonder there was that many comments because it was so potent and powerful.

And it was so counterintuitive to a lot of the content we see when it comes to marketing out there, specifically in the coaching and consulting space, right? Where it's, Very analytical, psychological. It's very heady. It keeps people intellectualizing, right? It's like five tips, five tricks, five hacks, that sort of thing.

And I think that works [00:11:00] for business coaches. I think that works for people that are working within strategy. Absolutely. But I don't think it translates. all that well to somebody in a different field or a different industry. And I also think that when we can captivate somebody very quickly with the least amount of words and a really powerful visual, that's going to naturally draw somebody in.

And it also sort of cuts through the feed when we're so used to, I call talking head videos, right? Which is this style of video that you're seeing if you're on Instagram. It's a talking head, right? It's me talking to the screen, providing some insight and whatnot, which is what we see a lot of. We see a lot of hacks, tips, tricks, those sorts of things.

We see a lot of reels, different styles of reels and stuff. I'm talking mostly in the coaching and consulting industry, right? If you're a travel blogger, [00:12:00] obviously your stuff's going to look different. If you're a different type of entrepreneur, maybe you're an artist, it's a lot of artistry stuff. But I'm more so talking about coaches and consultants who are selling a service to support people beyond just helping people make more money in their business.

And. I'm wanting to share this with you because I want to sort of expand the possibility for you of what you can and cannot create and what I believe is, is a really powerful way to market, which is what I call sensory marketing, right? Because that played into the senses big time. It was deeply, deeply felt.

And then. it sort of registered, I think, on an intellectual level when you started to kind of read it and whatnot. I want to share another post with you, which I thought was really, really powerful as well. And that was just a simple background reel, which was like water moving. It didn't have sound of water, but it was like a forest.

I've [00:13:00] seen a few of these. And there was just this like ball moving up a line and then went across a plateau and then went down. And that was just the video being on repeat. And the words were, Take a breath in, inhale, when the ball is moving up. Hold your breath when your ball is moving across the plateau.

And then release, exhale your breath when the ball is dropping. And, again, a very powerful, somatic exercise that's being done via promotional content. Versus The 5 Reasons Why Breathwork Is So Powerful, or The 10 Reasons Why Connecting With Your Breath Is Gonna Benefit Your Life In These Ways, and Whatnot, right?

Again, very heady, and when we come in from that analytical, psychological, heady place, it doesn't register in the body, it doesn't evoke emotion, it doesn't move anybody. Somebody telling me the 5 reasons why somatic, you know, exercises are [00:14:00] great for me means absolutely nothing to me. You need to show me.

Don't tell me why it's beneficial. You need to show me why it's beneficial. And when I actually went through the exercise of breathing in, it's box breathing, right? But when I was doing it on the app, I was like, huh. I feel like really good in this moment right now. So I'm curious about what this person offers.

I'm curious about what they're up to. So then I start to peruse around and I look and look at their services and all those sorts of things because I had a somatic experience. Without them telling me why I needed what they were doing, I just felt it on a deep sensory level because I was being walked through a somatic experience in that moment, which again, I think is very unique, especially in the coaching space.

I don't see a lot of somatic healers, holistic nutritionists, those sorts of things. I don't see a lot of this type of creative content. I see a [00:15:00] lot of heady content still that's very analytical, psychological, and practical. And I'm not saying we don't want to incorporate that in. I think that having some practicality to this work is, is important, but I also think that we can get a lot more creative with it.

So I hope that this episode has provided a spark or an insight, or at least given you some food for thought of how you could get a little bit more creative in not just telling your audience, what you do, why you do it, how you do it, and how it's different. But more importantly, showing them through the content that you create, so that they can experience it when they come into your world.

Because it's going to be through that experience, in my opinion, that's going to create more action for you and your business. Specifically, as more and more and more people are talking, and it's getting louder and louder and louder on social, the more we can, diverge [00:16:00] from what everybody else is doing. And the more we can get more creative with what we're doing, the more we're going to be able to sort of stand out and really sort of cut through the noise.

But more importantly, like I said, if somebody can feel something on a deep sensory level, and they feel like they're in an experience with you, they're far more likely to take action. And I'm not just saying they're going to buy your stuff, but they're going to take action to maybe follow you, maybe like your post, maybe engage with it, and then therefore have your stuff showing up in their feed so that they, you know, that they see what you're doing.

Maybe they'll buy from you at some point, but the more that we can evoke emotion with our people, the deeper the connection we're going to have with them, which is really, really important, in my opinion, in 2020. for and beyond when it comes to online marketing, specifically on the online coaching and consulting space.

So I hope that has sparked some insight for you. I'm always happy to chat more about sensory marketing and what that sort of looks like [00:17:00] and how you can incorporate that into your business. Even if you are a business coach or a messaging strategist or whatnot, copywriter, because I think there's some really cool ways that you can do it as well, which will be polar opposite.

specifically with business coaches and whatnot, polar opposite of what we traditionally see. So with that, I hope this has been beneficial. I'd love to hear from you over at Creatively Owned. Just pop me a DM. I'm always there answering questions and whatnot. Cheers. Thanks for listening. We'll see you right back here next time.

You can also find us on social media at Creatively Owned creativelyowned. com. Until next time, keep showing up as your authentic self.