From Persuasion to Invitation: Revolutionizing Marketing Tactics

A New Approach to Building Loyalty

In today’s fast-paced world, traditional persuasion marketing tactics, like urgency and scarcity, are starting to lose their impact. Customers are becoming desensitized to constant promotions and limited-time offers, making it harder to stand out in the crowded marketplace. So, if persuasion is fading, how can businesses build meaningful connections with their audience?

Enter invitation marketing: a fresh, customer-centric approach that invites people to engage with your brand on their own terms. Rather than relying on flashy tactics, invitation marketing fosters genuine relationships, long-term loyalty, and repeat business. In this post, we’ll explore how to transition from persuasion to invitation and why this subtle shift could be the game-changer your brand needs.

Persuasion Marketing: The Traditional Approach

Most marketing literature out there revolves around some sort of persuasion tactic. Something like “How to create urgency to seal the deal!”

This old-school form of marketing is known for employing psychology in building on consumers’ impulsive buying behaviour. Take the flashy lights commonly seen on Billboards. Swamped with bold colours and triggering images, these ads create a heightened sense of excitement, while the announcement of limited-time offers invoke a sense of urgency and scarcity, prompting customers to seize the deal before the opportunity vanishes. If you’re a photographer, a persuasion marketing tactic may involve announcing a discount on your photography sessions that is available for a limited time (e.g., “50% off for the next 48 hours ONLY”), or emphasizing limited availability (e.g., “Only 5 spots left!”).

Where Persuasion Marketing Falls Short

Although such tactics shortly boost bookings and revenues as they capitalise on FOMO (fear of missing out) to convert hesitant prospects into paying clients, it may negatively impact your brand in the long-run. If your promotion strategy is purely persuasion-based, the frequent use of urgent offers can lead to customers becoming desensitized, reducing the effectiveness of future promotions. It also reduces customers’ perceived value of your product/service; and that is the most detrimental drawback of all. Walk in your clients’ shoes for a while – if a service package is truly worth $500, why is it available for $350 every other week? This may lead to customers feeling manipulated and doubting the authenticity of the scarcity which justify your premium prices in the first place.

Invitation Marketing: A Modern Solution

Marketing is commonly defined as the process of turning people’s wants into needs, and while this definition remains relevant in today’s age, the method used to achieve that may be a little out-of-date. People got tired of feeling like they were being sold to all the time. And let's be real, who likes being told what to do? What’s more, we live in a world with endless options of products and services popping up like mushrooms after rain. Therefore, traditional persuasion is drowning in the noise. It's like trying to have a quiet conversation at a rock concert – not very effective.

But, if not persuasion marketing, then what? Enter invitation marketing. Picture this: you're inviting your customers to a conversation, not dragging them into a sales pitch. It's like saying, “Come hang out, see what we're about, and if you like it, awesome! If not, no hard feelings. We’re just going to chill right here at the back of your mind until you’re ready”.

The natural consequence of inviting consumers into a two-way conversation is that it allows your brand to build genuine and long-lasting relationships and emotional connections with your customer base. Why is that great? Because customers reward brands they like with loyalty. While persuasion can quickly earn you a one-off purchase, an open invitation to your brand can open doors to years of repeat purchases and word-of-mouth (just the holy grail of marketing, btw).

Invitation Marketing in Practice

I’m sure that at this point I’ve convinced you that invitation marketing deserves a go, but you may be unsure as to how to go about it. As always, I’ve got you covered. Harvard Business Review has highlighted ten main emotional motivators driving consumer behaviour, and we’ll be using a few of them to illustrate how you can invite customers to buy your products or hire your services by appealing to these.

As a photographer, people hire you for photoshoots because they trust your ability to capture their best side. Businesses need you to capture unique and visually compelling images that showcase individuality, personality, and the distinctive qualities of their brand. What do these people and businesses have in common? They want to stand out from the crowd. And your portfolio will help them see that you’re the right person for the job! That’s when it gets even more exciting – you could do that at little to no cost, simply leveraging the power of social media.

The Benefits of this Customer-centric Approach

While making a carousel post on Instagram showcasing your latest brand photoshoot will show rather than tell customers how great your photography skills are, an Instagram reel walking potential customers through the entire shooting process and bringing every detail to light will showcase your unique approach and attention to detail.

This advice is hardly exclusive to photographers. In fact, it pretty much applies to any service-based business. I do not know of a single person who doesn’t wish to succeed in life. While the path to success may be clear to some, others need a friendly hand to steer them in the right direction – and that’s why they hire coaches of all types – fitness, nutrition, general life. In this case, it is quite obvious how a purely persuasion strategy based on urgency may be counterproductive. By simply allowing your media channels to provide a platform through which your existing customers can share their stories experiences, and providing free yet life-saving knowledge, you’re essentially viewing individuals as the actual persons they are, as opposed to simply a market you must sell to.

In Sum…

Just to wrap things up, invitational marketing is like handing your customers the remote and telling them “You choose when to engage, and how. It's your show, and we're just here to make it awesome”. It’s not about bombarding them with emails and ads they don't want to see right before their YouTube video peaks. It's about creating experiences they actually enjoy. I must, however, make a note that persuasion marketing is a valid and effective method – when used occasionally and coupled up with more discrete tactics.