Why the Familiarity Effect is so important for Lead Generation
People don’t buy “cold” or what they don’t know.
When we are looking to purchase we go to what we know first, we look for familiarity, we want to be comfortable, that includes asking friends and colleagues for recommendations.
The “familiarity effect” has been afforded years of study. The first recorded scientist was Gustav Fechner in 1876. More recently Robert Zajonc theorized that the more often individuals came into contact with a given stimulus, the more likely they would be to recognize the object and must form their own attitude about the stimulus by thinking about it. Zajonc demonstrated that subjects rated stimuli which had been presented to them more positively than similar ones that had not been presented.
Buyer behaviour and behavioural science is an amazing and growing subject area that is well worth further investigation.
How does the familiarity effect work?
The familiarity effect suggests that the more you see, feel or experience something, the more you like it. The more familiar something is, be it a feeling, a person, a place, a product, or a brand — the more you have positive associations with it. The adverse is also true if you have very strong feelings against something then repeated exposure will make you like it more and more – so spammy cold callers/emails beware, recognising who is and who isnt in your tribe is important)
Our brains like certainty and turn to things we are familiar with (think how difficult we find it to get out of our comfort zone).
How can we bring the familiarity effect into our B2B lead generation?
How can we build familiarity with our target market. Let’s take a look.
- Its not about having 1,000 stories or reasons it’s about having a few key ways to deliver the same message so it goes deep, sticks and we build recall and familiarity. Our brains like simplicity which is why ads are so powerful.
- Maintain a point of view on relevant issues that your tribe finds of interest too. They will welcome the depth you take them to on those few topics and will eventually take part in that discussion.
- Turn up regularly, once you have opened their mind to your ideas keep in touch so they become your tribe.
- Its about showing up in different places, you will have come across omnipresence. It isn’t enough to do one thing repeatedly, look at all the ways you can engage, phone, email, engage on social media, networking, events, referrals, messaging.
- Be consistent – it’s not a hit and run game.
- Keep it manageable, get a couple of things working well.
- Your messaging might get “boring” to you but it won’t be to your tribe – they only think about you when you are about, their minds are not constantly thinking about your business only you are!
We naturally trust people we see frequently (or disklike more those we instantly dislike so stay out of their way!).
To maximise the familiarity effect in your lead generation work:
- Consistently show up as a human (phone, email, lumpy mail, real life, networking, social media) and you will become real in the minds of your prospect.
- In time your market will feel they know you which means they will take your calls, open your emails, read your blogs and even share and do a bit of cheerleading (there’s a bit of reciprocity in there too).
So what do you stand for (and against) what is the familiarity you want to create?
Choose wisely and then go out and deliver that regularly and consistently.
Or give me a call and we can talk further, its what Your Lead Generation are doing for companies like yours everyday.
Have fun
