Connecting through creative to reach outcomes

Creating art, music, writing…especially for business purposes means you are using creative to communicate and foster a relationship, so the creative has to connect to the recipient (ideally your target audience) for it to be effective.

This is the case for a live musician performing for an audience to provoke merchandise purchases or more drink sales to help the bar owner.

It’s the case for the visual artist whose work catches a gallery-goer’s eye and they buy it. That purchase supports the relationship between the buyer and the artist and gallery (the artist gets paid and the gallery gets a commission for selling it and the buyer gets the artwork they liked).

It’s even the case for the corporate marketer or copywriter…a potential customer visits the company website to learn about their products because of a need that the product can solve and the website copy needs to connect well to take the relationship further toward a sale.

The easiest way to make such a connection is to know what your audience cares about, understand their need — the need your business solves — and present that to them through your creative.

To find out what your audience cares about, ask them. Ask them what lifts them up, what upsets them, what’s most important to them. Figure out what they care about emotionally.

Then go back and craft your creative for them — ideally, for one specific individual if you can — and share how your product/service solves their need, but in a way that taps into the emotions that move them from your earlier discovery.