love machine – Alia Mabrouk

This is a resource I’ll probably keep updating as the concept develops. I wanted a tool to help with creating sincere messages for posts which;

* get your message across clearly

* come from a place of love

* doesn’t jeopardise personal or business integrity

Messages that will leave you feeling good and in alignment with your business which is in the business of doing good.

For this I use a mental visualisation of a love-machine, you imagine it however you want, that part isn’t important. It’s the feeling that counts.

Our aim is to imagine our message is going to be read by someone we love, so we want it to be transparent and honest. We don’t want to mislead them, pressure them or otherwise make them feel ‘sold to’ because we love them, right?

sentence in…

…sentence out

Example…

What you want to say “Check out my scented candles, they are amazing! Buy one today!”

Let’s pop this into the love-machine…

Maybe you’ll get something like this: “Feel a surge of calm with my jasmine scented candles, handmade with love.”

This feels more loving, you’re offering them what they’re seeking which is calm. You’re not being pushy or urgent, in fact you’re embodying calm in your message.

Ask yourself the following questions to help craft your message:

* Who needs my scented candles, who will they help, who do you make them for? Possible answer: Stressed people who look forward to winding down at the end of a busy day.

* Why do you make them? Possible answer: Because I know how stressful life can be and I want to help people feel better.

Use the answers to put together a sentence which you can work with:

“Are you stressed and need help winding down? I know how that feels so I made these…”

Play around with it, try several variations and remember to keep checking for sincerity and love.

You’re in the business of helping others because that’s what brings you joy. Helping others is what nourishes you so it’s important to bring that into your marketing. People will notice this and it will work in your favour. Like attracts like, nice attracts nice.

This way your messaging will connect with your audience, and you know your audience because you work closely with them.

Which connects better?

“Stressed? Try my bath bombs for the best relaxation!”

“You need help relaxing, my bath bombs are a good place to start.”
“I make bath bombs to help you relax”
“My bath bombs have you in mind”

These sound more like a friend, someone who cares.

Try it now, give a post the love treatment and feel free to comment below with what you come up with 🖤

How differently does something look when looking at it through the lens of love? And what exactly does this mean?

To put it simply, when we create a social media post, a landing page, a flyer or some other marketing asset, are we considering whether we’d be comfortable with the marketing message if it was put in front of the eyes of someone we love?

Can we say with certainty that the message isn’t teetering on misleading, maybe a little pushy or (like some ads), deceptive? If we’re totally honest with ourselves and the message leaves even a little sour taste in our mouths then perhaps it’s worth a rethink.

I’m not being judgemental, I’ve made posts which didn’t sit well. This type of post is common and often born of desperation. We desperately want to share our gift but are unclear on how to do it, so we might come across the wrong way. People pick up on this and it’s a turn off.

Let’s think about how we can tweak our message so it leaves us feeling good and the audience feeling great.

I imagine a ‘love machine’, sorry, couldn’t think of a better name! We put our sentences in and a new sentence pops out after having had the love treatment.

sentence in…

…sentence out

Here is a simple example:

“Buy now at 50% off only until midnight!”

How might putting it through the love-machine alter it?

“We have a 50% sale which is ending soon and we’d love you to try our product.”

It’s honest about intentions (we’d love you to try our product), there’s no urgency or pushiness. It’s just nicer, isn’t it? This is a very simple example but you can see how the change of tone and language leaves you, the poster, feeling good.

Before every post you write, put the message through the love machine and see what comes out. It’s a lovely thought-experiment which gets easier with time. Available on the resources page.