Always position your customer as the hero and your brand as the guide. Always. If you don’t, you will die. Those who realize the epic story of life is not about them but actually about the people around them somehow win in the end. Yoda understands Luke’s dilemma and has mastered the skills Luke must develop if he is going to win the day. A guide expresses an understanding of the pain and frustration of their hero.

The two things a brand must communicate to position themselves as the guide are:

1. Empathy.
2. Authority

EMPATHY

Clinton secured the election during a debate in which Bush gave a rambling answer to a young woman when she asked what the national debt meant to the average American. Clinton countered Bush’s linear, cerebral answer by asking the woman if she knew anybody who’d lost their job. He asked whether it pained her that she had friends out of work, and when the woman said yes, he went on to explain how the national debt is tied to the well-being of every American, even her and her friends. That’s empathy.

Essence of empathy:

The three things every human being wants most are the essence of empathy:

1. To be seen,
2. To be heard,
3. To beunderstood.

A Toyota commercial inviting Toyota owners to engage their local Toyota service center: “We care about your Toyota.”

Empathetic statements start with words like:

• “We understand how it feels to . . .” or
• “Nobody should have to experience . . .” or
• “Like you, we are frustrated by . . .” or,

Commonality, whether taste in music or shared values, is a powerful marketing tool. The human brain likes to conserve calories, and so when a customer realizes they have a lot in common with a brand, they fill in all the unknown nuances with trust. Customers batch their thinking, meaning they’re thinking in “chunks” rather than details.

AUTHORITY

People ask theirselves two questions subconsciously when meeting someone new:

• “Can I trust this person?” and
• “Can I respect this person?”

Authority really means competence. As customers view our websites, commercials, or e-mails, they simply want to check off a box in the back of their minds that gives them confidence in our ability to help them. Testimonials give potential customers the gift of going second. Three testimonials is enough. It won’t take long for a customer to trust you, so keep a testimonial brief. It won’t take long for a customer to trust you, so keep a testimonial brief.

Statistics

A simple statement like the e-mail marketing platform Infusionsoft’s “125,000 users trust [our] award-winning automation software”6 is all your potential customer needs. For B2B product or service, place logos of known businesses you’ve worked with in your marketing collateral.