Is there such a thing as love at first sight?

One way to get someone hooked from day one is to be striking. It worked for Apollonia when she first meets Michael Corleone in The Godfather. He experiences the thunderbolt moment and soon becomes a deer in the headlights, which is exactly the effect you hope to achieve with your marketing.   

Of course, we are not all attracted to the same thing, so you can be striking in different ways. The most obvious answer is through your visuals, so things like artwork and videos need to stand out, however, you could also be striking in the wording that you use or the message that you are trying to convey. If you give somebody a reason to stop and stare, then you might find they fall for your brand from the start.  

Sometimes, the greatest loves arrest us when we are least expecting it.

Take Doc Brown in Back To The Future III for example. This man of science was not interested in affairs of the heart, but when he helps to rescue Clara Clayton from certain doom, he finds that he is completely and utterly smitten, changing his future while he tries to save everyone else’s.  

This is an interesting lesson for most of us in marketing. We always think we know what our audience wants, and we tailor everything to them, effectively cutting out a large part of society simply because they do not fit our pre-determined idea of who a customer should be.  

Widening your scope can be an interesting tactic, as reaching a wider audience can open you up to new possibilities and can make you more appealing to an audience who might not have seen what you have to offer before.  

Probably the most well-known love story of them all is Romeo and Juliet.   

“Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight! For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night.”  

When Romeo first sees his beloved, he knows he has never seen anyone like her before. Juliet stands out as a great beauty to him, and the others all pale in comparison. This is how you want someone to see your brand. Even if they have tried others in the past, your message can show that you are better than the competition.

Not all these examples have a happy ending, but some prove love at first sight can endure even in the toughest of circumstances – just ask Homer Simpson. There are two separate episodes of The Simpsons that show Homer and Marge meeting, and both have them falling for each other in an instant. No matter how many mistakes Homer goes on to make, Marge stays by his side because her loyalty has been earned.

It is important to remember that your marketing is not just to encourage a one-hit wonder of clients, you want people who will go the distance and come back to you for years to come.  

Sometimes it pays to address this in your marketing – show your customers that you are around for the long haul, that you will continue to look after them and that they can rely on you, and you are more likely to win over a long-standing romance. 

So, if you want to build a budding relationship with a new customer, you need to think about how you can get them to fall for you in a heartbeat.