One of the worst mistakes that you can make in marketing: focusing on the details.

What you need to focus on in marketing is emotion, experience, feeling. Even when the statistics are on your side, you focus on feeling, not fact. You sell health food by showing strong, healthy people of all ages running through the park. You could show the math, you can talk about carbs and trans fats and whole grain, but what you’re really selling is not a healthier food, what you’re selling is the ability to run through the park without getting winded after thirty seconds.

If we tell you that raisin bran has more fiber in it which is perfect for keeping a healthy digestive system, what do you care? If we show you a middle aged professional who just dropped the bacon and eggs in favor of raisin bran, and he’s breezing through the day on the energy that healthy digestive system can provide, then we have your attention.

Is there a time for facts and figures in marketing and advertising material? Sure: any time you can make the facts and figures part of the emotional aspect of the marketing.

Use a word often enough, and people start to develop an emotional investment in it. “Fewer calories” forinstance. What is a calorie? Most people couldn’t tell you, they just know that you only need a ton of them if you’re a bodybuilder, and that everyone else should probably watch their caloric intake. We don’t know why, we’re not sure what too many calories will do to us, we don’t know how our body processes a calorie, but we know that most people only need about 2,000 to get through the day.

In short: don’t expect your prospect to understand your internal lingo, the science behind your product, the surveys you’ve conducted or the data you’ve collected. Sell the dream, the feeling, the experience of your product or service. Forget what you’re going to do for your customers, think about how you’re going to make them feel.