We recently connected with Sarah Levinger and have shared our conversation below.

Sarah, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Crazy stuff happening is almost as certain as death and taxes – it’s technically “unexpected” but something unexpected happening is to be expected and so can you share a crazy story with our readers

I once worked with a brand called Hoplark that made non-alcoholic “hoppy tea”. The brand had no problem keeping customers as soon as they entered their ecosystem but had struggled with acquisition and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in paid advertising to try and boost first-time purchasers.

After conducting a thorough analysis of the language, emotional sentiment, and “self-adopted terms” of their customers, I ran across a review that said:

“I want to thank Hoplark for giving me a taste of something I never thought I’d taste again.”

At that moment, I realized just how DEEP our customer’s emotional attachment to products, experiences, and brands goes. This was a random review, seemingly irrelevant to the brand’s overall revenue goals, acquisition plans, or product development. Yet in just one sentence, we saw how important this product was for people, and how integral it was to their journey.

Sarah, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Sarah Levinger is a Forbes-featured consumer behavior analyst, creative strategist, and performance creative consultant.

To date, she has helped hundreds of e-commerce brands increase their paid advertising ROI using psychology-based creative, and has worked with brands such as Fabletics, Obvi, and Barstool Sports.

Sarah provides 1:1 consulting for founders, media buyers, and DTC operators who are ready to connect human psychology to their paid advertising efforts. She also provides full team training for creative teams who are ready to discover a different way of thinking about customer acquisition.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

The pandemic had just started and I was at home with a 2-year-old and newborn baby, trying to navigate the murky waters of new motherhood and a waning freelance marketing business.

I had spent the last 10 years acquiring a multitude of skills – from email marketing to Amazon FBA – but struggled to identify a position that would help me feel connected to the brands I wanted to work with. While I worked to try and figure out where I fit in the marketing world, I spent hours learning about the human mind, consumer psychology, economics and human behavior by going to the library and checking out textbooks from the 80s.

I randomly got on Twitter in an attempt to network and learn more about the most recent addition to my skill set (paid advertising).

After a few months of following and browsing, I started posting once or twice a day about all the interesting psychology facts/knowledge I gained over the past 10 years. This started to get some attention, but it wasn’t until I downloaded a post scheduler (so I could write weekly posts while changing diapers) that things really started to take off.

I consistently posted 4 posts a day, 5 days a week for the next 2 years. I wrote over 1,000 posts on Twitter and LinkedIn. I interacted with anyone who commented or messaged me and continued to provide as much interesting, entertaining, shocking, and inspiring content as I could on both platforms.

In just 2 years, I was able to get almost 20,000 followers (between both platforms) working just about an hour a week on content creation.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

Most marketers in my industry come from a direct response background which makes us highly sensitive to relying on numerical representations of our efforts instead of relying on the creative or emotional ones.

95% of our daily decisions are coming from the subconscious mind, which means most of us are running on autopilot throughout the day.

Took me years to realize that we aren’t convincing anyone to purchase anything. Paid advertising is a mirror, not a door – it’s our job as marketers to help customers see themselves in our products, our marketing, and our brands so their brains will recognize how intense the need to solve their problem really is.

Takes some pressure off as a marketer, and helps bring us back to what really mattes – helping people live the best lives they can.

Contact Info:

• Website: sarahlevinger.co
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahlevinger/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/SarahLevinger
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKwfjt_7PU5N_2fTfHemXXg

Image Credits
Triple Whale Whalies Event – Taken by Barry Hott