Bryan Kramer is a sought-after speaker, social business strategist, and the CEO of PureMatter, one of Silicon Valley's fastest-growing agencies. He hosts From the Author's Point of View, a podcast series featuring interviews with authors, as well as #Substance, PureMatter's Luminary Video Series.

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I invited Bryan to Marketing Smarts to talk about his best-selling book, Human to Human #H2H.

Here are just a few highlights from our conversation:

Your marketing only needs to hit three of the six basic human needs to convert people (07:25): "The idea behind the six human needs is that you only need three for any consumer or person to become addicted to something.

"So, the 6 human needs are...

• Connection
• Significance
• Uncertainty
• Certainty
• Growth
• Contribution

"And the idea behind that is that, if you apply three of those to any product or service (or anything that you're marketing), any campaign that you're putting out into the world, if you apply three of those to the campaign, product, or service, you have a stronger ability to make it resonate with people that are attuned to those areas."

Appeal to people's needs, but don't try to manipulate them (09:12): "It's not that you're... trying to manipulate... The way that people resonate is they can feel the energy, they feel the reason you're reaching out to them... and if it's not authentic, then stop right there and just move on because people are going to sense that and they're not going to want to be a part of it. A really good example of this is the ALS [Ice Bucket] Challenge. It skyrocketed, and it was one of those things where it hit most, if not all, of these human needs, but there was such a tone of being human to this across the board, that it really helped... There were some companies out there that took advantage of it in the wrong way. For instance, Samsung had a YouTube video that they made, making fun of the Apple voice, Siri, and they had ice fall over the top of this Android Samsung phone, and it just was in complete bad taste. It was as if they were just challenging another product rather than actually talking about the ALS Challenge and how they were going to give. So, wrong approach using something that was out there for the authentic good, and they got hammered for it."

Striking the right tone is all about authenticity (12:25): "Most of the time, when you look at why things go viral... the reason that they go viral is because it makes sense. It really kind of tunes into the brand, and it's authentic, and we want to see it succeed. There's something in us as humans that tells us that that's the real thing, that they really meant that to be funny, or they were embracing their inner Gaylord Focker or they're looking at things in terms of hours spent making sure that quality is there versus putting something out in two seconds and ruining or tarnishing your brand."

To recruit Millennials, give them a mission (21:23): "From a contribution standpoint, I'm not sure if I would see it as down in the weeds as much as kind of more up at the 500-foot level of looking at a business. Do [Millennials] feel like they are a part of something bigger? Is the company giving them something to believe in that can go somewhere, that will succeed in ways that they want to be a part of? Because that's what they believe, I think, is the choice. If the company's not going anywhere, if there's no leadership, no vision, then there's no chance that [Millennials] will want to contribute towards that growth. So, I really think that it goes back to branding and things like your mission statement. Or if you don't believe in mission statements, then it's creating a vision or...a clear path for how they see themselves as part of the greater good of this company and where it's heading."

To learn more, visit BryanKramer.com or follow Bryan on Twitter: @BryanKramer.

Bryan and I talked about much more, so be sure to listen to the entire show, which you can do above, or download the mp3 and listen at your convenience. Of course, you can also subscribe to the Marketing Smarts podcast in iTunes or via RSS and never miss an episode!

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Music credit: Noam Weinstein.

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Published on November 12, 2014