“I said outbound links were fine, great even! And then talked a bit about how it’s a bad idea to build pages for nuances in the search engine algorithms anyway, as hundreds of signals exist and they’re changing all the time. Oh, he said. We’ve been talking about implementing the canonical tag. We probably shouldn’t do that then. And I realized, how would a developer know that the canonical tag is awesome and the meta keywords tag isn’t? That you shouldn’t worry about keyword density but you should put important keywords in your title tag?”
Would you consider yourself a difficult person to market to?
Do you research high-end products thoroughly before you purchase? Does it take lots of pressure to get you to move from one trusted brand or consumer product to another?
Me too. Especially when it comes to consumer goods like razor blades.
For years, I’ve happily used Gillette Good News razors. They’re simple, do the job and are inexpensive.
Until . . one day. . queue the bass drums. . I bought a package of Good News that included a free sample of the multi-blade Fusion product.
Now – I’ve tried these before. In fact – way back in the 1980’s I even had a power 2-blade razor that buzzes like the Gilette Power Fusion. I liked the concept and the shave back then.
But somehow I ended back up with the basic Good News razors. It was probably during a “simplicity” or economizing phase.
Anyway, I tried the Fusion sample and liked it a lot. The beard grew out less in a day, it seemed. That was a good deal for me.
So I ordered the Power Fusion product. And I’m waiting to get it from Alice.com. Mind you: this is after years and years of using the Gillette Good News razors.
The lesson? Persistent suggestions in your marketing materials (which were the actual product in my case) are CRITICAL!!! Never give up on this idea. Gillette sure doesn’t.
Offer samples, suggest up-sells, show the customer new ideas. IT WORKS.
It even worked on me – one of the more skeptical, difficult to motivate and move consumers I know.
Do you have any examples of how persistent messaging, product offerings or samples have motivated you to engage a company or switch products?
We had Friday pizza day yesterday at the office, and a totally remarkable situation arose.
Stephanie, who was ordering the pizza and salads, asked,”Do you eat anything? Or do you have things you can’t eat?”
The rest of us – two dudes – said no, we were cool with anything she might order. Truly remarkable!
Now, I understand that lots of people have legitimate food allergies. That’s not what I’m addressing here.
I started to wonder if all the crazy food marketing of the past few decades has been teaching us to be overly-selective, finicky, obnoxious, high maintenance eaters.
Think about it. Never before have we been subjected to some much information and marketing on food packages. Heck, even vegetables are now packaged in plastic and cardboard that are oozing with subtle and not so subtle messages. Stickers are everywhere, too.
Check out your local Target when you get a chance. They’re getting into the food biz in a big way, and they’re selling produce that’s entirely pre-packaged.
Interesting stuff, ay?
What do you think? Are we training ourselves to be annoying?
My wife recently remarked that the malls are full. “How could we be in a recession?” she said.
It got me thinking. Personal spending is obviously way down, but people still want to have a mall experience. They want to window shop, buy some small things, taste candy, play with pets, jump through fountains, see cool fashions and maybe dream a little.
The thing that *really* gets me. . in a recession. . is this. People go by the hoards to a place where the finest marketing minds in the world (from the most talented ad agencies known to man) are working their magic. Everything from the display windows and signage, to the cashier talk and uniforms, to the music and temperature, to the promos and tagging… is designed by the best of the best.
This may not be true of every store in every mall. The malls I usually witness are Fashion Island in Newport Beach CA, and South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, CA. But it’s certainly relevant to most of the national chains and high-end designers.
The point is that these people are voluntarily exposing themselves to a situation designed to suck money out of their pockets.
They want to be pitched, sold, persuaded and wow’ed! They want that, deep down.
And what do we complain about in marketing? Let me count the ways: Traditional advertising is dying. There’s too much noise out there. People are shutting out our messages. People are fed up with consumer-driven behavior. The market is resisting our messaging.
Yet, the malls still bring em in.
I realize that malls are “opt-in.” Maybe that’s something to ponder, too. Is there a way you can make your business and partner businesses more like a mall?
Something to think about. Enjoy your weekend. And please comment below to add your observations.
Success stories should extend the reach of your sales force.
Your marketing documents should act as natural extensions of your sales efforts. They need to be good enough to pay for themselves by consistently generating leads, appointments and closed business.
Take a look at your documents. Are they living up to that promise?
Where can you get more bang for your buck? I recommend stepping up your case study development process.
Case studies or success stories are perfect for a company your size. They speak directly to targeted industries and show prospects “social proof” of customers who’ve already succeeded with your solutions.
Now ask yourself: Do you have time to do the interviews, write drafts, follow up, edit, revise and get everything approved and set for layout?
I can help.
I’ve been writing case studies for leading technology companies every month since 1995. Even better – I’ve sold millions of $$$ worth of software, hardware and custom solutions by telling customer success stories in print.
If you like what you see, take me up on my latest special offer: Book me for 5 case studies by July 15, 2010, and I’ll throw in a free copyedit of any other piece of collateral (up to 10 pp).
Call me at your earliest convenience (949) 244-9440, or email me dunn@qualitywriter.com.
P.S. My project queue fills up quickly whenever I send out these letters, so please call as soon as you can. Thanks.
Critical conversations have moved away from email in recent years. I was thinking about this because I recently exchanged business cards with a woman and immediately emailed her my contact info. These kinds of email introductions used to be followed up happily and quickly that day or within hours/minutes.
Not anymore. Days go by. Inboxes are too full. Spam filters send legitimate emails off the radar screen. It sucks, but it’s true.
So where have these crucial conversations gone?
Back to the phone – this is good for a number of reasons, and I’ve personally seen this occurring in my own business.
To SMS – Whether your contacts are close friends or important business associates, text messages seem to get much more attention these days. It’s the first thing people check, wherever they are and whatever time it is.
Facebook, Linked-In and Twitter (for some people) – I’ve had entire business conversations with people within Linked-In and Facebook.. the FB one was a friend already, however. These tools allow people to strategically filter their discussions by friend groups.
In person – Still the best way to discuss business.
Via Skype, IM, Chat and so forth – This could include a Web cam or HD conferencing. Again, the filtering factor of buddy lists and contact circles makes it useful to busy executives.
What’s your experience? Are you having any luck with direct email marketing? Are people you meet and email slow to respond? Please comment below to share your thoughts.
I just got an email from Salesforce.com for a seminar/webinar even and was delighted by the tagline that was burried beneath the graphics on the page. It was actually an image tag that doesn’t even show on the graphical version of the email. It says, “Salesforce.com – Success. Not Software.”
I’ve been writing taglines for companies lately, so I know how difficult it is to come up with good ones (especially good ones that big, “too many cooks” corporate marketing teams can agree on).
I’ll repeat it again. Salesforce.com – Success. Not Software. So pure, yet so complex. Heck, I don’t even know it it’s new. It just jumped out at me this morning.
If you don’t know what Salesforce does, here’s a quick run-down. They offer sales pipeline and CRM/contact management software in the “cloud.” What does that mean? Basically, you don’t have to buy boxed software and install it on client machines as a stand-alone program like Microsoft Office or ACT! You log in to your Web account and have a ton of software functionality available due to the latest Web software/services technologies like AJAX, Javascript, .NET, Silverlight and so forth.
So Salesforce does still sell software, but they’ve made it much easier. You log in to the site and do everything in the cloud, so back-up, losing contacts and maintenance/management tasks are effectively outsourced. You don’t have any software on client machines to mess with, which means no IT staff, no helpdesk calls, no hassles.
The tagline captures the benefits of CRM and sales/prospect/customer management — essentially “success.” That’s the bottom line for sales people. You need software to stay out of the way so you can continue to develop relationships with people and solve their problems. “Not software” captures the cloud computing angle and this desire to have things work without hassles.
So simple. So elegant. So all-encompasing. I love it. Good job to whoever Salesforce’s ad agency is.
I’m going to start this post with a confession: I’ve been spending a lot of my non-work time with social media tools, platforms and networking sites. I caught a bug, so to speak. My latest obsession revolves around the ultimate tools for posting content, sharing ideas, sharing articles, and putting up personal photos and videos in the simplest, quickest way possible. I posted my findings about Posterous, FriendFeed, ShareIn and Soup.io in another article that’s linked here. This is ironic, by the way, because one of my recent posts is titled: Beware the Social Media Rathole and Re-Focus on 5 Key Business Disciplines
The point of this little riff, however, is to parse through some of the observations I’ve come across and to make some sense of it all in both a business and personal context. This exercise was originally just for me, but it occurred to me that you might benefit, as well.
One thing’s for sure – there’s *a lot* of chatter, anxiety and buzz out there with respect to everything social media/networking.
First, I want to set a baseline about communication and socialization and what it means to me. Then maybe we can move on to some of the curious things I’ve seen out in the “social networking” world.
I’ll start with an anecdote. When I was in high school, a friend and I started our own t-shirt company. I almost said “apparel company” there, but it wasn’t .. just one idea for a funny t-shirt (see image). The design was funny, interesting and relevant to the obsessions of our target audience – high school kids.
Could this have gone viral back in 1985?
It was about partying, status symbols (tongue and cheek to some extent – heck we were all growing up in one of the cheesiest, money-hungry cities in the U.S.), and college, the fortunate obsession of my peer group. So those elements were all in place.
And we sold thousands of t-shirts, sweatshirts and tank tops. Enough to keep me on the beach and sipping (moderation – ;^)) Coors Light well into my college years.
But I don’t think it was the design, the humor or the general theme that made the project work. Those elements had to be in place, of course. Yet, it needed something else.
We used to call the really popular, socially active kids “soc’s” back in the day (pronounced soshes, with the ‘o’ sounding like its name). I guess I was one of those. But I had hooks into a lot of different groups – including the geeks (I had an Apple II+ before anyone else), the mods (I loved the Jam, The Clash and Generation X), and the jocks (I played tennis but hung out with the water polo guys).
The t-shirt company needed that “soc” component. The word needed to be spread amongst a group of people who liked each other, shared the same values and perhaps wanted to see our project succeed. My buddy and I were in a good position for that. We liked a lot of people, and they liked us. In today’s online world, you might call it “friending” or “following.”
That little business was a mix of social and business.
“Business Life” bleeds into “Social Life”
Over the years (I’m 41 now), I’ve seen a swinging tide of communication and interaction with my own business that straddles this line between social and business. And I always come back to the same core idea: Business is social. That’s no revelation, I know. But it’s important. In my writing business, I work with people I know and like. I’ve met some of them in person. Some through email originally. Some via social media channels. I talk with them from week to week on the phone. We have common goals and interests when it comes to marketing copy, persuasion and content production.
My clients and I got to know each other in person, online and over the telephone wires (the last two are the same I guess). We sussed each other out, made sure our shoes were clean, made sure we didn’t smell bad and decided to do business with each other. That’s the way it works. You can’t take the social component out of it. And personal life bleeds into business life. They can see my Facebook stuff, if they like. But I run a clean show for the most part. I have a few wild friends that post off-color remarks on my pages from time to time, and I’ll put up a questionable humor link from time to time. But everything’s PG to PG-13 for the most part.
So, when I talk to people about Facebook, Twitter and the like, I often come back to the idea that business is social and the Internet is just another communication device. It’s no different than the pony express, the written letter, the telegraph, the steam boat or the telephone.
“But you lie, Phil!”
Yes I do. Somewhat. There’s a big difference between these new tools and the old, one-to-one communication channels like telephone, letter, email and personal conversation.
With those older “technologies,” the viral or word of mouth element is limited. If you call three friends and tell them some gossip or some useful business information, then your potential “megaphone” factor might extend the message out to another 40-80 people maximum, depending upon on the value or interest-level of the message and your own circle of friends. The people on the other end of the line have to be very motivated to call another person and extend your message, so 40 to 80 might be stretching it. The same thing applies to a letter, a newspaper clipping you mail, or an email (though emails are slightly more viral due to forwarding).
With something like a Facebook or Twitter post, however, your information can be immediately launched to massive networks within seconds. All it takes is one friend with several hundred Facebook contacts or a Twitter follower who has several thousands of followers in their network.
If I had a Twitter account back in 1984, I would have designed college sweatshirts for every community in Southern California and beyond, and then mined Twitter in reverse to spread the word. What does that mean? – “Mine Twitter in reverse..?” This subject is worth another post, but essentially, it’s about using tools like search.twitter.com to connect with people that have similar interests (and to target demographics). You can do similar mining on Facebook now, too. I might have even used AdWords to get the word out.
Who will go to bat for you?
Getting the word out is crucial, of course. And, to go viral you need strong connections to living breathing people. Here are the three keys to getting the word out:
The strength of your connections
The level of your engagement
The quality of your message
These also apply to your personal communications. The point here, however, is that it doesn’t matter what communication channel you use. Use your phone, a postage stamp, an email, Twitter or Facebook. But pay attention to those three keys. These are what will determine who will go to bat for you.
#1 has to do with who cares about you and your products/solutions. The root of this “caring” lies, interestingly, in the quality of care you direct toward your customers and contacts. If you care about your consumers/users/audience, then you’re putting yourself in their shoes every day, trying to figure out ways you can benefit them.
#2 has to do with the quality and quantity of your interactions. How many “touches” do you have with customers and friends/followers? Are you bugging people or offering them real value and insights? Are you answering their questions and trying to help them when your solution is not working out as planned?
#3 is an extension of #2. If you’re selling *anything* these days, you’re in the content production business. Ask any exec in upper management at Starbucks, and they’ll tell you that they’re in the content production and experience business. They nailed down coffee production, franchise and supply chain issues long ago. Their key differentiator is now “experience enhancement.” That means testing store designs and content (e.g. music selections and messaging on displays), engaging with “hub” or power/influencer users online and in the physical world at events, and constantly pumping out relevant information (whether it’s regarding philanthropy projects, music, books or coffee facts). Content has always been king, and you need to produce it well in order to make any kind of impact in this world. That goes for software companies, shipping companies, French fry peddlers, freelancers, web designers, lawyers, dog walkers… everybody.
Now, that said… ask yourself, “Would I rather make 500 phone calls? Or is it worthwhile building a network of Facebook and Twitter followers?” If I were selling sweatshirts, I’d opt for the latter. Multimedia advantages aside (e.g. demos, jpegs, and video showcasing the products), social media tools scale much more easily than phone calls, post cards or index cards on the bulletin board at the local coffee shop.
A strange world in transition
Ideally, social media allows you to make more connections with people and perhaps even make more meaningful, lasting connections – whether it’s for business or social purposes. But that’s not always the case is it? People resist participation, some only broadcast their views and others just don’t communicate all that well.
What follows are stories about three friends/associates of mine and how they perceive social media. Keep in mind, these people are like most of us (with the exception of the techie guy who’s deeply immersed in this social media scene). They want to find tools that are easy for them to use and don’t complicate their lives further. I can identify with that, and I’m not going take issue with them on a technology level. Many of the tools and “solutions” out there that are supposed to make communication easier are difficult to manage, and they don’t do what people want them to do (see my other post on Posterous, FriendFeed, Soup.io and ShareIn).
So, I’ll start with the simplest of stories. This guy is a friend of mine from high school. He’s what I’d call a Facebook power user. He’s constantly updating his status, posting photos and linking to articles of interest. One time I posted a story about Twitter on my Facebook feed, and he fired back, “I hate Twitter.”
People become religious about their tools and forget the underlying reality – it’s about communication. You see this with people who are passionate about Macs over PCs. Those who like blackberries over iPhones, etc. I’d agree that some tools are easier to use for particular types of people. For example, I like my Blackberry, because I can’t stand texting on touch screens. I think the same thing applies to my friend and his Facebook account. He’s committed to it. He’s all dialed in. And he’s used to the way it works. I can appreciate that.
I’m pretty sure that similar feelings accompanied the evolution of other technologies, as well. I have an aunt, for example, that can’t stand email. She prefers the pen, the ink and a stamp. People despise Amazon Kindles because they like the feel of paper pages. There was a time when a lot of people despised cell phones (many still do for a variety of reasons).
You don’t find many people who despise communication, however. And that’s really what we’re talking about. There are a lot of preferences out there. Some people prefer texting. Some Skype. Some IM. There’s an evolution of how a particular communication thread goes, too. For example, I like to text to set up plans and get simple questions answered, but I’ll go to voice when the conversation looks like it’s going to include more details or a personal tone/touch.
And, if I want to share something with a large group of people without “bugging” them, I choose social media tools like Facebook and Twitter. The people on the other end of the communication can deal with the information (or not) whenever they choose. The scalability factor is nice, and it’s easier for me to update a lot of people at once. This is different than direct communications like @-replies and one-to-one threads in Facebook, of course.
The second friend is a business woman who’s involved in media production and advertising for small businesses. She runs an “old school” magazine/dining guide that recommends restaurants in the local area. I call it old school because the publication is beholden to its advertisers – the old model for print publications. You sell ads and offer the buyers a carrot. If they buy ads, they get editorial. It makes for a very un-transparent, deceptive “guide.” We met up to discuss our respective marketing capabilities, and I mentioned social media, Twitter mining, Word Press blogs, etc. She said she was able to do any of those types of things for clients (with partner companies), but she doesn’t follow the technology trends and the new advertising models. She didn’t know what AdWords are, for example.
During our conversation, she pushed back really hard against any mention of social media or the value of social networking with respect to marketing. Personally, she felt that any new tools or practices (like using Twitter or Facebook) would just complicate her life. She found chasing email frustrating enough as is.
Her demographic for the dining guide is young adults, probably 18 to 35 – pre-children professionals that have time to go out and eat well, club, etc. I mentioned that this group increasingly avoids email in favor of social media communication. I repeated the popular line of Gen Y – “If I want to get a hold of an old person, I’ll use email.” Otherwise, they’re filtering their communications via social media tools and sites. This helps them avoid burdensome activities like chasing email all day. My friend wasn’t buying it. She was more interested in talking about four-color layouts for direct response post cards. I don’t have anything against those, but I thought we’d get beyond that.
And, I must say (Ed Grimley) that I concur with her about the frustration with yet another social media tool to use or site to join. For most of us, it’s exhausting keeping up with these things. People need easy-to-use, intuitive tools that offer shortcuts. Many don’t know about bit.ly and tiny.url and the like. They don’t have the Firefox plug-ins like UrlBarExt. They don’t want to cut and paste links. I think this is why the buzz around tools like Tumblr, Soup.io, FriendFeed, Posterous and ShareIn is so busy. These tools have their flaws, but they’re getting closer to an ideal social media sharing solution (for businesses and personal users). So, I’m hopelessly committed to this evolution. I can’t wait to check out Google Wave, for example. I’ve tried Mozilla’s Flock, and I use both TweetDeck and Seesmic Desktop.
But I was taken aback by this friend’s position. While I could understand it completely, I just think it’s a bit naïve for a marketing professional to resist this. It’s like resisting using the phone for cold calling, using the yellow pages for prospecting or using the mail for advertising in days gone by.
My third friend is a big anomaly… a paradox of sorts. He’s someone I’ve partnered with in the past (on AdWords campaigns for joint clients). He’s a power user of Twitter, Facebook and all things social media. In fact, he frequently offers seminars and talks on the subject. His niche is in helping small businesses with Web marketing and positioning. He’s a big proponent of WordPress (I am, too).
I recently emailed him with questions about some social media issues I was wondering about. No reply. So I pinged him with an @ on Twitter and a DM. No reply. I emailed some more as additional ideas came up. Nothing. Then I commented on some of his Facebook entries to see if I could get a response there. Nope, nada.
It was very strange. Here’s someone who’s hook-line-and-sinker in the tank for social media, and he’s ignoring direct communications. Could be that I offended him. Maybe I owe him money (don’t think so). It’s possible that he’s a huge power user of these tools and that my pings have fallen through the cracks. I could imagine a scenario where my emails go to his spam folder, his Twitter @ feed is way too jammed and he ignores DMs (like a lot of Twitter folks do, due to spam).
It’s just weird that all this use of social media actually prevents communication. In this case, it’s probably time to just pick up the phone.
Circling Back – Be a Communicator, a Content Producer and a Content Filter
Ok, so what are the big take-aways here? Communication is the critical component to all of this. Despite my failures with friend #3, and the resistance of many to new communication channels – socializing and sharing ideas with people drives business and friendships. There’s nothing new there, but it’s an age old truth.
Also, people are at wildly different stages of adoption when it comes to communication tools. Heck, even folks in the marketing space still resist new modes of communication. People find tools that they like, and they stick with them because they’re comfortable and they’ve invested in some “build-out” of profiles, skill sets, etc.
So what should you do when it comes to using social media tools for better business and relationships? My recommendations are simple (even though I’m often guilty of not following them very competently).
Communicate clearly and often – Write better, produce better videos and blogs, and make those “touches” no matter what communication channel you’re using.
Filter content for your friends and followers – Use your authority, expertise and experience to help others make better decisions in their lives. Simple. The amount of information available is staggering today. People need trusted filters to make better decisions about the media they consume, the products they buy, and the people they associate with. With the right networks and associations, we’re moving toward more efficient, productive relationships. The tools are getting better, and people are catching on.
Focus on value – What do your clients, friends and associates want from you? When you figure it out, deliver that in big, heaping helpings. Don’t spam or bother. Instead, converse, comment and connect. Broadcast messages are becoming less attractive as these new media channels evolve. Interaction and caring are the keys.
Long post. Thanks for hanging with me! .. Fingers cramping… Must get coffee.
I just ran across another advertising campaign that’s mimicking the Lance Armstrong “LiveStrong” campaign. It’s “Army Strong.” Just saw it on ESPN. Just like “Fan Strong” for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. I’m sure there are others.
Am I just being crabby or is that weak? (Or is using the word crabby weak?). This tagline/marketing piggybacking reminds me of the “Got Milk?” campaign parroted endlessly for more than a decade. Got Sand? Got Surf? Got Weed? Got Faith? Got River? Got Soccer? Got Brains?… Barf.
Does anyone have an original thought? Or is there some science behind this cowardly mimicking?
“If it doesn’t sell, it isn’t creative.” – David Ogilvy
I just read an interesting post on ad agency focus in the Web 2.0 world by DJ Francis of Online Marketer Blog. The article elaborates on what David Ogilvy said about creativity so many years ago. Year after year, I come back to this philosophical kernel: sales is where the rubber meets the road. We often get so distracted with the fun, new-fangled Facebook, Twitter and Friend Feed tools. Yet, marketing and advertising are ultimately about sales. So, yes, those tools are useful channels for communication. But, if they aren’t used with sales in mind, their ROI is difficult to measure.
With respect to agencies, Web 2.0, social media, etc. will make a lot of dough for many agencies. People love the new communication channels and fun Web-based software tools. For many, however, this will be a money pit, a dazzling show and wheel spinning exercise. If not taken seriously, these types of efforts will get many agencies fired. No measurable ROI and they’ll be shown the door.
Web 2.0 marketing exercises can be a major distraction. Businesses need to realize that these tools and “strategies” are merely communication channels. That’s it! Nothing else has changed. If you’re not delivering the goods through those channels, you’re not going to move the sales needle. And by “goods” I mean the following:
Prospecting and lead-gen. Do your social media efforts produce fruitful leads? Or have you deluded yourself into thinking that you’re “building a brand” by socializing. Heck, even Coke has to sell soda.. eventually.
Persuasion. Remember the line from Glenn Gary Glenn Ross – “A-I-D-A. Attention, Interest, Decision, Action. Attention– Do I have you attention? Interest– Are you interested? I know you are, because it’s shit or walk. You close or you hit the bricks. Decision– Have you made your decision for Christ? And Action.” Persuasion takes many forms… but I just love that line from the movie. Dr. Robert Cialdini is the guy to read if you’re really interested in persuasion research and reality.
Closing. You have to make promises, and provide compelling calls to action and offers. Like Vince Vaughan’s character says in “Wedding Crashers” – “Now get out there and close some ass.”
Deliver value. Pure and simple – the product has to be a winner.
Customer service. Every good solution, product or service has to be supported by supreme customer service. Make sure the right processes and people are in place.
Remember, “business” still has to happen. Don’t get distracted by socializing for socializing’s sake. Yes, business is a social activity, but value has to be added and profit has to be made.
