The cost of a fact free media

The cost of a fact free media

Jan 29, 2019 | Communication, Governance

EEEERRRRHHHHH

Excuse me, I just threw up on myself after being assaulted by another ad by a fat billionaire exhorting me to ‘Make Australia Great Again’ by voting for him and his dodgy party.

That nasty experience got me wondering about the nature of advertising in the digital world.

While we have people in Canberra who still think that regulating for diversity in media ownership is a thing on which they should  be spending time, Google, Facebook , and Alibaba (the latter almost exclusively in China) have sucked up 62% of the worlds digital ad spend of US 327 billion, last year.  Bringing up the rear is a rapidly improving Amazon, aggressively chasing a bigger share of this largess. These huge numbers leave what is left of the rest of the media, particularly the ‘old media’,  scrabbling to pay the rent.

The owners of the ‘Old’ media which interrupted me with the ad that started this thought are no doubt pleased to have the fat billionaire as a paying customer. Their priority is to  get the dollars in any way they can, to pay the rent, not make judgements on the veracity of the claims made by their advertisers. Facebook also faces this problem of fact neutrality, magnified geometrically by the reach and ‘stickiness’ of the platform, combined with its capacity to target and deliver messages to a very specific audience . 

However, our society has been built, at least to some extent, on the foundation of a free and diverse press that has the funds and bottle to be the ‘policemen’ of the standards and performance of those in power, political and corporate.

These media businesses have largely disappeared in the last decade, overwhelmed by the shift of advertising dollars, the foundations of their business, to digital outlets.

This has left the place without any police.

Look no further than the 2 recent Royal Commissions for any evidence you may need. If it was not for Kate McClymont, and a very few other investigative journalists with a passion for the truth, and the now defunct Sydney Morning Herald, these two rocks would not have been kicked over. The roaches hiding underneath would still be free to engage in their brand of hyper-hypocrisy, with most of us unaware of their corrosive and immoral activities.

Advertising funded investigative journalism via a neutral and responsible press is almost dead in this country. Without it we are deprived of the major driver of publicly minded behaviour.  We want, and need corporations to be publicly minded, to act in the best interests of  the community they serve. However nice those words may be, the officers of corporations are charged with the responsibility to deliver shareholder returns, and generally they do so without reference to the long term public good. The corollary is that personal agendas, and greed,  also get a very solid run.

We have conferences and forums where these corporate officers and politicians tell us what they are doing for us. However, the reality is they are mostly reading from a PR script, while attending a firefighting conference that only invites arsonists.

Advertising is increasingly becoming a tax on the poor, those who cannot afford to pay to be ad free. All this does is add weight to the confirmation bias we all have by removing any contrary voice that we may have seen and heard in the past.

That emasculation of media, the demise of a broad based, investigative and community minded press has consequences for the amount, type and quality of public debate, none of which I like.

Cartoon credit: Hugh McLeod at gapingvoid.com

Anatomy of a sales effective website

Anatomy of a sales effective website

Dec 7, 2018 | Communication, Marketing, Sales, Social Media

People search Google for 1 of 2 reasons:

  • They have a problem to solve, they need information, guidance, options, and are looking for help in some form.
  • They are bored and too lazy to go and have a game of golf, tennis, or mow the lawns, so they look for cat photos to amuse themselves.

It follows therefore that if you are setting out to be of interest to those in the first group, it helps if they recognise quickly that you have something of what they are seeking. Any Google search will throw up multiple options for the searcher to have a quick look at.

Most times when an SME recognises the need for a website, they hire a web designer, and stand back and let them run.

Wrong strategy.

The technology of websites these days is largely commoditised, the 18 year old down the road can often do the ‘techie’ end of a site construction quicker and better than many of the ‘professionals’ around.

The challenge is the  marketing and graphic design of the site.  This is all about the combination of the words being not only the right words for the visitor, but in the right place so they get seen, and the graphic design that makes the site visually interesting and engaging, and importantly, makes some  sort of offer that leads towards the transaction.

The following has nothing to do with SEO, it assumes that you have been found, by one means or another, and your task is now to engage the casual visitor, and very particularly, that casual visitor who fits the profile of your ideal customer, in some sort of process that may lead to  a (first) transaction. The reality is that if you are not attracting your ideal customer, the whole exercise will be at best, sub-optimal. The objective should be to get these people to step through the site to a positive conclusion.

The natural progression of eyes across a website is outlined below, as they seek the answer to the question in their minds ‘Will I find what I am looking for here?’

 

The basic principal.

Top left, to right, across towards middle left, then back to bottom right.

All of this is ‘above the fold’. Many of the more recent sites have a ‘rolling’ architecture, but that does not  eliminate the old adage of ‘be above the fold’.

Let’s go into a little more detail.

The header.

The all important header, or headline, has to be specific, and deliver the value proposition that is directed towards the ideal customer, the answer to their question. Evolutionary biology plays a key role in the construction of the header. Our built in survival mechanisms register automatically the elements around us, is it dangerous, is it food, shelter, a potential partner, without us recognising at a conscious level these automatic choices. If your ideal customer registers in their ‘lizard’ brain that you are good for them, a significant part of your work is done.

The cost of failure.

Highlighting the pain points most likely to be felt by your ideal customer provides a barrier to them just moving on. The more you can highlight the problem they feel, the greater the chance that they will ‘stick’ on your site instead of moving on.

The Solution.

In the simplest words possible, how does your product/service solve the problem.

The plan.

Having established the ideal outcome, offer a plan, create the steps to achieve it. Making it easy to progress to the transaction and beyond by making the process transparent and easy is the equivalent of a ‘Close’.

Testimonials.

‘Social proof’ to use the psychological jargon is an extremely powerful tool. People, prepared to be identified and tell a listener how great  your product or service is, how it delivered for them, are better than almost anything else in closing a sale. Even if the video is a bit amateurish, that is OK.  get those testimonials.

Call to Action.

Make sure that you ask for the order, or the progression through the funnel to the next stage. Often asking several times lifts the closure rates significantly.

 

There is  no need for clever graphics or fancy advertising slogans. Your ideal customer is looking to see if you can help them, or if they should speak to one of your competitors. The task of your website is therefore clear, by presenting a credible way of solving their problem.

No fancy embellishments, industry jargon to establish your creds, unintelligible sentences, words of 5 syllables, just simple, clear, uncluttered communication.

Help them to help themselves!

Header: is a common  ‘wire-frame’ 

 

Anatomy of a successful sales letter.

Anatomy of a successful sales letter.

Nov 28, 2018 | Communication

My inbox is stuffed with sales letters, an outcome of 20 years of researching and engaging in a wide range of areas of interest to me, and those I work with, in an effort to distil the lessons to be passed on.

Some are very good, they move the hand towards the credit card, almost involuntarily, and some are just plain awful. Most are somewhere in the middle, OK, but generally no cigar.

A sales letter has only two  functions: to state why somebody should give you their business, and then to lead them to the next stage in the process, which is not always a transaction. Most often with a letter, it is simply to move you to the next point in the sales ‘funnel’

It should always be in the language of the receiver, and as personalised as possible, without  any spelling, grammatical, or any other type of error.

In other words, accuracy and clarity.

The flow of a sales letter is critical to success, and is a fairly well understood series of steps:

Headline.

The headline is the most important part of a sales letter. It is what someone sees first, and unless it engages in some way, they will move on. David Ogilvy, the original Madman stated that the headline was 80% of any ad, and a sales letter  is nothing but a form of advertising, a cheaper form of a sales person.

After the headline, which distils the reason why a reader should continue to read, there is a logical process which normally looks like the following:

Pain points.

Describe the problem in words that the potential customer will relate to and understand, personalising the pain, and demonstrating that you understand it. Do this well  and they will start to empathise.

Amplification and Aspiration.

Amplify the consequences of not solving the problem,  and offer a vision of what the feeling will be like when it has been solved.

Story.

Sales letters are really a story, and you have to tell the story of your solution, and how their problem can be solved, the means by which your solution will deliver them the outcomes to which they now aspire. People are not buying your product, they are buying the  outcome from buying your product. It is the old ‘drill and hole’ story. When you go to the hardware to buy a drill, it is not the drill you want, but the hole it will deliver you. Testimonials are powerful ways to demonstrate the outcome from purchase.

Offer.

A sales letter has to make an offer, it has to offer a conclusion to the story told, the problem solved. You have to be absolutely clear about what it is you want them to do, how and by when. Many sales letters I see shy away from being direct, but if you have not lost them at the beginning,  and they are still reading, there is a fair chance they are interested, so enable the interest by telling them what to do next.

You do not have to be a professional copywriter to produce a good sales letter, but you have to be very clear, concise, and empathetic. Not an easy task, but one which generally comes at the end of a process of understanding the value of your offer to a specific group of potential customers, or better still, a specific person.

 

 

 

 

Keep looking for the ‘Big Idea’

Keep looking for the ‘Big Idea’

Oct 29, 2018 | Branding, Communication

 

Following on from my rant about content porn, it seems to me that the real problem has become the immediacy required by the digital age.

You need more stuff, on line, now!

At least, that is the demand, but more stuff is of no value unless it moves someone to an action.

Time is no longer allowed to curate and enable the creative process that can deliver what my old advertising colleagues used to call ‘The big idea’.

Now we just upload any old crap and move on, thinking we have done the job of producing ‘Content’.

So perhaps the problem is not having a framework for  the big idea to emerge?

This is despite the disciplines necessary for effective marketing I have spoken about previously. The persona of the ideal customer, and differentiation, as well as understanding from the  customers perspective what problem you are solving for them, and why they should pay you to solve it.

Setting out to enable the big idea to emerge without having gone through the pain of defining these boundary items first will be in most cases, a waste of time and effort. However, having defined them, there are some simple to say, but very hard to do, steps that you can take that may assist.

Attract  attention.

Unfortunately this is a chicken and egg proposition. To attract attention, you need an idea that resonates with your ideal customer, without which, you will not attract the attention. To resonate, it must solve a problem, often one they did not realise they had, or had just got used to having, so was not a constant itch. The creativity required to see the problem from the perspective of the customer, and frame it in such a way that motivates them to action, is the essence of the process, and is not something that happens quickly, or regularly.

The classic example is Apples ‘big idea’ for the original iPod: ‘A thousand songs in your pocket’

Hold attention.

To hold the attention once passed the huge hurdle of attracting it, the idea must be compelling. Most businesses compete in markets where there is little that is genuinely new, where you have some sort of defensible ‘uniqueness’. Patents are defensible, but the sad reality is that you need very deep pockets, and even then, they are increasingly just a road bump a competitor has to negotiate. Therefore, you need to create some sort of differentiation in the minds of the ideal customer that you can ‘own’. In their minds, it is what you become known for, and is sufficiently compelling that they reach for their wallet. The iPod line achieved this in spades.

If you were in the market for a hard floor covering, and you stumbled across this optical illusion from British tile maker Casa Ceramica, used as the header for this post, you would at least look at them closely.

Have a strategic roadmap

Every idea you generate should be a brick in the road towards your long term strategic goal. You cannot predict the future, but you can define where you want to be, then set out to go there. The route might change, not the goal. You will have challenges and obstacles to overcome on the way that were never envisioned at the outset, but keeping your eyes on the goal provides the framework against which you ask the question ‘Does this idea take a step forward in the journey?‘

This post evolved as a result of seeing the photo in the header on social media somewhere. If you happened to be in the UK midlands, and were thinking of replacing your floors with tiles, you would add this lot to the list to talk to. The aspiration of their website is: ‘We aim to inspire you and help you stand out. We aim to give you the aspirations you need, the innovation of our showroom and knowledge and the dedication you deserve.’  Their mission is all about leading the independent wall and floor tiling industry. This example of a piece of content moves them along towards that goal, and I would suggest, is a great example of the big idea in action.

 

 

 

 

A marketers rant about ‘content porn’

A marketers rant about ‘content porn’

Oct 10, 2018 | Branding, Communication, Social Media

Content has become a marketing buzzword delivering a tsunami of crap into our inboxes, cluttering up our phones, and potentially delivering all sorts of nasty surprises if we open them.

Content started as a great idea, suddenly we could communicate directly with those in our markets and give them stuff of value, that coincidentally led to a transaction, perhaps many transactions.

Anyone would think this was new, this is what advertising has done for decades, we can now just target the recipient more accurately.

We have forgotten the ultimate objective of content is to create circumstances where a transaction can occur. However, ‘Content’ has become a cliché, and we all indulge, churning out shit that does nobody any good.

It is like Porn, interesting at first, perhaps educational for some, offensive to others, but quickly becoming just boring.

People are keen to receive things of value, things that make a difference to their lives, but increasingly the stuff they are being delivered is just content porn, doing nobody any good, leading to the turn off, so that the good stuff gets missed in the never ending churn.

There is a branding opportunity here, send only good stuff, and personalise it!

What we need to produce is ideas, not indulgence, and there is way too little of the former and too much of the latter.

Let’s be fair dinkum about what content is.

Fair chance it is a regurgitated version of something else, and by the time the first good idea has been reshaped, and re-imagined, it has become blurred and unrecognisable. An original good idea is something most recognise when they see it, simply because it demands attention and action.

That is what  we need, more ideas, originality, and deviance, in a nice way, that demands your attention, and drives an action. We do not need more of the same old content porn.

I read somewhere, and I wish I could take credit for it that: ‘if I take a photo of a pile of dog shit, I have a photo of a pile of dog shit, if I upload it to  a website, it becomes content’

Sounds a bit like the inimitable Bob Hoffman, but could not locate the source.

 

Content quality trumps quantity, every time!

Content quality trumps quantity, every time!

Sep 28, 2018 | Communication, Strategy

Marketers have always created ‘Content’ as a means to  raise awareness, motivate an action, build a brand. It is what they do in an effort to hook into the behavioural patterns of their customers in order to build a relationship and generate revenue.

Human beings learned to tell stories as a means to communicate the things that are important to them way before they learned to record things on clay tablets.

So, ‘Content’ is not new, the form has just morphed over the last 20 years with the emergence of digital tools as a more efficient way to spread the ‘content’. We also know that the ubiquitous bullet points may simplify things, but they are easily forgotten, whereas a compelling narrative is remembered.

It is just the way our brains have evolved to work.

Content should be organised as stories, marketers should know this by now, and mostly do, but often fail to give us stores that are memorable and relevant, that touch an emotion.

The old story of the poet and the beggar makes the point.

The beggar asks the poet for money, but the poet having none himself offers to re-write the beggars sign, which just says ‘Blind. Please help.” to ‘Spring is coming, but I will not see it’. A week later, when the poet sees the blind man again, he is not surprised to hear the donations have soared. A simple change of word from a fact to a story that touches the emotions.

Our brains are wired to recognise and recall stories, details are remembered, so when you relate the story to others, all the colour, movement and emotion of the original remains.

Stories take a lot of development and telling, they are very hard work and are optimised over time. Attention to detail, selecting stories and story lines that really dig into the emotions are crucial.

Marketers are now required to measure everything, stories are no different. Generally the conversion rate that is relevant is the best measure. How many finished the story, how many then did what you wanted them to do.

Mediocrity rules, the 80:20 rule is really 95:5 in stories, as only the great ones  get read, create engagement and sharing, and to do this, it is all about quality, not quantity.

Ever wonder why some content goes viral?

Well for one reason or another it is in the 5% that is worthy of  the attention and sharing, aim to be in the 5%, which means that the effort has to be organic, you cannot outsource passion and commitment, it has to be in the DNA of the business.

(Sorry about the ickky  word in the headline, I have even stopped playing 500)

Cartoon credit. My thanks again to Tom Fishburne, the Marketoonist. Another marketing story told in a cartoon

P,S. This morning, in my inbox was this new ‘storybook’ by the great Hugh McLeod and Brian Solis, supported by Linkedin. It makes my point better than I ever could. I encourage you to download it and have a look. I love Hughs work, as any reader will know, I often have his cartoons as headers, as the say so much in a few lines.