Feb 11, 2021 | Change, Communication
Pretty obviously, ‘Free’ is the most powerful word in marketing. It is the best way to get people to trial a product, make the trial free, no risk, no commitment, no money. However, it is hard to make ‘free’ commercially sustainable.
The second most powerful word is ‘because’
‘Because’ gives people permission to do something they would not normally do, it provides the reason to change behaviour, it removes the discomfort of the change, we can always revert, we just did it this once ‘because…’
Next time you want to go to the front of the line in a supermarket, try asking politely, and using ‘because’ when you ask. The addition of some emotive reason after the because will increase the likelihood of an ‘OK’ even more.
E.g. ‘would you mind if I go in front of you‘ success rate about 20%
‘Would you mind if I go in front of you because I only have a few things” success rate about 40%
‘Would you mind if I went in front of you, because I only have a few things and my sick mother is waiting in the car‘ success rate about 80%.
Try it the next time you want someone to do something for you.
Header cartoon courtesy of Scott Adams, and Dilbert.
Nov 4, 2020 | Communication, Management
There is a lot of useful, standard advice about how to ensure meetings are productive. Have an agenda, a time limit, ensure only those who can contribute to the discussion attend, ensure there is agreement about what next, ensure everyone has the opportunity to speak, and so on. There is one more structural item not usually noted, that I have found to work well.
1/3, 1/3, 1/3.
The agenda is structured into thirds, as is the time allocated.
The first third is addressing the past. You cannot change it, but you must understand it, and absorb any lessons. This part of most discussions is often where the time is consumed, leaving inadequate time for the more important discussions about what next.
The second third is discussion about what is immediately in front of you. Depending on the meeting, this may be a day, week, month, and so on. There are decisions to be taken that impact the immediate future, take them.
The third is a discussion on the longer term items that will impact the group in the meeting. Depending again on the level of the meeting, this can be anything from how to fill a hole in the production team when Jim takes long service leave, to discussion of the potential risks of a long term threat to the enterprise.
The format works at all levels, offering a framework within which to manage the meetings, from a 10 minute stand-up at the beginning of the shift, to board meetings, and the three day strategy session held annually.
It is the responsibility of the meeting chairperson to manage the time and agenda coverage, but the general recognition that the 1/3 structure will be used, just makes that job a bit smoother.
Once again, with thanks to Scott Adams, I have called on the wisdom of Dilbert for the header.
Oct 21, 2020 | Branding, Communication
Almost every ‘About us’ dropdown on websites is, as expected, about the owner of the website.
Who started the company, where they went to school, how they came to be in Sydney, Seattle, or Bullamakanka, how great you are, and some soppy stuff about your story. How you pulled yourself out of adversity, and became successful, all meant to build empathy.
Well, mostly it fails badly.
Why?
People are not really interested in your story. They may listen, may even feel for you, but what they are really interested in is what you can do for them, what useful information you can provide, what problem you solve, and the impact of that solution on their lives.
Why else would they be on your website?
When they arrive for a look, you have only a few seconds to engage them, wasting those precious seconds by talking about yourself does not seem to me to be too smart!
So, make your ‘About Us’ page really about them
How you can solve the problem they have, how and why working with you and your product will deliver them success.
Go through the bio’s of employees you may have on the page and do the same thing. What is it that each person brings to the table that solves the problem the potential customer.
Focussing on yourself might create a little empathy, but that is well short of genuine interest and a willingness to give you money to solve a problem they have.
Call me assistance thinking about this stuff.
Jul 13, 2020 | Communication, Customers, Strategy
Writing an email sequence is not as easy, or effective, as the videoed on-line courses (special deal $695, ends at midnight) would have you believe.
The templates and advice is all pretty vanilla although useful, but does not get to the heart of why people buy from you, and how, amidst the tsunami of stuff coming at them, they pick out yours.
Many seem to think digital is different from the old fashioned advertising I grew up with, and it is, tactically, but strategically, it is the same.
A potential customer goes through some sort of journey that differs in every case, but generally follows a process:
- recognition that there is something of interest out there for them
- Awareness that the stuff out there has relevance to them as a solution to some sort of a problem they have, or have recognised as a result of the discovery process.
- The problem now seen becomes something that has a value in its solution
- There is activity seeking that solution
- Choosing a supplier, and installation of the solution
- The after sales process, where they can be persuaded, assuming you did a good job, to be an advocate for the problem you solved for them, and more specifically for you as the solution provider.
The process by which this all happens is not a nice logical ‘Sales funnel’ where progress is made in an orderly manner. In reality is looks more like a huge ball of tangled fishing line, a real mess. Seeking to put order to the mess makes sense so long as you do not lose sight of the simple fact that the whole thing will resist the orderly, sequential nature of software, and revert to the mess at any and every opportunity.
The targets of your ‘content’ at each stage also has wrinkles.
You have current customers, the easiest to reach, potential customers, those you really want to reach who may have the problem unrecognised, some who may have recognised their problem, and you have advocates, those who might amplify your content.
The further audience is the wider community, out of whom all the other three groups emerge in one way or another.
Therefore, you need to mix and match between the mediums and the message to maximise the outcomes of the investment in content. You do this by the combination of focus on specific market personas. This includes personalised messaging of current and past customers, as well as more general communication of the problem/value proposition equation to gain reach into the varying audiences, to generate marketing leverage.
How deeply have your considered your mix of content and medium to reach your preferred audience?
Header credit: Maksym Kopylov via Flikr
Jul 6, 2020 | Analytics, Communication, Marketing
Marketing has moved significantly into the digital domain, online. It appears to make sense, as it appears ‘SMART’ (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time driven).
The engineers and accountants amongst us warm to this sort of seemingly measurable expenditure, they can look at a dashboard of quantitative outcomes, and feel good that they are not wasting money.
However, a closer look might give them pause.
Specific.
Yes, you can have a specific, focused activity that either happened, or did not, and people can be held accountable for them.
Measurable.
Yes, you can measure an activity done on line, so long as you are prepared to discount the bots and fakery hiding in the digital supply chain. The ad did appear, we got X 000 likes, Y 00 email addresses when they downloaded the clickbait, and sales reps are now chasing them as qualified leads. Hopefully a few of them actually are, but we may never really know.
Achievable.
Yes, the goal of getting likes and qualified leads has been achieved
Accountable.
Again, you know the intern in the marketing department was accountable for ensuring that there were X entries in the twitter feed, Y postings on Facebook and Instagram, and that the agency supplied a white paper a week as clickbait.
Timely.
Again, yes, the boss wanted this all done by the end of the month, as it was, Hooray!!
Problem with all of this is that we are measuring the wrong things. They are all about activity, nothing about outcomes. When we understand and can quantify the cause and effect links between activity and outcomes, a really tough problem, SMART goals may become useful.
‘Digital marketing’ has replaced using ‘digital’ as a tool of marketing. Those amongst us who do not understand the wide impact of ‘marketing’ have got it all the wrong way around. They have been seduced by the new shiny thing that appears to be useful, and sometimes it is, but not often as a standalone strategy, it is by its nature a short term tactic only.
Jun 25, 2020 | Branding, Communication, Customers
Kids understand stories, it is the way they learn, the way they absorb the lessons of the past for later use.
Why don’t we use this instinctive capability more often in our marketing?
Take your kids to the pantomime, they love it.
They get excited every time the villain comes on stage. They boo, yell warnings to the hero, and hop up and down in frustration when the hero looks around as the villain hides.
Why does this matter?
When building a brand, you have to make choices. Who is your brand for, and just as importantly, who is it not for?
If you can explicitly state who your brand is not for, then those for whom it is for, will rally around and support it against the villain.
Simple stuff, hidden in the instinctive responses in our brains.
Watch your kids at the panto, and learn how to build a brand.
Define the villain, and the kids will cheer for you.
