Do not make resolutions, set goals.

Do not make resolutions, set goals.

Dec 31, 2018 | Governance, Marketing, Strategy

It is the morning of the last day of 2018.

Tonight most of us will gather with friends and family, watch the fireworks, have a few sherbets, and consider what 2019 might bring.

Some of us will make New Year’s resolutions.

Things we decide to do to change our lives, some will be tiny, others huge, most will be things we have had in our minds for some time, and new year’s eve is the traditional time to trot them out (again) for a moment of feel-good.

Most will be discarded a few days into January.

If we know anything about resolutions, it is that they fail unless there is a clear path towards the achievement, and usually we call them goals, or objectives.  

‘Resolutions’ are even easier to discard than goals.

To achieve a goal, there are a few simple steps:

  • It needs to be worthwhile.
  • There needs to be a clear path towards the achievement made up of incremental steps that are individually achievable.
  • We need to be committed to the goal. Hope is not a strategy, we need to be serious and commit.
  • There needs to be performance measures along the way so we can see progress, measure what works and what does not, and adjust as necessary.
  • Be public. Public goals are way better than private ones, let others know, and you will be more committed.

Take those steps, and your chances increase.

Some ‘resolutions’ do not fit the typical path above, such as giving up smoking.

Every smoker and former smoker I know failed many times to give up, and giving up smoking incrementally does not work. When I gave up, 35 years ago, I used a simpler method. I did not give up smoking, again, as doing so had failed comprehensively many times, and is a deprivation, something none of us like. I took up ‘non-smoking,’ a practice that had seen me happy and healthy in the past. It worked; it was a positive goal, not a negative one.

Try seeing your New Year’s goals as positives, things to which you aspire, things that make you feel good, rather than focusing on the negatives.

Don’t set out to deprive yourself.

Have a great 2019, see you there.

The reconciliation of advertising and content.

The reconciliation of advertising and content.

Dec 21, 2018 | Branding, Marketing, Uncategorized

 

Self appointed digital marketing experts have for years been telling us that ‘Content is King’, and for a while it was. As a result, marketers have flung millions upon millions on the altar of ‘creating content’.

Piles of crap produced en masse with the odd gem well hidden, aiming at leveraging the reach of the web and social platforms, to deliver messages to consumers in a manner that demanded more attention than the ad breaks on TV, without the cost.

Google and Facebook developed a virtual duopoly, and so the dream of cost free reach has been squeezed out of existence.

To get reach you have to pay for it.

Isn’t this what we did when we paid for advertising?

Why pay for content aimed at ‘engaging,’ or some other cliché, if you are going to pay to have it delivered? You may as well make it an ad, that has as its objective generating a sale.

As Facebook and Google, and the other platforms as they evolve continue to squeeze organic reach, Content will morph back to something more like the advertising used in the 20th century to build the huge brands we all still buy.

Call it what it is, don’t be precious, it is Advertising!

Cartoon credit: Tom Fishburne of Marketoonist, who continues to express in simple drawings the complexity and hubris of modern marketing. I hope you have a great Christmas Tom.

As for me, I am taking a short break from my (unpaid) adverting disguised as content on this blog, to see if I can catch the elusive bloke in the red suit.  Thank you all for reading, sharing and often commenting on my  brainfarts, it is a privilege and pleasure to be able to communicate in this way.  Have a safe and merry Christmas and i will ‘see” you all in 2019.

 

 

 

 

 

What marketers can learn at church

What marketers can learn at church

Dec 19, 2018 | Branding, Marketing

Every religion, from the worlds great ones to the meanest cult with a few deluded followers has something in common.

They communicate their message, engage their followers, with stories.

In most cases they are setting out to explain the mysteries of the human condition, to get at the essential truths that underlay behaviour, to explain the complexity in a simple and memorable manner, that makes recall and retelling easy and consistent.

The story of Adam and Eve is set in a perfect garden, with a snake representing evil, and an apple representing the pressures of the human condition.

Try explaining that without a story.

Every story in the Christian bible, from Cain and Abel to Jesus walking on water and making a crippled man walk contains a message. It is the same in the Koran, Hindu Bhagavad Gita and Buddhist Tripitakas.

With effective storytelling, they have all succeeded at the marketers dream.

Brand differentiation, and effective segmentation within the brands

Longevity

Strong loyalty and commitment that is multi-generational

Sustained commercial success

It may be a touch insensitive to make these observations as we are about to go into Christmas, but think of all the stories around Santa, and traditions that have built up over generations about what you eat, how you behave, and who you commune with.

All communicated by stories that support the central proposition, and even if you do not believe it, the behaviour still prevails. 

You have to give it to the clergy, of every brand,  they have this marketing gig nailed!

 

 

 

 

 

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.

 

 

 

 

When price becomes almost irrelevant.

When price becomes almost irrelevant.

Nov 1, 2018 | Marketing, retail, Sales

Price is just an arbitrary scale for the ‘unquantifiables’ which has only two functions:

  • it is a reflection of the amount someone is prepared to sell something for.
  • It is a relative measure, helping you to make purchase choices by giving you and the seller a constant scale and language to reach an agreed point of exchange.

How often do you choose a restaurant because it is the cheapest?

You might decide to go Italian, or Chinese, then decide which one. You decide on a variety of factors, parking, quality of the food and service, are they licenced, who is it that is going with you, is it a special occasion or just a meal. The conversation in your mind goes on and on, often almost unnoticed.

Why is it then that we tend to make major commercial decisions on price?

Almost every  time I am involved with a client in a commercial purchase decision, one party or another uses price as a major point of choice and often leverage

Why?

Few people buy purely on price, and often you would not want them as a customer anyway, so why let them hammer you down?

Think about the value, what it is that the product or service is delivering, how it solves a problem, how it reflects the image to be projected,  how it fits in with everything else going on.

Price is just a means to come to a point where the value can be exchanged.

Value is what is important, price is just a way of converting value to a common language.

Next time you  are being belted about how high your prices are, agree, they are high,  but they deserve to be because of the value delivered.

Just talk about the value.

Talk persuasively about value, and price will become a result, not a driver of the decision.

The real challenge is to figure out how to do this in a situation where the other party has all the power.  A small supplier selling to one of the Australian supermarket gorillas has little leverage, the definitions of ‘Value’ will never be easily reconciled, so the hard choice is to walk away, and deliver value to  customers outside the supermarket system.

Header credit allanandallen.com