The dirty little secret of digital marketing.

The dirty little secret of digital marketing.

Feb 8, 2016 | Communication, Customers, Marketing, Small business

Achieving simplicity is really hard, we all know that in our guts.

There is however a huge difference between simple and superficial, and again, we all know that but tend to be persuaded to take the easy way out.

The development of a specific ‘Persona’ to which you target your marketing efforts is one of those seemingly simple  things we can now do with digital help, but in fact it is really hard.

Therefore, many make a token effort, and go away satisfied, but have in fact settled for a superficial result.

And then they wonder why the subsequent marketing efforts fail to deliver on the hype.

It is impossible to target a generic message to a 35-year-old middle-class working mother of two, and have it received in the manner you would wish. It’s much easier to target a message to Jennifer, who has two children under four, works broken hours as a lawyer, and is always looking for quick but healthy dinners and ways to spend more time with her husband and  kids, and less time on housework.

As a young marketing bloke we always developed a ‘target audience’ for everything we did.

In those  days they were generally demographic categories, which were pretty broad. If we were lucky and had big budgets, we had a Usage & Attitude study that gave us some insights into consumers behaviour, but were pretty superficial. The research relied on peoples memory, and willingness to actually recognise and admit to the behaviours that drove marketing decisions.

It was relatively rough and ready stuff.

Then  we used mass media to try and reach those demographic groups, hoping to find a few by chance who wanted to hear and act on what we were saying, or even were just prepared to listen.

Progressively we have been able to develop detailed pictures of customers and potential customers, those of our competitors, and those who might be interested in what we have to offer. We now can build a detailed understanding of their preferences and behaviour from a range of data sources,  can direct messages very specifically at very small groups of  individuals, and with many forms of media, specific individuals.

This power is unprecedented , and mostly it is ignored by small and medium sized businesses.

It enables the development of a four sided picture of those we want to reach.

Who they are

Where you can find them

Develop your target persona

Develop your target persona

What are their behaviours that are relevant to your value proposition

Why they should  buy from you

The flip side of the persona, the challenge  most marketers fail to understand sufficiency is that individuals now can avoid you should they choose. That array of digital targeting tools can be turned against the marketer, their messages in one way or another moved to the ‘Junk file’ never to be seen or acknowledged.

Why they should  buy from you, what makes your persona something relevant to a potential buyer?

Because you can solve a problem,  they like/trust you, and/or they engage and relate to you.

Successful selling is not about the transaction, it is the value you can deliver that is more  than the cost of the transaction, and it is about the empathy you can deliver.

In order to create a story potential customers can relate to, you need to develop some sort of story for the character.  Who they are, how they got here, what they have experienced, the obstacles overcome, their character flaws, all the things that make them human. You weave your own characters into the sales itch, and lead people to the conclusion you want them to reach, because you relate to them, they relate to you, your story is theirs.

This means you may need a few variations that accommodate differing ideal customer personas, but not too many or it becomes false and fabricated.

Let me know if I can help.

 

 

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The power of “Why” in a sales pitch

The power of “Why” in a sales pitch

Feb 4, 2016 | Customers, Marketing, Social Media

One of the standard problem definition techniques I use is the classic “5 why” process pioneered by Toyota. Just keep on asking “why” to peel back the layers pf the onion to get to the real problem, rather than just being satisfied that addressing the associated and superficial symptoms is enough.

You rarely get past 5 before the guts are on the table, I certainly never have.
It can be a tough and extended process, but it works.

It also works when you are on the receiving end of a sales pitch.

Late last year I sat with a client through a series of pitches by advertising agencies, all heavy on rhetoric and marketing cliché, but mostly a bit light on strategic and creative grunt.

‘Why do you think this idea will deliver the strategy’?

‘Why is it a great idea as you claim’?

‘Why do you recommend this media mix’?

‘Why do you believe these metrics are useful’?

All pretty valid questions I thought.

As one group of hopefuls left, one asked another not realising I had followed them out to offer a final handshake  “Why was he bloody there?”

Had they been able to answer any of the questions satisfactorily, they may have got the gig, but as it stands I suspect they have no idea why they missed out.

I rest my case.  .

The (almost) impossible task of brand building momentum. A personal story.

The (almost) impossible task of brand building momentum. A personal story.

Jan 29, 2016 | Branding, Customers, Innovation, Leadership, Marketing

What is  a brand?

When you think about it, a brand is a just a promise embodied in a product.

A promise of performance, and delivery of value.

It survives and grows, retains and builds relevance and attraction only when the promise is delivered.

Finding the promise that can be delivered in a way that is sufficiently different to make an impact is really difficult.  Making a promise that is the same as everyone else’s promise, and the brand becomes indistinguishable, just another label on the shelf.

30 years ago I was heading a marketing group that amongst other successes, relaunched ‘Ski’ yoghurt in Australia. The relaunch was a huge success, and over the following 3 years, our national market share went from single figures to well over 35% in a market growing at double digit rates.

There is a lot of patronising bullshit around about the way to build a brand, advice that sounds nice but is usually just a template that promises an outcome, a bit like the paint by numbers paintings an old aunt had adorning her walls. Not very good, and certainly not original.

So, I thought that the hindsight afforded by the almost 25 years since that  Ski relaunch might be valuable as you consider your own brand building exercise.

Following are the lessons I took away, often with the enlightenment that comes with hindsight, as the appearance of organisation and planning is a bit of a fiction, the real situation was considerably more chaotic as we juggled competing priorities, competitive and financial pressure, and all the jostling and risk mitigation that goes on inside big businesses.

 

Be different.

At the time conventional wisdom was that the fruit in yoghurt had to be mashed, the product homogeneous, that lumps of fruit were not good. All the research told us that consumers wanted their fruit yoghurt to be consistent with the fruit mashed and evenly distributed, and the launch of Yoplait a few years earlier had kick started a genuinely competitive race and significant market growth.

We relaunched Ski on the proposition  of taste. The best tasting yogurt, the only one with pieces of fruit. It completely distinguished us from the then market leader, Yoplait, and all other brands, and gave consumers who liked or did not mind whole fruit in their yogurt a real reason to buy Ski. Of course, some rejected it, but many did realise after trying that they did prefer it, and whilst there was a lot of supporting activity and pack changes, the market share of Ski zoomed. A few of the small producers copied us, but the market leader could not, as their whole manufacturing process was designed to deliver a homogeneous product.

The value of true differentiation backed by a brand promise that was carried out and of value to at least some consumers was clear.

Across the range Ski was so different that  it created new segments within  the yoghurt category, segments we owned because we created and named them, and which made competition hard and expensive for our opposition.

 

Get onto a roll.

When you have a line-up of innovations that do add value, you can roll them out progressively and the competitive impact is cumulative, you leave the competition struggling to catch up with your first one, and spending valuable marketing resources to stay in the game while you roll out the second, and third iteration. I would not claim that Steve Jobs knew anything about Ski, but that is the exact strategy that Apple used from the launch of the original iPod on.

In our case, we relaunched Ski with the different product as noted, but we also changed the naming conventions that had prevailed. For example, the low fat version changed from Ski Low Fat to Ski DeLite. Worked a treat, and went some way to redefining the low fat category. The next ‘roll’ of the dice was to relaunch the 1kg size into the now common rectangular packs. To that time all 1kg Packs had been round, as they were operationally easier and the packs were much cheaper. However, we noted that most female buyers, and they made up 90+%  of purchasers, could not easily handle the product in one hand, they did not fit on most refrigerator door racks, and were less than optimal on the retail shelves.

When we changed all this, sales of 1kg exploded, and gave us new retail distribution. We then followed up with Ski Double-Up, a product that had a range of ‘toppings’ in a separate compartment  of the pack, and a completely different yoghurt that emerged from the combination of new strains of culture and operational process innovation,  that revolutionised the market again, creating an entirely new category.

Your customers may not be who you think they are.

Innovation is a powerful way to attract fringe, lapsed or just reluctant buyers into a market. When we launched Ski Double-up the typical consumer was young, educated, and female.  Consumption by men of yoghurt was only about 20% of female. Ski Double-Up changed all that. Not only did it attract more men, they were significantly older in profile, those who would not touch ‘yoghurt’ as it has been with a barge-pole. They tried Double-Up, liked it, tried other versions, and became regular and loyal consumers, adding significantly to the scope and scale of the Ski brand.

 

Start with ‘Why’.

Defining the ‘Why’ of your brand is a foundation of all branding activity. The best articulation of “Why’ is the now famous TED talk by Simon Sinek.  A brand without a clear and distinctive ‘Why’ is just a label. Sinek uses Apple as an example several times, because as he says, ‘everyone gets it’ and they do. Apple is a branding icon, but not the only one. Recently I stumbled across a new brand from a start-up, one that is breaking new ground on a number of fronts, competing against some of the biggest and best marketers in the world, but will (I suspect) succeed on the strength of their “Why’. It is whogivesacrap toilet paper, purchased by consumers  direct rather than via retailers, with a very clear ‘Why’. Many, almost certainly most will not buy into the why, but enough will to make the brand and business a success, and they will do some good in the process.

The corporate benefit of ‘Why’ is that everyone in the business can buy into it, and the resulting culture can become a very powerful motivator and driver of performance. In our case, the ‘why’ was that we were producing a natural, healthy product, our workforce has all been taken into our confidence, and they were our market research as we ran taste group after taste group in the factory during the development process to get the variables right. When the products became very successful, those people  saw what their contribution had resulted in, and took great pride in it, making a huge contribution to improving the production efficiencies .

 

Sweat the small stuff.

Details matter, a lot. Steve Job’s obsession with the experience of opening a shipper containing an Apple product contributed  a core part to the brand identity of Apple. With Ski we pioneered amongst other things a  process that used a new and expensive printing process that both accommodated the square shape of the 1kg tub, and delivered crystal clear graphics. It was expensive and difficult, but  the attention to the detail that could have been dismissed for cheaper more utilitarian solutions paid huge dividends in volume, and profitability albeit at skinnier margins.

 

Be brave & committed.

Nothing really useful will evolve from just doing the same thing as others, but just a bit better. Being different means taking risks, being brave, pushing the envelope, all those clichés that mean someone has to be brave enough to open the door to the unchartered. That takes guts, rare in todays corporate world,  but around aplenty in small and medium sized businesses.

When we changed Ski 1kg to the rectangular tub, there was no way back. Over a week long factory shutdown, the old machinery for  filling the round tubs was removed, and the new rectangular filling machines installed. Had the change failed, there was no way back.

The steps we took with Ski were all brave at the time. We changed the dynamics and shape of the market, a seemingly obvious step,  but at the time it was sweaty palms all around.

 

You have to be smart.

The marketing group had some very smart people, but more than that, it was a collectively smart group. There was great collaboration and support, and the longevity of the group was substantial, which had offered the opportunity to make a few mistakes and learn from them. At a time when the average tenure of marketing personnel was about 18 months, we averaged 6 years, giving us a significant depth of market understanding and intelligence. Just as important, or perhaps more so, we had the support of the CEO of the division who was prepared to support and encourage the things we did, and I am sure his palms were sweatier than any others, although at the time it never showed. His confidence in us, and support in keeping the corporate drones at bay never wavered. Innovation is impossible without that sort of support from the top.

 

It is really hard to continue to succeed.

This is a warning.

If you succeed, when the applause is over and the credit appropriated, the corporate gnomes come out to play, those who do not understand the dynamics of a brand. If you go into a supermarket today, Ski is an also ran, it looks like it is back to single figure market share, a shadow of its former self we had built. The brand we developed was raped by the accountants and sycophants who killed the golden goose by greed, short ‘termism’ and stupidity, rather than continuing to nurture and invest. The temptation to do so will be strong, and it takes a CEO with brass ones to resist the siren call of the throngs and maintain the investment required.

That rot had started a year or so before I was toddled off. By that time the corporate structure had changed a couple of times, and I was unable to keep the support that had enabled the success in the first place in the face of the changed structure and personnel. Unable to stay quiet in the face of the short term lure of the margins instead of continuing the investment for the long haul, I insisted on being the resident ‘Cassandra’  and ended up paying the price.

As I wrote this post I had to shake myself that it was 25 years ago.

Seems like yesterday.

A lot has changed in the marketing landscape, but the essentials remain the same.

How to overcome the terror of public speaking and be seen as the expert.

How to overcome the terror of public speaking and be seen as the expert.

Jan 20, 2016 | Communication, Marketing

I prepare and give quite  a lot of presentations, and from time to time coach others as they prepare.

Speaking is a vital part of what I do, although I do not see myself as a professional speaker, just somebody with a point of view on a range of topics that can be of value to others, and I have learnt from my many stumbles.

Having the opportunity to deliver a presentation is a gift, someone is endorsing your expertise, giving you the benefit of their credibility, as well as offering the opportunity to demonstrate that expertise.

Gold.

It is also a fact that the presentations that do not work are almost always  the ones where the effort has not been invested in the preparation.

It is surprising to me how often people stuff it up, despite the time, effort, and stress, often to the point of nausea, that goes with the experience of preparation and delivery in front of a crowd, even a small one.

There are some common characteristics of the successful presentations, some of which I have written about on previous occasions, but was motivated to do so again by a friend facing a presentation he should be able to nail, because he has the knowledge and expertise, but utterly lacks the confidence to communicate in front of an audience there to hear him.

Summarised is the advice I offered from my experience.

Have a clear purpose.

The purpose is the one thing that holds the whole presentation together. Every comment, story, slide, movement and demo  should add to that purpose, it is the reason people came, or at least choose to give you their attention at the beginning. It is important to relate not just the information they were promised, but why it is sufficiently  valuable to them that you have made the effort to assemble your expertise on the topic so they can benefit from the information.

Find the story that illustrates the point you want to make.

Sometimes it may be a montage, but presenting is really storytelling by another name, and we evolved listening to stories, it is how we learn and comprehend. At heart we are all storytellers, we do it for our kids, and friends around the BBQ, in the pub, we use common language, instinctively use metaphors and similes, and often ‘air quotes’ to indicate uncertainty when we quote numbers. Why should it be any different in front of a formal audience? We just need to find the story that fits the purpose, and tell it with passion, commitment and authority.

Build empathy and intimacy.

Most find this hard, as it seems unnatural. Many years ago before giving my first major presentation in front of 1000 plus industry players I went and had some coaching. The thing that really stuck with me was a throwaway piece of advice. ‘It is not a presentation, it is a performance‘ I was told, followed by ‘most people in the audience will admire the fact that you got up, and be eternally grateful it is not them, feed on it’

From that starting point, if you are thoughtful, building some empathy can be pretty easy. Phrases  like “Imagine you were….” or ‘It was a stormy Tuesday night in the old rectory, and …..’

Building intimacy implies the audience sees you speaking only to them, grabbing and holding their attention, ‘I knew we were right when Susan said this one thing…..’ This cues everyone listening into focusing their attention on what you are about to say to the exclusion of everything else going on around them.

Words and Visuals.

They each have their place, don’t get them mixed up. Words belong coming from your mouth, they do not belong on a screen, that is where the visuals should be. If you make the mistake of putting your words on the slides, you cede the authority in the room, people will read the slides and not listen to you. Instead, if you put up an interesting visual that illustrates the point, the audience will listen to and remember the words. Slides offer a framework for the words, reminders of the points that need to be made.

Everyone prepares for a presentation differently, some write, rehearse then deliver the script word for word, others free-wheel around the framework. It does not really matter, so long as you retain the attention of the audience and make all the points necessary along the way. The critical thing to achieve is to leave the audience with a story that resonates, that delivers on your purpose.

Stagecraft.

Those lucky, and talented enough to be selected to go to NIDA spend 3 years learning about stagecraft, so a blog post cannot even scratch the surface, but there are a few basics.

  • Your physical presence and actions create a part of the visual and emotional experience that your audience has, it is literally a ‘stage’. How boring just to have someone driving a lectern as often seems to happen. Use the stage, move around,  map out your points using the space you have. When you have an important point to make, move forwards, to the middle, if you want to build suspense, move backwards, slowly. Use your hands to point, (finger) engage (open hands) and shape (move your arms in squares, circles)
  • Modulate and change your voice. The tone, speed, silences, and level at which you use that great tool, your voice, adds drama and colour to the delivery. Few things are worse than a monotone, and everyone will drift off very quickly no matter how good the material.
  • Contrast everything. Holding attention is aided by contrast, your voice, movements, use of visuals. Use contrast within the context of the words and visuals, and always with the purpose in mind as the glue. Ensure there is movement and colour relevant to the purpose of the presentation as it adds to the performance you are delivering.
  • Respect the audiences time, attention and expertise. Never go over time, in fact, be a few minutes quicker than they expect, and they will be grateful, as will the organisers. Even the very best speakers have trouble retaining full attention beyond about 25 minutes, so why do you think you need 40? Much better to limit yourself, and remove the extraneous material from your presentation, concentrating on the really important stuff, the bits that connect directly to your purpose.
  • Use props to make your point when appropriate, they are a visual metaphor, and can be remarkably effective at making the point, and being memorable.
  • As the presenter, you hold authority over the room. The audience will stand up if you ask them the right way, shake the hand of the stranger on their left, even do a silly dance at the end if you have delivered to them. Use the authority wisely, don’t abuse it or you will lose them forever. Don’t cede that authority you have been given, use it yo your advantage. I often see presenters giving away their implied authority by opening with with something like, “I am humbled to be here….“. You have the opportunity to build on the authority implied by the fact that you are the speaker, and leave the stage acknowledged by the audience as the expert, which adds to the memorability of your purpose, and your position as the authority on the topic.
  • Body language. If you look nervous, the audience reacts differently to someone who looks confident and in charge. The words might be identical, but the response to the speakers and retention of information will be entirely different. This TED-X talk deals just with how the palm of your hand impacts an audience, now add the rest of your body to the mix.
  • Never, never talk down to people, use terms or jargon that may not be understood, or try and demonstrate your expertise by dazzling with bullshit.

Practise.

I am amazed at how often I see people deliver their presentation for the first time live, in front of the audience. Practising is time consuming, and feels strange, but the more you do, the better the presentation will be. I have a very wise pot plant in my study, it hears all my presentations numerous times before anyone else has the chance. The only downside is that the feedback is a bit limited, so when I am ready, I also try it on a few indulgent and critical friends. Audiences like spontaneity, but even the very best performers practise their material relentlessly, so it is effortless, and seemingly spontaneous.  With that intimate knowledge of the material comes the potential follow a track that emerges from audience feedback, engage with them, or just “riff a bit”  without losing your place, as the core material is almost on autopilot.

I hope that all helps the next time you are faced with that thing that, in surveys at least, many of us  fear more than death, public speaking. This curated list of 8 TED talks contains a wealth of tips and is worth working your way through as you develop your presentation skills, or prepare for that scary experience.

 

5 part headline  template to write killer headlines that always attracts attention.

5 part headline  template to write killer headlines that always attracts attention.

Jan 18, 2016 | Communication, Marketing, Social Media

The ability of a headline to attract attention, then lead the reader deeper into the content is the make or break skill of copywriting, and even in this world of video, the ability to write a headline remains the single most important skill in effective communication.

No matter how good the body-copy, without a great headline, it will not get read.

So here is a headline template that always works.

Use combinations of these elements:

·         Number

·         Trigger word

·         Adjective

·         Keyword

·         Promise

Let’s say the subject is a training seminar about managing cash flow.

Pretty dry stuff but of vital importance to any business,  and make or break for small business.

The easy and obvious headlines may be:

‘How to manage your cash flow’ or

‘Cash flow basics for beginners’

However, if you apply the headline template you might come up with something like:

‘7 simple techniques to apply cash flow to your business to make more profit’

Let’s break it down.

Number: 7. For reasons I do  not fully understand, but rooted in psychology, odd numbers  work best, and lists in headlines work as they promise to deliver instant gratification.

Trigger words: Simple. Words like Free, Secret, Undiscovered, Expert, all offer incentive to open

Adjective: Manage. Adjectives are ‘action ‘ words, they reflect and prompt activity.

Keyword: Cash Flow. Cash flow is the guts of the post, and is the word that will deliver the search engine enquiries that ere relevant to the post.

Promise: ‘Make more profit’ well, who in business does not want more profit?

Alternatively, your  headline might be:

‘Join us to learn the 7 secrets to greater profits through managing cash flow’

I do not know which would be the better headline, I am not a professional copywriter, but I am pretty sure both would work well.

An option if you were about to make an investment, such as in a public a seminar series, and generating a lot of interest rather than just capturing eyeballs on a blog post was financially critical, you could set about testing them by applying an  A/B test which is pretty easy on social media platforms. Then you could use the better one, or perhaps do some more ‘wordsmithing’ to improve one or both for further testing.

As evidence of how the template works, the headline that caught you in the first place is the third iteration of the first one I scratched down, which was :’Killer headline template that always works’. Having written the post to articulate for you a template that really works, I realised I had better take my own advice.

You tell me if it worked.

3 stage elevator pitch that works

3 stage elevator pitch that works

Jan 7, 2016 | Customers, Marketing, Small business

 

Opportunities to deliver our elevator pitch often happen in social and unplanned situations, you just meet someone, and the automatic question is ‘what do you do?’

That is the opportunity for an elevator  pitch, rather than just a polite response.

You might deliver hundreds to those who are unmoved, but now and again, you can get lucky.

I have heard many delivered, and mostly they are a recitation of what someone does.

Not unreasonable given the question, but ineffective as a marketing tool.

For example, in my case, the typical elevator pitch would be:

“I am a marketing and strategy consultant with wide general management experience domestically and internationally. My background is largely in the food industry. Businesses with whom I have worked range from FMCG manufacturers, to those supplying into the FMCG supply chain with everything from produce, to raw materials, specialised ingredients and packaging, to services. The sorts of projects have ranged from  creating marketing strategy and programs, coaching sales staff on key account management, optimising  marketing effectiveness,  building collaborative farmer supply groups, optimising factory operations, contract general management, and everything in between. ”

This does describe me, but is pretty dull, and fails to get much traction.

To make an elevator pitch worth listening to, you have to successfully do three things:

  1. Get the attention and interest of the one you are speaking to. Best way to do that, perhaps  counter intuitively to most, is to ask a question.
  2. Having gained their attention, deliver the nature of  the service so that you  both know whether or not it may be of interest to them, or someone they may know.
  3. Finally, deliver the benefit that comes from working with you.

 

So, in summary it is a three part process:

Question: “Do you know that ….”

Description: “What I do is….”

Benefit: “So that…..”

 

Taking your own advice is sometimes hard, nevertheless, here it goes.

“Do you know that of the 250,000 businesses started every year in Australia,  70% fail in the first year, and only 10% survive 5 years?

What I do, is bring a depth of experience from across industries and functions with a focus on marketing, sales  and strategy, to small and medium sized businesses that they cannot afford and usually do not need on a full time basis.

That depth and breadth of experience radically increases their chances they are one of the 10% that survive, but more importantly, that they are one of the few truly successful businesses”

 

Try it for yourself, it does work.