Creative Marketing

Wouldn’t it be nice if we could just write an email knowing that the reader would simply interpret the direct message and respond accordingly?

All this reading between the lines and subtext is a pain.

Too bad.

Communications is about far more than just sending a message. Matter of fact, the overt message is almost the least important element of communication. While you’re struggling to be as clear as possible with your message, your prospect is evaluating your body language and picking out sub-text from your word choices.

Lose focus on your whole message and it can kill a deal.

My son is finally at the age where we’re ready to graduate from Cub Scouts (crafts, hand puppets and games) and move up to Boy Scouts (camping, fire and knives!). As we happen to live in a bizarre area with multiple overlapping Boy Scout Troops we actually have to put some time into touring and selecting the best-fit Troop.

I'm not sure your knot tying is up to our standards.

In most cases, it means scheduling a time to visit the Troop during one of their meetings to give your son a chance to interact with current members and get a sense for how the Troop operates.

In almost all cases, this has been a positive, if slightly bumpy process. Boy Scout Troops are run by volunteer parents. They have the best of intentions but may not respond to an email on a business timeframe. No big deal.

One Troop, however,  knocked itself out of contention because of the attitude conveyed in the response.

This is one of the bigger Troops in the area. I sent an email asking about setting up a Troop visit in the next few weeks and awaited a reply.

From a technical perspective, the reply was everything it should be. It shared the dates for upcoming meetings, talked a little about the Troop and let me know what I needed to do to schedule a visit. So far, so good.

However, through word choice and presentation, the primary message that came through on the email was pure arrogance.

It was a form letter email with no greeting. It didn’t even open with a “Thank you for considering our Troop, we’re excited to meet you!”

If I could paraphrase, this is what the message really said:

Dear Prospective Scout,

We’re a very large Boy Scout Troop and lots of people want to join. You can join if you want. The following procedures will let you do that with the least inconvenience to me.

Thanks,
Membership Chair

Now because I’m a classy communications professional I didn’t actually respond to the email, but here’s what was in my head:

Screw you.

It’s a large Troop. Recruiting and on-boarding prospective members is a daunting task. I get it. I’ve been there. But their “invitation” email told me all I needed to know. Being big is important to that Troop’s identity, and having my son join was only interesting if it was in pursuit of that goal and it wasn’t inconvenient.

I wish them the best. We’ll be looking elsewhere.

Stop insisting that everything works.

The video below shares the insights of Tim Harford at The Undercover Economist. He’s spent several years studying failure  and apparently has a book coming out on the subject in the near future.

Failure is the key to success – or, more to the point, understanding failure is the key to success.

Organizations cannot accomplish new things without a willingness to court failure. Not all new ideas will work. From my experience, most ideas will rumble along with just enough success to justify keeping it going, but not enough to be truly considered  a success. The ideas that are a flop are almost a relief, because at least then you can pull the plug with no regrets.

Professional associations are often stuck in a rut because they don’t have an appetite for failure. That’s one reason why they tend to approach social media with such fear. It could be a fantastic tool to build a relationship with members and prospects, but no one has really figured out how to make that work yet.

Instead, associations either ignore it (because without the support of professional associations social media will collapse, right?) or they take such tentative steps that nothing concrete is accomplished.

Take the risk.

Like a good little marketing consultant I signed up for Groupon a few months back just to get a sense for how it all works. Overall, it was a clever system, handled well. However, my only goal was to see what it was and I didn’t have much interest in buying anything.

So … unsubscribe time.

Fie on you my ancient nemesis!

Mechanically, Groupon handled the unsubscribe in textbook best practice fashion. The email had an easy to find link, one click and I’m out.

But then they got clever, and as a result I was almost tempted to rejoin the list just because they gave me a laugh to start my day.

Take a look at the picture to the right. That’s a shot from Groupon’s unsubscribe screen. I meet Derrick, the guy who thought I’d like the offer that prompted me to unsubscribe.

With the click of a button, I can punish Derrick. Can I resist? Of course not! click …

Someone comes out on a video clip, yells at Derrick and pretends to throw coffee on him. Groupon then tells me that was pretty mean and invites me to re-subscribe if I feel bad now.

That was, without a doubt, the best unsubscribe experience I’ve ever had!

Groupon awesomeness, in logo form

It kept true to the brand – both in terms of the sense of fun and in keeping in line with email marketing best practices.

I didn’t re-subscribe, but I do feel guilty about it.

Sorry Derrick.

This past year I’ve been doing some volunteer work with the Joseph Business School – a business school associated with Living Word Christian Center that teaches business principles from a biblical perspective.

Even the logo is awesome

One of the recent graduates has just launched her new business and it’s a great idea.

Oops! Diapers 2 Go operates vending machines that offer diaper changing kits and other young child oriented products.

Basically its for those situations where a parent is out with the baby and runs out of diapers, ointment, wipes, etc.

I have three kids. Trust me, that happens. A lot.

There’s also a selection of healthy kids snacks and commonly needed medicines.

All in all – great idea. Wish I thought of it.

I’ve been using Clear.com for my home Internet, VOIP and a mobile account for my PC for about 9 months now. I’m almost universally happy with the service and the price I pay for it.

Will accept free T-shirts for this logo

I was on the Clear site earlier today (ok, for a tech support issue, but they’re still great) and saw a link comparing Clear.com to Verizon, who apparently is rolling out a 4G network.

The resulting page offered a side-by-side comparison between the two services. Not surprisingly, Clear was pretty clear that they think their service is better.

It was the conclusion of the comparison that caught my attention. Clear offered a link to the Verizon website with a call to action – “Check for Yourself”.

That takes guts, and some confidence in the quality of your offering. It’s one thing to claim you’re better. It’s another to claim you’re better, then offer to hold the door for your prospect so they can check out your competitor.

Did you know Verizon can hunt you by the smell of fear alone?

As a happy Clear.com customer I can’t tell you if this is an effective sales strategy, but it definitely shows some guts.

If you’re going to make a brand claim, make a big one. Make one that people will remember. It’s tempting to hedge your bets, but often the payoff is much better by choosing to be bold.

I read an article the other day in the Wall Street Journal about an extension of the Google Chrome operating system that will compete head-to-head with Microsoft Windows.

The logo stares at you from any angle. Try it!

I think the Chrome browser is awesome (despite a recent crashing tendency). I switched to it about six months ago because of its far greater speed and simplicity.

I have to say I’m skeptical about the viability of a Chrome operating system. At the inauguration Google presented it as a platform that just provides the Internet. That’s great, but the Internet isn’t everywhere.

I have a mobile account with Clear, which has some geographic limits for now, and I’ve had one in the past with AT&T that was nationwide so I’m plenty comfortable with remote Internet access. Even with that, there are often times when I just don’t have a connection and having a computer that is useless unless online just seems like a major limitation.

They also suggested that people can use tools like Google Docs to get the work done that used to be on Microsoft Office. Google Docs has a long way to go before it gets to that point.

For all Microsoft’s flaws, it does provide a consistent, common backbone to the business world.

It’ll be interesting to see how this all plays out in the next few years.

I’ve been doing some biz dev work lately that involved calling on marketing and advertising agencies. Try to identify this one:

“We’re refugees from the typical ad agency because we just wanted to work our own way”

Stumped? Try this one:

“We’re passionate about the client work, not the ladder climbing, so we founded … “

Ok, I’ll make it easy:

“[Fill in the blank] years ago our team ditched the typical agency world to chart our own path.”

Yeah, tricked you. Those are boilerplate descriptions of the unique industry rebels that seem to have founded every independent ad agency in the country. That includes the ones founded as a spinoff of the great ad agency behemoths of the world.

I don’t think its the sort of thing you’d notice unless you found yourself reading the same About Us page over and over and over. For some reason, our UNIQUE, INDEPENDENT, PASSIONATE ABOUT THE WORK ONLY friends all look, act and talk exactly the same.

Remember those Deadheads back in college?

The ones who pretended to be hippies (on daddy’s credit card – well, actually, that describes the real hippies too). They were rebels. They didn’t follow the rules. Tie-dye every day. Baggy jeans. Some attempted the white guy dreadlock look.

This is what your creative, freethinking ad agency looks like to me

They really stood out, didn’t they?

Well, until you went to a Grateful Dead concert.

Then all those free-thinker individuals who tried soooooo hard to be individuals looked like they were walking around in uniforms. Snappy, impressive uniforms with big Cat in the Hat top hats on their stringy hair.

The lesson here is that before you strike out into the world with your unique identity, you might want to sneak a peak at your competitors to see if they’ve already staked out the exact same territory. If so, maybe some deeper thinking is in order.

In answer to your next question …

No, I will not be naming names.

I’m doing biz dev work and I’d like to sell something to these free-thinking, creative, unique agencies. I’m only making fun of the ones who don’t book meetings.

I’m in the market for a Bluetooth headset and a computer mouse. I know … the nation’s GDP owes me a debt of gratitude.

The point is that I know exactly what I want (product if not a specific brand). I know exactly where to get it – Office Depot or OfficeMax. I have cash in my hands. Well … I have a debit card in my hands at least. I’m simply looking for which of these two fine establishments will get my money.

But first – I want a deal. Give me a coupon. Give me an offer. I demand the illusion that I’ve conned your retail store out of a few dollars.

I had a coupon that would have been perfect, but it expired yesterday. Damn.

I’ll go to each company’s website and look for coupons or offers. The products and prices are pretty much the same. Whomever woos me with the greatest ardor (is that a word?) gets my cash.

Oh Office Depot, why do you torment me so?

Hmm, Office Depot intrigues me with their offer of a mobile text coupon. I’m an Internet Marketing guy (because I capitalize those words) and you offer to let me live by what I do! I send the text message. I get the reply. And nothing else.

Office Depot just got a text from someone looking for a coupon – a sure sign of an impending purchase – and they don’t have the system primed to send me a coupon. I have to wait around for the “up to 5 a week” I’ll be receiving now. Well, I’m irritated and the first of those 5 had better be good or I’m going to slap you with a STOP reply. Because I’m a badass.

OfficeMax, you have your opening. Impress me.

Hmm, nothing in the online flyer fits my need, but it is fun to pretend to be flipping pages with their little Flash app. Wheeee!

Ah, here we go. All I have to do is give them my email and zip code and they’ll give me offers exclusive to my local store. Small price to pay. I enter my info and …

Um. There are no offers. No coupons. I gave away the store (or my email) and got nothing. You promised you’d call me the next day! I feel so dirty now.

The lesson here is to make sure you think through processes from your customers’ perspective. Yes, both OfficeMax and Office Depot have online couponing programs to drive traffic and business. My snark aside, I’m sure those programs drive a significant volume of track-able revenue.

However, a new prospect doesn’t live according to your publishing schedule. I want to purchase now. I want my coupon now. You are free to pop me into your regular outbound marketing schedule, but don’t forget to feed the need that drove me to your website in the first place. I came there to buy something.

Maybe the direct mail marketers will treat me better. I think I hear the mail truck.

There are about 1,001 different opinions on how to design and build a website.

In my opinion, which I assume the world is waiting for, there are three elements to worry about, and most people start off by focusing on the wrong two.

The three elements:

1. Content
2. Technology
3. Appearance

Yes. I do mean to imply that the correct order puts appearance in last place.

There is no point to a website that looks pretty and runs on the most amazing technology ever if it doesn’t have anything to say. The prettiness wow will last for 0.5 seconds. The technology can either get in your way or help, but no one is coming to the website because it has a keyword cloud.

Start with the content. What do you have to say? How can you communicate that message?

That second question is actually a fairly new addition to the philosophy. It used to be that the Internet was a text place with pretty pictures. Now, we can clearly communicate with video, audio, graphics, presentations and text. Or all of the above at the same time.

If you’re going to spend time on building a website, invest the most in the content and ideas.

Can Twitter put butts in seats at an event without having to market through email?

That’s a vital question for many organizations as email’s effectiveness continues to dwindle. To be sure, email is still important and there is nothing on the horizon to replace it, but it’s nowhere near as effective as it once was. People are shifting communications to venues where they have more control – mobile text, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc.

I’ve run several informal programs over Twitter in the past year that worked well to accomplish some limited marketing goals. Today, I’m launching a more formal Twitter-based campaign at www.twengaged.com.

The campaign will drive registration to a Chicago AMA resume writing workshop that we’re hosting in partnership with Lynn Hazan – midwest marketing recruiter extraordinaire.

The idea is to get an organization’s membership based enaged through a fun promotion. Engaged + Twitte r= Twengaged.

The pilot campaign is with the Chicago AMA, and if it works it can be run for any number of organizations.

With this one, people will Tweet their resume’s Objective Statement  - the one-sentence summary at the start of a resume – with a designated set of hashtags. Participants can then vote (thumbs up / thumbs down) and the top vote getters get the glory of a leader board position.

At the end of the promotion, a team of judges will decide on a winner - who receives a free ticket to the Chicago AMA resume writing workshop on July 28.

The idea is to leverage the viral nature of Twitter with the self-interest of participants. If I post my objective statement, I want two things:

1. As many people as possible should see my Objective Statement, which will help me find job opportunities.
2. I want to win the free ticket.

Therefore, participants have every incentive to spread the word about the promotion and we should enjoy viral growth in a short period of time.

Very exciting!