When Scott Stratten Talks About Conversation, It's Wise to Listen

Scott Stratten once said:

Conversation isn't a campaign. Do something worth talking about instead of asking people to talk about it.

That's the problem with designing something to "go viral," asking your customers (or worse, non-customers) to like you on Facebook or spamming people with email. Marketers for too long have treated conversation as a campaign, and it just doesn't work.

Who Do You Like at a Party?

Who is often the most popular person at a party? The person buzzing around handing out business cards, jumping from one person to the next, always on the lookout for a "more interesting" person? Or, the person who spends time to get to know a few people more deeply, on a more personal level?

Obviously, that's an easy answer, but so many marketers feel that the "best practices" of a social setting don't apply to a business relationship.

It's not entirely their fault. For years, that has been the way to connect with a market. Put as much information out there as you can and hope that some people will latch on to a part of it. Each day, that strategy becomes less and less effective.

Ultimately, brands need to connect with the markets they serve. But, it must be on the customer's terms, not the brand's

Talking AT Someone is Not a Conversation

Many marketers will hear the conversational drum being beaten these days and say, "Ok, we need to have a conversation with people. So, tell people how great we are and get them to start talking about us. Right?"

Wrong.

That's what Scott means when he says that conversation is not a campaign. Again, in a social situation, the people who you enjoy spending time with are not those that drone on and on about themselves. They find topics of mutual interest with you or, even better, talk about you.

That's why it's so important to take a long view when we talk about conversation between a brand and a customer. This is not a quick hit tactic designed to flare up and then fizzle out in the course of a day, week or month. This is a technique that demands patience and an accpetance of uncertainty.

If you want people to talk about you or your brand, don't ask them to do so. That's like having to explain why a joke is funny. Instead, do something to inspire them to talk about you on their own. That's the only way to ensure that people will talk about you for the long-term.

Why All Marketing Needs To Be More Like Banner Ads

There aren't too many people today who would say they enjoy banner ads online. Even fewer would say they're valuable. So, to say that all marketing should be like banner ads is probably not the smartest tactic. If we look at what banner ads have become - annoyances designed to trick people into clicking so the site owner gets paid - then, yes, it'd be insane to make all marketing mirror them. But, if we consider the original intent of the banner ad, I think we'd do well as marketers to set a similar intent with our marketing.

[Marcelo Somers at Behind Companies][1] quotes [this article][2] about the origin of the banner ad that shows the true intent of the original banner ad. One section in particular stood out to me.

Then the clients and agencies had to figure out just what to do. Anker and the staff at the publisher wanted the ads to “give something back.” The hard sell was out. This was the dawn of the commercial Internet. The idea of advertising on it was controversial. Instead, Clausen and the team at Modem wanted to give people something of value.

“We wanted them to have this incredible offering,” Clausen said. “The idea was to extend the experience and allow them to go and have access to something they never thought they would.”

Many remember the copy on that first banner — “Have you clicked here? You will.” — but mistakenly think it led to an AT&T page. Instead, McCambley and Kanarick built a webpage that collected the early sites of great museums of the world. (Artists were early adopters of the Web.) AT&T would enable people to tour the great works of The Louvre, the Warhol Museum and others. The brand would be, as Modem founder GM O’Connell preached, a service.

To see how far the online banner ad has come (or should I say fallen) was interesting.

Shifting Away From Valuable

Where the banner ad was once seen as a tool to provide people value, the only thing valuable about banner ads in their current state is the software that allows people to block them.

As the world of marketing has changed, the idea of a brand being useful, of providing value and of being focused on the customer has become increasingly important. I, for one, never would have considered that the lowly banner ad originally had the same goal, but it seems that, at least for the creators, that was the plan.

Unfortunately, many marketers see something like a banner ad working, so they want to make it work faster with less effort. Rather than sticking with what works, they try to appeal to the lowest common denominator. They switch to "spray and pray" mode and figure if they annoy enough people, some will fall for it. Guess what? That only works for so long.

Banner Ads as Content Marketing?

So much of content marketing, of branding and of "viral" marketing aligns with the first statement in that quote. The idea of a brand "extending the experience and allowing people to have access to something they never thought they would," has become more prevalent and useful than ever. These "softer" marketing tactics are often criticized because it's difficult to tie a sale to them in a one-to-one relationship, but that doesn't diminish their effectiveness.

Often, the things that go "viral," are those that aren't obviously related to a company's revenues or their goals. They are those experiences that focus on the happiness, delight, excitement, or surprise of the customer. Those things that, without that brand introducing them, would not have been an option for the customer or even something they would have considered as a possibility.

I have long said that tactics like banner ads should not be viewed as a direct sales mechanism, but an entree into a larger experience. They should not promote a "buy now" message, but invite the viewer into something deeper, more interesting, more meaningful. They should sell the next step of the relationship, not the product.

Is Marketing Following the Path of Banner Ads?

Sadly, I think a lot of marketing and advertising ends up devolving similarly. Something that starts out as a great, useful idea ends up turning into an annoyance. Often, this is, in fact, caused by the early success of the medium and the greed of the brand to build on that success, giving no thought to the customer.

It's funny to see how the original intent of the online banner ad aligns so nicely with the current state of marketing, and sad to see how far marketers have gotten from that original intent.

Seems to me we should try to get back there.

The Perfect Creativity Builder

In listening to the most recent Accidental Creative podcast, I was reminded of the recommendation for fostering creativity of getting outside your comfort zone.

As Todd reiterates, if you want to stay creative, you need to have vast sources of input to help build that creativity. That means watching, listening to and reading things that you wouldn't normally or that wouldn't normally interest you.

As I listened to that, to advice I had heard many times before, I couldn't help but think that the perfect tool to encourage that is Marco Arment's The Magazine.

If you're not familiar with The Magazine, it's an iOS magazine app that publishes every two weeks. It's tough to describe it more than that, because it's not something that can be easily labeled as a certain type of magazine or publication. There's not really a consistent theme, which makes it perfect for building creativity.

Each issue is made up of five or six articles, each by a different author, each on a different topic. The topics range from driving stick shift to baseball. From birdwatching to competitive Tetris.

There are any number of article topics that don't interest me or I wouldn't normally read about, but somehow, the writers in The Magazine make them compelling to read.

That's why, in my opinion, The Magazine is the perfect tool to add to your arsenal of creativity builders. You get that variety of inputs from one, simple source.

Go subscribe now.

In a Horrific Situation, Buffer Gets Social Right

After hearing the news from Boston earlier this week I - like many others - went to Twitter to follow along real time.

Amidst the condolences, there was another interesting theme from many of the marketers I follow. Many of them were quick to warn brands to, "Don't be stupid and heartless; pause your automated tweets right now." That echoed my sentiment and I was happy to see so many marketers encouraging others to approach this situation with compassion and empathy and to take a minute to think about how their actions at that point may be perceived.

One of the tweets I saw that surprised me slightly was one from Buffer. Their reaction showed that they are one of the companies out there that understands how to do social right.

Who's Buffer?

While Twitter is (and should be) generally treated as a real time, person to person(s) communication, many people just don't have the time to stay on top of everything. Life gets in the way and they just can't post as much as they'd like.

Enter Buffer.

They allow you to schedule your tweets to go out at intervals throughout the day when your followers are likely to see them. That way you can queue up tweets ahead of time to go out throughout the day, even when you can't be on Twitter.

So, many brands jump on this to send out promotional tweets, links, etc. so they can have a presence on Twitter without having to actually be on Twitter all day.

So, when so many marketers were rightfully telling people to turn off their automated tweets, in large part, they were talking about Buffer.

What did Buffer do in response to the horror that was unfolding in Boston? Did they do like many brands and say their thoughts are with Boston and go about their business? Did they tweet out a few news stories? Did they stay silent?

No, they told people how to turn off their service. They tweeted this:

Quick Buffer tip: To pause your scheduled tweets, open your Schedule Tab and click the days to turn them off; click again to unpause.— Buffer (@bufferapp) April 15, 2013

And, for good measure, they tweeted it again later for people who may have missed it. They also were extremely active on Twitter that day, responding to people asking that same question.

In other words, they did it right.

In times of crisis, just be human

The thing about tragedy and business is that there's often an opportunity for a brand to stand out. But, and this is a big but, they can't be opportunistic. The opportunity they need to sieze is an organic one. There is a tremendous upside if they act human, like they have a heart. On the other hand, there's a tremendous downside if they see it as an opportunity - as The Gap found out after Hurricane Sandy.

The opportunity for brands in these types of situations is to show their human side. To show they are about more than profits and growth. And, to connect with people so that, when the crisis is past, people continue to value the brand for their actions.

Did Buffer have to proactively tell people how to stop their automated tweets? No. The negative attention would have likely ended with the user if the tweet that went out was viewed as offensive.

But, the people at Buffer cared enough about their customers and the people affected in Boston, that they went the extra mile.

For that, I say well done Buffer.

Simplicity = Referrals

In a recent post, Andy Sernovitz writes one sentence that, I think, is an often overlooked key of earning referrals for our businesses. He says:

Simplicity is the secret to referrals.

The sentence in itself is beautiful in its simplicity, but it carries so much meaning and has wide ranging applications to the world of business and marketing.

What is it about simplicity that makes it the secret to referrals? I think it's two-fold. Both on the side of simplifying the experience you offer customers in buying from you, and on the side of simplifying the process by which people refer you to their friends.

With that in mind, here are a few reasons why simplicity, in the realm of referral business is so important.

The impression you leave with customers for your brand.

There are very few brands that people "enjoy" doing business with. They may love their products, but few actually enjoy the process of getting those products. Even Apple, arguably one of the most popular consumer brands, gets plenty of complaints about how busy their stores can be, making it difficult to actually buy their products.

That's why simplifying the process of purchasing from or interacting with your company is so important. If dealing with you is an arduous, difficult process, the likelihood of someone, even someone who loves your product, recommending you to a friend, is very slim. People like companies that make their lives easier, and any step you can take to do that is going to improve your chances of being referred.

Simplifying the buying experience (without diminishing the quality of service) will always translate to happier customers. Happy customers recommend businesses to others.

The simple experience is usually positive and, therefore, likely to spread.

If you've ever watched any mob movie, you understand the concept of one person "vouching" for another. Many times, in those movies, that can be the difference between life and death.

The same can be said about referrals for your company. Your customer, who is referring you to their friends, is essentially "vouching" for you to their friend. They are saying, "These people have a great product and I think you should check it out." They are giving their stamp of approval to their friend, expecting that you will be worthy of that endorsement.

If the experience a customer has is not one they'd approve of, they're not going to sully their reputation by recommending it. Even if they enjoy the product and think their friend will benefit from it, they likely aren't going to put their friend through the hassle they had to go through. That's why it's so important that every interaction someone has with your company is as simple and positive as you can make it.

If the *Process* is Simple, People Are More Likely to Refer

Having been exposed to Andy's other work, my guess is that this is what he had in mind when he thought of the concept of simplicity leading to more referrals. You need to make the process that someone goes through to refer a friend the simplest thing they do with you.

If the procedure that someone goes through to refer a friend isn't simple and obvious, no one will ever do it. They may start the process, but as soon as the process takes one step more than they expected, they're gone.

The referral process doesn't need to be overly complicated, although the actions of greedy marketers seem to indicate otherwise. In an effort to extract every last bit of information about a potential customer, marketers have reduced their chances of a referral simply by asking for too much from their customers and their prospects.

Don't ask for too much information about the person being referred. Let them volunteer the information you need after they decide that they are going to trust their friend and look into the company being referred. If you ask for too much about the person being referred, your customer will likely not be willing to offer up that information and opt instead to not refer anyone.

Make the process as simple as clicking a button, sending an email, and moving on. The simpler you make this process, the more likely it is that people will take the necessary minute or two to refer their friends.

At the End of the Day

When it's all said and done, simplicity will rule the day when it comes to gaining referrals, but you need to do the hard work before then to even have the concept enter your customer's mind.

You can make the referral process as simple as possible, but if the product isn't one worth referring, good luck.

That's the best way to make the referral process simpler. Make a product or service so great that people can't help but refer it. Then, when you ask, they'll be happy to oblige.

Killing Marketing By Ignoring Details

I first came across this video on Mashable and it's now made its way around the web. In it, G-Form, a company that builds cases for various electronic devices, drops an iPod (in one of their cases) from 100,000 feet in the air to demonstrate the ruggedness and protective qualities of their product.

Seems like a great idea, right? Try to latch onto what Red Bull did with Felix Baumgartner and show just how strong your case is. In theory, it's a great tactic to show why someone should choose your case.

But, theories don't always pan out.

If you watch the video, you'll notice a couple things. First, the camera recording the descent "succumbs to the cold" on the way down and blanks out, so the next thing you see after the screen goes black is the team walking up to where the iPod landed. That means you never actually see it land.

Secondly, the phone didn't fall by itself. It fell with a small bag and the popped balloon that was used to raise it to the 100,000 feet. It is resting on that bag and balloon when it is recovered. Now, that small amount of cushion likely doesn't create enough padding to provide for a soft landing, but it does open the experiment to some questions - questions that the viewers are all to happy to ask.

Details Matter

On the surface, these may seem like small things, but read through the video's comments and you'll quickly see that many of the viewers use those seemingly small details to completely discredit the video. Those comments will show just how important it is to think through every detail if you are going to try to do the "unbelievable" in your marketing campaigns.

In this age of everyone and their grandmother trying to create the next "viral video" sensation, everyone is trying to get more and more outrageous with their efforts. While this can lead to some great content, it also opens these brands up to enormous skepticism. If you are trying to do something outrageous, bordering on unbelievable, you need to make sure that every detail goes as planned. There can be nothing for skeptics to latch on to in an effort to discredit your content - because they'll be looking for it.

What's the Point?

The other problem is that G-Form is providing a solution that no one (short of the aforementioned Baumgartner) are likely to have. Sure, it's a great stunt and it may get a bunch of viewers of the video, but does it actually show the abilities of the case? Will it actually sell cases?

I'm sure the video was fun to make and made for a lot of excitement around the office. I'm not even going so far as to say that they did fake the landing. As far as I know, the camera did break down, the iPod did actually land after falling 100,000 feet and was protected by the case. Even if we allow for that, does the expense and hassle of the video that opens the company up to skepticism really do what they set out do to?

Wouldn't it be better to start with videos of people dropping their iPod or iPhone as they walk down the street? As they toss it to their friend? Even drop it off a building - those are all within the realm of possibility for the people watching the video.

To my mind, this is real marketing of the product. Sure, it's not as flashy as dropping the iPod from space, but it shows a test that is actually verifiable. It shows a product that works in the way people would expect it to. And, keeps people from assuming that the company is lying to them with their marketing.

In the long run, that'll be much more likely to succeed than a video that gets thousands of viewers who are too skeptical to buy anyway.

What Is The Real Value Of A Like?

Paul Gillin, on the launch of his book:

An idea I’ve been kicking around for a couple of years became a formal book project in January. Eleven months later, Attack of the Customers on sale on Amazon! Now I’d like to ask for your support by liking the book on the Amazon page and registering your like on the book Facebook page. And if you can go the extra mile and plunk down $18.95, I think you’ll find it a pretty interesting read.

Now, I have no problem with Paul. I've read his stuff and he's a solid writer with great ideas. My issue is what this indicates about the value of a Facebook "like."

Do you notice what he says here?

He's asking you to help him by liking the book on Facebook, whether you've read it or not. He's asking you to like it, then if you feel like it, pick up the book and read it, because you might like it.

To me, that seems backward.

Liking Without Liking

As marketers we have, for some time, questioned the value of the likes and other approval metrics on various social media outlets. The concepts of "likes" or "retweets" are fairly nebulous. There's certainly no inherent monetary value to a like on Facebook. The six-digit "like" counts that some companies tout look nice and help quantify the time they spend on these networks, but ultimately mean little in the grand scheme of business.

Absent any other metric to apply to judge these networks that we all seem to know have value, we turn to these popularity votes as a way to determine whether we're moving forward or backward with the tools.

I'm not saying that's wrong, because we need some sort of qualifier for how our efforts are translating into some sort of action. But, when these metrics become the ultimate end of our marketing efforts rather than a barometer, I think we've gone wrong.

That's what I think Paul is doing here. He's essentially selling to the like. In my mind, that invalidates the value of the like and diminishes the effectiveness of his message.

In this scenario, he is either devaluing the value of the like (saying people can like something they don't even like, or at least don't know if they like), or he's devaluing the value of his book, saying essentially he values you liking him and his book on Facebook more than having you read the book.

What's the Answer?

There will always be some skepticism to the value of likes on Facebook. As long as people can go out and buy likes or solicit them with little to no effort, people are going to take these metrics with a grain or two of salt. That's a given, and until another way to measure the value of these networks on the networks alone (rather than by action on another site that is driven by the network) comes along, that will continue to be the primary way to measure our social marketing.

But, if someone is liking a book before even reading it, the "like" system is more broken than I thought. Part of this falls on the shoulders of the people who are willing to like anything they're asked to or paid to. But a bigger part falls on our shoulders, the marketers.

We need to elevate the value of these social media metrics in our own minds before we can ever expect customers or general users to. That will certainly take time, if it's something we can ever hope to do. If the trajectory of these approval tools continues in the direction it is going, the value of these metrics will completely disappear.

But, until that day comes (if it does), can't we agree that if people are liking something, they should at least actually like it? Or, at a bare minimum they should be exposed to the thing they are liking before forming an opinion?

How Marketing's Poor Reputation Can Hurt Good People

The other day, Aaron Mahnke had a post in which his frustration at slower than expected sales of his book, Frictionless Freelancing really came out.

Now, let me establish a few things at the outset.

1) I've never written, let alone published a book. 2) I'm not a freelancer. 3) I have purchased, but not yet read Aaron's book.

That said, I think that Aaron's post is indicative of one of the problems I see with marketing today.

Shouldn't it just happen?

A couple things that Aaron said in his post really stood out to me.

I believe that, when someone makes something, then ships it and offers it for sale, the better the product, the better it will sell. If it’s gold, people will find it and buy it. If it’s crap, it’s doomed to fail. For some reason, I feel that quality merits reward.

That, to me, is a bit of an idealistic view.

Yes, in a perfect world, if we did good work, it would sell based on that quality. Unfortunately, the world is far from perfect and that's just not realistic.

A good quality (if not great quality) product is simply the cost of entry to most markets now. If we want a product to sell itself and stand on its merits alone, it needs to be so incredible that people can't help but find it. (That's a very poor summary of the concepts outlined in Purple Cow). There are very few things out there that truly sell themselves.

Mack Collier had a post recently that made me think of Aaron's situation.

2 – If you build it, they will come (AKA, Great Content Gets Found). Not complete bull@#$t, but it’s close. Even if you are an amazing writer and create amazing content, that content still has to get found. Now the ‘Content is King’ proponents will argue that great content always gets found. And it usually does, what they won’t tell you is that it might take weeks, months or even years for this to happen. We all have far more information coming at us than we can process. Go to Twitter right now and you’ll see a steady stream of links being shared back and forth. How is your amazing content going to stand out in that crowd?

I can understand Aaron's fustration. I get that he put tons of work into writing what he feels is a great book and, if it's as good as he thinks, it should sell itself. In reality, there's just too much content out there for that to happen quickly, if at all.

I don't want to market

I think that another thing that Aaron said gets to the heart of his situation and of the problem with marketing (and its reputation as a business practice) today.

I don’t like to play ball. For marketing, that is. I wrote a book a few months ago, and released it to the world. (That’s a scary thing to do, by the way.) Part of publishing a book is the marketing, and if I’m honest, I just don’t like to play the game.

I believe that marketing has, in many circles, such a sleazy reputation that people who could benefit from marketing done right won't even entertain the notion because they don't want their product associated with such a terrible practice.

That's sad to me because it makes me wonder how many great products, books, articles, businesses (etc, etc) have died a slow death in obscurity, simply because the creator had a bad taste in their mouth for marketing.

Marketing is supposed to be the business practice that helps those great products, like Aaron's get found. But, for too many people, it has become syonymous with infomercials and used car salesmen. That's our fault as marketers. Or, at least the fault of the poor marketers among us.

Marketing shouldn't raise the ire of people looking to sell something. It should be simply the tools used to spread the word. When it's done right, that's what it is. It needn't be a negative experience for the marketer, business or customer, but looking at much of what has and still passes as marketing, I can't say I blame people for feeling like Aaron does.

We need to work to pull marketing's reputation out of the gutter so that we no longer prevent great products from being found because the creator can't stomach the idea of marketing them. It saddens me to see Aaron doubt in the post the quality of his work based on lackluster sales when, if marketing was viewed in the way it could (and should) be, he could hopefully find the sales he's looking for.

So, whether Aaron likes marketing or not, I'm going to do a little bit of marketing and tell you to go get Aaron's book. He's a great guy with a great story to tell who I've learned much from.

Michael Schechter on Picking vs Choosing

Michael Schecter:

You can pick yourself to do the work. You can pick yourself to show up. You can pick yourself to keep improving. But at some point, do you have to worry about getting chosen? Can you organically grow through nothing more than your own choice and effort or, at some point, does the right person or right group of people take notice of what you’re doing in order to get to the next level?

As much as you don’t need permission to put yourself and your work out there, there’s still a part of me that wonders if it can really ever take off without that external seal of approval. You may pick yourself, you may put your work out there, you might do everything right, but how often does great work go unnoticed?

In this piece, Michael is riffing on a post by Seth Godin, and his take in this particular section really resonated with me.

It seems that many people on the web believe that if you just work hard enough, day after day, you'll succeed. Now, I'm not eschewing hard work, and the people that do succeed are certainly hard workers, but I also think Michael has a point here. You can work hard, day after day, do everything right, and still languish in obscurity because no one knows that you're there. At some point, you need to intentionally let people know what you're doing if you want them to pay attention. And that leads to an activity that so many of the web's "elite" tend to view as poison that's ruining art.

Marketing.

Shouldn't it Just Happen?

This seems to be the dominant thought for many people that if you're good enough, you shouldn't have to tell people what you're doing, they will just find it.

I'll admit, actively marketing your work, be it writing, painting, photography or coding, seems a less than desirable at times. I understand wanting people to come to your work not because you told or asked them to, but because they found it on its own merits. I agree that is an ideal situation, but not always a realistic one.

I agree with Michael that, sometimes you need that boost from someone who already has a platform in place. Someone whose opinion is trusted and valued. Getting the attention of those people can both accelerate the process of garnering attention and building credibility.

Try as we might, we can't just hope that those people find our work and pass it on. Sometimes we have to tell them.

Just Use Some Common Sense

Marketing your work with the goal of catching the attention with respected people can be natural and beneficial. It doesn't have to be a negative experience. Just use some common sense.

Like all good marketing, if you provide something of value to people who are interested, it will spread. Just because you are telling them to check it out, doesn't diminish it's value.

This doesn't equate to badgering people into paying attention or hounding them into promoting you to their network. It does mean, showing up every day, doing great work and, occasionally, passing word to people about what you're doing. Naturally, not in a forced way.

So, next time you do that thing you're proud of and you put it out in the world, don't be ashamed to let people know. They'll probably thank you for it.

Life Is About The Little Moments

"DAAAAAADDDDDYYYYY!"

The crying from my son's room at three a.m. woke me just before my wife started shaking me. As I stumbled, in a half-asleep state, to the bathroom to put on my robe, I found myself frustrated and grumbling. I've seen this story before. 

My son wakes up, be it from a bad dream or by some other cause, cries to be rocked back to sleep, and is then wide awake for hours and gets even more upset if I try to put him back to bed before *he's* good and ready. So, as I dragged my feet to his room, all I could think was about how it was three o'clock and I had to be up in three hours to go to work.

As we rocked, I found myself dozing off, all the while aware that he seemed to wake up more and more. So, I thought I'd put him in his bed and sit by him until he fell asleep. An hour later, no closer to sleep than when he'd started, I figured I'd let him try to fall asleep on his own and left the room.

With his cries following me down the hall, I thought to myself, "He's just got to work it out. I've got to be up early." That thought clearly didn't find its way into his head because ten minutes later I was back in his room, if for no other reason than to keep him from waking our six month old with his screams.

Even as I sat next to his bed and he rubbed my face, looked into my eyes and whispered to me about his toy cars that had joined him in bed that night, all I could think was about how badly I wanted to sleep.

After a half hour sitting by his bed, I figured it was worth another try. With minimal protest, he finally fell asleep and I was back in bed...for a little while.

What's your point?

The next morning, in the light of day, I was tired. Very tired. But, as I thought about the night with it in the rearview, I realized how dumb I had been to be frustrated. I realized, moments like that are fleeting. Moments like that are what I'll miss when he's older. 

Moments like that are what make a life.

I wrote that opening well before the events of December 14th in Connecticut. As I heard the news last Friday, it made me view this post in an entirely new and sobering light. 

The thoughts and emotions I felt that night in my son's room came rushing back and I realized just how temporary those moments, and the lives built by those moments, really are. 

Too many families in Connecticut and throughout the country have been left with a gaping hole in their hearts and their family. Their lives have changed forever. Never again will they be able to sit up with their child in the middle of the night, frustrated or not, and help them fall back asleep. Never again can they sit back and realize that the small moments they often take for granted are the moments that make their lives truly rich.

I grieve for those families that will now be forever impacted by the actions of a madman.

I pray that they will find the peace that can only come from a loving God, however far away He may feel right now. 

And, I feel guilty that I was frustrated at having to (or getting to) spend a couple hours with my son in the middle of the night. I feel guilty that I was annoyed, when every one of those families would likely give anything to have just a minute of that time with their child that so frustrated me with mine.

Already the political positioning has started with anti-gun activists explaining how this shows that we need gun control. Pro-gun activists, on the other hand, are already on the defensive and trying to show how this wasn't the fault of guns but of a person.

Some are even spinning this into a case for why we need affordable, universal mental health care in this country.

But, I don't want to go down that path - even in my own mind. I want to focus on the families impacted by this and the open wounds they now will carry for the rest of their lives.

I want to go home every night, hug my kids and be thankful that I've been so blessed to have them.

I want us all to realize that there will be plenty of time for blame and finger pointing. Now is not that time. Now is the time to stand with those families. To stand with our own families and realize that each moment, not matter how small or how frustrating, is a gift.

I, for one, want to start living in light of that gift.

It's All In The Details

On this week's episode of Enough, Patrick Rhone explored a topic that has intrigued me for some time - experience.

Now, Patrick approaches it from more a personal angle when he describes a meal he enjoyed over seven years ago that still remains with him. (The experience, not the actual meal. That'd be a doctor visit for sure!) What he remembers - as he describes it - is the experience as a whole, not just the pieces, even though they were all incredible.

Now, in his description, he says that the small details of the day don't stand out, but the experience overall. He doesn't even remember exactly what he ate, the wine they had, or other details, but he remembers the entire experience fondly - in large part due to the service they received.

All those little details of the experience combined to make the day one that he remembers vividly -even all this time later.

As I listened, my mind was drawn to how our aim as marketers should be to manufacture those experiences for our customers. Our businesses should strive to leave those fond memories of amazing experience with each person with who we interact.

Every detail makes for a better whole

In listening to Patrick and thinking about how to apply this thinking to marketing, a natural inclination may be to focus on the big picture - the big, flashy experience from a high-level view. That's not surprising, especially when Patrick stresses how he doesn't remember the small details but only the larger experience.

But, what would it have done to the experience if the waiter had spilled a tray of water in Patrick's lap early in the evening? That would have been one small change to the evening. The food, wine, company and atmosphere would have all been the same, but my guess is that he wouldn't remember the dinner with such fondness.

That's why, while keeping the whole experience our customers have with our businesses in mind, we need to realize that the overall experience is built one small detail at a time. At any point, one failure of one detail can sully the experience - even if it was the most trivial of details.

The gap between knowledge and practice

My guess is that you likely know this. You know that in today's age of word spreading around the world with the click of a mouse, details are important. That's nothing new.

But how many times have you decided that the website was "good enough" or figured that no one would notice anyway, so you let the little design inconsistency go as is?

We can say that we know the little details are what make the experience worth having, but at the end of the day, I'll bet that far fewer marketers actually live that out on a regular basis.

I know the arguments against this type of detail focus.

"We don't have the time to sweat every detail." "Our budget is already stretched." "No one will notice anyway."

Valid points. But not necessarily helpful.

Today, in a world where nearly every industry is getting more competitive by the minute, every detail has the potential to be the one that costs you a customer. As the gap between you and your competitors narrows, it's the little things that customers will look to when deciding whose product to choose.

So remember, sweat every detail like it could be the one that makes or breaks your business...because it likely could be.

Social Media is not a campaign

It had been the day that never seemed to end for Thomas. Customers, emails, and his boss continually interrupting all contributed to his not finishing a single item on his to-do list.

By the time he got home, all he wanted to do was watch a little TV and catch up with his friends and family on Facebook. Something to unwind before he had to get some sleep and prepare to do it all the next day.

As he sunk down in his chair and loaded the Facebook app on his iPad, he thought about how he would want to write an update about the day he had had, so his family and friends could get a little glimpse into his life.

All that went out the window when his feed loaded. Message after message from companies promoting coupons for likes, brands crowing about the great ne w product they just launched (which he had no use for) and some local business promoting a sale in their store coming up.

It took Thomas nearly a whole screen of scrolling before he got to anything from his friends and, by that time, he had lost interest and just shut it all down.

Does this sound familiar?

What social media is...and isn't

Fast Company recently had an article called, The Anatomy of a Social Marketing Campaign; 5 Steps to Success. Reading through it, All I could thing was, "It's no wonder that people hate it when the marketers show up on social networks."

Social media is not a campaign.

Let me say that again.

Social media is not a campaign.

There are numerous posts, tweets, updates and any other web-based form of communication in which people say, "As soon as the brands show up, that's when the network starts to die." There are even entire networks built in part to avoid the encroachment of brands. Why is that? Because marketers try to take a medium that is built for people to communicate with people and ruin it like they did with email.

They see a captive audience they can reach cheaply, made up of people they think may be interested in their offering and pound them with message after irrelevent message, day after day, while they are just trying to communicate with their friends or family. It's similar to how marketers saw email as it grew in popularity. Basically, free direct mail. Who wouldn't like that?

The people getting the email, that's who.

And, now it's seeping into social media

I guess it was to be expected. With an economy in the tank, struggling companies are looking to make things happen, and quick. So, they're latching on to a cheap, quick, seemingly easy tactic to find people to whom they can peddle their wares.

What's missing from that assessment? How about any mention of what the people they are trying to reach actually want?

It seems that anywhere people gather, marketers will find a way to exploit them.

Now, don't get me wrong. As a marketer myself, I understand the draw of cheap tools and captive audiences. I understand the concept of throwing a bunch of stuff against the wall with the goal of getting a few things to stick.

Sure, marketing is largely a numbers game (at least traditionally). Not everyone is going to be interested enough in your product to put their money on the line, so there will always be a large number of people who don't buy what you have. That's to be expected. But don't assume that they come away from your marketing with nothing, just because they didn't buy. No, they come away from that interaction with an opinion of you, your company and your marketing.

What too many marketers don't understand (or care about) is that their reputation is going to stick around long after that social media "campaign" is complete. What do you want that lingering taste in your customers' mouths to be? Because, before you know it, that view of treating social media as a campaign rather than a new way of doing business is going to come to define what your brand is.

Not a campaign, but a way of business

The five steps in the aforementioned article on Fast Company's website are these.

1. Set goals.
2. Develop a valuable offer.
3. Create a landing page.
4. Launch the campaign.
5. Use shortened links.

Huh?

How about finding out what people are already talking about? Finding where your product fits and can help solve their problems?

Arguably the largest (or at least one of the top three) social networks currently is Facebook. With Facebook's EdgeRank algorithm determining who sees what, those steps are not going to get you very far in reaching the people you hope to.

Viewing social media as just another direct response mechanism is a recipe for disaster. The tired tactics of yesterday's marketing just don't cut it on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ or any of the other currently hot networks. It takes time, effort, creativity and patience to succeed on any network.

Rather than thinking about what you want to get out of people, find ways you can help them. Become part of the community, part of the discussion and do so in a way that doesn't label you as a marketer or corporate stooge (h/t Dan Benjamin), but in a way that sets you apart as a valuable resource. That's the key to sustained success on any social network. It puts you in the top of people's minds when they actually do need your service and does so in a way that they approach their need with a positive opinion already formed about your brand.

And isn't that really the essence of marketing?

Kindling is good - for starters→

Seth Godin:

It's hard to imagine a bigger waste than cooking an entire meal using nothing but kindling. It burns fast and bright, but it doesn't last. You might be able to cook something, but then there's be nothing left for the next guy. No, the useful technique is to have some bigger logs standing by, and to use as little kindling as possible.

This, of course, is my analogy for marketing and promotion. That juicy link from a design blogger or your appearance on TV—that's kindling. If that's what you're depending on, you're in trouble. One manufacturer I know explained that he got about thirty orders from a post on a well-known blog, and so he needed a post like that every week to stay in business. Good luck with that.

Seth, as usual, hits the nail on the head. Too many marketers are focused on the "kindling." The tactics, strategies or ideas that get a big flash of attention before disappearing almost as quickly as it arrived.

Sure, those tactics are great - to start. But you'd better have someting to back them up, or you'll be left eating marshmallows right out of the bag. (Too far with the "fire" analogy?)

Why sales aren't the goal of every marketing activity→

Seth Godin:

The goal of a marketing interaction isn't to close the sale, any more than the goal of a first date is to get married. No, the opportunity is to move forward, to earn attention and trust and curiosity and conversation.

Kind of what I was trying to get at here. If we see marketing as a step by step process, we're likely to make better, relationship-building decisions.

Email needs to be fixed, but how?→

Mitch Joel:

On November 5th, 2012, Marketing Charts ran a news item titled, Clutter: 4 in 10 Say More Than Half Of Their New Emails Are From Marketers. From the news item: "...according to [pdf] a Blue Kangaroo online survey of more than 1,000 US adults aged 18-64, a whopping 43% said that more than half of the new emails in their inbox the week prior to the survey came from marketers (including daily deals, retail newsletters, and sales alerts). In fact, 8 in 10 respondents said that more than 20% of their new emails came from marketers."

My first thought when reading that was, "How many of those emails they refer to were actually permission based?"

From the viewpoint of many marketers, offering something for free (ebook, giveaway, exclusive information) to get an email address is an obvious marketing tool. And it can be successful, if done correctly. Unfortunately, many of those marketers just see getting the email address as the ultimate goal because they can then blast away to their list.

I ask again, of those 20% of emails coming from marketers, how many are permission based? And, taking it further, how many were actually read?

We can do better.

But, what's in it for me?

Fast Company's fourth rule of social media is from Andrew Weinreich

The consumer is out for himself, not for you.

How many meetings have you sat through in which your customers were never even considered, let alone mentioned? Meetings where strategies were decided on based on what the company needed, rather than what the customer wanted.

WIIFM , or, "what's in it for me," is quite well known to most business people, but we still seem to forget it when making product, service, marketing or sales decisions. We set out with the best intentions but, when confronted with the necessity to wait for the payoff of customer centricity, we scrap it and go searching for the comfortable, "all about us" way of thinking.

It's understandable why this happens. Especially when marketing, it's easy to fall into the trap of thinking, "if we can get someone to pay attention to a letter, an email or any other form of communication, then we need to tell them everything about us in case we never get their attention again."

The funny thing is, if that's how we approach our communications with potential customers, we almost guarantee that we'll never get that attention again. More and more, we need to take a longer view of marketing.

the goal is the next interaction

The quick hit, drive by marketing of yesteryear is becoming less effective each day.

While there is still a place for most forms of advertising, the days of people jumping up to buy from us (except in very commodity type situations) based on a tv ad are quickly fading. Now, each marketing activity needs to provide enough value to move people to a deeper level of engagement, all the way to a sale.

So, the ad doesn't try to sell, it just tries to get someone to sign up for an email list.

The email doesn't sell, it encourages people to get more information and to consider their needs.

And on and on, further down the funnel, building value the whole time.

Rather than expecting our first communication to earn a sale, it takes additional steps, steps that give us the opportunity to show people the value we provide them.

why go to all this trouble?

Obviously, taking this step by step approach to marketing takes more time and more effort. So, you may ask, why bother?

More than any time in history, the customer can be out for themselves and their interest. With nearly endless options available for almost any product, customers don't need any one business because there are others to choose from.

So, the brands that win are those that provide the best value to the customer and give the best answer to the question of. "What's in it for me?" That means that, while the effort level is higher, the payoff is also often greater. All the work on the front end will lead to longer lasting and more profitable relationships in the long run.

So, the next time you are evaluating your marketing communications, think about it from the view of what's in it for the customer. Because they certainly are.

Talk to me, not down to me

Fast Company's third rule of social media comes from Patrick Starzan.

Everybody says they don't want to be marketed to. Really, they just don't want to be talked down to.

Do you remember the last time you were at a party or some other social event and the question of, "so, what do you do" came up? What did you say? Have you ever felt a little uneasy saying, "I'm in marketing?"

Why do you think that is? Could it be because there are plenty of people who see marketers as being cut from the same cloth as used car salesmen? Unfortunately, because of the actions of many marketers in the past, you can't really blame people for having that opinion.

That said, it's a new world for marketing and it's time to realize that when people say they don't want to be marketed to, what the often mean is that they don't want to be annoyed with junk that's not entertaining, interesting or useful. If your marketing falls into those categories, most people are all too happy to pay attention.

why don't people want to be marketed to?

When you see what often passes for marketing, it's not hard to see why people would say they don't want to be marketed to. Annoying, self-serving, interruptive messages that show no concern for the time or attention of the customer.

I don't want that either. Can't think of anyone who does.

Those type of messages truly are examples of marketers talking down to their customers. The approach of telling people that their lives really aren't complete without a certain product really is condescending and deserving of being discounted.

People know what gives their lives meaning and it's probably not your product.

what does talking down look like?

If the quote that opened this post is accurate, what are the things that marketers do that people see as talking down to them?

There are a few things that, in my mind, are glaring examples of talking down to our customers.

Not creating something with real value. Many brands will create a "good enough" product and try to sell that as the worlds greatest offering. They push out a subpar product and make up for it with marketing spin. That's talking down to the customer because it says, "We think you're too stupid to see through our marketing smokescreen to the true product."

Guess what? The days of hiding product flaws behind flashy marketing are long gone. that may work for a bit, but as soon as people catch on, word will spread and the brand will end up worse off.

Assuming our product is for everyone. There is no product that is right for every single person. For a brand to not take the time to find the right people to market to cheapens the experience. You end up annoying people and failing to make connections with the people for whom your product is best suited.

Assuming everyone wants to hear everything we have to say. Hand in hand with the last point is assuming that your product is so intriguing that everyone wants to hear about it.

This stems from traditional "spray and pray" advertising. The tactic of "throw everything against the wall and see what sticks."

While there is certainly a place for traditional, broad-based advertising, that mindset needs to change as you move into more permission based tactics like email.

Often, an email address is seen as implied permission, regardless of how the marketer obtained it. As marketers, we need to value email addresses as highly as we do other personal data of our customers and potential customers. We need to respect their desires and realize that just because we can buy a list if email addresses doesn't mean we should.

We need to take the concept of permission much more seriously and only talk to people that want to hear from us.

so, what's the "right" way

Ultimately, it comes down to treating customers the way we would want to be treated if we were on their side of the equation. Many marketers are quick to resort to tactics bordering on spam when they aren't seeing the results they hope for as quickly as they'd like. They want a shortcut to the success from sustained, quality marketing by blasting as many people as they can find and just play a numbers game.

That may work...for a bit. But then, over time, people will turn against them and they'll run out of people who are willing to give their spam the time of day.

When we see our products and services as providing value to our customers, not only will our offerings improve, but our marketing necessarily will as well.

Take the time to find the right people who will benefit from what you have to offer. If you don't find enough people, that's not an invitatation to resort to spam, it's an indication to improve what you offer. While "spray and pray" used to work because people accepted it as a necessary evil in the world of commerce, they are no longer willing to stand for it.

With so much choice available to customers, their evaluation of what they purchase is no longer based only on the product or service but the experience of buying it.

Make your product - and experience - one that attracts people to your business and inspires them to spread the word. That's the best - and most sustaining - type of marketing available.

"Disaster Marketing" by Tom Fishburne→

Tom Fishburne:

Marketers often try to tap what’s happening in the news. The reasoning is that if they can take over water cooler conversations, their brand message will travel that much faster. Yet many brands misfired last week during Hurricane Sandy. In an attempt to capitalize on the storm news, they outraged consumers with self-serving and insensitive promotions.

Tom says exactly what I was trying to in this post, but says it way better.

Puffery: Just one of Five deadly marketing sins→

Jonah Sachs:

"The idea is that we can speak in the disembodied voice of God and have people listen, rather than finding our unique and human voice," Sachs says. "Finding that human voice is a step that marketers so often miss." It's an especially important step for small businesses, he adds, whose customers particularly want to see the human beings behind the products.

So true. Authenticity is more important that ever before and puffery just doens't work. People see through it and you end up looking stupid.

Fast Company's second rule of social media - be human

Fast Company's second social media rule comes from Noah Brier:

Stop and ask; would an actual person talk that way?

How many times have you seen something like this?

"We are the industry leading provider of end to end integrated solutions to assist in addressing the specific needs of the markets we serve. This company exists to provide the necessary framework to facilitate quality solutions for our customers."

Did you read all of that? Really? Because I had a hard time typing all of it.

Call it gobbledygook, call it corporate speak. call it whatever you want, but it won't hide the fact that it's boring, lifeless, uninspiring and unlikely to give you the outcome you hope for. Sadly, it's still running rampant in marketing communications today.

how do we get here?

It used to be that, when speaking or writing on behalf of a business, people felt compelled to communicate in a way that they never would in "real life." They would use words they would never choose in a social situation and puff up their statements with as many positive adjectives as they could possibly wedge into a sentence.

Thankfully, those days are gone. At least from the customer's perspective.

Unfortunately, many marketers didn't get the message.

What used to be seen as the way for a business to communicate professionally is now quickly identified and dismissed by savvy customers with finely-tuned BS meters. They can tell when a brand is trying to sound smarter or better than they really are. And they see that as a red flag when considering their options.

This can trip up a lot of traditional marketers that have come from the school of "check your personality at the door" when it comes to business communications. They want to continue with what they know when the desires of the customer have long since passed them by.

can we just talk?

Businesses are made up of people.

Your customers know this and want you to show that you do to.

It's true that we often choose who we buy from based on who we like. Even the most commodity-based businesses have an opportunity to build repeat customers by how they interact with people.

Step one is to have some humanity and personality to what you do. From the president on down to the cashier. Let your personality shine through so that customers can feel they made the right choice; not be told they made the logical choice.

Look, I get it. You want to be as vague and professional as possible so as to not ruffle any feathers, but more and more this not what people want. They want a company they can get behind. They want a company they can believe in. They want a company they can feel proud to do business with.

so I shouldn't be professional?

Speaking like a normal person does not mean lazy, sloppy speech. There can still be a level of professionalism when speaking in a straight-forward, conversational way. Just don't use professional sounding words for no good reason other than you think it makes you sound smart. It doesn't. Everyone can see through it and they're laughing at you. Or, at the very least, they're rolling their eyes.

You know the type of communication I mean. The letter you can't read past the first paragraph. The ad that makes you wonder what they actually said by the time it's done. The salesman who just seems a bit too polished.

Give your customers some credit that they can pick up on this stuff and don't like it.

It doesn't mean you shouldn't be professional. It doesn't mean you should just "wing it." It means you should remember that business really is personal - now more than ever before - and treat your customers as such.

Not only is it good business, but it's a lot more fun.