Feb 21, 2014 | Branding, Communication, Marketing
B2B and B2C is the way marketing has been described for the last 20 years.
Nonsense.
Marketing when successful has always been P2P, person to person.
Successful marketing is about engaging with people and people engage around stories, not data and specifications, and jargon, stories.
Stories about your history, products, and how they relate to the world, happy stories, informative stories, stories that are metaphors, that enlighten, that pique curiosity, that deliver lessons of things that should not be done again, and sometimes sad stories.
Successful marketing is always about the stories, and stories are told by people, even when there is a vehicle for delivering the story in the middle.
If you remember this basic building block of our humanity, marketing becomes easier.
Feb 20, 2014 | Governance, Leadership, Management
“If this was your money, would you invest it this way”.
This question worked well for many years as a corporate executive, asking the question of those who reported to me about the projects for which they were seeking support.
Usually, indeed, almost always, the answer was “Yes”. Clearly my last question had been accommodated before they got to the point of asking, and they knew it was coming, so made sure they could answer Yes before asking.
The added effect of this question was to ensure that there was a personal commitment from the managers involved, they had to look me in the eye and convince me that they had invested their credibility in the project.
This did not guarantee the proposal worked, that was not the deal, just that it was worth doing, and if it went pear shaped, there was accountability, and the opportunity to learn from the miscalculations would not be lost.
As a consultant for 20 years, I still ask myself the same question when recommending actions to my clients, “would I spend my money on this”
It still works.
Feb 18, 2014 | Branding, Communication, Customers, Marketing, Sales
Jan Carlzons great 1987 book Moments of Truth reflected on the point at which a “front line” employee interacted with a customer, and how important that interaction was. The digitisation of our lives has profoundly changed the context in which interactions occur, the moment is no longer the point at which some personal interaction occurs, it is now far more likely that it will be a digital one, and in addition, “front line” now includes everybody.
The idea of Moments of truth needs to be expanded, and categorised so they can be managed independently if it is to be of much more than a cliche.
- Opening moments of truth. That may occur anywhere!! Anyhow on a range of platforms.
- Referral moment of truth, When someone refers someone else to a web site, blog post, social media platform etc.
- Conversion moments of truth. When a “lead” evolves into a “prospect”. Then there are more as the prospect moves through the system to the transaction
- Depart moments of truth. The point at which prospects drop out of the funnel, what do you do with them then? Do not lose them!!!! Figure out how to re-engage.
- Recidivism moments of truth. The point at which a departed prospect returns to the funnel. Sales funnels as a metaphor work, but the neat, orderly and logical progression seen on all the whiteboards and consultant presentations are far from the truth. The process of moving a contact through a set of steps towards a transaction, then hopefully, many subsequent transactions is messy, random, often illogical and emotional. Therefore, a key marketing task is to raise your recidivism rate
- Apostle moments of truth. When a user becomes an advocate, an apostle, for you.
- Complaint moments of truth. When customers complain, that is potentially full of information, and opportunity to serve them better, discover where and how you can improve, and convert them to advocates. Alternatively, give them to your competition to harass, as the customer is not always right, but the right customer is always right.
- Loyalist moments of truth. When loyal customers return, they do so because they have been satisfied in the past, convenience, the offer is compelling, and sometimes just because it is easy. A returning customer costs way less than it costs to find a new one, the loyalists are the financial backbone of every enterprise, thank them, and treat them like you are grateful for their custom, and pleased to see them again.
I tried some word games to make the list more memorable, hopefully you can do better than me, I’m just happy that the idea that the context of MOT’s reflects the way you should treat it.
Feb 17, 2014 | Communication, Customers, Marketing, Small business
Digital and email marketing is just the C21st version of direct snail-mail. Why is it then that we despair when our email open rates are only 2%, when that is all most direct mail campaigns ever got?
I think we are looking at things from the wrong end of the telescope.
Direct mail, and email campaigns can be hugely successful, we have all seen and heard of those successes, and when you look at them, the reason for the success is nothing tricky, but plain common sense.
The offer was personalised and compelling
The audience was engaged and willing
The communication channel delivered the offer with a minimum of fuss
The offer was easy to access
The creative in the communication was, well, creative and appropriate to the intended audience.
Those unsuccessful campaigns we see seem to concentrate on the above list in reverse order, worrying about the layouts smart photos, intriguing puns, and all the rest of the creative artifices, relegating the value of the offer to a specific audience, and the way that offer is communicated to the bottom of the pile.
Want success with direct mail/e-mail, get the customer to the front of the queue, worry about the rest later.
Feb 13, 2014 | Communication, Marketing, Social Media
Willy said many things that have been repeated, and repeated over the years, nuggets of truth that resonate today, may of which have a place in management thinking.
“Be great in act, as you are in thought”
“In time we hate that which we often fear”
“Nothing emboldens sin so much as mercy”
“Strong reasons make strong actions”
“No legacy is so rich as honesty”
One line that conveys a message we should all remember that I stumbled across again the other day is from Hamlet, Act 2, Scene 2: with Polonius telling the Queen that he thinks Hamlet is mad, but being careful with his language so as not to offend :
“Brevity is the soul of wit”
The discipline of 140 characters to convey an idea, objective, mission is a great discipline, one that we can all benefit from, and that most who use twitter could certainly benefit from. It would save me from the crap that fills my devices every day, necessitating a filtering process, that inevitably, filters out great ideas poorly communicated.
Brevity with meaning is not only the soul of wit, it is bloody hard to achieve.
