marketingtimes Official magazine of Sales & Marketing Executives International, Inc.
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I Am Terrific!
Drop the Brag and Boast.
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marketingtimes
June 2012
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CONTENTS 6
DO SOMETHING THAT MATTERS: WHY MARKETING AND DIGITAL STRATEGY IS UPSIDE DOWN
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SALES AND MARKETING LISTS TO LIVE BY
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5 MORE TIPS THAT CAN SAVE ANY COMPANY
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EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT: THE LEADER’S ROLE
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5 THINGS MARKETERS CAN LEARN FROM THE MEANING OF STORIES
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WHEN 2ND IS BEST IN SELLING
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I AM TERRIFIC! DROP THE BRAG AND BOAST.
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EIGHT WAYS TO ELEVATE YOUR EMAIL MARKETING
DEPARTMENTS 4
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
president’smessage
marketingtimes Official magazine of Sales & Marketing Executives International, Inc.
WILLIS TURNER, CAE, CSE
willis.turner@smei.org
® SMEI OFFICERS AND DIRECTORS 2011- 2012 OFFICERS Jeff Fawcett – Chairman Nathalie Roemer, CME – Secretary Treasurer Clinton Schroeder, CME CSE - Chairman Elect Jeffery Jackson, CME CSE – Immediate Past Chairman Willis Turner CAE CSE – President & CEO SENIOR VICE CHAIRS Lynn Argenbright – Membership Lisa Dennis – Affiliate & Chapter Relations Kim Ferguson – Programs Ben Mastboom – Europe Antonio Rios-Ramirez, Ph.D. – Mexico DIRECTORS Jose Corujo, CME Colleen Francis Jeananne Hawking Mike Hilbert Keali’i Kane Karl Post Mary Tricaso, CSE Jack Criswell, CSE – Chairman Emeritus Don Covington, Jr., CSE – Director Emeritus Marketing Times is published quarterly by Sales & Marketing Executives International, Inc. (SMEI). Cover Photo Credit: Reistroffer Design CERTIFIED MARKETING & SALES PROFESSIONALS ASSOCIATION Nathalie Roemer, CME – Chairman Melissa Medley, CME - Immediate Past Chairman
Perhaps you’ve already heard the new term—“3Tiered Membership”? Over the past months, SMEI’s chapter and board leaders have been working to create and implement a new membership structure that is geared specifically to the demands of today’s busy professionals. I’m sure there will be fine tuning of the new structure in the days and months ahead, but the basic principle is to create a much wider circle that includes and embraces sales and marketing professionals at all stages of their career. As an entry level membership, the new “Introductory Membership” has been created to allow individuals to explore and participate with no upfront cost. This membership option is ideal for undergraduate students and career entry professionals. Members joining at this level can select the benefits such as chapter events and webinars and pay as they go while enjoying a 20% discount. The next step is “Professional Member”. All currently active members of SMEI will enjoy this newly created level at no additional cost. With a generous 50% discount off non-member rates for chapter events and complimentary monthly educational webinars, Professional Members can chart their course for personal and professional development. SMEI has also created an all-inclusive level called “Executive Membership”. This new option is tailored for busy professionals who select to pay one fee annually that includes their chapter events and all other membership benefits. Chapters can further customize this level of membership based on the needs and preferences of the individual member. Hats off to Clint Schroeder, CME CSE, Senior Vice Chair of Marketing and his marketing committee for creating and printing an all new membership brochure that elegantly presents all of these options. Be sure to ask your chapter leaders for a copy so that you can share it with your peers in the profession!
SMEI PO Box 1390 Sumas, WA 98295-1390 USA T 312-893-0751 F 604-855-0165 admin@smei.org www.smei.org Willis Turner CAE, CSE – Executive Editor Tiffany Turner - Design & Layout
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Do Something That Matters: Why marketing and digital strategy is upside down By Clark Kokich
It’s hard to find a CMO who is still ignoring the tsunami of change being brought on by the emergence of new digital media channels. Three years ago it was easy to hear a debate about the importance and impact of mobile, social, or even web display advertising. No more. The verdict is in, and the conventional wisdom has evolved dramatically: The web has changed marketing forever, and we all better change with it. So today, if you visit the marketing department of any Fortune 1000 company, you’ll find teams of people working on digital marketing, with experts (and sometimes entire teams) focused on specific channels. Each one is busy digging into all of the newest trends, exploring the latest technologies, and developing “cutting edge” strategies for their companies. The head of social is busy executing against a well-thought-out social strategy. Same for mobile, search, video, digital out-of-home, and on and on. So with all this effort, with all these smart people, and all this money being spent, why is it so hard to find a case history to prove these new channels can deliver real impact in the marketplace? Where is the CEO telling Bloomberg their great quarter was due to the company’s new mobile app? Where is the Fortune magazine cover story on the brand that’s winning market share due to their Facebook page? It’s not surprising, therefore, that lots of folks believe the excitement surrounding new media channels is all hype – lots of noise created by the industry, none of it justified. A CEO once said to me, “Sometimes I feel I’m jogging in a swarm of gnats. There are all these new marketing ideas swirling around. They’re full of energy and extremely distracting, and I keep thinking I’m going to choke on them. And they sure don’t help me run any faster.”
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I set out to find out what was broken, and found the answer within a very small group of companies that seem to have cracked the code. These organizations firmly believe emerging digital channels are directly responsible for a portion of their recent marketplace success. These aren’t small companies. The group includes brands such as Nike, Virgin America, MillerCoors, Vail Resorts, and Volkswagen. There are more, but I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say less than 10% of major corporations have figured this out. Everyone else is struggling. What’s the secret? It all comes down to a very simple principle: No technology just for the sake of technology. And even more important, no technology unless it has been developed in support of a larger idea, a real business or competitive idea – something that matters to customers. Right now, in the vast majority of major corporations, marketing people are developing “channel up” strategies. For example, typically the mobile group within a company will hire a mobile agency, which then contracts with one or more mobile technology vendors. This group of people will develop a mobile strategy, sell it to management, secure budgets, execute the strategy, and report back on results. In many cases the result will be positive. Data may demonstrate that a “$500,000 investment delivered incremental margin of $5-million” – a 10x return on investment. It all sounds good. Unfortunately, if you look across the organization, you’ll find scores of these types of projects. Interesting little programs that don’t really matter. Gnats. Global companies don’t need $5-million ideas. They need billion dollar ideas. And billion dollar ideas won’t come from siloed groups of people focused on technology. They come from a collaborative group of people focused on solving important customer problems.
So how to proceed? There are many ways to approach it, but here’s my favorite prescription for success: Pull together the widest possible team. Include people from marketing, IT, product development, finance, stores, and customer service. Include all of your agencies – traditional, digital, social, and mobile. Ask them this question: “What do people dislike about being our customer, and how can we use digital to fix it?” Force them all to help define the problem and generate ideas. Once you settle on a direction you believe in, ask every channel expert to develop a strategy to support the central idea. Threaten to fire anyone who acts like a prima donna or seems more worried about their own empire as opposed to the success of the group. Don’t allow people to become overly-enamored of sexy new technologies. Insist that the technology be deployed solely in support of the customer idea. Oh, and make sure you do something that matters. About the author: Clark Kokich is the Chairman at Razorfish and is one of the premier thought leaders in the world of digital marketing. He has been quoted frequently in the Wall Street Journal, Ad Age, and the New York Times, among others. A popular speaker, he brings his unique perspective on the future of marketing to business audiences world-wide. In the fall of last year, Clark wrote and released Do or Die, the world’s first business book published exclusively as a fullyinteractive iPad app. In Do or Die, Clark outlines a clear strategy for businesses to survive and thrive in a world of never-ending technological change. Facebook: facebook.com/doordiebook Twitter: @clarkkokich
What’s missing is the Big Idea. Not the Big Idea of the television era, which was basically a communication idea. Rather the Big Idea of the Internet era, which is a business idea – a new way to set your brand apart from the competition and to delight your customers. The best digital marketers have reversed the process. Instead of “channel up” strategies, they insist on “idea down” strategies. They start with a customer insight, develop an idea to satisfy a deep customer need or to solve a burning customer problem, and then and only then, they engage their channel experts to develop programs in support of that idea. No siloed thinking. No channel-specific strategies. Rather, a coordinated, focused attack in support of an idea that matters to customers. Digital marketing strategy execution is upside down at most companies. Those that flip it quickly will flourish. Those that insist on planning within channels will struggle.
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Sales and Marketing Lists to Live By By Deborah Hanamura
Sales and marketing go hand in hand, and the better that marketers understand sales, the stronger their outcomes will be. After all, the first caveman invented the wheel, and then the second caveman sold it. For some marketing professionals, selling feels like risky business, but the truth is that buying and selling are part of most people’s everyday lives. And marketing works best when it supports the company’s revenue goals. Sales-oriented marketers should be able to answer these six questions about their products or services: 1. Compared to our competitors, what’s our quality level? 2. What unique benefits do we provide? 3. What customer needs do we fulfill? 4. How convenient is it to buy from us? 5. How reliable is our product or service? 6. What are we best at?
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If you are a marketing professional who is considering a transition to sales, there are three keys to success:
1. What need does the customer have that can be met by your solutions? 2. Has a budget been established, and is the project funded?
1. A conviction that what you are offering will add immensely to the customer’s business. 2. A belief that there is nothing better in the world that the customer can choose. 3. An absolute determination to communicate that you are dead right on points one and two. Let’s talk about the actual process of buying and selling. There are six steps that people go through during the buying and selling process: 1. Needs arousal: The moment when someone first realizes that they have an unmet need. 2. Brand awareness: Start to collect information about possible solution providers. 3. Selection of alternatives: Narrow the list down to the most ideal providers. 4. Evaluation of alternatives: Consider those providers based on whatever criteria are appropriate.
3. When does the customer need his or her solution to be complete? 4. Who will make the decision regarding selecting your solution? 5. What is the customer’s selection process? 6. Why is the customer considering your company? The most important thing that any sales person can do is to listen. Actively engage the customer in a discussion about their situation so that you can, in the context of their situation, demonstrate your capabilities in a meaningful way. Once you understand what your customers want, you can tell them how you will give it to them. The people who have the greatest success serving customers are those who demonstrate a relentless curiosity and interest in others. Here are five questions that you can use to better understand your customers: 1. What are your primary commitments?
5. Purchase decision: Pick one.
2. What are your most significant business challenges?
6. Post-purchase behavior: Evaluate the outcome: Did it meet expectations? Would I make the same decision again? Talking to my friends about it.
4. What are you passionate about in your work?
This process is essentially the same whether you are buying a mobile phone, new car, or digital marketing solution. There are also five steps that sales people follow: 1. Establish relationship. 2. Recognize needs. 3. Formulate the solution. 4. Close the sale.
3. What do you value in business, family, life, and friendship?
5. What do you do when you are not at work? Above all, remember that you should never find yourself making a hard sell. If you focus on solving problems rather than selling solutions, you will demonstrate value, and everyone will win. About the Author:
5. Deliver and evaluate. And here’s how they go together: (infographic) The best sales people use honest, straightforward communication and take steps to qualify customers before proceeding through the sales process. Qualifying customers ensures that everyone’s time is used wisely, and it can actually strengthen the customer relationship. Successful qualifying demonstrates authority, insight, focus, and professionalism. You should be able to answer these six questions before asking a customer for their business:
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Deborah has been providing strategic marketing insights and guidance to companies of all sizes for nearly 20 years. Her clients include the Johnson & Johnson, GE, NIK Software, PURUS Technologies, TUK Footwear, the California Department of Health Services, and the World Health Organization, among others. She is an experienced marketer with expertise in business development, branding and positioning, social media, direct marketing, and communication strategy.
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5 More Tips That Can Save Any Company By Jeffrey Hayzlett, Global Business Celebrity, Bestselling Author and Sometime Cowboy Buzz is Not Sales Plain and simple buzz is bull. It’s a word that means nothing. Without specific sales deliverables or expectations attached, buzz is like a whoopee cushion: a joke that has all the noise and none of the consequences for the real thing. Never talk about buzz as a synonym for sales. Always operate with clearly defined conditions of satisfaction and goals. Never Ever Compete on Price—Ever! Never develop a reputation for having the lowest price or fee and never sell or compete on price. This does not mean you can’t price fairly or offer package pricing. Just don’t undercut the competition or try to “compete” with big business (in quotes because if you are a small company you should never try to anyway). Figure out what you need to charge to make substantial built-in profits above your “nut” (cost of doing business). Most customers do not come to your business because they offer the lowest price. They come because they perceive VALUE. If your customers perceive your product or service is low quality and offers little value to them, they will leave, regardless of price. Worry more about value and personal connection to your customer base and less about competing on price. Find Your Profit Center Know which products, services or activities that make you the most money. Then devote your time and resources to them, sell the heck out of them to secure your present and future. Service them well and create new services for them where and when you can. This builds a layer of protection around your business in slower or leaner times. Three Customer Nevers: • Never take customers for granted • Never assume you really know your customers • Never stop selling your company to your customers
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Photo Credit: Reistroffer Design With fleeting loyalty, you must consistently and fiercely connect with your customers. You need to show them not what you did for them lately but what you will do for them tomorrow. The best business and customer relationships focus forward. Ask questions, listen to the response and note as many details as you can. Know Your Competitors This may seem strange after I just stressed the importance of never ever competing on price. However, you need to compete—but smartly. Your best weapon? Information. Know as much as you can about your competitors. Then ask yourself questions like: • How much business is at stake? • How do I get ahead? • How do I compare? • What are my strengths and what are the competitor’s weaknesses? How do I leverage both of these? Information is power. Knowing your competition and how to outmaneuver them and how to better build and run your business is key.
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Employee Engagement
The Leader’s Role By Tom Roth 14
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t:
We’ve all heard about organizations with great strategies that somehow fail to execute in the marketplace. Or organizations that have long-term, highly satisfied customers who, for some reason, stop buying. On the surface, it is easy to say that there are many uncontrollable factors contributing to these problems, however, some organizations continue to enjoy great levels of success in spite of these external forces. These organizations succeed because of something called Engagement—a factor that may be playing a more significant role in business than previously believed. Engagement represents the conditions under which people (employees and customers alike) make an emotionally-based choice to be loyal to a company. For customers, this choice is demonstrated as reliable, repeat business and brand support. Employees demonstrate engagement through a positive expenditure of their discretionary energy and a clear commitment to the organization’s vision, strategies, and goals. While the benefits of engagement are well defined, these same studies also suggest an increased movement away from engagement for employees. These studies clearly indicate that only a very small percentage of employees are fully engaged in most organizations, and an increasing number of employees are disengaging.
While leaders understand the importance of engagement, they find themselves with more questions than ideas about creating employee engagement. Traditional approaches focus leaders in the wrong place Many experts today encourage leaders to “create customer engagement,” implying that this is under a leader’s direct control. The reality is that leaders can only create customer engagement through their employees. Only then can leaders direct their employees’ energies toward creating the conditions for customer engagement. The bottom line is, to keep engaged customers, an organization must first have engaged employees! But how? Leaders with engaged employees understand the importance of managing products, policies, and operations. They also devote as much energy on creating the conditions for engagement in which employees are recognized and valued, and feel challenged by their work. Leading with both Form and Essence So, how do leaders create the conditions for engagement? Leaders need to demonstrate genuineness in their actions toward employees. Unfortunately, employees have seen far too many examples of less-than-genuine communication from leaders. Fortunately, leaders can do something about it.
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They can pay attention to two factors in the art of creating emotional connections—Essence and Form: the being and the doing of leadership. Essence is the quality of being a leader. It involves the values, emotional characteristics, and clarity of purpose required to foster engagement. Think about the person in your life who had the most impact on you as a leader—a person to whom you felt compelled to give your energy and commitment. Most likely, it was someone who had a strong sense of Essence. Form is what a leader says or does. It represents those decisions, actions, and behaviors that demonstrate the leader’s Essence. Leaders need to understand their role in creating a culture of engagement, and act with consistency between what they want to be as leaders and what they actually do. Four levels of leadership Understanding the two sides of leadership is important, but the bigger issue is how to put them into action. Leaders need to apply their leadership Essence and Form on four levels: Leading Oneself: You need to lead yourself before you can lead others. Leading Others (one-to-one): One-to-one leadership skills are considered foundational, like communication skills, goal setting, delegating, etc. Leading Teams (one-to-group): Leaders need to be able to lead and inspire individuals to work effectively together and achieve as a team. Leading a Work Culture: Many leaders focus on improving their one-to-one and one-to-group skills, however, today’s leader needs to understand what it takes to create a culture that enables the full engagement of employees. Leaders who focus on creating a culture of engagement have more engaged employees In companies with engaged employees leaders are expected to take responsibility for creating a culture that makes it easy for employees to engage. They start by focusing on: • Opportunity enables employees to emotionally connect with something important • Personal Accountability provides clear expectations 16 and motivates employees to give their best
• Validation tells employees that they matter and have a valued place in the organization • Inclusion provides employees with information and offers them a chance to express thoughts and feelings • Community creates a sense of safety and support, where employees experience mutual interest and shared responsibility For leaders to successfully apply these practical approaches to create an engagement culture, they need to combine Form and Essence in how they lead. About the Author: Tom Roth, COO, Wilson Learning Worldwide, with over 30 years experience developing and implementing human performance improvement solutions, he brings valuable expertise and strategic direction to the company. He assists executive leadership teams with issues related to employee engagement, sales force effectiveness, leadership development, strategy alignment, and business transformation. Roth is a frequent international speaker representing Wilson Learning’s point of view on a variety of issues, including leadership, sales, employee engagement, change, strategy implementation, and customer engagement. He is published in numerous business publications. Wilson Learning Worldwide 1.800.328.7937 www.wilsonlearning-americas.com
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5
things marketers can learn from the Meaning of stories
By Jim Signorelli
Stories are one of the most powerful tools in our communication arsenal. Since the beginning of language, they continue to inspire, motivate and engage us like no other form of communication can. There are good reasons for this. And some of those reasons provide lessons for marketers. Here are 5 worth noting: 1. Stories clothe facts with Big M-Meaning: All stories have meaning or some reason for being told. Consider this story: The young athlete who trained by doing 100 leg squats every day ended up winning the marathon. In effect, this is a story about the functional benefit of leg squats for runners. Now, consider this revision: The young athlete who trained by doing 100 leg squats every day ended up winning the marathon. He has a prosthetic leg. The first story conveys meaning in the form of useful information i.e. leg squats build running endurance. However, the second story is more than just useful. It’s inspirational. By contrast, it has Meaning - big-M Meaning. The additional 5-word sentence makes the second story about the same runner far more significant.
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One of the most important question marketers need to ask about their brand is whether it conveys meaning or Meaning. Facts about unique features and benefits may be useful, but that are not Meaningful. To go for Meaning, brands have to associate with personal values like exploration, determination, hard work, or ingenuity just to mention a few. And if the communication of those values provoke an emotional response, all the better. 2. We are more drawn to stories that leave the Meaning to us. Andrew Stanton, the creator of Toy Story and Wall-e, refers to his “unifying theory of 2+2” as our desire to come to our own conclusions. We do not want to be told the answer is 4. We’d rather figure it out the problem for ourselves. This is one of the principles of story that attracts us to them as a communication device. Movies, novels, poems or songs do not explain the meaning behind their messages. Meaning is left to the audience’s interpretation. This is very unlike much of what we see in advertising. Advertising often gets in its own way when it sets out to convey Meaning. By telling us what values to associate with brands, or by telling us how to think about
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a given brand, we often resist or put up our protective BS shields. Consumers don’t need or want to be told your brand believes in caring about its customers or that your brand works hard for its money. Taking a lesson from stories, it is far more engaging and believable to pull Meaning from the mind of the consumer than to push from the voice of the brand. Notice in the second story above, there was no mention of what to think or feel. If you thought or felt anything about the winning marathon runner with the prosthetic leg, it was because of your interpretation, not mine. Storytellers cause you to see what you see, but do little to cause the way you think or feel about what you see. Doing so would be like the comedian explaining the punch line of his joke. 3. Audiences gravitate to Meaning that arouses identification. Another reason we are so drawn to stories is because of their ability to help us see ourselves. Identification is a story’s ability to help us feel recognized for who we are and what we value. Besides helping us realize that we are not alone, identification also helps us examine what are sometimes unconscious beliefs that motivate our behavior. Too often, brands that set out to create their identities ignore the benefits of creating identification. Creating a brand identity involves telling or purposefully positioning a brand to help consumers see what makes it different or better vis a vis alternatives. By contrast, creating brand identification is about helping the prospect relate to what the brand stands for, or its cause. It’s about helping prospects see that your brand is for people like them. Creating a differentiated brand identity may influence buying. But creating strong brand identification will influence joining. It’s always better to have joiners than buyers. Joiners are the ones who stay buyers and wear your logos. 4. Storywriters don’t use focus groups to decide what their Meaning should be. Storywriters don’t manufacture meaning on the basis of what will sell to the greatest number of people. Rather, they start with an authentically held core belief that they want to share and express in their own way. Lack of authenticity is one of the many
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reasons why consumers have become cynical about advertising. Today’s consumer is just too smart to fall for forced intimacy. They know when you are trying too hard to fit into their lives. Rather, consumers want and need brands to be true to their own causes. And, if you think what you say or even imply about yourself is enough, think again. As far as consumers are concerned, your brand’s truth will always be revealed more through actions than anything advertised. Trustable people don’t tell you they are trustable. And friendly people don’t put you on hold for 30 minutes. If consumer research is required, better that it be used to compare expressions of Meaning than to derive Meaning. Meaning is an inside job. 5. For great storywriters, Meaning is expressed in a similar fashion, from story to story. If you go to any best seller’s list of books, you’ll often find it consists of many narratives written by authors with whom we are familiar. Having enjoyed their previous works, we clamor for their newest work. And we do this out of an affinity for both their interesting perspectives and their individualized expressions. We are not only drawn to messages they want us to read, but also to the way they consistently write them. The reason some people will camp out in front of the Apple store the night before a new product launch is simple: The new product is from Apple. As their thinking goes, if it’s from Apple, it’s got to be something worth having. Each new product Apple produces is recognizably linked to the one it updates. The new offering may provide improvements, but more importantly, it remains a continuance of Apple’s Big-M Meaning. Just as writers remain true to their voice, Apple, takes great pains to make sure its products deserve a rightful place within its family. These are just 5 things marketers can learn from stories. The parallels between good stories and strong brands are rich with more. About the Author: Jim Signorelli is the founder and CEO of ESW Partners, a Chicago-based marketing firm and author of the new book, StoryBranding: Creating Stand-Out Brands Through the Power of Story. For more information, please visit www.eswpartners.com.
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WHEN 2nd IS BEST IN SELLING
By Dan Seidman
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I have a good friend who recently got divorced. Two kids, husband was an athletic, engaging, professional guy. She is now completely mortified about what she’s done.
Her comment; “who was that when I thought those things and ended my marriage? It wasn’t me!”
A good psychologist might have counseled her during her dark period to go into 2nd position when analyzing her trouble and the frustration with her marriage.
2nd position is where a person mentally steps back from their dialogue with a spouse (or child or friend) and “watches” herself interact with the other person. In essence, she is observing, from afar, how she is acting and thinking.
2nd position is the ultimate coaching strategy. Because most solutions can be found inside the person whose behavior needs to change. They just have to get out of the moment of conflict or confusion, and watch who they are. This might sound confusing, but it isn’t that hard to do. And
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to simplify it further, you can also do this immediately after something happens, analyzing a situation by reviewing tape in your mind. You can use this to improve your sales performance. It’s fast and easy, as long as you’re honest in assessing yourself. Let’s look at what could really be happening on that sales call. I made a lame opening comment about the weather. I need to make sure I’m distinguishing myself from the competition. And I knew some unique things about that buyer from my research. I could have shown off a bit and impressed her, but I fell back on some oldschool opening dialogue. Am I starting to get anxious on this call? I could be a bit nervous with resistance or perhaps I’m unprepared for some objections.
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Is the prospect appearing to disengage? Did I interrupt or change the direction of the conversation? Or was my eye contact weak, showing disrespect for the buyer? Is my body language poor? Sometimes I’m kind of slumped to the side, not sitting straight up. I noticed that I didn’t leave toward the buyer enough, which shows my interest and engagement in her words and ideas. Whoa! Look at how I’m dressed! That suit coat is not very flattering (and it really is a bit old) and my shoes need a shine. That’s unprofessional. You get the idea. There are plenty of learning moments in observing yourself that can be used to create tremendous improvement. You’ll decide whether to make easy changes or changes that might be more important to the sale or whatever criteria you choose. But you’ll get through them all eventually, when you want to be the best sales pro possible.
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Think about doing this the next time you converse with anyone. The next time means you can practice with a personal relationship. In fact, you can ask for a friend’s feedback to test the accuracy of your 2nd position selfassessment. It’ll all amount to good practice for your professional life. Decide today to observe yourself in action. And you’ll quickly realize when 2nd is best in selling. About the Author: Dan Seidman’s Ultimate Guide to Sales Training is now available. You’ll find him working his training magic from Ho Chi Minh City to Istanbul. For a unique keynote or to review your existing sales training program (it might be time to redesign!), contact Dan at 1-847-359-7860 or Dan@GotInfluenceInc.com.
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I Am Terrific! Drop the Brag and Boast. By Jim Signorelli If you’ve gotten past the title of this article (and many don’t) you’re obviously intrigued. How could anyone expect to sell anything this way? Telling someone you’re terrific is so, well... crass, obnoxious, and Neanderthal, anything but effective. Right? Curious, I created an experiment. I set out to see how people would actually react to someone saying “Hey there! I am terrific!”, not in written words, but in a real face-to-face interaction. So, taking life into my own hands, I stood out on a street corner to see how passersby might react. After a startled stare and/or a quizzical “huh?,” I either received a polite “no thanks” or a profane description of what I should do with or to myself. Consequently, I gave up on this experiment early on so I don’t have anything that would come even close to a projectable sample. But I’m going to take a leap of faith and hypothesize that the chances of someone responding with “okay, I’m buying whatever terrificness you’re selling,” are slim to none. So why would I do such a thing? What’s to figure out? Nobody talks this way. So what’s the big deal? Before you answer that, watch a little TV tonight and pay particular attention to the commercials. Take stock of how often brands depend on self praise in their advertising, as in “we are reliable, we are caring, tasty, smart, cool, friendly, sexy etc.” Look around you, on billboards, postcards, digital banners, restaurant place mats, business cards - wherever there is paper, plastic, video or audio paid for by an advertiser, chances are that it won’t be long before you see and hear words telling you how terrific some brand is. Okay, so most advertising isn’t quite as objectionable as some stranger walking up to a person pronouncing human superiority. Furthermore, being blatantly immodest may be frowned upon in one-to-one verbal exchanges, but it’s totally acceptable for advertisers. I recently visited my doctor for a routine physical and my annual guilt trip for loving an occasional cigar. When I called
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to make an appointment, the operator made it sound like she was upset. I don’t know, maybe I interrupted a winning hand of Solitaire. She put me on hold while she looked up my information. There, in phone purgatory, I heard three of the hospital’s latest commercials delivered by somebody I didn’t know (or trust) telling me that at this particular hospital “EXCELLENCE IS ALL AROUND YOU.” (I capped this to make up for not being able to put it against an emotional music background, like in the commercials). “How about that?,” I thought. In the twenty-some years I’ve been coming to this place, it never occurred to me that excellence was all around me. I thought all along that this health care center that I come to for the sake of staying alive was just mediocre. Gave me goose bumps. When I arrived for the appointment, I saw posters and brochures tagged “Excellence is All Around You.” Then, when I got the “you’re healthy” email from my doctor, the very same advertising tag line was placed under his signature. I like my Doctor (except for the cigar lectures). I like the hospital he’s affiliated with. I wouldn’t think of switching. But it has absolutely nothing to do with his or the hospital’s self-serving opinion that “excellence is all around me,” even if it is. I decide what’s excellent or desirably “terrific” - not the advertiser. Come to think about it, I could say it’s insulting. But I won’t. If I let myself feel insulted every time I was exposed to advertising like this, I would need to book another appointment with a different kind of doctor, the kind that treats depression. Why then, one might wonder, do brands advertise like this? Could it be that it’s always done this way, that it’s culturally acceptable for advertisers to brag and boast about who they are and what they do? We ignore most of it anyway, so why care? If you have a brand, and especially now at a time when social media is availing people to go public with their opinions apart from yours, you maybe ought to care. What’s the solution? I asked this of some astute marketing people recently, and their answer was to rely more on facts than opinions or puffed-up superiority claims. “Let the facts speak for themselves,” they said. Okay, I’m good with that. Seems logical, but even hard, cold, provable facts have their foibles. Last summer, we conducted a study of an ad for a client promoting the “fact” that it had just been recognized by J.D. Powers for having the “best customer satisfaction” as compared to its competitors. Surprisingly, it generated little or no positive response. Here were some of the things respondents said: “J.D. Powers is not me. How do they know what I’m looking for?” “Did [the advertiser] pay for this award? “Doesn’t do anything for me.” “Yeah, but what aren’t they telling us?” This is not to say that a brand fortunate enough to garner third-party endorsement like this should keep it hidden from consumers. But it does suggest that facts
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alone do not always outperform claims of superiority. So, let’s add it up. So far, we can’t brag. And facts aren’t as hard working as one might think. Is my purpose here to completely destroy the institution of advertising on which so much depends (including my living)? Am I out of my mind? Absolutely not, and I’m taking the 5th on that second question. Some brands have actually found the solution. Besides the usual suspects like Nike, Apple, and HarleyDavidson, there’s North Face who is now providing a great example with its’ “Never Stop Exploring,” campaign. Then there’s Corona’s “Find Your Beach,” and Chipotle’s “Cultivate a Better World. If you look closely, you won’t find one declarative “we” in ideas expressed by these brands, no brags, no boasts - just a clearly stated value or a belief in what the value as important. And by association with these beliefs, these brands tell an important story about themselves and without getting in their own way. Through these expressions, these brands say volumes about who they are without explanation. These are what I refer to as “StoryBrands.” I call them that because they function the way stories do. Stories don’t push influence on us, they pull us into becoming influenced. They inspire rather than force identification. And they create resonance to the extent that we share the underlying belief that is espoused. Gaining trust is everything when it comes to persuasion. And when you are the one trying to gain trust, credibility is influenced by many other factors besides what you think of yourself or an endorsement by a credible source. Thinking of your brand as its main story character with a cause or a reason for being, one that goes beyond the profit motive, can open up new, more creative alternatives for advertisers than the old standby “brag and boast” form of persuasion. Instead of being the hospital that brags “excellence is all around you,” perhaps an association with the value of excellence as a worthwhile pursuit in life, let alone health care, would be a more effective appeal. Instead of being the brand that cites some statistic about customer satisfaction, perhaps an association with the shared value of people caring for other people would render greater trust. As such, story logic provides an important remedy for advertising at a time when consumer skepticism and distrust are mounting. We were humans before we became consumers. As humans, we naturally gravitate to stories and the ideas, experiences and lessons with which they invite us to participate. Speaking of lessons, I only have two. Think of your brand as a story, and not as an opportunity to brag. And don’t try my experiment at home. About the Author: Jim Signorelli is the founder and CEO of ESW Partners, a Chicago-based marketing firm and author of the new book, StoryBranding: Creating Stand-Out Brands Through the Power of Story. For more information, please visit www.eswpartners. com <http://www.eswpartners.com> .
marketingtimes
Eight Ways to
Elevate Your Email Marketing by Nicole Merrett Successful email marketing campaigns are typically defined as such because of their higher open and response rates, and ultimately revenue generation. Small businesses busy with everyday tasks often need a little help – a blueprint leading them to results they’d define as “successful.” Here are several suggestions to help you craft more effective email campaigns.
1. Subject Line is Key Everyone has heard the saying, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” Unfortunately, there is a reason—because it’s a natural instinct. First impressions are critical in any form of communication. When people receive an email, the first thing they see is the subject line, which has the potential to either gain or lose their interest. Subject lines that include your company’s name as a reference and provide specifics supporting your email topic will typically gain higher open rates.
2. Pay Attention to Who It’s “From” To understand how important this is, think about your own inbox. Would you be more likely to open an email sent from advertising@xyzcorp.com or nicole.merrett@sage. com? People don’t want to feel like they are receiving an automated email. If readers don’t see you putting time into personalizing the “from” address, they won’t spend time considering what you have to say.
3. Mail Merge People love seeing their own name. It makes them feel the email was written to them personally and not sent to recipient #432. Online services have simple options to directly insert names from your contact database using a template editor.
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4. Variety Sending an email can be one of the most effective ways to grab readers’ attention. However, if you abuse the efficiencies email marketing provides, readers will stop showing interest in your emails. Consistency is essential with any marketing campaign, yet variety is equally important. How often do you send out newsletters, event invites, and updates that aren’t just soliciting a purchase? Are you getting an active response from recipients? If not, try something new. Be conscious about how many emails you send out each week or month. How are individuals interacting with your emails? Are you following up accordingly? How are you engaging the people that seem uninterested? Some email services include click-through analytics that monitor which readers spend time with your emails or forward them along to colleagues. Chalaran Direct Marketing represents tourism services and entertainment providers in Barbados and uses an E-Marketing tool to view open rates of its emails to hotels. Employees call recipients who spent the most time within an email and are thus more likely to be interested in its services. Chalaran likewise adjusts messages for recipients who do not spend much time in a particular email.
5. Quality Over Quantity It’s far more important to send out content-rich emails than it is to send out long or multiple emails. When you provide your contacts with quality content, they’re more inclined to read your emails and even forward them to friends. Gain the trust of your contacts by emphasizing quality of communication over quantity. One option is providing information they can use immediately. A seller of gardening supplies might offer a series of horticulture tips; and when a prospect is in need of planting materials, is likely to think of the insightful supply marketer first.
6. Content Suggestions How can you personalize your message content? Listen to your readers—the people who take time to contact you are most likely to become customers. Study their emails, questions, likes, and dislikes. Build or improve products with your customers’ input and they will notice you appreciate them and remain loyal. Social media monitoring is one easy way to listen to and engage your readers. Pay attention to what customers are saying online about your services and your industry. Use these insights to create valuable email content.
7. Test Everything Test the way your email appears, not only through
your own email service provider, but several providers. Test all links in your message to make sure they work. Test your graphics. Pictures are a great way to grab someone’s attention; but remember, pictures don’t always show up in email messages, so test the effectiveness of your email by viewing them in an email client with images turned off and making sure your message remains easy to understand and the call-toaction clear. Finally, test your email with a spam check tool before sending. Spam check services review email content to see what might get caught in spam filters.
8. And Test Some More with A/B Testing Your email has passed all the tests of looking good, having working web links, properly placed images, a call to action, and has made it through the spam check, but is not getting the open rates you expected. How come? There are many reasons including time of day, day of week, frequency, message, etc. So why not test it? Test one change at a time. For example, explore what days your recipients are more likely to open your email. Split up your list and send each set the same email on different days. Does the open rate stand out more on one day than another? A next step could be to determine the time of a particular day people are more willing to open and interact with your email. Again split your list up and send out the same email at different times of the day. A good starting point is the start of the day and middle of the afternoon. Studies have shown these are the best times of day to send emails. See if your tests concur. When you have a specific day and time recipients are most responsive examine your content. What sort of subject line gains the highest response? Do your recipients react more to graphics or text? Consider the placement of your call to action. Is one position more effective than another? Do your recipients appreciate lengthy, informational emails or do they prefer a quick read? Test each element one at a time. With email marketing you never need to settle for one formula because you will often have the flexibility to make improvements as you go. So make taking advantage of trends and technology the ‘constants’ in your digital marketing programs. They will help you achieve more tangible results with your campaigns. About the Author: Nicole Merrett is vice president of CRM marketing for Sage North America, a supplier of business management software and services for small and midsized businesses.
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