Why Content Needs To Be Authentic

I recently discovered the fabulous blog 1000 Awesome things by Neil Pasricha and it reminded me how often we overlook the simple, wonderful things right before our eyes, in our pursuit to create great marketing content.

The enormous success of Neil's blog is testament to how much we humans love to relate to one another.  His blog is a series of anecdotes. - they're observations.  Small stories, which make us nod our heads in empathy and think back to the last time we experienced the same feelings, first hand.

All marketing needs honesty if it's to connect with its audience.  

We want to think that every company is a person and understands us.  

We're interested in the reasons why a company does what it does rather than the products they produce.  

We buy into the emotion and the story of a brand and that shapes our perception and ultimately our purchase decisions.

We want content that confirms our view of the world, helping us to immediately feel part of a wider community.

If you stripped back the industry jargon, business speak and hype around your company, what would you have left to say?  It just might be what your customers want to hear.

9 Marketing Lessons from Disney

I've recently returned from a family holiday in tropical storm soaked Florida. I kept my promise to stay offline during those two fun filled weeks, but my marketing brain couldn't help itself.  Here are my observations from countless hours in the Magic Kingdom, on what makes Disney one of the worlds most successful marketing machines.  How many of them could you apply to your business?

1. Make your internal marketing as strong as you external marketing

When is an employee not an employee?  When they're a Disney “cast member”.  Oh yes, from the moment a person decides they want to work for the dream maker, they understand that their job is a performance.  Disney runs auditions rather than interviews. There's a Disney university to make sure staff not only know the brand, but can be the brand, in each and every circumstance.  Disney knows that its brand reputation relies on the 60,000+ cast members it employs and just like good actors, they need to know the script.

2. Understand that the journey is as important as the destination

People go to Disney World to be entertained, but with more visitors than rides, inevitably that entertainment is traded against long queues.  Having captured your attention to actually join the wait, Disney rewards your patience with numerous props and distractions, to keep the spirits high and take your mind off the snaking, (so you never know exactly how many people are in front of you), line ahead.  Often we rush to sell our products or services and all but ignore the journey the consumer takes to get to that point.  As a marketer, the more deeply you understand your customers motivation and their decision making journey, the more effectively you can sell your offering.

3. Choreograph the buying cycle

Talk about upsell/cross sell,  Disney never misses an opportunity to raid your wallet. Every ride ends in a gift shop, with merchandise directly related to the experience you've just had.  Rather than feeling mugged, you're grateful for the chance of instant retail gratification and bouyed by the buzz of the ride, you give no thought to how that 4 foot stuffed toy will ever fit on the plane home.  Retailers know the impulse buys to stock by the tills, what could you be doing to make your customer spend just that little bit more in the rush of their initial sale?

4. Mass market individuals

Throughout the park, visitors queue to have their picture taken with the Disney characters and somehow, despite the crowds of other people waiting to tick that box, when you finally get your turn, the experience is all about you - not rushed or processed, just as authentic as any meeting with a grown up in an animal costume can be.  We all crave personal service.  We want to be served and feel valued.  Today, brands need to act like people and be accountable to their audiences.  One size no longer fits all.

5. Move with the times

Disney know their audiences and realise that there are a whole new generation of users waiting to don those mouse ears.  There are now a host of apps to help you navigate your day, (useful when the rain has turned your paper map to pulp).  While an app might not be right for your business, your future customers are likely to be digital natives who expect the brands they endorse to keep up with the evolving market.

7. Fairytale customer service

I spent 20 minutes stuck on what should have been a 4 minute ride and was instantly given a queue jump ticket to make sure I got to try it again or move on to something new. Grumbles were turned to grins before myself and my fellow hostages had made it through the gift shop.  Customer service is all about turning dissatisfied consumers to their original state of trust in a brand, and ideally making them feel even more loyal with a great story to tell their friends.  In this social media age where companies can gain insight to the thoughts, feelings and reactions that result from our experiences, there's no excuse for poor customer service.

8. Build communities

First visit, birthday, wedding day, anniversary - Disney has a badge for every occasion and will encourage you to wear it with pride so that each cast member can acknowledge how special you, (and several thousand other people wearing the same badge), really are.  Belonging is a trait of human nature which is often overlooked by marketing departments, but sharing commonalities encourages us to be more open to possibilities because we feel safe in our tribe.

9. Keep in touch

Returning home I found two emails from Disney - one sharing photographs taken in the park and the other asking for feedback on my experience. They know that as my tan fades, I can relive the memories and once again feel the happy glow of the brand.  This follow up is not designed to sell, but rather to keep me engaged.  It's back to that personal relationship thing, which helps me believe that Disney cares about my input.  Customers love to give opinions and these shape the perception of your brand in the minds of others. Influence or be influenced.

I wonder if I'm too old to apply for that internship ......

Ghosts of Social Media Future (Guest Post by Eileen MacCallum)

For the next few weeks, my blog is going to feel unloved, as I pack my bags and head for a wifi free zone, but since it's always good to end on a high, this week's post is a real treat by my guest, the copywriting star that is Eileen MacCallum.  You can read more about her at www.aweebirdie.com.  Enjoy!

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One of my favourite pastimes is to imagine which hot SM gizmo currently enthralling us all will be mocked by my kids in twenty – no, make that ten – years time.

Those of us aged 40-plus have witnessed such a massive leap forward in communication methods during our lifetimes.  The giant black-screen-green-text computer monitor I used in my first-ever job (in the 90s) made such a loud humming noise that whenever I called my Dad from work, he knew it was me before I spoke.  These days it’d go straight back to the (online) shop.

The 24/7 me-me-me hail of social media commentary bouncing off our heads wherever we go has taken time to get used to.  The kids have grown up with it; it’s like breathing to them. Many folk from generations older than ours simply refuse.  Never having worked with it, they know they’ll never truly understand it. It’s an add-on they don’t feel they really need.

So which of our Twitter, Facebook or Instagram (and the rest) addictions will be joked about and which remembered fondly? As fondly as the boxy plastic phones of our childhood homes and student flats, dragged into bedrooms in a desperate bid for privacy, cord straining at the socket? It’s almost unthinkable now for us to have to share phones.  Or be unreachable – in a practical rather than, uh, emotional sense obviously.

Back in 2000 I felt quite edgy about getting my first mobile phone because it meant I’d always be contactable.  (My 15 year-old niece once asked me why I call it a mobile. To her it’s just a phone – they’ve always been mobile.) But at the time, I’d just broken up with an overly possessive boyfriend and the horrors of that kind of relationship PLUS constant contact were not to be contemplated. 

But I relented because I’d gone freelance and it was ‘for work’.  Ha. Hahahaha. Everyone knows mobile phones are FOR LIFE. Luckily I didn’t repeat my romantic car crash.

So. What shall I hear? “Oooooh God Mum, you must be the LAST person on earth still tweeting away to yourself!” *Nudges sibling, rolls eyes, pats maternal shoulder pityingly* #loserparent

Thoughts?

How to grab attention and make your audience care

We are the audience. Our mantra is “make us care and do it quickly”. I'd say this Central American boutique has nailed it.

Assuming your customers/legal departments have more of an issue with privacy than those showcased, how can you cut through the noise?

Create content that works for your audience.

1. Make a story worth sharing.
This might mean being controversial, going that extra mile or simply finding a new way to be remarkable (think Seth Godin's purple cow).  Worth sharing should also be teamed with easy to share.  In this wonderful world of social media, you have no excuses - include the icons, wherever and whenever you communicate with your audience.

2. Address the audience your audience already look to for advice.
Influencing the influencers is a sure fire way to get attention.  If you're not sure who the influencers are, search the blogs, google keywords and see who's mentioned most.

3. Be where your audience are.
This means not changing their behaviour, but helping them to find you in the places they already go and from the people they already relate to.  Your content should be so in tune with your market, that it appears wherever they are.

4. Is consistent.
Your style, your voice, your personality needs to be recognizable, so even if the brand logo is covered over, it's unmistakable to your audience.  Erika Napoletano is a great example of this.

5. Remember, above all, you're trying to reach fellow humans.
For each piece of content you produce, ask yourself ‘so what?’ Is this message worth interrupting someones day for?  Would I read this and if I did, how would it make me feel? If more companies asked these questions before posting, (virtually or physically) my recycle bins would be easier to close.

We care about brands and content that reaches us on an emotional level. Brands that connect, create loyal fans and make money.  Those who don't, don't.

How to tell your SEO from your PPC?

Today I've decided to decipher some marketing speak, with a simple comparison table.  

For those who don't know, SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation or how visible your website is to the rest of the world.  Since the holy grail for companies is to appear on the first page of any Google search (and ideally in the top 5 results on that page), SEO is a term that keeps marketers awake at night.

PPC, Pay Per Click is a way of directing traffic to your website, by letting you, the frenzied marketer, buy your way onto that elusive Google search front page.

Ideally you want to use both tools to complement your outreach, but understanding the basics is always a good start.

SEO	PPC
Organic search	Paid search
Keywords are embedded into your web content.  The search engine brings back results based on visitors search query. Fingers crossed they type your keywords	Visitors search query triggers an advert associated with a designated keyword, paid for by each company
Long term tool.  Keyword rich content must gradually climb the search charts.  This can take weeks or months to achieve	Faster for drawing customer attention.  Good short-term tool.  Ideally for those in the market to buy right now and for informing potential new customers
Uses location specific keywords but tends to be less attuned to geographic location especially when the searcher hasn't specified a geographic term in the search	Uses location specific keywords.  More effective at targetting local areas because you can designate where your advert  appears in certain geographic locations
Keywords must be used in the test or HTML headers of the page, which makes writing for search and readers challenging.  Overuse of keywords can actually make a site or page, drop in search engine rankings	You can designate multiple keywords in your PPC adverts without having to actually include them in the text of the advert
If your content isn't displayed on the first page of results, users may never see it	Adverts are positioned prominently at the top or right hand side of search results
Achieves highest potential when used to build brand recognition over a long period	Not every click is a conversion.  You pay for the click but they may bounce from your landing page or ignore the CTA
	You might be outbid by a company with larger finances pushing your advert lower down the page or onto the next one
	Make sure you have a landing page that matches your advert, showing they are exactly in the right place, with a clear call to action tested on different browsers

My best advice to SMEs is to get some professional help with this area. Customers need to know you're out there before the sales can start rolling in and many a great company has been lost in the noise of the internet because no-one could find them.

A Quick Way To Establish Your Brand And Its Values

Branding is generally associated with external audiences e.g. customers, prospects, partners, investors and press. Everything your company does, communicates your brand to the waiting world. From website to letterhead, receptionist to location, it all helps potential customers to decide how to respond to your outreach.

Branding is just as important for your internal audience (existing and future staff), but more often than not, when I speak to a new client, there's a lack of agreement between employees, around who their company is and what it does for its customers.

If you find yourself struggling to reach consensus across your organisation, answering the following questions can really help.

1. What words would you use to describe [insert company name] today?
2. What words would you like to be using to describe [insert company name] 5 years from now?
3. Who or what do you regard as your main competitors?
4. Which words would you use to describe the competitors mentioned in question 3?
5. Why do/would customers choose [insert company name] over the alternatives available?
6. Which one attribute would you want [insert company name] to be known for?
7. In your own words, what does [insert company name] do?

There are no right or wrong answers in this exercise.  Think of it as structured brain storming.  Ideally you should gather as many responses as possible - you can keep it to employees only or invite customer and distributor input too.  Look for patterns in the replies that you collect.  What sort of language is being used - descriptive, market jargon, active or passive voice?  Where are the gaps i.e. which questions did respondents struggle with most?

As a rough rule of thumb, your brand values, are the words which you'd use to describe yourself now and in the future, (the overlap in answers between questions 1 and 2). They are the essence of what your company stands for and should help potential customers to form expectations of service, quality, credibility etc.

Questions 3 and 4 help you define the market that you're in and let you compare the alternatives, just as your potential customers will, when making a purchase decision.  Make sure to include the internet and apathy alongside your named competitors, because todays endless choices often result in people making no decision at all.

Question 5 is designed to make you think about the benefits your product/service supplies, in the minds of your potential customers. Often companies present benefits in terms of product features rather than the actual value that customers gain from buying or using your product.  Think about how your product makes people feel, as well as what they actually get.  Knowing why people choose your brand makes messaging and content creation much easier.

Question 6 cuts to the core value.  What do you stand for?  If you say Volvo, people think of safety, and this trait has been stated in every marketing message that they produce, to convince us of its truth.  Brands need to  have a purpose.  None of us want to buy from faceless corporations.  What's at the heart of your organisation?

Question 7 tests whether you have a value proposition or not.  It's amazing how even people in the same department will paint a very different picture of their brand, when asked what their company does.  This is hardly surprising since we tend to define a company by our role in it, however, building your brand is about clearly and consistently sharing what you stand for, to position your offering in the hearts and minds of potential customers. If it seems like I've now looped back to the first paragraph in this post, then you can see how this all fits together.

In this age of social sharing, understanding your brand and its values, let's you define and reach your audience in ever more granularity.  Knowing who you appeal to and why, gives you the best chance of return on your marketing budget and there's no longer any excuse to mass market and hope something sticks.   As the saying goes, if you aim at nothing, you're bound to hit it.

Customer Choice - Getting them to choose you

Every decision we make is based on personal knowledge. What we know and what we believe (real or imagined), drives our choice, supports our decision-making and carves out our loyalty to brands. The most obvious example being Mac versus PC users, but this also holds true in choosing your sandwich filling. We all think we’re right.

As a marketer, my job is largely about persuading people to make their choice in favour of the company or product I’m representing at the time, but typically, little energy is allocated to working out prospect preferences, before battering them with thinly disguised sales messages, (aka content).

What can you do to help customers choose you?

1. Listen

What is their world-view? Google keywords to see what they’ll see, follow existing market influencers on twitter, scan blogs (especially the comments sections), to see what people really think about your brand or your market and the terminology they use. We have two ears and one mouth, so perhaps we should listen twice as much as we speak.

2. Consider that your prospect doesn’t believe your marketing because their experience of ‘you’ doesn’t match your hype

What if your prospect knows something about your brand that you didn’t tell them? Of course we all do, thanks to the wonder of social media and our always-on culture, so what are others saying/doing/using your product for, that might be shaping the perception of your prospects and what are you going to do about it?

3. Direct your marketing budget to tactics that will help your prospects know what you know

None of us want to be told we’re wrong, yet increasingly, marketing is aimed at questioning our judgement in a bid to woo us from the competition. Think about how you can address the ‘why change?’ question in your messaging, rather than expecting prospects to make a leap of faith. We’re often wedded to brands out of laziness/familiarity and we fear change and the uncertainty that that brings. Armed with such knowledge, your marketing needs to encourage and reassure, making the status-quo a pain far larger than any worries we might have about trying something new.

As Sam Walton, founder of Walmart once said,“There is only one boss - the customer. He can fire everybody in the company from the chairman down, simply by spending his money somewhere else.”