My friend Chris is a corporate trainer. She specializes in team building and she’s really good at it. I’d never seen her at work before, until last week when she asked me to help her out with a 1/2-day workshop at a local high-tech start-up. I didn’t have to do too much, just help set up, answer questions, and keep scores. The company had recently down-sized, or “right-sized”, or whatever the PC term for laying people off is these days, and they had a bit of a morale problem. Chris’ job was to get those who were left to work more collaboratively, think more creatively, and understand how they might do more with fewer resources. What red-blooded American employee doesn’t want to do more with fewer resources? 
When the employees filed into the room, they didn’t appear all that enthused. Most people look forward to a team-building workshop about as much as going to the dentist or eating brussels sprouts. (I happen to love brussels sprouts and my dentist, but that’s beside the point.) It didn’t take long for Chris to break the tension with a quick game. You see, Chris doesn’t really “train” people. She has them play games and in the process, whether they know it or not, they’re usually learning something important.
Within minutes almost everyone in the room was laughing and feeling relieved that they wouldn’t be spending the next two hours trust-falling into each other’s arms. In fact, they spent the next two hours working in teams with people they didn’t normally work with to build something totally unrelated to their business. They had clear goals and time-frames, and to be successful they had to work creatively and collaboratively. By all accounts, they had a blast doing it, too. Will this ultimately change their behavior at work? Maybe not, but it did encourage bonding and teamwork that otherwise might not have happened. I’m also willing to bet it made them feel a little bit better about the company they work for, too.
So, what does all this have to do with marketing? Well, I learned an important lesson that day. To change behavior, you can’t tell someone what to do (”Work more with less, or else!”) or how to do it (”Can’t we all just get along?”) and you can’t ask them to do what they expect you to (”Trust falls, anyone?”) That’s just boring. You have to give them something unexpected. This gets them to stop what they were doing (like ignoring you or being skeptical) and pay attention. Then, you need to let them try it out for themselves. This gets them engaged. Ignite their curiosity and their innate creativity and give them a hands-on (or virtually hands-on) opportunity try something new or different. And, if they learn something about you, your company, your product, your service, in the process, that’s even better.
I confess. I love Facebook. I’m addicted to it, which I guess is why I hate it so much. We, Facebook and I, have one of those “love-hate” relationships that you read about in O Magazine. I can’t quit it, but I have to.
Here’s why:
I’m completely distracted by all the Facebook email I get. I have this one guy on my friend list who recommends a new friend to me at least, oh, seventy-five times a day. Have I ever even met these people before? I’m beginning to feel spammed. No wait, I am being spammed.
I spend several minutes (ok, hours) a day mesmerized by the tiniest little things my “friends” are doing like: “reading the paper”, “going to buy cigarettes”, or, and this is a good one, “contemplating the meaning of life.” Wow, that’s deep. It’s kinda creepy that I’m even able to read this stuff. Am I really a voyeur?
I look at my friends’ photo albums. Sometimes it’s like looking at a car wreck. You don’t want to, but you just can’t help yourself. Again, I ask you, “Am I a voyeur?”
I join groups because my friends invite me or because they’re members, too. Keeping up with the Joneses extends even into cyberspace.
It makes me feel unique and part of something all at the same time. Isn’t that beautiful?
I can “spy” on old boyfriends. (Now what more can a girl ask for?)
I guess with all of these reasons to hate Facebook, there’s really no good reason to quit it, is there? Oh, gotta run, I have another friend request to approve…
We all think we have something to say, present company included, and we tend to say a lot. More, in fact, than we should. I once heard a political speechwriter say that he was asked to write a short speech for a candidate. He didn’t have time to write a short speech, so he wrote a long one instead. Paradoxically, brevity takes time. It’s much more difficult to describe something in ten words or less than it is to describe it in, say, ten pages. It’s often said that if you can’t explain something briefly, than you don’t really understand it. I think that’s true.
When we do take the time to distill our long meandering sentences into fewer words, those words become more powerful. Why do you think “soundbites” are so effective? “Where’s the beef?” is the perhaps one of the only things any of us who were alive (or awake) during the 1988 presidential campaign actually remembers. It says a lot, too. I don’t even have to explain what it means, do I? Well, OK: It was ripped off from a very popular Wendy’s commercial at the time that featured three old ladies looking at a huge hamburger bun with an itsy-bitsy burger inside. “Where’s the beef?” is what one of the old ladies demanded to know. At the time is was one of the most widely aired commercials, and very funny. It also made a celebrity out of the woman in the commercial. And, it provided George Bush, Sr. with a great one-liner to call into question the substance of his opponent’s policies. Policies? Who remembers what any of them are anyway?
The lesson of “less is more” applies to marketing as much as politics. We all know the old adage, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” It is. It takes us a nanosecond to understand what an image represents, while it takes us minutes, maybe hours, to absorb the same message in words. A good analogy is when you’re in a museum and you look at a painting. You have a visceral reaction to it. You may love it or hate it or even feel indifferent to it, but your reaction is emotional and immediate. Now, imagine going over to read the curator’s description of the painting. Huh? What are they trying to say? Granted it takes many years of grad school and at least one PhD to write like that, but still, it kinda takes all the fun out of the pretty picture, doesn’t it?
So, keep it simple. Less is more. ‘Nuff said.
Now, as I was saying…
“A sassier shade of green.” This is the tag-line of the new website, Ideal Bite, which I recently “discovered” in the Frog Pond. If you want to know what the Frog Pond is, you’ll have to read my post on BzzAgent. How’s that for cross marketing? OK, so what do I have to say about this down-to-earth, funny, forward-thinking site that offers daily eco-tips for everyday living? Well, I think I just said it. In fact, I like it so much I just told two friends about it. I did! Really! But it’s not enough for me to pass it on to two friends who I knew would find it both valuable and entertaining. I want to tell you why I thought it worthy enough of that age-old marketing channel, word of mouth.
I like it for two reasons. First, it’s written by real people, for real people, with real (and simple) advice for living a greener (read: eco-friendly) lifestyle. Second, it’s short, direct, and consistent. Every email I receive is divided into four sections: 1) the bite, which gives a quick overview of what’s in the email (you can read on or delete if you’re not interested); 2) the benefits, which gives a few bullets on what’s in it for you and the environment; 3) personally speaking, which tells you who on their staff - a actual person with an actual name - really uses the product or idea being promoted; and 4) wanna try?, which gets down to business and provides links to actual sites and products where you can learn more. Ideal Bite delivers exactly what it says it will: quick, digestible tidbits on better ways of doing everything from buying organic clothes and food to recycling and, well, buying baby toys. Which brings me to the only gripe I have against their e-newsletter: every email I received for the first week after I signed up was about how to buy more conscientiously for your baby.
Why is this a problem, you ask? Well, for starters, I don’t have a baby. I’m not even thinking about having a baby. This is why I didn’t list “targeted” as one of the reasons I like Ideal Bite so much. One small improvement that would make an email I look forward to getting every day even better would be if Ideal Bite found out more about me so they could send me emails that include content that’s important to me. Have I mentioned that this is all about me? While I definitely appreciate the ideas I get, it would be so much better if the ideas were ones that I could actually use. It would also make me feel a lot better about being a part of the Ideal Bite community. Now that I have that off my chest, what should I do with all those organic-cotton, non-toxic veggie teething toys I just bought?
I decided to become a BzzAgent. It all started a few weeks ago when a friend recommended I read “The Word of Mouth Manual” by Dave Balter, founder and CEO of BzzAgent, the Boston-based word of mouth marketing firm that boasts big-name clients like Nokia and Mastercard, as well as dozens of lesser-known companies hoping to spread a good word or two on their offerings.
Not only does Dave have a smart way to distribute his book - it’s a free download on BzzAgent’s website and several other sites (unless for some inexplicable reason you’d rather spend $45 for a hard cover copy on Amazon) - but he’s also cornered the market on word of mouth. He’s taken an age-old concept (hasn’t word of mouth been around a long time?), put his own imprint on it, and found a way to charge customers for the privilege of getting everyday consumers like you and me to check you out, give you feedback, and maybe even tell a few friends about you. To be honest, I don’t know what BzzAgent charges clients to participate in their Frog Pond, but I can’t imagine it’s cheap. Apparently, and contrary to popular belief, talk is not cheap.
BzzAgent also ensures that its agents (like yours truly) aren’t just looking to score free swag. No way. Anyone who’s in it for the discounts, samples, and other hand-outs is quickly weeded out with all the polls and reports that the firm requires you to complete on behalf of its clients. I’ll tell ya, it’s a big job being a BzzAgent. Just the other day I got another email asking me to check out four new frogs in the pond. BzzAgent does a good job of matching my interests to their clients’ products and services, too. The more I tell them about myself, the better the match. They also make it easy, of course, for me to tell my friends about the websites I’m checking out. At the end of the day, that’s what their clients want, right? And with over 323,000 referrals since its inception, the pond is a pretty lucrative place to be. Speaking of which, I’ve gotta get back there. I’ve got a few more frogs to recommend before I log off.
Oh, and you should pick up a copy of The Word of Mouth Manual, too. It’s a good read. Now how’s that for word of mouth?
Yesterday, the New York Times ran an article in the Technology section called “Woman to Woman, Online”. It was about the phenomenally successful website Dooce which chronicles the real day-to-day life of Heather Armstrong, her 4-year-old daughter Leta, and husband Jon. The gist of the article was that websites and blogs that target women are successful with advertisers because women are the primary decision makers and purchasers in their families. Also, relationship junkies that we are, women love to follow the relationships of others and share the experiences that are similar to their own. So, they’ll return time and again to websites that offer this. The formula has worked well for Heather Armstrong, whose site attracts more than 850,000 readers and lucrative advertisers like Crate & Barrel, Walgreens, and Ing Direct.
What struck me about the story of Dooce isn’t so much that it’s written by and for women, but that its success lies in its sheer, uninhibited honesty. To risk using an overused word, it’s “authentic”. This is why readers love it and continue to come back to it. Oh, and yeah, they might even click on a few of the ads they see on the sidelines. The bottom line is that they trust Heather and relate to her trials, tribulations, and joys of motherhood.
Heather writes with honesty and humor, making everything about Dooce palpably real, and to me, that’s what makes it successful. It’s why so many blogs and websites like Heather’s attract such large and loyal audiences. They’re not trying to be anything; they just are. You can’t manufacture it either, which is why so many corporate blogs that try so hard to create a feeling of openness and transparency fail so miserably. They’re not real. There are too many cooks in the kitchen, so to speak, spoiling the broth.
If you want to speak to someone, maybe even many people out there in the blogosphere, be sure to speak openly and honestly, without pretense. Keep it real.
You have 2 minutes to sell your idea. Quick! What do you say? I’ve been thinking about this a lot recently, now that I’m “on my own”, a free agent, an online marketing consultant rather than a full-time company employee. Regardless of whether you’re self-employed or not, an elevator pitch is a valuable tool in any situation where you must convince someone else of something that’s important to you. This became clear to me recently before a yoga class. I was chatting with someone else who was also new to the studio and, after exchanging names, I got the standard “And what do you do?” question. “Well,” I said, new to the land of freelancers and not sure how to position myself here, “I’m an online marketing specialist.” “Oh,” she said blankly. “What’s that?” This caught me by surprise. Doesn’t everyone know what an online marketing specialist is? Apparently not. While this woman was clearly not in my target market, it doesn’t mean that she doesn’t know someone who knows someone who is a potential customer, which is why it’s really important I’m able to make it crystal clear to her and anyone else what, exactly, it is I do.
I muddled through my explanation of what an online marketing specialist does. “Uh, well, you know, like web stuff, online advertising, email?” That helped, but not really. In hindsight, I should’ve been prepared with a clear, succinct, 30-second spiel that described what I do. Not that every conversation should be considered a networking opportunity, but you know, it kind of is. In the last few weeks, since embarking on my own, I’ve learned a few important lessons about the elevator pitch.
First, it should be articulated in simple, non-buzzword, terms that anyone (assuming they speak the same language as you) can understand. Bad: “I develop breakthrough creative in the advergaming space to drive eyeballs to sticky websites.” Good: “I develop fun, interactive ways to attract people to websites.”
Second, it should be as specific as possible: What do you do and who do you do it for? Good: “I develop fun, interactive ways to attract people to websites.” Better: “I develop fun, interactive ways to attract people between the ages of 13 and 18 to video gaming websites.”
Third, but certainly not last, make it clear what you can do for them. Everyone wants to know what’s in it for them. In other words, it’s not just what you do, but how your client will benefit from what you can do for them. Great, so you design cool websites that are beautiful to look at, but does it mean that your client will get more web visitors? Will these visitors spend more time or money on their website as a result of your award-winning designs? If there’s no benefit to them, why should they care?
So, next time your getting ready to go to yoga, or the grocery store, or the movies, or anywhere else you might run into someone who asks you “And what do you do?” remember these three characteristics of the perfect pitch: simple, specific, and benefits-oriented. Now, go out and sell your idea.
I’m back. Back from where, you ask? Back from a rather long hiatus from Marketing in Jeans, I say. But I’ve returned and I’m here to stay, and with a new look, too. You see, I’m teaching myself how to use WordPress. Being an extreme “J” on the Myers-Briggs scale (that’s also known as a big-time planner for those of you unfamiliar with Myers-Briggs), the first thing I did was buy the latest edition of WordPress for Dummies. I skimmed through the first several chapters, then quickly decided that I’d read enough and it was time to take some action. So I closed the book and went online.
After determining that a self-hosted version of WordPress was the way to go, I proceeded… slowly but surely… to bungle my way through the whole process of setting up a blog (or two, actually). I got a web host, an FTP client, added speed dials to all the tech support lines I would need, and away I went. And, here I am. Not bad. I’m really happy with what I’ve learned so far. I highly recommend it.
I’m the type of person who tends to get easily frustrated with technical jargon, but I’ve been really pleased with my friends at Blue Host (web host) and Go Daddy (domain registrar). And so far, WordPress has been easy to navigate. See? I’m using it now. So, all of this is just my way of saying that I’m happy to be back and I promise to continue writing about fun and unusual (and even mainstream) marketing stuff. Onward.
