Blog

How to Always Be Right

August 6, 2008 | 2 Comments »

An old coworker of mine had a knack for always being right.

He could disagree with a room full of senior executives in a way that compelled them to agree with him.
He always got his way. Even when that way was, at first, enormously unpopular.

How did he do it? He was a usability expert.
For some reason, every usability expert I’ve ever met has been a walking encyclopedia of data.
Usability experts have a true and undying zeal for statistics. “30% of users do this when you do that,” etc.

True to his calling, this coworker had a statistic for practically everything.
I don’t know how many of these statistics were actually made up, but they were very compelling.
Who can argue with a statistic?

Like beauty, being right is in the eye of the beholder.
Especially when the beholder is your client or your boss.

How do you get buy-in for creative when your boss or client disagrees with you—
but you just KNOW you’re right?
Arguing won’t get you very far.

You can do what Erik did.
Arm yourself with compelling statistics.
(Statistics that are also verifiable and from a trusted source.)

But what if you’re not an encyclopedia of statistical knowledge?
And what if you don’t have time to spend 3 hours hunting for some obscure statistic on how email subject line lengths affect open rates to prove your point?

Thanks to Marketing Sherpa, you don’t have to.

Here’s your new Emergency Rightness Deployment Plan:

1. Sign up for a free trial membership of Marketing Sherpa.

• It’s $397 a year, but if you just get the free trial in a pinch, you can cancel at the end of the month. Don’t cancel, though. I’m not getting any affiliate commissions. It’s just that this really is the most valuable resource ever created for marketers. (Sorry, I don’t have a statistic for that.)

2. Click here to get in touch with your personal Marketing Sherpa librarian. This is a real librarian with a Masters in Library Science, whose job is helping you find what you need. Her name is Erin. You can call or email her what you’re looking for, and she’ll let you know where to find it.

• Maybe you’re looking for proof that shorter subject lines are more effective.
• Or, that having a call to action on the right side of the page works better than on the left side.
• Or, that having a subscription embedded in the page itself will be much more effective than making it a link.
• Do you have time to hunt through their thousands of articles to find what you need? Me, neither. Now your personal librarian will find it for you!

3. Armed with your statistic or best practice, present it with a flourish to the client.

Success! Not only did you just make your case, but you reduced the chance of future arguments.

Now, you may say your boss or client hired you because you’re the expert. They should trust your recommendations. And, if they don’t agree with you, that’s their loss.

In reality, even though most people want to hire the best experts, it’s difficult for them to put aside their opinions all the time. It’s our job to help them see the light. Think of it as part of the service you provide. You want to help them get out of their own way.

Without getting in your own way spending the day hunting for statistics.

Now that you know how easy it is to be right, go forth and librarify! (And let me know how it went below.)

2 Comments »

Eat your objections. They’re good for you.

July 21, 2008 | 2 Comments »

Once upon a time in a far away land, I decided to become an executive assistant at a private equity firm.

I was greener than the greenest blade of grass on the greenest hill of Ireland on the rainiest day of Spring.

For the first 3 months, I made every mistake possible.
I couldn’t help it. I didn’t know what I didn’t know.

Marketing a growing business means quite a bit of the same.
We’re all bound to make mistakes, to irritate our customers, to not know what we didn’t know.

Just know this: Even though there’s always a mistake around the corner, at least you can use the bad feedback and objections to make better marketing. Yes, all those pesky mistakes & resulting complaints and objections are excellent background reading for your friendly local copywriter.

For example, I’m currently working on several online & web writing projects for a growing clean tech company.

To start me off, they provided some existing marketing materials and a Word doc with the key marketing messages, including benefits & reasons their product was better than competitors.

This was all very compelling. But it just so happened that I had read Joseph Sugarman’s masterpiece, The Adweek Guide to Copywriting. (Highly recommended!)

He emphasizes the importance of asking why someone WOULDN’T want to buy from you.
That’s where the juicy stuff is.

‘So,’ I asked my client, ‘why wouldn’t someone want to buy from you?’

He remembered an old Powerpoint document a market research firm had put together.
Not only did I get the golden reasons why people didn’t want to buy their product, but I also got the most compelling benefits of the company’s products, in order of importance.

It was Christmas.
How does one use this document?
To address prospects’ objections in a very subtle way, before they even know they have them.

So, by the time prospects get to the end of the email or landing page, they don’t have any “reasons why not” left.

And, they feel like they can trust the company, because no one is trying to cover up the truth by hiding behind exciting benefits.

So, next time someone says ‘No!’ write it down. When you need to create your sales messaging or your marketing copy, you can create it with both objections and benefits in mind.

I keep all my random notes on Backpack, which makes it easy to collaborate with others (or with my multiple personalities).

Tell me, why WOULDN’T you want to comment here to share your thoughts?

2 Comments »

Are you talking with your mouth full?

July 14, 2008 | No Comments »

You know the feeling. You’re in a nice restaurant, meeting with Important People, and you’ve just taken a big bite. A bite slightly too big for polite society, but it’s too late now.

Now your cheek is bulging and you’re trying to chew it all before anyone sees.
And it’s now that the Most Important Person turns to you & asks you a Very Important Question.

Your mouth is full of juicy steak & potatoes & gravy & cranberry sauce. You know if you open it to speak, juice will drip down your chin and you’ll embarrass yourself.

But the sense of urgency you feel around speaking as soon as possible and giving as much information as possible is overwhelming.

You know this person could easily turn to someone else while you’re finishing your bite and you’ll lose this critical opportunity.

So, what do you do? You do what marketers have been doing for years.

You talk with your mouth full.
Juice drips down your chin as you expound on the intricacies of data mart consolidation.

Meanwhile, the person you’re trying to impress?
Besides trying to hide his amusement/disgust, he’s also got no idea what you’re saying.
Your mouth is full.
But he’s polite. So he smiles, nods, and then turns to the next person.
So long, Important Opportunity.

There’s a marketing equivalent of talking with your mouth full.
It’s trying to give the prospect too much education at once.
(Or, skipping right to the call to action without letting them chew on benefits.)

In response, the prospect checks out, vowing never to visit your website again.

Are you trying to do everything at once, all in one step?
Educating the prospect on every little detail of what it is, how it works, and 50 FAQs?

Maybe you feel a sense of scarcity, because you’re afraid prospects will never get another chance to face this plateful of cookies (aka your website) again.

Here’s a quick and easy solution that actually gets better results.

Build an appetite for your services over time by combining education and benefits in bite-sized servings.

Within each serving, invite them to take the next step.

Whether it’s downloading a white paper or signing up for a 10-day tour, keep them engaged.

Keep serving them courses.

This gives both of you time to finish chewing.

Embrace the chunk. Your dining companions—and prospects—will thank you.

No Comments »

Does your brand’s carpet match the drapes?

June 12, 2008 | No Comments »

Here’s an example of a company that makes you fall in love with it, that’s not Apple. It’s called MOO. Their tagline? “We love to print.”

How can you not love that tagline? It’s simple and direct. It’s not trying to sidle up next to you breathing in your face with its pork-rind breath. It’s friendly and approachable in all the right places.

Now, MOO has a remarkable product. You can print a pack of business cards, each with a different image on the back—and choose from any number of ‘hey-where’d-you-get-that-cool-business-card’ formats, including itty-bitty business cards, cards that stand up on one end, note cards, thank-you cards, birthday cards–you get the picture. And if you don’t, they’ve got that taken care of, too. You can choose images for your card from several talented designers. You have to try hard to try to create cards that look bad.

To match their remarkable product, MOO also boasts remarkable design and copy. Golf claps!

This isn’t extraordinarily difficult to do. Lots of growing companies have remarkable products and matching remarkable websites. But here’s where most of us get into trouble: we quit while we’re ahead. Maybe we grow so fast that we forget about a few little details. I’ve been banned from using the word “experience” in this context, but it’s true. They forget about the customer’s brand experience. The carpet doesn’t match the drapes.

Here’s how it usually happens: You get an automatically-generated email from a customer service bot that says something like “Your order has been processed. Thank you for shopping with us. Click here to track your order.” (I always end up clicking on that link before my order has shipped.)

I don’t even notice when emails like this come, because they come all the time. Most of us don’t expect any better. It’s almost as if companies stop trying once you become a customer. NOOO! You and I know that our customers are possibly our most valuable sales tools. They can send us referrals. They can become sources of repeat business. They can write blog posts about us out of thin air.

If you want to give your customers and clients a good time–a good time that’s consistent with the remarkable time you’ve given them so far–you need to pay attention to the tiny details like those pesky emails and secret, hidden pages.

When a company does get it right, people definitely notice. And I’m all about getting extra points with customers. Aren’t you? MOO is one of those companies. Here’s what I got when I ordered my pack of Moo cards:

• A follow-up email to let me know my order had been “dispatched” (see below)
• A modest little package of MOO cards fastened by a pink sticker that said, simply, “YAY!”
• A reorder form

Here’s the email in all its glory:

Hooray!

The following items from your order are in the mail:
1 x Ready Made Notecards (16)

Please note, as your order will be shipped via First Class/Airmail, it
should be with you in around 5-7 working days, but that it won’t have a
tracking number.

Remember, I’m just a bit of software. So, if you have any questions
regarding your order please first read our Frequently Asked Questions
at:
http://www.moo.com/help/

and if you’re still not sure, contact customer services (who are real
people) at:
http://www.moo.com/service/

Thanks,
Little MOO, Print Robot

Hooray, indeed! Moo delivered a consistently good time.

This didn’t happen by accident. Someone actually planned it this way. So, how can the rest of us be like MOO?

Step 1: Create a list of your target audiences.

Step 2: Create a process map of how they interact with you. When do they communicate with you? When do exchanges take place? When is information conveyed? When do you have an opportunity to communicate with them?

Step 3: Make sure all the emails, landing pages, letters, and packaging they receive reflect the tone and messaging you gave them from the start.

Not only does taking the time to do things right make you look good, but it makes your customers feel reassured. Like you actually know what you’re doing. Which cuts down on those emails they’ll send in the middle of the week asking about “status.” The word “status” is actually derived from an ancient Greek term meaning “I haven’t heard from you in a while and I’m afraid you’re a flake but I don’t think you are please respond & let me know you’re still alive.” So, it makes them trust you more. And it makes them smile. And most of us would like more people who can make us smile in our lives.

If you want to get right down to the day-to-day communications, especially for those of us who are one-man-shows, you don’t have to spend hours thinking of the perfect turn of phrase. Simply apply this process to the most common types of reasons that you email people. Then, create standard sentences that you can use over and over again.

If you use a Mac, you can automate this process using a program called TextExpander, a customizable typing shortcut tool. With TextExpander, you can create triggers that tell the program to drop in standard bits of text, like sentences and paragraphs. It’s an easy way to create a unified experience for the repeatable tasks, without having to kill yourself with daily microcopywriting projects.

With today’s technologies, even a little guy can seem like a big guy. Which is especially important if you’re a little guy who sells to big guys.

What companies do you know of that deliver a remarkable brand experience from start to finish? Do tell.

No Comments »

Does your brand’s carpet match the drapes?

| No Comments »

Here’s an example of a company that makes you fall in love with it, that’s not Apple. It’s called MOO. Their tagline? “We love to print.”

How can you not love that tagline? It’s simple and direct. It’s not trying to sidle up next to you breathing in your face with its pork-rind breath. It’s friendly and approachable in all the right places.

Now, MOO has a remarkable product. You can print a pack of business cards, each with a different image on the back—and choose from any number of ‘hey-where’d-you-get-that-cool-business-card’ formats, including itty-bitty business cards, cards that stand up on one end, note cards, thank-you cards, birthday cards–you get the picture. And if you don’t, they’ve got that taken care of, too. You can choose images for your card from several talented designers. You have to try hard to try to create cards that look bad.

To match their remarkable product, MOO also boasts remarkable design and copy. Golf claps!

This isn’t extraordinarily difficult to do. Lots of growing companies have remarkable products and matching remarkable websites. But here’s where most of us get into trouble: we quit while we’re ahead. Maybe we grow so fast that we forget about a few little details. I’ve been banned from using the word “experience” in this context, but it’s true. They forget about the customer’s brand experience. The carpet doesn’t match the drapes.

Here’s how it usually happens: You get an automatically-generated email from a customer service bot that says something like “Your order has been processed. Thank you for shopping with us. Click here to track your order.” (I always end up clicking on that link before my order has shipped.)

I don’t even notice when emails like this come, because they come all the time. Most of us don’t expect any better. It’s almost as if companies stop trying once you become a customer. NOOO! You and I know that our customers are possibly our most valuable sales tools. They can send us referrals. They can become sources of repeat business. They can write blog posts about us out of thin air.

If you want to give your customers and clients a good time–a good time that’s consistent with the remarkable time you’ve given them so far–you need to pay attention to the tiny details like those pesky emails and secret, hidden pages.

When a company does get it right, people definitely notice. And I’m all about getting extra points with customers. Aren’t you? MOO is one of those companies. Here’s what I got when I ordered my pack of Moo cards:

• A follow-up email to let me know my order had been “dispatched” (see below)
• A modest little package of MOO cards fastened by a pink sticker that said, simply, “YAY!”
• A reorder form

Here’s the email in all its glory:

Hooray!

The following items from your order are in the mail:
1 x Ready Made Notecards (16)

Please note, as your order will be shipped via First Class/Airmail, it
should be with you in around 5-7 working days, but that it won’t have a
tracking number.

Remember, I’m just a bit of software. So, if you have any questions
regarding your order please first read our Frequently Asked Questions
at:
http://www.moo.com/help/

and if you’re still not sure, contact customer services (who are real
people) at:
http://www.moo.com/service/

Thanks,
Little MOO, Print Robot

Hooray, indeed! Moo delivered a consistently good time.

This didn’t happen by accident. Someone actually planned it this way. So, how can the rest of us be like MOO?

Step 1: Create a list of your target audiences.

Step 2: Create a process map of how they interact with you. When do they communicate with you? When do exchanges take place? When is information conveyed? When do you have an opportunity to communicate with them?

Step 3: Make sure all the emails, landing pages, letters, and packaging they receive reflect the tone and messaging you gave them from the start.

Not only does taking the time to do things right make you look good, but it makes your customers feel reassured. Like you actually know what you’re doing. Which cuts down on those emails they’ll send in the middle of the week asking about “status.” The word “status” is actually derived from an ancient Greek term meaning “I haven’t heard from you in a while and I’m afraid you’re a flake but I don’t think you are please respond & let me know you’re still alive.” So, it makes them trust you more. And it makes them smile. And most of us would like more people who can make us smile in our lives.

If you want to get right down to the day-to-day communications, especially for those of us who are one-man-shows, you don’t have to spend hours thinking of the perfect turn of phrase. Simply apply this process to the most common types of reasons that you email people. Then, create standard sentences that you can use over and over again.

If you use a Mac, you can automate this process using a program called TextExpander, a customizable typing shortcut tool. With TextExpander, you can create triggers that tell the program to drop in standard bits of text, like sentences and paragraphs. It’s an easy way to create a unified experience for the repeatable tasks, without having to kill yourself with daily microcopywriting projects.

With today’s technologies, even a little guy can seem like a big guy. Which is especially important if you’re a little guy who sells to big guys.

What companies do you know of that deliver a remarkable brand experience from start to finish? Do tell.

No Comments »

3 simple procedures that brought a white paper back from the dark side

May 15, 2008 | No Comments »

A successful graphic design firm came to me with an emergency.
Cradling the near-lifeless body of a white paper, they asked whether there was anything I could do to help.

This wasn’t a white paper for a client. It was their own white paper, which they planned to distribute to clients, demonstrating thought leadership on green design best practices.

Like a much-loved velveteen rabbit, the white paper had been tended to for weeks, a process that seemed to have had the unfortunate effect of making things worse.

Now, with just a week to go until clients would start expecting the white paper, they realized it wasn’t anywhere near finished. They weren’t quite sure what to do about that. But they knew they had to do something. And they had less than a week.

I donned my gloves and turned on the lamp. An engaging, readable writing style indicated a strong, steady pulse. But its lack of a cohesive structure or title gave it a sickly appearance. It resembled a series of loosely-knit-together case studies. Inner organs on the verge of spilling out. Not pretty.

This white paper was in no shape to be trotted out in front of clients and prospects. If we didn’t act quickly, it might be too late.

I wasted no time in putting together a proposal. When they accepted, I suited up. Snacks were arranged by my work station so I could operate and eat without interruption. A sturdy Sigg bottle, filled with fine Oakland tap water, kept me well-hydrated.

Then I began the operation–a series of 3 simple procedures.

1. First, I looked at the white paper from the reader’s perspective. The primary benefit people seek to gain from a white paper is getting new ideas to help them solve their problems and overcome their challenges.They seek insider information. Things they can’t find on the street.

With this principle in mind, I gave the white paper a title, “What’s Green Got to Do with It?” and a subtitle: “How to Incorporate Sustainable Design Practices Into Your Overall Marketing Strategy.” Already the color was starting to come back into its pages. A simple title structured around the problem and how to solve it guided the structure for the rest of the piece.

2.Secondly, I restructured the rest of the white paper by writing an introduction, a description of the challenges–and the opportunities–an overview of the solutions, and then a few examples of approaches they and others had taken. This is where the existing case studies fit in quite nicely. I also wrote a conclusion that included a call to action.

3.Finally, I added headlines throughout, breaking up the copy with bullet points and boxes to make it easy on the eyes. Scanners would be rewarded, not punished. I also added a touch of polish by editing the 10-page document from head to toe.

Today,the white paper has just finished production and is ready to be presented to clients. The firm now faces the good problem of how to get their baby in front of as many eyeballs as possible. They provided expertise and did the research; and, with a little help from a skilled copy surgeon, they can now be seen as thought leaders by clients and prospects alike.

No Comments »

Inside the writer’s studio: the making of a boring company blurb

| 2 Comments »

I’m writing my company blurb. You may think it’s boring. I think it’s impressive.
If it’s good enough for big, important companies, it’s good enough for me.
This is my first day using my new, enterprise-class company blurb to pitch my services.

Let’s have a conversation!

You: Hi Kelly. What’s up?

Me: Hi. I’m Kelly Parkinson. An innovative, industry-leading copywriter with cutting-edge marketing solutions, superior copywriting capabilities, deep insights, and the proven ability to get bottom- and top-line results for leading global companies around the world.

You: Why are you talking funny?

Me: Whatever do you mean?

You: I don’t understand a word you just said. I mean, I understood the individual words, but together they formed a convergence of confusion.

Me: Let me simplify things for you a bit. I’m innovative. That’s all you need to know.

You: Oh! I’ve been waiting for someone truly innovative to come along. What makes you innovative?

Me: I help people solve problems. But I do it in this really high-tech way that you’ve never heard of and that I can’t tell you about because it’s patented. It’s my secret sauce. I can’t describe it in any detail without giving away my formula, but I did give it a great name. Do you want to hear it?

You: Sure.

Me: Sign here first, please.

You: An NDA?

Me: Lawyer’s orders. It’s called the Linguistic Marketing Capacitator. It’s the engine powering all of my copy for my clients so they can save more time and earn more money.

You: Wow. Okay.

Me: I’d love to have a conversation with you sometime to further explore whether we might be able to work together.

You: Well, I’m in the middle of something right now. And I still don’t understand what it is you do or how you can help me solve my problems.

Me: It sounds like you just need more information.

You: Yes! I need to understand how exactly you can help me.

Me: Why don’t I send you my datasheet, brochure, and white paper, and add you to my once-a-week enewsletter? Also, I will add you to my lead tracking system and keep following up with you so we can develop a relationship and, over time, I can reveal myself to you. By this time next year, you’re going to be so impressed with everything I can do!

You: Sure. See ya!

Would you hire me with this pitch? What went wrong?
I modeled it after the leading companies. I used the word “innovative.” I sounded intelligent.
I failed to connect.
You wanted someone to speak to you in clear, jargon-free language. And you wanted someone to speak to you in terms of the problems I could help solve.

So, what’s good for the big, important company wasn’t necessarily good for me. And, I’d argue, it isn’t good for that company, either.
Why not let the boring companies confuse and obfuscate, while you connect clearly with your target audience in a human, authentic voice?
Here are a few tips:
If your blurb uses any word you wouldn’t actually say in real life,
if it focuses on you and not on the problems you help solve,
if it uses 3-syllable words with abandon,
abandon it!
It’s just going to cause you–and everyone who hears it–significant emotional distress.

Stop focusing on yourself and on perfecting the ultimate description.
Focus on your customers.
It’s the only way to truly impress them.

2 Comments »

How Chuck E. Cheese made me a better thought follower

| No Comments »

During my senior year of high school in Southern California, a friend told me about a job opening at Chuck E. Cheese.

This wasn’t just any job opening. It was for the actual character of Chuck E. Cheese.
To be Chuck E., to inhabit him completely, meant so much more than being a gigantic, life-sized mouse.
It meant embodying a symbol of friends and family, birthdays and straight-A-report cards, and my first favorite flavor combination: pizza and root beer.
Also, it meant making wild gestures and dancing on tables while hiding my true identity. In other words, a dream job.
My qualifications were stellar for the oversized-animal-character industry. I had already worked for 3 years as a puppeteer/actor in a Sesame-street like production for kids. And, I had 3 years babysitting experience. Who better qualified than me, I asked myself? Who?

I aced the first interview. The assistant manager seemed nice enough.
Her boss–my second interview–wasn’t so nice. I could feel him scanning me for signs of moral weakness. It seemed I lacked the gravitas Chuck E. required. This made me sad, which detracted from the cheerful, half-crazed, up-for-anything image I had created for myself.
Then he asked me this solemn question: “Are you a leader, or are you a follower?” I had to be honest. I conceded I was a follower. But a follower who loved Chuck E. Cheese. This must not have been the answer he was looking for. I didn’t get the job.

Since then, I’ve come to loathe the word “leader” and all the things it implies.
It’s as if leaders inhabit this special, higher plane of being, while followers trail slime and drool behind them.
When it comes to marketing, we’ve all heard the benefits of becoming a thought leader. But no one talks about the benefits of becoming a thought follower.
All of that seems to be changing, though. The internet is ushering in a new era for followers and followership, making it easy & respectable & normal to become a thought follower–and even to use this as a way of increasing your business’ revenue.

I was turned onto a book called “Connect! A Guide to a New Way of Working from GigaOM’s Web Worker Daily” by Anne Truitt Zelenka (thanks, Pam Slim).
This book finally helped me “get” what all the Web 2.0 fuss is about. Blogs, I get. RSS feeds, check. But IM & Twitter & Facebook just seem like distractions. “I’m washing my cat now.” “I’m drinking coffee.” “I just found an old sock.” “I’ve been turned into a Zombie!” Who cares?
But then I realized that Twitter and all the rest are really just better ways for us to follow each other. Not necessarily to show off everything we know, but to ask questions, to have conversations, to learn from others. The point of communications–and marketing–isn’t necessarily to persuade, to lead, to argue our points, to tell people this is this and that is that. Rather, it is to be open-ended. To invite discussion, iterations, disagreements, whatever. Just to be open.

We can start by never answering Twitter’s question: “What are you doing?” In fact, as a rule of thumb, we shouldn’t answer questions. Maybe we can start by asking them instead. Or, exploring the questions, the problems, without telling someone what they should do or what they should think.
Sometimes I learn more by posing a question than by answering one–especially with blogs.
It’s scary putting myself out there. Like that Chuck E. Cheese interview all over again.
But that’s the risk we take when we rise above the slime to reach out to human life forms.

So I will be proud. I will stand tall in my thought-followership. Because when I follow the right way, it helps me to be a better leader. And I won’t need a mouse costume for that.

No Comments »

How I used LinkedIn to get a 41% response rate & 6 new clients

March 23, 2008 | 5 Comments »

5 Comments »

Are you making these mistakes on your LinkedIn profile?

| No Comments »

No Comments »