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Message Before Medium
One of my favourite activities in art class was poster design. I loved the constraint of having a single medium and limited space, with which to deliver the message.
Today, there have never been more ways to reach an audience.
Just as we master one medium, another channel presents a new opportunity to distribute our message.
It’s tempting to try to master every new medium that could enable us to reach more people.
But since our objective must always be resonance over reach, it isn’t the medium that should dictate our communication strategy—it’s the message.
The more time we spend mastering the message, the clearer we are about what we have to say, who our message is for and why it matters.
Image by Gary Knight
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Competence AND Character
Our family moved to Melbourne almost five years ago. By some happy accident, we ended up finding the perfect home—an 1850’s terrace, one of the first houses to be built in the city.
The house next door has been empty since we moved in. The elderly couple who raised their family in it had hardly updated it in seventy years. We knew it would be sold one day and the new owners would renovate. We looked forward to seeing the old home restored to its former glory. But we were dreading the day the builders arrived with their jackhammers.
The house sold last winter and the builders arrived a few weeks ago. They are still at the demolition phase, and I have no idea about the quality of their workmanship yet. But we’re more at ease about how the building work next door might affect us—not because it won’t, but because of how the builders are going about it.
It turns out that the builders are wonderful. They do everything they can not to disturb us and reassure us that they will make good on things that affect our property. It’s their character, not their competence that makes them stand out.
Character is what we choose to do.
As individuals and brands, we’re judged by our character, not just our competence.
How does your character differentiate you?
Image by Pictr73
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Earned Loyalty
filed in Strategy
Have you ever contemplated changing banks? Even if you have thought of switching if you’re like most people you haven’t followed through.
40% of Australians still bank with the institution where their parents opened their childhood account. 20% of us have either never thought about switching banks or think it’s too much effort. This is the reason school banking programs exist. Banks get us while we’re young. They know we’ll think it’s too much hassle to change in years to come.
Customer inertia is the reason most banks don’t need to reward loyalty.
Thankfully, in a world of infinite choices, most companies can’t rely on customer apathy to stay in business.
We have the privilege of working to be indispensable to customers and making them feel like they belong—instead of stuck.
True loyalty is earned, not rewarded.
Image by Claudio Schwarz
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Better Than Maybe
The leaflet that dropped through my letterbox with the sleep clinic’s business card stapled to the front asked two questions.
Do you snore? Are you always tired during the day?
Inside, I’m told, sleep apnea, a disorder I may have, affects 20% of women. I might be one of them.
And therein lies this marketer’s problem. They know nothing about me, apart from the colour of my front door. Which means they have no idea if they should speak to me, nevermind what to say to me.
As marketers, if the best use of our resources is to only speak to the people who want to hear from us, then targeting every ‘maybe’ is not a great marketing strategy.
We can do better than maybe.
Image by Timothy Krause.
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Stories Make Us Stronger
filed in Story Skills, Storytelling
In my work with entrepreneurs and companies who want to get better at telling their story, I see patterns emerging. The companies who have a mechanism for finding, owning and sharing their stories, build strong cultures. I believe there are parallels between what I’ve witnessed in organisations and research into how stories make individuals stronger.
Almost a decade ago, researchers from Emory University published the findings of a study about the impact of knowing family history on children. Up until then, the effect of intergenerational stories on children’s wellbeing had not been measured.
The Emory researchers set out to do that, using what they called, the ‘Do You Know Scale’—a list of twenty questions about family history.
Unsurprisingly, they discovered that; ‘teens who knew more stories about their extended family showed ‘higher levels of emotional well-being, and also higher levels of identity achievement, even when controlling for general level of family functioning.’
Following the publication of a New York Times article that mentioned the study, the researchers were inundated with requests for the twenty questions. Many readers assumed they’d make their children resilient by simply teaching them the answers to the questions.
But as Marshall P Duke, one of the researchers pointed out. ‘Correlation is not causation. Simply knowing the answers to questions will not produce the good outcomes. It is not what is known that is the critical factor, but how the children came to know it. The researchers believe the process of making time to sit with each other and share stories is the causational factor.’
The bottom line is we build more resilient families, companies and communities when we know who we are. We get stronger together when we prioritise finding, owning and sharing our stories.
If you’d like to work on your story, find out more about The Story Skills Workshop I’m launching in collaboration with Seth Godin soon.
Image by Marissa Price
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Memorable Marketing
In winter, when the real estate market is flat, and new listings are thin on the ground, Craig’s agency does letterbox drops offering free appraisals. Craig has no idea if this marketing tactic will work. But it’s worth a try. What has he got to lose?
And yet, when spring comes round, and he finally lists a property for sale, Craig barely makes eye contact with the people who come to view it. His job is to get enough people through to close the sale on auction day, then collect his commission.
What Craig’s overlooked is what he stands to gain by being remembered for the way he engaged with buyers, while advocating for his clients.
Memorable marketing isn’t just about what you say when—it’s about how you act at every moment.
Image by Paul Wilkinson
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The Flipside Of Persuasion
filed in Marketing, Story Skills, Storytelling
All marketing begins by being curious about why people do what they do.
What drew that woman to the beautifully packaged candles?
Are customers who ask for assistance more likely to buy than those who don’t?
Why did the mother put that box of cereal back on the shelf after reading the label?
What stories do parents tell their children about money when they ask for something?
Why is the chocolate aisle the busiest spot in the supermarket on a winter evening?
Sales and marketing are as much about understanding, as they are about persuading.
Marketing works best when we care enough to empathise with the people we hope to serve.
Image by Tristan Colangelo
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The Inner Scorecard
filed in Story Skills, Success
We regularly measure our status, progress and success against others. It’s no wonder.
We’ve been subjected to comparison since our parents bragged about when we got our first tooth. At school, the race to see who could collect the most gold stars was on from day one.
We are acutely aware of what makes us remarkable in the eyes of others. We have learned to live and work by, what Warren Buffet calls, an outer scorecard—often at the expense of doing what’s right, and what’s right for us.
If what’s on our inner scorecard grounds us, we must get into the habit of understanding and prioritising those things. Inner scorecards are essential for individuals and organisations alike.
What are you proud of that others would find unremarkable?
What’s on your inner scorecard?
Image by Volkan Olmez
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One Chance
filed in Marketing, Storytelling, Strategy
If you could tell your ideal customer just one thing about your product, what would you tell them?
What would you change about your service if you knew you only had one chance to woo that customer?
How would things be different and better if we acted as if every chance to do the right thing was our first, last or only one?
Image by Jonalyn
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Why Next?
My uncle Larry taught me to play chess when I was eight or nine. I learned just enough rules to get started because he said I’d learn how to play, by playing. The thing I’ll always remember is the way he taught me to make better moves. Every time I picked up a piece to move it he’d ask, ‘Why is this your next, best move?’
We’re all good at asking the question, ‘What next?’
In our impatience to make progress, we’ve become experts at looking for the next, new thing that will bring us more of whatever we’re after — more opportunity or more influence, more joy or more money—not necessarily in that order.
But we’re not so good and questioning, ‘Why next?’
We make more right moves when we reflect on how the next thing we’re about to do aligns with our values, and if it’s helping us to get to where we ultimately want to go.
Image by Kurt Bauschardt