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Articles filed in: Strategy
Here Today, Here Tomorrow
In a digital business world where it’s believed everything can be measured there is an assumption that an action will result in a reaction. Much of our marketing is now created with the expectation that it will deliver an immediate (albeit short-term) reward. Of course, the best marketing doesn’t work this way. Immediate payoffs rarely lead to sustained results. Consider the difference between the ‘All You Can Eat’ promotion targeting casual passers-by and the restaurant that consistently delights customers who return.
When we adopt a short-term worldview it changes the stories we tell. We optimise our messaging for conversion at the expense of connection. Our attitudes and resulting actions demonstrate that we value quick wins over continuous progress.
The great work you do today might take months or even years to have an impact on your bottom line. You have the power to choose whether you’re here for today or tomorrow.
Image by Kerry Lannert.
The Feedback You Invite Vs. The Feedback You Need
The air stewardess in the business class cabin was busy, but not overrun. She spent the majority of her time with one executive passenger in her section throughout the flight. A friend who was returning from an overseas holiday asked for a cup of tea. Ninety disappointing minutes and four more requests later it eventually arrived.
As the passengers left the flight at the end of their journey the stewardess handed the executive a feedback form. My friend left empty handed, full of valuable feedback the airline would never hear and unlikely to book with them again.
Our fear of being vulnerable to criticism sometimes means we don’t seek the feedback we need most. Even in a data-driven world, we can still game the system and so we miss the opportunity to make a real difference.
We only see what’s in the corners where we shine the light.
It takes courage to shine it in the darkest places.
Image by Kevin Morris.
Marketing Constants
If you’re running a business, you’ll hear some version of the following every other day.
Things have changed.
And there’s no doubt that they have.
Things have changed since the Internet became ubiquitous, since Facebook launched, since newspaper advertising died, since the iPhone, Amazon.com, ad blockers and on and on.
But what hasn’t changed?
People. The people who buy things for the reasons they buy things. Because they’re scared or lonely. Because they want to be seen and understood. Because they need comfort or reassurance. Because they are sad or insecure. Because they want to be happy or make memories.
These people who you want to be your customers are your constant.
As we’ve wrestled with doubts about trends and marketing shifts, and worried about which tactics will work where and when. We’ve lost sight of the fact that we’re still dealing with people whose wants and needs and unspoken desires haven’t changed at all.
Image by Scooter Lowrimore.
What’s Your Customer’s Value Story
filed in Storytelling, Strategy
You may have read some version of the recent Tech Crunch article by Tom Goodwin that began with this observation.
“Uber, the world’s largest taxi company, owns no vehicles. Facebook, the world’s most popular media owner, creates no content. Alibaba, the most valuable retailer, has no inventory. And Airbnb, the world’s largest accommodation provider, owns no real estate.”
There’s a lot of buzz around the Internet and in business publications about how businesses win by owning the customer interface—in other words, the environments where people go to interact and transact. But I think we’re missing something when we talk about the value of platforms and the ease at which anyone with a laptop and an Internet connection can build ‘the next big thing.’
The code isn’t the hard part.
Understanding what people want and value enough to pay for it is the hard part.
Uber’s founders, Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp realised that people would pay for, and become loyal to a company that offered the convenience and certainty of a reliable transport solution.
I remember arriving at JFK airport one Friday evening as a storm hit. By the time I cleared immigration there was a line of two hundred people snaking around arrivals waiting for a cab.
You have never seen so many people trying to download an app all at once.
Not one of the companies that are grabbing headlines, from Uber to Airbnb started with a product or service. They started with the potential customer’s value story. The same is true for the most popular cafe in your neighbourhood and the Etsy store people always return to.
You create and market a successful product or service by figuring out your customer’s value story.
If you’d like to grow your business by understanding what people want and how to tell them the story they want to hear The Story Strategy Course will show you how. Registration is open now.
Image by Guillaume David
The Weight Of Our Words
filed in Storytelling, Strategy
The laminated sign next to the order and pay point at the cafe read:
“We can’t and we won’t serve you while you are ON the phone. We need to engage.”
These are the first words that greet every single customer (not just the rude ones).
On the flip side, when I email a colleague who has a key leadership role at a multi-billion dollar company, he always responds as if I was the person he most wanted to hear from that morning.
He goes out of his way to make everyone he touches feel like they matter.
Our words communicate much more than the messages we want people to hear. How we use them shapes our thoughts and character—it shows people what we value and conveys the truth about who we are. Our every word has the power to provoke or reassure, draw people in or push them away. We get to choose how well and how wisely we use them.
Image by Steve McClanahan
Common Ground
One blustery Saturday morning last month our entire neighbourhood woke to a marketing blitz. Every single home in every street had been targeted. The instructions to the leaflet dropper had been clear. Don’t post the flyer in the letterbox (where people won’t be looking for mail at the weekend). Place each one on the doorstep or somewhere obvious right outside the door, so when the occupant wakes up hungry at the weekend our breakfast pizzas are top of mind.
The result was a flurry of pink (because pink will stand out) marketing spam, literally flying around the neighbourhood. Hours of resources—time, money, energy and trees wasted in an attempt to reach everyone.
We’d never dream of engaging someone in conversation without trying to understand their worldview. That’s why small talk exists, not to fill awkward silences, but so we can find common ground. And so it goes for marketing. It’s a two-way exchange, an alignment of value and values, of needs, understood and met—or at least at its best it should be.
Image by Kerry Lannert.
10 Questions To Ask Before You Do Any Marketing
It’s fun to think about getting our products and services in the hands of the people we want to serve. In our rush to increase brand awareness we often overestimate the importance and impact of short-term, tactical marketing decisions. It’s possible to put things in perspective by answering some questions about your objectives before you begin.
10 Questions To Ask Before You Do Any Marketing
1. Is the product good enough?
2. Why is this the best way to grow our business?
3. Does this type of marketing align with our brand values?
4. Is this the best way to delight customers?
5. Could we do more if we spent the money differently?
6. Are we proud to put our name to this?
7. Why are we doing it this way?
8. What’s the alternative?
9. How will we know if it worked?
10. What exactly is the return we want from this marketing initiative (campaign, sponsored post, leaflet drop, product giveaway, collaboration and on and on)?
If it’s the right thing to do you’ll know.
Image by Philip Bouchard
The Thing That’s Worth Measuring
Josh is a sales assistant at a sports store in the city. He proactively solves customer’s problems while they browse, taking the time to answer questions about the equipment they’re considering buying. If one of those interactions results in a sale Josh adds a new barcode containing his employee ID to the product. This is how Josh’s performance is tracked.
Every sales assistant then is only as good as the number of sales he can prove he’s facilitated. This is the performance metric the store manager pays attention to because it’s the thing she can easily measure. Josh can spend twenty minutes with a shopper exchanging valuable information about golf clubs. This might result in a sale next week or an online purchase at a later date. Josh’s efforts will likely go unnoticed and unacknowledged by management.
An uptick in a metric of any kind can feel like progress which of course is fun to measure, but much of what adds value to our businesses (lives, families, and cultures too) is intangible. When we limit ourselves to believing that hard data tells the whole story we’re missing opportunities to improve those things we can’t put a number on.
Just because data is easy to collect doesn’t mean it’s the thing that’s worth measuring. It’s important to question exactly how the data we gather is helping us to achieve our goals before obsessing over what the numbers look like.
Image by Antoine Robiez.
Why Are Your Customers Here?
The city centre bookstore manager complains to her colleague on the phone about people wandering in on their lunch break to browse because they have nothing else to do.
“They’re not coming in for anything in particular.” she sighs.
She’s right, for two hours every day hundreds of office workers with nothing else to do pass by her door. Contrast her story to that of Powell’s bookstore—a Portland institution. Powell’s is a destination, a treat for locals and visitors alike. The management at Powell’s understands that people don’t visit bookstores just because they’re short of something to read.
There isn’t a single beloved brand that relies on stacking the shelves and opening the door as its killer marketing strategy. That’s not how marketing works in the twenty-first-century.
Every store you visit, app you use or podcast you listen to, has given you a reason to come. The owners and creators know why you’re there and what you want deep down.
Why are your customers here?
Image by Florent Lamoureux.
The First Step To Overcoming Any Business Challenge
filed in Strategy
Six months ago Melissa invested her life savings in establishing an online store. Sales are not going as well as she’d hoped. When Melissa isn’t making or photographing products and uploading them to her store, she’s worrying about generating more sales. The time she spends worrying and reacting to her anxiety in the moment doesn’t result in a plan that will change things. While she’s focusing on the result of the problem, Melissa isn’t getting to the root of it—she’s not sure who her products are for and what unmet need her business is fulfilling.
Everyday problems become major challenges when we don’t take the time to understand why they have arisen. Without that understanding, there is no way to create a plan to overcome them.
5 Questions For You
1. What’s the number one challenge facing your business right now?
2. Why is this your biggest problem?
3. What’s at the root of the problem?
4. What’s the first step you need to take to resolve it?
5. What resources (time, energy, money) will you devote to solving the problem?
Insight (which is available for free), is one of the most underrated business advantages we have.
Image by Gregor Fischer.