Posts Tagged ‘relevance’
The Three Steps To Articulating Value
It’s tempting to begin with product and service descriptions when you are communicating the value your business creates. Of course, it’s easier to start with what we know for sure. We list features, benefits and specifications—telling the customer as much as we can about ‘the what’. And all the while we’re doing it backwards. Intead…
Read MoreBeyond The Point Of Sale
Many marketing strategies focus on the point of sale. Most great brand stories focus on what happens before and after the point of sale. We win by considering who the customer is, and helping him to become who he wants to be. This happens by understanding his story beyond the point of sale. Image by…
Read MoreFrom Awareness To Loyalty
The purpose of your brand story and of every piece of marketing material is to move a prospective customer from awareness to loyalty. When we imagine the customer decision journey as a timeline it’s clear that we need to treat customers differently according to where they are on that journey. THE CUSTOMER DECISION JOURNEY 1.…
Read MoreThe Power Of Promises
“You’ll have it by Friday.” “I’ll call you tomorrow.” “We’ll be there by 3pm.” How many times have promises like these been made to you in the past few weeks, only to be casually broken and replaced by a fresh set soon after? Doing what you say you’ll do is the fastest route to building…
Read MoreGrow Your Business By Watching What People Do
I once walked the length for Bourke Street behind a young man in a hurry heading towards Southern Cross Station. His backpack was slung over one shoulder and a designer shopping bag in the other hand bumped his knee as he walked revealing the Christian Louboutin logo. When we both stopped at the lights I…
Read MoreWhat Do Your Customers Really Want?
There’s an Italian Cafe in our neighbourhood serving good coffee and speciality cakes. It’s jam-packed every single evening—not because people are hungry for cake, but because they are hungry for the feeling of being connected. They seek out the place that makes them feel that way. Howard Schultz recognised the power of people’s aspirations thirty…
Read MoreThe Cost Of Interruption
The web design firm can access thousands of contact details for newly registered domains each day. It’s easy from there to hire a bunch of poorly trained phone operatives (who are overqualified to do soulless work but need the money) to interrupt people. It’s possible to scrape, buy, trawl and interrupt a thousand people for…
Read MoreThe Importance Of A Responsive Business Mindset
The beauty salon owner has a limited number of available appointments. Every day she encounters the same problem—zero availability and several last minute cancellations or no-shows. This situation is frustrating and it’s losing her money. She thinks she might solve the problem by implementing a cancellation fee, charging clients who cancel within 24 hours of…
Read MoreMost Brand Stories
Most brand stories… Start with what the marketer needs to say, not with what the customer wants to hear. Describe product features and benefits, instead of customer problems and desired outcomes. Prioritise conversion above emotional connection. Seek to build brand awareness rather than create brand affinity. Invite customers to pay attention while companies ignore opportunities…
Read MoreThe Power Of Relevance
I recently got an email about an online service I’d once signed up for. The email detailed new product features. There was also a call to action. “It’s been 3.2 Years since you updated your profile.” This was the first time I’d heard from the company in over three years. I’d never once engaged with…
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