Category Archives: Helpful Hints

July 17, 2013 · 8:48 am

One Man’s Relevant Is Another’s Spam

There is a factoid coming out of some research that will be our topic today.  I find it of interest because it’s a dilemma that I share to a certain extent with the folks surveyed.  While the topic of the survey was the use of email, one of the key findings resonated with me:

The greatest percentage of marketers still felt challenged to create relevant and compelling content that will really draw in recipients. This ranked as the No. 1 challenge among B2B and B2C respondents to achieving their marketing objectives, but it was also considered the most effective tactic, cited by 71% of B2B marketers and 65% of B2C marketers. If marketers can create strong content, they believe it really does work at converting consumers.

This survey was conducted by the folks at Ascend2 and Research Underwriters.  I can attest to the challenges of creating compelling content – you see the result of that struggle each day here on the screed.  However, I wonder about the definition of relevant.  After all, you don’t have to go further than your own daily conglomeration of inbound emails to recognize that what’s compelling to those sending the stuff isn’t always at the top of your interest list.

Let’s take it out of the realm of commercial email for a second.  You probably get a few emails each day from friends or coworkers that are totally useless.  By that I mean you can ignore them and be no worse off – no less informed or enlightened.  They’re the “thanks” emails when you say you’ll follow up.  They’re the mails sent to 25 people on a team about a meeting involving 5 of them.  I’m all for communication but that gets to the “compelling and relevant” issue found in the survey.

Take that notion to mail you’d send on behalf of a commercial enterprise.  If you’re and airline and you’re sending me information about special fares that don’t apply to the city in which I live, you fail.  If you’re a vet sending me a special offer for the dog that died last year, you fail.  You see, what I’ve found is that compelling and relevant also means reader-focused, segmented, and based on whatever user data I have such as best read posts, etc.  It’s not  just some formula that satisfies MY agenda.

Marketing is hard and getting harder.  So’s blogging!  Neither one succeeds without a laser-like focus on the user.  Right?

Enhanced by Zemanta

1 Comment

Filed under Consulting, Helpful Hints, Thinking Aloud

Tagged as , , , , , ,

July 16, 2013 · 10:13 am

Staying Together

It’s Tunesday! Today is a special one for me since it’s the 35th anniversary of the day the Mrs. and I got married. Because of that, I wanted a song from roughly the time when we got married that’s also a love song. What popped into my head this morning is “Let’s Stay Together“, a hit for both Al Green and Tina Turner.   The two hits actually happened on either side of our wedding date and I’m very aware that a lot of folks use this as a wedding song (we didn’t – Embraceable You, as I recall…).  I’ve always thought that Al Green’s version was way too low-key for the passion of the song and the video below is a live Tina Turner version which captures the song’s essence:

So what’s this got to do with business?  Actually, quite a bit.  You see, trying to stay together is what all of us do as businesses – with our customers, our team, and our vendors:

Let’s, let’s stay together
Lovin’ you whether, whether
Times are good or bad, happy or sad

The one thing that makes a relationship last is the trust that you’re standing on certain ground.  As the lyric says, you may go through bad times as well as good but never wondering about the underlying connection is crucial.  A customer with issues may not be happy but they’ll stay a customer if they trust you’re working to resolve their problem.  They want to hear “let me be the one you come running to”, not “I’m unable to help you.”

At its core, a relationship of any sort involves an investment of some sort.  While there is a lot of sanity in not throwing good money (literally and figuratively) after bad, it’s generally easier to keep a customer than to find new ones.  A commitment to trying to stay together makes that happen.  That’s how you celebrate 35 years as partners!

Enhanced by Zemanta

Leave a comment

Filed under Growing up, Helpful Hints

Tagged as , , , , , ,

July 10, 2013 · 10:09 am

Think Like A Reporter

One unit I used to teach way back when was on journalism.  Even though it was a long time ago and everyone’s access to information has changed significantly, the basic principles haven’t.  The reason I mention this is that it’s also a critical factor in being a good executive and managing your business.  So first some general points and then an example.

Old News - canon rebel t2i

(Photo credit: @Doug88888)

I used to tell the students to doubt everything.  If they hear a “fact” it was their job to find another source to confirm it.  If it came out of research, look into who did the research and why for signs of inherent bias.  It they heard or read it from an individual, ask questions – how do you know this, where did you learn it, do you have proof it’s true.  I’d remind them of something that I think is even more true now:  reporters are supposed to be “fair.”    There is supposed to be some objectivity in what they do and critical thinking – separating fact from fiction – is key.

We used to spend time on news vs. opinion and discuss how news informs while opinion persuades.  News presents all the facts; opinion presents only those that support the position taken.  One is objective; the other subjective.  As an aside, this is probably the biggest difference with almost all “news” today.

Example:  the plane crash in SF last weekend.  Within minutes, social media was filled with photos, witness reports, and statements by people allegedly on the flight.  I assume that the folks at the news networks follow Twitter and other sources yet nothing was said by any of them for 15-20 minutes.  Is that a failure?  Not in my eyes.  Clearly SOMETHING was going on but what?  Was it a crash or a training exercise or a movie shoot?  Saying “there’s a lot of activity on social media about something going on at SFO” is factually correct but says nothing.  So they waited to verify the information and then acted.

All of the above is critical when you’re in business.  I’m sure you see dozens of “facts” every day, whether they’re memoranda, data, presentations, or just conversations.  Acting on any of that information without thinking like a reporter can be fatal.  We need to make informed decisions and having the wrong information will make those decisions suffer.  You agree?

Enhanced by Zemanta

2 Comments

Filed under Helpful Hints

Tagged as , , , ,