Category Archives: Huh?

January 20, 2014 · 11:09 am

The Content That Matters

Martin Luther King leaning on a lectern. Deuts...

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

There has been a lot written about content marketing.

Some seers have even proclaimed 2014 as the year of content marketing, and as Google adjusts their search algorithms to make content more important in determining search rank, one can understand why “content” is on everyone’s lips here in digital business land.  Since I’m never one to miss a large bandwagon, let me jump right on to talk about the only content that matters.  I have a particular reason for doing so today.

We celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday today.  As I’ve written in past years on this occasion, I remember him and his struggles well from my childhood.  The quote that stuck is from the “I Have A Dream” speech about the importance of judging people by the content of their character instead of the color of their skin.  That is the content that matters – the ONLY content that really matters – as we do business.

What, for example, does it say about the character of those retailers who run sales tied to “the MLK event.”  What it says to me is that they are tone-deaf, as was the cognac brand that sent out an email with drink recipes “MLK Jr. would be proud of.”  Really?  This is not about Dr. King or his principles or his legacy.  It’s about a brand trying to sell something and is, in the word Dr. King’s daughter used to describe similar activities, “appalling.”  That describes the character of their content just as it does the content of their character.

I don’t know about you, but I try to do business with people, not brands.  There are restaurants and other businesses I frequent almost solely because I like and trust the people with whom I deal.  I hope that many of my clients have hired me not just for what and who I know but also because they have a sense of the business person I try to be.  You can be sure that many of the people with whom you do business are looking at you and your company in the same way.

A business’ success or customer service isn’t about the store; it’s about the person on the other side of the counter or the desk or who answers the phone.  The content of their character will determine the brand’s success or failure.  You can choose those people wisely and support them as they let the content of that character show.  You can choose to market as did the brands above which also reveals a lot about the content of brand’s character.  It’s the only content that matters.  What’s your choice?

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January 10, 2014 · 12:05 pm

Is All You Can Eat Bad Business?

Foodie Friday, and this week I had a number of food related items from which to choose.

SpiceMarket Buffet American food

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

One thing I noticed this week kept popping into my brain, however, and so that will be our topic today.  This was the item:

Starting January 2, 2014, you’ll want to head to your local IHOP® restaurant because “All You Can Eat Pancakes,” a perennial favorite among guests, is back for a limited time.

I preface what I’m about to say with an acknowledgment that there are few things more obnoxious than a reformed anything ramble on about their former addiction.  Like many folks, mine was sugar and carbs.  With that disclaimer, I think we all know there is an epidemic of obesity in this country.  Each of those (quite tasty) IHOP pancakes is roughly 150 calories and 22 net grams of carbs.  That’s as many calories as a large York Peppermint Patty and as many carbs as two Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups – the big ones.  As a once in a while indulgence, they’re a treat.  As an “all you can eat” incentive, they’re deadly.

Besides the ranting, I do have a business point to make.  IHOP isn’t alone in the food business in using the promise of low prices or vast quantities of food for the money to attract business.  I suppose this seems like a customer-centric way to market.  Dollar menus and all you can eat buffets are staples of our food culture.  However, while these promotions seem customer friendly, I would ask how friendly it is to kill off the customers sooner.  So much for average lifetime value!  How friendly is it to promote something that can lead to serious health issues?  It’s interesting to me that we forbid cigarette advertising and put warning labels on the packs but unlimited calories, carbs, and fat are all seen as virtuous offerings.

The food business isn’t the only one at fault in terms of promoting one thing and delivering another.  Anything that’s presented as all you can eat often has strings attached.  Take “unlimited” data plans.  Some wireless carriers won’t sell them any more.  I have one grandfathered in, although I know once I get to some point each month the speed gets cut back.  Some ISP’s throttle back speeds or charge more once certain limits are hit despite that usually being buried in the fine print.  Consumer centric?  I’ve seen ads for “unlimited” green’s fees for one price at golf courses only to find that a cart fee is due every round. False advertising?

I don’t think businesses need to “nanny” their customers.  If someone chooses to eat a lot of unhealthy food, so be it.  There is nutrition information on the walls of most quick service and family restaurants and I’ve never seen a line waiting to read it.  I’m not sure, however, that we ought to be in the business of encouraging it nor making it the center of our marketing.  I also think the marketing needs to be clear about what “unlimited” means.  What do you think?

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January 8, 2014 · 10:29 am

The Dishonor Unroll

If you are a typical email user your box probably gets a fair amount of mail each day that’s not exactly spam but also not of huge interest to you.

Image representing unroll.me as depicted in Cr...

Image via CrunchBase

That mail may come from companies or services to which you’ve subscribed (probably when you signed up and didn’t uncheck the “send me news” box) but for which you don’t have any great need of immediate news. If you’re a power email user you’ve probably figured out how to set up filters in your email client to dump those mails into a folder you can check later. For the rest of us there’s Unroll.me.

Unroll.me is a service that does just that. As they put it, you can unsubscribe from unwanted email subscriptions, discover new ones and organize them all in one place. From that they create what they call a Rollup:

The Rollup is a digest that gives you an overview of all the subscriptions you receive each day. The Rollup will keep your inbox clean by organizing the subscriptions you receive into a daily digestible email.

The screed today isn’t a love note to the service although I do use it and find it useful.  As you might imagine, the company collects an awful lot of information about who is subscribed to what since it is granted permission to look at your email stream.  It also knows what percentage of people who subscribe to something either unsubscribe or send the mail to the Rollup and not to the inbox.  They stopped over 1 billion emails from reaching their users’ inboxes in 2013.  And from whom do those emails come?

Funny you should ask.  Unroll.me just published lists of the companies who get dumped and who get aggregated.  These are the companies from which users unsubscribe:

  1. 1800 Flowers — 52.50% unsubscribe rate
  2. Ticketweb — 47.50% unsubscribe rate
  3. Pro Flowers — 45.10% unsubscribe rate
  4. Expedia — 45.00% unsubscribe rate
  5. Active.com — 44.70% unsubscribe rate
  6. Eventful — 44.20% unsubscribe rate
  7. Oriental Trading — 43.60% unsubscribe rate
  8. Shopittome.com — 42.10% unsubscribe rate
  9. 1800 Contacts — 42.00% unsubscribe rate
  10. Party City — 41.60% unsubscribe rate

I’ve only listed the top 10 – the link will show you more.  Now if I’m on the above list I’d be asking myself why.  I can answer the question:  you’re not providing anything of value.  My guess is the mails tend to be about you and not about your customers.  Perhaps you’re opting people in for your mail as a default instead of allowing them to make the choice.  Compare that list with the Top 10 most rolled up companies:

  1. Hulu — 61.60% Rollup rate
  2. AmazonLocal Deals — 46.00% Rollup rate
  3. GoDaddy — 44.40% Rollup rate
  4. Codecademy — 40.50% Rollup rate
  5. Google Offers — 39.00% Rollup rate
  6. Evernote — 36.40% Rollup rate
  7. Microsoft — 34.90% Rollup rate
  8. About.me — 34.40% Rollup rate
  9. Groupon — 32.80% Rollup rate
  10. LivingSocial Deals — 32.40% Rollup rate

These guys are offering value although not enough so that users feel the need to see their news immediately.  Not awful, but if you’re in a time-based offer business like GroupOn or LivingSocial, this could be a problem.

If your business uses email for communication, think about what, how, and how often you’re using that list to communicate.  Time is a precious commodity and all of us have less of it than we’d like.  To get customers to give your mail some of that time you need to provide value – a return on that time investment.  Otherwise, unsubscribes result and you’re on the list next year.  Not a place I’d like to be.  You?

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