While conducting research for another project, I came across a YouTube video about the NYPD Real Time Crime Center. It was created by the BBC. This video serves many communication purposes, from the recruitment of new police officers, to educating other law enforcement agencies, to … and this is the one that piqued my interest the most: a deterrent to criminals.
I hope so. YouTube reports to be the fourth most-visited site on the Internet, with over 90 million unique monthly visitors. There’s bound to be a few shady characters in that group.
If you’re creating videos for your organization, start by defining your communication objectives.
Websites, Facebook, Twitter, RSS feeds. Television, video games, texting. Does anyone still reads books? I’m about to find out—and perhaps face the biggest marketing challenge of my career.
Broadway Books will be publishing my novel, STASH, in July 2010. This is how they describe it in promotional material:
Set in an affluent suburb in upstate New York, STASH centers around the series of ever escalating problems that follow in the aftermath of a single wrong choice. After Gwen Raine, a wife and mom respected in her community, buys a small bag of marijuana from an old flame who runs a popular restaurant in town, she gets into an automobile accident that involves a fatality. The local police-eager to crack down on drugs in the town-throw the book at Gwen. At the same time, her husband, a pharmaceutical executive, is embroiled in a dilemma over his company’s marketing of a drug for off-label use. This rich and ambitious novel probes our society’s ambivalent and often hypocritical attitude toward all manner of mood-altering substances, legal or illegal. Paced by psychological suspense and multidimensional characters, STASH is ultimately about the conflicts that surface when one’s commitment to an accountable life collides head-on with human fallibility and desire.
Good summer read, right?
Who is Broadway Books? Get this: Broadway Books is an imprint of the Crowne Publishing Group, which is a division of Random House, which is a division of Bertelsmann AG. Lots of consolidation going on in publishing and media the past few years!
I had a conversation with a business owner who wanted advice on building his company’s brand. Brand is an elusive concept that can have many meanings. Maybe that’s because each brand has its own unique meaning in the market. If your goal is brand building, you are after three things:
You want your company to be recognized by your target customers. It’s too easy for potential customers to ignore a brand they don’t recognize.
You want positive associations in the form of promises and brand attributes to accompany that recognition. “They make those savory nuts I love.” Or: “They are leader in sales management software.” Or: “They have really responsive customer service.”
You want the recognition and positive associations to combine to create trust and instill a propensity to buy in the customer.
You have a lot more direct control over Number 1 above than you do Numbers 2&3. A strong marketing program precisely targeted at your major customer segment will build brand recognition for your company and products. The positive associations and propensity to buy must come from the customers themselves—based your company’s ability to meet and surpass customer needs.
Some companies do such a powerful job at brand building that they become synonymous with a single word or phrase, or even an entire category. They are strong companies because they have carved out a market space for their brand, and just as importantly have let go of other market spaces so as not to dilute themselves. For example:
Volvo=safety (not excitement)
Blackberry=Smartphone (not cell phone)
Oracle=databases (Will that change with their purchase of Sun Microsystems?)
Under Armour=performance (not comfort)
Walmart=cheap (not luxurious)
Your company name=What is your brand? What is it not?
The buy cycle is the process that B2B sector buyers engage in when purchasing products and services, and one that marketers must pay attention to when planning marketing strategies and crafting messaging.
The buy cycle consists of a methodical and deliberate series of four stages: Needs Awareness, Research, Consideration & Comparison, and Procurement. In each of these stages, buyers engage in different behaviors and use a wide variety of information sources to locate vendors and support their buying decisions.
Online methods dominate the buy cycle
Although the buy cycle has been around for as long as products have been bought and sold, the way purchasers go through the four stages has changed. Today, online methods dominate the four stages—from conducting research on the Internet, to contacting vendors and requesting quotes online, to comparing vendor offerings using content found online, to submitting purchase orders.
Get found early in the buy cycle
Marketers should build their presence across multiple channels to make sure they are visible to buyers in the early stages of the buy cycle, using tactics such as search engine optimization and search ads, enriching own Web site, and marketing on industry Web sites and industry e-newsletters—the exact resources your potential customers rely on.
Marketers should also note that during the buy cycle, buyers want access to content that helps educate them, improves their decision-making capabilities, and increases their confidence level in their final purchase decision. According to a research study conducted by GlobalSpec, during the initial Research stage, 42% of buyers evaluate four or more suppliers, but as buyers move closer to Procurement, only 26% get quotes from four or more suppliers. Those that drop off the list are often those who did not provide the right level of information to buyers or did not meet some other perceived or real need in the buyer.
In addition, the more expensive the purchase, the more content buyers review before making their decision. For example, the GlobalSpec survey also found that 83% of buyers review only three or fewer pieces of content before making a decision on purchases under $1,000, while 70% of buyers review four or more pieces of content on purchases greater than $10,000.
This data suggests that if your company has small average order sizes you may be best served with a few targeted pieces of content to deliver relevant information to buyers. If you typically have larger average order sizes, you may need a broader library of in-depth content including brochures, specification sheets, Webinars, e-newsletters, white papers, case studies and more to help make your case. Providing good content to prospective buyers helps you gain an advantage over competitors.
Every time I write something for my company, I end up resorting to jargon: words and phrases like synergy, leverage, spot on, scalable, best of breed, etc. Is this okay? Or is there a better way to write?
Signed,
Stuck in a Cliche
Dear Stuck:
The reason people use business jargon in their speaking and writing is because it’s easy to do. For example, it’s easier to say or write “The partnership between our two companies will create synergies in how we go to market” than it is to figure out exactly what you mean by “synergies” and “go to market” and then explain those terms clearly.
Sometimes I think the battle against jargon might be a lost cause because so many people use corporate-speak that almost everyone knows what each other is talking about. Or everyone is just immune to idiot words and glosses over when reading them.
Still, I will continue the battle for clarity of communication, and you should too. One of my favorite resources is called Bullfighter. It’s a free utility that installs in Microsoft Word and will check your documents for jargon. It also scores your document on the Flesch reading scale, which measures how clear or obtuse your writing style is. I use Bullfighter all the time. Click here to get it.
With social media you can’t control the conversation, which makes some companies hesitant to get involved. You would think that might be the case with a company like IBM, which isn’t known for being hip. But the “The Office” tribute video below shows just how creative IBM can be. It’s had almost 250,000 views on YouTube.
The good news about social media is that it doesn’t cost anything to have a company Facebook page, or a LinkedIn or YouTube or Twitter account. Free blogging software is also readily available.
The bad news is that social media requires time and effort. And it’s not like you can take people off of other marketing projects and put them on social media projects. Social media is never an “instead of” other marketing; it’s always “in addition to” other marketing efforts. So where do you find the resources?
One place to look is among current employees who are already social media users and enthusiasts. They have a head start on using social media technologies and might be able to spearhead social media efforts on behalf of your company.
Another route to take is to focus on just one or two social media outlets and getting that right, rather than trying to conquer the entire social media world. Perhaps your account managers can use LinkedIn to network. Or if your company engages in community activities, Facebook might be a good way to develop a fan network. Do you have a good writer with expertise and strong opinions? Start a blog.
The point is to carve out what resources you can and start getting acquainted with social media—but not at the expense of your other proven marketing efforts.
Back in 1965, the rock band the Animals recorded the song “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood”— way before email existed. But email and the hit song by the Animals share a bond when Eric Burden sings:
“I’m just a soul whose intentions are good, Oh, Lord, please don’t let me be misunderstood.”
As email writers, we have good intentions to make our meaning clear. Yet “intended meaning” in this favorite form of business communications can often be misunderstood. Consider the writer who doesn’t take care with language and quickly dashes off an email. Or the email recipient who doesn’t have the benefit of hearing voice inflections or seeing facial expressions, which often provide and clarify the communicator’s meaning.
Here’s an example: A new marketing manager sent an IT manager an email asking how many leads came into the system during the past month. The IT manager replied within moments, “You can find that out yourself.”
The misunderstanding originates because the company installed a new reporting system to track marketing effectiveness. The new marketing manager didn’t know the system’s full capabilities and believed he needed to get the lead information from IT. The IT manager happily reported back that the marketing manager now can run the reports without getting IT involved.
But the marketing manager took offense, thinking the IT manager was blowing him off, in essence saying “don’t bother me, go figure it out on your own.” A more thoughtful email response might have been: “Our new system allows you to run lead reports. If you’re having trouble getting the information you need, let me know and I’ll help.”
While email may be fast and convenient, you still need to take the time to communicate clearly.
Check out this video of the Animals singing “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood.” There’s some humorous miscommunication here as well: the soundtrack is not synched with the singer’s moving lips.
The article made me think in marketing terms, as I tend to do. Companies must be careful that their marketing strengths are not taken to the extreme—until they become weaknesses.
Here’s what I mean:
One of your strengths is the ability to focus on your target market. But don’t wear blinders that cause you to miss opportunities elsewhere.
One of your strengths is nimbleness, the ability to quickly adjust to changing market conditions. But don’t lose your ability to stick to a plan you know is right.
One of your strengths is marketing analysis and measurement. But don’t ignore the benefits of creative inspiration.
HubSpot is a company that offers a platform to manage “inbound marketing” efforts. Inbound as opposed to outbound, which means prospects contact you rather than you reaching out to them. Most inbound marketing is online marketing: search engines, links from blogs, and other social media.
I’m writing not to promote HubSpot—although I have recommended them to clients—but to use one of their videos as an example of effective video marketing. This one compares outbound tactic marketing tactics such as cold calling and direct mail to inbound tactics managed and measured by the HubSpot platform.
An entire value proposition presented in less then three minutes. Entertaining and memorable. (You might recognize the tune from Alanis Morissette.)
