(Not So) Simple Choices

As a marketer, I’m allowed to choose from only one of these operating paradigms:

Option One: I’ll be persuasive, methodical and diligent in convincing you to buy from me, or:

Option Two: What I’m offering will be so coveted and compelling that you’d seek me out and/or even become my advocate to others.

The first option gets you up and running quickly, but demands a long term dedication to the tangential task of finding and keeping customers.

Option two may require a protracted startup, though once up and running will be self perpetuating in that it will keep you focused on your most enjoyable tasks and will magnetically align you with your chosen mission.

Newsletter Confusion

You know how to build a campaign. It’s Marketing 101, just the basics. A good list, creative design, a great offer. Bingo.

We’re told it’s all about the numbers: reach and repetition. Write a great headline, use the right tools, hire a Flash whiz, get an account at Constant Contact. Hang in there. This strategy works. Eventually. Or at least it gets attention.

How to create a company newsletter: a popular theory

Repurpose our general campaign creative. Extract products from our catalog. Give everyone a heads up on our Spring promotions. People will read it. It’s a NEWSLETTER, after all. True?

Enter the faux newsletter. The domain of marketers who either don’t respect their readers (i.e. customers and clients) enough to provide substantive content, or of marketers who are just confused.

A company newsletter is most successful when it opens and maintains an intimate conversation between real people. It is generous in content and in spirit. It avoids even a hint of self promotion. It is journalistic in style and pointed in its attitude. It’s more about substance than style. It proves that you have a story to tell, or if you have none.

In the Internet Age, reach and repetition have become something of a commodity; real communication remains more elusive.

Parade of the Fads

In harsh economic times, it’s tempting to hop on the bandwagon and try cashing in on the fad of the month. It’s rarely a paying bet. By the time you’re firmly seated, the wagon has gone way past the bank.

Case in point: The regrettable 2005 decision of TV Station KTLA to trade in venerable Rose Parade host Stephanie Edwards for a younger model. That year we Angelinos all watched our beloved Stephanie get soaked in the rain while her less capable replacement bumbled her way through the broadcast in a warm, dry booth.

The gambit: new is better than old.

Taken another way, it’s a marketer’s lack of respect for her/his customers. It’s telling your customers: “you’re not smart enough to know better.”

That’s a strategy that can backfire, and frequently does. Did you know anyone who wasn’t at least a bit tweaked by the Rose Parade fiasco? It made parade fans of all ages mad as hell, myself included.

If there’s a lesson, maybe it’s this: any long-lived business model involves respecting your clients and their ability to decipher your value equation. It’s about appealing to your customers highest values, and steering way clear of the lowest common denominator.

Remember the reign of Krispy Kreme? Is Heidi’s Yogurt still around anywhere? What’s the shelf life of a TV reality show? Fads lack substance; their perceived value is low. They devalue the market.

Innovation sounds new, though the insightful, virtuosic thinking behind innovative ideas has been around for ages. So have truly great journalists, like Stephanie. It’s just that you don’t find them on every corner.

Organic Marketing Part 2: What’s Your Story?

It must have been the 1960s. Still, I can still remember the agony of my junior high history class. It was a mind numbing succession of dates, names and places. The teacher, who may have been old enough to have been present at the signing of the Mayflower Compact, spoke in a monotone drawl that could induce a state of stupor within seconds. I slept.

Where was the torment of the wrenching decision by handful of patriots that declared indendence from Britain? Where was the gripping oratory of John Adams?  Where was the story of sacrifice and hardship of Abigail Adams, and the eloquence of Thomas Jefferson’s pen? Why did my classmates have to endure a year that was filled with so little, when America’s history is teeming with gripping stories just waiting to be told.

If you’d like to learn how to write copy for your next newsletter or direct mail letter, just watch HBO. Rent a DVD of John Adams and enter the world of our early patriots. Fear, passion, anger, suffering, laughter and joy; the full scope of human emotion. Tell a real story, and capture the minds of your listeners. It’s genetically coded in the human race.

So much of what arrives in a mailbox these days is devoid of anything a living breathing human being can relate to. Postcards and brochures are often no more interesting than a supermarket shopping list. Newsletters: thinly disguised billboards. Web pages: just add liquid and you’ve got your own website in 30 minutes or less. Nice to look at, but no substance.

Is it any wonder that high and low, folks are clamoring: “stop the spam?”

Our lives are filed with stories. Turn your senses in their direction. Be it lawn service or Attorney at Law, you’ve got a story to tell. People will listen.

Organic Marketing, Part One: Mail Call

I personally check the mail every day. Today, along with the usual assortment of bill and checks were:

Three identical postcards from an accounting firm. None have my name.

Three indentical jumbo postcards from a courier company. Again none have my name.

A folded sheet full of flyers. Too much time to sort though all of that, me thinks. File 9 to all of the above.

A beautiful catalog from a large mailing list source. Part of their offering actually competes with my business. An uphill battle, to compete with your customers…

Coupons from an office supply store. Hmmm, some of these look good, but I generally shop at another store that’s closer.

And oh yes, the mailer from a well known bank that sounds like a fish taco place. This mailer was done perfectly, personalized with a great incentive. But… as a former customer, they repeatedly broke my trust. No mailer, however well designed, no offer, no spin could bring me back.

We spend a lot of time on how to spin our pitch. How to convince others to make a decision. But that’s only one cell of our marketing organism. The cells either work together, or they go out of control. It’s called cancer.