I hope you are not yet tired of my rants, but I have a message for those of you struggling with your marketing and communications efforts.
What I am about to describe is something that we ALL have done, and I am actually purposely doing it in this post to help drive home the point.
If you are having problems with conversion, I want to make sure that you understand that this mistake I am going to describe, is more often than not the reason why you are failing.
Are you ready?
YOU DON'T GET TO THE POINT.
People are busy. Before they pay close attention to what you have to say, pitch, explain, market, or share, they need a REASON TO LISTEN.
You have between 10 and 30 seconds to convince your target that you are not wasting their time. Note that the headline to this post tells you what I am going to tell you.
The description after that is an example of what most of us do, not just in our marketing, but in all of our communication. We think we better EXPLAIN ourselves or justify taking up someone's precious time.
Let me ask you; when you are pitching your services, are you not there to help? Why do you feel the need to explain why you want to "help"? How about just start HELPING? The clock is ticking, folks.
If you have something of value to others, why the hell should you be worried about long descriptions, boring explanations, where you literally beg your target for permission to be of assistance to them?
When you explain before assert, you are communicating what YOU think about the strength of your value proposition. If you have something wonderful to say, SAY IT. The clock is ticking.
Some people never learn the value of getting to the point, neither in their business or personal dealings. I receive more than 300 email messages every single day. Messages from clients are auto-routed to a specific folder, but for the rest, I simply do not have time to read them all.
I read the first few lines of other messages to see if there is value or relevance for me or the business, but if that's at the end of the message, I probably missed it and deleted the email.
GET TO THE POINT.
If you market via email, this is of critical importance to understand. That subject line? It better be compelling, or you are wasting time and money while your communication gets deleted without being read.
Yes, this is a pet peeve, and it is a difficult change to make, but you must if you plan to be successful. You have between 10 and 30 seconds to matter, to establish relevance, and to make your audience care. If you cant do that, I hope you are selling candy, because otherwise, you might starve.
Write it on your hand prior to meetings, so that you cant forget this, your target should know why you are speaking with them, almost by the time you let go of the handshake. If they dont, you could lose their attention before you ever get to the point, and your target could even resent you for taking their time away from what they care about.
Right here, on Google+, many of you do not headline your posts, and give viewers a chance to understand what you are talking about. With the new layout, it is crucial to your engagement that you provide a clue as to why your square should be expanded.
MAKE ME CARE.
Dont come at your targets like some Nigerian with a sad tale about needing to make a bank deposit in America, with the requisite half-page tale of woe, and a long explanation of why you can be trusted.
Messaging that says "I CAN SOLVE YOUR PROBLEM" is messaging that gets read. Your targets want to see that before they even know who you are.
You have between 10 and 30 seconds, and after that, nobody cares.
</rant>
Well, its all coming apart for Apple, isn't it? The Samsung hate must be chewy in Sunnyvale. As if Samsung was somehow responsible for Google Now. What a bunch of rubes.
New motion suggests Samsung's version of Google Now is a Siri impostor.
--- Theodore Sturgeon
When it comes to content marketing, I am sad to say its even worse.
Now that "Content Marketing" is all the rage, you and I are being deluged by the most god-awful articles imaginable in pursuit of the all-mighty SERP (search engine results pages) ranking, CTA's and Landing pages.
How bad is it?
Well, last week, someone wrote 1500 words on Business2Community about the best Social Media sites for Business, and the article does not choose one, but only asks the reader to decide.
This is cowardice and malpractice.
It is cowardly because the writer was more concerned about offending others with her own opinion, and it was malpractice, because the article misleads as informative, when it was in fact a long winded preview to an open survey.
That is just a single example, but what is even worse, are the dozens and dozens of articles daily that suggest "how-to-do-Social Media", without going near a "WHY". That helps and/or informs nobody.
Businesses and Individuals need real advice, not "tips". Advice goes way beyond the "HOW" and should be related to business OUTCOMES. This means that our target audiences need to go away with an understanding of "WHY" they should do what we advise. Our advice should be tied to specific expected results from the advice given.
Yep, that means taking responsibility for what you say, write, preach or advise. It means knowing what you are talking about, and not just parroting an article from someone else.
You want examples of folks doing it right? Look at the AMAZING output from people like +martin shervington , and +Denis Labelle. Look at the engagement and knowledge brought forth by +David Amerland, +Jason Hill, +Jaana Nyström and +Paul Stickland, if you want to see content that edifies, insuring that their readers come away smarter from the experience.
Because of the recent changes to our tools from Google, another round of idiots has surfaced to tell you and I how much all these changes suck. I have yet to find a detractor to Google+ who has performed even the slightest amount of engagement on this forum.
The fool who named Google+ a "ghosttown" had less than 60 circles to and from, at the time of his article's publication. This morning I was greeted to a screed by another barely circled individual, who had proof that Google+ was dying, based on the tweets in his inbox.
Its not just Google+
I have been harping at the quality of tech media and other content for years, and I see it getting worse, not better. Now that "Content Marketing" has taken hold in the minds of the "Social Media Expert" class of folks, you and I are being subjected to some of the most inaccurate drivel the Internet has produced.
"Marketing" is not just about getting the word out. True "Marketing" , whether through Content or any other form says WHY in the form of what that service or product or plan or process will do for YOU.
Marketing is the promise of a solved problem for taking a specific action. Do you know which industries are the best at marketing? Home Services, in the form of Plumbing & Pest Control. They are the BEST at transmitting value in the form of OUTCOMES.
The next time you watch a commercial for Pest Control, pay attention to how the value proposition is put forth. They dont regale you with how they will crawl through your house, or the viscosity of their spray solutions, THEY TALK ABOUT THE PROBLEM THEY CAN SOLVE FOR YOU. Then they set about explaining their uniqueness through differentiation.
The next time you read an article, check the title to see if it promises to inform or solve a problem. Then, see of the writer asserts an opinion, or immediately leaps into an explanation of a set of dubious buzzwords and conclusions. Check for generalities, Check for specifics that relate to your reasons for reading the article in the first place.
I have just defined QUALITY content; content that is relevant to YOUR needs. It is that kind of content that shows up in SERPS, and NOT because of what your badass SEO was able to do with your keyword-stuffed generalized content. +Matt Cutts and associates are working to drive that crap off our Internet, so that your searches bring you the information you require.
If we can get the amount of crap content down to only 90% we will have made a massive improvement to this thing we call "Content Marketing".
You can come at me if you want, but you better bring it, baby...
"You know, it is really very important while you are young to live in an environment in which there is no fear. Most of us, as we grow older, become frightened; we are afraid of living, afraid of losing a job, afraid of tradition, afraid of what the neighbours, or what the wife or husband would say, afraid of death.
Most of us have fear in one form or another; and where there is fear there is no intelligence. And is it not possible for all of us, while we are young, to be in an environment where there is no fear but rather an atmosphere of freedom - freedom, not just to do what we like, but to understand the whole process of living?
Life is really very beautiful, it is not this ugly thing that we have made of it; and you can appreciate its richness, its depth, its extraordinary loveliness only when you revolt against everything - against organized religion, against tradition, against the present rotten society - so that you as a human being find out for yourself what is true. Not to imitate but to discover - that is education, is it not?
It is very easy to conform to what your society or your parents and teachers tell you. That is a safe and easy way of existing; but that is not living, because in it there is fear, decay, death.
To live is to find out for yourself what is true, and you can do this only when there is freedom, when there is continuous revolution inwardly, within yourself."
--- Jiddu Krishamurti (1895-1986)
Not today we don't. While working today, trying to solve what I THOUGHT were problems, I did not watch television. I was in a bad mood, huge workload, all these things I worry about from day to day.
I noticed it was 5pm, and turned on the news, and now I feel sick.
There are dozens of children who went to school today in Oklahoma that are not coming home tonight.
I think sometimes we get caught up in our lives, and think our problems and challenges outweigh anything going on around us. The fact is, on tonight, compared to these families, we don't have any problems.
Please join me in sending your positive energy in whatever way that you or your God allows, to the families of those dead and missing children. I am not a parent, so I cannot imagine the kind of pain and anguish these families are experiencing tonight.
Perspective.
Well, this one you could see coming a mile away. I had high hopes for Marissa Mayer, but I guess that’s over now. My guess is that Mayer took a look at the books, the estimates and earnings forecasts for the current Yahoo, and simply panicked.
Over the coming days, you are going to hear all sorts of glowing things about Tumblr. I want you to pay attention to only two things: operating costs and earnings. No matter what anyone says positive about Tumblr; the company was 2-3 months from being completely broke.
“what-What-WHAT?”
Yes, for all the positive things you hear about Tumblr, they could barely make any money. Now, this is fine, because there are plenty of cool companies around that can’t make a dime, right? It’s all about hope, people. The only problem with a business model based on hope, is that hope won’t pay the rent.
After a while, people start wondering about whether there is going to be a payoff for all their hard work, and whether or not it’s a good thing, we live in an age where employee retention is managed by cash. Cold, hard, cash.
Marrissa Meyer is hoping that the folks, who create all that content over at Tumblr can stomach double, maybe triple the current amount of advertisements, while infusing Yahoo with a dose of “cool”. Pay no attention to that. Buying “cool” works about as well as buying Followers, Friends and Circles. Not only does it not work, it is a complete misunderstanding of the medium.
On the other side of this debacle, is the trap that large, established businesses always fall into when looking at a young, exciting venture for potential acquisition. It usually comes down to a meme that I call: “We are awesome; we just don’t make any money…”
Nobody, including those who invested in a young Tumblr, wants to admit that they were/are wrong, so it must be that “money-thang” keeping them from greatness. Tumblr loves to talk about all those millions of blogs and viewers and posts, but not near as enthusiastic at talking about how much money all that other stuff earns them.
Tumblr made only 13 Million dollars last year. On those numbers, I repeat, the company was months from fiscal oblivion. Employees were brushing up their resumes because people want to get paid, baby. No more of that 9-to-5 for 20 years and a gold watch; people want to score that options package that sets them up to do the things they want to do.
Yahoo trotted out quotes from Brands advertising on Tumblr who were “thrilled” at their results. They went on to talk about how they were up by percentages, but not unlike the businesses doing well on Facebook, they never tell the numbers behind the percentages. Anyone can sell one widget, and then sell two the next day, and run around like a fool because “their numbers are up 100%!” See my point?
Tumblr maybe cooler than Facebook, but there is not one iota more Commercial Intent on Tumblr than on Facebook, so I expect no better success from that business model, and if Marissa is going to double down on the advertising, then frankly, I don’t think it has a snowball’s chance in hell of pulling it off.
My guess is that Marissa Meyer believes that the combination of Search on top of a knowledge base of a popular social media platform equals the synergies that lead to sales. All that is true, especially when you are Google. The problem is, to make data relevant it has to come attached to identities. You cannot define an audience if it is nameless and faceless.
So, for the above and other reasons, I do not believe that the new Yahoo/Tumblr will succeed. If Tumblr was going to make it, or any other business model for that matter, it would have made it by itself.
If you think I am off base, please list as many small and broke companies that turned into world-wide badasses after a cash infusion from a buyer? Far too often, we tend to deify those young folks for business genius when all they really did was convince someone to buy what is already on its last legs.
Isn't that was used car salesmen do?
I am not impressed.
Throwing money at a failing model only means a larger failure.
Attn: San Diego Plussers! Have you tried Amazon Local? There is a deal going on right now for 6 more days, for limo service to Lindbergh Field for up to 4 people for only $35 dollars. That is cheaper than a single person on SuperShuttle, and you dont have to cram in the van and ride for hours. Sure, its a promo, but if you are flying out of San Diego, there is no expiration on the deal, but you have to buy within the next 6 days. I just saved a few bucks; you might want to check it out.
Personalized Luxury Transportation is exactly that: they specialize in providing you with top-quality transportation for any situation. From airport runs to special nights out -- or any night -- their fleet of sleek, modern vehicles and team of knowledgeable, courteous drivers have you covered.
* $35 ($70 value) for one-way sedan transportation to San Diego Airport for up to four people
* $65 ($
I must apologize to everyone regarding "Copy". If you installed this app based upon my recommendation, please know I am sorry.
It turns out that "Copy" is one of the most buggy, and not-ready-for-prime-time applications that I have ever seen. On top of the nice-looking but dysfunctional control panel, upload and syncing speeds are beyond ridiculously slow.
Do not bother with "Copy", it completely sucks.
John Blossom was tagged in J.C. Kendall's album.
Seattle IT Worker: "Why should I care if Unions make it more expensive for Boeing to do business in Washington State? I'm in IT, and we are not Union workers..."
The Seattle Times reports that most of the new jobs in St. Louis will not be Puget Sound relocations; they'll be local hires.