AMiable Solution #162: The Joy of Fear

Some people choose fear.  They choose to give themselves a good scare, whether it’s from watching a horror movie, reading a suspense novel, or strapping themselves into a thrill ride.

But not many, if any, people make that decision when they read their mail, scan emails, or skim any other marketing materials that cross their paths.  And yet, marketers use fear-based marketing all the time. 

Why?

Considered to be one of the more powerful emotions, fear can motivate consumers to make a donation, join a cause, order a service, or buy a product in an attempt to avoid an undesirable situation.

Can you make fear-based marketing work for you?  Absolutely, as long as you observe a few guidelines:                                                                             

•  Have a legitimate purpose, a real problem you can solve: don’t use scare tactics simply for the sake of a sale.
• Understand your market.  Know what motivates them.
• Make the solution easy to achieve or implement. 
• Provide a specific action your audience can take to prevent the feared action from occurring.
• Communicate realistic, not exaggerated, consequences for not taking appropriate action.

Like the adrenaline-seeker at the end of a thrill ride, your market should feel like they’ve accomplished something with their decision to respond to your offer.  They should feel good about evading an unpleasant situation. 

Now that’s something worth getting worked up for.

AMiable Solution #161: Practicing Patience

When we were kids, my siblings and I begged our mom every October to roast the seeds we pulled from the guts of our pumpkins.  Every year she burned them beyond consumption.  They looked bad.  They smelled bad.  And they usually went into the garbage can as soon as they were cool enough. 

Several years ago, I started thinking about those pumpkin seeds and tried roasting them myself.  I learned, thanks to a quick recipe search on the internet, that the key to successfully roasting pumpkin seeds is to go low and slow.  Seeds scorch and burn at high temperatures, but when you roast them at 250 degrees for two hours…mmmmmmm.

Sometimes we get so focused on getting results that we forget to be patient and wait.  We call a campaign or a channel or a technology or a visit a failure when we don’t see immediate results.  But that’s not always the case. 

The next time you find yourself turning up the temperature in an attempt to hasten results, stop.  Mistakes, miscommunication, and misdirection occur when fear and eagerness replace strategy and patience.   Instead, wait.  Wait for the direct mail piece to drop.  Wait for your market to review, process, and respond to your campaign.  Wait for a new procedure or system to take hold and become routine.  Wait to overcome a learning curve.  Just wait.

Once you’ve done that, if a marketing effort has still fallen short of expectations, go back and analyze everything.  Analyze all aspects of the campaign and its delivery to see if there’s a problem that can be corrected, timing that should be tweaked, content that needs reworked, or more contact/repeated exposure that should be scheduled.

Good things develop when you give good planning and effort a chance.

AMiable Solution #160: What’s Your Candy?

Halloween.  For kids everywhere, that single word conjures up images of fun-sized and, if you’re lucky, full-sized bags of chocolatey and sugary goodness.

Unfortunately, not all distributed candy sends little hearts a-racing.  Some candy is better left at the store.  The same is true for marketing giveaways.  Just because you’re giving it away for free doesn’t mean that your recipients will be thrilled to get it.  Here are two key tips to creating handouts that clients and prospects will rejoice about.

Tip #1: It’s not the thought but the end result that counts.

Ask any group of adolescent trick-or treaters if all candy is created equal, and they’ll show you the duds that they’ll eat only after everything else is gone.  Kids love candy, but not all candy has equal appeal. 

The same is true with giveaways.  Just because you’re giving something to someone for free doesn’t guarantee he/she will use it.  If you’re going to go through the effort and expense of creating a giveaway, make it something that people actually want, use, and will keep for years to come, not something they’ll look at once and throw away.  After all, the point of a giveaway is to create a connection with someone and inspire future communication, where it’s for a sale, service call, donation, or membership.  Handing someone a cheaply made or unattractive “gift” will not only land your freebie in the trash, but it might land your market’s opinion of your organization there, too.

Tip #2: If it doesn’t fit, you must quit.

Giveaways, by their nature, are sales tools.  Handy little gadgets that help your clients or prospects while reminding them of your existence and your services.  If your freebie doesn’t promote not only your organization’s name and contact information but also your main message and image, then you’re missing the point of a giveaway as well as numerous opportunities to create or reinforce brand awareness. 

Unlike the lowly hard candies that are left in the bottom of the trick-or-treat bag for weeks or the king-sized peanut butter cup that’s joyously but all-too-quickly devoured , successful marketing giveaways provide joy and satisfaction both now and in the future.  By planning ahead and designing well, you’ll not only create a legitimate freebie that people will want and use, but you’ll also create an appetite for learning more about your organization, and there’s nothing distasteful about that.

.AMiable Solution #158: The Stuff of Stamps, Part 4

Pop culture pays.

Some stamp collectors argue that featuring cultural icons, not historically significant Americans or American subjects, on stamps is a slap in the face of stamp collecting.  Others, however, concede that such stamps offer more than financial value.  They offer sentimental value.  They reignite old memories.  They stir emotions.  They bring a different kind of joy to collectors.

That emotional connection is exactly why incorporating references to popular characters, shows, movies, etc., can increase the response to your marketing campaigns.  But only if you do it right.

What’s the right way to use popular culture in your marketing?

First, there has to be a real relevance between the cultural icon and your product or service.  It can be heartfelt.  It can be humorous.  It can be ironic.  But it must be relevant.  Consumers know when a popular figure or reference is used just for the sake of getting their attention, and they’ll respond unfavorably if they feel duped.  You must tie the pop culture item back to your product or service.

Second, you need to understand the interests of your audience and use the right references.  In his article, “Beyond Newsjacking: Pop Culture in Content Marketing with Movies, TV and Memes,” TopRank Online Marketing blog contributor Nick Ehrenberg cautions marketers against referencing just any cultural icon.  “Determine how far you can stray from the ‘character’ of your branded content ,” Ehrenberg says, “– if the radius is short, think twice before potentially alienating a large segment of your audience.”

AMiable Solution #159: Apples to Apples

If you’re lucky enough to live close to a farm, you could head there this weekend and pick your own apples.  And depending on the farm, you could get to choose from a number of different varieties: Fuji, Cameo, Empire, Jonagold, Red Delicious, etc.  The kind you pick depends on what you like and what you plan to do with them.

Identifying the right competitors to monitor also depends on making appropriate choices.  Are you monitoring the right companies?  Are you comparing your marketing to the marketing of organizations with similar products, goals, markets, and budgets?  In other words, are you comparing apples to apples?

Many of us dream of being in the same league as those companies and organizations robust enough to buy Super Bowl ads, but most of us just don’t have those juicy budgets.  So, we have to keep our comparisons realistic.  We have to identify the companies that are most like our own.

Before you can pick out your true competitors, you have to identify your main products or services, the primary sources of the competition.  Then, you search for companies or organizations that offer similar products or services.  You can do that by performing web searches, checking out social media, looking in the phone book, and talking to consumers.

Be sure to search locally, regionally, and nationally.

Once you can name five to ten competitors, sign up for their mailings and other marketing communications.  Review them when you receive them, and keep regular tabs on their websites. 

It’s important to know the similarities and differences between your products and theirs.  It’s also important to know what advantages they have over your company, including any offers or specials they promote, and the companies’ values and styles.  If your company can’t identify with the strategy of a competitor--for example, if the main selling feature of a competitor’s service isn’t a priority for your customers--it may not be a true competitor.

New competition springs up often, so be sure to not only regularly review what other companies are doing, but also survey the field for new competition.  Doing so will help your organization stay fresh.

AMiable Solution #157: The Stuff of Stamps, Part 3

We’ve mentioned it before, but it’s worth repeating: anyone can collect stamps.  You don’t have to buy them.  You can start a stamp collection with what you have and what you receive in the mail from others.  It’s that easy.  And that user friendly.  In fact, it’s another lesson marketers can learn from the act of stamp collecting:

Encourage accessibility.

We’re not suggesting you give anything away, although freebies usually score big in any market.  We are suggesting being easy to reach and easy to approach.  Providing information that is easy to obtain.

You can do that by offering options.  Not everyone likes to communicate in the same way.  Some people like automated phone menus; others prefer speaking to a real person.  Some people like making online transactions; others would rather send a check or credit card information through the mail. Some people like to receive information digitally; others prefer traditional paper.  Provide your clients, members, or donors with multiple options for communication on every campaign.  Then, follow through. 

We know it’s not always easy to respond to all inquiries and requests promptly.  Sometimes staff, resource, or schedule limitations slow things down.  Sometimes you need to get a little creative to give your customers the attention they need without sacrificing time devoted to the products or services you provide them with.

One company we’ve worked with decided to empower more employees with phone duty.  The company had a solid customer service department, but it was small and the number of calls coming in at one time often outnumbered the number of reps.  The company’s solution?  Anyone could--and was expected to--answer a call that Customer Service could not.  All employees were trained in answering the phone and taking orders, and when Customer Service’s lines were all busy, incoming customer calls were rerouted and accessible from all office phones.  Customer calls never went to voice mail.

Your solution doesn’t have to be as involved as reworking your phone system, but it should be as customer-focused.  The easier you, as a company, are to approach and communicate with, the more responsive your market will be.