AMiable Solution #203: Setting Up for Success

Everything about a play affects your experience and your reaction to it.  The lighting in the lobby.  The comfortableness of the seats.  The accompanying music.  The projection of sound.  The costumes on the actors.

The sets on the stage.

When done well, set design enhances the story being told.  Its presence is appreciated but almost unnoticed.  Nothing seems out of place.  You feel like those props are supposed to be there.

Overdone, however, and audience members not only notice the ridiculously large lamp in the corner, but they are also distracted by it.  Instead of focusing on the actors and the story they’re conveying, the audience is staring at the lamp, wondering what it’s doing there, what it has to do with the story, and how the theater got it to glow so brightly.  The lamp detracts from the experience.

Like theater sets, graphic elements in marketing create a mood and an atmosphere.  They should maintain the style and tone of the marketing piece and your organization.  They should support the “location” of your story with images of the “characters” affected by your products or services.  They should visually tell the story you’ve written--not serve as a glaring, irrelevant, “look at me” gimmick.

Whether you choose a marketing design that’s minimalistic or full, it should be natural to the content.  It should move the story--your pitch and offer--along.  When they do, that’s when you create the desired reaction.  That’s when you get your encore.

AMiable Solution #202: Vision

Have you ever put down a book because reading it became unbearable?  You just couldn’t put yourself through the agony of the page anymore?

Sometimes you can chalk it up to bad writing.  But sometimes, the fault lies with the plot: the essence of the book.  The driving force of the story.  Maybe it wanders.  Maybe it doesn’t make sense.  Maybe events that happen early in the book don’t line up with events that happen later.  You distrust the story and the storyteller.

If you don’t have a solid annual marketing plan to guide you, your customers may feel the same way.  If your marketing wanders, never surprises them (in a good way, of course), fails to support your mission or their needs, or leaves your customers confused or unhappy, then they’re not going to stick around long enough to see the end.

To keep your market engaged and intrigued, your annual marketing plan, like a good book plot, should include four important elements:

• ·        Specific activities you plan to undertake to move your audience forward.  You want to create promotions and incentives that draw your members and customers deeper into your story and theirs.
• ·        The right audience.  Every marketing activity, like every book, will appeal to a particular audience.  Make sure you know exactly who each activity is targeted to.
• ·        A way to measure success.  For an author, success is measured in book sales and publicity.  For marketers, success comes with inquiries, subscriptions, renewals, memberships, donations, and purchases.
• ·        Engaging characters.  Identify who on your team is responsible for each activity.  Like the characters in a story, every member of your marketing team plays a role in developing your relationship with your market.  Make sure each person understands what he/she contributes to your tale.

Every marketer wants their department to emerge as heroes.  Carefully planning your marketing endeavors--and sticking with them--will help make that happen.

AMiable Solution #201: Teamwork

Football season is back!  Predictions are already being made about which team will make it to the big game in February and which player will be responsible for getting them there. 

The odds-on favorites?  Quarterbacks.  Five out of seven CBSSports.com staff members are already predicting a quarterback MVP for the 2017 game.  And not a single regular-season game has been played!

Why is it that quarterbacks tend to get all the glory?  Why has a quarterback been given the MVP title 27 times in the last 50 championship games (the next most-honored positions, by the way, are wide receiver and running back, with only six players receiving the prestigious award each)?  Is it because the quarterback really is the key to a winning team, or does he just get the glory because he’s the one most people see?

We’re not discounting the importance of the quarterback’s role, but we think he gets all the glory because he makes the most noise.  He’s the one you hear calling the plays, even though it’s his offensive team that helps get the job done.  He couldn’t do it without them.

Marketing and customer service are kind of like the quarterback and the offensive line.  One does all the planning and makes all the noise, but it’s the customer service department that helps complete the plays.  They need to know the plans just as intimately as the quarterback if they want to anticipate needs and provide the necessary follow-through.

 A quarterback can’t just spontaneously throw the ball toward the end zone and hope someone is there to catch it.  He has to communicate with the guards and the tackles and the wide receivers to make sure that he is ready to set up a big play and that someone is waiting on the other end to make it.

Do your marketing and customer service teams work together or individually in parallel?  If you want your customers or members and your organization to win, you have to make sure everyone is working from the same play book.

AMiable Solution #200: The Right Tool

You have a highly creative marketing team.  Reliable products or services.  Modern marketing and customer service tools at your fingertips.  That’s all you need to create a strong brand and responsive marketing, right?

You’ll probably do well, yes, but unless you also have a strong unique selling proposition (USP), you could do even better.

Unfortunately, if you have competition, you can’t just count on being the best.  Best is relative.  Best is the same as all your other worthy competitors.  To stand out in your industry and to be remembered by consumers, you need to be different.  You need to highlight what it is that you do that no one else does. 

If you’re not doing that now, get started.

How?  First, identify what makes your company unique.  This can be tough.  After all, you likely offer the same things as just about every other company or organization in your market.  Think about your four “Ps”: your product characteristics, price structure, placement strategy (location and distribution), and promotional strategy. 

Still stuck?  Joy Gendusa, founder & CEO of PostcardMania, suggests in her article, “The One Marketing Tool You Can’t Afford to Ignore,” DMNews.com, June 2, 2014, asking yourself these questions:

• What void in the marketplace can you fulfill?
• What can you guarantee about your product or service?
• What do people hate about your industry that you can fix?
• What niche do you or can you service that will differentiate you from others in your industry?

Consider also what you do--or could do--that your competitors don’t.  It may have more to do with an experience than a product itself.  Consider the company Man Crates.  It sells gifts for men and ships them in wooden box crates that need to be opened by a crowbar! 

Whatever it is that makes your company different from your competitors, embrace it and share it with the world.  Reference that uniqueness on every marketing effort.  Live it and enforce it with enough frequency that people--customers and prospects alike--automatically associate your company with that particular benefit. 

Don’t just be good.  Be different. 

AMiable Solution #199: Making the Grade

When you were in school, your teachers’ expectations were clear.  You knew what you needed to do to get a good grade.  But what does it take to make the grade in marketing?

In our zeal to create unique, memorable, eye-catching campaigns we can forget to address the most basic components:

• ·        Provide a clear message.  If a campaign is so busy being flashy, the text can become an afterthought and not get the attention it needs, or the text can send a message that conflicts with the graphics and design.  Either way, the buyer isn’t sure what he/she is supposed to know or do and does nothing.
• ·        Present your message in a logical sequence and layout.    If you make your buyers work to understand your product, your service, or your offer, or if your campaign leaves them scratching their heads in confusion, your campaign fails.  Your message--and your design--should guide your buyers step-by-step through your offer, addressing key information including what exactly your product or service is, how it can solve your buyers’ problems, and how to order.
• ·        Keep it free of errors.  If you wanted Mom to hang your spelling quiz on the refrigerator, you had to spell all of the words right.  Likewise, if you want to earn the attention and respect of your market, you need to present your best work, error-free.  Take your time to check and re-check everything, even if you’re using text that has been used and proofed before.

Of course, the ultimate test of any campaign is whether or not it creates the desired response.  The issues addressed above won’t always be the reason a campaign falls short of expectations (other factors, including list, timing, format, etc., matter, too), but creating clean, clear copy will always give you your best start