Or, more specifically, on your potential customers.

A different kind of “texting.”

I know a fitness club whose first location was directly across the street from an elevated subway station platform. 75% of her clientele came from the sign she posted on the building opposite the platform, which included the studio’s phone number. She also painted the names of the classes on the window.

The Giving Tree yoga studio is a community-based business that tends to emphasize family.  So a lot of their marketing messages are chalked onto the sidewalks by the subway station (where you’re sure to see them as you descend the subway steps) or, if they’re for children or the parents of young children, on the asphalt of the playground (which, incidentally, a lot of commuters shortcut through on their way to and from the subway).

These analog methods are about as far from Facebook and Twitter as you can get, but they get results because the owners know their potential customers.

I was listening to the radio this morning and heard this story on political campaigns and direct mail.  Political campaigns like direct mail because “Direct mail is one of the few mediums left where you can go reach a voter and convince your voter to consume your information, without them having to choose to do it,” according to a direct mail print shop owner.

But direct mail is more than that. In the age of the internet, it’s sometimes difficult to remember that not everyone is online. If your customer base is the kind that doesn’t necessarily do the ‘net, and your product isn’t a web-based one, maybe direct mail makes sense.

Want to figure out your best marketing method? Figure out your ideal customer.

I started thinking about this the other day as I stared at my overwhelmed email inbox.

For me? Aw, shucks.

I’m usually pretty good about keeping on top of my inbox, but you know how it goes:

You get busy, too busy to read through everything, don’t want to archive anything without reading it and slowly but surely, it builds up.

One of the things that particularly struck me about this mailbox clean up (other than the fact that even with the help of Baydin’s Email Game it took me around three hours to whittle it down to 10 messages) was the fact that I had signed up for so many newsletters. I mean DOZENS.

How did this happen?

One word: Webinars.

Actually, make that two words: FREE Webinars.

What can I say: I’m a sucker for education, especially when there’s no cost.

Unfortunately, a lot of the webinars that I signed up for turned out to be glorified sales pitches (not all of them, but a lot). And in return for signing up for them, I ended up on newsletter lists, hawking even more free webinars (often as joint ventures with other list owners).

So as I went through my inbox, unsubscribing from a plethora o’ newsletters (and subscribing to the RSS feeds of the more useful ones) I started wondering how my audience (i.e. you who are reading this) best likes its content delivered, because in an age where technology moves super-duper fast, there’s always a new container for delivering content.

Would you take a webinar with this guy?

First it was blog posts, then podcasts, then video and now webinars (which, according to Content Rules: How to Create Killer Blogs, Podcasts, Videos, Ebooks, Webinars (and More) That Engage Customers and Ignite Your Business (New Rules Social Media Series) you should call online training if you want people to sign up for it, as webinar has started to take on the sheen of a used car salesman).

What I personally like, content-container-wise:

• Newsletters and blog posts: Reading is my preferred method when it comes to taking in information. I can read fairly quickly, and I can read pretty much anywhere I have a screen.
• Podcasts: Not bad. I can listen to them while cleaning or cooking, a la the “chunking” theory of productivity, where I combine an activity that needs attention with one that needs a lot less attention.
• Videos: Meh. Need to be under 5 minutes, and either VERY educational or VERY entertaining (preferably both). The majority of the time it seems like it’s just the author talking rather than writing, and not really bringing anything extra to it, so I usually pass on video, unless someone else has vouched for it.
• Webinars: A real toss-up. Sometimes they can be awesome, but in order to be awesome, they have to impart super useful information delivered energetically, and not be hours and hours long. They also need to be recorded, in case I don’t have time to tune in at the scheduled time.

And whether or not I’ve paid for it, the webinar has got to give me something useful fairly early, otherwise I tune out.

I once signed up for a week of free webinars listening to various experts on their pet topics and gave up on it early in the run, as it felt like there were at least 10 minutes of pitching at the very beginning of each webinar.

But this is just me.

Who really matters to me is my audience.

Which is why I’m asking you to click here and fill out a super-short (3 questions, not including your email address) survey that will help me figure out what kind of container y’all prefer when it comes to receiving content. I’m also including it in my newsletter (which you can sign up for on the sidebar, if you’re so inclined) which will be going out next week.

As you know if you’ve been regularly reading this blog, I’m a believer in offering incentives for responding to surveys, so if you participate, you’ll be entered into a drawing for a $50 iTunes gift card.

When was the last time you asked your audience how they like to get their content?

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The ad that inspired the post

Don’t do it.

For one thing, it will make you angry, as you will be working 20/6 per week (hey, you need some sleep and at least one day off). This will effect quality of the product or service you’re offering, not to mention your relationships, your health, your overall well-being and sanity.

For another,it isn’t sustainable. There will always be someone who can undersell you, and you will end up in a race towards the bottom, which will make you even more bitter.

So if you don’t want to be bitter, tired, unhealthy or insane, here are some ways to make yourself more desirable to customers without racing to the bottom of the price heap.

Perhaps your business can even do this literally, like CVS, in the ad up top that inspired this post.

Since flu shots cost roughly the same, CVS can’t compete based on a lower price. What hurts people more than the fiscal aspect of a flu shot? The physical aspect. A smaller needle equals a less painful shot. Brilliant.

So you’re not an acupuncturist – how do you make the boo-boo feel better?

Take away the pain of having to put furniture together.

Take away the pain of having to order a certain number of items in order to get free shipping.

Or even something as simple as taking away the pain of making someone travel somewhere to meet you (hello Skype!).

I was listening to a story on the radio about Web Based Subscription Businesses, which featured the Dollar Shave Club.

One DSC subscriber who was interviewed purchases EVERYTHING except his razors through the Amazon.com subscription system. Why does he remain loyal to DSC?

Because in addition to giving him what he needs, there’s always a postcard enclosed with his shipment that makes him laugh:

“Two months ago, I got one where the postcard was bragging about a new label-maker that they’d gotten, and how proud they were of this label-maker…And there was a blurb that said, ‘Five labels a second — what up.’  It’s a real quick thing, but it makes me laugh. And it reminds me that I’m spending money with guys who have a good sense of humor.”  (If the postcards are anything like DSC founder Mike Dubin’s intro video, they must be hi-larious).

You knew it was coming.

My favorite company to order business cards from is moo.com. They are certainly not the cheapest, but like the Dollar Shave Club, they’ve got loads of personality, plus their products are incredibly distinctive and creative – people always notice and compliment me on my business cards.

But what cinched my complete and total fealty to Moo was how they took care of a customer service issue.

I had just rush-ordered some business cards before a networking event. A few days later, on Facebook, I saw that Moo had just announced the first day of their 30% off summer sale. My Inner Indian (the part of me that loves a good deal) cried out in pain at having missed the discount.

So I emailed Moo customer service and asked if there was any chance that the discount could be applied retroactively.

Within a couple of hours, a Moo rep emailed me telling me that the 30% discount had been applied and the difference already refunded to my credit card.

Fast, no questions asked, friendly and polite – THAT is awesome customer service.

So the next time you’re thinking about having a sale or slashing your prices to bring in more biz, think about what other issues besides price might be causing your potential customer pain and make that ouchy go away.

Not sure how you can make any of this work for your business? Contact me for a free consultation.

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Not deadly but delicious…

Unless you’ve been living in a cave without internet access (because even hermits have the ‘net these days, don’t you know), you recognize that this is NOT an actual Albino Burmese Python, but a cake made to look like one by Francesca Pitcher, owner of North Star Cakes in Kent in the United Kingdom. In a short time it seemed like the fake snake cake was EVERYWHERE, and rightly so – it’s an amazing piece of craftsmanship.

North Star Cake’s “likes” on its Facebook page skyrocketed from some 500+ “likes” to 25,000+, and was featured both online and in print around the world.

If you’ve ever dreamed about having your product or service go viral, try applying these 3 principles from the “fake snake cake” to your own product/business:

1) Whatever it is, it has to be damn good: Yes, we all know that there’s no point in having something that’s great if it isn’t marketed, but it works the other way around as well.  In order to have newspapers and websites and people interested in you, talking about you, “sharing” you, you have to be newsworthy, and that cake is definitely newsworthy – it’s so freakin’ real looking! Ms. Pitcher is an artist of great talent – no doubt (her sugar flowers, lovebird cupcakes and artist’s palette cake are nothing to sneeze at either).  The Huffington Post wrote an article on it that was retweeted by Duff Goldman of “Ace of Cakes” fame.

2) There’s an interesting story behind the product: What makes this cake even more fascinating than how realistic it is, is the story behind it: Francesca Pitcher, like Indiana Jones, hates snakes – she’s terrified of them! But her daughter had her heart set on one for her birthday cake, so Ms. Pitcher forced herself to study the snake so she could replicate it in sponge cake and fondant perfectly. Yes, the cake has been rewarding financially (look at the number of people on the North Star Cakes’ Facebook page asking to buy cakes) but the fact that it came from a very real place of just wanting to make her daughter happy despite her phobia adds a lovely, interesting, human depth to it.

3) Fan interaction before, during and after the viral craziness: From studying her Facebook page (which is the primary page for her business) you can see that Ms. Pitcher kept up a conversation with her fans, whether she had 500+ “likes” or (post fake snake cake) 25,000 + . She constantly updated the site with pictures of works in progress, responded to queries and comments, etc. In other words, she was cultivating her fan base before she had a huge hit. Virality is always helped when the fan base is watered and cared for, because what fan doesn’t love to say, “I knew her when.”

Have you had a viral success? Did it have these 3 elements? If not, what do you think made it successful? Please share in the comments section.

Apple vs. IBM

Steve Jobs could tell a damn good story.

Apple has a long history of using story to sell its products. Everyone who was alive at the time (and students of advertising and marketing) are familiar with Apple’s famous 1984 SuperBowl ad, showing IBM as Big Brother with Apple as the renegade iconoclast.  If you watch this video, you’ll see not only the commercial, but also Steve Jobs setting up the commercial for an audience, and he even gives the preamble a story spin.

3 lessons you can take away from this video:

1. People are emotional beings: If you want people to remember something, tie it to emotion. There are few things that hit an emotional core with Americans as much as a threat to our freedom and individualism, and there are few stories we love as much as those of triumphant rebels and underdogs. The 1984 commercial taps into both of these (credit to Steve Hayden, Brent Thomas and Lee Clow at Chiat/Day for coming up with the ad and Ridley Scott for directing it).
2. Using classic stories or mythology as a “spine”: In her book The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life(which I highly recommend) choreographer Twyla Tharp talks about building your creation using a spine. “…every work of art needs a spine – an underlying theme, a motive for coming into existence.”Jobs uses the David and Goliath story as the spine for the story he’s telling in the preamble to the commercial:”It is 1958. IBM passes up the chance to buy a young, fledgling company, that has invented a new technology called Xerography. Two years later, Xerox is born. And IBM has been kicking themselves ever since.” As he goes through the progression of various smaller companies that IBM has regretted ignoring, he sets up for the commercial which shows Apple being IBM’s next big regret.
3. Reframing the Story: Instead of showing IBM as the larger company with bigger market share (as it was), Apple shows IBM to be a non-benevolent overlord. A Big Brother that regulates everyone making them colorless drones. Again, people do not like the idea of being subservient and identical, serving a dictator, benevolent or otherwise. They welcome the release brought by a colorful, vibrant, individual overthrowing the tyrant.  Hell, at this point they don’t just welcome Apple, they need Apple.

So the next time you want to describe something, or illustrate a point to a potential business partner, client or customer, take a page out of Apple’s playbook and try framing it like a story.

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It’s about the conversation.

Customer Service: Kickin’ it Old School…

It’s easy, when you first get on Twitter, to obsess over the number of followers you have. I know I did.

But it’s pointless.

Why? Because your number of followers doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with getting customers for your business.

This story from All Tech Considered on NPR made this point very well: Twitter Lets Customers Skip Recordings, And Make Choices

If you don’t have time to read or listen to the report, here’s the short version: A lot of people are turning to companies’ Twitter accounts instead of calling customer service when they’re in need of assistance. Southwest Airlines and Best Buy are mentioned as companies that use Twitter to field and respond to customer issues and complaints.

The most interesting case was of a woman who was moving cross-country and wanted a moving truck with a CD player. She had to decide whether to use Penske or Budget movers. She ended up going with Penske because they responded to her tweets quickly and accurately, with the added benefit that she didn’t have to wait on hold endlessly listening to horrible muzak.

Does she follow Penske on Twitter? Nope. But they got her business, which is what counts in the end.

So when it comes to getting business on Twitter, it’s not the number of followers that counts: It’s the quality of the conversation.

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