In my day-to-day work, I speak and meet with a number of companies that are really good at what they do. In fact, some are just outstanding at their specialty or niche. The problem is that too few people know about them. You practically need to trip over them to know that they exist.
Almost invariably, the VPs of Sales & Marketing for these companies voice their frustrations over the fact that while the company is good at doing what they do, they’ve not grown sales, nor increased their customer bases or product volumes, nor enhanced their brand visibility as their executive management team would have liked. In many ways, their companies end up becoming their respective industries’ dreaded “best kept secrets.” If this sounds painfully familiar, let me offer up a reason why this has happened and how to avoid this trap.
First, one needs to remember that there are two different sides to your business. One is what I call “inside reality” and the other is “outside perception.” The “inside reality” are all the things your business does that makes it valuable to customers and gives you a competitive advantage in the marketplace. It’s all your skills, people, expertise, service, commitment to excellence, passion, and the way you conduct your business.
I’m sure that if you asked your customers why they bought from you, they could tell you something quantifiable, specific, and instantly obvious. They might point to specific benefits for doing business with you and say, “That’s why I do business with you, that’s why I refer my friends to come here, that’s why I’m a loyal customer, that’s why I don’t mind paying a bit more for your products, that’s why I keep coming back.”
The problem then isn’t your “inside reality” but the “outside perception,” which is how prospects PERCEIVE your company, if they perceive it at all. Very commonly, there’s a fundamental disconnect between your inside reality and outside perception.
See, regardless of how good you are, or how good your “inside reality” is, your prospect isn’t going to be able to figure it out based on marketing that doesn’t address their outside perception. Take, for example, a bank that offers personal service. Their inside reality is they greet every customer by name, open the doors as each customer enters and leaves, and offer individual financial advice based on the customers’ specific banking needs. We’ll also assume their current customers are genuinely impressed. But the outside perception of non-customer prospects is that all banks are pretty much the same and all talk about personal service while most don’t deliver on the promise – and it’s not really that important to them anyway. Once a bank starts from that outside perception as the basis of their marketing, the solutions become entirely different. And so do the results. But the bank that continues to market based on such inside realities, especially in a non-creative or expected manner, will remain invisible to prospects because they’ve seen it all before.
You have to start by seeing your marketing through the eyes of a jaded, disinterested prospect who thinks they know all there is to know about you, or at least about the business you’re in.
So while “best kept secrets” might be seen as good for restaurants, traffic shortcuts and travel destinations, they’re NOT great for business. Don’t get lost in the noise. Whether it’s online, offline or thru social media channels, wave your ‘marketing arms’ and let people know you’re there. Because being in business and not promoting your value as you should is like winking at a cute girl (or guy) in the dark. You may know what you’re doing but she or he sure doesn’t.
by Rolf Gutknecht, Agent of Change (c) 2012
The GPS is a wonderful invention for anyone who’s had to get somewhere they’ve not been before. Whether you get directions from your SmartPhone, Mapquest, Google Maps, dedicated GPS device or even the old paper map, there are only two pieces of data to plot your route: where you are now and where you want to go. Sounds pretty simple, right? Yet how many companies, maybe even yours, have launched into a marketing campaign without really considering these things! Unfortunately, not having a clear picture of where you are now and where you want to go leads to not getting anywhere because one critical factor is missing: a overall marketing strategy.
Time and time again in speaking with CMO/VP/Directors of Marketing for companies large and small, they tell me that they need to execute marketing programs, but then tell me they “don’t have time to develop a full strategy.” I’m not kidding. It’s actually easy to understand, given all the exciting marketing tools available today, including social media, email marketing, location-based apps, etc. It’s easy to confuse these tactics with strategies. Too often I see people focused on the newest and sexiest marketing tactic du jour without any appreciation for how it fits in an overall marketing strategy. I’ve also seen entire marketing plans that consist of nothing but a series of tactics strung together one after the next without an over-arching marketing strategy.
So, what’s the difference between strategy and tactic? A strategy is the broad roadmap that defines where you are now, where you want to go and how you’ll get there – taking into account your product or service, what the competition is doing, which direction the market is heading, and what you’ll need to do and say that gives your company the competitive edge. It’s the big picture. Tactics, by contrast, are the specific tools you use to do this: Write a blog. Send out a newsletter. Develop an app. Run an ad. Be more visible at tradeshows. Etc.
It’s easy to start with the “how” but if you haven’t identified the “what”, you may find yourself spending a lot of time executing tactics that don’t take you where you want to go and in so doing, you’ll be wasting time, resources and losing out on sales-producing opportunities.
The confusion compounds when I hear some marketing folks talk about their organization’s “online marketing strategies” given all the attention to social media, online and mobile tools. You shouldn’t have an “online” or internet marketing strategy any more than an you should have an “offline” strategy. What you do need is one, single integrated strategy that looks across all delivery platforms whether online or offline, print, broadcast, or mobile. Your customers don’t have an online self and offline self and neither should you. Think holistically about all your marketing initiatives. Otherwise you’ll drive your customers and your own team crazy.
So at the end of the day, executing marketing tactics without having a well-developed integrated strategy is like leaving your roadmap tools at home and taking off on the drive without concerning if you’ve chosen the right road, highway or turnoff. You wouldn’t haphazardly set off on an important trip in your personal life so why let it happen with regard to your company’s marketing activities. You’ll never make it to the right place taking the wrong roads.
by Rolf Gutknecht, Agent of Change (c) 2012
Tell me a fact and I’ll learn. Tell me a truth and I’ll believe. But tell me a story and it will live in my heart forever. — Indian Proverb
Ever wonder the best way to represent your product or service to prospective clients or customers? Here’s something to think about. Stop talking about the features of what you offer. Don’t even focus on the benefits. Don’t tell me how good you are or why you’re better than the competition. Instead, tell me about a situation your customers typically find themselves in. Paint me a picture of how that situation is improved by the use of your product or service. Show me what success looks like. Capture my interest with people or places that resonate with me. Don’t focus on you, your company or your products. Instead, tell me a good story!
Since the beginning of language, stories have continued to teach, inspire, entertain, motivate and engage us like no other form of communication. From bedtime stories when we were young to story time in elementary school to the sharing of family stories around the dinner table, they connect us on a much deeper level than any list of advertising bullet points could ever do. For those not convinced, try telling any favorite story using only bullet points and then decide which format people find more memorable and meaningful.
Recently, my business partner, Dan, and I met with a mid-sized “challenger brand” company to talk about their business goals and how we could help them grow their business in the face of a number of competitors. Tom, the company president, talked about his products and their features. It was the same stuff we’ve heard time and time again from other companies in his industry. It was only when he got away from the rattling off of bullet points and suddenly spoke emotionally and passionately about how one of his customers was saved from the brink of bankruptcy because of his company’s tailored services did we immediately feel more connected with his business.
So what’s the secret to good storytelling?
Well, there is a right way and wrong way to tell stories. The secret lies in making an emotional connection with buyers because emotions play the dominant role in most decision-making processes. We need to tell our stories with authenticity and real passion in order to cut through the information overload that buyers experience and the BS shields they put up. On that note, talk like a human. Enough with the business babble. Don’t worry about sounding smart. It’s alienating and condescending, and your story will be quickly lost on your audience. Talk like a human being that cares about making meaningful relationships with people.
So how do you relate your story to the reader so that it resonates and motivates them to take action in the form of purchase or even just their wanting to retell your story and spread the word? Here are few things to think about:
So that’s my story for today and I’m sticking to it. What’s yours? Go out and create your own stories and “live happily ever after.”
by Rolf Gutknecht, Agent of Change (c) 2012
I had a phone conversation with a prospective new client (I’ll name her Amelia) last week and during our talk, I mentioned having seen a cable TV ad that her company had run recently and was wondering if it had produced growth in sales inquiries or better yet, generated more sales. Her response is something that I’ve heard more times than “Doan’s has pills.”
Amelia reported less-than-stellar performance, which didn’t really surprise me. But she fingered the blame on the media type…and not the marketing process or the message. The spot was flat-out boring and crammed with too many feature points. The message itself had no spark; the ad employed uninspiring, overused stock images that everyone has seen on other companies’ commercials; and while it had a lot of words attached to it, it said nothing. I know you know the kind of ad. You see them every day in trade publications, direct mail, online and yes, even on TV.
When I politely asked her if maybe it wasn’t the media but the message, my suggestion was immediately dismissed as “no, no. that’s not it. Cable just doesn’t work.” In this case it was TV but I’ve heard it for most every B2B and B2C media type there is. So I quoted to her legendary adman Bill Bernbach’s “golden rule”: “The truth isn’t the truth until people believe you, and they can’t believe you if they don’t know what you’re saying, and they can’t know what you’re saying if they don’t listen to you, and they won’t listen to you if you’re not interesting, and you won’t be interesting unless you say things imaginatively, originally, freshly.”
Now before I move on, please take another 15 seconds and read the above quote again and let it wash over you…it’s that important.
You see, what this timeless observation says applies to everything a marketing executive does in communicating a brand’s promise or a product’s sales message, and then needs to shine through like a huge Klieg light within your ads, your sales support material, your promotional initiatives, your tradeshow booth, your collateral and your website.
Taking the uninspired or predictable way out leads to self-inflicted mediocrity which we all know is like a communicable disease. It starts with a so-so idea and coupled with a lack of interestingness and imagination, it infects every aspect of your marketing to the point that regardless of how and where you present the message, your current and prospective customers will not give it two seconds of thought as it passes by, only to become part of the background noise and clutter.
I’m not sure about you but one of the main reasons I decided that advertising and marketing was what I wanted to pursue as a profession was because I loved coming up with marketing ideas that would make people sit up and take notice in a sea of indifference.
If you want your marketing to actually change the trajectory of sales, if you want yourself to be seen as an idea person rather than a “fulfiller” of marketing stuff, then the status quo is not an option. You need to create new truths for your company that people believe in because you say things “imaginatively, originally, freshly.” To do otherwise, especially in today’s economy, is unacceptable.
Back in the early 1940s, Rosser Reeves of Ted Bates & Company coined the phrase “USP – Unique Selling Proposition.” The term referred to a having, finding or creating a distinctive point of view or reason to buy that is wholly different from the competitions’.
But as a catchphrase, USP is so 70-years-ago!
In the 80’s, marketing agencies, HR consultants and motivational speakers started using the term “elevator pitch,” which kinda says the same thing: What is so special about you (or your company, or your product) that you can express it in just 30 seconds on the ride up the elevator and expect the listener to get it? We hear that term a lot in angel and investor meetings.
More recently, we find ourselves using the phrase “value proposition.” And we’ve shorted the time to about 5 seconds, but we’ll settle for 30, just as long as it clearly tells the story.
Your value proposition is the answer to the question “what customer objective does my company help to achieve better than anyone or anything else?”
Whichever term you favor, USP, elevator pitch, or value proposition, without it, without a good one, you’re dead! If you can’t very quickly describe what makes you, your product, your service or your company truly special in the eyes of the customer, don’t expect your customer to do it for you. By default, they’ll just put you on the shelf called “commodity,” and there you’ll stay.
Every business, no matter what the business, starts out with the same baseline of customer fulfillment as its competition. If you have a fast food restaurant, for example, you might say your value proposition is fresh entrees at reasonable prices. But then, doesn’t the competing restaurant down the road also say that? So that alone doesn’t really make you special, does it? Poof, you’re a commodity! You’re just the same as everybody else.
On the other hand, your value proposition has to be one that is not merely unique but deserves an exclamation point in the eyes of your customer. It has to create a real sense of Wow! or there really is no value, just proposition. What can you say that captures the imagination and puts you in a class all your own? That’s at the very heart of making a sale or losing out on one.
I’ll be honest, defining your value proposition takes some real corporate soul-searching at the most fundamental level. It requires seeing yourself from your competitors’ customers’ point of view. It may even require re-inventing your organization so that there’s an entirely new but better value proposition than the one you’re claiming now.
Commit to asking yourself, just as soon as you finish reading this post, “what’s our value proposition?” Ask your associates and see if their answers agree with your own, and if they can articulate it in less than 90 seconds. Aim for 30. (For my company, we can do it in two seconds: “Agent of Change.” We even own the registered trademark on it!)
Your value proposition is the very cornerstone of your business. All sales and marketing must emanate from it. The stronger your value proposition is…
…and the more clearly it expresses your unique ability to improve your customer’s lives…
…and the most concisely you can articulate it between elevator floors…
…the more confident you can be in betting on your company’s success!
You spend thousands, perhaps tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars on your advertising and yet you’re still completely invisible to most of your audience. What’s going on? Why after all this time and all those dollars are you still the best-kept-secret in town?
Well, think about it from another perspective.
Do you need a plumber right at this moment? (If you do, let’s pretend you don’t for the sake of this illustration.) People who don’t need plumbers probably don’t see all those plumber ads in the papers, or on bus benches, or hear them on the radio. Oh, they’re there all right, lots of them, but to you, they’re completely invisible…Unless. The “unless” is if the ad happens to be really creative or interesting in some way that grabs you regardless. But most plumber ads are pretty much what you expect, and are therefore completely unnoticeable to the 98% of the audience who is not at-need. (You see where I’m going with this…)
In this case, the best that the plumber/advertiser can hope for is an equal shot along with all his competition at the time the faucet starts dripping, and not a moment before. But let’s take the plumber whose advertising is really fresh and interesting, that makes people take notice even when everything is fine. Then he’s going to be the first name on people’s minds when the sink backs up.
Human beings only pay attention to the things that interest them, and block out all the rest. It’s a natural defense mechanism that helps the brain cope with too much information. And only those things that are of immediate interest have a way of showing up as if by magic – such as when you are shopping for a particular car and suddenly, every car on the highway is that car!
For fun, try this wonderful YouTube demonstration:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Ahg6qcgoay4]
It’s easy to be visible to your audience when there’s an immediate need or urgent desire. But imagine how completely invisible you are to them prior to that need – which is precisely when you most want to reach them! The more “expected” your advertising, the more invisible you become. You’re just another plumber advertising to people whose toilet’s are flushing just fine.
If you want to be noticed, you have to be noticeable. You need to rise above the general noise level with advertising and marketing that is different, fresh, unconventional and unexpected. You have to be willing to step out on a limb and surprise the audience and perhaps yourself.
I realize that only a tiny percentage of marketers will actually take this to heart and do anything amazing. That’s why 95% of ads in any medium – print, TV, billboards, direct mail – or for any industry – beer, office supplies, funeral homes, or financial services – are doomed before they leave the production house. But for those who take the risk, the reward is top-of-mind awareness before, during, and after the need.
That’s an ROI I’d take any day.
– By Dan Katz, Agent of Change © 2012 LA ads – A Marketing Agency
I’m sure you remember those wonderful fill-in-the-blanks books, “Mad Libs.” You know, you just insert your own verb, noun or adjective in the blanks and see how silly the sentences come out. Mad Libs are great for kids and fun at parties, but they have no place in expressing your marketing message. Yet, as I look through the pages of ads in magazines, or surf companies on the web, I see all kinds of Mad Lib slogans and taglines, which are in effect condensed marketing messages:
At the very least, many marketing messages are so generic, any competitor in the same industry could put their name in the space:
They don’t communicate anything unique about the marketer other than the category in which they operate, putting them at the same level as everyone else who provides a similar product or service.
By comparison, here are a few examples of taglines past and present that are truly distinctive and demonstrate a unique selling proposition:
If you’re in the former camp instead of the latter, it’s a perfect time to re-think what you have to say to prospective customers that gives your firm the edge.
As you begin looking forward to the new year, it’s worthwhile to look backwards to some of the strategies and tactics you’re bringing into 2012…starting with your basic marketing message. Ask yourself, is our message so familiar, expected or generic that it could apply to any of our competitors? Does it fully express our unique point of difference? Is it fresh and “sticky”?
Without having a strong point of view and a distinctive message risks your customers seeing your products or service as a commodity, and they’ll be happy to shop your competitors when they think price is the only difference.
This may require a bit of corporate soul-searching, but it belongs on your marketing must-do list for 2012. Otherwise, you’re just [ verb ]-ing your precious marketing dollars [ preposition and place ].
by Dan Katz © 2012