It’s hard.
Sure, it’s hard for you. Your brand doesn’t get as much as you like.
But that’s not what I mean.
It’s hard for the consumer. A few people like to blab and babble. Most people don’t.
Consider Iowa. Caucus turnout was huge. And yet it only represents a tiny percentage of the people who vote in the actual election in Iowa. What? The caucus stage is so much more important in the scheme of things (the Iowa electoral vote essentially never influences an election). So why skip the caucus?
90% of voters skip it because they don’t want to stand up in front of people and tell them who they’re voting for. They don’t want to be challenged or made to look foolish. So they keep quiet.
That’s what most of your customers do. They lay low, because they’re afraid or shy or just not used to talking about brands and products or experiences.
Sure, 1% of your customers blog or post or just plain talk. They’re louder than ever before. But the other 99% represent a real opportunity for you. Figure out how to get them out there. Cajole them to go to a caucus.
January 4, 2008
Is that what marketing is all about?
I think so.
Make promises and keep them.
Some organizations work very hard to weasel in the promises they make. They imply great customer service or amazing results or spectacular quality, but don’t deliver. No, they didn’t actually lie, but they came awfully close. The result: angry customers and negative word of mouth.
It’s very easy to overpromise. Tempting to shade the truth a little bit, deliver a little bit less to save a few bucks. Who will notice?
The consumer notices.
If you need to overpromise to make the sale, don’t bother. It’s not worth it.
The best way to generate word of mouth is simple: overdeliver.
Here’s a conversation I had with Hugh. Inside-baseball writing stuff.
And, if you like, here’s a free online seminar to sign up for.
One of the mantras of networking (and the many social networking sites that people are flocking to) is that it matters who you know. The goal of having a thousand or more friends online is that you’re well known. Connected. A click away.
I wonder if there’s a more useful measure: who trusts you?
January 3, 2008
A few years ago, Oprah sold her autobiography to a major New York publisher. You can imagine the delight among booksellers.
At the last minute, she backed out, never really explaining why.
I wonder how many books she would have sold? A lot, certainly, but as many as the titles she regularly promotes?
Here is a fascinating statistic:
Last month, I posted excerpts from my new book. I also wrote a glowing post about Garr’s new book on presentations. Guess what? My stats show that I sold more copies of Garr’s book than mine.
The truism of the web: people talking about you is far more effective than talking about yourself.
Clearly, just about everyone who reads my blog enjoys my writing. You’d think that a significant percentage would then hustle over to buy a copy on Amazon the moment they heard about it. But, just as Oprah is at her best when she’s talking about somebody else’s book, something funny happens when a blogger talks about his work.
Cory and Mark both have terrific books out. And as co-editors on the world’s most popular blog, you’d think that they could use boingboing to sell a ton of books. But it doesn’t happen. Lucky for bloggers, if you write a good book, a few other bloggers will write about you and then the sales start happening.
Once again, what do you know, it takes patience. It’s not a direct, first-order promotional thing, the way old media is. Instead, it’s one thing causing something else, which leads to a conversation and then, maybe, a sale.
Interesting irrelevant aside: how come books get blurbed and promoted by other authors, but movies don’t get blurbed and promoted by other directors and actors?
January 2, 2008
Google yourself.
If you’re a salesperson, your prospects already do.
If you’re looking for a job, your prospective employers already do.
If you’ve got a job, your co-workers already do.
What do they see? Do you know?
If you don’t like it, you can fix it. Start a blog, even if it’s just a few pages worth. Have some colleagues suggest you for wikipedia (if the powers that be think you’re notable enough) or make sure you’re represented on HubPages or Squidwho or write an article for ChangeThis.
You can be finished by tonight. It’s worth it.
There are three ways to deal with a problem, I think.
- Lean into it.
- Lean away from it.
- Run away.
You lean into a problem, especially a long-term or difficult one, by sitting with it, reveling in it, embracing it and breathing it in. The problem becomes part of you, at least until you solve it. You try one approach and then another, and when nothing works, you stick with it and work around it as you build your organization and your life. [I don’t mean you just bully the problem, or attack it. I mean that you accept it, live with it, breathe it and whittle it until you’ve achieved your goal. Once you start looking forward to your interactions with the problem, then you’re leaning into it.]
Some people choose to lean away from the problems that nag them at home or at work. They avoid them, minimize them or criticize the cause. Put as little into it as possible and maybe it will go away.
And sometimes, a problem is so nasty or overwhelming that you just run away.
I’m a big fan of the first approach. And sometimes, quitting isn’t such a bad idea. The second approach, alas, is the one that many of us end up with by default, and the one that’s least likely to pay off.
If that helps with this year’s resolutions, it was worth thinking about…
January 1, 2008
