In 2012, I went to NYC to see Seth Godin in an interactive day centered around Pick Yourself [pdf] – and what to do when it is your turn. It also was about how important story telling is; failing; and the connection economy.

I just finished presenting the 4 week Marketing Workshop. I emphasized the story because we do a lousy job on telling the story. We talk tech, list features, push replacement products, but we don’t market or sell really.

Peter Drucker says Business has only two functions — marketing and innovation. All the rest is overhead. If innovation is built into the product, then the story, the marketing is baked in from the beginning. Think about Apple or Ruckus or Office365 or Google Fiber.

Seth Godin said, “Because marketing has shifted from me marketing at you, to you marketing to each other.” That means we have to (1) tell a story that others can easily remember and pass on; and (2) give people a reason to talk about us (word of mouth). We need to be Remarkable. We need to provide an incredible customer experience, like Zappos or Disney.

This also means that mass marketing isn’t working so well. However, we can pretty much market one to one today. We don’t need to print up 1000 postcards and mail them out. We can create a unique card for each person or company we are prospecting. [Seth wrote about this in his book All Marketers are Liars. Impact’s review is a good summary.]

Seth “reminded us that underneath message and advertising, purchases are inspired by emotion…..Now, quality products and a great story must spark consumers’ interest and, combined with their own memories and interests, entice customers to purchase them.”

What does, “it’s too expensive,” mean? It means that the story you told didn’t resonate as valuable with the listener. When you don’t provide or explain the Value, they buy on price. When they can’t see the difference – and you don’t explain the difference – then they go with price.

One more point: Comcast can blast advertise because they cover a wide swath of area and they don’t care about people who are off net but marketed to. You are not mass market. You are boutique. You are not the low price provider of a mass market service. If you are marketing to LIT Buildings or installing FTTH (or FTTB) or providing fixed wireless or EoC, then you are target marketing and that can be done almost one to one effectively.

*If you need help with this – or want to bounce ideas off me, make an appointment to speak with me.

Other Links

Slides on Brand Story Telling.

Ford holds a conference every year about the trends it sees. In 2013 Seth Godin spoke. Notes from that talk are here . Ford’s 2016 Trends report is here. Interesting read.

In 2012, I went to NYC to see Seth Godin in an interactive day centered around Pick Yourself [pdf] – and what to do when it is your turn. It also was about how important story telling is; failing; and the connection economy.

I just finished presenting the 4 week Marketing Workshop. I emphasized the story because we do a lousy job on telling the story. We talk tech, list features, push replacement products, but we don’t market or sell really.

Peter Drucker says Business has only two functions — marketing and innovation. All the rest is overhead. If innovation is built into the product, then the story, the marketing is baked in from the beginning. Think about Apple or Ruckus or Office365 or Google Fiber.

Seth Godin said, “Because marketing has shifted from me marketing at you, to you marketing to each other.” That means we have to (1) tell a story that others can easily remember and pass on; and (2) give people a reason to talk about us (word of mouth). We need to be Remarkable. We need to provide an incredible customer experience, like Zappos or Disney.

This also means that mass marketing isn’t working so well. However, we can pretty much market one to one today. We don’t need to print up 1000 postcards and mail them out. We can create a unique card for each person or company we are prospecting. [Seth wrote about this in his book All Marketers are Liars. Impact’s review is a good summary.]

Seth “reminded us that underneath message and advertising, purchases are inspired by emotion…..Now, quality products and a great story must spark consumers’ interest and, combined with their own memories and interests, entice customers to purchase them.”

What does, “it’s too expensive,” mean? It means that the story you told didn’t resonate as valuable with the listener. When you don’t provide or explain the Value, they buy on price. When they can’t see the difference – and you don’t explain the difference – then they go with price.

One more point: Comcast can blast advertise because they cover a wide swath of area and they don’t care about people who are off net but marketed to. You are not mass market. You are boutique. You are not the low price provider of a mass market service. If you are marketing to LIT Buildings or installing FTTH (or FTTB) or providing fixed wireless or EoC, then you are target marketing and that can be done almost one to one effectively.

*If you need help with this – or want to bounce ideas off me, make an appointment to speak with me.

Other Links

Slides on Brand Story Telling.

Ford holds a conference every year about the trends it sees. In 2013 Seth Godin spoke. Notes from that talk are here . Ford’s 2016 Trends report is here. Interesting read.

In 2012, I went to NYC to see Seth Godin in an interactive day centered around Pick Yourself [pdf] – and what to do when it is your turn. It also was about how important story telling is; failing; and the connection economy.

I just finished presenting the 4 week Marketing Workshop. I emphasized the story because we do a lousy job on telling the story. We talk tech, list features, push replacement products, but we don’t market or sell really.

Peter Drucker says Business has only two functions — marketing and innovation. All the rest is overhead. If innovation is built into the product, then the story, the marketing is baked in from the beginning. Think about Apple or Ruckus or Office365 or Google Fiber.

Seth Godin said, “Because marketing has shifted from me marketing at you, to you marketing to each other.” That means we have to (1) tell a story that others can easily remember and pass on; and (2) give people a reason to talk about us (word of mouth). We need to be Remarkable. We need to provide an incredible customer experience, like Zappos or Disney.

This also means that mass marketing isn’t working so well. However, we can pretty much market one to one today. We don’t need to print up 1000 postcards and mail them out. We can create a unique card for each person or company we are prospecting. [Seth wrote about this in his book All Marketers are Liars. Impact’s review is a good summary.]

Seth “reminded us that underneath message and advertising, purchases are inspired by emotion…..Now, quality products and a great story must spark consumers’ interest and, combined with their own memories and interests, entice customers to purchase them.”

What does, “it’s too expensive,” mean? It means that the story you told didn’t resonate as valuable with the listener. When you don’t provide or explain the Value, they buy on price. When they can’t see the difference – and you don’t explain the difference – then they go with price.

One more point: Comcast can blast advertise because they cover a wide swath of area and they don’t care about people who are off net but marketed to. You are not mass market. You are boutique. You are not the low price provider of a mass market service. If you are marketing to LIT Buildings or installing FTTH (or FTTB) or providing fixed wireless or EoC, then you are target marketing and that can be done almost one to one effectively.

*If you need help with this – or want to bounce ideas off me, make an appointment to speak with me.

Other Links

Slides on Brand Story Telling.

Ford holds a conference every year about the trends it sees. In 2013 Seth Godin spoke. Notes from that talk are here . Ford’s 2016 Trends report is here. Interesting read.

In this article from Entrepreneur magazine, while the headline says ways to get referrals, the author spends most of it telling you what not to do. He gets one thing right though.

“Actually surprise and delight.” INC magazine has 3 ways to surprise and delight here. Ann Handley has a post about it here, where she mentions the WestJet Christmas Miracle.

Gary Vanderchuk drops anecdotes all the time about how he likes to surprise and delight customers to turn them into Brand Ambassadors. Zappos CEO Tony H has a culture built around astounding customer service.

This company writes about a Delight Hack Week – and how it was fun for the employees too. When the employees are having fun, then the customers are getting great service.

I’m not saying you have to Surprise everyone to get a Referral. I am saying that doing something just outside the expected will result in a remarkable moment that the customer will talk about.

It is about Customer Care and how you make them feel. It is about the little things, not really the big things. Like vacuuming up after an installation or taking off your shoes before coming in the house to do an install. That is a little (and a small pain in the neck) but has a big impact.

Deconstruct your deployments to see where you can add actual White Glove Service to make it extra-ordinary.

You have to turn your Referral Machine into an active system. Not a credit to their account, but something tangible, like a big check or a VISA pre-paid gift card or any of a number of special occasions that can be designed. You want to make a Referral something awesome, especially from the Fiberhoods, where word-of-mouth is the primary way to get pre-sales.

Ice Cream trucks, Avon ladies, BBQ, pizza party, outdoor movies and so many more ideas to use to get attention and have fun with prospects and customers aimed at the fiberood scenario many of you are tackling now.

Three things about social media:
We’re beginning to see the humanization of business.
On social media, don’t act business – act human.
Inspire people with your marketing content. Surprise and delight them.

Stand up, sit less and move more, researchers say; here’s how to do it. [see the post about stand up desk]

What’s missing from your on-boarding experience? by ADP.

Short article on company environment and its impact on culture by GapingVoid, my favorite cartoonist.

Why Modern Communication is Broken, Explained in 3 numbers. [email]