Month: June 2018

In 1911, Bobby Leach went over Niagara Falls in a barrel. On purpose.

He broke a few bones and spent a few months in the hospital.

But that was OK with him. He survived…

…and then he cashed in on his fame.

He wasn’t the first person to survive that fall. A woman named Annie Taylor owned that claim-to-fame. She purposely fell over the falls a few months before Bobby.

Annie made a few bucks speaking about her adventure, but never built a money-making publicity machine.

Bobby, on the other hand, traveled the world, exhibited the barrel, posed for pictures and boasted, “Anything Annie can do, I can do better.“

A few years after the big fall, Bobby brought his publicity tour to New Zealand.

While there, he slipped on an orange peel and injured his leg. The leg got infected. Gangrene set in. Amputation followed. Complications ensued. Bobby died two months later.

Ouch!

Bobby learned the hard way: If you make your living by falling, past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Same is true if you’re marketing a business.

What worked for you yesterday, may injure, or even kill, your business today.

That’s why testing, tracking and tweaking are critical marketing practices.

I’ve been reading and writing marketing advice for more than 20 years.

A lot of the stuff I read — and wrote — doesn’t work as well as it once did. (I even purge content periodically from my blog if the advice is out-of-date).

I know what’s working because I measure results. I know if something worked better a few years ago than it works now.

Sure, if choosing between options, you may start with something that has worked in the past.

But remember: “No guarantee.”

Pay attention. Test and track to assess what works. Tweak to improve results.

Whatever you do, don’t sit on your laurels…

…and watch out for orange peels.

Tom
MarketVolt

p.s. Here at MarketVolt we license the software you use to create, deliver and track email campaigns. But we also can help you plan how to use it. Planning, testing, tweaking. We can show you how to do that. Or we can do it for you. If you want to learn more, give me a call (314-529-1431 or email me). 

I caught a radio ad recently for an ear doctor who encouraged listeners to get their hearing checked.

She said most people will rush to the eye doctor if they have fuzzy vision.

But when people notice their hearing get fuzzy, many will put off a checkup. Sometimes they’ll wait for years.

Don’t wait, she said. If you wait too long, minor hearing loss becomes major.

Good point, Doc…

…but bad marketing.

By highlighting people who wait for their checkup, you imply that waiting is normal.

We humans want to be normal. We want to join the crowd.

So if you describe a crowd that waits to visit the ear doctor, we’ll join ‘em. We’ll wait, too…

…even if you tell us that waiting is a bad choice.

So what’s the poor doctor to do?

Encourage listeners to get their hearing checked…

…without telling them about the crowd that puts off checkups.

Better yet, make hearing tests the “new normal.”

Tell listeners about the “crowd” that rushed to get their hearing checked. Tell them how you’ve treated hundreds (or thousands) of people whose lives improved following the test.

Emphasize how those people made the “smart choice.”

That’s the crowd you want your listeners to follow.

Marketers and behavioral economists call this “social proof.” 

Smart communicators use social proof to make their copy more persuasive.

Highlight the wrong crowd, and you encourage the wrong action.

Use social proof to highlight the right crowd, and you encourage the right action.

By the way, you are not encouraging the “right” action if you trick people into acting against their interests.

Unfortunately, some marketers use social proof and other persuasion methods to “trick” people into buying stuff they don’t need. 

This gives all marketers a bad name, and it gives “persuasion” a bad name, too. 

Using social proof and other persuasion techniques is not a bad thing…

…unless you use them for a bad purpose.

If you intend to provide value and to offer something for those who need it, there’s nothing wrong with making your copy as persuasive as it can be. 

Social proof is one way to make your copy more persuasive. See the p.s. below if you want to discover other ways…

Thanks for reading. 

Tom
MarketVolt

p.s.Here’s a free report that might interest you: “7 Ways to Make Your Marketing Messages More Persuasive.” 

I got a call last month from my son, Jacob, who declared, “I’m never flying United Airlines again!”

Here’s why he was so upset…

Jacob was at the Denver airport, at one of those self-serve check-in kiosks. It was crowded and hectic. There was a long line to get through security. He was frazzled. He worried he might miss his plane.

Jacob had one bag to check so he needed to run his credit card to pay for it. When he reached down to insert the card into the slot, he found a previous customer’s card still in the kiosk.

He pulled the card from the slot and looked around for a United attendant.

He spotted one across the room, caught her eye and raised his hand, waving the previous customer’s credit card in the air.

The attendant’s shoulders slumped. She frowned. And then she stormed across the room toward Jacob.

As she arrived at the Kiosk, Jacob said, “Someone left his credit card in the…”

The attendant wasn’t listening.

Without a word, she snatched the card from Jacob, pressed the pay now button on the kiosk screen and inserted the card into the slot.

Transaction complete.

“Ummmm…” Jacob said. “That wasn’t my card. I found it in the slot when I went to check in.”

Slumped shoulders again. As for the frown, it never left, but now it was bigger.

“Why didn’t you tell me that!?” she barked.

“I tried to tell you but…”

Again, she wasn’t listening. She grabbed Jacob by the arm and yanked him toward the check-in counter.

After a few minutes of furious typing, even-bigger frowning and lots of heavy sighing, the attendant undid the previous transaction and charged Jacob’s credit card.

She tagged the bag, tossed it on the conveyor and handed Jacob his credit card.

Her only words: “OK. You’re all set.”

She didn’t say, “I’m sorry.”

She didn’t say, “Thank you.”

After Jacob told me the story, I told him that United’s slogan is “fly the friendly skies.” 

Jacob laughed. “Yeah, right,” he said. 

What’s the lesson for you? 

The United attendant could have prevented so much damage if only she hadn’t assumed my son was a dummy who didn’t know how to operate a kiosk.

If only she asked the customer, “What do you need?” If only she listened to the customer when he told her what he needed.

So it goes with marketing and sales.

Too often we assume we know what the prospect or customer wants. We act on assumptions. We act without listening. And then we cause damage.

Smart marketers devise strategies and tactics

…to converse with their prospects and customers…
…to listen to them…
…to learn what they want and need…

And then smart marketers respond accordingly.

Want to discover how B2B and B2C marketers use email to converse with their customers, listen to them and learn what they want and need? Register for one of our on-demand webinars (see below).

Thanks for reading.

Tom
MarketVolt

p.s. Our on-demand webinars reveal great ways to build connections with prospects and customers. We’re currently running two webinars. We’ll be adding other topics soon. 

• 5 Ways B2B Businesses Use Email Marketing To Simplify & Accelerate Connection-Building & Sales
    
  
• 5 Ways B2C Businesses Use Email Marketing to Increase Profits