Category: Weekly Story

I once read an interview with a top dog at Disney who described why they invest big-time in sidewalk gum removal.

Disney employs people who spend their entire day picking up gum from the sidewalks.

The idea: If a guest steps in that gum, they will interrupt their fun day, sit on a bench in the hot sun, spend several minutes picking that gum from their shoe and grumble the entire time.

It will ruin their Magic Kingdom experience. And that may keep them from returning or referring.

That top dog said Disney considers gum pickup a critical marketing activity.

Right on, Disney.

Here’s the lesson:

Marketing is everything, and everything is marketing.

We often think of marketing only as the messages we transmit on websites, social media, sales letters, and other channels.  

Sure, those things matter — a lot!

But everything you do  sends a message. Everything aspect of your operations tells prospects and customers…

…either you understand and care about them…

…or you don’t.

That guy who’s picking gum from his shoe is thinking, “You don’t…”

Your customers and prospects are the stars of your business story.

Understand what they want.

Understand what frustrates them.

Craft marketing messages that show you understand and deliver for them.

Operate in ways that show the same.

Then they’ll stick with you. They’ll tell others. And your business will thrive.

If you want your business to thrive, you need to tune up your business story. With a well-tuned business story, prospects and customers will tune in, stay tuned, and act.

If you want to learn how to craft better business stories…

Sign up for a Story Assessment.

I’m offering free, 30-minute web conferences to review your business story. I will meet with you via Zoom and review how you’re telling your business story — on your website, social media, and other channels. Then, I’ll recommend steps you can take to help prospects and customers tune in and act.

I have a limited number of slots open on my calendar for these sessions. Please visit my calendar to book a time that works for you.

Thanks!

Tom
314-529-1431
tom@StoryUpMarketing.com
www.StoryUp Marketing

Here is a great ad that I found on Facebook last week:  

It’s that first line that makes it so great: “Tired of clients breaking the beautiful website you slaved over?” 

That is a great question, a great business story. 

That inspires prospects to tune in, and they continue reading (they stay tuned). 

Lesson 1: Your business story is NOT a single epic. It’s a thousand little stories. And some of the best are 10 words (like this ad’s opening line) or fewer. 

Lesson 2: Your business story is about your prospects and customers. Not you or your product. Beaver Builder makes great web publishing tools. But that’s not what they say to open the ad. The star of the story is the prospect — web developers. And this ad’s story perfectly reflects web developer’s frustrations.

That’s all I have for you now, but I’ve got a few slots on my calendar if you want to dig deeper…

If you want to learn how to craft better business stories so prospects tune in and stay tuned…

Sign up for a Story Assessment.

I’m offering free, 30-minute web conferences to review your business story. I will meet with you via Zoom and review how you’re telling your business story — on your website, social media, and other channels. Then, I’ll recommend steps you can take to help prospects and customers tune in and act.

I have a limited number of slots open on my calendar for these sessions. Please visit my calendar to book a time that works for you.

Thanks!

Tom
314-529-1431
tom@StoryUpMarketing.com
www.StoryUp Marketing 

Back in the day, when people used to go on vacation, my mom, dad, brother and I packed up the station wagon and drove west in search of a ghost town.

Actually, we were headed to some national parks in Wyoming and Montana. But I insisted we detour.

The brochure I grabbed at the Stuckey’s on I-80 said the ghost town was “can’t miss.”

I’ll spare you the details and tell you only this: The brochure lied.

Fast-forward 45 years: I was browsing my swipe file (my collection of great ads and copywriting) in search of some marketing inspiration for you.

I found an ad from Norwegian Cruise Lines with the following headline:

Finally, A Caribbean Cruise as Good as Its Brochure

That’s a great headline.

When I read it, the sad ghost town memories came pouring back: Reading the brochure. The anticipation. The disappointment. The sense of betrayal.

Raise your hand if you ever felt betrayed by a travel brochure that lied. The copywriter who penned the cruise line ad knows how you feel.

And that’s what makes the ad great.

That headline says, in effect, “I know you’ve felt betrayed by travel brochures that over-promise and under-deliver. You won’t feel that way with us.”

Two important marketing lessons here: 

1) Don’t break your marketing promises (I was 10 when the ghost town broke its promise; I haven’t forgotten). 

2) Your business story works best when it is not about the business. Great business stories are about prospects and customers — their aspirations, fears, frustrations and feelings.

Do you know how your prospects and customers feel — what they crave, what they fear, what inspires them, what bugs them?

We’ll help you figure that out. And then we can help you craft business stories that reflect their feelings…

…so they’ll tune in and act. 

The help starts here: Sign up for a Story Assessment.

I’m offering free, 30-minute web conferences to review your business story. I will meet with you via Zoom and review how you’re telling your business story — on your website, social media, and other channels. Then, I’ll recommend steps you can take to help prospects and customers tune in and act.

I have a limited number of slots open on my calendar for these sessions. Please visit my calendar to book a time that works for you.

Thanks!

Tom
314-529-1431
tom@StoryUpMarketing.com
www.StoryUp Marketing

I know a guy who can import surgical masks and other personal protective equipment (PPE) from Asia to the USA.

He can get pallets of the stuff, and he’s trying to figure out where and how to sell it.

He’s not a price-gauger. (Some profiteers are selling masks for $15 or more!) He wants to sell the PPE at fair prices.

He wants to focus on small and mid-sized businesses that want PPE for their employees or to resell to consumers.

We discussed the story he’ll share with such businesses.

Owners of businesses that are still open worry for their employees’ and customers’ safety. Those who want masks fear they’ll be shut out, stuck at the back of the line as hospitals and governments clog a dysfunctional supply chain.

Anxiety and fear are driving demand. The PPE vendor understands this.

But, he told me, he doesn’t want to create a “fear-rush.”

Fear. It’s a prickly subject for many marketers.

“Fear monger” is an insult.

But fear is not always a rotten fish that marketers use to slap prospects’ faces.

People have aspirations. People have fears. Aspirations AND fears drive buying decisions.

I told the PPE vendor:

There’s nothing wrong with marketing to people’s fear if what you are doing to address that fear is honest and legitimate.

Shady sales people trade on people’s fear to get them to do something that’s not in their best interest — such as pay $15 for a mask, or buy something that doesn’t actually work. That’s how I define “fear mongering.”

In this case, though, you have the PPE people need. It is real. It works. It’s fairly priced.

They call it personal PROTECTIVE equipment for a reason. It protects you from something you don’t want, something you fear.

There’s nothing wrong with speaking to that fear. In fact, you must if you want buyers to tune in.

This is not just a COVID-19 thing.

A lot of business people feel like there’s something unethical, shady, or just kind of yucky about discussing prospects fears and frustrations.

Again (this is important so I’m repeating it here): There’s nothing wrong with marketing to people’s fear if what you are doing to address that fear is honest and legitimate.

Before I built the StoryUp Marketing web page, I spoke to dozens of business people who represent my “target market.” I asked them to share aspirations for their businesses and frustrations/fears. I boiled it down to four key ones that are at the top of my site.

My prospects are:

• Tired of seeing prospects tune out and move on (frustration/fear).
• Wishing people would think “I get it” and say “I want it” the first time you tell them about your products and services (aspiration).
• Wondering why those “can’t-miss” marketing tactics keep missing the mark (frustration/fear).
• Craving better leads and more customers (aspiration).

Those frustrations and fears are common. They’re real. And businesses that address their frustrations/fears will outperform those that ignore them.

I offer an honest, fair way for businesses to realize those aspirations and overcome those frustrations/fears.

That’s not fear-mongering. That’s problem-solving.

The problem-solving starts here: Sign up for a Story Assessment.

I’m offering free, 30-minute web confereces to review your business story. I will meet with you via Zoom and review how you’re telling your business story — on your website, social media, and other channels. Then, I’ll recommend steps you can take to help prospects and customers tune in and act.

I have a limited number of slots open on my calendar for these sessions. Please visit my calendar to book a time that works for you.

Thanks!

Tom
314-529-1431
tom@StoryUpMarketing.com
www.StoryUp Marketing 

Last week, I was pitching my business to a guy who knows some things and let me know it.

He wanted more prospects, sales and profits.

I told him how StoryUp Marketing helps businesses tune up their stories so prospects and customers tune in and act.

The key, I said: Focus on why customers buy from you, not what products and services you deliver.

He cut me off. “Yeah, yeah. I get that ‘Why…’ stuff,” he said.

That stung a little, but no big deal.

I asked the guy, “Why do your customers buy from you?”

He knew, and he told me.

But then we looked at his website and…

…None of that stuff he just told me was anywhere to be seen on the site’s front page.

In marketing (and, really all things), there’s a big difference between getting the idea, and implementing the idea.

It’s easy to get an idea.

Read a book with a good idea and say, “I get it!”

Hear some tips on a podcast and say, “I get it.” 

Attend some expert’s webinar and say, “I get it.” 

Read this email and say, “I get it.” 

You and most others who say that are not lying.

But then what? 

Will you and all the others step beyond, “I get it,” to say, “I’ll DO it.” And how many of you will follow-through and know what to do?

That’s why StoryUp Marketing exists. If you want prospects and customers to tune in and act, we know what to do (tune up your story) and we know how to do it. 

We move you from “I get it” to “We did it!”

The first step is free: Sign up for a Story Assessment.

I’m offering free, 30-minute web confereces to review your business story. I will meet with you via Zoom and review how you’re telling your business story — on your website, social media, and other channels. Then, I’ll recommend steps you can take to help prospects and customers tune in and act.

I have a limited number of slots open on my calendar for these sessions. Please visit my calendar to book a time that works for you.

Thanks!

Tom
314-529-1431
tom@StoryUpMarketing.com
www.StoryUp Marketing

Here’s something I wonder during this pandemic: Why is the local news station still broadcasting traffic reports every 30 minutes in the morning?

I turn on the news, and there she is, the Traffic Reporter, standing in front of the map with all the highways and byways color coded — green for “all clear,” yellow for “moderate back-ups” and red for “damn this traffic jam!”

There she is, every day as we work from home, standing in front of that map full of green lines, reporting “all clear for the morning commute.”

As if we don’t already know.

It bugs me…

…and it puzzles me.

Hasn’t it occurred to her that we’re either sheltered in place, or we already know that traffic is light?

No one at the station wondered, “Why are we reporting the traffic now?”

No one wondered about viewers’ current needs?

No one stepped back and thought about how to connect more effectively with their audience.

They simply had the Traffic Reporter tell us about traffic because…

…that’s what they do, and that’s what she does.

Lots of businesses operate this way.

They do what they do.

They lose track of why they do it.

And their customers tune out.

So what do I do?

I’ve been thinking a lot about that since the outbreak.

I help businesses tune up their stories so prospects and customers tune in and act.

One way I do this (until recently): I send you regular emails with stories and observations that contain valuable marketing lessons.

I think most business people benefit from these stories, and I want to keep telling them.

But I also wonder what you need during this pandemic that you didn’t need before.

I concluded a couple of weeks ago that you don’t need me just plowing ahead, pretending that nothing has changed.

You don’t need cliches or hollow sentiments like “we’ll get through this” or “I’ve been wondering how you are.”

That stuff doesn’t connect us.

And when we’re cooped up at home, I think we desperately need to connect.

So I wrote this email to try to connect…

…to demonstrate that I, too, am cooped up at home, watching television, and sometimes saying, “WTF?”…

…to demonstrate that I’m not sending this email just because that’s what I do…

…to say, “I’m trying to help even though all of us feel a little helpless…”

…to laugh a little (sure, that traffic reporter in front of all those green lines annoys me, but she also amuses me).

So, what do you do…

…and, more importantly, why do you do it?

Now’s a great time to ask those questions.

Because if you don’t get that right, prospects and customers will tune out and move on.

Let’s connect…

Those who step back now and think about how to connect with prospects and customers more effectively will be better-positioned to ride out this storm and prosper when the dust settles.

Here’s how I can help: I’m offering free, 30-minute web confereces to review your business story. I will meet with you via Zoom and review how you’re telling your business story — on your website, social media, and other channels. Then, I’ll recommend steps you can take to help prospects and customers tune in and act.

I have a limited number of slots open on my calendar for these sessions. Please visit my calendar to book a time that works for you.

Thanks!

Tom
314-529-1431
tom@StoryUpMarketing.com

p.s. In case you missed the news, MarketVolt has been acquired by Benchmark Email. Here’s my previous email that answers the big questions. 

I’ve started a new business, StoryUp Marketing. 

Last month, Peloton began broadcasting this ad to promote its exercise bikes and its online fitness classes.

The ad portrays a young mother who receives a Peloton for Christmas and then documents her fitness journey on social media.

Critics pounced for a variety of reasons.

Many mocked the idea of a husband gifting his fit, beautiful wife an exercise machine.

Example: The Twitter post that says, “Nothing says ‘maybe you should lose a few pounds’ like gifting your already rail thin life partner a Peloton.”

There was an explosion of media coverage debating whether the critics were right.

This clearly wasn’t the response the company wanted.

Peloton continues to run the commercial, and the video remains live on YouTube.

But the company has shut down comments on the YouTube video.

And It released a statement that says, in part:

“Our holiday spot was created to celebrate that fitness and wellness journey. While we’re disappointed in how some have misinterpreted this commercial, we are encouraged by — and grateful for — the outpouring of support we’ve received from those who understand what we were trying to communicate.”

Wow! That’s a brash statement…

…and a terrible one.

“…disappointed in how some have misinterpreted the commercial!?”

That reminds me of the guy at work who used to tell offensive jokes, get called out for it and then say, “I’m sorry you were offended.”

The lesson for you: Own your marketing messages. Accept responsibility for the stories you tell.

If you annoy or offend the masses, don’t tell the critics, “YOU don’t understand!”

Ask instead, “HOW could we have told our story without offending and annoying?”

No marketing message will win everyone over.

There will always be critics. But if you respond to the critics by pointing fingers, rather than looking in the mirror, you’ll drive your business in the wrong direction.

I’m not a stock analyst so I can’t say, for sure, that there’s a connection here, but…

…Peloton’s stock price has plummeted since the ad started running.

Tom
MarketVolt

p.s. We help businesses figure out what they sell and how. Then we help them identify and connect with their target markets so people will view you as a welcome guest and listen to what you’re saying. If you want to discuss how to make it happen for your business, email me  at  tom@marketvolt.com. For no charge and no strings attached, we’ll discuss with you how you’re building email lists, generating new leads and generally finding and connecting with prospects.

If you like these emails, please do me this favor: Forward this to someone who might also enjoy it and encourage them to sign up for future emails on our website at MarketVolt.com.

I met with a business owner the other day who wanted to pitch her service to people commenting on her social media posts.

Demonstrate expertise on social media. Connect with people who engage. Pitch the service.

That’s not a bad plan.

The debate during the meeting was how to connect and whether to follow-up after the pitch.

She said she wanted someone to call the social media commenters, pitch the service and be done with them.

“They’re either in, or they’re out,” she said.

I encouraged her to ask the social media commenters for their email addresses.

“That way, you can build a relationship with them…” I said.

She didn’t like that idea. “I don’t want a relationship with them. I just want to see if they’re in or out,” she said.

Here’s the problem with that, and here’s the lesson for all of you:

Most prospects don’t buy the first time you contact them.

They might not have the time to participate in your program.

They might not have the money right now.

They might not have permission from a boss or a spouse or themselves.

They might be interested but hesitant.

So if you really want to see if they’re in or out, you must build a relationship with them.

Go ahead and ask them if they want to buy, but also…

…Get their email address. Stay in touch. Share valuable information. Continue to remind them about your products and services.

Some of those prospects will never come around. But many will — many more than you’ll land the first time you ask. 

Marketing, prospecting sales — it’s a nurturing process. It’s all about building a relationship.

Sure, it’s quicker and easier and less expensive to contact someone once, ask, “Are you in or out?” and be done with it.
But that’s no way to build a business.

Tom
MarketVolt

p.s. We help businesses figure out what they sell and how. Then we help them identify and connect with their target markets so people will view you as a welcome guest and listen to what you’re saying. If you want to discuss how to make it happen for your business, email me  at  tom@marketvolt.com. For no charge and no strings attached, we’ll discuss with you how you’re building email lists, generating new leads and generally finding and connecting with prospects.

If you like these emails, please do me this favor: Forward this to someone who might also enjoy it and encourage them to sign up for future emails on our website at MarketVolt.com.

A friend who works as a business consultant told me about his marketing challenge:

“My prospects don’t know what they don’t know,” he said. “They don’t know they need me.”

I hear that a lot. Business people get hung up on this idea: “How can I sell them my product or service when they don’t know they need it?”

My response:

Stop worrying about what prospects DON’T know.

Start focusing on what they DO know.

Here’s an example from my business:

At MarketVolt we have a feature called “Dynamic Content.” This allows users to show or hide content in an email based on recipients’ interests.

Many of our school district clients use the feature. They create a long newsletter with items about a variety of topics — news for grade school parents, updates for high school parents, topics that interest soccer moms, announcements relevant to marching band dads.

When our clients use Dynamic Content to create and deliver that newsletter, each recipient receives a customized version of the newsletter with content that’s relevant to them. If you’re a soccer mom, you’ll see that soccer topic; if you’re not, you won’t. Same goes for each item. You’ll see it if it’s relevant, you won’t see it if it’s not.

When we introduced Dynamic Content, none of our clients or prospects knew they “needed” it.

If I said, “We now offer Dynamic Content,” many would have shrugged — even as I described the feature.

But we don’t care about what they don’t know. We focus on what they do know.

Here’s what they know:

Parent engagement is critical to school districts. They want parents to open and read the email newsletters they send.

Many parents tune out when newsletters are too long and filled with lots of items that are not relevant to them.

Creating newsletters is already time-consuming. Creating countless personalized versions by hand (i.e. separate versions for different grade levels or interest groups) would be too time-consuming and costly.

We say to school districts, “We understand your needs. We understand your pain.” Then we say, “We can help you do better. We can help you engage parents with more relevant content so they’ll open your emails and read them. And we’ll enable you to do this without jumping through hoops and burning precious time and resources.”

That appeals to them. So they ask, “How do you do that.”

Then we describe “Dynamic Content.”

They often reply, “Wow. I didn’t know you could do that.”

Now they know. And they care.

I share this not to brag about MarketVolt (although we’re proud of that Dynamic Content feature). I share that to emphasize a key marketing lesson…

Prospects rarely know that they “need” a certain product, service or feature that you offer.

That’s not a problem because…

Your marketing should not focus on you and your service. It should focus on your clients and their aspirations and needs.

If you can identify what they need and what they fear, you’ll frame a true story in which your products and services fit.

Tom
MarketVolt

p.s. We help businesses figure out what they sell and how. Then we help them identify and connect with their target markets so people will view you as a welcome guest and listen to what you’re saying. If you want to discuss how to make it happen for your business, email me  at  tom@marketvolt.com. For no charge and no strings attached, we’ll discuss with you how you’re building email lists, generating new leads and generally finding and connecting with prospects.

If you like these emails, please do me this favor: Forward this to someone who might also enjoy it and encourage them to sign up for future emails on our website at MarketVolt.com.

I had a middle school classmate named David who was a lousy athlete. I remember the first time he took the field to play baseball with us. When he tried to throw the ball across the diamond, Jimmy, the class bully, howled with laughter and said, “You throw like a girl.”

Not nice.

I thought of David and Jimmy when I saw this video, part of a 2015 advertising campaign.

The advertiser invited young women, men and boys into a studio and asked them to demonstrate what it looks like to “throw like a girl” or “run like a girl” or “fight like a girl.”

The portrayals of girls running, throwing and fighting were, as you might expect…

…not nice.

Then they invited young girls into the studio and asked for the same demonstrations.

The girls’ portrayals were different.

Strong throwers. Powerful runners. Brave fighters.

It’s a powerful statement about about how society portrays and perceives girls, about how these portrayals chip away at girls’ self-confidence.

What brand produced this campaign? Always feminine products.

Lots of critics took offense.

In a 2017 Daily Beast article, critic Emily Shire ripped Always for the “shamelessly emotionally exploitative” campaign.

She wrote “The self-righteous tone of Always’ ‘Like a girl’ campaign is irritating, perhaps because the noble message has nothing to do with the product, tampons, panty liners, pads. Yes, I get that Always is attempting to build large, overarching connections between girls getting older and losing self-esteem. But how exactly are the products Always is hawking going to do that? If Always is going to peg a giant message about self-confidence without any actual mention of menstruation in the commercial, it seems somewhat deceptive.”

I understand the reaction. But I disagree.

This is a great campaign — full of valuable lessons for marketers.

Here’s the big idea: Always doesn’t sell feminine products. Always sells self-confidence and empowerment.

If a young woman buys Always products, she will be more confident and empowered. So messages about girl power are right in line with the brand and build connections with those whom Always targets.

Think I’m crazy? Flash back with me to eighth grade. I vividly remember the time Lisa had to leave social studies class because she didn’t have the feminine products she needed. It was too late for her to hide that fact, and as she slinked from the classroom, Jimmy The Bully snickered and made a snide comment.

Devastating for Lisa. I can only imagine how she felt every time she passed Jimmy The Bully in the hall or even when she simply walked into that social studies classroom.

That was a moment of shattered self-confidence that Lisa has certainly never forgotten.

I’m not some shil for the tampon company when I say: If Lisa had the right product, she would have been more confident, she would have avoided this disempowering fate, she wouldn’t have needed to slink off in shame.

So I think it makes sense for Always to proclaim, “Hey, young women, be confident; be powerful; don’t be ashamed.”

That’s a cool message perfectly aligned with what they sell. .

Tom
MarketVolt

p.s. We help businesses figure out what they sell and how. Then we help them identify and connect with their target markets so people will view you as a welcome guest and listen to what you’re saying. If you want to discuss how to make it happen for your business, email me  at  tom@marketvolt.com. For no charge and no strings attached, we’ll discuss with you how you’re building email lists, generating new leads and generally finding and connecting with prospects.

If you like these emails, please do me this favor: Forward this to someone who might also enjoy it and encourage them to sign up for future emails on our website at MarketVolt.com.