Category: Awakening

  • How to extract value from case studies

    There’s an enduring joke about case studies: you can either read one or you can be one. Marketers and decision makers often cite the absence of a case study as a reason for not doing something:

    “Where’s the case study on using Facebook?”

    “Do you have any case studies on the value of a blog?”

    “Why isn’t there a case study about Big Data’s impact on our industry?”

    When you hear language like this, you’re hearing a justification for not taking a risk, however small. You’re hearing someone who wants to cover their ass and not be held accountable for a decision. That’s fine; that’s the way some parts of the world work.

    However, for decision makers who are more progressive, what’s the value of a case study? It’s not so that you can clone in exacting, perfect detail what someone else did. No, the value of a case study is highlighting that a goal is achievable, that a desired result is possible to attain.

    The point of a case study is to determine, knowing what skills, tools, and resources you have, how to attain the same result as the case study. A small business doesn’t have the same resources as Apple, Inc., but you should be able to read a case study about Apple and extract a structure, a concept to apply to the small business.

    To extract this value, take a case study, read through it, and divide it up into three pieces: why, what, how.

    Why did the organization take the actions in the first place? Was there a particular problem they needed to solve?

    What choices did the organization make? What did they base those choices on?

    How did they execute on the choices they made? Which tactics succeeded, and which tactics did not?

    Banners_and_Alerts_and_blue_belt_slides_pptx.jpg

    What you’ll likely find is that you may not have the same resources to replicate how, but you can extract a great deal of value from what and why.


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  • The freedom to not speak

    I recently had the pleasure of attending the Google Analytics Summit, an event hosted for Certified Partners (my employer, SHIFT Communications, is one) to gain insight into the latest advancements in marketing measurement.

    What’s novel and unique about this conference for me is that it’s under NDA, a non-disclosure agreement. Every session, every talk, every slide: not a word of it can be shown to the public. No photos. No Tweets. No blog posts (about the content). An attendee who violates the NDA is at risk of losing their Certified Partner status and access to the most valuable information being offered.

    NDA.jpg

    As odd as this sounds in this social media age, the lack of sharing is quite freeing. You have no focus other than learning, absorbing, taking notes. There’s nothing to share, no selfies to take, no interviews to conduct. No social media leaderboard in the lobby counting up how many times the hashtag has been mentioned; in fact, there is no official hashtag in order to discourage inappropriate sharing.

    Your focus is only on the content being shared and the implications for your business.

    For speakers, what would you do differently in your talks if you knew no one was permitted to share the information? What would you share? Think about how your presentations would differ. Would you feel more free to share an extra goodie or two?

    For audience members, how much more would you get out of conferences if you had no reason to share? How much more could you focus if you didn’t need to think about photos, videos, tweets, Facebook posts, etc.? Would you catch more information without the cognitive load of determining what to share?

    For conference organizers, while locking down an entire conference might be impractical, what if you offered a lockdown session or two, in which each attendee paid an extra NDA fee that was refunded X days after the event in exchange for a completely private session?

    It’s a worthy challenge, considering how much mental bandwidth you give to publishing and sharing – and what you could do with that bandwidth instead. Give it some thought before the next conference you attend.


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  • Do restaurants fear sharing menus?

    Let’s take a walk down your memory lane.

    Take a moment to recall the last new restaurant you’ve walked past. Not went inside, not dined at, but the last time you walked by a restaurant you hadn’t been to before.

    Was there a menu posted outside the restaurant?

    Now open a browser or another tab in your current browser. Search for a local restaurant in Google or the location-based service of your choice. Click through to the restaurant website. Does it have a menu posted?

    OSHA_THAI_RESTAURANT_Embarcadero_Street.jpg

    It would be ludicrous in this day and age of instant comparison shopping to have a restaurant without a menu posted. A restaurant that failed to post a menu would be at a significant disadvantage to its competitors; customers would rather see what they might be getting.

    Can you imagine a restaurant chef saying, “No, I won’t post a menu. I don’t want customers taking photos of it and then going home to cook it themselves.” Do customers do that? I’m sure a few have, but chances are they’ve come in and paid to eat the food first so they know what they’re cooking.

    Next, consider your own marketing. How much do you conceal about what your company does? This seems like a silly question, but so many companies hide more than they show. Do you post pricing on your website? Can a potential customer compare your menu with your nearest competitor? Or do they default to doing business with your competitors because your competitors have a menu and you don’t?

    The menu isn’t the meal. The menu isn’t even the cookbook. Take a hard look at your marketing to see if you’re hiding too much from customers who want to buy from you.


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  • Does your strategy tell a story?

    What is strategy?

    Strategy is the plan to achieve your goals. 

    The plan is a blueprint.
    It’s a menu.
    It’s a map. 

    By extension, the blueprint is not the hammer.
    The menu is not the cookbook.
    The map is not the land. 

    275_Washington_St_to_Boston_Logan_International_Airport_-_Google_Maps.jpg

    Here’s a simple trick to determine if your strategy is coherent. If you cannot tell a story with a beginning, middle, and end, you do not have a strategy. 

    Think about the plans listed above. They’re stories.

    A blueprint for a new building is a story of stories, of what the building will look like and how people will use it.
    A menu is a story of a logical progression through a curated collection of tastes and experiences.
    A map is a story of how you’ll traverse the land.

    Suppose you want to make your Facebook page successful. If you just list out all of the tactics you’ll throw at it, that doesn’t make for a particularly good story. It’ll read like a list of things you want to buy at the grocery store, which isn’t a great story or any kind of story at all.

    On the other hand, suppose you told a story of seeking to get to a promised goal. Maybe the goal was audience reach, or engagement, or conversion to a click. You told of who the audience was, what they liked, and what content you’d replicate in order to appeal to them, doing detecting work like Sherlock Holmes. You’d post your content, identify what worked best, refine it, and pay to promote it. In the end, you’d measure your results and begin the story anew.

    That sort of plan has a clear, logical progression. You could probably, with a quick re-read, recite it yourself as a very short story.

    Ask yourself any time you’re questioning your strategy: can I tell a story from this?


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  • Conveying authority and stacking heuristics

    Suppose you wanted to represent yourself in the best possible truthful light?

    How would you set yourself up so you could appear as credible as possible?

    More than mere puffery, this task is eminently practical. If you’re applying for a job, representing yourself strongly but truthfully is essential. If you’re building up your public speaking career, conference organizers need to know why you deserve to be on the stage. If you’re responsible for marketing or selling anything, your name will be Googled by the purchaser for any large purchase as part of due diligence.

    How do you build a representation that’s accurate but impactful? The answer lies in what are called heuristics. Heuristics are our mental shortcuts, our quick decisions that help us get through life without being bogged down by analyzing everything. We learn heuristics very quickly as part of life. A baby learns that certain colored foods taste better than others, and kids routinely reject foods that are green.

    As adults, we have heuristics operating all the time, algorithms that help us to make sense of the world. When I go to an event with my Nikon D90 and speed flash, people more often than not assume I work for the event in some official capacity. A large camera with extra camera gear triggers that heuristic in their heads.

    Beijing Security Guard

    If you were to go to an Army surplus store and buy some dark blue fatigues, black boots, and sunglasses, you could stand in the middle of the street and credibly direct traffic. Drivers would assume based solely on your dress that you were somehow an official representative of the police. I advise not doing this, as impersonating a police officer in some places (most of the United States) is illegal.

    Uniforms and equipment can create snap judgements in real life. What can you do to create snap judgements in your favor digitally? The answer is also to stack heuristics. How can you layer on credentials and indicators that showcase your actual skills and capabilities?

    For example, I have a blog. That in itself is almost meaningless, except to say that I can write a fair bit. I have a Twitter account. Again, that seems largely meaningless by itself, though with 83,000 followers, that says at least some people find something of value. Combine the two and I’m a very small niche publisher. I’ve written 16 books, of which 3 are my own (not work for hire). I speak at roughly a dozen events a year, of which two or three are usually keynotes.

    Do you see how the heuristics are starting to stack up to convince you that I have some level of authority? Each data point by itself is relatively unimportant, but combined, they paint a broader picture. A set of blue fatigues by itself might or might not imply authority. Add some black boots and you’re closer. Add some mirrored sunglasses and you’re closer still. Add a black nylon webbing belt with a black flashlight and perhaps a black mobile phone case to it and you look astonishingly official.

    Look at your own history. What can you create that conveys authority? If you don’t have much, what things can you get? For example, having a social media presence by itself is relatively unimportant. What if you added to it a blog with a lot of daily readership? Suppose you then added on Google Analytics certification? What about adding in some white papers and webinars? How about a weekly email newsletter? Those are all things you can do for very low cost or no cost at all, and in aggregate would demonstrate that you have a broad perspective on your area of expertise.


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  • Reading the Room: 5 Zones of Audience Attention

    More travels, conferences, etc.

    When you’re speaking, be it on stage, in a boardroom, or even with your colleagues at the water cooler, you’re likely to notice different levels of attention and engagement. I’ve noticed roughly 5 zones of attention and indicators about where people are:

    • I don’t care: The audience simply doesn’t care. They don’t want to be there.
    • I’ve already got it: The audience is bored by hearing something they’ve heard before.
    • I get it: The audience is excited and engaged by what you’re saying.
    • I think I get it: The audience is excited but confused.
    • I don’t even understand what’s being said: The audience is frustrated.

    When you’re reading the room (see this previous post for the basics), pay attention to these key, visible indicators in combination:

    • Note taking: Note the pace at which people are taking notes. How fast are they typing or writing? How much are they writing?
    • Side conversations: Note the number of side conversations people have, and whether the interactions are quick check-ins (“what did he say”) vs. full conversations.
    • Posture: Disengaged audiences tend to slouch or recline. Engaged audiences lean forward or sit straight up, depending on how they’re taking notes. Frustrated audiences hunch forward but aren’t taking notes.

    The 5 general zones and their corresponding indicators map out like this:

    State I don’t care I’ve already got it I get it I think I get it I don’t even understand what’s being said
    Note taking Low Low High Medium Low
    Side convos High High Low Medium High
    Posture Disengaged Disengaged Positive engaged Positive engaged Frustrated

    Your task as a speaker, as a marketer, is to keep people squarely in “I get it”. Most everyone in a meeting or talk starts out there. Watch for indicators that people have strayed too far to “I’ve already got it” or “I think I get it”, as those are warning signs you’re not aligned with what they can handle.


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  • You are one company

    Signs of the recession

    A brief reminder for those folks whose companies have more than one office/group/division/franchise/department:

    To the outside world, you are one company.

    Your social media team represents the same company as your call center. If your service is stellar in one and lackluster in the other, then your company will have the reputation of the weakest link in the chain.

    Your high end product bears the same logo as your low end product. Your customers will remember most what they liked least, so if you cut corners on the low end product, chances are they’ll believe you cut corners on the high end one, too.

    Your remote franchise at the ends of the earth has the same sign on the front door as your franchise in the biggest city on Earth. People will expect the same experience behind the sign, no matter where they are. If you disappoint in one location, you automatically tarnish all locations.

    Your marketing team has to live up to what your PR department promises.

    Your sales team has to live up to what your marketing department promises.

    Your fulfillment team has to live up to what your sales department promises.

    One broken promise makes every previous promise a lie.


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  • 7 Basic Plots of Content Marketing: Conclusion

    Over the past week or so, we’ve had a chance to look in depth at each of Christopher Booker’s 7 Basic Plots as they apply to marketing and storytelling:

    Overcoming the Monster: The protagonist sets out to defeat an antagonistic force which threatens the protagonist and the things/people/places the protagonist cares about.

    Rags to Riches: The poor protagonist acquires things such as power, wealth, or a mate, before losing it all and gaining it back upon growing as a person.

    The Quest: The protagonist and some companions set out to acquire an important object or to get to a location, facing many obstacles and temptations along the way.

    Voyage and Return: The protagonist goes to a strange land and, after overcoming the threats it poses to him/her, returns with nothing but experience.

    Comedy: Light and humorous character with a happy or cheerful ending; a dramatic work in which the central motif is the triumph over adverse circumstances, resulting in a successful or happy outcome.

    Tragedy: The protagonist is a villain who falls from grace and whose death is a happy ending.

    Rebirth: The protagonist is a villain or otherwise unlikable character who redeems him/herself over the course of the story.

    To wrap up, I thought I’d include a very simplified decision tree to give you some sense of what story archetype you might want to use for a given situation. As printed in the image, this is by no means the “One Right Way” to use each archetype. Archetypes are like tools; there are a finite number of ways you can use a hammer safely and effectively, but an infinite number of things you can build with it.

    flowchart.png
    (click to download a PDF version)

    May you tell your marketing stories in a much more compelling manner!


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  • 7 Basic Plots of Content Marketing: The Rebirth

    Previously, we looked at Christopher Booker’s 7 basic plots of how stories are told. Today, we’ll look at the last of these 7 from a content marketing perspective: the Rebirth.

    The Rebirth is one of our favorites stories, as a human race. Rebirth is the story of redemption, of bad made good. Rebirth is especially powerful because we see our lesser traits in the protagonist and how the protagonist still makes good. Rebirth stories give us hope for ourselves, that we can redeem the worst parts of our personal story.

    Charles Dickens’ Christmas Carol and protagonist Ebenezer Scrooge is a classic rebirth/redemption story. The autobiography of Benjamin Franklin is a tale of redemption. Even children’s stories are steeped in redemption, such as Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

    christmas.jpg

    It should be unsurprising, given how widespread and popular rebirth stories are, to learn that rebirth stories can be one of your best choices for telling your own stories. Companies screw up all the time. Brands inevitably disappoint, sometimes just a few consumers and sometimes at a massive scale. Unlike many of the previous story types that told the story of the customer as the hero or protagonist, the rebirth story can effectively tell your story. Rebirth stories work well because though the focus is on you, the ultimate benefit is to your customers.

    The key to telling a rebirth story is the highlighting of contrast. Rebirth stories showcase how bad things are to start. They show the impact of what’s wrong in the protagonist’s world. Vitally, they show the protagonist owning what’s wrong, and then the journey to redemption. The story ends with how good things are now.

    For example, suppose your customer service leaves something to be desired. You’d showcase what’s wrong, how customers interact with you and leave unhappy, and the impact on your business. You’d take ownership of everything that’s gone wrong, plead contrition, and fix the problems.

    The rebirth story doesn’t need to be as large as a company, either. A product that people hate can become a rebirth story. Mac OS during the 1990s was a terrible product. Apple’s flagship operating system was clunky, slow, difficult to work with, bloated, and unreliable. Simple things like copying files in the background were impossible. Basic tasks were much more cumbersome than they needed to be. The planned Copland release bogged down the entire company. Apple’s Steve Jobs blew up the entire product by replacing it with Unix, in Mac OS X. Since then, the product has not only become beloved by its customers, but has even branched off into different forms, such as iOS and Apple’s Watch operating system.

    Rebirth is a compelling way to tell what’s changed, what’s better, and how customers will benefit.

    In this series, we’ve looked at many different ways to tell your brand’s and customers’ stories. Keep these story archetypes handy! In the final post in this series, I’ll share a cheat sheet with you that will make it a little easier for choosing what kind of story to use.


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  • 7 Basic Plots of Content Marketing: The Tragedy

    Previously, we looked at Christopher Booker’s 7 basic plots of how stories are told. Today, we’ll look at the sixth of these 7 from a content marketing perspective: the Tragedy.

    The tragedy is one of the oldest storytelling forms, in which the protagonist is actually a villain whose demise everyone roots for. One of the keys to actual tragedy, at least in the Greek sense, is a character flaw in the protagonist. The character flaw is what leads to the unhappy circumstances and the eventual destruction of the protagonist.

    Walter White from Breaking Bad is this sort of well-known anti-hero. Shakespeare’s Hamlet is another classic tragedy. We root for evil to be vanquished by good.

    hamlet.jpg

    Up until now, we’ve emphasized that your customer’s story is what matters most. Your customer is the hero, the protagonist, and should be the central focus of your storytelling efforts. The tragedy will require some literary dancing on your part to use effectively in content marketing.

    How can you root for the destruction of something and still make your customer the hero in a way that makes marketing sense? You don’t root for the destruction of the customer in whole. You root for the destruction of part of your customer, the part that doesn’t serve them.

    For example, if you were doing B2C weight loss marketing, you’d villainize the slothful, gluttonous part of the customer’s persona. Matthew Inman’s The Oatmeal did this brilliantly by extrapolating a part of his personality as a separate character, the Blerch. The Blerch is a villain we root to see defeated, time and again.

    If you were doing B2B security marketing, you’d perhaps villainize the insecure coworker, the guy or girl who leaves passwords on Post-It notes in plain sight. The insecure coworker shouts their corporate credit card number into the phone in an open office. The insecure coworker blindly puts USB thumb drives into their computer after receiving one in the mail in an envelope with no return address. This is a villain you can paint and root for the destruction of their bad security habits.

    The tragedy is not suited to all forms of storytelling because it requires a character flaw you can highlight and amplify. If your product or service doesn’t tackle that character flaw head on, the tragedy is a poor fit for your narrative. It’s also an ungentle form of storytelling. You’re rooting for something destructive to happen; admittedly, we want the destruction to happen to something bad, but it still possesses a hint of negativity to it.

    Suppose you want to reform the villain rather than outright defeat it? Tune in to the next post for a look at how we might do that.


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