Why Try To Get Out Of Your Box, When You Can Use What's In It?
Everything is easier when you’re in the mood for it.
The same can be said for the customers you’re selling to.
So the question that is begging to be answered is this:
Are you trying to get people in the mood?
Or are you spending your time finding the people already in it?
Stay Positive & My Recco? Skip The Uphill Battle
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When you know things others don’t, it can put you ahead – but there’s a limit.
There’s a limit because everyone is getting smarter every day. And those in your target, your category, your tribe are getting exponentially smarter.
And there’s the crux of what makes marketing so difficult (and maybe, also, so easy).
Marketing leverage used to be applied with information. I could inform you of stuff you didn’t know and it would intrigue you to purchase it, it would make it easier to upsell, it would get you to tell your friends (because information becomes more powerful when it’s shared).
But now the marketer has lost that leverage.
There’s nothing you can tell your core target about your product that they couldn’t have found out on their own (or fact check). Chances are they’ve already asked their friends, done a google search, read some content about your product, service, widget, app.
So where does that leave the marketer? What do you have to offer other than information?
Stay Positive & Starts With Listening
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That’s what people want when they engage with you, send an email, leave a voicemail.
I’ll even go so far as to say the response they get isn’t as important as the fact they get a response.
“Confirming receipt” is an extremely powerful statement and requires no lift other than the few finger strokes to type it or breath to say it.
“I apologize, but I can’t get back to you until X date” is also powerful, mainly because it provides a promise to them of when you will get back to them. People love promises (that are kept, specifically).
And heaven forbid, the worst thing you can do is react rather than respond.
Stay Positive & Don’t Make People Wait
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Communication is a quirky thing and it can be broken up into three categories.
There’s the stuff we wish we would have said. This happens when we regret not being vulnerable. I was actually in a high school play wherein the entire premise was a series of people saying the things they never did – it was eye opening.
Then there’s the stuff we do say. It is what it is.
Lastly, there’s the stuff we think we shouldn’t have said. This often weighs us down as heavily as the stuff we wish we would have said. But here’s the reality – it’s far more beneficial to feel the concern of having said something wrong than to not have said anything at all.
It’s the vulnerable communication that helps everyone move forward.
Stay Positive & Is That Your Heart On Your Sleeve?
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Changes are more inevitable today than they ever were before.
And the degree of change is more extreme.
People don’t change machines they are working on; they change entire industries – and every handful of months instead of handful of decades.
People are ready to leap to a different brand tomorrow with the slightest prompt; those dishwashers won’t stay in a house for 40 years even if they’re built to last 40 years.
The key then is to be ready for the leap. A whole lot more difficult than the actual leaping, IMO.
Stay Positive & Change Really Is Constant
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Signage is tough work, but without it, there’s no chance of a business idea surviving.
Flat or protruding signs are important and many businesses choose the wrong one because they don’t think about the guest experience. Just because a flat sign makes a photo of a storefront look prettier, it’s fairly ineffective if people are never in a position to face it head on.
Another element that’s often left out, particularly because of cost, is lighting. If there are no street lamps directly near your sign, you need a light. This applies even if your business doesn’t operate after 4 p.m.
Signs work best when they work with other touch points that communicate the same thing. In short, there should be more people who know about whatever your sign indicates than the number of people who see it and are absorbing its information for the first time.
Keep these three sign tips in mind next time you evaluate your advertising efforts – be it with a large storefront sign or even a poster on the door.
Stay Positive & Send Better Signals
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-Insert social platform or touch point here-
The recommended length: as much as you need to get someone to feel seen.
Note that it’s not as much as you need to tell someone what you want.
There’s a difference.
And it also happens that it only takes a few words to make someone feel seen.
Extra tip: If you’re writing to see yourself “We’re so proud to…” – go ahead and write it, but keep it internal or on your desktop. Your target doesn’t care how you see yourself.
Stay Positive & I See You
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