In the day-to-day hustle of getting messages out the door to audiences, I’ve noticed that my profession has a dirty little secret that few either acknowledge or discuss. Risk. I’m talking about brand and relationship risk that is present ANY TIME an organization communicates.

It’s real. We know that in branding EVERYTHING counts so I’m fascinated as to why so many organizations will still interrupt and beat their audiences to death with their messages (ahem- telemarketing, retargeting, robocalls) when they know full well that over-communication can actually drive people away from brands.

To me, there are two kinds of risk associated with communications that must be addressed with clients or any organizations who decide to communicate:

1.  Legal Risk—with GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) in full swing in the UK and Washington gearing up to send out its own digital privacy protection laws next year, getting digital communications wrong can come with stiff penalties and soon will be enforced state by state just like labor and tax laws. And soon you will need a lawyer, IT person and marketing pro to all agree when something is “ok to send.” Oh yes, WE did this btw — it’s marketing’s fault. Consumer data was our golden goose and rather than wait and get an egg every day, we decided to cut the fat little sucker open and see what would happen. GDPR happened and that is just the beginning. 

2.  Reputation/Relationship Risk— The irony is we communicate to forge stronger relationships with our audiences, but when our communications is untargeted, unwanted, boring or bad, the audience may like us less than if we did nothing at all. Yep.

Now, there is one solution to both of these types of risk and it’s the big “e” word that is absent from most organizational communications — Empathy. Actually taking the time to think about the messages we are sending out and how they might affect people and THEIR lives is a BIG deal and needs to be done FAR more often. Spoiler: It isn’t. 

In the past week, I’ve gotten 8 emails from a supermarket (I go to the store once per week on the same day), 10 from an online music retailer (I buy strings about once every other month) and 7 from a tech deals web site (I’ve purchased one time in the past two years). You see, they are trying to move me down their “funnel” or my “customer journey,” but all they are actually doing is annoying me and tainting their brands in my eyes. And I’m sure they don’t see it that way because they are laser focused on THEIR needs, not mine and by doing this they are saying THEIR time is more precious than mine. I disagree. And don’t forget the very first link on my mail app is Unsubscribe— just begging me to dissolve the relationship and make them a bad memory. 

A little thought and empathy would solve it. Instead we have armies of “digital marketers” or worse A.I. programs “optimizing the funnel” by sending garbage out constantly. Doesn’t matter if it’s good, just that it’s going out. (Sigh)

Let’s be better. Let’s do better and think about our audiences for a change. Remember, that is the actual job of marketing — to build relationships…and ironically you also possess the exact same tools that can destroy them. Choose wisely. The future of marketing may depend on it.

Our CEO, Scott Robertson, was recently quoted in this great story about mobile app marketing by Emily Clark. Feedback can be vital to improving an app and answering customer demands, said Scott Robertson, CEO and founder of Robertson Communications, a PR firm.

“Great marketing is about listening and responding [to customers],” Robertson said. “If you don’t listen you can’t respond very well.”

Read the entire article right here!

How to Measure Your Mobile App Marketing
https://themanifest.com/app-development/how-measure-your-mobile-app-marketing

A somewhat euphemistic way of describing an individual who has no filter has always been “Oh…she’s very…direct.” And of course we mean something else when that is said. adidas original But I will submit to you that as we sit here in 2017, communications is evolving and a more direct communications approach is going to be the winner. We’ve lived through “the spin years” where corporate communications just couldn’t be any more clever with the ways they said things. Goedkoop Nike Schoenen 2017 Making every first letter match up and finding three words of about the same length that start with the same letter — Whoohooo I can play around with the alphabet. Look at me! I am SOOOO clever! So much, in fact, that wikipedia has an entry for Marketing Speak and it says: “Marketing speak is a related label for wording styles used to promote a product or service to a wide audience by seeking to create the impression that the vendors of the service possess a high level of sophistication, skill, and technical knowledge. ugg classic mini Such language is often used in marketing press releases, advertising copy, and prepared statements read by executives and politicians” LOL. There’s our legacy folks, right there. A bunch of BS language shoved into everything and used to promote and create the impression that the vendors know what they are talking about. I seriously hope it’s not too late to become a pro bass player. At least people respect that. nike …Drummers, not so much 🙂 WHY do marketers (and the people who employ them/us) think this is ok? I can think of a few reasons including:

1. Lack of good teaching re: principles and practices of MODERN (not 10-15 years ago, but right now) marketing.
2. Growing up in the corp world doing it and don’t see any reason to change because the emperor is wearing some FINE clothes!
3. Audiences don’t push back loudly enough. nike air max 1 For example, when Roger Goodell, commissioner of the NFL, speaks anywhere, he is greeted by a hail of boos because NFL fans do not trust him and pretty much see through his many “prepared statements” through the years.
4. Communicators don’t feel they have permission to speak any differently.

Now that last one is big. So right here, right now, I’d like to go ahead and give each of you permission to create direct and non-marketing-speak communications for your companies. Don’t make your stuff just sound good with the right “marketing sounding” flow, make it actually communicate something and connect with people and be about the things they need, not what you need to sell this month. That is the real job we’re supposed to be doing. And I just hope that years from now, the wikipedia entry for Marketing Speak will say — Note: this practice was abandoned in the first part of the 21st century when marketers FINALLY woke up.

(AUDIO) May the Best Brand Win on Entertalk Radio.

We humans LOVE to tell ourselves little stories. From the time we are very small, we learn about our world through them, entertain ourselves with them and literally create reality for ourselves using them. adidas sandali But are they really true? And if so, what makes them true. I mean, what are we if not the stories we tell ourselves? Well, if you’re gonna talk about “true” then you’d better be prepared to talk about “the truth.”  The latest neuroscience (yes, marketers need to study this) confirms that there is not one absolute truth to which everyone agrees, but instead there are things we see and believe to be true on an individual level. Also, our eyes tend to “project” as much as they “see,” which is why two people can see the same movie and come up with different reviews (refer to the gospel of RottenTomatoes.com  to see this in action for yourself.) Knowing this simple truth about truth makes your job as a marketer MUCH easier. Buy MU Online Legend Power Leveling If you’re trying to convince mothers of teenagers to get them into music lessons and you know some of the mothers in your target audience had some negative experiences with music in their own lives, your messaging can (and should) be different to those people and thus have a better shot at working. If you create messages to these mothers through your own eyes or some surface level messaging, you have a very good chance at missing them because it’s clear you don’t have the same issues they do. And it’s beyond simple empathy here — I’m talking about studying what you know about the target audience, really digging into it and really forming the right message that might have a chance at moving them. That, ladies and gentlemen is actual marketing — Moving people to action with the right messages, right product, right price, right timing and getting that behavior we’re seeking.   When you’re doing marketing for-real and not just sending stuff out and hoping for the best, you realize why great marketing is so critical to any organization’s success. With that, here are a few tips to help you get better at these marketing mind games.

1. Put down your prism and try to see YOUR world through theirs
2. Attract those you can attract, and it won’t be everybody. You cannot please everyone.
3. Always work to build trust and strengthen relationships — weigh EVERY business decision this way.
4. Mental movement is still success even if behavior doesn’t immediately follow. Marketing is about movement — sometimes it’s gradual
5. Understand that we only know a fraction about how our brains really work and give yourself permission to keep learning and growing in your knowledge of this topic.

Marketing to the mind is a terrible thing to waste. Don’t punt and just talk about yourself (hint — they don’t care) or something that’s safe and cozy for you. You Are In Bags Backpack Cases Take a risk and really learn about your customers, then craft better messaging that will help them get connected with whatever product, service or idea you’re promoting. There are millions of marketing messages launched every single day.