Lloyd Lemons

Seth Godin brings back the list

Seth Godin recently re-published a great list of "What Every Good Marketer Knows". Most of these knowledge nuggets have been true for years, but it's useful to be reminded of them over and over again. While the entire list is a treasure trove, I do have my favorites.

• Good marketers tell a story.
• You’re not in charge. And your prospects don’t care about you.
• Marketing is not an emergency. It’s a planned, thoughtful exercise that started a long time ago and doesn’t end until you’re done.

Read the entire list, and share it with your marketing people--that's everybody in the company BTW.

Do marketers pay enough attention to copy?

When layout and design on the computer became a popular way of doing things (way back in the last century), copywriting very nearly became the forgotten creative. This was an exciting new technology for graphic design.  “Designers” multiplied exponentially by virtue of desk-top-publishing systems. Throw away the X-ACTO Knife and rubber cement! Forget about RC paper and Rubylith!

Now, anyone can design with keyboard strokes,
and your work is perfectly rendered on the 64-color screen!

Anyone with a computer could instantly become a designer, and the techno-frenzy began. The only thing that mattered, it seemed, was how good that advertisement or brochure looked. Marketers weren’t so concerned with how well it worked.

Copywriting got dissed big time

Designers” were called in to create ads while copywriters were often an after-thought. I can’t tell you how many times marketing managers would say to me: “Just give us some verbiage for this page, no one reads this stuff anyway.” Designers (well, desk-top-publishers), were marketing’s techno-gods of the age. Yes, some pictures may be worth a thousand words, but try to sell a product, or generate a lead, or engage the intellect with graphics alone.

Marketers have been slowly relearning the truth -- that good writing is an important component of good marketing -- but the 21st century has its own legion of techno-gods. Their marketing genius is preoccupied with abstract terminology like “client centered dynamics”, or “CRM”, or all the various shadings of “branding theology”. Few marketing professionals ever talk about the value of good copy, or persuasive storytelling. Look in your mix of industry publications. So-called marketing articles will spell out the finer points of e-mail design, search engine optimization, using legacy data wisely, and the latest in “business intelligence software”; but very few of them ever talk about the importance of good marketing writing. I see troubled times for those who think that technology is still the answer to everything.

I happen to have a branding theory myself. But mine's a little simpler. I think branding has a lot to do with storytelling, and storytelling has a lot to do with writing. You can use all the technology in the world, speak all the buzzwords you can muster, but the bottom line is a good company has a story to tell -- a message to deliver -- and it nearly always takes a good writer to make a message that matters.

Why do we make simplicity so difficult?

What is the objective of marketing communications?
It’s to sell more of your product, service, or process to your target market. That’s the bottom-line: sell more, profit more. There really is no other purpose. How do you accomplish this? First, you must interrupt your audience (without frustrating them), then tell your story. To keep their attention, and to avoid any misunderstanding or confusion, you craft a story that is clear, engaging, and persuasive. If your story is wisely written, and it reaches your target at the right time and in the right place, sales can be made. It's certainly not easy. There are myriad details involved, but at least we know the process required for success. It seems a simple enough equation that we should have it down fairly well by now. After all, this is the 21st century.

My question: How did the state-of-the-art get to its current level of ineffectiveness and chaos?
Why are there so many commercials on television that make us laugh, but afterwards we can’t remember who was selling what? Why do they employ so many high-tech camera tricks that they leave the viewer strained and with a nervous tic? Too much television advertising has no discernable message at all--especially when it’s flying past you at a hundred miles an hour.

Print advertising is seldom any better.
Ads use irrelevant photos and graphics that do nothing to move your story forward. Layouts are hard to follow, and the type is hard to read. If the reader does struggle through a poorly conceived advertisement, the message is often obscure, and response options are missing. (In many cases magazine design has even become a fragmented visual landfill.)

Websites?
I won’t even go there, except to say that a lot of people are spending a lot of money to get an outcome that can only be described as confusing, un-navigable, extravagant, and devoid of useful content.

Marketers should be a lot wiser at this stage of the game.
Our advertising, PR, and other communications should be a lot more effective than they are. We have powerful technological tools, but often employ techno bells and whistles to make noise (visual and audible), not to advance our purpose. Some folks think “creativity” is synonymous with crazy, kitschy, and chaotic--it’s not. Sometimes we think a concept to death, and turn simplicity into something no one understands. We’ve been told by those-in-the-know that today’s consumer is smart, he can’t be fooled, he wants the information necessary to make an intelligent buying decision. Why aren’t we giving it to him? Why do we over-complicate, obfuscate, and play jokes with our marketing dollars? We’re trying way too hard! Creating messages that matter is difficult, but the difficulty is in the simplicity. And simplicity is a hard sell in business, and an even harder sell in marketing.

Marketing as if it mattered

I’ve been in this business a long time, and I can’t count the times I’ve heard people who should know better say things like: "...the copy’s not that important, no one reads this stuff anymore."

Unbelievable, but true! Companies continue to throw good money after bad creating new marketing tools that they don’t think anyone will read. So what’s the end result? You can see it all over the Internet. Websites full of inappropriate bells and whistles. Websites with extreme design, and so much superfluous content a visitor doesn’t know where to look first. Websites that will test your patience and your sanity. Websites that do little for bottom-line results.

When a marketer discovers that no one is reading his marketing message there’s only one reason: Nothing has been said that the audience can relate to. How does this happen? One way is: copywriters write marketing messages to suit managers, rather than the needs of the target audience.

Human beings have a built-in monitoring system. We tune-out the monotonous, ill conceived, misdirected clutter that accosts us moment by moment in our daily lives. We neutralize the useless and confused, and integrate into our conscienceness that which has purpose to us as individuals.

Imagine the potency of a marketing message that offers value. If your marketing messages became a source of timely, reliable, valuable content, you’d have readers, listeners, responders, and quite possibly the beginning a beautiful relationship.

Today, think first about content

In these times of market uncertainties and geopolitical frustration, the marketer’s mantra should be: Get back to basics! Too often we see marketing tools that dazzle the eye and sizzle the senses, but leave us with no message. Customers today are edgy, and with a splintered attention span, but they are a savvy lot. They require real information to make important buying decisions. Too much information can overload the senses. Too little and you’ve created no desire. Ask yourself...

* What is the real message I want to deliver?
* Does the copy deliver that message with brevity and clarity?
* Will these words connect on an emotional or intellectual level?
* Are my graphics relevant to my message?
* What do I expect this piece to accomplish?
* Have I provided the right stuff to make that happen?

Answer these simple content questions for every marketing tool you create and your reward will be improved bottom-line results.

Is there time to read ten pages?

Random House has begun testing a new approach to selling books. It's virtually the same model that the recording industry has been using to sell songs. Don't want the entire CD of music? Then just buy one song and download it. Don't want to read an entire book, then buy just one chapter and download it. They're currently testing this new approach with the marketing book Made To Stick. Check it out here: http://www.springwise.com/media_publishing/selling_books_by_the_chapter/

Will it work? We'll have to wait and see. My guess is, yes, it probably will. I'm still amazed when I go into a supermarket and see 60-feet of shelving, seven feet high with nothing but cold cereal choices. Or how about a trip to Target to buy toothpaste? There must be more than 200 different formulations. I just want one that tastes good. When you consider the multitude of choices that the average consumer must make each day, choosing between a hardcover, a paperback, an e-book, or an e-chapter is not bad at all. Who knows, it may even help the millions of people who claim they, "don't have time to read", to rediscover the knowledge and adventure that can be found in one of our oldest and most neglected of pasttimes.

River commerce is still very cool

In our super-duper, high-tech, laser-edged, digital world we can apparently get a lot of things done and get them done fast. Good for us. Still, for me, there is nothing more enjoyable and satisfying to watch than the seemingly relaxed pace of river commerce. It too is a high-tech industry, but when I’m sitting on the bank with my camera and a cool glass of iced tea, it’s more fun to overlook that fact. I wonder what Samuel Clemens would have to say about today's river traffic.

Still relevant marketing tips

In marketing circles there's a lot of talk about 21st century marketing. You'll hear warnings about using methods from yesteryear: 'The tactics you used 10 or 15 years ago don't work in our digital age. The Johnson Box spells failure today. Long copy went the way of the dinosaur--try postcards!' While much of the updated information is true and relevant, keep in mind a lot of it comes from people who have books to sell. Following are tips that were spoken years ago by industry leaders. I believe that each is still true and meaningful today. Following these ideas can only lead to more effective marketing communications.

“Direct mail’s greatest asset: the creation of an exclusive environment that allows the seller to present the appropriate reasons for buying.”
  - Martin Gross

“Even the automakers are changing. Now instead of blonds in sequins draped over the fenders of the latest cars, flashing come-hither smiles, they wear prim tailored suits, and talk to customers about torque, transmissions and safety benefits.”
- Anonymous (overhead at a recent seminar)

“The fundamentals of persuasive communications stay the same in any medium.”
- Lester Wunderman

"Every effort should be made to get in step with the prospect’s needs and desires. What's important and relevant to the customer must be the focus of both agency and client."
- Emily Soell

“...clothe your advertising in an easily understood and clearly seen message that makes getting a response the driving imperative.”
  - Stan Rapp

"Copywriters who believe they can tease readers into an advertisement are throwing money away. Blind headlines that require reading of the copy to decipher them don't work. Some copywriters write tricky headlines. This is a sin. Go straight to the point. Be specific and factual."
- David Ogilvy

"No idea is so complex that it can't be explained simply."
- Albert Einstein

(Okay, Albert Einstein may not have been a master marketer, but he still had a good idea or two.)

E-mail campaign not working?

Why? Is it poorly written? Miss-targeted? Does the message have any redeeming value? If you're frustrated because you can't seem to improve open rates and click-through rates, don't succumb to the knee-jerk reaction that e-mail marketing just doesn’t work for you. There may be a bigger, yet oh-so basic reason. Before you give up on a worthy medium, read Nick Usborne’s advice in his recent article: Successful Email Campaigns Are Built on One Thing Only – Reputation.

Take note of that stuff on ISP filters -- very interesting. And if that makes you feel nervous, consider this: “20% of people use the ‘Report as Spam’ button as an easy way to unsubscribe.” Be careful what you say, how you say it, and to whom you’re saying it. Your reputation precedes you.

Commercials are entertaining, but…

I’ve been watching a lot of television lately. I’m not a big TV guy, but for the past ten days it’s one of the few activities that I’ve been allowed to do. You see, I’ve had a problem with the retina in my left eye. First it was torn. Then it was detached. Now it is fixed. For good I hope. It’s kept me down, but not out. So, with a damaged retina, TV watching was my mandated pastime.

It’s given me an opportunity to watch my favorite stuff—namely the commercials. (This year’s new programming is, IMHO, quite dismal. I had hopes for CANE and Dirty, Sexy, Money, but as it turns out I’m unimpressed.) Of course, most commercials on network television are aimed at the consumer; the B2B marketing specialist has only a few offerings to critique, namely spots by IBM, Intel, SAP and a few others. And, let me be among the first to say that commercials this season are great!—if entertainment value is your qualitative criterion. If you think about it, why else do most people watch TV? We watch to be entertained. We certainly don’t tune-in to Nip/Tuck in hopes of upgrading our year-old Blackberry.

So, with our brains switched to “entertainment mode” we watch today’s crop of “really really creative” commercials, and we laugh, and chuckle and make comments like, “now that was funny”, or “I can’t believe they can get away with that on TV”, or “that’s classic!”, or “little kids are so adorable, aren’t they?” At least that’s what we do in my family, and I’ll bet we’re not alone. Of course, being the marketing communicator that I am, I play a little game with whoever is sitting in my living room at the time. It’s a game that I truly enjoy—my viewing partners not so much.

At the end of a program, I’ll say,

“Remember that commercial we saw a few minutes ago?” I’ll briefly describe what we saw (‘ya’ know, where the guy did this, and the kid said that?’).

Everyone says, “Yeah, that was funny!”

“Have you ever seen that one before?” I’ll ask.

“Yeah, I’ve seen it million times”, they’ll answer.

Then, I’ll make them think. (They hate this part.) “What was the commercial selling?”

“Hummm. Ummm.” Each is looking at the person next to him. “I don’t know, but it was pretty funny.”

That’s the answer I get about 98% of the time. It makes me wonder: What would happen to our economy if all ineffective advertising was prohibited. Or, maybe we could create value with all the ineffective TV commercials, by turning them into a reality TV show. Sounds silly, but is it any sillier than a guy who spends $3000 on a flat screen TV to be entertained by commercials?