Off the Edge

Trust is one of the most important factors in our decisions to buy. Do we trust the company to deliver? Can the product be trusted to work? What if things go wrong - can we trust that our problems will be put right? 

And we use lots of different signals to reach our conclusion about whether and who to trust: brand and image, promotional messages, customer reviews & testimonials, etc. However, don't be mislead into thinking that you have to paint a 100% rosy picture in order to be seen as honest and trustworthy! Confessing to being less than perfect can be a real boost to your integrity.

Evidence from the science of persuasion (a book by Goldstein, Martin & Cialdini) suggests that showing some minor weakness can make your overall case that much stronger. A study showed that lawyers admitting to a weakness in their case before the opposition could mention it were rated as more trustworthy. And job applicants admitting to some limitations have been shown to be invited to more interviews than those whose CVs are only positive. You might also have better luck selling your car if you point out some of the small flaws before the prospective buyer finds them out for themselves.

Why might this information be important to marketers? Well, because it suggests that you don't have to paper over all the cracks when communicating to and with customers. In fact admitting to a few cracks may make you seem a better bet than the competition. 

Volkswagen famously employed this technique with the Beetle, playing on its ugliness made their claims about better fuel consumption and affordable price that much more trustworthy and believable. In short, more persuasive. 

Customer testimonials that are over the top glowing and positive can, it follows, have the reverse effect. While companies that present a more balanced set of reviews of their products and services can gain brownie points for being honest.

I'm not suggesting that you deliberately go looking for negative reviews but that you do resist the urge to totally sanitise any hint of criticism from statements you use. And it might make you think differently if you are worried about opening your company up to comments on social media - the odd problem can work in your favour. 

Of course, this only works if you have other REAL strengths that you can highlight once you've admitted to the MINOR weakness - no one wants to be buy from someone boasting of being bottom of the league tables - but it's whole different way of looking at how you put your messages together. Honesty is indeed the best policy!

Guest blog on the power of video from Iain McBride.

This is my take on video as a way of getting publicity with videos on the web and Youtube, but first I'd like to add my brief thoughts to the social media debate.

I started as a hack in the days when we all used manual typewriters and, in moments of high stress, these were not only used to bash out copy but physically thrown across the room. Twitter was what the birds did and social media was a meeting of reporters in the pub.

I must admit I've not personally embraced Twitter and Facebook but they are great tools for journalists. Most tragedies now mean a quick search of Facebook for the victim's picture and nine times out of ten it's there in the public domain. I'm happy to argue the morality of it with anyone, but since a judge ruled that once people had chosen to publish these on the internet on an open forum anyone could use them it's been a free for all.

Similarly Twitter is a great way of finding out what some organisations are doing - and in some cases careless Twittering leads to negative headlines. So keep tweeting and facebooking - we love it.

One of my roles now is as a freelance video producer, and one trend that has become apparent in recent months is the growth in demand for Youtube and web videos to draw attention to a product, service or business. Web video boosts a site's rankings on Google and also has numerous spin offs. It can be produced in days once it's been commissioned, and it can also be placed on Youtube for nothing.

I'm obviously biased about their value but one recent example shows, I think, how they can add value. A Kent racehorse trainer recently invented a very simple product and we were asked to produce a video about it for their website, but also with a view to it being used at exhibitions and to show potential sellers at home and abroad what the product does. You can see the video here at http://www.equinedesigns.co.uk/ 

One of the directors told me it's succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. At their first exhibition, at the NEC in Birmingham, people were drawn to their stand because the video explaining the product was showing on a screen and their sales team didn't have to explain what it was all about. Since then they've used it to win distributors in the United States, China and Australia.

If you're thinking of having one then a few words of advice:

• Think pictures - it's got to look interesting. People just talking to the camera are a lazy and fairly pointless exercise. There are always ways of illustrating things and that's where your producer earns part of his fee.
• Think endorsements - nothing is better than a good soundbite from someone who's used your product, business or service.
• Think who's talking on behalf of you - without being cruel some people are best kept away from the camera. Not necessarily because of how they look but because of how they sound or their obvious lack of dynamism. The good news is that a bit of coaching before they're filmed can iron out most problems. Again this is where a good producer stands out from the crowd.
• Think what you want to achieve - what's the aim of the video? Who do you want to interest or convince? If it's very different audiences, for example one with technical knowledge and one without, consider doing two versions.

One word of caution - there are many people out there doing videos and, a bit like wedding photographers, if you want it done on the cheap you can find someone to do it. But beware the £250 web video will look exactly like that - cheap, and is that the image you want to portray?

Iain McBride has worked in newspapers and radio, and was with ITV for 23 years. He was Head of Media for Kent Police for two years and now produces corporate videos and runs media training and press release writing workshops. His website is www.iainmcbride.co.uk

Has reality already set in - or are you determinedly sticking to your New Year Resolutions (assuming you make any of course)? It's easy enough, when you have a bit of a break over Christmas, to promise yourself you will take a different approach this year. Thinking about this perennial problem made me dust off an article I wrote back in 2010 - hopefully it will help you if it's marketing you've resolved to tackle.

There never seems to be enough time in business to do everything you want to or feel you should be doing.  Priorities have to be juggled and renegotiated every day.  My clients struggle to find time to move their marketing activities forward - and at The Purple Edge we too have more ideas for things we want to do than we find time to do them!  As always, when I'm talking about 'marketing' I'm not confining myself to just the promotional activities.  I'm including the full scope of marketing: understanding the market and customers, developing your product and service portfolio, setting price, and, last but not least, telling your target audience about what you can do! In short, a marketing plan.

Of course I believe that marketing is the single most critical activity in any business - because it is the process by which you will thrive and grow, if that is what you want for your business.  And that is the nub of the issue.  What do you want for your business? 

Step one of your marketing plan is about setting your business objectives so that you can build a suitable and relevant plan.  Get that bit right and setting your priorities and making decisions about how much marketing budget you need to invest and what activities you will (rather than should) do to achieve those objectives comes that much easier. 

A plan needs to be built on the resources you have available.  It is not a wishlist.  So if you carry out all the activities in house in the timeframe needed then you should be looking at whether it is better use of your time and money to outsource the work.  This is especially true if your own time is worth more when spent on the delivery (i.e. directly money earning) part of your business.

Marketing does not need to take up a huge amount of your time.  As it impacts on so many areas you are probably thinking about one or other aspects throughout the day (for example improving service to customers) as you carry out many other tasks, but a few hours every week should be set aside to really concentrate on marketing.  Time when you can check you are on track in your plan and take at least some small steps to move matters forward.  If you find you are way behind on hitting your objectives it can be a long process to implement action that will generate new business coming from a standing start.  Building and maintaining profile, awareness and reputation cannot be done overnight!

So, to help focus you on making time for marketing, here are my top 3 priorities for your marketing:

1. Build a plan for the year linked to your objectives.  This will make it real and help you take decisions on how you will use the resources you have to hit your targets.
2. Establish some level of regular communications to the market, and I include in that keeping your website up to date.  I talked about customer contact in a previous blog post, and maintaining a light contact programme can take relatively little time.  More importantly it gives you the wherewithall to 'increase the volume' without huge time or expense when you need to increase your results.
3. Review your plan regularly - that way there are no nasty surprises and you can take any additional action calmly, without having to put everything else aside while you catch up on the marketing that you have let get so far behind.

Time management is all about focusing and priortising what really matters - and marketing does matter to every business!  Little and often will help you keep it under control, and if you are hitting your plan you can stop worrying that you are not doing enough!

Time to add my two-penneth to the blogs on this subject penned by Debra Andrews and Neil Edwards - you might want to read these as well.

As social networks grow in number and members, so the pressure on businesses grows too. For many business owners, keeping social network profiles updated and regularly populated with stimulating content presents an increasing strain on resources - and sanity! 

Some general points before diving into the specifics of different networks:

• I don't believe social media is transformational for any business - apart from those selling social media!
• Whether something is a luxury or necessity is a relative judgement. If you haven't got the basics of your marketing programme under control then ANY social media activity is a luxury, e.g. don't waste time attracting people to a crummy website!
• Assuming you've got the basics covered, then you have to consider that ignoring anything that has millions of users could be a mistake - but the challenge is for you to work out whether YOUR target audience are active on the particular network and in the right frame of mind to engage with your brand.
• Defining something as a luxury doesn't mean it shouldn't be done - just that it knows its place in your overall priorities!
• Engaging in social media has important indirect spin-offs - for example in improving your website rankings in search. For this reason alone it may be important to have a strategy your organisation can follow

So - here goes, my thoughts on each network:

LinkedIn - Necessity

I agree with both Debra and Neil this is a necessity for all professionals. Whether we are running businesses or looking for employment, our personal profile can be an important influencer in relationships. I do make early judgements based on the way people present themselves online and how up-to-date their information is, and I won't be the only one!

Take control of your profile - try and see it from someone elses shoes. My favourite game is to spot the howlers - people who say they have an excellent eye for detail but can't spell, for example.

LinkedIn also presents a great way to keep in touch with people you meet at face to face networking events - and it's always a disappointment if I can't find someone that I think should be there!

It doesn't have to take a lot of time - the most distracting thing is the emails from the various discussion groups but I've solved that by having them automatically moved to a different folder that I can review just once or twice a week.

Twitter - Luxury

Agreed again - a luxury. Very valuable if you want to learn about different topics, but terribly time consuming as you can easily end up following one interesting lead after another and before you know it hours have passed! It is possible to search on topics and organise lists and favourites, but even then you have to keep those up to date!

I dip into Twitter most days but very briefly so it really depends what catches my eye. I keep my own posting score boosted by bulk scheduling of 3-4 weeks of tweets, then when I go on live I can post about something I have just found or done or just look to engage with others.

I confess that I found Twitter fascinating to begin with but its appeal has somewhat faded - and I am always suspicious of the people I meet who are tweeting everything they do (even while out at meetings). Slightly needy don't you think?

Facebook - Luxury

I agree with Debra on this one - a luxury for B2B. Neil, on the other hand, sees it as a necessity. Maybe this reflects the effort that Neil has put into building up a significant following. I think 952 'likes' for a marketing agency is a fantastic achievement - congratulations Neil! Neil says investing in Facebook advertising worked for him, and the fact that this following results in traffic back to his website is also excellent. However, he still seems to have difficulty getting people to engage actively by commenting on his page and I think this is generally true for B2B.

Although I put more effort into keeping our Facebook business page up to date (important for the brand), I think posting on my personal site is more effective at making connections and building relationships - which of course leads to a conflict between business/personal for many people.

Google+ - untested!

I confess this is has not even made it to the luxury list for me - only the bottom of the 'to do' list! I know I will probably have to get round to it but the thought of filling out another set of profile questions and building another set of connections currently fills me with dread. Maybe when I feel I've got all my marketing basics right I'll get round to this one!

And we've not even started on YouTube ...

Time is our most valuable resource and we need to be spending it wisely - social media can be fun, can be educational and can be distracting. But it can also be useful and positive for B2B marketing. The fact that opinions from marketing experts differ reflects the huge variation in circumstances that lead to success with any particular network. My best advice is to be informed and make your decision for your specific business based on knowledge rather than prejudice/assumptions.

And if in doubt master LinkedIn first!

What do you think?

Image: Nutdanai Apikhomboonwaroot / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

It's a good thing Santa doesn't rely on Google to get to every house on his round - he'd spend most of his time driving around lost I reckon. In my last rant of 2011 I am asking why so many businesses are relying on Google to help customers find where they are - without checking whether Google has it right!

THREE times in just this one week I have struggled to find businesses by following the directions on their website. This is 100% down to their laziness and incompetence in checking that, when they refer people to Google for directions, that Google is getting their flag in the right place. Sorry if that sounds harsh, but sometimes you have to tell it like it is!

Customer experience is an essential part of getting your marketing right. Sending customers on a wild goose chase does not make for a good customer experience! This is not hard or expensive - but can make a big difference.

Here's a little challenge for you over the Christmas break. Use Google Maps to try and find your business:

1. If the directions and location of the little flag are 100% accurate then pat yourself on the back and go and relax.
2. If you have a Google Places entry and the flag is not in the right place then correct it!
3. If you don't have Google Places shame on you - that needs sorting out asap! It's a free listing for your business so worth making the most of.
4. If the Google Maps entry is wrong and you can't work out how to correct it then make sure you have good written directions on your website, along with an accurate map.

Marketing is often about paying attention to little details to make your service the best it can be. If being found (in the physical world) is important to your business then you absolutely have to make sure you make it as easy as possible for your customers. There can be no excuse for getting this wrong.

Santa has magic to help him out - most of your customers won't be so lucky so don't let them down!

There's no doubt about it, e-everything has transformed the way we do business. We have email, e-newsletters, ecommerce - and lots of things that don't begin with e but are still electronic: websites, blogs, social media, video, laptops, smartphones, etc.

All these bring enormous benefits in terms of speed, ease of use, ease of reach and cost-effectiveness. But do you ever feel we are losing our sense of balance? Are we in danger of becoming too seduced by the charms of the e-world?

It was Christmas that made me think about this a bit harder. Like many people, in recent years we have turned to emails to send out cheery messages of glad tidings and great joy at Christmas. And we're on the receiving end of a fair few. But are they a good substitute for the traditional, hand-written card? I decided "not in all cases" so this year we took a step back into the dark ages and sent some of our contacts cardboard by snail mail!

Here's my 3 reasons why:

1. It's more personal - the email versions are obviously sent as volume mailings, personalised by machine if at all. I like the idea that someone has taken the trouble to write me a card.
2. It's more visible - email is fleeting, transient. Seen for seconds and deleted. I love the decorative effect of Christmas cards - having them on display is all part of the fun.
3. It's bucking a trend - if everyone else is opting for email then sending a real card stands out and gets you noticed. And I don't really buy the 'better for the environment' argument - if it wasn't cheaper and easier than writing and sending a card most people wouldn't give a Christmas fig about the environment!

Sending greetings by email clearly has a role to play - especially when the message makes best use of the medium, with a animation or game for example. I love email communications. But my thoughts about Christmas cards can also be carried over into our choices about marketing communications for the rest of the year too. Especially when it comes to adding a personal touch and standing out from the crowd.

If you spend a lot of time at a computer, in the e-world, then it is easy to assume everyone else does too. This is a fatal mistake - as we've said before, you are not your client. You need to be aware of the preferences and habits of your target audience. Mixing up your media, integrating the more traditional methods with the new, will give you more opportunities to be seen and get known.

One size does not fit all!

What do you think about sending and receiving cards vs emails? And do you think differently if you're male rather than female? Another factor to consider in your targeting of marketing communications!

Happy e-Christmas!

We got involved in a bizarre discussion recently - the details of which I will keep to myself to protect all concerned - but the nub of which boiled down to a challenge to describe all the business issues that we, as marketing professionals, address with our clients, but without using the word marketing.

Why should this be so? Why is marketing such a dirty word? Should we be ashamed to call ourselves marketing professionals? Are we falling into the same camp as politicians, journalists and estate agents? We're only trying to help - honest!

Once I got over my initial outrage I was able to understand a little where they were coming from. The problem is that there are too many people pushing spurious 'marketing' expertise, or thrusting one specific PROMOTIONAL technique at people without helping them to understand whether it is right for them.

And, at the end of the day, the challenge was not so hard. The outcome we focused on was BUSINESS GROWTH - an objective we all buy into I'm sure, and one that we at THE PURPLE EDGE believe can't be achieved without doing the m word even if some people prefer to call it something different. Luckily we were allowed to mention the following:

• Setting business goals, understanding what business you are in and using this information to drive decision-making and planning
• Understanding your market (not the full m word), competition and the environment. That means understanding customers and the segments you are targeting
• Having a clear value proposition - represented by products, services and brand - and managing your portfolio to maximise profit.
• The psychology of purchasing - buyer behaviour and pricing strategies
• Communicating with customers (definitely not the m word) - how to select the right strategy for getting your message across to all your stakeholders
• Building a growth strategy and plan (not a m*******g plan of course) - detailing the actions you will take to grow your business

Simple! No m*******g in sight - just sound advice on all the aspects of your business that you should address if you want growth.

Let's not get hung up about what we call it - if you want help creating a strategy to grow your business, talk to us!

Or check out our Group Coaching Programme where you will learn all about how to use m*******g to deliver BUSINESS GROWTH.

After me everyone...

"Test. Measure. Adjust. Repeat."

"Test. Measure. Adjust. Repeat."

Let this be your marketing mantra. Put a little tune to it and sing it to yourself at work. What's that you say? "Tell me more Jim."  OK here goes, and in time honoured tradition I'll explain with a story or two.

There once was a man who had a business that was doing pretty well. Although he was reasonably successful and quite good at what he did he came to realise that his heart lay elsewhere. He decided that he could make a business out of his hobby by providing it as a service. So he set about doing just that. He managed to find someone who would pay him for his services and he did a great job. He was happy because he had proven to himself that he could make his hobby pay. So far so good. Through personal contacts he got a couple more clients. "This is great!" thought he. "I'll soon be able to stop doing the boring stuff and concentrate on my hobby. All I need to do is find some more customers. I know, I'll advertise."

Unfortunately this is where it all went wrong. He set about spending quite substantial amounts of cash (for him) on adverts in national magazines and directories. He sat back and waited for the phone to ring. He waited for the phone to ring some more. Then he waited for the phone to ring quite a lot more. Hope as he might the phone didn't ring. Not once. It tuned out that the people who might really want his services didn't read those magazines or directories. Eventually he gave up waiting and went back to doing the boring job that brought in the money.

Another man had a business that was doing very well. It was very profitable and had lots of potential. There was one area though which wasn't performing well. He decided to advertise too. This man thought that a letter would be the best approach. So he asked a friend to write him a good sales letter. The friend who knew a bit about marketing wrote a few different letters.  "You should try sending each letter to a few people and see what result you get. If one works much better than the others then send that one out to the whole list of people." said the friend. Now the man thought that was too much messing around. He wanted to get on with it. Besides he liked one of the letters much better than the others. So he bought lots of stamps and envelopes and sent his favourite letter to everyone on his list. He sat back and waited for the phone to ring. You know the rest.

The men in both these two stories had an objective and chose a strategy to achieve them. They came up with solutions that they thought would work and bet their whole marketing budget on it. It didn't work so they gave up. In the second case the man decided that marketing didn't work so he stopped spending. Sad.  In the first case the man gave up his dream. Tragic!

There are a couple of things to take from these two stories which you should hold as firm convictions:

1. You can never know that you are right. All marketers know this. The only time we know we're right is when we know that we don't know we're right (are you keeping up?).  We might have a high degree of confidence that something will work, we might be almost convinced something will work, but we don't KNOW it will work. And sometimes we're made to look a bit silly! That's why we would always propose testing something in a low key, low cost way first, particularly if the potential risk is high.Test it. Measure how well it works. Adjust it if necessary and test again. Only invest lots of budget if you have evidence to suggest it will be an investment rather than a cost.
2. You are not the target audience. Whenever you are trying to communicate with someone - in an ad, a letter, an email, a web page - remember that the most important thing is whether it's effective, not whether you like it. If I had a penny for every time I'd had the "I know you prefer that one but ..." conversation with a client I'd have £3.76.  Try it. Measure how well it works. Adjust it. Try again.

So as the curtain comes down on this week's blog and the band plays us out, lets all join together for one last chorus...

Test. Measure. Adjust. Repeat. I said,

Test. Measure. Adjust. Repeat. You got it.

Test. Measure. Adjust. Repeat. Eat your heart out Jules Holland.

Test. Measure. Adjust. Repeat. You've been a fantastic audience.

Test. Measure. Adjust. Repeat. Goodnight!

It's true that things seem to change more quickly these days - or is that just a sign of my age? No sooner have 'expert' writers denounced old-world marketing in favour of new media, than the latest studies show that customers are not so keen on being marketed to using social networks. What the hell is going on?

Every time I read another book or article about the death of marketing (usually delivered in the same breath as extolling the virtues of the new digital age over the old dinosaurs of print or other 'traditional' media) I get increasing irate. When will everyone learn that marketing is not about one or other promotional tool?

Mind you, the other day I also read that segmentation is dead. Marketing segmentation means splitting the market into more manageable groups with common characteristics so that you can be more effective in targeting your propositions. Can that really be passé?

No, it was a classic ‘emperor’s new clothes’ article – dressing up a particular standpoint to sound more controversial and/or radical. What the writer was really saying was that characteristics to do with attitudes or behaviours are more meaningful segmentation variables than the classic demographic or geographic variables such as gender, age, location.

This is hardly new thinking – I teach my marketing students about psychographic variables each new year, just as I learned about them in my marketing studies way back in the 80s. The difficulty has always been the practicality of finding out psychographic information and using this to target marketing activities effectively. This is definitely becoming easier with the opt-in approach enabled by digital media – people can identify and associate themselves with things that interest them.  

So despite the headlines I think that the fundamentals of marketing are far from dead.

Marketing has always been and still is:

• Right product in the right place at the right price at the right time
• Satisfying customer needs profitably

Nevertheless lots of things have changed, and continue to change, including:

• Customer expectations and behaviours
• Technology
• Economic conditions
• New tools and communications methods

Marketing is critical to gaining customers and building value in a business. And as marketers we have to keep abreast of our complex and ever-shifting environment – just as we always have. The fundamentals of marketing are not about being prescriptive – you must do this in this way to be guaranteed results (because we know that is nonsense, don’t we?). And they are not just about promotion. But even when you are thinking about the value of promoting yourself on Twitter or in The Times or wherever, the question remains the same:

“Is this a cost-effective way of getting my message across to my target audience?”

So don’t fall for any hype about ditching the old, dead ways and embracing the new if you want to be successful at marketing. Pay attention to the basics and get the foundations of your marketing strategy right and it will lead you in the right direction naturally.

When asked what sets them apart from their competitors many of our clients will reply "our service". The trouble is, when pressed, they struggle to explain what exactly is so great about their service, or what evidence they have to back up their claim. Is it just their view, possibly a little biased. Or do others really agree?

Are you as good as you think you are?

There are myriad factors affecting your success in business - but being good at what you do is a fundamental platform. While spending lots of money on advertising and promotions may not be an option for many companies, a good reputation is priceless. It gives you something concrete to shout about, it encourages word of mouth recommendation, repeat business and greater loyalty. Are you sure you are giving your customers lots of reasons not to look elsewhere or to be seduced when other options present themselves?

When I blogged about some of the basics of marketing in the summer one of my regular readers, Martin Crowther of VR Sani-Co Ltd sent me this message:

"Good article,  I have always found that our most succesful marketing tool is one of "under promise and over deliver". It never ceases to amaze me when customers are surprised and thank you for only doing what you said you would do - this would indicate to me that most companies don't."

How sad! But what an opportunity! How much time do you devote in your business to reviewing customer service and coming up with new ways to please your customers? As Martin says, you may not have to be spectacularly good to stand out - just better than the average. Doing what you say you're going to do is a good start!

It doesn't matter if it is a product or pure service you are selling, there is always a service element in delivering value to a customer, from first contact to after sales:

• How promptly, pleasantly, professionally do you answer calls or emails?
• Do you give full, easy to understand information to enquirers?
• Do you keep your promises on dates & times for meetings or deliveries?
• How do you ensure that customer needs are fully met?
• What after sales care or follow-up do you do?
• How good are you at keeping in contact?

All the advertising and tweeting in the world will not save you from mediocre results if you can't deliver against your promises - that means delivering value. As Warren Buffet is fond of saying, "Price is what you pay. Value is what you get." The value you deliver justifies the price you charge.

The trick is never to be complacent - keep reviewing and comparing what you do against the competition. And don't forget to ask your customers what they really think about your service and really listen to their answers to help you discover new ways to delight. If you already believe that your service sets you apart make sure you can explain how and that you have the evidence to back up your beliefs - testimonials are a great way to do this, and the bonus is you get to use them in your promotions too.

So, the questions still hangs, are you really as good as you think you are?