Marketing Archive - Page 3 of 12 - The Art of Communicating

How is this different?

When you’re building a new product, the question “How is it different?” is mostly pointless.

Because “different” can be hugely misleading as a metric.

Business developers love “different”. But the customers couldn’t care less. Customers care for specific.

In fact, many customers have no sympathy for “different”. They prefer “familiar”. Familiar is proven and safe.

Customers do care very much about whether your product solves their specific need.

Therefore, a better question to ask is: “What specific problem does this solve that isn’t solved properly, yet?”

(And, by the way, when you have an answer to that question, you’ll get the answer to “What’s different?” for free.)

Repeating yourself

Say something often and people will start to believe it.

Repetition doesn’t make the thing you repeat any more true or false but people are more likely to believe a statement when they hear it more often (that’s true even for smart thinkers).

Bullshitters know and embrace that. For them, that’s easy because true or false doesn’t matter the least bit to a bullshitter. The only thing they care for is whether a narrative serves their goal. And so, they repeat whatever statement serves them best.

It’s party time for them when others chime in to the repetitions, preferably mass media, the press or the social media mob.

In light of that it breaks my heart every time I speak to brilliant people who say that they don’t want to repeat themselves, e.g. because they think it’s impolite.

I don’t think it’s impolite at all. If it’s true it deserves to be said repeatedly. Looking at how often bullshitters repeat their bullshit, it might even be necessary.

Don’t shy away from putting your best thoughts on hot rotation.

What do you want to be known for?

What do you want to be known for? You won’t believe how many businesses don’t have a compelling answer to that simple question.

And yet, every action they take contributes to their fame. Every product they release. Every keynote their CEO gives. Every post they publish. Every sales presentation they make. Every call to customer support. Every mail. Proposal. Conversation. …

If these actions are inconsistent, the story of that business will be fuzzy at best.

Hence, marketing.

Huge budgets are allocated to create a public image. Agencies come up with something that sounds good and looks good. But more often than not, that image doesn’t match what customers experience when they reach out, use the product, or are otherwise exposed to the business.

What do you want to be known for?
If you don’t decide someone else will.

The biggest lever to own what the public thinks of you is to find clarity about that yourself. Uncover what a) you’re incredibly good at, b) you are passionate about, and c) makes you a profit. Based on that define what you want to be known for. The shorter the better.

Then light the path for the whole team. When the path is lit brightly (and when it’s aligned to what the team aspires to) you can trust them to do the right thing. Their actions will be aligned with the path. And so, every action anyone in your business takes contributes to becoming known for the right thing.

How not to change minds

Insisting that you are right and the others are wrong has never changed anyone’s opinion.

Repeating the same arguments, only louder, doesn’t work, either.

Making fun of someone’s argument won’t encourage anyone to re-consider that argument.

And decorating an argument with sarcasm (even when it’s hilarious) won’t open anyone’s mind to that argument.

I’ve always found it way more helpful to assume that the other person is at least as smart as I am and that there’s a reason for why they don’t see what (I think) I see.

Another helpful attitude when you want to change someone’s mind is to be open to changing yours, too. Getting it right is so much more useful than being right at all cost.

The hunt for visibility

Look at me!
Look at me!
Look at me!
Look at me!
Look at me!
Look at me!
Look at me!
Look at me!

In the hunt for visibility, the space is overflowing with “Look at me” messages.

The irony being that what gets our attention is the exact opposite: “I see you”.

(Here’s a great example of that.)

Better than the truth

If your customers knew everything you know, would they still buy?

Well, of course they are never going to know everything, so the real question here is this:

Is the story you are crafting about your offering a truthful representation of what you do (and how you do it)?

Selfish marketers don’t really care. They will happily bend the truth, tweak a few things here and there, and leave anything out that would make the story sound less favorable. Selfish marketers look for ways to tell their story that makes it sound better than the truth.

An early client of mine, some 15 years back, was obsessed with giving their “effectiveness charts” more bang – the problem being that the underlying data had no bang at all. But rather than to optimize the product, they invested heavily in graphic design to make it look like it had bang.

Selfish marketers can’t trust the customer with the decision to buy because they don’t trust in their product, either.

The best brands are different. They start by building great products – products which are actually effective and which really do serve (real) people’s needs and desires in a delightful way.

And so these brands dare to tell true stories about their product and the experiences that their customers have.

The best part is this: For the customer, it will still sound better than the truth – their current truth. And if it’s a truly great product, it will even exceed these expectation. These products delight because the marketer was telling the truth.

Do you trust your product in delivering that experience? Do you dare to tell a true story about it?

Singular

Secure the only spot at the airport that sells water and you can basically stop bothering about how you do business. It doesn’t really matter how good or bad your service is or how clear or confusing your communication is, business is almost unavoidable.

For everyone else, clarity in your communication (what can people expect) and providing great service (delivering on what they expect) turns out to be invaluable.

Compared to what?

You might copywrite a text faster than anyone else in town. But on the other side of the planet, I can find someone who writes better.

You might make the best burger in New York. But if I’m living in Germany, I will choose a different restaurant for tonight’s meal.

“Faster” and “better” can have a very different value depending on the arena you’re competing in.

Which arena are you competing in? Does it influence how you communicate why people should choose you?

What else could work?

“One of the biggest strategic mistakes you can make is to fail to make the most of your victories. Yet even brilliant leaders sometimes make this mistake. One reason they fail is if they are obsessively searching for the Next Big Thing.

– Jim Collins

What’s not to like about the Next Big Thing, right? I mean, wouldn’t you just love to launch one?

One of the misconceptions about Big Things is that they would just appear and immediately take over the world.

That’s hardly how it works in real life. The iPhone was a niche product when it launched. Facebook was only available at a single university when it launched. Tesla (which is yet to become an actual Big Thing) launched with an expensive niche sports car.

Most Big Things have actually started small and grown big over time … by rigorously observing what worked and what didn’t and then amplifying what worked and fixing what doesn’t.

When you constantly chase the Next Big Thing, you constantly start fresh (read: small).

Instead of asking what else could work, it might pay to regularly ask what’s already working and then amplify that.

(And, of course, there’s a smart distinction to be made between consistency and stagnation.)

Decoration and polish

When you decorate a diamond you make it less beautiful, not more. Diamonds need to be polished.

Does your product need decoration or polish?

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