The Engaging Brand

Do you make a call to action or inspire people to try?

During a recent tweetchat we were discussing creating a call to action and I argued that call to action was maybe the wrong way to think about how to write a blog post or design a website.

Call to me -  encourages us to shout at the customer.

Action to me - encourages us to almost force the customer to click through.

The reason I don't like the phrase call to action is that it doesn't necessarily make business think

'how do I inspire the customer to know more'

I know it sounds pedantic but when asked "How to design a website" I prefer to speak about writing a blog or designing a website with one thing in mind 

'how do I inspire to try our products and services'

Inspire to try gives a different focus than call to action. It focuses upon the customer not your aim, it focuses upon value to the customer not value to you.

A business goal is not in your direct control - it is the customer who you need to persuade in order to deliver it. Persuasion is about inspiration. So when you are writing a blog then you need to understand the customer needs, the customer demographic and what will inspire them..

That is why how to, lists, insights, analysis are popular blog posts for heavily trafficked sites. It is not that they are ignoring their business objectives...it is that they understand the objective is to engage the customer in order to deliver those business objectives.

So the question for today is....how well do you inspire customers to try your brand?

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Selling Your Products and Services Online

Sometimes I feel as humans we strive to make everything so complicated....in truth, when I say sometimes that may be underestimating the problem.

When you are thinking about 2013 simplicity and clarity are two important aspects of selling online. I interviewed Carmine Gallo - fabulous communications expert who has worked with the great communication brand...Apple. He talked about how we can use a simple communication structure to help convey the brand message...

• The Need - Grab the reader or listener's attention - show that you understand their issues, frustrations and desire's. This creates the emotional need which people can relate to and open their mind to potential solutions. As Carmine says - "Your brain craves meaning before detail", yet we tend in business to give the detail first.
• The Problem - Now take that emotion and explain what the problem is - which creates that need for change.
• The Solution - Show the solution to the problem. They are now ready, they are desperate to know the answer to their problems.
• How it Works -Now give some details - now they have seen it, they want to know more about the solution. 

Too often in person, on the social web, in writing....we flip this approach and provide the detail up front, leaving the person cold to the idea.

Dad has a saying...

"Selling is the bridge between the pain felt by the customer ...to the land of imagination - a land  in which pain is replaced with joy and problems morphed into opportunities..."

Communicate from the Heart

Communication should be the easiest part of business - as we communicate outside our jobs, then we should know how to communicate when we are at work...surely, yes?

The problem is that communication starts to twist and turn, tangles and loops when it doesn't come from the heart....

...remember when you had to give that excuse of why you were late home to your parents, it didn't flow did it ? You went in circles, overdoing the description to make it sound real?

That is what happens when you try and convey the benefits of a product or a service....you over describe, you overcome for your own lack of passion through words.

However when you believe in what you selll, when you really love what you do......then you don't turn to desscriptive, you turn to emotive words that describe how you feel about it...

Social media helps you to connect  - however you need to connect to emotion that causes the need to purchase eg fear, pride, love, need etc 

Remember people are more mobile than ever for researching what to buy, they are between 50-85% way through their purchase cycle when they meet you...we are at, or approaching the emotional stage of purchase....none of us need most of what we buy, we do it for an emotive reason.....do you know what creates the purchase emotion for your business?

 

 

7 Writing Sins of Procrastination

Content creation is such a crucial part of social media and yet it can be the most difficult. 

Procrastination is an horrendous affliction suffered by many businesses and can really slow down content creation. The wonderful Mitch Joel put me on to a book by Steven Pressfield called the The War of Art and I just love this book on the art of writing.

He talks about how to conquer resistance and the difference between wanting to write and writing for a living - there are so many great thoughts in this creative book that I wanted to share some with you

1. It's not the writing part that's hard. What's hard is sitting down to write
2. Genius...the Romans used it to denote an inner spirit, holy and inviolable, which watches over us...A writer writes with his genius
3. On talent - the innate power to discover hidden connection between two things - images, ideas, words - that no one else has ever seen before, link them, and create for the world a third, utterly unique work.
4. Individuals who are realized in their own lives almost never criticize others. If they speak at all, it is to offer encouragement. (The same goes for yourself!)
5. Friends sometimes ask "Don't you get lonely sitting by yourself"....No...I was not alone; I was in the book; I was with the characters. I was with my Self.
6. ...she doesn't wait for inspiration, she acts in the anticipation of its apparition.
7. Most of us have two lives. The life we live and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands Resistance....(don't let it win)

Pressfield's book is a great read for anyone who has a dream - writing or not - and who is frightened of failure or success. He urges us not to give in to this resistance...a power that says tomorrow will be the start of the new adventure, a power that makes us feel too tired to start now...and urges us to go to that desk and just do it. 

Don't think about how or when...just do it

Don't worry about what to write...just write

Don't worry about failure.....action can never be failure, failure is merely thinking about it

Don't worry about others....just listen to your own 'genius'

Don't worry ...be happy...because you have conquered resistance.

Social Media Is About 3 Things

Well almost!

I remember an artist called Ken Howard commenting

"For me painting is about three things. It is about revelation, communication and celebration"

And do you know I think there is art in social media, I think there is art in any communication and for both, the concept of revelation, communication and celebration is a wonderful model to use.

1. Revelation - any communication must have this element to engage their soul. Howard describes it by "revelation I mean giving people a way of seeing, revealing the world around them in a way they have never seen before, opening their eyes". Think how wonderful social media is for delivering the revelation.
2. Communication - this sounds obvious yet in Howard's words.."By communication I mean revealing the world with a personal language, speaking directly in an instantly recognisable style." This is in social media your branding signature.
3. Celebration - A simple word yet more complex in definition. Howard describes it as "We all suffer in our lives ..I want art to raise me above that.. I want it to celebrate life whether it be human dignity expressed by Cezanne, or the wonders of nature expressed by Monet. For me my main inspiration is light and it is through light that I want to celebrate my world." In social media I like to see this as the ultimate hope story. You describe the villain (the problem), you empathise with the victim (consumer) and then you deliver the hero (the solution). The solution is the hope...the light....your chance of bringing value to their world.

Why the word - 'word' - is unique!

Social media - yes it is a 'nice' thing to do.

Yes, it can be a learning experience.

But if you still feel it is a touchy feely thing, I believe you are misguided and here's why...

The only word which describes itself is ....word. That is vitally important because every other word is describing something else....it is subjective! 

Listening checks that what you are wanting to say, what you are wanting to express, what you are wanting to evoke...is how it is being interpreted.

Hasn't communication always been two way??

Social media has supposedly radically shifted the business world...mmmmm....moving the telling and selling one way model to a two way conversation...mmmmm. The advertising and marketing approach may have changed a little but has business?

The question I always ask when people say this is new or that they will have to change their business culture is.... hasn't business or at least good businesses always been two way?

1. Loyalty between leaders and team members comes from two way respect
2. Loyalty between brands and customers comes from two way respect
3. Business has always been about a two way exchange of products/services for money
4. Business is run by people who must communicate to get things done....communication needs an equal emphasis on listening and talking. Otherwise it is a transfer of information not effective communication

Two way communication has always been at the heart of great businesses...social media does change the need, it just provides an enabling tool for that to happen on a global rather than a local stage.

The Connected World

I keep thinking that there is a rush towards connectivity, to a constantly 'on' life which creates a greater interaction with machinery rather than people. We keep talking about the power of the internet, new technology, new gadgets...the things that you use, which bring the connectivity.

Yet I cannot help thinking that we are still only at the start - it is an evolution to a revolution.

Why?

Because 24 hrs a day connectivity, communicating through things rather than people, a truly global marketplace, a generation of gamers coming into the workplace, a new language even to master....

We will need new skills, new ways of seeing relationship building, new concepts of detached intelligence through connection rather than emotional intelligence through contact?

The technology will evolve for sure but revolution will be for the people....I keep thinking that we just haven't realised the incredible impact on our lives yet...

8 Truths about truth

1. Truth is multi-dimensional
2. Truth doesn't always exist objectively - it is often depends on your perception, assumptions and values
3. Truth is not always easy in the short term but you win in the medium/long term
4. Truth telling saves time in not wasting time trying to remember what you think you said.
5. Truth avoidance may mean you can run, but you will never be able to hide in the long run
6. Truth is not always what you want it to be
7. Truth allows us to grow
8. Truth can encourage responsibility

Success is Yours to Define, look...

We often spend most of our life searching for the ultimate success and yet success in so many ways is intangible as it depends on how you view success. Leadership is not about lying but it is about creating the feeling of success, the feeling that success is at our fingertips if we move forward together....

It always reminds me of the business anecdote

"A company always holds a summer picnic and plays an annual softball game between two rival departments. They play it and the winner retains bragging rights for the rest of the year.

On this occasion Dept A won however Dept B announced on the company bulletin board "Dept B is proud to announce that following this year's softball game, we finished in second place, having lost only one game all year. We also offer our condolences to Dept A, which finished next to last in the standings, having won only one game the entire season"

It reminds me

• Success is often defined by perception than reality.
• Success is better defined by you, rather than your competitiors!
• Success often depends on the angle you are looking from...

It is often not who comes first but the one who makes the most of the opportunity in the medium term!