Stop yelling at your market – get your message heard
Does anyone remember the old EF Hutton TV commercials? Dead silence. People watch intently as someone murmurs: “EF Hutton thinks…”. The motto was “When EF Hutton speaks, people listen.”
Well, those were the good old days of television and trusted investment advisers. It’s a different world now for a number of reasons: the global meltdown, Bernie Madoff, and the information-flooded internet to name a few. A recent “Economist” article referred to our time as the “data deluge.”
The subject of how to get “people to listen” on the web beyond all the noise has recently become the subject of many questions I’ve received. So, here’s my answer as briefly as possible (considering the question is like trying to put cliff notes around “War and Peace” while trying to keep all the nuance and meaning)…
So how should you set up your Internet business without being intrusive or adding to the ever-increasing clutter and noise of ever-growing data dumps?
It starts with a foundation: the clear understanding that this is a connected market. It’s a two-way conversation: a message delivery where conversational communication drives the market.
There is a growing multitude of communication engines that are evolving. We know them as search engines, social networks, blogs, email, text messages, RSS feeds, audio and video. Many of the most popular tools are known by brand names that break down like this:
Brand Consolidators and/or Tools
Media
Seeker. Earn your income through pay per click advertising. Deliver your product through natural search engine algorithms (SEO), a popular way to capture “organic” presence.
bing
Microsoft and Yahoo have partnered to try to add a new twist to search.
Social network.
A business-to-business social network of people.
Mini-Blog feed – quasi-social network.
RSS
Really Simple Syndication: more of a tool than a brand.
dig
One of the largest blog consolidators.
Blackberry
Still a leader in email tools, it incorporates BBM (Black Berry Messenger), a kind of free instant text messaging tool between BlackBerry users.
iPhone (apple)
The iPhone is a computer with a phone attached; it is a device that can be configured to use and do many things with all of the above.
Email can evolve if one has the tools to use it properly. Think of email as the standard way to engage and interact – it works wonderfully if it’s not generic or intrusive. That’s the trick.
SMS – Text Messaging – MMS
Text, images, video sent to mobile devices.
Youtube
Video Consolidator (Owned by Google) – Much criticized at the moment for theft of copyrighted material.
Podcasts (Apple)
Audio news and information delivered through the iTunes store.
Of course, there are dozens of others in every category beyond this cursory list. The first thing to recognize is that there is no one place, one brand, or one method that is considered “best.” All of these are important to your messaging and business model (which is the first level of complexity).
To further define the relevance of each model to your particular marketing, you need to define how to start the conversation. A worthwhile goal is to establish an “inbound” connection. Too much network communication today follows the “outbound” model. Newspapers, magazines, TV, radio never had the need to consider an instant response.
A model that starts with an incoming query from a user is the right approach, and it’s the only approach worth pursuing in this messy network of information.
How do we start doing this? We need to add a second level of complexity, to create a conversation, which is difficult. How do you create a conversation with complete and “virtual” strangers? Perhaps the best way to understand that is for your business to reflect on the old adage that “word of mouth is the best advertising.” We call this word of mouth on the web – a conversation that talks about your company instead of telling the world about you. This is the type of public relations marketing that is most valuable.
A real conversation is sure to get involved and ensue when what your company offers is the topic of conversation. Is it hard to do? In a world cluttered with search data, yes. In a target market of like-minded conversations? It is very effective! Thus, the era of vertical connected market spaces, focused on a particular theme, is the emerging key. Are you part of the right conversation?
The way you start this conversation can be blurry. For example, if I’m walking down the street and accidentally bump into someone trying to avoid a puddle and say “excuse me” or “excuse me,” an exchange occurs. Where did the conversation, the interaction start? Where could it lead?
Internet chat works much like this. Searching has conditioned people to “stumble across” thoughts and information, things they may or may not have been thinking about: seemingly random pools of information. This is what I call the ‘self-discovery’ market of information delivery. Where will your information appear? Are you playing in the right puddle?
How do you make sure you’re in the right place where a machine, a search engine, delivers your message where it’s relevant, important, and becomes part of the conversation? A good way to start is to “listen” first before you start; This happens through analysis of the conversation surrounding your market.
Of course, we are now looking at the real challenge for businesses in today’s Internet world. There are trillions of bits of information, emails, data and texts that fill the space of these “conversations”, so much so that there is a lot of clutter and noise.
Imagine standing in the middle of New York, in Times Square at noon on a Monday and shouting your message about how robust your financial planning model is. How many people will take your advice and become your customers? You can get attention. Most likely, they will politely ask you to calm down or take a trip to the NYPD.
Now, imagine the financial firm that starts sponsoring some entertainment and with a loud speaker from the stage, announces that their firm is sponsoring this noon concert to draw attention to the disaster in Haiti. They don’t talk about their financial strategies like wealth planners. They simply announce their intentions and provide a thoughtful message that adds value to busy Times Square. Both are screaming, but which one will establish credibility? What company is more likely to be heard and build a customer base from the exact same crowd?
The first company wanted to deliver a loud message. They wanted a quick win. They wanted it to be “free” or cheap. Too many companies have and continue to treat the web in the same way.
The second firm hired an event coordinator, found an attraction, and sponsored a big band. They paid for a New York City permit and fulfilled their commitment. They took profits and sent them to organizations that help Haiti. It was an investment of time through the brand and the organization.
The first firm was shouting, adding disorder to the noise. This is what SPAM and traditional websites are.
I heard a recent suggestion from a business leader to just use text messages to send random text messages to be heard! This was puzzling as it is this kind of thinking that was behind the spam in the first place! It just won’t work. And in the world of “blacklisting”, it could really hurt your business.
The problem and challenge with the Internet is that businesses want quick answers in the midst of perhaps the busiest and noisiest streets ever created by mankind. There are currently over 1.8 billion users on the Internet, all in this Conversation Market TM, all with something to say. There are numerous places and ways that people can listen to and discover your message of interest, as well as many to ignore.
What are the steps to be successful? Here is a list of do’s and don’ts that well-organized and respected businesses should follow:
Do
Understand your market – where are they looking to, what is your specific region or area, customer/customer model you are looking for, and who is looking for your product.
Whose
Get your message out to the world using Google AdWords, generic email newsletters about what you want to tell the world or talk about or your views.
Do
Find the most effective medium to get your message across: You’ll need to invest in the tools you’ll use.
Whose
Just spend your money on pay-per-click advertising – you will waste it.
Do
Create a “pool” of conversation about why people should be interested in what you have to offer or say. Tell them what the world is like inside your market and how you can help.
Whose
List all the reasons why your business is so great on one website – that’s not what the world is looking for. They want sincere help and understanding. In the words of Stephen Covey, “Seek first to understand, then to be understood.”
Hire a professional firm that specializes in building connections based on your goals and helping measure your return on investment.
Don’t hire a Flash webmaster, designer or graphics company that will create you a “better” fancy or flashy website.
Finally, create a united connection between your business delivering offline and how you can create better service and connections online. Improve your business process with technology. I call this BIPED®.
Don’t try to get people “front stage” and forget that the reason they’re there is to get a fresh, new perspective on what you do “backstage.”
So, to summarize everything you need to do to achieve your goals of using the Internet to market and run your business more effectively:
1) Clearly identify the meaning of your message to the market that is ready to receive what you are willing to offer. A professional and technology-oriented marketing company can help you discover this message.
2) Find the best media you can commit to managing or having managed (eg, search, social media, email, RSS, podcast, video, etc.). Once again, this is not something quick and easy. But getting the right tools early on will allow you to meet and maintain your goals. Your marketing gets better and easier, and your potential customer base grows.
3) Plan to spend your money wisely on the experience, not just ads that are easy to shop for on Google and the like; that will not work.
4) Build your business around this medium, and you’ll have built a lasting market and loyal customer base.
Do this and make yourself heard. Start the conversation. Don’t waste your time or your marketing budget on more noise!