Mitch Joel's Blog: Six Pixels of Separation, page 243

Are Your Customers Frozen? Let It Go!

The competition is fierce out there.

The battle for the consumer continues to intensify. Brands used to battle with their competitors for the direct relationship, but something new is happening. While I discuss it in much more detail in my second book, CTRL ALT Delete, I believe (with everything that I have) that the new battle for this direct relationship trumps the one you're fighting with your competitor. Now, brands are doing battle with every other brand in the food chain that is being offered to a consumer. We have all types of businesses at attention. Think about it this way: if you buy one of my books, the author, the publisher, the publisher's specific imprint, the book retailer and more are all fighting for you to connect to them. All of these brands want you to follow them on Twitter, like them on Facebook, subscribe to their YouTube channel and more. Each and every one of these brands wants you to "add them" in a myriad of digital channels. They want the exclusive opportunity to tell you all about the author... even in a world where the author can build this direct relationship on their own with fans. It makes the world of branding, marketing, advertising and communications that much more challenging.

Know when to hold 'em.

This past week, the online discourse around a customer who tried to cancel their cable service made the headlines (again). Some attacked the cable company, some blamed the customer service rep and some even scolded the unhappy customers. Then, today, that same company reported that profits had improved 15% this past quarter. This happens a lot. People moan, complain, tweet, blog and more about the inequities of a specific brand and yet - year on year - these companies grow their user base and increase profits much to the chagrin of the digital lynch mobs and to the adulation of Wall Street. We live in complex times. If you have your pitchfork out, it's easy to think that companies like this (airlines and other businesses too) can maintain this level of profit and growth because they hold their customers hostage. After all, how hard is it to cancel a service? Ultimately, what you learn in this crazy world of business is that the more complex you make it for a customer to leave (think small print, clauses and made-up policies) the less likely they will be leave. Right? Create enough friction through time and money and it's simply not worth it. Consumers will grin and bear it.

What have we become?

Last week, I spent some time in Silicon Valley (you can hear more about it right here: Adventures In Visiting Google, Facebook And Apple In Silicon Valley). A good chunk of my time was spent on the Google campus with Avinash Kaushik (Google's Digital Marketing Evangelist, bestselling author of Web Analytics - An Hour A Day and Web Analytics 2.0). We were brainstorming, thinking, prodding and provoking one another. In that conversation, Avinash revealed that one of the brands he admired the most once remarked to him that the company does not consider anybody a customer until they have bought from them twice. It was as if the clouds had parted, the sun began to shine and hope for a new world was born. Why? Because, we know digital marketing. We know all about these customer (or fan) acquisition strategies that revolve around things like offering a contest to acquire an email address, and then considering these individuals hot leads/customers just because they were lured by a potential prize. We know all about consumers who have bought from a brand once, and then never again, but are bombarded with marketing spam to move a needle, because they are considered a customer (hey! they bought from us!). We are all too familiar with consumers who sign up for a service, become unhappy with it, but are forced into being customers for life (ok, that's an over-exaggeration, but you get the point).

If I hear that Frozen song one more time...    

BUT... let it go... let it go...can't hold it back any more! (took some artistic interpretation there). If someone is unhappy, they are not a customer. A customer is not a customer. A happy customer is a customer. A customer is not a customer unless they bought from you twice (or more). A customer doesn't care much about a brand, until they tell someone else how much they care (and why that other person should buy from them). Brands create rules, policies, laws and even incentives for their team members that are often misaligned with what a true customer is.

A customer is more than an email that a brand captures and much more than someone who purchased something once.

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Adventures In Visiting Google, Facebook And Apple In Silicon Valley

Every Monday morning at 7:10 am, I am a guest contributor on CHOM 97.7 FM radio broadcasting out of Montreal (home base). It's not a long segment - about 5 to 10 minutes every week - about everything that is happening in the world of technology and digital media. The good folks at CHOM 97.7 FM are posting these segments weekly to SoundCloud, if you're interested in hearing more of me blathering away. I'm really excited about this opportunity, because this is the radio station that I grew up on listening to, and it really is a fun treat to be invited to the Mornings Rock with Terry and Heather B. morning show. The segment is called, CTRL ALT Delete with Mitch Joel.

This week we discussed:

Terry's away on vacation and we're live with Rob Kemp.

Was at Google last week in Silicon Valley and spent some time at Facebook and Apple as well.

My job was designed to be around interesting people.

Also happened to run into Chris Cornell from Soundgarden at the airport.

My #1 trick for how to meet a celebrity and still be cool about it (seriously).

Great work environments inspire better work.

These are not offices... these are true campuses.

Even the waiters are working on a startup.

Cruise along University Avenue in Palo Alto.

You do feel like you know these people... even though you never met them (you know, Mark Zuckerberg).

Silicon Valley is like Disneyland for adults.

Does George Takei come up with all of his Facebook memes? It's an example of great curation.

App of the week: Starbucks.

Listen here...

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Cognitive Economics And Consumer Choice

Episode #419 of Six Pixels of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast is now live and ready for you to listen to.

Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper, zesty pickles, and extra chunky tomato sauce. None of these products would exist without Dr. Howard Moskowitz. His work has been immortalized in Malcolm Gladwell's TED Talk, Choice, Happiness And Spaghetti Sauce. The speech familiarized the world with his research on consumer segmentation. This work in horizontal-segmentation helps brands understand that their products should not be hierarchical in a world where different kinds of products suit different kinds of consumers. Now, Moskowitz is pushing his work further with Stephen Rappaport (a former executive for the Advertising Research Foundation and business book author). Their work is looking to help brands rethink their consumer behavior through the science of mind genomics in a specialized area they call cognitive economics. Using robust listening studies mapped against consumer segmentation techniques, they're unearthing fascinating and new consumer intelligence on how consumer behave. Enjoy this very fascinating conversation...

You can grab the latest episode of Six Pixels of Separation here (or feel free to subscribe via iTunes): Six Pixels of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast #419.

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ted talk

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Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #213

Is there one link, story, picture or thought that you saw online this week that you think somebody you know must see?

My friends: Alistair Croll (BitCurrent, Year One Labs, GigaOM, Human 2.0, Solve For Interesting, the author of Complete Web Monitoring, Managing Bandwidth: Deploying QOS in Enterprise Networks and Lean Analytics), Hugh McGuire (PressBooks, LibriVox, iambik and co-author of Book: A Futurist's Manifesto) and I decided that every week the three of us are going to share one link for one another (for a total of six links) that each individual feels the other person "must see".

Check out these six links that we're recommending to one another:

The new American exceptionalism: An imperial state unable to impose its will - Salon . "Ouch. That's a pretty harsh title. But this piece by Tom Engelhardt is a bit of an eye-opener. As corporations get their own votes, their own religions, and their own place in society, it's hard not to recognize that the government has lost its ability to make big, sweeping changes or undertake vast enterprise. We rely on the Elon Musks of the world to do what we once elected people to. Depressing, but also a must-read for anyone sliding the slippery slope of political compromise." (Alistair for Hugh).

No More "No Shows" - How To Make Sure Your Research Participants Actually Show Up  - Google Ventures . "The various Google Ventures blogs are some of my favorite reads on the Internet. This piece is applicable not only to customer development and user research, but also to anyone who's trying to convince people to actually turn up at an event of any kind." (Alistair for Mitch).

How to Flawlessly Predict Anything on the Internet - Medium . "Great how-to for (or debunking of) the 'prediction after the fact' scam." (Hugh for Alistair).

Sympathy for the Comcast Rep from Hell - The Awl . "You've probably heard the now-famous Comcast Cancellation Song (if not, it's below)... This article asks you to pause, though, and consider the poor guy on the other end of the phone, the one who's going to get penalized for letting a Comcast client get away." (Hugh for Mitch).

Nikola Tesla's Best Productivity Tricks - Lifehacker . "No matter how cramped we are to find the time to do things in a more efficient way, it feels like we all have an infinite amount of time to read articles and books about how to be more productive. We download apps to make us more efficient. I'm guilty of this, too. I can't get enough of articles like this. I'm fascinated by the mechanics behind how the greatest thinkers, artists and writers get things done. This article did not disappoint." (Mitch for Alistair).

Charles Bukowski Rails Against 9-to-5 Jobs in a Brutally Honest Letter (1986) - Open Culture . "I went through a Charles Bukowski phase. I think it made me a better writer... but, more importantly, it made me a better thinker. In this very short letter, Bukowski illustrates the real illusion of our world and going to work. We look for things to be safe in a world where it doesn't exist. Seth Godin likes to say that, 'the safest thing that you can do is be risky, and the riskiest thing that you can do is be safe.' Bukowski digs on this jam as well." (Mitch For Hugh).

Feel free to share these links and add your picks on Twitter, Facebook, in the comments below or wherever you play.

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alistair croll

bitcurrent

book a futurists manifesto

charles bukowski

comcast

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human 20

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lean analytics

librivox

lifehacker

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managing bandwidth

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medium

nikola tesla

open culture

pressbooks

salon

seth godin

social media

solve for interesting

the awl

tom engelhardt

year one labs

The Internet's Own Boy (A Movie You Have To Watch)

Do you know the name Aaron Swartz?

I never met Aaron. I heard his name only a couple of times as he was one of the people involved in the development of RSS, the organization Creative Commons, and the founding of Reddit. You would think that he was an industry veteran with a resume like that. Along with those roles, he was also a writer, political organizer and Internet activist. Sadly, Aaron committed suicide in 2013 at the age of 26. Total shame. The Internet's Own Boy is a documentary about Aaron Swartz. "It features interviews with his family and friends as well as the internet luminaries who worked with him. The film tells his story up to his eventual suicide after a legal battle, and explores the questions of access to information and civil liberties that drove his work," according to the website. It's an amazing story about an amazingly interesting and complex individual.

Watch The Internet's Own Boy right here:

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10 Business Books That Aren't Out Yet (But You're Going To Read)

There is a whole new slew of great business books that are coming your way in the next little while. Here are ten of the ones that look the most interesting (ranked by date of publication):

The Power of No: Because One Little Word Can Bring Health, Abundance, and Happiness by James Altucher and Claudia Azula Altucher. Without a doubt, James Altucher is one my most favorite writers out there today. Well, he just released his latest book and I'm about to get started on it! From the book: "How many times have you heard yourself saying yes to the wrong things -- overwhelming requests, bad relationships, time-consuming obligations? How often have you wished you could summon the power to turn them down? This lively, practical guide helps you take back that power -- and shows that a well-placed 'No' can not only save you time and trouble, it can save your life. Drawing on their own stories as well as feedback from their readers and students, James Altucher and Claudia Azula Altucher clearly show that you have the right to say no: To anything that is hurting you. To standards that no longer serve you. To people who drain you of your creativity and expression. To beliefs that are not true to the real you. When you do, you'll be freed to say a truly powerful 'Yes' in your life -- one that opens the door to opportunities, abundance, and love." The book was published on July 15th, 2014.

The Marketing Performance Blueprint: Strategies and Technologies to Build and Measure Business Success by Paul Roetzer. Paul wrote a super-interesting book titled, The Marketing Agency Blueprint, back in 2011. Now, he's back with this one. From the book: "The Marketing Performance Blueprint is an actionable and innovative guide to unlocking your potential as a marketer and accelerating success for your business. With an eye toward the marketing industry's rapid evolution, this book focuses on the processes, technologies, and strategies that are redefining the marketing environment. Step by step, you will learn how to build performance-driven organizations that exceed ROI expectations and outpace the competition. Companies are demanding a more technical, scientific approach to marketing, and this guide provides the key information that helps marketing professionals choose the right tools and recruit the right talent to more effectively build brand, generate leads, convert sales, and increase customer loyalty." The book will be published on August 11th, 2014.

The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload by Daniel J. Levitin. He's a scientist, musician, record producer and bestselling author. He wrote the incredible book, This Is Your Brain On Music. From the book: "The information age is drowning us with an unprecedented deluge of data. At the same time, we're expected to make more -- and faster -- decisions about our lives than ever before. No wonder, then, that the average American reports frequently losing car keys or reading glasses, missing appointments, and feeling worn out by the effort required just to keep up. But somehow some people become quite accomplished at managing information flow. In The Organized Mind, Daniel J. Levitin, PhD, uses the latest brain science to demonstrate how those people excel -- and how readers can use their methods to regain a sense of mastery over the way they organize their homes, workplaces, and time." The book will be published on August 19th, 2014.

The New Rules of Sales and Service: How to Use Agile Selling, Real-Time Customer Engagement, Big Data, Content, and Storytelling to Grow Your Business by David Meerman Scott. One of the most prolific writers and speakers on marketing and technology (and all around awesome individual) is back with a new book. From the book: "Sales and service are being radically redefined like never before. With buyers now in possession of unlimited information, online content is quickly becoming the dominant driver for commerce. Today anyone working in sales or customer service needs to possess entirely new skills. Unfortunately most organizations are still using traditional selling and service models developed for a different time. In this new book by the author of the #1 bestseller The New Rules of Marketing & PR, David Meerman Scott demystifies the new digital commercial landscape and offers inspiring and valuable guidance for anyone not wanting to be left behind." The book will be published on September 2nd, 2014.

The Virgin Way: Everything I Know About Leadership by Richard Branson. He's back! Virgin founder and seminal entrepreneur, Richard Branson is back with a new book (not sure if these are written by or done by a ghost writer, but his books are always quite good). "While building the Virgin Group over forty years, Richard Branson has never shied away from seemingly outlandish challenges that others (including his own colleagues on several occasions) considered sheer lunacy. He has taken on giants like British Airways and won, and monsters like Coca-Cola and lost. Now Branson gives an inside look at his strikingly different swashbuckling style of leadership. Learn how fun, family, passion, and the dying art of listening are key components to what his extended family of employees around the world have always dubbed (with a wink) the 'Virgin Way.'" The book will be published on September 9th, 2014.

Everybody Writes: Your Go-To Guide to Creating Ridiculously Good Content by Ann Handley. OK, I lied in my intro to this post. I not only read this book, but was honored to be asked to write a blurb for it. I love all things Ann Handley, and she's back with a much-needed read for these times. This book is filled with writing goodness. From the book: "Everybody Writes is a go-to guide to attracting and retaining customers through stellar online communication, because in our content-driven world, every one of us is, in fact, a writer. If you have a website, you are a publisher. If you are on social media, you are in marketing. And that means that we are all relying on our words to carry our marketing messages. We are all writers. Yeah, but who cares about writing anymore? In a time-challenged world dominated by short and snappy, by click-bait headlines and Twitter streams and Instagram feeds and gifs and video and Snapchat and YOLO and LOL and #tbt... does the idea of focusing on writing seem pedantic and ordinary? Actually, writing matters more now, not less. Our online words are our currency; they tell our customers who we are." This book will be published on August September 15th, 2014.

Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel and Blake Masters. Peter Thiel wants people to drop out of college, not go into debt and start their own businesses. He's so passionate about it, that he's putting his money where his mouth is. Literally. The co-founder of PayPal also created the Thiel Fellowship, which awards $100,000 to 20 people under 20 years old, in order to spur them to quit college and create their own ventures. From the book: "Zero To One is about how to build companies that create new things. It draws on everything Peter Thiel has learned directly as a co-founder of PayPal and Palantir and then an investor in hundreds of startups, including Facebook and SpaceX .

The single most powerful pattern Thiel has noticed is that successful people find value in unexpected places, and they do this by thinking about business from first principles instead of formulas. Ask not, what would Mark do? Ask: What valuable company is nobody building?" The book will be published on September 16th, 2014.

The Digital Economy Anniversary Edition: Rethinking Promise and Peril in the Age of Networked Intelligence by Don Tapscott. One of the brightest minds in the digital economy is Don Tapscott. This is one of his most fascinating books. It came out long before anybody was really doing and of the stuff that we're doing today, making this anniversary edition that much more curious. From the book: "Twenty years ago, The Digital Economy changed the way the world thought about the Internet. While everyone else was in awe of 'web sites' and 'dot coms,' Don Tapscott argued correctly that the Internet would have a much deeper impact on the nature of corporations, government, and every institution in society. In this new edition, the New York Times bestselling author updates his book with a sweeping new analysis of how the Internet has changed business and society in the last 20 years. Tapscott leaves the original text untouched for historical purposes and scrutiny, writing a dozen new sections placed in the context of two decades of transformation." This book will be published on September 26th, 2014.

UnSelling: The New Customer Experience by Scott Stratten and Alison Kramer. The UnMarketing guy is back with a new book. I haven't had the chance to read it yet, but rest assured he and Alison will be welcomed guests on podcast as soon as this book hits the streets. From the book: "UnSelling is about everything but the sell. We put all of our focus on the individual purchase transaction, while putting the rest of our business actions second. We've become blind to customer service, support, branding, experiences and even product quality. 60% of a purchasing decision is made before a customer even contacts you. We have funnel vision, and it needs to stop. Unselling is about the big picture: creating repeat customers, not one-time buyers. Create loyal clients that refer others, not faceless numbers. Becoming the go-to company for something, before they even need you." This book will be published on September 29th, 2014.

The Innovators: How a Group of Inventors, Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution by Walter Isaacson. Walter Isaacson is a famous author. In our circle, he's most noted for him amazing Steve Jobs biography. Now, he's back with a book about innovation and Silicon Valley. From the book: "The Innovators is Walter Isaacson's revealing story of the people who created the computer and the Internet. It is destined to be the standard history of the digital revolution and an indispensable guide to how innovation really happens. What were the talents that allowed certain inventors and entrepreneurs to turn their visionary ideas into disruptive realities? What led to their creative leaps? Why did some succeed and others fail?" The book will be published on October 7th, 2014.

Did I miss any? What new books are coming out that you can't wait to read? Do share...

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everybody writes

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the marketing performance blueprint

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the virgin way

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this is your brain on music

twitter

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walter isaacson

zero to one

The End Of The Dial Tone

Things change quicker than most of us realize.

If you speak to marketers about how they are doing in relation to consumers and their mobile usage, it will be a disappointing conversation. If you speak to consumers about how brands are doing in terms of truly connecting with them at the mobile level, it will be a disappointing conversation as well. Brands love to toss about the term "omnichannel" as if it is some kind of salvation for the future. They see the true omnichannel as a place where all of their current silos converge and connect to one another. You have your social media fully integrated into your website, which matches up to the retail experience and beyond. It's a long, hard slog for most brands. We have organizational structure that must be reframed, we have technological and IT infrastructures that are in silos and much more.

The true omnichannel.

The true omnichannel is the consumer. They are already omnichannel. When a consumer is in the parking lot of a retailer, looking to find out what time the store opens at, or what's on sale on their iPhone or Android device, and they're suddenly faced with an non-responsive experience, that's the failure of omnichannel. They're pinching a screen, can't find what they're looking for, the content isn't relevant to where they are (or what device they're using). In short, it's a bad brand experience. The consumer doesn't care that your IT department has an eighteen month roadmap or that your marketing department is not connected with the technologists or whatever. It's simply not a consistent brand experience. It's not a good brand experience, either.

Accepting the reality.

I often talk about this notion of the one screen world. It's not about mobile, computers, TVs, out of home billboards, tablets or whatever. It's about connected screens. The only screen that matters is the screen that is in front of me. Screens are everywhere, they're getting cheaper and more ubiquitous. Because of this, we're seeing stunning growth on smartphone and tablet adoption, while the PC industry crumbles. It's old. It's antiquated. It's not going to turn around. So, ask yourself this: What percentage of homes in the US do you think have landlines? Would you be surprised to hear that 40% of homes in the US are now without a landline?

True story.

While brands sit around, trying to figure out mobile (and keep it locked in its own, strange, silo that lives somewhere between IT and marketing), consumers have already voted. No more landlines. You need me? I'm mobile. Do you think that this is going to slow down and folks will revert back to landlines any time soon? You may think that this is a piece of data relegated to more technologically savvy cities and that the numbers skew? Not so. According to the Chicago Tribune article, "In the Midwest, the number of wireless-only homes increased more than 4 percentage points to 43.7 percent during the period. Meanwhile, a survey this week says that 47 percent of U.S. consumers say they couldn't last a day without their smartphones... Also, 91 percent say their mobile phone is just as important as their car and deodorant and most say it is more important than TV or coffee."

Maybe that's taking things to an extreme?

It's staggering, isn't it? We are, for lack of a better word, uncoupling from many of our traditional ways and we never saw it coming. In fact, it's funny how the mind works. When I read the article mentioned above, all I could think to myself was this: "how long before the same will be said for how we get cable on our TVs?" Then, I quickly realized that we do have things like YouTube and Netflix that are already challenging this model. It looks like Amazon is playing in this space as well. So, as we bid adieu to landlines and plugging our TVs into these cables that have been drilled through our walls, you can't help but wonder what implications this will all have on the business of marketing?

Place your best. 

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Marketing Fails When You Shift Instead Of Elevate

What are you really doing with your marketing dollars?

Digital media advertising is now bigger than TV advertising. I didn't make that up. It's a fact. I'm sure there are some advertising executives who would disagree with the data. I'm also sure there are some advertising executives who know it's true, but they're doing everything that they can to hang on for a few more quarters. By the way, this doesn't mean that people are watching less TV. I don't believe that to be true (no matter what the data says). I believe we're watching more TV than ever before. We're just watching it in a ton of different places (like on Netflix or Amazon or YouTube). And, when we are watching it in front of the TV, we're probably more distracted than when we're watching it on the subway. It's true. You know it. We watch TV on our couches with a laptop, tablet or smartphone nearby, and we shift our attention to whatever screen is the most interesting to us. We have screen ADD. When we're on the go, we're probably fixated on the only screen that matters to us (the one screen that is in front of us).

So, what does this have to do with media?

I spent a good part of my day today in Silicon Valley. I'd love to act all high and mighty and tell you all about the seriousness of these meetings, but (deep down inside), I'm just a kid. It's crazy to me that my job involves going to places like the Google, Facebook and Apple headquarters, and getting to spend time with some of the most fascinating minds in the technology and media space. You can rest assured, I'm giddly like a little kid every time that I pull up to these beautiful offices. This is my job? Sure. I'll take it. I could not be more grateful. In my journeys over the past few days, I uncovered a truth. A disturbing truth. I knew it existed, but I'm seeing it more and more as the years wane on...

All media is the same media. Just make it work.

That's the real problem with advertising today. If you go back to the first sentence in this post, I wrote that digital media advertising is now bigger than TV advertising. I didn't say that it was better. I just said that it was bigger. This is a problem. It's a big problem. Technology and the Internet can do amazing things. I truly believe that the advertising that goes along with it should be just as amazing. Sadly, I keep seeing may brands doing nothing more than shifting their dollars, rather than trying to elevate all of their marketing initiatives.

Shifting is boring.

It has to be said. Big deal, you're shifting dollars from one channel to another. Anyone can do that. What's really interesting is elevating the entire platform. There is no difference between running a TV ad on primetime or running a pre-roll ad on a popular YouTube channel. There is a chasm of difference between running a pre-roll ad on a popular YouTube channel and creating your own, valuable and highly interesting YouTube channel. That, for my advertising dollar, would be the difference between shifting dollars to elevating them. In the past 48 hours, I heard countless senior brand executives from very popular brands talk about their challenges with everything from display advertising and search marketing, to online video and social media. With that, I took note of the brands. I went back to my hotel. I acted like a consumer. I searched for them online (mobile and laptop), ran some keyword searches, joined their e-newsletters, followed them on popular social media platforms and more. Do you know how icky it felt? Do you know how many issues, errors and confusing brand experiences I encountered? And, these were from brands that are spending millions of dollars online.

The money was being shifted. Not elevated.

Don't get me wrong. I love me some good advertising. I love a relevant e-newsletter with great offers. Sadly, time and time again, I was faced with failed searches, errors, bad consumer experiences, stuff that smelled like spam, a lot of requests for me to provide additional customer information (even though I had not even bought from the brand yet). This led me to believe that if we, as a loving and caring digital marketing industry, don't come together and start doing the much harder business of elevating the work instead of just shifting the dollars, we're going to have a long, long road ahead. We're going to be dealing with disengaged consumers and Chief Executive Officers that will retreat to the age-old mantra that marketing is a non-revenue generating expense to an organization. This, as we know, is not reality. Brands keep looking for things like white papers, ROI models and more. If you scratch (just a little) beneath the surface, you will start to see that the brands making the most impact online are not the ones who have spent the most money (or shifted the most dollars from TV to digital), but rather the ones that hunkered down and re-organized the digital experience to elevate their marketing.

We have an amazing opportunity in front of us: let's elevate the brands and not just shift the dollars around.

Tags:

advertising

advertising executive

amazon

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brand experience

digital marketing

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media

netflix

one screen world

online video

search marketing

silicon valley

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spam

tablet

technology

television advertising

tv advertising

youtube

youtube channel

Falling Short Of Your Best

It sucks when you don't do your best.

I am very tough on the work that I put out into the world. Maybe too tough. I was reflecting the other day on some new client pitches that have been lost... the ones that didn't go our way. It's frustrating. That feeling is only exasperated by the media. Running an agency is a funny thing. While the new business process is often so confidential that you don't even know who you are pitching against, once a digital marketing agency is chosen, it's pretty easy to see the work as it lives and breathes in the market place (you also get agencies doing a lot of PR around the work, so that helps too). When that happens, it's hard not to think about how your work might have impacted the client had things gone another way. Losing those kinds of pitches doesn't bother me the way that it used to. Don't get me wrong, they still bother me (I hate losing), but my mindset has changed. I'm often reminded of this shift in belief when I think about one of my three business partners (it's our CEO at Twist Image, and his name is Mark Goodman). Prior to Twist Image, Mark ran a very successful multi-office marketing agency that was also a part of a large advertising network. When he decided to join Twist Image, he saw how hard I would take new businesses losses. He used to always tell me the same thing: it's not whether you win or lose, it's that you keep on going. The most successful marketers and agencies are the ones that stuck it out. Yes, you have to win. Yes, you have to keep the lights on. Yes, you have to always strive to grow the business. No, you won't always win.

There was something else.

While I was accepting that you can't, in fact, "win 'em all," there was still something else bothering me. I felt that we could have done better. That we weren't presenting our best. Ugh, "Our best." How does one always be their best? That was the frustration. It's fine to lose when you've done you're best. Anything else isn't acceptable. In business - especially in the pitch - you want to be "in the zone" you want to have lined up all of the ducks, so at that precise moment you are experiencing what professionals athletes would define as peak performance. All of that practice, hard work, dieting and attention leads you to this one, exact, moment.

Let put an end to peak performance too. 

I spent years training and then being a coach for Tony Blauer. He's also a close friend who has taught me more about business, psychology and how to get things done than anyone else. Tony doesn't believe in peak performance. This may be strange for a coach, but Tony's specialty is close quarter combatives. Whether he's training Federal Air Marshalls, Navy SEALs or a women's self defense course. Tony believes that if you get jumped in an alley, praying for a peak performance moment is probably not an efficient use of your time. Rather, Tony believes that we should all train on the basis of performance enhancement. You just have to be better than you were yesterday. Striving for that, rather than hoping that everything will come together in one moment, will enable you (and me) to evolve in a more healthy and realistic way.

Why am I telling you this?

I often feel like am falling short of my best. It can be a blog post, a client presentation, a public speech or anything else. I beat myself up. Pretty hard. I have to focus and remember that it's not about perfection (or peak performance) that it's about the journey (performance enhancement). I'm telling you this, because every brand is so excited about content and marketing and social media. Creating relevant content that consumers like and want to connect to is challenging. Creating relevant content that consumers like and want to connect with on an ongoing basis is nearly impossible. Too many brands are looking for that peak performance moment. That viral video. That wildly popular hashtag. Whatever. True success with content is much more about performance enhancement. It's about inching it forward with every piece that is produced. It's about getting more people to care about the brand on an ongoing basis.

This is not about quality or quantity.

One could argue that for content to work, in this day and age, that it requires a delicate balance of both quality and quantity. As popular as some brand's viral video was last week, there's something newer this week (and we've already forgotten about then). Name the top five viral videos from a brand that really rocked your world. Now, ask yourself this: what has the brand done for you (and the other consumers) lately? How soon we forget. The real challenge with great content, working with a performance enhancement attitude and trying to keep consumers interested is trust. Remember trust? We talked a lot about the merits of trust when social media first took hold. It was core to the book, The Cluetrain Manifesto, and it's probably more valuable today than it ever has been. Don't believe me? Don't think consumers need that trust? Trust in Sponsored Content Runs Low. That's the headline from a Marketing Charts article last week.

"Some 54% of internet users aged 18-65 say they generally don't trust sponsored content, with most of the remainder only trusting such content if they trust the publication it runs on (19%) or they already trust the brand (23%). That's according to survey results from Contently, which also found that two-thirds of respondents have at some point felt deceived upon realizing that an article or video they read was sponsored by a brand." 

Trust is not a given.

Whether you're sponsoring content in a space that is trusted, or whether you are trying to build up your own audience. Not only is trust not a given, even when consumers trust a brand, it doesn't take much for them to lose that trust. What's the lesson? You're going to fall short of your best work (often), you're going to slog through some tough mud to get anyone to care, and it's going to take even more to get them to keep caring. Don't get down when you fall short of your best work. The more you keep at it. The more you try (authentically and with care), the more consumers will trust, engage and encourage you to keep at.

If that's not true brand loyalty, I don't know what is.  

P.S. - I may have written this one more for me than you... I apologize.

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The Disruption Complex In Business Today

Episode #418 of Six Pixels of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast is now live and ready for you to listen to.

Bob Knorpp may be best known for his stunningly fun podcast on the advertising business known as The Beancast, but he also has a deep passion for the world of innovation (along with that, he is a regular contributor to Ad Age). In the past short while, famed author, educator and thought leader, Clayton Christensen, came under fire after his seminal book, The Innovator's Dilemma, got picked apart by a widely spread article in The New Yorker titled, The Disruption Machine, by . There has been plenty of discourse (online and otherwise) about this topic. Christensen even took to the pages of BusinessWeek to clarify the comments and add more color to the arguments. Ultimately, what we learn is that disruption and innovation are complex models that often don't sit well in the way that businesses have been built. On this show, Bob and I discuss the merits of both sides of the argument, what it means to marketers and how businesses are able to grow and thrive in a world that is seemingly more disruptive than ever before. Enjoy the conversation...

You can grab the latest episode of Six Pixels of Separation here (or feel free to subscribe via iTunes): Six Pixels of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast #418.

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