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Exchange of Value

Written by Jeff Payne on April 19, 2012 at 12:22 pm, no comments

I just unsubscribed to a legal newsletter I was receiving. It required an action from me, to click the unsubscribe link. I had nothing against the blog or the information contained in the blog. What prompted me to take such action to not receive the newsletter any longer?

The exchange of value — my attention in exchange for the information the newsletter provided me was not of value to me. I valued my attention more. The challenge we all have who write is to connect with the right audience. It’s what Seth Godin says, is your message personal, relevant, and timely. If not, it’s not of value.

 

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Marketing Archive

Exchange of Value

Written by Jeff Payne on April 19, 2012 at 12:22 pm, no comments

This Thanksgiving I had the privilege to volunteer some of my time to a great cause called Operation Turkey, a non-profit organization. What I experienced totally exceeded my expectation. This was well planned and organized show. The organizers made the event to help the homeless something that would be memorable and interesting to the volunteers who were participating. They had a simple idea to make and deliver 4,000 hot Thanksgiving meals to the homeless in Austin. They promoted the event with families in mind and then crafted a really clever process that would rally the troops who would be participating. I was awestruck. There were at least 1,500 volunteers if not more who came for the cause (see video). They were told where to come and it was an assembly line process. Here’s the process:

    1. Get in line and receive two decorated containers for the food. These were designed with drawing for the homeless recipient from local children in the area.
    2. Mingle with other volunteers while in line. Also don’t forget the cheering for goals reached while in line and listen to upbeat music that kept the line going at a brisk pace.
    3. Now you encounter a greeter who thanks you for volunteering and gives you brief instructions on the line you will be going to.
    4. Now you are guided down the assembly line by a team leader who is smiling and appreciative you are there.
    5. Now you are holding the containers as the stuffing is placed in the appropriate spot in the container.
    6. Next person places the serving of green beens into the container
    7. Next person says hello as he puts the piping hot corn into the container
    8. Next is a high school girl and she puts a scoop of cranberry sauce next to the stuffing
    9. Next a nice serving of hot turkey
    10. Next a dinner roll
    11. And let’s not forget the pumpkin pie
    12. A person now grabs one of the two containers you are holding and closes the lid
    13. Another person takes the other container and closes the lid
    14. Both containers are now being placed in a box of other hot meals
    15. I am thanked and cheered at the end of the line!
    16. I continue to watch as drivers (volunteers) are lined up along the street at the end of the line to receive written instructions by one person (see video 2)
    17. and another person is loading the number of meals for that order.
Here is what I learned:
  1. Operation Turkey made serving and experience.
  2. They made it real simple.
  3. They created a show. They did not leave anything to chance.
  4. They created a predictable outcome.
  5. They made you feel important.
  6. They rallied the volunteers around the goal: Let’s feed 4,000 meals. You heard shouts as the countdown was taking place.
  7. They made it credible by letting you be part of the story.
  8. They made it exciting.
  9. They were prepared by having lots of tshirts on hand that they were selling for $15 a pop. Smart!
So what if you thought through your process for your business, would your customer be able to outline the experience and be happy to share it?
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Marketing Archive

Exchange of Value

Written by Jeff Payne on April 19, 2012 at 12:22 pm, no comments

Last night I had the opportunity to see my favorite team, the Dallas Cowboys beat the Washington Redskins thanks to my friend, Chad Brooks. What an experience, especially at the end of the game. After giving high-fives to everyone seated around me, both stranger and friend, we made our way up the steps to the concourse area for something totally unexpected.  The video below will give you a glimpse of that experience. Unfortunately my cell phone didn’t capture the sound very well, so yes on October 4 or there about I will be buying the iPhone 5 to capture more accurate moments like these. And yes, I was dancing (around 1.40) with quite a few strangers who were just as excited as I was!

The 5 things I learned about creating buzz from attending the Cowboys game:

  1. Make it where people want to talk about it (go viral). (e.g., post it to Facebook, Twitter, blog, YouTube)
  2. Don’t do it like everyone else would do it. (Read Ignore Everybody by Hugh MacLeod)
  3. Experiences aren’t found they are created. Someone carefully crafted the experience I was supposed to have, even the experience of leaving the stadium. (Read Free Prize by Seth Godin)
  4. Create something that is totally unexpected. (Read Made to Stick by Chip Heath and Dan Heath)
  5. Make sure people have a smile on their face.  (Read Mr. Shmooze by Richard Abraham
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Marketing Archive

Exchange of Value

Written by Jeff Payne on April 19, 2012 at 12:22 pm, no comments

Best time to send email messagesEmail messages that are sent at five or six in the morning according to Dan Zarrella had the highest click-through rates (CTR). This was based on statistics from a database provided by MailChimp of nearly 10 million email sends.

It also helps if your content is personal, relevant, and delivered timely.

 

Reference: Zarrella’s Hierarchy of Contagiousness: The Science, Design, and Engineering of Contagiousness

 

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Marketing Archive

Exchange of Value

Written by Jeff Payne on April 19, 2012 at 12:22 pm, no comments

Have you ever been to a party where you had difficulty hearing the person two feet away from you but someone mentions your name ten feet away and you easily hear your name? Our senses according to scientific researchers take in a billion pieces of information a second, but our brains process only about forty pieces. The key to unlocking what happens in our brains is a process known as “selective attention” which helps us recognize the most important pieces of information.(1)

Using a persons name exploits the power of selective attention readily bringing a message to the forefront of your mind. Neuromarketing (2), which is an intriguing marriage of marketing and science, has uncovered a technique for speeding up the processing for certain stimuli in our brains. If a person is exposed to something related to your idea before they actually encounter your idea, they will be more sensitive to it, and this makes it easier to catch their attention. The neat thing is the person doesn’t even have to be aware of the initial exposure for the priming to work. (1)

So how do you make it work?

  1. The priming works the easiest when you create timely content. (1)
  2. Share topics of interest that you can relate your idea to and deliver that to your target audience and the priming will naturally do it’s magic. (1)
  3. Give your fans (subscribers, twitter followers, facebook fans) a sneak-peak of what is coming. (1)
Sources: (1) Zarrella’s Hierarchy of Contagiousness: The Science, Design, and Engineering of Contagious Ideas by Dan Zarrella   |   (2)  Buy-ology: Truth and Lies About Why We Buy by Martin Lindstrom
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Marketing Archive

Exchange of Value

Written by Jeff Payne on April 19, 2012 at 12:22 pm, no comments

I recently met with a friend who was having to reinvent himself and he asked if I would take a look at his resume and give him my feedback. Here is what I shared with him:

  1. Get your name for a domain name (e.g. name.com) Click here for the reason.
  2. Brand yourself firstname.lastname@gmail.com is not good branding, firstname@first|lastname.net is better, firstname@first|lastname.com is the best.
  3. If you are not visible you are invisible. I know being 50 means you are getting older but it doesn’t mean you are old! Start becoming visible to the new economy. Begin by writing, it’s the difference between being found and being extinct.
  4. If you write it will make you read. You can’t share what you don’t know. People who don’t write usually have a reason besides atrophy, it’s that they quit learning and quit reading when they graduated. Now they just go through the motions of life.
  5. A resume is boring and means very little in 2011; a blog positions you. It tells the world what you think, how you think, what’s important to you, and if you can help me.
  6. If a person is looking for someone, where do they begin? Everyone begins with Google. Where are you showing up on Google? If I find you is it relevant information that helps me get to know you or is the same old, same old.
  7. Subscribe to blogs and give feedback to the author. It keeps you sharp and you make someone feel special enough that you cared to comment. Some very good blogs to subscribe to: http://dondalrymple.net, http://blog.ascendworks.com, http://sethgodin.typepad.com, http://www.johnmauldin.com/, http://blogmaverick.com, http://boingboing.net/, http://ryanpaynemedia.com, http://www.presentationzen.com/, and many more!
  8. 40 years from now what will people learn about you? Where will they learn it from? What about your children and grand children? Will they be able to search the Internet and read what was important to you?

When are you going to get started?

 

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Marketing Archive

Exchange of Value

Written by Jeff Payne on April 19, 2012 at 12:22 pm, no comments

“When you say hill,” the Queen interrupted, “I could show you hills, in comparison with which you’d call that a valley.”

“No, I shouldn’t,” said Alice, surprised into contradicting her at last: “a hill can’t be a valley, you know. That would be nonsense—”

The Red Queen shook her head, “You may call it ‘nonsense’ if you like,” she said, “but I’ve heard nonsense, compared with which that would be as sensible as a dictionary!”

—Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll

For a hobby, primarily in order to stay in shape, I ride a bike. It is not uncommon if you were riding in a car with me that as we approached a hill I would comment and say, “That is a hill (with emphasis on hill).” I would be defining that hill with some qualification of sort based on my own feelings and experiences riding up hills via my bike. But it’s still just a hill, right? Yes, until you personally experience that hill in a unique way (in my case on a bike).

Marketing automation is the same way. It’s just marketing automation until you personalize and automate the marketing to create an experience and elicit a feeling. It only then becomes powerful and regarded as marketing automation (emphasis).

This involves:

  • Telling a story that is memorable
  • Precise and purposeful leadflow
  • Excellent content
  • Good design – not boring
  • Concrete message – creatively presented
  • Aligning your selling process with the buyers buying process
  • Precise nurturing
  • Next actions based on activity
  • Knowing what is working and not working

Recommended reading: Made to Stick by Chip Heath and Dan Heath.

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Marketing Archive

Exchange of Value

Written by Jeff Payne on April 19, 2012 at 12:22 pm, no comments

New research suggests that our brains delete information at an “extraordinarily high” rate. Researchers from two institutes in Gottingen, Germany  claim to have the answer for at least one question that has remained a puzzle:

Just how fast does the brain forget information?

According to the new model brain activity that the researchers have devised, the answer to that is:

One bit per active neuron per second

Fred Wolf of the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization further explains, that “extraordinarily high deletion rate came as a huge surprise,” and it effectively means that information is lost in the brain as quickly as it can be delivered.

For those trying to be noticed this means you are easily forgotten. How can your message be remembered?

  1. Create lots of remarkable content that your prospect wants to know. If you want Google to recognize you, your content must be positioned correctly and it must be remarkable content.
  2. Your content must help your prospect solve a problem — don’t sell them.
  3. Engage your customer by offering something they won’t refuse. (It better be of value!)
  4. Make it easy for a prospect to do business with you. Don’t tell them you’ll call them.
  5. Automate, your prospect does not want to wait on you. Remember they will forget about you soon as they leave your site.

Reference: http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/28/new-research-suggests-our-brains-delete-information-at-an-extra/

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Marketing Archive

Exchange of Value

Written by Jeff Payne on April 19, 2012 at 12:22 pm, no comments

The typical purchase transaction involves cash or credit. Today most opt for credit which then involves waiting to scan the card, get the receipt to sign, retain a copy of the receipt and off to the races. Not so with Starbucks who just announced a Starbucks Card mobile app for iPhone users in select markets while they test the idea.

There is no need to reach into your wallet, pocketbook, or purse to purchase your favorite Trenta. Just click your Starbucks app on your iPhone, iPod touch, or a number of BlackBerry models and hold it up to the bar code on the cup, at which point monies will be automatically deducted from your Starbucks Card account.

Simple. Fast. Remarkable.

Take a moment and consider what systems in your business make it difficult for a customer to do business with you?

What tweak could you make in your service process that would create a remarkable experience for your customer?

What mobile apps do you have that are worth talking about? Oh, oh!

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Marketing Archive

Exchange of Value

Written by Jeff Payne on April 19, 2012 at 12:22 pm, no comments

Whole Foods“Do you mind pointing me in the right direction for ranch dip?” That was the question I asked a Whole Foods employee. His reply, “Not a problem, just follow me.” Six or so rows over and I had what I was looking for. A few minutes later same scenario different employee, different search, same result. Someone at Whole Foods had thought through the customer experience and reset the bar. Today just meeting expectations is a recipe for extinction. We must always create an experience that exceeds what the customer expects or it goes unnoticed.

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