Out of Control: Letting Go to Win

The universe has interesting timing, that's for sure. This weekend, I made a note about something I wanted to converse about here. This morning, I stumbled upon this - well, twittered upon really. http://smartblogs.com/socialmedia/2010/09/27/live-from-mixx-seth-godin-on-brand-tribes/

Seth as usual puts it better than anyone. Short to the point. "We've branded ourselves to death."

I've had numerous discussions on communities, brands, and tribes. Convincing execs about the importance of flipping that funnel and allowing your clients to create communities is one of those hard conversations. As with many things, it seems like a great idea, but one that instills an awful amount of fear.
Yes, we want to converse with our clients not at them.
Yes, we want their opinions and ideas.
Yes, we want them to share those opinions and ideas with each other- and evangelize our service or product, or teach each other about new ways to use it.

Uhhh, but no, we are afraid of doing it "in public." After all, what if they say something negative.

Working with a service company, we all know things break. If it didn't we wouldn't have a business. In any relationship, business or otherwise, things break down. What makes or breaks the relationship is how you deal with things when things break down.

You can't create a community. You can build the space, invite people in. But they create the community.

I've been part of a community of fans for the last couple years. It's not something I'd ever be involved in- those always seemed to be for the true geeks. But it is truly a committee. One wonderful Italian guy set it up and just let it go. Intervention only when things truly gets out of hand and could potentially be harmful. The rules are simple and few. And for the most part, unnecessary.

This is a tribe of smart, funny, irreverent people. They are real people- doctors, lawyers, professors, a lot of creatives. So, opinionated people with a common bond. Our common bond happens to be music. But many tribes are built around art, music, sports teams and yes, companies.

We share a common bond but we are far from the same. There are differences of opinions. Not everyone is nice all the time. There's love, hate, tears and laughter. And it's those shared experiences that bring everyone together. For the most part, people are respectful. And when they aren't? The tribe is amazingly self- correcting.

And that's the key. Tribes are self correcting. they will lead you, tell you where to go. If you watch the tribe, it will give you insight to what they want, what they need, and what they don't even know they need you. You will discover similarities, patterns and interests you never knew your customers had.

And you'll be all the greater for watching, listening and learning.

Let your tribe go. If there are negative viewpoints, listen, look, respond. Show you care. Over the top? Watch. If the criticism is warranted, it's your opportunity to make serious changes that will improve your business. If it's unwarranted? Watch the tribe- they'll self correct. There'll be feedback and differing opinions and your customers will defend you- honestly. And that's a more genuine return than any spin you could put on it.

Don't try to control your community. If you do, it's no more than an online game. Let it go, and it has the opportunity to become a tribe of the best business advisers you'll ever have.

One to Any: When Personalization Fails

Marketers have been talking about One to One marketing for as long as I've been in tech marketing. Which is a while. Peppers and Rogers' "The One to One Future" came out in 1993, and one could argue that that future is now, with the advances of interactive media.

I remember first printing client names and personalized offers based on buying history onto the front of our catalog(paper) in 1993. We thought we were the bomb. And for that time, we really kind of were. Most of our competition was all about why you should want what everyone else had. We were afraid to abandon that approach but determined to move ahead and give customers MORE and what THEY wanted.

Most marketers can mimic the mantra: IDENTIFY; DIFFERENTIATE; INTERACT and CUSTOMIZE.but few still get it right.

Perhaps they/we sometimes get worn down from having the shotgun blast vs. precision pistol argument with our sales team. I have this discussion so many times a day, I believe our sales team must think I'm about to go postal on them at any minute. No, I've never brought in firearms to demonstrate my point. But now that I think about it, it might be a way to not have to repeat the discussion.

So, why this rant? why today?

A senior VP in our company forwarded an email to the entire executive team lauding an email from a sales person at a company trying to sell us something. It's not something we would likely use if you knew anything about our business, which means it was a waste. But no one complains about wasteful emails at pennies a send. Even if they should!

See if you can figure out the offense. The salesperson called him by his name. Said she remembered meeting him at a particular conference, and wanted to see if he was still interested in her wares. She remembered how interested and excited he was about x,y and z and she'd love to refresh his memory. One of two major problems: He was, nor was anyone from our company, at that conference, nor were we registered and didn't show. there was no reason we should be on that list.

So, poor list management. Happens every day.

The real error here is the perception by one of my colleagues that this was "smart marketing." His argument was that HE knew he wasn't at that conference and therefore knew he never met her, but many people who were there might "think they met her and feel guilty and take the meeting (and buy her software?) because they were too dumb to remember if they met her or not."

This #fails on so many levels. Remember IDENTIFY; DIFFERENTIATE; INTERACT and CUSTOMIZE? well if you are selling to idiots, great. But don't assume you are selling to idiots. What does assuming do? Yep. ass. you. me.

Don't market to the lowest faction of your audience. Don't assume your customers are dumber than you are. If you do, you are asking dumb people to make a smart choice. Doesn't sound like a sound marketing strategy to me.

I know I try and fail. I have to remember the exercise is the exercise often. BUT I do, in earnest, talk to my customers like they are as smart or smarter than me. I don't assume they know what I do and I don't try to trick them.

We're in a trust business. Lying up front isn't a good way to start a relationship based on trust- anywhere. So why would it be good here?

My marketing mantras may not be sophisticated. And this certainly isn't new media. But I see ever growing trends, and the more methods you have for lying and trying to sound smarter than you are? Well, the more people are able to figure it out.

So, here it is, plain and simply. Treat your potential and existing customers with respect. Don't try and sound smarter than them. Get to know them. Listen to them. Then solve their problem or show them someone else who can. Build the relationship.

No good relationship starts with a lie.

What we all know: It doesn't always pay to be first

I've done this before. But, as with many of my new ventures, took it too seriously and over-thunk it. I suffer, as we all do sometimes, from letting perfect get in the way of being great. Training for triathlons has helped me get over that in my personal life- just get up and do it. Get on the bike, get in the pool, head out for a run. The exercise is the exercise. Doing it makes you better.

Simple stuff.

So, I'm blogging. The rants, ravings, learnings and pointing out the obvious and oblivious of a 40 something technology marketing mistress. 

I love to be an early adopter. I pay dearly for it, often, in many ways. Whether it's the latest iPhone, app to manage my money (or lack thereof), social media tools, cms, or email marketing software, I want to use it. I love learning. Sadly, after school, there's not a lot of grading on a curve.

If you want to try new things, tools, devices, there are some inevitable skinned knees on the way- blogs that fell by the wayside, social media applications that were more buzz than buzzworthy, devices tried and tossed. You try. Sometimes you fail. Sometimes it fails. You lose meetings, contacts, and sometimes it feels like you may lose your mind. But sometimes, there's a cool new feature that is actually REALLY a benefit (you know how marketers like to obfuscate the two), that changes the way you do things. 

This is what we yearn for. There is often the chance that disruptive technology will be abandoned before the bugs get worked out, or the reason d'etre is clear. And that's where this comes in.

I wouldn't do anything for any company without a plan. But when I began blogging years ago, I had no plan. No one did really- except maybe some brilliant bald guy whose blog I still read. So, here's my plan:

1. Keep it simple.

2. Keep it real.

3. Keep it relevant (or at least relative) to technology marketing.