Blog – Page 3

When is Vanilla Not the Best Flavor?

vanilla ice cream Your internet presence should be your best “you”, as attractive and friendly as possible, as knowledgeable and professional as you and your co-workers are on your best days with fair prices and high values.

And you should try not to offend people.

But you can take this too far. If you overly analyze every social media post or obsess on the minutiae of every sponsorship, you can become not only non-controversial, you can become boring.

Here are some things to consider as you post (or pay someone to post) on Facebook or Twitter or write blogs (or pay someone to write blogs) to create content for your websites:

Sex, politics, religion: not good conversation fodder at parties and are a sticky wicket on your website. If you’re overtly politically involved and everybody knows it, by all means, don’t be shy. But if your clientele is diverse, tread lightly. And election season is a bad time to pick sides.
Commenting on the news is often ok, depending on the tone and the story. If your client is a Volkswagen dealer, you might not want to talk about the emissions tests.
Determine what the third rail topics are for your business, those issues that foment strong opinions and which do you no good to bring up. Is it fluoride in the water? Anti-vaccination people? Trial reform? Corporate inversions? The mortgage banking industry?
If you are an expert in something that has become an issue or a story, consider writing a longer blog explaining the details of that story. As Apple and the FBI duked it out, some lawyers who were experts in digital privacy discussed the issues calmly on their law firms’ websites.
Be aware of local rivalries and only rile up the crowd is you can take the heat, whether it’s rooting for or against the Wolverines, the Spartans or even….the Buckeyes.
Be supportive of the city of Detroit right now. People are tired of the pile-ups of complaints and are ready to celebrate improvements, even incremental ones. Local boosterism is rarely controversial.

On the whole, write and post about things that interest you, that showcase your unique hobbies or causes, that show your genuine connection to people, places and ideas, even if they stray from vanilla sometimes.

Don’t Use That Tone with Me!

Tone.

It’s not so quantifiable.

But we know when somebody’s word usage or inflection is off.

Have you ever met somebody who drives you crazy? Every word out of their mouth makes you nuts. Try this trick: as you listen to them on the phone, the TV or at a meeting, write down every word that they say verbatim. Later, read the words in your own voice (try to take their voice out of it.) You’ll be surprised. Sometimes the words themselves are actually palatable. Sometimes (gasp!), they are even right. But their tone is wrong, whether it’s their inflection, their nasality, their body language, or just your rejection of them in general. No matter what words they say, they can’t (easily) reach you.

Part of every business is actually your brand and your tone.

Your tone can be your demeanor, your mien, as you interact with clients and patients. It can be the presence or absence of humor in your line of work. It can be the way your office is decorated.

Your tone should be reflected in anything that represents you: your social media posts, your website, any ads that you pay for and sponsorships of charitable endeavors all should reflect your business and your tone.

Retail environments can allow a certain whimsy and even off-kilter tone in their work.

Medical offices tend to have a friendly, but serious tone. Where HIPAA rules supreme, being too friendly in the waiting area is not advisable. Pediatricians can be a little more genial than oncologists.

Law offices tend to have an all-business demeanor in public shared areas, but the tone in each attorney’s area can reflect their interests and can be quirky, to a degree. The more corporate business you do, probably the less quirky you should be.

But that doesn’t mean that all blogs and social media posts have to be bland. Strongly held opinions can still be expressed. Humor can be injected when appropriate. And even heartfelt emotion can be expressed.

One tone that tends to fall on deaf ears in social media posts is a self-serving one. Blogs and posts can be informative or or entertaining and occasionally uplifting. But using these platforms to constantly toot your own horn gets old, sounds flat and may cause people to unlike your page or quit reading your posts altogether.

Check Your Tone: Use the same trick with the annoying speaker as above: Go back and look at a few months’ worth of posts and blogs. Can you discern a tone or a brand from the posts? How would you tweak it? Which posts or blogs do you feel represent your authentic voice and/or the voice that represents what you do and how you operate? Do more of what you like and less of what you don’t!

Ruminations on a Road Trip

I’ve added quite a few miles on my odometer: two round trips from Michigan to the east coast two weeks in a row. And as I undertook these perambulations, I had some eye opening experiences. I’d recommend these to my road tripping friends:

Try to wean yourself from GPS. I really knew where I was going the most part, from New York to Philadelphia to suburban DC. I decided not to play on my phone for safety’s sake, and I used old fashioned printed Mapquest sheets of paper as a back-up, which I only grabbed when I wanted to see how much further. The result was a safer drive, but also a more engaged one. When you don’t relay on some disembodied voice telling you where to turn next, you engage more with the landmarks. I find that when I use GPS, my brain feels smaller and I feel less like I know where I am. This has been corroborated in a New York Times article about our innate sense of navigation. Did you know that London taxi drivers have more developed brain pathways in the areas of the brains where imaging and mapping take place. Read more here: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/20/magazine/the-secrets-of-the-wave-pilots.html?_r=0
Walk to your meals. I am a regular walker, but it’s in my neighborhood, or sometimes a friend’s or a hiking trail. But that city experience of walking everywhere helps me learn my way around an area in a way that driving does not. You notice every landmark, the smell of the bagels, the location of the trash cans, the sound of the banter from the salon and barber shop.
Look in all directions. It’s easy to keep your eyes forward, but the part of vacations I like is the ability to look everywhere. Even so, I almost missed something significant. I couldn’t figure out why the Walgreen’s I went in was so busy; it was crazy in there in the middle of the day. Then I came outside and happened to look up. It was the Walgreen’s in the Empire State Building.
What is location? If people use their Google Maps or Apple Maps to find their way around and miss the landmarks, what happens to the perception of those landmarks? If we don’t say, “It’s just past the Coney Island”, will we “lose” the understanding of the location of the Coney Island? I’m not sure, but our cognitive and visual maps seem to be slipping from us.
The Long and Winding Road. I am still not a creature of silence. I’ve got about five minutes of meditative mindfulness in me per day and that’s about it. So I need noise, distraction and entertainment during a drive (especially during the two long legs where I was driving alone for 8 hours). Every technological entertainment channel helped from Sirius Radio to Itunes to Pandora to Podcasts to my 30 disk set of Stephen King’s 11/22/63 which I was determined to “read” prior to watching the series on Hulu along with a Ken Follett novel set in the late 1800’s in Great Britain.. I told the teenagers that for the most part I was hijacking the car stereo. Interestingly, they were happy to use their headphones, but the 17 year old would tune in to the books on CD (and would ask fur updates for the parts she missed.)
More Daylight! I’m getting too old to drive at night. It’s not the visual acuity; it’s the feeling of wanting to go to sleep.

Road trips are still a great experience. There are so many beautiful sights even from the interstates: the bridges over rivers, mountains and hills, lakes, rivers, creeks, downtowns and suburbs, monuments and malls, and family members in far-flung places. With gas prices fairly low, it’s an economical way to get around and it might be good for your brain, too!

What Makes Us Loyal Customers?

cheers From the brand of pop you drink to your choice of an attorney, how do you decide to be a loyal customer? For most people, these are the elements that drive people to choose the same store, professional service, brand of food or drink and restaurant:

Ease of attachment. This can mean anything from being conveniently located to being easy to get in and out. This changes with demographics. Younger people might prefer malls to boutiques because of the browsing capabilities. Older people consider parking and even safety. But ease of attachment can also mean availability and the ease with which you can attend to your tasks whether it’s shopping, being seen by the doctor or getting a prescription refilled.
Feelings of belonging. Going to your “regular”grocery store means you know where things are located, nothing is unexpected. Going into your favorite restaurant is made more special when you are greeted as if you are a regular. At the doctor’s office, hearing your name pronounced incorrectly is an instant turnoff. (Note to pediatricians: don’t call the mothers “Mom”; you aren’t our child.)
Feeling a balance of expectations met and stimulation by new things, too. You want your lawyér’s office to be familiar, but interesting new artwork is also ok. Receiving an email from your old realtor doesn’t bother you, but it’s more important that she knows you by name at the neighborhood block party.
Sense of pride in brand loyalty: Yes, you drink Diet Coke for breakfast and yes, that’s the place you get your glasses. You’re proud of both and able to tell why.
Shared loyalty with people you trust and admire: When others also tell you about their good experience at your cardiologist or the new restaurant you’ve discovered, it corroborates your good decision making. You feel even a little more popular and in the “in crowd”.

So, if those things drive you to be loyal to a brand, ask yourself this:

How easy it is for people to attach to my small business?
How do I make customers, clients, patients feel a sense of belonging?
How do I ensure consistency and innovation at the same time?
What is the word of mouth about me and my small business? What can I do to to encourage that?
Who are people who are the most loyal to me? Ask them why and ask them if they are willing to help you with a testimonial on a website or social media post? Get a picture of them at your establishment (unless HIPAA forbids it!)

One of the most difficult thinking tasks is to look at our own enterprises from the outside in and ask ourselves about the experience of a new person walking in the door or landing at our website or seeing our post. Taking the time to consider what makes us loyal allows us to examine our businesses through a very important lens.

More Impediments to Online Advertising

The internet landscape is constantly changing. What seemed like a given even two years ago is now passe.

The latest source of angst for marketing professionals is internet advertising. What has happened and is still evolving? People are becoming more savvy and are less interested in clicking on advertisements. In addition, technological upgrades have been developed to help the general public pass by paid advertising.

In the same way that television advertisers panicked with the arrival of the DVD and then the DVR (people could fast forward through ads) and now streaming content, the advertising and marketing world is having paroxysms over these developments:

Google Adwords: The traditional Google Adword campaign allowed a small business to choose which words to run a campaign with (like “Southfield” and “lawyer” or “real estate” and “Huntington Woods”). Google would charge the purchaser of the ad each time a web surfer clicked on that link (pay per click or PPC) which could be as much as $50/click. At its onset, Google Adwords really brought people to your site. When they searched, your site came up in the first three searches and looked ultra-legitimate. But times have changed. Experienced web surfers know that the top results on Google searches are paid positions and they are less and less likely to click on those, hunting for the top searches that come up unpaid or what we call organically. As a result, the Google Adwords have begun to skew demographically older, less technologically savvy and some wood argue, poorer.

Banner ads: You know those sponsorships at the top of webpages? The advertisers pay a lot for that position, but guess what they don’t get? Not much “click-through”. In fact, less than .1% of web surfers actually click on a banner ad…intentionally.

Facebook advertising: Facebook advertising is much more affordable than other ads and still seems to be working. Facebook users are somewhat skeptical of clicking on ads but still can’t resist reading the rest of the post. But this scheme too is skewing older as younger consumers prefer Snapchat and Instagram to Facebook.

Ad Blockers by various internet search engines. Apple’s IOS9 is offering a suite of Adblockers on its products. Opera, a newer web surfing product, is also touting its ad-blocking software. The result will be a dearth of pop-up ads or banner ads, except….those that have paid money to Apple or Opera for the purpose of breaking through. So, ads purchased on websites will have far less reach, depending on the number of users of these ad blockers. And we expect that Opera and Apple will extract a pretty penny for their ads.

So, what’s the answer? The answer is to stay educated, keep doing what works, move away from what doesn’t work. In addition, culling data about every new patient, client or customer and how they found you is the best offense. They will tell you whether they found you through Yelp, through the Blue Cross physician list, through your Facebook page, your website, a Google search or your enticing storefront. Keeping track of their responses will guide you in future marketing decisions, including internet advertising.

What I Learned From Downton Abbey

photo from pbs.org

The final show, the end of the series was last night. The most popular PBS show of all time, Downton Abbey, ended its Masterpiece Theatre run. It was a beautiful, touching show, filled with what we loved best and expected from the show. As I look back on six seasons, I realize there were some great life lessons from this period piece, some of which even has to do with marketing…

It’s All in the Writing: The core of the show’s allure was its nuanced writing. Without using dirty words or silliness, the writing illuminated the changing structure of English aristocracy, the service class, a more global world, the nascent bubblings of feminism, all within the structure of a family. Yet, far from being stuffy, there was pathos, abundant humor, suspense and surprise. As a writer for multiple clients, the importance of writing struck a happy chord, like an A-major!

The Key to Success: Maggie Smith: From her turn as the witty, sometimes stuffy, always wise Dowager Countess to Minerva Mcconagall in the Harry Potter series to her turns in the Exotic Marigold Hotel and now, The Lady in the Van, every good movie needs Maggie Smith. She’s the epitome of self-deprecating, self-aware, witty, but not mean humor and understanding.

But the Costumes were Lovely: The clothes were to die for, and PBS appeared to have an unlimited budget for style. Beautiful surroundings filled with well-dressed people: they still sell in New York’s fashion week, they still fill the magazines, and they embellish an already good product.

Real Estate Porn is Awfully Stimulating: Beautiful vistas of old estates, far-flung castles and quiet village scenery; they were like an additional character of the show, drawing us to make plans to visit the real Highclere Castle or even the town of York (is there actually anything to do there?)

Relationships Make the Show: Ultimately, we stayed tuned in to see how each character would handle his or her relationships with others, the romantic, the familial, the work relationships. Relationships are essentially what move us. It’s true in marketing: we have to form relationships with our clients, our patients, our customers. Nourishing that is the best marketing.

Leave Them Wanting More: There are many shows with far greater longevity. But Downton ended as its writing was winding down. When the closing music played and the snow fell down on the abbey, we wanted more and not less. It’s the same way with marketing; often, less is more. Understated often trumps overblown. Humility is more well received than braggadocio.

Oscar Night: Red Light, Green Light

This was a jittery Academy Awards season with the #oscarsowhite accusation of no nominations of people of color in the actor and actress categories. Tensions were high as the night began: how would Chris Rock handle his hosting duties, what would be boring and what would be exciting?

So, if we were in charge of the post-mortem of last night’s telecast, here are our picks for things that are a “go”, and a few projects that should be “red lighted”…

Green Light:

Chris Rock did an unbelievable job. He may have even been a bit too hard on the Academy, but oh, well. His opening monologue was brilliant and his interview of theater-goers in Compton was hilarious, particularly the man who said the best movie of all time was “Superfly”. Edgy comedy is still our favorite, even if it doesn’t make the room happy.
More edgy comedy: yes to Sarah Silverman, Louis CK and Sasha Baron Cohen; unpredictable is excellent.
Girl Scout cookies: unlike Ellen’s pizza delivery in the past, Girl Scout cookies aren’t messy and support a worthwhile organization. Furthermore, we could see everybody from Morgan Freeman to Tina Fey munching on cookies (they were done with their Red Carpet walks, and by the way, Tina Fey looked awesome.)
The moratorium continues on “Who are You Wearing?”. I’m sure every star’s publicist got that info out to whoever needed to know, but it was nice to see every woman being asked about her craft. But…I did want to hear about Cate Blanchett’s dress, as it was intriguing.
Lady Gaga. Last year we said bring back Lady Gaga at every awards show, and she brought down the house with her powerful song about sexual violence, backed up by victims powerfully, silently standing by her.
Last year we asked for a live song during the “In Memoriam” piece and our prayers were answered. Dave Grohl sang and played “Blackbird” beautifully while the images scrolled by. Much better.

Red Light:

The scrolling caption of thank yous went by way too fast to read, and apparently, it wasn’t visible in the theater, so winners didn’t trust it, and they shouldn’t.
Was Meryl Streep there? If not, why not? Never have an Academy Awards without her!

Team Marketing: Utilizing Everybody’s Strengths

So you have hired a marketing firm to “do” your marketing. But you want to stay involved. And your marketing firm has exhorted you to be partners with them (Clients, does this sound familiar?). What are some aspects of marketing that you can take on or take a little bite of?

Occasional writing: Perhaps you like to write, but don’t want to be obligated to write a full weekly or monthly blog or social media posts. That’s ok. We will do it for you. But adding your authentic voice to a written blog with an insightful comment or even a “like” or “retweet” helps your clients, customers, and patients know that you read the blog and are instrumental in what is published. We have had clients who have asked us to write a brief summary of a topic for them to flesh out later, or they have written a summary and asked us to expand it for the blog. We also like brainstorming with clients as to what topics they would like to see on future blogs (and what are hot topics to be avoided). Whatever writing system includes the client and creates content is a positive contribution. Each client’s “blog factory” runs at their own pace and through their own creative process.
Visiting your own website: Nothing on YOUR website should be a surprise to you. We suggest that your website should be your home page on your computer screen (not so easy to do on a phone or tablet, but still a valid suggestion). When you get sick of a graphic or see wording that needs changing, you’ll be right on it.
Taking pictures and posting them: No matter how simpatico you and your marketing firm are, we can’t be at your business all the time. But you are. Maybe you’re a decent photographer or maybe Shelley in accounting has an acumen for that. Get photos of products, of hanging out during the snowstorm, of getting ready for a big conference and either send the pics to the marketing firm or post them yourself.
Commenting and hanging out on your social media platforms: It’s great to have a social media presence, but again, it needs to have your voice. Add your own posts every once in a while, comment on stuff you like, and be aware of what’s happening. When your patient mentions a post, you ought to know exactly what they’re talking about.
Data collection: You and your staff are at the front lines to figure out which marketing endeavors are working. When you meet a new customer, client or patient, ask them how they heard about you. When you get the answer, record it. Begin to compile data from their responses, so you can figure out what aspects of your marketing plan are bringing in new “business”. But don’t forget that marketing also is a retention tool and a way to solidify a community among your loyal followers, too.

What Women Want: A Valentine’s Day To Do List

We employ men and women here at K2M, but the “girls” were talking and seriously wanted to let you know to ignore the hype and focus on these Valentine’s Day tips:

The best thing to make for dinner: reservations! We would love to get out of making dinner, doing dishes and grocery shopping. And we could care less about going out on actual Valentine’s Day. Brunch works, so does dinner on the weekend night. But take care of the whole evening from child care to reservations, so all we have to do is get dressed.
This bud’s for you. Flowers might seem cliched, but we still like them. We love them at work, so we can show off that our Significant Other likes us to coworkers. But flowers at the house are awesome. Roses are great, even a single beautiful orchid is nice.
Ditch the chocolates. A piece of carrot cake that you know we love, a slice of tiramisu from the Italian restaurant down the street, but not a whole box of chocolates. It’s too much and it makes us feel guilty.
Lingerie: you’ve got to know your girl. If your sex life is pretty great and you want to show her that you envision her in something sexy, go for it. But if the bedroom is the desert and she hates her body, maybe it’s not the gift for her.
Jewelry: always lovely, but don’t break the bank. It depends what your traditions as a couple are vis a vis Valentine’s and gifts.
Tickets to a movie or show coming up. We love to Netflix and chill, but knowing about a future date is nice, too.
Spending your Sunday cleaning the house and doing the laundry so that the house is immaculate: priceless (and you could probably get some use out of that lingerie…)

Super Bowl 50 Wrap Up

photo courtesy of the US Department of Agriculture

It’s 11:37 p.m. on Sunday night…time to put this Super Bowl (and this blogger to bed).

The highs, the mehs and the lows:

OMG: That referee! Did you see him? What refs have fitted shirts like that? Wait, what refs have arms like that? If you don’t know who I’m talking about, the lovely Clete Blakeman, you can just Google “hot Super Bowl ref”. HIGH
Dachshunds running with buns towards bottles of ketchup and mustard, the greatest ad of the night, by Heinz: HIGH
Oh say, did you see Lady Gaga belt that national anthem? Looking a touch strange, but those pipes!: HIGH
Quarterbacks Cam Newton and Peyton Manning were ok, but not as awesome as their respective defenses, definitely didn’t live up to the pre-game hype: MEH
Budweiser went old school in describing their beer (it’s not fruity, you don’t sip it, etc.) ; no more dog and Clydesdale episodes. Perhaps it is ok to quit when you’re ahead, but I missed those horsies: MEH
Drake’s self parody of evil cell phone companies (but not T-Mobile) directing his much maligned “Hot Line Bling” video was show biz insider-y, but a lot of fun: HIGH
Local companies Art Van and Quicken Loan entered the fray. Art Van touted their Flint water initiative while Quicken touted their new Rocket mortgages. It’s nice to see local shops on the big stage but the ads were neither particularly clever or memorable: SORRY, BUT MEH
Jeep’s black and white gorgeous photographs mixed with some video caught the attention of the teens in the room in a way that I would not have predicted: HIGH
The bringing in of the trophy a la the Stanley Cup did not work yet. Figure out an improved ritual on that deal: LOW
Hyundai singing sheep: never too many animals, never too many singing animals, never too many animals who are smarter than their humans, all three checked off here: HIGH
Half time show; Bruno Mars is the best, Cold Play is good but not a great match for Super Bowl (we need upbeat anthems), Beyonce was good but almost seemed like a parody of herself. Honestly, we were missing Katy Perry and the left shark: MEH
Overeating with friends and getting home with no dishes to wash: HIGH
An earlier start time because the game was in California: HIGH