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Hello, Email. Welcome!

June 30, 2015 by Dennis Fischman 1 Comment

I heard a knock at the door. “Oh, no,” I thought. “Who could that be?”

welcome visitor

Will they welcome your email?

I hadn’t ordered a pizza. I wasn’t expecting a package.

I went to the door and peered through the peephole, braced for someone trying to convert me to their religion (and/or sell me a magazine subscription).

What a pleasant surprise it was when my friend Miriam was there with a bundle of fresh-cut lilacs from her garden!

 

Is your email a welcome visitor?

You know how many emails you get every day. They can turn into one big blur. You might start reading them in order, but soon, you scan for names of friends and leave the rest of the messages unopened–or even delete them.

Your audience is just like you. They get overwhelmed just as fast. And the delete button is always handy!

If you want people to read your email, you have to be like Miriam.

  • Be a good friend. (Not that guy who only shows up to borrow money!)
  • Come bearing gifts. Present them with something they want: entertainment, information, a chance to see their friends and feel good about themselves at the same time…
  • Knock. Make sure the subject line of each email announces you in a way that makes your readers say, “I’m so glad you stopped by. Come in, come in!”

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Are You Bored with Your Own Blog? What to Do

February 17, 2015 by Dennis Fischman 3 Comments

If you’re a nonprofit organization, blogging is the backbone of your content marketing.  You want people to seek you out–to look to you for expert knowledge and unique insights.  Your blog is where they find what they’re looking for.

 

But are you getting bored with your blog?

You can’t excite people if you’re feeling deadly dull.  If it’s a chore for you to write, it won’t be any fun for your readers to read.

Don’t stop blogging–but there are lots of other ways to do content marketing.  Joe Pulizzi of the Content Marketing Institute lists:

  1. Social media–other than blogs
  2. Articles on your website
  3. E-newsletters
  4. In-person events
  5. Case studies
  6. Videos
  7. Articles on other people’s websites
  8. White papers
  9. Online presentations
  10. Webinars/webcasts
  11. Infographics
  12. Research reports
  13. Microsites
  14. Branded content tools
  15. Mobile content
  16. Print magazines
  17. E-Books
  18. Books
  19. Mobile apps
  20. Digital magazines
  21. Podcasts
  22. Licensed/syndicated content
  23. Virtual conferences
  24. Annual reports
  25. Print newsletters
  26. Games/gamification

If you’re tired of writing short, snappy pieces, then write a white paper or report.  If you’d rather talk than write, then the in-person appearances or the podcasts might be perfect for your personality.  Maybe you’d rather shoot photos–or make videos–or design a game.

Does that get your juices flowing?  I’ll bet you can even think of other content if you try. I thought of comics and graphic novels.  What would you add to the list?

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Youtility: Creating Marketing that People Actually Want

June 9, 2014 by Dennis Fischman 2 Comments

Jay Baer has some bad news for us…and some good news.

Bad news: In the age of information overload, you’re not going to keep your company at the top of people’s minds by constant advertising.

Good news: You don’t have to.  Getting the ear of the right audience is  better than paying for name recognition by the masses.

Bad news: Just because people can find you online, it doesn’t mean they’ll become your customers.

Good news: Recommendations from their friends influence people’s decisions.  Word of mouth has always been important, and today, it has a new address: on social media.

Bad news: Getting people’s attention is hard. You’re competing with their friends, the latest cute cat video, and photos of their grandchildren (who are probably a lot cuter than you!)

Good news: People will pay attention when you solve problems for them or provide them with information they need.  That’s what Baer calls “Youtility.”

Help, Not Hype

If you have the resources, you can help people exactly when they need it.  Baer talks about the @HiltonSuggests program, where Hilton employees who really know the city they work in will go on Twitter looking for questions they can answer or recommendations they can make…for free.

They are not trying to make a customer today.  They are trying to win a customer for life.  The return on investment is huge.

Not all of us can be Hilton, but could you be Taxi Mike?  This Canadian cab driver personally creates a “Where to Eat in Banff” brochure with his personal recommendations and delivers them to hotels, bars, and tourist traps all around his city.  When visitors need a taxi and they have this guide in their pockets, who do you think they’ll call?

What Does It Take to be Useful?

I hope you’re thinking just about now, “What about me?  How can I help the people who I want to be calling me?”  Baer suggests three ways you can make yourself useful to your audience.

  • Self-serve information.  Be like Angie’s List. Put the information out there in a ways that’s easy for people to find and use for themselves.
  • Radical transparency.  Be like Holiday World. Answer every question people ask. Answer questions they haven’t thought yet of asking.  Answer the tough questions.  Do it where everyone can see it.
  • Real-time relevancy.  Be like Scotts Miracle-Gro. Provide information that’s keyed to the location or the situation of the customer or what’s going on at that season.

How Do I Start?

Read Baer’s book for details about the six blueprints you can use to build Youtility.

  1. Identify customer needs.
  2. Map customer needs to useful marketing.
  3. Market your marketing.
  4. “Insource” Youtility.
  5. Make Youtility a process, not a project.
  6. Keep score.

The Value of this Book

My take: this is a great book because it pulls together a lot of lessons learned over the past few years.  If you are not getting what you want out of your marketing or communications, read the book, and think about how to give others what they want.

Two reservations: Baer doesn’t often address nonprofit organizations.  His idea of a small organization is still a lot larger than many community-based businesses and nonprofits I know.  I’ll try to translate Youtility for these audiences in other posts.

Have you read Youtility? Do you plan on reading it?  What do you think of Jay Baer’s approach?

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