Emailing into the Clutter

I read an article from the emailinsider e-newsletter that said, “…one email message often isn’t enough to persuade people to take the actions you want.”

If you have raised a teenager, you know that one of anything is not enough to persuade people (especially teenagers) to take the actions you want.

From the book Data Smog and research firms such as Yankleovich, it is estimated we are bombarded with around 5,000 brand messages a day.  How does one email make a difference?

You can be worried about sending too much email to a potential audience, but you should be even more worried you are not sending enough email.  Talk to any meeting scheduler from a nonprofit board and they will tell you it takes email after email (and then calls) to get everyone to respond.

Email depends on time of day, day of the week, workload of recipient, format (computer or smartphone), and how many emails are already in the recipient’s inbox.  Email is a lot like fishing—when you cast into the pond, you need the right bait, the right hook and the right equipment; and finally you need to have fish be in the vicinity of your action.

Your next email campaign may need to be an email series with different offers  or a set of reminders modified for message and creative.   It is going to take more than one, that’s why I’ll repeat this blog in a few months.

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It’s Only Going to Get Worse

Why is it that something really is not worth covering, talking about or paying attention to unless it is going to get worse?

Think about a weather forecast: We can’t just call it 20 degrees.  We have to have a wind-chill factor, because it feels so much colder that it is.  And if it is hot (obviously there is no wind-chill factor in the summer), we talk about “humiture” and how much more hot it feels.  And now we can’t have just an unemployment number without adding in the underemployed number, because it is worse than we thought.

During the 2008 floods in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, I watched a national news reporter standing in “receding” flood water and declaring that things “were only going to get worse” in Cedar Rapids.  I don’t ever want to go through a flood again, but things look pretty good in Cedar Rapids today.  It isn’t getting worse, it’s so much better.  Many new buildings are going up, unemployment is way down and the downtown is looking much more vibrant—even in this recession.   Listen to any newscast and count the times during traumatic stories where the report ends with, “…and it will only get worse.”

It’s a reminder of why positive marketing  is so important.  And, why we need to focus on the benefits of products and services.  In a world where politicians, reporters and thought-leaders can only see the black cloud and the blacker cloud coming, we need to keep promising and delivering  products and services that make things better—or, this world will only get worse.

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Bill Cunningham is the Power of Local

There is a column in the New York Times that I love to look at.  It is called, “On the Street with Bill Cunningham.”

Mr. Cunningham rides his bike around New York, taking photographs of fashion on the streets of New York City.

A documentary has been made on his life and some have called him a cultural anthropologist.  Bill says he doesn’t want to photograph celebrities with their “free clothing,” he wants to see what is happening and trending on the streets.

With his lens, he is doing something most newspapers and TV stations just can’t seem to do, and that is really cover and convey local.  You take in Bill’s “On the Street” segment, either in the paper or on video at NYTimes.com, and you feel like you’ve been on the street with him.  He doesn’t just photograph the usual suspects or the convenient.  He travels the city and carefully tells a story of trends, history, style, attention and flamboyance.  He tells a story of trends, not what blends.

His consistency, careful storytelling and connectedness to the city all come through his camera lens.  He is local and tells a very local story that people from all over the world love—and pay—to see.

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Time is a Real Benefit

Hospitals all across the country are touting ER wait times.  We are all busy people and time seems to have become a new currency for most, but is this a real trend or just this year’s fancy?

While I was traveling in the Palm Beach, Fla. area, I spotted a lot of emergency department ads talking about wait times.  This one that I snapped a photo of was an electronic sign that posted the time, although I never did see the time change on different trips by the board.  This trend may not last, but the trend of saving people time seems here to stay.

Time is becoming more of a value.  Of course, with this economy, we all need to find ways to save people money, but we should also be focused on saving time as well.  We have a saying in our design department that “speed thrills.”  You are always impressed when you receive something prior to when you were expecting it.   That also means we need to manage expectations for product and service delivery.

Faster is better.  But it must be more than an advertising theme.   Speed thrills.  Late kills.

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I Have Not Read That PDF Yet?

Have you ever said that?  I have received annual reports, newsletters, board member packets, and all kinds of publications of every size as PDF attachments.  And, I admit it, I don’t read most of them.  I want to read them.  I plan to read them.  I just don’t.

In a White Paper (that I printed out) from SmartLead, I think I found the reason.  The problem is that it is a digital format.  Studies show that reading on-screen is slower. We prefer to scan when reading on the Web; reading on-screen is tiring.  Plus, the Web is designed as an interactive medium.

But I think the real problem is that most PDF documents were designed to be printed pieces, not electronic documents.  It would be like playing radio on TV—you would keep asking, where are the moving pictures?  Digital is a world where we want to click, interact, comment, like, watch, and read less and scan more.

So the next time you start to make that long document into a PDF, ask yourself who is really going to read this in this format?  And if you’re sending it to me, I will feel guilty, but I probably won’t read it.

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The Raptors Flew Away

The raptor cam in Decorah. Iowa has shut down.  The three chicks have learned to fly, and the nest was sitting empty. 

During the three months the website was operational, the eaglets and the nest cam had more than 160 million Internet views.  It could be the “most viewed live cam in the history of the Internet,” according to the distribution manager of San Francisco-based Ustream. Ustream had to spend a fortune for the bandwidth.

But the most important part of his statement is being lost.  You can see eagles being born taped on the Internet.  You can read about it.  You can post comments about eagles.

The key to all this excitement is the word “LIVE.” Live is drawing large, record audiences to the NFL, NBA, NHL, American Idol, and other reality shows.   Seeing a band live drives people to scream.

How do we use LIVE?  Soon you will be able to broadcast your own events LIVE on the Internet.  Are you ready? Quiet on the set,  you are live in 3, 2…

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I Can Do That Surgery for $9.99

I saw a billboard that caught my attention this summer.  It is not particularly well designed.  And, the headline is not that clever or captivating. 

What stopped me was the price:  “Safe, Effective, Affordable $9,995.00” for Lap-BandAP®.   I have seen price used in healthcare ads before, but usually the price is in the $100 to $300 range for tests.  This car-sized price really made me curious.  You would think it would scare people away, but what it really does is narrow the pool to those who are really interested and allows people to self-qualify.

The billboard was located more than 2.5 hours from the facility.  I’m not familiar with the Siouxland  Surgery Center, but I was impressed with the website follow-up and the body mass calculator (BMI).  I don’t know if this board worked, but I do believe it is the tip of trend coming to healthcare.

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The One Marketing Idea That Got Away

I love this quote from Seth Godin, “There are examples of one-shot ads that capture the nation’s attention.  There are also examples of people who won the lottery the first time they bought a ticket.  You can try, but don’t bet the mortgage money.” 

I’ve heard a lot of marketing stories.  They are like gambling stories:  Have you ever heard anyone who lost money gambling?  Many tell the story of “that one time.”  One-shot efforts rarely work.  What works in ongoing, continuous marketing.  It is no different from getting healthy, losing weight, saving money, paying off a mortgage, building a book of business, winning a football game, finding a spouse.  It takes more than one effort.

There is cumulative value to marketing.  However you never realize the effect by only doing one-shot efforts.  So rethink your plan—or make one that includes an ongoing, slow-dripping faucet.  It’s that kind of effort that builds grand canyons, not grand stories.

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60 Minutes on Skype

It might be my age, but I still enjoy watching great stories on 60 Minutes. Their stories are always incredibly researched, well shot and edited and always thought-provoking.

As a hack videographer, I always study the lighting in every interview.   60 Minutes really knows how to back light and get in close with the camera.  The other night I saw something that stopped me:  It was an interview with a person who was on Skype (even network news programs are looking for ways to cut back). 

I noticed that the lighting was still good on each person, even on the monitor where the Skype person set up.  Someone had really prepped the person on Skype.  It is a different medium than other set ups and needs special attention:

• Set your camera in the middle of the screen so you can look directly at the person .  If you don’t we will be looking up your nose.
• Tape a 3X5 card with talking points at eye level on your screen so you don’t look down or off-screen.
• Bring lights close to your screen so you can light your face and not the background.
• Check your background.  If you have a banner or something with a logo position it prior to the call.

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Will You Pay for News?

The New York Times is putting up what many are calling a “pay wall.”  And, I’m glad.  I want to pay for good content.  The only way to keep content “good,” is to help defray the cost of reporters and editors.

Nearly half of Americans say they get some local news and information on their cell phone or tablet computer.  The study, by Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life project, found that 23% said they would pay $5 per month for full local newspaper access; 18 % would pay $10 per month, 75% said they wouldn’t pay any amount.

The problem is that people feel that local news and information is already available for free—70% said the loss of a local paper would have a minimal impact.  People who currently pay for local news in some form tend to be white, female and older with higher household income and education levels.  They also tend to be longtime community residents.

Other than a smile, I’ve never received anything of value for free.  You get what you pay for, and there always seems to be a hidden price.

It seems to me that the quality of news on the Internet is becoming more and more suspect.  I want quality news and reporting.  I wish the New York Times well—and I’ll pay for it.

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