Tag: email marketing

Right there

FabrizioLeave a comment

The internet is full of messages that try to get someone’s attention to direct it somewhere else.

Banners that link to a landing page.

Welcome emails that link to three video tutorials.

Social media posts that refer to a comment that links to a blog article.

CTA buttons that link to a short form that links to a longer form that links to a privacy policy.

It is tiring, frustrating, and there is a huge opportunity to actually deliver the value you have to deliver right where your audience’s attention is.

The ocean of sameness

FabrizioLeave a comment

Messaging is the equivalent of defining. And when you define something you put a limit to it.

If I say tree, everybody understands what I am talking about, but at the same time everybody will have their own image of a tree in their mind.

If I say birch, fewer people will understand what I am talking about, but those who do will have a clear image in their mind.

If I say betula pendula, most people will not understand what I am talking about, but the very few who do will have a very powerful image in their mind, and a very strong connection with me.

Messaging is ineffective for many products because the limit is pushed further and further and further again, until the message itself loses any power to define what the product actually is. And for the fear of losing opportunities and market shares, all you end up selling is trees. Just like anybody else.

If your work involves some messaging, remember that your goal is to limit, not to expand. You can have different messages for different people and for different channels, but each one of them needs to be limited in order to resonate and actually mean something.

The alternative is drowning in an ocean of sameness.

Speed eats quality

FabrizioLeave a comment

Speed gives you an edge.

Not in the sense of cutting corners, rushing through things, hustling or muscling through. But in the sense of getting things through the finish line, often and consistently. Understanding when something is good, pressing the button, and moving to the next item.

Speed eats quality for breakfast.

Within a stone’s throw

FabrizioLeave a comment

Your urgency is not your customer’s urgency.

You might have a plan, investors that demand that you grow, the idea that 30% year-over-year is the only measure of success, a team that is competitive and wants nothing more than their bonus at the end of the quarter.

But that is you. And honestly, nobody cares.

Think about your customer’s plan instead, what their investors want from them, how they define success, what their team wants to achieve in the next 90 days.

And if your first thought is “it depends”, you might be right. Most likely, though, you are just trying to sell to anybody who comes within a stone’s throw.

Focus. And learn.

Attribute this

Fabrizio1 Comment

A few years back, I got a cold connection request on LinkedIn that was different from the others one usually gets.

The person sending it – a rep for product A – had done some proper research about me. They even got to this blog (I have a link in my profile, so all legit). They read a few posts and in their request they actually commented on one of them.

I accepted their request and I did not purchase product A.

In fact, I did not even book a meeting, since it was just something out of the scope of my work.

About a year later, a colleague of mine reached out asking for a recommendation. They were unsure which one of two tools they should pick for their own work. One of the options was product A. I listened to the colleague introducing the two options, and ended up saying that I did not have a clear opinion on which one they should choose. I mentioned, though, that I had a very good experience with the sales process of product A. That resonated with my colleague, since they were having a similar experience themselves.

For many different reasons, my colleague decided to pick product A.

The morale of this story is in three parts.

First, to cut through the noise, you have to do some extra effort. Perhaps quality of outreach is more important than quantity of outreach these days.

Second, brand and reputation is about taking that extra effort and making it consistent over a period of time. It’s easy to do the hard work when it works, but it’s when you do it despite the poor results, or despite the ups-and-downs, that the hard work becomes a part of your identity that others appreciate.

And third, well. Try to attribute that sale.