Tag: email marketing

Positioning Bernie

Fabrizio1 Comment

If you have been around the internet in the past week, you have certainly seen it.

One of the greatest example of positioning in recent times.

The informal attire of Bernie Sanders to last week’s presidential inaguration, the meme-frenzy that followed, and the way him and his team promptly reacted. All of it has put on display a fantastic positioning exercise.

  1. It has set the product clearly apart from the competition (in this case, other personalities or politicians). Just look at this picture to see what I mean. Or this one. Sanders has built his brand on being against the establishment and close to the average Joe, and spotting him at the inauguration was just a clear, immediate confirmation of exactly that.
  2. It has demonstrated a wonderful knowledge of the target market. Many commentators might have said that he was out of place, that it was even offensive to show up at such a formal event dressed like that. And the answer from Sanders and his team would have probably been: who cares?! Because the point of positioning, at the end of the day, is not to appeal to everybody, but to appeal to your best customer. Wearing mittens hand made from recycled material by a Vermont school teacher and a jacket by a Vermont outerware company sounds pretty on point for a progressive senator from Vermont.
  3. It inspired action. A part from the meme, the story has been shared, liked, commented infinite times on social media in the past few days (you can find a collection of the funniest Bernie posts in this article). And on top of it, Sanders’ team has double down on positioning by creating merchandise and selling it to support Meals on Wheels.

There is nothing better than great marketing, whether it is intentional or not.

Squeezed or integrated

FabrizioLeave a comment

There are two ways to do product marketing.

Reactive product marketing is when product marketing is squeezed between departments. Product marketing managers react to the needs of the other parts of the organization. When product releases a feature, product marketing has to find a way to communicate that feature. When sales targets a new type of customers, product marketing has to come up with a custom presentation. When marketing is running a specific campaign, product marketing has to come up with some content for mid and bottom of the funnel.

Proactive product marketing is when product marketing is integrated across departments. Product marketing managers engage other parts of the organization to coordinate the whole flow of information: from customers to product, moving through marketing, customer success, customer support, sales. And the other way around. In this scenario, when product releases a new feature, how to communicate it is already known, because the feature was actually developed following to research promoted by product marketing. When sales targets a new type of customers, custom presentation are already in place, because the new strategy was recommended by research promoted by product marketing. When marketing runs a specific campaign, product marketing is actively involved in planning what content is needed, as well as who to distribute it to and where.

I understand most product marketing organizations are probably somewhere in the middle. Just always be aware of what type of product marketing you aim to be.

One is execution, the other is the cornerstore of go-to-market.

Which one are you?

Words

Fabrizio2 Comments

When you write copy for a website, a landing page, a brochure, a banner, an email, or any other marketing or sales material, this is a great piece of advice.

Except, you should actually ask that question at word level: what is this word supposed to do?

Words take up precious space on screens, and the ones you are going to pick need to have the potential to change the right people. This is probably the reason why your marketing material is not effective.

All-encompassing

FabrizioLeave a comment

When you are sending a message to the mass, the tendency is to make it as all-encompassing as possible, and by doing that you probably fail to make it relatable, motivating, effective.

A great example is what happens every year when companies share season’s greetings with their audience. And as it is possible to send a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year (accompanied by the emoticons of your choice) to a vast number of people, individuals got lazy as well.

Next year, instead of sending a mass message to all your team, your group of friends, your family, pick a finite number of people that had a significant impact on your life in the past twelve months, and share a personal and emotional message with them. Tell them why this Merry Christmas is different. Tell them what they mean to you. Tell them how they have succeded in their job. And let them know why you want them close in the New Year as well.

The return on this small investment will be huge.

Alignment

Fabrizio1 Comment

Every single company is on a mission to talk about value. Value proposition, value selling, value chain, added value. And (almost) every single company fails to appreciate what value is.

That’s because value is defined not by your management, but by your customers. It is not about increased productivity or improved workforce efficiency, but it’s about what you enable your customers to do day after day (to increase productivity and improve workforce efficiency).

Value is how, what, and why.

It is one of the most difficult lessons to understand and put in practice. It is the only way to find a unique and consistent way to talk about value across people, deparment, and stakeholders. It is the alignment you are missing.

It is worth it.