A valuable sales lesson from a homeless gent.

August 7, 2018

Filed under: Marketing Strategies, Observations From the Field, Social Media, Effective Communication — @ 9:43 am

If you’ve ever been a client of Redpoint, you’ve heard our (constant, loving, unwavering) counsel on balancing “the hard sell” with “relationship building” in your marketing messages.

We get it. When you have rooms/seats to fill, budgets to hit, expenses to pay…the urge to repeatedly reach for the hard sell is super strong. But this is doing your marketing a huge disservice because you’re developing a one-sided relationship with your audiences: you only (or too often) talk to them solely when you want them to buy something from you. That’s quite selfish, and who likes to be in a relationship with someone selfish? They’ll quickly tune you out.

But it requires a patient leap of faith for a brand to favor relationship-building messages over sales messages. The conversion runway is longer and less trackable…so how do you know/prove the ROI is worth it?

Here’s the proof you need, delivered from an unlikely source: a homeless gentleman who sits out on William Street in NYC every evening.

From around 4pm until after rush hour, he sits in the same spot and says nice things to folks passing by, such as:

“Have a lovely evening!” (all the time)
“Stay cool tonight!” (summer)
“Stay warm tonight!” (winter)
“Stay dry tonight!” (raining)
“Be careful of the ice just there!” (snowing)
Etc.

He pets dogs, smiles at everyone, and waves at children. He’s SUCH a nice man. He never tells a down-on-my-luck story. Never plays the guilt card. Never shakes a cup full of coins.

And he never – EVER – asks for money. Or food. Or clothes. Or anything.

But he gets them…in spades.

Every morning when I walk by his spot, there is a small collection of stuff left there by people overnight and in the morning prior to his arrival. Most often it’s food, but sometimes it’s a hat, shoes, or clothing.

Think about this, folks. People…busy, desensitized New Yorkers…think about him WHEN HE’S NOT EVEN THERE, and leave him things he needs but never requests.

THAT is master-class-level relationship building. He brings them repeated, consistent joy and kindness and ultimately, they give it back…freely and thoughtfully and often.

Take a page from this guy’s book. Find ways to be memorable to your audiences. Engage them. Treat them with affection. Ensure that you matter to them. Because when you matter to them, selling requires very little “ask” on your part.

What makes you ding-worthy?

May 17, 2018

Filed under: Writing Tips, Marketing Strategies, The Power of Persuasion, Social Media, Effective Communication — @ 8:54 am

So…I feel a bit like a soulless drug pusher on this one, but hear me out, ok?

A growing issue is causing serious angst in today’s society: people are addicted to their phones and they know it…and they don’t like it. There’s a movement afoot for these addicts to “resist the ding” and wean themselves from craving the need to keep checking their phone. And the psychological battle cry of “how to take back control” is a hot topic at business conferences, therapy sessions, family dinner tables, relationship counseling, and in mainstream media. If this is news to you, here are two useful articles on the subject from NPR and Psychology Today.

But it’s a marketer’s mission to cut through clutter and get attention. And so we ruthlessly hunt for standout ways to infiltrate their phones: emails, text messaging, location-based promotions, social media (organic and paid), social media direct messaging, and <insert shiny marketing-tool-du-jour here>.

We WANT to be the ding that gets their attention. We WANT them to stop what they’re doing and embrace our message.

But think of the psychology: more and more people are taking control of their own “ding dial,” fiercely curating which dings (if any) get their immediate attention, and – whoa – even turning off the dings completely in order to neutralize messages that masquerade as urgent.

Worse (for us)…in an effort to reduce the overwhelming daily assault of information through intrusive dings and silent accumulation, they are more discriminating in scrubbing their access points. This means YOU (soulless, message-pushing marketer) are being judged continuously, and you are always just one frivolous ding away from getting banished.

So here’s what you need to ask yourself, marketers: what makes you ding-worthy? And you can’t do this effectively by looking at a single message’s value (i.e. this post, this email). You need to respect your role in the relationship with people’s phones and your value in their overall information landscape. What earns you the right to continued access? How do your dings foster Pavlovian-level satisfaction?

I’ll tell you the answer: always-relevant content, and choosing frequency wisely. Quite simply…don’t waste their time (or mental bandwidth) and make every ding meaningful.

Is this harder for you? Yep. Does this mean you have to care more about THEIR needs than YOUR sales goals? Yep. Is this annoying because now you have to think more, and sometimes resist sending messages you REALLY REALLY want to send? Yep.

But here’s the alternative: would you rather be banished? Because that’s what’s at stake now more than ever.

Marketing was never effective when it was too frequent or too frivolous. Desensitization and annoyance have always been at risk. But back in the day, those risks just wasted your money and time. People may have gotten annoyed, but they hadn’t yet – en masse – felt empowered to do anything about it.

But these days, technological assault has made people feel like victims and addicts, so when you annoy them, they not only feel empowered to banish you…they do it with a sense of righteous justice. Kicking you out of their phone grants them a joyous feeling of liberation.

And so yay for you, marketer! You created a positive encounter with your target. The downside is that it came from them slamming the door in your face…and locking it.

So what’s the moral of this story? Don’t ignore this growing social phenomenon, and adapt your approach accordingly.

In short: Please ding responsibly.

Five opening lines that sabotage your email’s success.

March 16, 2018

Filed under: Writing Tips, The Power of Persuasion, Effective Communication — @ 1:15 pm

You want people to read your emails, right? Then be mindful of these two powerful words:

PREVIEW PANE.

That little teaser allows people a glance at your email’s content before they open it, which makes your first sentence vital. It can either hook interest and make readers want to open it instantly, or it can say nothing worthwhile and prompt them to triage its importance for another time (if ever). This actually holds true even if the recipient is NOT using preview pane… who gets jazzed about reading an email with a boring opening line?

Here’s a hard truth: most people begin emails with boring sentences simply because they’re being lazy. It’s a crutch for warming up to writing what they REALLY want to say… a way to get their fingers moving on the keyboard. But the fact is, you’re doing your email a huge disservice by overlooking the importance of your opening line.

Here are five of the most common “wasted” opening lines:

I hope you are well.
My name is (x) and I’m the (x) of (x) company…
I wanted to write you today to…
I am pleased to attach the document…
Hope you’re enjoying this weather!

Why are these lines wasted? Because they’re either stating the obvious or making irrelevant small talk. You may indeed truly hope the person is well, and you have my blessing to say that… at the end. And you may indeed be pleased to attach that document…but who cares? Perhaps instead, say why the document is/should be important to THEM.

Yes, it takes longer to come up with a compelling opening line (and please, for the love of Pete, please don’t start with the word “I”). But it’s worth it. I may not know you, or anything about you and your email recipients, but I’d bet the ranch that you’d rather have folks open your emails than glaze over them or just hit delete.

Bonus writing advice: also be wary of the word “great,” using exclamation points, and the request to have things sent to you “ASAP.” Check out these and other quick writing tips here.

The key to making a business announcement successfully.

June 28, 2017

Filed under: Effective Presentations, Writing Tips, The Power of Persuasion, Effective Communication — @ 11:26 am

Say you’ve just overhauled your guest service program. Or completed a design renovation. Or created a new HR program in response to staff issues. Or launched a new brand. Or website.

And then you sit down to write the email, press release, or speech to unveil it to your key audiences. Here’s the one vital tip you need to make it effective and powerful:

No one cares how hard you worked.

Think about it. How many times have you heard a brand or company representative say

We’ve worked tirelessly to…
Our team has worked long and hard to…
We’ve been working day and night to…

Does that make their message any more meaningful to you? Nope. In fact, here’s a few hard truths about human nature conspire to subtly undermine the successful reception of your announcement:

What’s In It For Me?: Saying how hard you worked is blah-blah to the audience. Your dedication is irrelevant…what’s the result that impacts them? Wasting air time with blah-blah just risks losing their attention.

Skepticism Trigger: The moment someone draws attention to how hard they worked, we subconsciously doubt it. If you truly worked hard on something, the results would prove it. Proclaiming it just makes the audience wonder why you’re trying to hard to convince them that you did your job.

Soliciting Gratitude is Resented: Revealing how hard you worked – especially when you’re fixing a negative situation – only makes it look like you’re seeking a head pat. And only adorable dogs can credibly get away with begging for head pats. In humans, it usually just inspires exasperated eye-rolling.

Instead…just share your news straight up, including the benefits to them. Like so:

On the new Redpoint website, you can explore our expertise with easy one-click case study sorting relevant to your needs, sign up to get tips and trends from our wildly popular industry newsletter Tickled Red, and listen to music from our office live concert series. Go check it out…we hope you find it fun and useful.

See? Straight up. No plea for head pats.

Your belly button is a marketing tool.

November 5, 2015

Filed under: Writing Tips, Marketing Strategies, The Power of Persuasion, Effective Communication — @ 9:56 am

Consumers suck, don’t they? They need to be rewarded for everything…liking things, sharing things, buying things, answering things. It’s maddening.

Well marketers, we have no one to blame but ourselves. We’ve conditioned people to chase carrots and respond to hoopla…which means we’ve ALSO conditioned them to ignore stuff that’s boring, predictable, trite, and unrewarding.

Where does this leave email subject lines? At the top of your “spend brainpower here” list.

Think about it…all the time and energy you spend creating the perfect email content is 100% for naught if people don’t open it. And when sifting through the barrage of daily incoming emails, consumers use three main criteria to determine which ones will get their attention:

How much they care about you vs. how much they care about the rest of the senders sitting in their inbox.
How much time they have available when your email arrives.
Is the content going to be worth their time?

And #3 is why subject lines should get your brainpower. If your marketing email subject lines are things like “August Newsletter” or “News from (company name)” or even something a little more specific like “Winter Packages at (company name)”… you are relying on the first two criteria – which are beyond your control – to supply the magic open sesame of consumer response.

But if your subject line is something like…

We don’t make linen. (Chilewich, a textile company)

I hate purple. (Also from Chilewich)

The ecosystem of your belly button. (American Museum of Natural History)

Have you ever wanted to create a chocolate sculpture? (South End Kitchen, VT)

Get serenaded by Harry Connick, Jr. (Hotel on North, MA)

…you’re using the subject line as a lure to snap desensitized recipients to attention. It’s likely that 80% or more of the emails they receive each day have boring subject lines. Make yours interesting and you’re one notch closer to seducing them into hearing your message.

Here’s the best part. If you pay heed to #3 (teasing interesting content)…and then you actually ensure that the content IS interesting…over time, it’s going to positively impact #1 and #2. Remember: marketers train consumers. And the more you train them that your emails are interesting, the more that #1- they will care about you and your messages, and #2- no matter when your email arrives, they will make the time to read it.

It’s a delicious cycle of persuasive marketing goodness. And soon you will find that consumers – those picky, aloof, what’s-in-it-for-me monsters we marketers have created – will suck just a little bit less.

Catch more flies. Make more money.

October 9, 2015

Filed under: Customer Service, Marketing Strategies, Observations From the Field, This is Cool, Branding Strategies, Effective Communication — @ 9:02 am

A small restaurant in Denver, CO shows the world that when it comes to establishing your business philosophy, honey trumps vinegar hands down.

Picture this: You’re starving. You’re weary after a long day. You want to shed your troubles with good company, some laughs, delicious food, and certainly a cocktail or two. And as you step up to the host stand, your request for a table is answered with the single most annoying phrase on the planet:

“For a party of two, the wait time is currently around one hour and 45 minutes.”

If you’re the restaurant owner, what’s the fallout from this scenario?

The MOMENT people enter your restaurant, they’re hit with something negative.
Most people will just leave and go elsewhere.
While they may not actively HATE you, they feel disappointment and frustration.
If it happens more than once, many people will stop trying.

Most importantly, you lose the opportunity to form a relationship with people who are just ripe for the picking. They’ve sought you out and made the effort to land on your doorstep. And now you have to turn them away? This chronic problem of busy restaurants makes owners (and their marketing folks) weep.

But the smart, cheerful, positive thinkers who run Work & Class are shedding no tears over this issue.

On a recent visit to Denver, I was greeted at their host stand with that same annoying phrase. I glanced at the teeny-tiny, jam-packed bar and said to the two hostesses, “Rats. We are only in town tonight and were dying to try this place, but that’s just too long to wait. Oh well.”

The hostesses could have simply said, “Oh, sorry…come see us again on your next visit!” And had they done so, that would have been the end of my relationship with Work & Class.

Instead, they said, “hold on a minute.” And the two of them scanned the wait list, craned their necks to look at the locations of patrons at the bar, and whispered conspiratorially to each other. Then one of them leaned in and said to me, “See those people sitting at the far side of the bar? In around 20 minutes, I’m going to seat them. If you want to wait right here at the host stand, I’ll take you with me when I go to tell them their table is ready, and you can grab their seats and eat at the bar. And I could bring cocktails here to you while you’re waiting.”

Who could say no to that? Especially since they both had huge smiles on their faces and were clearly delighted to be making my friend and me happy. We said yes. A champagne and a whiskey appeared momentarily, and then the best part happened: we had a 20-minute front row seat to watch the magic of the Work & Class host stand in action. Here’s what goes down:

The hostesses are not robots…they display empathy for each and every person’s plight with the wait time, and they remained genuinely cheerful and positive despite delivering unwelcome news.
Because the bar area is so small, the restaurant formed a relationship with the bar across the street to funnel patrons there for 10% off their entire bar tab while awaiting their “table is ready” call.
If you choose to stay and wait, there’s a $4 “wait drink.” (brilliant move)
The hostesses never – not once – let anyone walk away after hearing the wait time without ALSO hearing another solution… bar across the street, try us earlier or later, join us on Wednesday, come back for dessert, sit at the communal table outside… and the solutions were never the same. They were based on what each particular diner needed/wanted.

The pounce-on-the-barstool strategy worked beautifully, and as the night unfolded, we learned that the hostesses were not alone in fostering the positive attitude that permeates Work & Class. Bartenders, bussers, waitstaff, owner… they are ALL just ridiculously happy people.

And the tone of the restaurant fosters that same attitude in the patrons. The “House Rules” are displayed on huge signs, and they’re written so adorably that you are inspired to follow them:

You can also read a more detailed version of the House Rules on their website.

Cost-conscious restaurant owners may read this and say, “Are you nuts? Why would I send people to my competitor, much less pay to have cards printed to send them there? Why would I discount a ‘wait drink’ when people who decide to wait would end up buying them at full price? I’ll never get my hostesses to be that personable, and besides that, if they have to spend extra time with each individual person at the host stand, I’ll require more hosts per shift.”

And to them I say… everyone who visits Work & Class is put in a good mood, even if they decide not to wait. And Work & Class is packed to the rafters every single night. You do the math.

So if you are visiting Denver, you must eat here. The delicious food is just a bonus…the infusion of joy is the real daily special.

Tell a story without a lecture.

June 23, 2015

Filed under: The Power of Persuasion, Observations From the Field, Effective Communication — @ 8:08 am

A picture might be worth 1,000 words…but a few carefully chosen words can often paint an instantly compelling picture.

Take this ad, for instance…seen in the Uptown 1 subway station at 23rd Street:

With just those two sentences, the Lower East Side Film Festival creates this impression: “we’re not snooty like those other film festivals, you don’t need to know someone or be on the list, we don’t put on airs, we’re social and approachable, and you’ll make friends here.” And do I detect a whiff of snarky nonconformity here, sending out seductive signals to attract those with a similar perspective? Yes. I believe I do.

Here’s another, seen just last week on the bridge driving into Boston from I-93:

With just that simple phrasing, Ehrlich Pest Control says this: “we hire the best people, who have a natural instinct for ridding the world of pests, and regardless of whether they do it for paycheck or for the sheer enjoyment of it…you can be sure that if you want critters gone, our guys will not rest until that happens…oh, and by the way, we’re funny and we have social skills too.” (Note to the Gods of Standstill Traffic: thank you for enabling me to snap this photo.)

What lesson can be learned from this? Often, the indirect approach to communicating your personality has greater impact. Don’t lecture people on who you are and what you stand for… just prove it through the way you communicate with them.

As we tell Redpoint clients all the time… don’t say you’re cool, just BE cool. Explaining to people that you’re cool only weakens your case.

Here’s a parting bonus example that throws in a strategic photo: the housekeeping tip envelope at Jay Peak Resort. It’s kind of sweet, and yet you’d think twice before ever crossing Alice…a juxtaposition which aptly represents that resort and mountain.

Bravo Jay Peak. You tugged my little branding heart so hard that I gave Alice 20 bucks for a one-night stay. Or maybe I was just scared. Either way…it worked!

Four quick tips to strengthen your writing.

February 5, 2015

Filed under: Writing Tips, Effective Communication — @ 10:11 am

Tagged: effective communication, grammar, writing

Writing is a skill that needs practice, just like your golf swing or your skiing technique. However, unlike golf or skiing, very few people devote their Saturdays to grammar and phraseology.

Here’s the equivalent of installing a putting green in your office. Work these four tips into your everyday writing, and give those stagnant brain muscles a workout.

Stop beginning your sentences with “I” or “We.” You’ll be surprised how often you do it, and making this one tiny change will enhance the power of your message. Here’s why and how.

Choose descriptive words that pack a stand-alone punch. There are – give or take – a million words in the English language. It’s a safe bet that “great” can always be replaced with a more meaningful word (get some help on that here) and the words “very,” “really,” and “extremely” are unnecessary; very happy = ecstatic, pleased, delighted, and so on…extremely upset = livid, furious, incensed, and so on.

Condense wordy phrases into compact ones…or better yet, into a single word. This reduces the burden on your reader’s attention span and illustrates your point with instant clarity. For example:

Coming at the wrong time = ill-timed

Covered with decorative elements = ornate

Make this process smoother = streamline

Almost ready to put the finishing touches on = poised to complete

Hard to find = elusive

Aspire to cut your document length by a third. This measuring stick will serve you well: in any first draft, at least a third of the words are poorly chosen. That’s because it’s really hard arduous to write and edit at the same time simultaneously. Keep your thought process intact while the words flow, and then attack your phrases with a critical eye afterward.

~~I hope you find these tips useful.~~

Reprogramming your writing style using these four tips will take awareness, patience, and a thesaurus. Keep practicing, buy a red pen, and eventually new habits will form.

Eat more lamb, Larry Bird.

January 12, 2015

Filed under: Observations From the Field, This is Cool, Branding Strategies, Effective Communication, Uncategorized — @ 1:52 pm

We humans are an unruly lot…we are busy and distracted, and frankly, we just don’t like being told what to do. This means that informative and useful signage is often overlooked as white noise competing for our attention amidst a barrage of sensory input.

Savvy businesses know a fool-proof cure for this: unexpected humor that seduces people into reading the otherwise-boring sign. It’s a brilliant strategy. Not only do people read it…they get the message AND they are left with an impression of a business, company, or brand with a groovy personality. Behold:

Bennett’s Store in coastal Maine could say “No Parking” or it could say…

Wood ‘n Hart Farm at the Halifax Seaport Farmer’s Market in Nova Scotia could say “Lamb for Sale” or it could say…

The Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority in NYC could say “Don’t Drink and Drive” or it could say…

An airport in Fort Lauderdale could say “Pardon Our Construction” or it could say…

The Weylin B. Seymour’s glamorous event space in Brooklyn could say “Wheelchair Accessible Bathroom” or it could say…

These signs have stopped countless people in their tracks…and quite possibly prompted them to snap a picture just like I did. Mission accomplished.

So, the next time you have something important – but boring – to communicate, take a few minutes to answer the question: how can I make this message interesting?

Need more inspiration? See what the Inn at Manchester did with their housekeeping tip envelope. Seriously…if they can make THAT fun, anything’s possible.