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.

Social media + cool things = your free sales force.

February 29, 2016

Filed under: Marketing Strategies, The Power of Persuasion, Observations From the Field, Social Media — @ 8:22 am

My nephew is going to eat at Roast Sandwich House with his friends, thanks to a picture posted on Facebook (which he doesn’t use) by a girl (who he doesn’t know). Here’s the story…followed by a million dollar marketing question:

Some girl Amanda (a stranger to me as well) posted this picture on Facebook of Roast’s “Buffalo Organic Chicken Mac-n-Cheese Grilled Cheese.”

A gent named Chris liked her photo. I’ve not seen or spoken to Chris in around five years, but we’re friends on Facebook. And that photo appeared in my news feed because Chris liked it. I knew the moment I saw it that my nephew would LOVE it…but I’m not friends with him on Facebook (because no self-respecting teenager uses Facebook). So I took a screen-shot of the post and texted it to him. He responded with all sorts of “OMGs” and drooled on his phone…and next thing you know…he’s gathering up friends to go eat there.

So basically, a friend of my friend of five years ago recommended a sandwich to my nephew and his friends. And none of us have ever spoken or discussed this in any way…and most of us are strangers.

Now… here’s the million dollar marketing question: What if Roast Sandwich House offered boring sandwiches?

NO ONE takes a picture of a plain ol’ turkey sammich. Why bother? But a Buffalo Organic Chicken Mac-n-Cheese Grilled Cheese? That sucker earns you bragging rights on social media. So, yes…it might be harder on the operation to produce AMAZING sandwiches. And it might require more ingredients. And it’s probably much more work. But it made Amanda take a picture and share it with her friends, and that marketing power is priceless.

The point is…be interesting. Be different. Be unexpected. Be unique. Make the time…make the investment…dedicate the brainpower. If you do unusual things or offer unusual products, people will want to capture and share the story. And you’ll be rewarded with an exponential (and free) sales force…even if they’re not on Facebook.

Thank you, Amanda…whoever you are. And you’re welcome, Roast Sandwich House…as you’ll be seeing a lot of my nephew in the future.

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.

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!

One “great” way to improve your writing.

October 24, 2013

Filed under: Writing Tips, The Power of Persuasion — @ 8:35 am

Here’s a “great” way to improve your writing.

Would you rather go to a “great conference” or an “informative and entertaining conference?” And would you rather stay in a hotel that’s “great”…or one that’s charming, impeccably-run, intimate, luxurious, filled with character, chic, rustic, or a culinary delight?

Here’s the thing: often times, the word “great” is just a lazy nod to positivity that doesn’t actually do justice to a description. Saying something is great gives the reader no indication of WHY it’s great, which is actually the information most useful to them. You could tell a friend that the food was great at a restaurant you tried, but “great” to you could mean spicy and rich, and “great” to your friend could mean mild and tame. You can tell your guests that they’ll have a great shopping experience at your store, but do you mean the service is gracious, the layout is simple to navigate, the prices are easy on the wallet, or the selection is extensive?

This matters most when you’re writing a piece of communication that intends to persuade your audience, for three reasons:

Using “great” instead of actually describing what you mean is a lost opportunity to make a connection that resonates with them and engages their attention.
If you say something is “great”…and then you just have to go on to describe it using other words anyway…then you’ve wasted words with an unnecessary comment, and created a trigger that could relax their attention span (nothing sabotages attention faster than perceived “blah blah” in writing).
Relying on the word “great” too often snares you in the trap of sounding trite. And trite never rings true, so your words won’t be effective.

Here’s how to use the word less frequently: be aware of it. Every time you start to write the word “great” in a sentence, just ask yourself…what do I really mean? Take a moment to find more suitable words/phrases and your writing will transform into richer, more sophisticated communication. This is likely to annoy you at first (flexing your vocabulary muscles takes time and practice), but soon it will become second nature. Make the site thesaurus.com your new best friend.

There certainly may be times when “great” does the job (Q: “Can we meet at 8pm?” A: “Great!”). But a heightened awareness of using the word at all will prevent you from using it as a crutch.

And if you’re thinking of cheating by just adding a bunch of exclamation points to make the word “Great!!!!!!!!!!!” seem more powerful… here’s why that won’t work.

For more ~~great~~ insightful nuggets – from how to stop using the word “I” to why you should stop asking for things “ASAP” – check out our writing tips.

Fun with marketing…no matter how boring the product.

December 5, 2012

Filed under: Marketing Strategies, The Power of Persuasion, Observations From the Field — @ 9:23 am

Recently, while leading a workshop about Effective Presentation Techniques, I shared a secret with the attendees: people like to be entertained. So if you bring fun and joy to whatever you’re selling, you’ll get their attention…and that’s the first step toward ensuring they receive your message.

At the break, one attendee approached me with this lament: “I sell pretty boring products, so making them fun just isn’t an option for me.”

Oh young grasshopper…take heart. With the right perspective, you can make ANYTHING fun. I give you…Jewish food, a Vietnamese restaurant, and men’s razors.

Artful arrangement of Jewish food draws a double-take from passersby on the Upper West Side of NYC.

A Viet-Thai restaurant in Canada draws new patrons with this sassy sign outside their front door.

And seriously…take 1 minute and 30 seconds and watch this commercial for Dollar Shave Club. Who knew selling razors could be so entertaining?

The bottom line is…with the right perspective, you can bring a little bit of humor to any subject – appropriately, of course. Would I recommend adding levity to a speech or ad about child abuse? Absolutely not. But an otherwise dry subject – like razor blades? Heck yes!…it’s a fabulous competitive advantage when you can make people smile.

Want one more smile before you’re done reading this post? Check out our post from last summer to see how this movie theater made their “Don’t Talk or Text During the Movie” warning an absolute riot of hilarity: Alamo Drafthouse Warning. The gang here at Redpoint is STILL chuckling over that one. 🙂

Cyber Monday 2011 proves: brand it, and they will come.

November 29, 2011

Filed under: Marketing Strategies, The Power of Persuasion, Media Relations, Branding Strategies — @ 3:17 pm

Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and now Small Business Saturday. Can you say “baaa baaa?”

Ever heard of Small Business Saturday? No? Don’t worry. Within the next two years, not only will you know about it, but you will feel magnetically drawn to shop at small, independent retailers on the Saturday after U.S. Thanksgiving.

This past November 26th was only the 2nd Annual occurence of this made-up-by-retailers holiday (in this case, American Express), and yet, its Facebook page already has nearly 3 million “Likes.” Impressive, considering that’s the equivalent of the entire population of Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and Vermont.

Watching the evolution of retail consumer behavior patterns tied to the U.S. Thanksgiving weekend is a fascinating lesson in branding and the combined power of internet-and-the-media.

Just look at Black Friday vs. Cyber Monday:

The term “Black Friday” first officially emerged as a moniker for the Friday-after-Thanksgiving shopping frenzy in the 1960’s, but it wasn’t until the late 1990’s that it gained widespread consumer awareness and participation. And in fact, it wasn’t until 2002 that it became the season’s biggest shopping day each year, as confirmed by market research firm ShopperTrak. That’s nearly 40 years from launch to goal line.

In stark contrast: Cyber Monday was launched in 2005 by a group called Shop.org as a way to boost online sales and encourage tech-shy consumers to become more comfortable with online spending. (Note: those were “prehistoric times”…high-speed internet was more readily available at businesses than residences…hence, the Monday strategy). By 2006, online spend-tracking firm comScore Inc. reported Cyber Monday as the 12th biggest online spending day of the year. Care to guess when it scored the top spot? 2010. Just five years from launch to goal line.

This acceleration of consumer acquiescence bodes well for Small Business Saturday. It is worth noting that Black Friday didn’t have the power of the internet at its inception, and Cyber Monday (while it obviously had the internet) didn’t have the power of social media or “apps” at ITS inception. But Small Business Saturday has all of these lightening-speed marketing tools in its debut arsenal, and with that, I give you…nearly 3 million Facebook fans and counting in just its second year.

So, how does knowing about this acceleration pattern help your OWN business? Three ways:

Branding something – an annual sale, event, festival, start-of-season opportunity – turns it into a “rallying point” to create excitement, secure partners, and get consumer and media attention. You can do this with ANYTHING, from planting your annual tulip bulbs to the day the first sand castle of the season is erected on your beach. Brand it, create deals and events around it, promote it online and through email blasts, and soon…people will be trained to anticipate it. It provides a “reason to buy.”
Harness the internet to spread the word: post it on calendars, optimize search terms, get partners to extend your email/website/social media audience, do some strategic online advertising, blog about it, send press releases to online media, and more. What used to take decades to gain traction now can take mere months, or even weeks, and with far fewer marketing dollars than ever before.
Ride the coat tails of this massive Thanksgiving weekend shopping power: do you have a deal for Black Friday, Cyber Monday, or (perhaps?) Small Business Saturday? Don’t let all that marketing equity (built on someone else’s dime) go to waste. Be ready to join in the frenzy next year.

Of course, you may not have the marketing clout – and budget – of American Express behind you like Small Business Saturday does, but with a bit of focus and a dash of creativity, you can make an impact in your own way. Think that’s not possible? Redpoint made a business-building opportunity out of mud for the New England Inns and Resorts Association. And if money can be made out of mud, surely it can be made out of anything.

Yeah…sometimes, we PR people play dirty.

Note: Lots of research was done to gather information for this blog post, but special thanks goes to Time and the Columbus Dispatch for their very clear and succinct historical articles on Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Stop using this phrase…ASAP!

February 24, 2011

Filed under: Writing Tips, The Power of Persuasion, Effective Communication — @ 10:01 am

Did you ever ask someone to do something “ASAP” and then not get what you want, when you wanted it? Here’s why that happened:

The phrase ASAP lets people choose their own deadline. It means “as soon as possible,” which – in their world – might be now, tomorrow, next Wednesday, or never. Everyone has their own to-do list and method of prioritization, so the vague direction of ASAP puts the power in the recipient’s hands to judge the level of urgency.

And this is a no-no for getting people to do what we want.

YOU keep the power, or else your own to-do list will always be at the mercy of other people’s timelines. This doesn’t mean you can’t be flexible in your deadline…but if you don’t give one as a starting point, how will the person know where it fits in their to-do list?

There was a time when ASAP implied “immediately,” but those days are over. We’ve abused the phrase too much for it to have any real meaning (see how we’ve also done this with the phrase “thanks”).

So, if you want to greatly increase the chance that your deadline will be met, be clear in your request and state the specific day/time you would like to see results.

Want to comment on this post? Do it…right now, immediately, without delay, before doing anything else, this instant.

Yikes. This ad completely backfired.

January 11, 2011

Filed under: Marketing Strategies, The Power of Persuasion, Observations From the Field — @ 7:47 am

Saw this ad (click on the image to enlarge) for the NYC Metropolitan Transit Authority on the subway last week and thought…really? This copy was created by an ad agency and likely had to go through multiple client approvals…and no one realized how silly it makes them sound?

The wording implies…

All those subway issues you’ve experienced in the past due to maintenance problems…we knew about them, but we were just sitting around waiting for other things to break in that station
After being in existence for more than a century, we’ve finally figured out how to manage repairs
And now that we’ve had this long overdue epiphany, we want you to admire us for it

I was itching to get out my Sharpie and scribble on this ad: “Dude…reality check: that’s your job. Don’t break your arm patting yourself on the back for it.”

There’s a lesson to be learned here about phrasing and positioning. When you’re touting a long overdue change to your operation that you know will please your customers, don’t sabotage the message by first reminding them that you’re late to the party. Look forward, underscore the benefits, and do not seek glory for your efforts to finally come up to scratch.

In contrast…want to see a brilliant example of advertising? Check out the July 31, 2010 post on redpointspeaks.com, “Less Words…More Meaning.”

The plight of the exclamation point.

November 15, 2010

Filed under: Writing Tips, The Power of Persuasion — @ 2:08 pm

Poor exclamation point. It is unmercifully abused.

As punctuation goes, the exclamation point is quite powerful. It conveys elevated emotion that transforms a sentence from a simple statement into a passionate communication. Case in point:

I am so happy.
I am so happy!
I am so happy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Or how about:

I am so angry.
I am so angry!
I am so angry!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The very presence of the “!” puctuates the passion behind the feeling…so why do we sometimes feel like a solitary exclamation point is insufficient? And is this an acceptable solution to communicating the emotion behind our feelings in writing?

Professionally speaking…no. In business communication, multiple exclamation points can come across to the reader as juvenile and a bit lazy. Their presence says “I have not taken the time to select the rich, meaningful words that will accurately convey my emotions, so I’ll just add a whole bunch of exclamation points to compensate for the lack of feeling.”

If we are “happy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”…are we not ecstatic, thrilled, or elated? And if we are “angry!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”…are we not incensed, livid, furious, or enraged? Seriously. Some of those words are so powerful, they don’t even require one exclamation point to communicate the strength of their sentiment. In fact, that quiet, subtle strength can often be far more influential than adding a dozen exclamation points.

There is certainly a time and place for multiple exclamation points. Believe me, I’m the first one to type “Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” to a Redpoint colleague who’s just informed me that one of our clients is going to be featured in the New York Times. It’s the perfect way to communicate my spontaneous unbridled joy. But if I got that news from the editor of the New York Times directly? No way. It definitely would be something more like “I’m delighted you found (client) of interest,” or “(client) is thrilled that you are interested.”

So, when writing professionally, take a moment to choose more powerful words and give that poor little piece of punctuation a break. It served us well when we were in junior high, but now that we’re all grown up, it’s time for us to be responsible in how we use it.