Human Interest

How To Produce Content To Attract Clients or Customers

Every business must think of itself as a media producer in the age of digital marketing. But how do you become in effect a newspaper, magazine, or TV news station online.? What do you write about or feature in videos?

Produce Content That Goes Beyond The Surface To Seek Answers

In journalism we covered beats. A police beat reporter established relationships with detectives, desk sergeants, and patrol officers. A good reporter listened, asked questions, and broke stories.

Produce Content That Focuses On The Main Issues

The process is no different for companies. Your sales team and representatives have relationships with customers. Ask yourself, what do our customers or clients talk about? What’s always on their mind? What are their challenges or pain points? [Read more…] about How To Produce Content To Attract Clients or Customers

Do You Define Yourself or Company Brand on a Daily Basis?

by Brad Besancon

If Your Personal or Company Brand Is Not Clearly Defined, It May Get Hijacked

Transcript

Robert: If you don’t tell your own story, someone else will tell it for you.

Brad: Absolutely.

Robert: If something is happening around your company and you’re not out there, your competitor, an upset customer, they will tell that story for you.

Brad: One crisis.

Robert: Right. If you do not define yourself, if you haven’t defined yourself in the bio, the description on your webpage, all your social media, somebody is going to define you in the terms that you do not like.

Brad: And it’s a daily thing or a weekly thing for companies out there in the digital world. You say it all the time. Be your own publisher. Be your own – pump out good quality content. What does that mean? Well, that’s back to audience speak and understanding all that. We’ve talked to that ad nauseam.

But you’ve always said – we’ve had a couple of clients where there has been a midlevel crisis I would say because of a couple of complaints.

Robert: Yeah.

Brad: What are some of the things that happened that we had to spend six months fixing it?

Robert: Well, they sat with the lawyers for days. Days, twiddling thumbs. You cannot do that. Literally, it’s seconds. There are precious seconds or you’ve lost it. It has gone away on you. You have to immediately show that you are what – you’re aware of the problem. You’re dealing with the problem. You don’t have to take a stance about the problem necessarily. But you better show people that hey, we’re on it.

Brad: You got to have a plan.

Robert: Right.

Brad: Right? The bottom line is in – United Airlines.

Robert: Yes.

Brad: In a matter of seconds, literally seconds, maybe minutes on the high end, their reputation was destroyed when that gentleman was taken off the plane.

Robert: Well, I mean here’s what every company, anybody in business needs to know and they need to – they need to school their – all of their employees on it. You’re always on camera now. You’re on – it is –

Brad: Every action.

Robert: Every action you take is being scrutinized by someone who has got their cell phone out. It’s going to be on social. It’s going to be – you need this awareness that you are always on. You’re always subject to being criticized, evaluated and hey, sometimes, good things happen and people put them off as well.

Brad: And guess who else has got that camera. Your competitors and that’s the whole key of the discussion is putting yourself out of business before they do.

Robert: Yeah.

Brad: So have those conversations.

Robert: Oh, and, you know – hey listen. If I’m a guerilla marketer and my competitor, like a United, that happens, oh, I’m going to get out there on the backend of the dark web and everything else.

Brad: Yeah.

Robert: And I’m going to really –

Brad: Lots of stories.

Robert: Yes. I’m going to really boost that.

Brad: Lots of stories.

Robert: I’m really going to help it.

Brad: Yeah.

Robert: Yeah. So there are a lot of people that are better than the Russians at this.

Brad: Yeah. And they do it every day.

Robert: Yeah, yeah.

[End of transcript]

Debunking The Rule of 7 Impressions

by Brad Besancon

Is the Rule of Seven in Marketing Outdated in the Digital Age?

One of marketing’s oldest concepts is the rule of seven. It states that a prospective buyer needs to hear or see the marketing message at least seven times before they buy it from you.

Brad and Robert explore that rule today.

Transcript

Robert: Hello. I’m Robert. This is Brad and we’re here today with Clarity to debunk the “rule of 7”. That you got to have seven impressions before somebody will buy something. What’s wrong with that in the digital age?

Brad: Yeah. I don’t know if there’s anything wrong with it. But there has been a lot of talk recently. A Forbes article really highlighted what’s really critical in today’s kind of marketing world, if you will, with the consumers.

You know, and one of the key things they said was is that only about three percent of your clientele or your particular audience, that we always like to say, is ready to buy. So why are we hounding and hounding and hounding and hounding all these people? I mean I think at some point, you do have to reach a large audience. So you have to have reach and impressions. But how much benefits are you actually getting?

We always get told ROI, ROI, ROI. So you have to think about that. One of the things the article highlighted, which is what we’ve been saying for a while, is with product or your brand, you have to kind of create a journey through that sales funnel, right?

Robert: Yes.

Brad: Old school sales funnel and that experience and that journey with your product or your service, by basically just becoming a resource for them, information on how to use the product, things that are associated with your product or service, it doesn’t necessarily – it’s about your product or service.

Robert: Well, give your current customers and your prospects helpful, useful information to solve the simple pain points in their life and then –

Brad: Everyday things.

Robert: If you build their trust, then you might get that call. They might become –

Brad: Yeah. I think the key is, is that building that trust will eventually – you have to – the bottom line is you have to connect at a different level and just come buy my product and we can solve the problem A, right? You have to also be B, C, D, E and F nowadays because the consumer is education, you know.

Me and you were talking earlier about a headset. You know, Robert bought a headset. He didn’t just go buy a headset anymore because somebody says, “Hey, this is a good headset.” He goes and reads reviews. He goes on price checks. He goes and checks on products, service.

Robert: Yes.

Brad: Maybe even a warranty or whatever. So it’s an educated customer. So you have to play a different role.

Robert: And then after I had it, one of my friends called me and said, “You know, I really need a headset like yours. I drive a lot and all. What do you have? Will you send me a link?”

Brad: Link. Yeah.

Robert: Send a link to Amazon. And you know what? He bought it. He looked at comparisons. His friend had suggested it. That’s how digital has done the paradigm shift.

Brad: Yeah, it’s all in the palm of your hands that we’ve always talked about. It’s mobile, mobile, mobile. It’s right here now.

Robert: But talk to them about the – well, first off, I like what you say. You talked about you got to make the connection where.

Brad: Yeah. It has got –

Robert: In the heart.

Brad: It can’t just be in the pocketbook anymore. You can’t just sell on features and benefits and say, “Well, this is a great product and this is a great price.”

It has got to be – you’ve got to hit them here. I recently bought a new set of golf clubs. Not new. They were used. But one of the things that always comes up with golfers and any kind – anybody that has a hobby, whether it’s bike riding, mountain bike riding, golfing, camping, appearance is important, right?

Robert: Oh, yeah. You like the look of the club. When you hold the club in your hand, it sits on the ground. It looks good on the ground. It feels good in your hand. You swing it. You hit the ball. Same thing with everything. I sit on the bike. It feels good. It rides good. I go to the next brand. Maybe it doesn’t feel the same or whatever.

So it’s making that connection at different levels amongst the whole experience around that product. So sure, I may be on a mountain bike that’s $4000. But I might have had a better experience from a product standpoint on one that was $800 because it fit better.

Robert: Yeah.

Brad: And I liked it more or whatever. I’m still in the same place, right? I’m still in the same environment. I’m still in the same mountain. But because the product made a different connection with me, in my heart if you will, then I bought that product and I had a better experience.

Robert: So I think you’ve said the most important thing here to close the zone and it’s that people don’t buy features and benefits. That comes into it later. They buy experience.

Brad: You’re buying an experience. So if you’re not creating experiences in social and your website and information and content – it’s always about content – then you’re losing audience.

Robert: That’s the Clarity Clip of the week. Focus on experiences.

Brad: Have a good one, guys.

[End of transcript]

3 Tips For Business Owners To Make Their Websites Mobile Friendly

by Brad Besancon

Mobile Friendly Websites – Interacting With Your Brand

Transcript

Transcript

Brad: You better be thinking mobile first with website design. You better be thinking mobile first with photography, content. How is your social media?

You know, 60 something percent of our time online now is in social media. So how are you using this to better your brand and your connection?

Mobile Friendly Design

Robert: You have to first look, “Well, what does that look like on the mobile phone?”

Brad: On the phone, on a 4.5, 5-inch screen, not a 27-inch desktop anymore.

Robert: You as the executive and business owner, you might be still looking at the desktop. But I got to tell you something. You’re not your customer. That’s not the way they experience the world. It’s not the way they’re going to experience your product or your service.

AudienceSpeak

Brad: Yeah, it’s right back to audience speak. What is the people you’re trying to target doing? How are they interacting with your brand? How are they interacting with life? Which now we interact with life right here now.

Robert: Yeah.

Brad: We don’t just come to a mall anymore and hang out. We’ve got to show on Instagram. We got to check in. We got to do all this stuff. That’s the screen between life we’re now seeing.

Robert: So here are some questions for you as a business owner. If you’re wondering what those kids downstairs are doing with your brand and social media and all, well, first off – and the developers, because you don’t speak their language. But here are some simple things that will equip you to ask the right questions.

Mobile Friendly = Mobile First

One, is it mobile first? Go look at your own website on the phone. Does it stack up? Does everything look right to you on the phone? Secondly –

Brad: I got another one. Call your customer service department and see how it works.

Mobile Friendly – Touch to Call

Robert: Yeah, yeah. So on the phone. Can I touch the phone number and call your office? Can I touch the address and it takes me –?

Mobile Friendly – Maps

Brad: Get the map.

Mobile Friendly – Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP Pages)

Robert: Immediately to the map. You would be surprised how much this is not going on. Another question I ask them is that – developers, “Are we on AMP? Are we AMP-ed? AMP-ed up?” Well, what does that mean? That means accelerated mobile pages.

Everything online –

Brad: Download.

Mobile Friendly = Pleasing Google

Robert: Yes. Everything online these days is about pleasing Google, kissing up to Google and as much as you might dislike that, they own it.

Brad: It’s the way it is.

Robert: So they’re big on a thing called “AMP” and what this means is there’s a code put on every one of the pages of your website. That’s going to mean they load on the phone, they load mobile much, much faster. Why is that important? Well, it’s because you want to please Google and you know that somewhere down the line, if I haven’t done that, well, and my competitor has, then they have an advantage on us.

Brad: Well then again, people aren’t experiencing who you are or what you’re about or anything about you on a desktop anymore.

Robert: Right.

Brad: In that scenario where I asked Robert for a recommendation, guess what Brad is going to do the minute after Robert says, “Call Bob Jones,” or whatever.

Robert: Yeah.

Brad: I’m going to go look at Bob Jones right there. It’s right here now. Everything is right here that I need.

Mobile Friendly – Page Speed

Robert: So you go there. What if it just takes forever to load? The pages are not coming up and all. Well, you as the business owner/executive, hey, we’re going to give you a tip down in the bottom of the notes here of how you can go check up on the developers into doing their job. There’s a page speed test. It’s available to all developers. Obviously there’s a lot not using it.

Brad: Yeah.

Robert: But it’s going to tell you. It’s going to rate your website, the mobile experience and the speed because Google is measuring how fast your page opens in milliseconds. It’s a race. But what it is about is that – do you want to frustrate your customer? It’s almost the equivalent –

Brad: It may not even be a customer.

Robert: Yeah, your prospect.

Brad: It may not even be a customer there.

Robert: It’s like leaving someone on hold when you call.

Brad: Yeah.

Robert: That is the way it is.

Brad: Good start [0:03:19] [Phonetic].

Robert: That’s our Clarity Clip of the week. We will see you here in the next couple of weeks.

[End of transcript]

There’s A Screen Between You And Your Customers. Is Your Brand Present?

by Brad Besancon

Mobile First: The Screen Between Your Audience and Your Brand

Transcript

VideoTranscript

Brad: Well, hello everyone. It’s Brad and Robert with Clarity Clip again and we are sitting in NorthPark Center Mall here in Dallas, Texas and we’re – it actually is Valentine’s Day and we’re wandering around here doing some observations, some – listening to things, speak research. What are we seeing?

Robert: Well, we’re seeing couples on Valentine’s, a special moment, and they’re going, “Hey, honey. I love you,” and she’s sitting right over there.

Brad: Yeah, they’re texting.

Robert: Oh, I love you too.

Brad: It’s the screen between.

Robert: Smile, heart, heart, heart.

Brad: The screen between.

Robert: Yes.

Experiencing Life With The Screen Between

Brad: The screen between. And one of the things we’ve really noticed – I mean this isn’t new, right folks? This isn’t new. But really over the last couple of years, it has really gotten bad, if we can say bad. But what we call it now is we call it life being experienced with a screen between. We don’t just go to a kid’s event anymore. We don’t go to a football game anymore. We don’t come to the mall anymore without doing what? We’re on our phone.

Robert: Yes.

Brad: And we can’t just watch our child sing or dance. We have to video it. “What do they do with all the video?” I wonder. What do people do with all that video if they get done with it? This is so bad that I heard the social secretary for President George W. Bush talk about – it became an issue in the White House and these are big, high-end donors. They’re all aged. They’re baby boomers. They’re older and stuff and they started getting complaints at all the events for the donors and supporters that no one can see the president because everybody has got –

Brad: Everybody has got – everybody is doing this.

Robert: Yeah. So they literally – the Secret Service had a bucket as you would go in and they started collecting them. So the fact that that demographic –

Brad: It’s not millennials. It’s not just millennials.

Robert: It’s everywhere.

Brad: It’s everyone.

Robert: That’s what our clients do not understand.

Think Mobile First With Web Design

Brad: Yes. One of the things we’re also seeing, which we’ve been preaching, we’ve been talking about for years in our company is you better be thinking mobile first. With website design, you better be thinking mobile first. With photography, content.

How is your social media? You know, 60 something percent of our time online now is in social media. So how are you using this to better your brand and your connection? Because there’s no more, “Hey Robert, do you know somebody that does this?” and I just – yeah, call this guy and I just call him. It’s over.

Robert: So first off, if your team in your company and marketing, there’s – talking about a new website or they’re talking about what they do on Facebook, you have to first look, “Well, what does that look like on the mobile phone?”

Think Mobile First and Responsive Design

Brad: On the phone, on a 4.5, 5-inch screen, not a 27-inch desktop anymore.

AudienceSpeak: Communicating Your Message & Brand Through The Screen

Robert: Yeah.

Brad: We don’t just come to a mall anymore and hang out. We’ve got to show on Instagram. We got to check in. We got to do all this stuff. Mobile, mobile, mobile because we are living in a screen between lifestyle now. So you have to think, “How can I get in between my potential client or customer’s life with that screen between?”

So whatever they’re experiencing, how do I interject my brand into that screen between to really connect and converse and then ultimately convert, right? That’s what we’re here for. So that’s our Clarity Clip of the week. We will see you here in the next couple of weeks and guys, get out there and enjoy life. Put the screen between down.

Robert: Thank you.

[End of transcript]