What makes an exceptional story?

I was told recently that we had an "exceptional marketing story" around a particular function of the business, but the problem was that it wasn't told in a comprehensive or consistent manner. So is it really an exceptional story?

An exceptional marketing story is something that can be easily told, easily remembered and resonates with the recipient. If it doesn't do this, it isn't an exceptional story.

Too often in marketing you will hear people say that we have a great story, but no one gets it, or understands it. This by default means you don't have a great story. A great product or solution does not equal a great story.

Ready, Fire, Aim...

Just a tip for those that might read this and are in marketing...

Whenever someone tells you that by doing a targeted message, or a targeted campaign (no matter the industry) is going to take longer, your response should be "So."

If you think it is more important to rush something out the door now, be it a campaign, a promotion, a product, etc. than to take the additional time to make sure you have the right message reaching the right person at the right time, then you are doomed for failure.

This is the classic Ready, Fire, Aim approach, and I am mired in it right now. Everyone wants to seem like they are doing something so they come up with these ideas for programs, promotions, etc. and just fling them against the wall. Unfortunately nothing is sticking (as is usually the case). It's like shooting at a target without taking the time to actually aim. Eventually you might hit it, but what have you expended in the process?? The more people a message has to reach and resonate with, the more diluted, and the less effective it gets.

Take the extra hour, day or week to aim before firing. It will be worth it in the end.

Marketing sells the first, Service sells the rest

In most business, it isn't the first sale that generates the revenue and the profits that businesses seek. It's the repeat business. Getting a customer for the first time is expensive. Sales costs, marketing costs, it all adds up. But assuming that the job is done correctly, customer purchase 2 and 3 and so on should cost the company less time and less money.

Customer retention is like dating. When you first start, there is a lot of work that needs to be done. Flowers and dinners and trips. But once you get married, the maintenance is less in order to keep the same level of happiness and excitement. A well-timed flower, card or compliment.

How does this translate? It's about service. As great of a job that is done by sales and marketing up front, it is up to service to maintain the relationship and keep things moving in the positive direction. For me, this became very evident on a recent trip. I absolutely refuse to fly Delta now. I will go out of my way to avoid them. It's not that the plane wasn't sufficient, or that I didn't get to my destination, or that there aren't problems on other airlines. It's that the customer service was so poor that I refuse to deal with them any more.

As marketers, this is important for us to keep in mind. Service should be a huge part of any marketing plan that we put together, and should be kept in consideration at all times. Work with the service organization to make sure that they are living up to the promises that you are making on behalf of the company.

A new type of Bait and Switch

The bait and switch. A term that has been tossed around for years that implies negative marketing. You tell a customer you have some amazing deal only to find out the deal doesn't exist and they must instead buy something of higher monetary value. It's bad and it's illegal. So why do I want to talk about it?

Over the past week on two instances, I've thought about the bait and switch from an entirely different perspective. Let's start with my car buying experience over the weekend. I've been looking at buying a BMW (insert yuppie comment here) for quite some time. I found what appeared to be a great deal, and headed to my local dealership. When I got there, was the first car that I looked at the one that I was interested in? No, of course not. When I walked on, I wanted to look at the top of the line, state-of-the-art, best thing out there. Then I went and looked at my car.

The same type of thing happened a couple days later during a training session. One of the salespeople said something that really stuck in my head. "Everyone wants to talk about iCT." That's when it clicked. See, the iCT is a super sophisticated, high-end CT scanner. The technology is amazing and everyone wants to know about it. Can everyone afford it? Absolutely not. But does it mean something when they buy the powerful workhorse scanner from the company that makes the iCT? You bet it does.

Customers want to see companies put their best foot forward. They want to see what the top-of-the-line technology is. They want to see where the future might lie, where they aspire to get to someday. This is present in all buying decisions, and all sales whether it is B2B or B2C. There is something about saying you own this widget from a company that makes this amazing superwidget. It's the thought that you can some day be there.

Think about your own life. How often do you look at the high-end, but purchase a little more reasonably? We all want to drive a Mercedes, but then buy a Volkswagen. We want the 62", 2" thick superHD TV, but buy the "standard" 32" LCD.

As marketers, it's up to us to support those dreams. Show what our companies are capable of, show the places a customer can go. Yeah, they may not buy the latest whiz-bang gadget, but they will buy a gadget. And they'll keep wondering if and when they can get to the next level.

Tell a great story. Put your company's best foot forward. Help your customer dream.