The inventiveness and ingenuity of entrepreneurs never ceases to amaze me. Their ability to see a problem where others don’t, and to create solutions that others can’t is why I’m involved with the Missouri Venture Forum. Our work to support these trailblazers is what excites me most about the work we do.

Last month, I attended the ‘Start-Up Connection’ where local entrepreneurs presented their business ideas to anyone who would listen; potential investors, possible partners, future employees, and service providers.

What struck me most as I walked through the exhibit hall wasn’t the inventiveness and determination of the presenting companies, it was their inability to tell their story simply.

Don’t get me wrong…I’m no genius (and there is plenty of documented proof to support this), but there were several times when I tried intently to understand a presenters idea, and came away completely empty.

• were they too technical with me?
• were they too vague with their product?
• did they not demonstrate the need in the marketplace for their new ‘mousetrap’?

These were talented, enthusiastic entrepreneurs with great ideas and many of them will be wildly successful. They were skilled at employing or creating new technology and capitalizing on trends in the marketplace…but most would have benefited from some good old fashioned storytelling.

Often times when somebody tries to teach me something, I have to repeat it back to them, to make sure I understand. It often starts with…”let me see if I get this right…” and I try to repeat what I’ve just heard. This way, there’s little chance of miscommunication. If I’m wrong, they simply correct me, and we repeat the process until I understand what they’re trying to tell me.

This process works great when both parties have the time to talk on-one-one. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case during trade shows in exhibit halls. Passersby need to understand your message quickly…or they simply move on.

Many presenters fell into common traps:

Processezzzzzz. There’s a time and place to get into the detailed minutia of your company’s processes. There are definitely times when this is appropriate…a trade show banner is not the place.
Feature Focus. Nobody has ever bought a feature. Not once. Ever. People engage emotionally with value, utility and satisfaction.
Many companies used too many words (and jargon) and too few visuals (or the wrong visuals).

Remember, people can only tell your story if they understand it.

The secret formula: Hooray for Hollywood

There’s no reason to re-invent the wheel. Think of yourself as a movie producer. What will be interesting to the audience? What do they care about (market potential, return on investment, social good)? Can they identify with the characters (your business)? Do they see the potential? Can you make it heart warming, visually stimulating, funny?

Will they pay to see it?

OK, there is no secret formula, its common sense really:
Start your story with the landscape or current situation. Give them some background on the ‘big picture’.
Consider the audience, and tailor the message appropriately.
Use foreshadowing to show them the solution. Determine what the perfect world looks like for them, then reverse-engineer the ideal future. Demonstrate how they get from where they are to where they can be. Literally draw a map for them.
Tell related stories, hand-picked for your audience. Not boring case studies, but stories.
Go ahead and end the story with how they get started. Make it easy for them with a simple call to action.

Remember to keep it simple, and once you find out who you’re talking to, have key messages that resonate with them.

Tell your story simply and well…and it will spread like wildfire.

One of the first questions new clients ask about marketing is ‘Where should I start?’.

There are so many marketing tools, it can be a daunting challenge. Once the brand is established, do you:

• build your website?
• create a trade show booth?
• send direct mail?
• refine your presentation materials?
• produce a series of print ads?
• rely on social media?

The answer is…whatever will bring you cash in the door fastest.

Clients sometimes forget that marketing shouldn’t cost them money, it should make them money. There will always be some low hanging fruit, and that should be picked first, it will:

• help with cash-flow
• have the highest immediate ROI
• have ‘legs’…and can be re-used again
• set the foundation for future marketing efforts

The old saying about eating an elephant one bite at a time is true with marketing, too. We just like to start with the tastiest bite first.

1. They are easy to write
   We don’t need to worry about things like facts, paragraphs or writing style. Just bang out a point and a sentence or two to convince the reader.
2. Content is king
   Or so I’ve been told. In the interactive world, impressions to your site matter. An easy way to do that is through blog post or articles. When you lack inspiration, just come up with another top 10 list.
3. They don’t require tricky things… like facts
   Research is tough, why bother, just make broad generalizations and people will believe them anyway (e.g. “Impressions to your site matter”). Besides, they are reading your post, you are the expert.
4. You are busy
   We are all busy, so why waste your time reading something that requires concentration. If you wanted to do that you’d buy a book or a magazine.
5. Twitter only allows 140 characters
   So people must not like to read anymore. One of the great things about not having editors and facts is that logical failures (like the one in previous sentence) go unnoticed.
6. People search for them on the internet
   See the chart below. I’ll leave the interpretation of the data to your imagination. But believe me search engines are important.
   
7. People retweet top 10 lists
   They really do. Honest. Heck here is a picture of a top 10 search results on twitter. Some of these have been retweeted.



8. It makes the reader feel smart
   Readers may think to themselves, “This is easy, I could have written this” (note, they are probably correct). So instead of a smug journalist, you come off as smart, but not-too-smart-for-his/her-own-good blogger.
9. Counting is fun
   We learned to do it as children, and unlike Calculus and Algebra, it’s something we actually use every day. People usually put a weak point in #9, to reinforce the strength of their 10th point. For proof, watch David Letterman’s top 10 countdown.
10. Top 10 lists can drive comments to your site
    People can think of one you forgot to include and say “Hey Brian, great list, but you forgot to talk about engagement. Social media is all about engagement these days”.
    If I missed any reasons, please do this below and prove me right. If there are no comments, I’ll just assume my list was perfect and you found no flaws in it.

In the movie “City Slickers”, when they’re talking about the key to happiness, Jack Palance’s character (Curly) holds up one finger, and tells Billy Crystal’s character (Mitch) that the key to happiness is “one thing”. It was up to Mitch to find his ‘one thing’.

Good marketing is a lot like that.

Too often companies make the mistake of trying to be all things to all people. The most obvious example of this is when companies try to list everything they do in their ads, emails, and conversations with prospects.

Guess what? They don’t care.

Potential customers don’t have the time, interest, or energy to learn your life story. They’re just interested in that ‘one thing’. It could be innovation, customer service, or even price. But, it’s just one thing.

Good marketing isn’t about ‘you’, it’s about your prospect.

The next time you’re tempted to rattle off a laundry list of every possible reason someone might want to do business with you, take a minute and try to determine what you do that is most important to them.

Then, be that ‘one thing’.

image source

“The Cobbler’s Kids Have No Shoes”

You may have heard this one before, but this old adage essentially means that because the shoemaker is so busy making shoes for his customers they end up having no time for to make them for their own children. And so it often goes for marketing agencies and their own marketing collateral especially virtual agencies without a large staff.

We’re trying to buck that trend here at Spoke and you’re looking at phase one, a redesigned Spoken Whirred blog. The design of this caused me to reflect on how we got here and the branding process in general.

Defining Brand

Branding derives it’s meaning from ‘branding a mark onto something’ or what you would see cowboys do with a hot branding iron to cattle in older Westerns.¹ This term has evolved into modern marketing parlance to define how a business or product makes a mark on their target audiences mind. Today branding encompasses a wide variety of things including:

• the logo and type treatment.
• the key messaging you use to define your business and the voice you use to communicate to your audience.
• and of course the visual elements – color palettes, graphic design, illustration and photography you use in advertising, website and other marketing collateral.

Since your company’s brand includes all of these elements it evolves over time, usually starting with a logo and messaging and then bigger brand “anchor” pieces like your website, corporate brochures, trade show collateral and advertisements. Each subsequent marketing tactic is adding another layer to your brand, and contributing to what a potential customer will view, hear or read when making a purchasing decision about the business.

The Invisible or Inconsistent Brand

Problems with brands usually creep in as part of normal business operations:

• You do an one-off brochure before a big product launch or tradeshow
• You create your own PowerPoint design based on a template
• You let the magazine or newspaper take your logo and make an ad (with inconsistent fonts and messaging)

The next thing you know, you have a inconsistent brand. These inconsistencies aren’t things potential customers will consciously notice or point out, but taken together your inconsistent use of fonts & colors, the changing corporate tone and voice and having different version of your logo on each thing they see will give them a less favorable opinion of your business and can lead to lost opportunities or business.

Become a Brand Bully

How do you avoid this…? As a business owner you need to define your brand, know that it will change over time and remain vigilant about keeping strict standards about how your business is represented (or shameless plug time – better yet, outsource to an agency like Spoke to do it for you).

What does this have to do with this blog? Well, the design we originally used for this blog no longer fit Spoke’s brand as it evolved, so we decided to redesign it and get it back on track.  This is the first step in a brand refining process that every company needs to go through… Even cobbler’s occasionally need to make shoes for themselves.

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Author’s note: I will be recapping my daily experiences at SXSW interactive conference starting Friday, March 12. Follow me on twitter to get real time updates of SXSW as it occurs.