Tag Archives: marketing

Worth sharing – the best content marketing infographic I have seen

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Here’s the best content marketing infographic I have seen.

I’ve written a few posts about content marketing or inbound marketing as it is often called and how you can use it to promote your business in the local community and elsewhere.

Here are two of them:

Getting Found – the difference between inbound and outbound marketing

and

Content marketing for fitness professionals – how to get customers to come to you

But this is the best summary I have seen so far and it is so good I just had to share it.

The best content marketing infographic
With many thanks to Copyblogger.

Click here for the full-sized infographic.

Over to you: If you like this infographic please click here to tweet it. If you have any other great content marketing resources why not share them by leaving a link below?

Obsess about the content not about the shade of blue

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Should we stick rigidly to brand guidelines? Should we obsess about them? I used to think so.

My first marketing manager once called me into his office and pointed at two identical blue brochures lying on his desk. I had been responsible for getting them printed by two separate print shops.

“What the hell do you call this?” he snarled.

I put on a great impression of looking totally confused. The two brochures looked well produced and exactly the same to me.

“The two shades of blue are different. They are supposed to be the same,” he said. I dared to say I thought they looked identical so he produced a printer’s magnifying glass. These gadgets let you see the millions of dots that make up the colours on a page. When I looked through the glass, even at the microscopic level, the colours looked the same.

Obsess about the content

“It’s a disgrace get Printer#1 to do the job again and make sure they bloody well get it right.”

I left wondering whether any customer would either notice or care about the imaginary colour difference. But he was the boss and I did what I was told.

Over the years other bosses have waved brand guidelines books at me and insisted on similar correction of non-existent mistakes. Actually some haven’t been able to wave them at me because the “bibles” were to big and heavy and needed to be fork-lifted around.

Inside the rules are spelled out. Which colours you can use. What font. How much space in millimetres that you must leave, under pain of death, between the brand logo and anything else that appears on the page or screen.

Then after many years I learned another much more important lesson. I was watching colleagues debating about the colours and the position of the graphics on a promotional flyer.

Then it hit me. The headline they had was a dud. The copy sucked. And yet the guys were more worried about the colours and the graphics.

Why?

Because they had probably had their own “printer’s magnifying glass moment”
sometime in their career.

Obsess about the content, the headline, the messages and the call to action.

You won’t find me giving anyone who I work with any such lessons in trying to find a millionth of a difference in the colour of a booklet.

I tell them brand guidelines are important. Of course they are. But they are just guidelines. Guidelines don’t sell products or engage customers.

obsess about the content

In the digital world we have to act fast. You might see an opportunity at 9am and need to get an email, or advert, video or pod-cast out by 11am. You can spend that long arguing about colours and positions.

Don’t obsess about the shade of blue, obsess about the headline and the content. That’s what is going to have your customers clicking or watching or replying.

Or buying.

Over to you: I know loads of brand marketers will disagree with me on this. The rules are the rules right? All I’m saying is have some flexibility and worry more about your message. If the message is strong your customer won’t worry about the colours. Do you agree? Please leave a comment and let me know. Or click here to tweet about this post.

A last straw example of meaningless gobbledygook marketing

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I’m sorry. I need to rant about meaningless gobbledygook marketing.

Today I received an email from a marketing agency wanting to set up a meeting with me. I was so astonished by the depth of clichéd overused management style jargon that I almost feel like naming and shaming. Instead I am simmering down by sharing the beauty of the bollocks.

Here’s one of the many incredible sentences:

“Our unique, proven and collaborative approach of combining doctorate level theoretical analytics, strategy and world-class creative execution delivers ground-breaking, game-changing initiatives for ambitious brands.”

What on earth does it mean? Am I supposed to be impressed? Do they really think I want to do business with people who produce such claptrap?

There’s more.

“Our commitment to actionable strategies, ingenious ideas and sustainable impact has already led to successful outcomes.”

meaningless gobbledygook marketing

Okay hands up. I’ve used such language in an earlier more naive part of my career but now I like to think I have risen above such jargon.

If something is “unique” you know that it is just the same as everything else. If it is “very unique” you know the copywriter doesn’t realise that you can’t have degrees of uniqueness. “Innovative” is equally meaningless, “game-changing” even more so. Please don’t tell me about “value added” or how something has been “optimised” or “finessed” so that it attains the “scalability” to become “world class”.

Talk to me in plain English. That’s how I like to communicate. Verbally and in writing.

I can’t wait for the follow up call from these guys.

Over to you: This email was obviously the last straw for me hence the rant. Please share your own examples of meaningless gobbledygook marketing. I’d love to read them and perhaps create a list of the most magnificent and meaningless.

Where can you find raw product design talent and exciting marketing development ideas?

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Isn’t it a shame how good creative ideas for products or marketing campaigns are often smothered by the politics and bureaucracy in big companies? If I’m ever worn down by an never ending conveyor belt of IT, Compliance and Risk people who have an endless list of “Why Nots”, I look to the graduating students in product design at The Glasgow School of Art (GSA) for inspiration.

For the last few years I have been a judge (for Service Design Network UK)  looking at the top four projects that the finalists have created. We select a winner based upon their 10 minute presentation (makes me feel like a Dragon in the Den) and their business and marketing plans.

This is raw product design talent. It is a hot-house of creative marketing development ideas. I am always overwhelmed by their enthusiasm and drive.

This year I saw:

Lizzie and her Tempting Tastebuds. Lizzie made a remarkable leap to reach her idea. Having seen a Marks and Spencer competition to design a special picnic – she came across an article entitled “Chemotherapy is no picnic”. Further research revealed such treatment suppresses people’s appetite.  So it prompted her to design a range of highly nutritious meals that could be eaten in small amounts. She researched the recipes and designed a whole selection of packaging and a marketing campaign to go with it.

GSA product design talent marketing development ideas

Daniel and his Hermitage luxury portable hotel rooms. Daniel had spotted a trend for increasingly high end luxury hotels. But what happens if the remote lake you want to visit does not have any accommodation? Hermitage is an idea for a portable luxury unit that is helicoptered into the desired location. I was particularly impressed with his self produced TV advert which in my opinion was of broadcast quality.

GSA product design talent marketing development ideas

Fi and her Make/Work matchmaking service for suppliers and producers. Fi had identified a problem faced by people who make things (clothes or just about any product you can think of) being able to easily source local raw materials without hours of Google trawling. Her Make/Work website brings the two together very easily. And Fi has personally created a huge network of contacts. The idea is highly franchise-able.

GSA product design talent marketing development ideas

Phoebe, Flora, John and Luke and their Dementia Dog. The team built upon the principle of guide dogs for the blind and developed the dementia dog to help bring routine into the lives of Alzheimer’s sufferers. Not only have they created a Dementia Dog Website and a full business plan but have even secured investment funding to trial their idea for real.

GSA product design talent marketing development ideas

It was a close call but we awarded the prize to the Dementia Dog project. Talking to the graduates afterwards over a beer, I was again taken by their creativity and passion. I wish them all well deserved success in their careers.

GSA product design talent marketing development ideas

Me and Dr Gordon Hush with the finalists

When they encounter their own never ending conveyor belt of IT, Compliance and Risk people who have an endless list of “why nots”, I hope that their ideas and ambitions prevail.

Over to you: What’s the best new idea you’ve heard about for a new product or service? Or have you got any funny stories about how you have persevered against the “why nots”? Please leave a comment and share your experiences.