About Jodi Kaplan

Are You Marketing the Wrong Way?

Posted on May 17, 2012 by Jodi Kaplan

A reverse-color “Wrong Way” sign (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

People try to sell you a lot of things nowadays. There are ads nearly everywhere you look. Subways, billboards, TV, even elevators and bathrooms.

You see it whether you want to or not. Most of it is unfocused and rather random. Ads for diapers, followed by one for beer, and then one for grass seed.

After a while, you start to tune it all out. Rather than paying attention, you fast-forward, walk faster, or head to the kitchen for a snack.

Indundating isn’t marketing

They don’t seem to know, or care, what you want, so they bombard you with messages, hoping something sticks. Often, they repeat the same tired ad over and over (as if repetition will make it more interesting).

None of it is remarkable.

None of it is memorable.

GM just pulled its advertising from Facebook. Nobody was buying cars from their ads. None of the ads started a conversation; they just shouted.

It’s all failed marketing.

Trying to sell your services that way (a barrage of me! me! me!) doesn’t work. Customers aren’t there for you, you’re there for them.

Stop the failed marketing

Skip the “me! me! me!” and talk about “you! you! you!” instead. Tell a story about previous customers used your products or services. Describe how your customers feel after they buy from you. Talk about what they will get from it and how your previous customers (and other people like your prospects) felt after using your services.

Rather than “I’m a video trainer, hire me”, try “become a video star” or “go viral on Youtube.”

Notice the focus on emotions, rather than hard, cold facts. People don’t make decisions based on facts; they make them based on feelings. Then they use the facts to justify their emotional choice.

Sell the hole, not the drill

It’s an old, old saying in marketing that you sell the result, not the how you got it: the hole, not the drill.

Processes are hard. Results are fun. Many people want to lose weight, for example, but few people want to diet or exercise. Exercising and dieting aren’t a lot of fun. Looking and feeling better (after you’ve lost those extra pounds is.) Ads for diets never sell the process, only the result. What are you really selling? Fame? Money? Pride? Happiness? Figure that out and your marketing will succeed.

Tuesday Travels: Cool Tools for Creatives

Posted on May 15, 2012 by Jodi Kaplan

Aerogel crayons (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Today, a choice of online creative tools, from making your email easier, to faster web site production, and beautifying your site.

Breezi – A simple (really!) way to create web sites. Just drag, drop, and edit (like you would in a word processor). Love the sly references to unicorns too. If you’re technologically challenged, this could make it much easier to create your own web site.

Clarify It – Turns screenshots into pdfs, adds them to existing documents, or lets you share with Google+ circles. Would be great for technical manuals, quick tutorials, or work flow procedures.

CSS Arrows – Creates handsome looking arrow boxes, useful for tooltips or emphasizing a sign-in box. No coding necessary, just plug in the size and color you want and the tool does the rest.

What Do You Really Sell? Why Your Marketing Should Be More Like Bacon

Posted on May 10, 2012 by Jodi Kaplan

bacon rasher from pixabay

Most business marketing doesn’t focus on what they’re really selling.

It’s full of vegetables (with not nearly enough bacon),

Most people like bacon, in fact they like it much better than say brussels sprouts. Or kale.

The trouble is that many businesses sell the kale, which is good for you (instead of the bacon, which is delicious).

What is your business really selling? Kale or bacon?

Here’s what I mean.

Say your business is growing and you need a part-time bookkeeper. You hate working with numbers, and wrestling with them is taking hours out of your day. If you’re going to think about numbers, you’d much rather figure out how to buy that new Macbook you have your eye on.

So you talk to some people and get some recommendations for bookkeepers. The first one highlights his twenty years of experience, several certifications, and a long list of services (bookkeeping, bill paying, checkbook reconciliation, etc.).

The business that’s really selling kale

At your first meeting, he looks at your books and advises you in the strongest terms to reduce your debt. Sound advice, but it’s not “fun” or appealing. Rather like being told to eat kale. You know it’s something you should do, but you’d much rather reach for the bacon.

The business that’s really selling bacon

The second one does something a bit different. She listens carefully and finds out how much you hate number-crunching (and all the time it takes). She also finds out how much you really want that laptop.

Rather than going on about her credentials, she promises to get you an extra two hours a day. Except for a monthly report, you’ll never have to look at numbers again. Just send her all the paperwork, and she’ll handle it. She says she’ll make the entire process easy and painless, so you can focus on your work, rather than your books.

And, instead of trying to “sell” you on debt reduction (vegetables), she shows you how to get the money to pay for that laptop (bacon!).

Which one do you think you’d hire?

What you really sell

Think about this for your own business. What is it you’re really selling?

A ghostwriter isn’t selling words; she’s really selling fame.

The authors of get rich (online or off) books aren’t selling books, they’re selling hope. So is Weight Watchers.

Disney doesn’t sell theme parks, they sell happiness.

What people really buy

What people really want isn’t the service or the product. They really want the result. What will they get by buying from you or hiring you? Happiness? Hope? Money? Glory?

Rational arguments (like the first bookkeeper’s advice to save money and cut back), aren’t nearly as powerful as emotional ones (new toys!).

Think about your own business. Go look at your web site or your other marketing materials. Are they selling vegetables? Or bacon?

A Ridiculously Effective Marketing Technique from Two Chinese Potato Players

Posted on May 3, 2012 by Jodi Kaplan

Potato image via Wikapedia

Playing a potato? I’m sure you (and I) never thought of a potato as an instrument.

Baked as a side dish, yes. Turned into french fries, absolutely. A basis for potato salad, sure. You can even make a science project that uses a potato as a power source for a lamp.

But not an instrument.

Same thing for carrots and leeks.

Music? Or soup?

Put those things together and they don’t really sound terribly musical. In fact, the first thing that comes to mind isn’t music, but soup.

It can be done though.

Nan Weidong and Nan Weiping, two brothers in China, have become known for just that. They drill holes in the vegetables, and tune them with an old electronics tuner.

The result: music.

Think different

Sure it sounds a bit odd, but it works. In fact, they’ve become very popular performers, and and earn up to $8,000 per show.

Being a musician, that’s ordinary. Playing the potato; that’s different.

They’ve found a way to clearly and absolutely differentiate themselves from every other musician on the planet. Who else plays the potato? Nobody.

Find your edge

Some call it an edge, others a “game-jumper”, still others a USP (unique selling proposition). Whatever you call it, it’s something that makes you stand out. and makes you different enough that people will talk about it.

If you have no musical talent (or vegetable carving skills), there are plenty of other ways to do this.

You could make something complicated really simple (like Gary Vaynerchuk did with wine – he talks about it like a layman, not like a wine snob). Or, you could do something slowly, or by hand, that most do very quickly or by machine.

Be worth talking about, and your fame will spread. It might even spread all the way to China.

Friday Fun: The Most Entertaining Employee Handbook You’ll Ever Read

Posted on April 27, 2012 by Jodi Kaplan

3 ring binder (opened) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The words “employee handbook” don’t usually promise a “fun” read.

Most of the time, you’ll see phrases such as, “Employees accrue 1/4 vacation days for every one month of employment. Vacation days may be used only after six months of full-time employment, and expire at the end of the year. Vacation requests must be approved by your supervisor…” Blah. Blah. Blah.

This one is different. For one thing, it has cartoons. The vacation section starts with a caption advising you to find someone to watch your cats. it says things like:

Nobody has ever been fired at Valve for making a mistake. It wouldn’t make sense for us to operate that way. Providing the freedom to fail is an important trait of the company—we couldn’t expect so much of individuals if we also penalized people for errors.

Read the entire handbook here.