Your biggest marketing opportunity is free and tragically neglected.
I have spent a good chunk of the past 15 years sitting through mind-numbing PowerPoint presentations. I am sure I’m not alone in this, right? Sadly, the owners of these incredible performances continue to this day, gleefully laboring over slide after slide, logically putting one damn bullet point after another until they feel satisfied their victims (the audience) are thoroughly beaten down by every factoid the presenter could possibly share in a single presentation. Now tell the truth: you have done a few of these numbers yourself, right? I have, and I have the glazed stares (and lost sales) etched in my mind to prove it. The lost opportunities and wasted time due to bad presentations every day is incalculable.

What do I mean by bad? Little or no real connection to the audience, too much information going too many directions (the infamous data dump), a presenter who reads content seemingly unconnected emotionally to the ideas presented…the list goes on and on. And this is very sad for most businesses. Why? Because the biggest deals – the most critical, life-altering decisions in a business – usually happen in some sort of presentation. That makes upping your presentation game a huge marketing opportunity.

The costs of  a great presentation may involve getting some professional help with your template and information graphic design, and getting help with content planning and editing, and throw in a little presentation coaching for the big critical presentations. All of this is a fraction of the cost of most advertising, marketing or branding initiatives and the impact can be far greater because you can’t beat having instant feedback right in front of your customer. If presentations are so powerful yet so cheap, why do people continue to put audiences well into REM sleep, leaving the thier moment of decision unmoved? I don’t know. But my guess is most people think of PowerPoint as…well, PowerPoint. The less confident the presenter the more they want to read bullet point after bullet on slides. Because so many people do this totally ineffective “bullet point hypnosis” practice it seems normal, so it goes unaddressed. It would be far more productive if you thought of your presentation as The Moment of Decision (which it so often is), or at least a blank canvas where you can paint a picture that moves the minds and hearts of your audience. If you thought this way, your last instinct would be to plop in one bullet point after another because you would know that is not how you say something important. Here are five things that will make sure your presentation will move your audience instead of hypnotize them:

Ninety Seconds take away:

1. Start with the end in mind: Don’t build up to your point. Lead with it and then recap at the end. You save your audience a meandering data dump. What do you want them to think, or do?

2. Make it visual: Cut down on words and pull as much of your message as possible into a single information graphic that plots your points in a single view.

3. Practice your delivery: When your slides are done, you only have your content. To connect with your audience, YOU have to deliver it well.

4. Get rid of endless lists and just tell a story: Presenters love lists; audiences hate them. Stories move mountains; lists are forgotten before you’re done reading them.

5. Connect yourself personally to the message. YOU are the speaker. If you don’t have personal conviction or a stake in your message, you would do almost as well emailing your slides to your audience.

Need a quick confidential review of your presentation? Send it to me. I’m happy to give you our 5 Point presentation assessment which will give you pointers on how to make it better (it’s free.)

I have advice for you in this brand-spanking new decade: Create your own Customer Genome Project. As far as I know, this isn’t an official term anywhere, but I think it should be. The true essence of your business is knowing your customer well and delivering on what you know. To deliver the most to your customer, you must go to a level of understanding that is greater than what you know now. Dig deeper: look at your customers’ unique behaviors, desires, comfort zones, preferences, fears, passions and unique situations. Set aside your humanity for a moment and break each of these components down to a “variable of influence”, or highly detailed preference, that can be formed into an infinite array of combinations based on each unique customer. You now have the components of your “customer DNA strand”. New awareness always leads innovation, and this eye-opening exercise may trigger a serious round of innovation as your customer awareness deepens.. If you get to this “DNA” level with your customers, would it not be hard to miss how to increase the value of what you offer and how you serve them?

Recently I signed up for Pandora, an Internet radio service. In the first three weeks I doubled my music purchases. Why? They have analyzed my customer DNA so thoroughly, they send only music I like I like – and at least half of the music is new to me, yet it is exactly what I want. Every time I listen to a song, give it a thumbs up rating, click to pass to the next song, or bookmark an artist, I am honing my customer DNA profile. It gets better and better as Pandora uses my minute preferences (DNA components) to get better at sending only music perfectly suited to my tastes. Here is what my Pandora “customer DNA” strand of music preferences looks like:

My music variables (DNA components):
Basic rock song structures
Electronica influences
A subtle use of paired vocal harmony
Mild rhythmic syncopation
Intricate melodic phrasing
Major key tonality
A breathy male lead vocalist
Acoustic instrumental undertones
Spontaneous sound samples and vocal riffs

Ninety Seconds take away:

If you build your own customer DNA strands, what would they look like? What is a level of customer preferences that is at least one step beyond where you are now? Start building your strand here. What are the mechanisms and tools you will use to continuously improve your customer DNA strands? Can you get to a level that anticipates what your customer wants? Can you know them so well you can introduce something new you know they will be thrilled to see? This is the way most successful businesses will operate in the very near future. The tools are here now – it’s only a matter of building them into your business.

A few years ago I hired an independent research firm to find out what our customers thought about us. I had them interview our current and past customers. Then, I had them interview our own people to see if there were gaps between our company’s and our customers’ perceptions. When our own people were asked the question, “What do customers value most about Merge Agency?”, our people listed our “skill sets”, good marketing strategy, good interactive execution, good creative execution, research, good writing, project management, etc. When we asked our customers the same thing, they had a completely different list of what they thought was the most valuable reason they chose Merge. These were the top answers: trust, patience, flexibility, easy to work with, forgiving, smart solutions and good under pressure.

I knew there might be a gap, but nothing this far apart. After reading this report, I realized something significant about my business and found this same disconnect exists in most businesses. We see our value as what we do, but our clients buy what we mean to them. Your clients likely have hundreds of alternatives to your product, features or “skill sets”. This means these things do little to differentiate you.

Ninety Seconds take away:

Unless price is your single tool for beating your competitors, stop thinking of your company as a product, service or collection of “skill sets. Stop articulating your business as a meaningless list of things you sell or do. Start thinking of what you mean to your customers. Think of how the experience of buying from you is easier, better, deeper and more meaningful. If you think of your meaning first, they will be open to your list. If all you are is a list of services, features and functions, then you certainly have lost perspective as to why your customers will want to buy from you instead of your competitors.

An old man fell into a raging river. Onlookers watched in horror, powerless to save him as he disappeared into the raging waters. A few moments later, the old man popped out of the water downstream unhurt and calm. When asked how he could possibly have survived the raging water, he simply said, “I accommodated the water and did not try to control it. It delivered me peacefully here.”

What does that little story have to do with marketing? Quite a bit. So many businesses knowingly or unknowingly force their customers to accommodate their way of doing business instead of the other way around.

The problem with control is that your customers are growing less patient with things that don’t make sense or work immediately. So, they give up faster than ever. Why? Because customer customization is the biggest trend in the past decade. That means your competitors are accommodating your customers better and better, on your customers’ terms, as they want it, changing when they change.

If you were to visualize the market today, would it not look a lot like the river that old man fell in? Would your business be the old man, or are you trying to change the direction of the river? The best answer to this question will come from the customers you lose and the competitors that win them.

Ninety Seconds take away:

Build in feedback mechanisms that keep you in constant touch with your customers’ changing needs, and build flexibility and consistent improvement into your offerings by using what you learn. Be open, curious and vulnerable to the truth about your company, your services and what you offer. Don’t force your customers to do it your way; find out what they want, be willing to change your position, and see from different viewpoints. Flow with the change and you will never know obsolescence.

I am CMO-at-large for several companies. One of most important things I am doing for each company right now is finding the absolute greatest impact for the least possible investment – in some cases, no investment. If ever there were a time to put on the Zen monk hat, this is surely it.

So, with this hat on (or head shaved – whichever you prefer), let’s look at the essence of what we are dealing with right now: Less. Much less. You could say scarcity is our most abundant resource this year. Scarcity is your raw material, so get real, dump waste and focus like a laser beam on what matters most to you and your customers. If you handle this resource well you will not only survive, but you’ll also have a far better, more meaningful business in the long run. Here are a few thoughts for using scarcity as a marketing resource:

Ninety Seconds take away:

• Look at every line item in marketing. If you cannot tie it to something that addresses a fundamental need or shows a specific return greater than the investment, eliminate it.
• Consider dumping traditional advertising altogether. For example, opt, for more targeted and measurable social media and online marketing tools(such as the eBlast/blog you are reading now) over expensive, hard-to-track print ads instead.
• Look at your customers, potential customers and those with whom you do business. Focus on your lowest cost to acquire sales and new leads: your existing customers and those with whom you do business.
• Zen Master take away: “Pay it forward” with your clients. Think of what your customers are facing in this market and find a way to help them. Don’t worry about making a sale – just help. If you take this approach, the goodwill you generate will find its way back, especially if you don’t weigh your efforts down with expectations of how it will return to you. Just know that it will. Everyone I know who has run a successful business for more than 20 years knows this is true. It not only feels good, but it is a way to take scarcity (something we have always thought of as lack) and turned it instead into goodwill – the stuff that long-term companies are made of. And yes, sales, too.

Can we bag the word Brand? Lets unload this cow for good, okay? Don’t get me wrong, I believe in branding. It’s the difference between the success and failure of any business. But the word is so overused and misunderstood it is almost meaningless. The word is a patchwork quilt of confusing euphemisms, half-truths, narrow definitions and things that are just flat wrong. I have heard BRAND mean a logo on a golf hat, clever but meaningless slogans or designs, “wow” factor…the list goes on. The word “brand” also has a disproportionate share of baggage. It seems everyone has a story about a recklessly expensive branding project gone awry with nothing to show for it. So let’s just kill it and put us out of our misery, deal? It was a great word, and my peers have made katrillions on it…say your prayers and let’s move on.

Ninety Seconds take away:

Instead of using the word BRAND, why don’t we focus on what it really means…YOUR TRUTH. I propose from now on, we say let’s get OUR TRUTH out on our business. It’s not perfect, but it’s closer than…what’s that word?

There is a cottage industry developing right now. I call it the “I am now a recession expert because my usual business tanked” market. I was just on a website this morning that wanted to charge me $399 for a report on the “Secret Tactics Successful Companies Use To Grow During A Recession.” I will suspend my cynicism for a moment to tell you something far too simple for anyone to make money on. The best guidance for you right now is not from a website or high-dollar research service, but the people right in front of you. I know this is painfully obvious, yet I am surprised at how few companies actually ask their customers meaningful questions that could result in adjustments that assure results. As your new CMOO(Chief Master of the Obvious Officer), I propose this simple 90-second take away:

Ninety Seconds take away:

Select a sample of each group of people important to your business to take a short survey and/or interview. Make sure you only ask questions that will give you answers you can act upon. Keep it simple, use a combination of personal one-on-one discussions with quantitative surveys that will help you understand your customers’ priorities. Use inexpensive survey tools like Survey Monkey, ask current customers, prospects and lost customers to build a clear picture of their world, from their point of view. The marketing decisions you make that really work will be the ones you make standing in their shoes (not yours). I did not buy the “Big Recession Secrets” $399 report, but my guess is this idea was in it. It is now yours for whatever amount of cash you would like to send your new CMOO.

I did not have to go very far to test my instinct that marketing departments have become revolving doors. Three-quarters of marketing departments have been reorganized in the past year, according to a Forrester Research report, which came out just before the recent fun and games began in the market. There is also no question most businesses are experiencing a serious downdraft and have to make staff adjustments everywhere to keep the business healthy. Here is the problem: Marketing is a strategic function requiring focused execution, measurement and adjustment over time, not fits and starts with waves of new people with “great new and newer ideas on top of old new ideas.” When you have a revolving-door marketing department, you have little focus. When markets are contracting like they are now for most of us, you need more focus than ever.

Ninety Seconds take away:

Outsource your marketing to a group that will survive any headcount adjustments you need to make. This offers you the continuity you need while providing a lower risk pay as-you-go strategy enabling you to adjust your marketing expenses easily without the painful process of hiring and firing. That way you’ll keep the focus, maintain continuity regardless of headcount adjustments. You can also get a normal door in your marketing department. People like those better than the swirly kind.

No time to do cards this year? No problem. I had our interactive team put together this handy 90 Second Card Creator. Now you can quickly and easily create your own online holiday message by mixing your favorite card (by Merge Volunteers) and your favorite music choice. All of us at Merge are grateful for your friendship and trust. We wish you all the best this holiday season.

For most businesses, effective marketing is less about how much you spend than the brainpower behind your decisions. I see our marketing peers focusing on getting clients to spend more with over-simplified statements about spending on marketing in a downturn. It is well documented that marketing in a downturn is critical, but spending with no idea of what your return will be is just flat wrong. This applies in an up or down economy. Most small to medium size businesses cannot afford an executive level CMO. I mean someone who has the experience and depth to build an outcome-based marketing plan and execute against a specific return on your investment. Small to medium-sized businesses often execute marketing projects with minimal or no outcome-based strategy. The impact of this is wasted money, minimal results and the directionless malaise that comes from executing tactics with no discipline.

Ninety Seconds take away:

If you do not have the expertise internally to perform this role effectively…“rent”. It may sound strange, but it is a simple idea that has been a low cost, high return service for our clients. All of our senior marketing people know they will be CMO for several companies. Ten hours a month of the right executive will yield far more results than 160 hours of someone who executes tactics alone.