Monday Morning Memo
By Roy H. Williams
Below you’ll find links to the 30 latest articles.
Featured
By Roy H. Williams
Below you’ll find links to the 30 latest articles.
We eat food every day and we drive cars every day. But food purchases happen on a short purchase cycle and car purchases happen on a longer one.
How often does the average citizen purchase the product or service you sell?
The purchase cycle of your product determines how quickly your ads will start working.
Amateur ad writers assume everyone makes decisions based upon the same criteria they use. This causes them to unconsciously frame their messages to reach people exactly like themselves.
Professional ad writers frame their messages to speak to the felt needs of a specific consumer.
I admonish persons who possess detailed knowledge to “dumb it down” so the rest of us can understand because, frankly, we are rarely interested in the mystery and wonder of the unabbreviated truth.
I tell them, “Say it so plainly that you worry you have stripped it of all its truth and beauty.”
Forty-year-old Todd – we’ll call him Todd – came running into my office with his second crisis of the day. I expected there would be at least one more.
Todd felt it was his job to bring every problem to my attention so that I could tell him how to solve it. Todd was an idiot. His only value was that he gave me a sparkling example of what it means to be an identifier of problems rather than a creator of solutions.
Her only hope of survival is an audience that believes in fairies and demonstrates that belief through enthusiastic applause. Tinkerbell’s light has been growing brighter since 1904, when she first appeared in J.M. Barrie’s play, Peter Pan.
Everyone believes in fairies enough to clap enthusiastically.
The Tinkerbell Effect describes things that exist only because enough of us believe they exist, and behave as though they do.
But can you shrink your way to success?
From what I’ve seen, it’s easier – and healthier – to increase revenues than it is to cut costs.
Cost-cutting comes at a very high cost.
I do not know what happens when women retire. Perhaps they are plagued by the same maladjustments, discomforts and discontentment as men, but I doubt it. As Michele Miller points out in her audiobook, The Natural Advantages of Women, females of our species are gifted with different neurological wiring that helps them be less obsessive, more able to adapt.
“It was dark inside the wolf,” is how Margaret Atwood believes the story might have opened.
Emily Dickinson would agree. “Tell all the truth, but tell it slant,” was her advice to those of us who want our emails to be opened, our stories to be read, and our voices to be heard.
If you want your subject line, headline, or opening line to win attention, “Tell all the truth, but tell it slant.” Approach your subject from an interesting angle.
1. You Cannot Measure What Has Not Happened.
When you ask a person about an experience that exists only in their imagination, they will give you imaginary answers.
You can measure only what has already happened.
In other words, you cannot measure what “would” or “would not” work. You can only measure what “did” and “did not” work.
Using too many words is like eating too much.
It makes communication heavy and slow.
It’s simple; just give people what they want.
But first you have to know what they want.
Let me help you with that.
(1.) They want answers, and
(2.) they want entertainment.
Do you remember the mortgage meltdown of 2008 and The Big Short, the movie that was made about it? There is a scene in that movie where investors Mark Baum and Vinnie Daniel go to visit Georgia Hale, an employee of the ratings agency Standard and Poor’s:
The average person is afraid of criticism.
But the person who has no fear of criticism is more likely to succeed. This lack of fear is what keeps them from being average.
The average business owner is afraid their ads will be criticized.
Do you want to kill a great ad? Show it to the people you trust.
I spent the early part of my radio career stepping up to the plate and knocking that fastball out of the park. If your back was against the wall, I was the man to call.
I was like Coca-Cola, baby, I was everywhere.
You know it’s a great company when everyone wants to get a job there and no one wants to leave.
Let’s talk about culture.
Real experts in online marketing rarely use the phrase “going viral,” because it has no agreed-upon definition. Instead, they talk about “Discovery Content” and “Community Content.”
To understand Discovery Content, just look at anything posted by BuzzFeed or any of the other organizations whose principal income is generated by the companies who sponsor their clickbait.1
But not all Discovery Content is shallow and vacuous.
If you want people to take immediate action, you’re going to need a credible shortage.
A shortage of product. “Only 11 remain!”
A shortage of time. “Sale ends Saturday at 6PM!”
A shortage of capacity. “Only 128 seats are available!”
Some kind of shortage.
When you’re trying to transfer a thought or a feeling to someone else, the impact of your communication will be determined by the following equation:
I always look forward to my lunches with Ray Bard because he teaches me valuable things. He doesn’t intend to teach me things; it just happens.
Our short lunches last 3 hours. Our record is 6 ½.
Ray is my publisher.
You hear a lot of talk these days about how no one listens to the radio anymore.
Interestingly, the people who make these claims offer no evidence beyond the fact that commercial free music can be obtained through online streaming. This reminds me of that famous malaprop by Yogi Berra, “No one goes there anymore. It’s too crowded.”
Every successful person has a blind spot.
Here’s what often happens:
I’m in a strange mood. I hope you’ll forgive me.
I’ve been contemplating things unsaid. Deeds undone. Symphonies unfinished.
The reality of mortality has shown up as a hole in the light, a silhouette on the horizon. And its whispering voice has led me to compile a list of unfiltered thoughts that seem to me, remarkable. Thoughts that should not be lost.
I’ve never had reason to doubt him.
Money trouble
Work trouble
Relationship trouble
Things aren’t like they used to be.
Famous clothing brands are at historic lows and major retailers are closing hundreds of stores. In 2016, 2,056 stores closed their doors. The worst year on record is 2008, when 6,163 stores shut down.
Brokerage firm Credit Suisse says in a just-released research report,
A perfectionist knows exactly what he’s going to do. He plans his work and works his plan. The only problem is that because he knows, the defender knows, too.
It’s easy to anticipate what a perfectionist is going to do. He’s predictable.
But no one knew what Michael was going to do, because he didn’t know himself.
Go ahead. Go do it. I’ll wait…
Did they mention the importance of a having a logo? Did they talk about the consistent use of a chosen group of “brand” colors and a particular font and layout and look and feel? Have you done what they told you? Congratulations! You now have a visual style guide.
And so does every other business on earth.
I recently read a book about a female aviator in Africa in the 1930s.
I have no interest in aviation. I have no interest in Africa.
But it was a great book.
I began reading it after I stumbled onto something Ernest Hemingway wrote in a 1942 letter to his friend, Maxwell Perkins.
Business Personality Disorder (BPD) is characterized by at least two distinct identities or dissociated personality states that show up in a company’s behavior.
BPD emerges when unrelated teams work independently in the areas of (1.) Advertising (2.) Web Presence (3.) Sales Training.
If a person encounters your ads, then visits your website, then comes to your place of business, will they feel they have encountered a single personality three times, or three personalities once?
The goal of the first is to make yours the company the customer thinks of immediately and feels the best about when they – or any of their friends – need what you sell. This is called a “relational” ad campaign. It works better and better with each passing year.
He said, “I got all 250 of my employees together on a Zoom call and told them, ‘You can disagree passionately and share your opinion while we are in the discussion phase, but when a decision has been made, you need to commit to the successful implementation of that decision as though it had been your own. To disagree and work half-heartedly and receive a paycheck is not an option.