As with most shortcuts, the cost was far greater than the time and money saved. I could have gotten tested by the allergy doctor and known in a week. It would have cost me several hundred dollars and a few hours off work. Plain to see, it is now, that getting the testing would have been far smarter than potentially, you know, perishing.

Marketing shortcuts
There is a veritable laundry list of shortcuts are we asked to help clients take in the course of marketing a business. As with life, the cost of marketing shortcuts is far greater than the cost of just doing the work right.

Take photography for instance. Small business owners frequently try to take their own shots to save money, often with downright hideous results. Upon failing in their attempts to make poor shots look better, they commit the cardinal sin of shortcuts by asking, ‘Can you just photoshop it?’ (Conjures the old saying, ‘You can’t polish a turd.’) Better to take the shot right with a professional photographer, so it will stand out among peer products.

Marketing plan shortcuts are perhaps the biggest shortcuts of all, wherein business owners state that they don’t want a marketing plan, then wonder why in the course of the year their efforts aren’t panning out. Or we develop a marketing plan that they don’t bother to follow, then complain when the not-followed plan doesn’t work. (This is not exclusive to small businesses.)

The logo shortcut involves undermining every ounce of what a logo does by buying a clipart logo for fifteen bucks. A logo is personal and communicates ideas that make people think and form connections. A clipart logo is impersonal and generally communicates nothing.

I could go on and on, but the point is that the shortest route from startup to success is the longcut. It’s taking the road that will almost inevitably force you to do the work and reap the rewards of your efforts.

In a marketing context, this doesn’t mean you must have a Fortune 1,000 budget. It does mean that the road to success is not paved with clipart and marketing shortcuts. It means sticking to a budget and follow a good plan you believe in. It means measuring results, adjusting, and making another effort. It means doing things right, slowly, surely, keeping the end-goal in mind, and skipping the tantalizing shortcuts.

Paying the price of marketing shortcuts will take much longer and cost more. Take the longcut. Do the work.

Advertising limited by fear bores people, possibly the most dangerous result in all marketing.

There are very few things a company could say in an advertisement that would offend those loyal to the brand so greatly that they will go away. Boring them, on the other hand, can result in customers jumping ship to someone more exciting. Being boring always yields the same result: bad advertising. Boring ads usually result from fear of risk.

Some companies kill their own advertising efforts by asphyxiating creative or completely forgoing real strategy. Others buy media “deals” which waste budgets on mediums that will never pan out. Some companies insist on writing their own headlines and text, resulting in ads that they can connect with but no one else can. Still others go for “wow factor,” forgoing (or forgetting) to make real, meaningful connections. It’s easier to undermine advertising efforts with fear-rooted action than to hold high ambitions for success.

When I hear a client say, ‘advertising doesn’t work,’ what they really mean is that their past advertising hasn’t worked. They rarely can show measured results, which means they often base advertising effectiveness on feeling rather than any sort of hard data. Sometimes they have data, but don’t understand what it means. In order for data to have any intrinsic value, the advertising effort must have meaningful, stated goals prior to the creation of the campaign. Without goals, success is virtually impossible. Not determining or stating goals up front is a fearful approach.

Among initial advertising goals, I’ve often heard little more than, “more sales.”

“More” is a hard goal to reach because it could mean literally anything, and does little to inspire people in marketing, creative or sales.

Setting goals is risky because someone has to raise their hand, stick their neck out, and take responsibility. If the company dynamic says sticking your neck out ends in it being chopped off should the effort fail, fear rules and no does what it takes to realize effective advertising efforts.

I suggest a different approach.

How about the people who stick their necks out get rewarded regardless of success? This may inspire a more constructive dialog, such as, ‘What a great failure that was! What did we learn? What’s next?’

Show me any other part of life where every single effort results in success. I think you will find that no arena offers guaranteed known success.

Activities as simple as walking present risk. You could trip and fall or step in a hole, but you don’t stop walking. You need to get where you are going, and walking forward is the most sure way to get there.

Similarly, an advertising effort might fail, but you keep taking risks and keep advertising because it’s the most sure way to succeed.

Our politicians talk of:
• More mass transit spending – which may not ease the amount of traffic, but instead only enable more traffic.
• More buses – which makes sense at main commuting times, but seem to just clog roadways (while empty) the rest of the time.
• Obesity – this comes up only when they’re talking about mass transit spending. (Gee, how about some public well-being?)

When they could be talking about:
• Public bicycle-share systems
• Subsidized bicycle and hiking boot programs
• Alignment of their special interests with transportation and (legitimate) fighting obesity goals
• Consumer health education

They say:
Mass transit helps fight obesity.

The idea being that people get exercise whilst walking to the bus or rail, which varies in degrees of legitimacy depending on how close people live. Interestingly, the further away from a stop an obese person lives, the less likely they are to make the trek, reducing the likelihood they will get that (limited) exercise. (Politicians never mention this.) So what they are really saying is mass transit helps prevent obesity, but does little to help people already suffering from obesity.

They mean:
Obesity helps justify spending on mass transit. Do politicians actually like obesity?

Raise your hand if you would like a little more direct dialog about obesity (or anything else) from politicians.

Raise your other hand if you are more direct in your marketing. Arms in the air, you are a champion.

Take going gluten-free as an example. Can you guess the biggest fears people have about going gluten-free?

1) They won’t like the taste.
2) They won’t be able to eat out.
3) They don’t know how they will find gluten-free foods.
4) They will always be hungry.

These are all myths people tell themselves to avoid change. Funny thing about change is that it almost always has positive benefits. Not changing, on the other hand, or investing in fear, almost always has drawbacks. People invest in fear because it sounds easier and seems to cost less from an effort standpoint, when the reality is they are making life or business much harder.

Like all myths, the above fears about gluten-free eating can be dispelled in seconds flat:

1) They won’t like the taste.
Finding a taste they like may be an exciting adventure. Just like with glutinous foods, there are artisan gluten-free bakers and brewers to be found.

2) They won’t be able to eat out.
Restaurants have one primary goal: to make people happy. The first person who requests gluten-free food might be an inconvenience, but everyone after that presents an opportunity to please. Eating out will not be a problem.

3) They don’t know how they will find gluten-free foods.
Finding gluten-free foods is easy, presents opportunities for venturing outside of old routines, and promotes positive change. Reading labels is easy and takes only a few seconds.

4) They will always be hungry.
In point of fact, they are likely to be less hungry. You need less food when your diet contains no gluten. Gluten reduces the effectiveness of the digestive system, so eating gluten in effect manifests hunger. Eating gluten-free foods allows the digestive system to pull maximum nutrients from food, so you require less intake.

In spite of all these facts, people keep eating gluten because it’s easier to invest in fear. Marketers understand this and play to it on a daily basis. The results of investment in fear about going gluten-free include a steady decline in health, a bigger belly, asthma, digestive problems, discomfort, sleep apnea, and so on.

Do you invest in your fears? We all do. Investing in fear is free and easy. It requires almost no effort. It’s also boring. Doing things that scare you just a little bit is healthier because you are challenging yourself and those around you to learn and grow.

If you are marketing fear to yourself on a regular basis, you reinforce your own status quo. It’s how bad hair, habits and horrible has-beens happen. Doing the opposite is exciting, scary, and actually pretty awesome feeling. The price is change. The benefit is priceless.

When we step into an automobile, we instantly wield a very heavy object approximately 50 times the size of ourselves, and we exert an influence on those around us. We can impose irregular actions on them. Call it defensive driving to put a spin on it. In a car, there’s an obvious physical reason why we influence the people around us, but in the space of humanity, of one person or family on earth, why would anyone have a need to influence fellow humans and neighbors in an oppressive manner? It’s a real noggin-scratcher.

Generally speaking, we don’t need to defensively live. There’s plenty of room for most ideas and for people to express themselves and live in those ideas without direct imposition.

Cheers to Kenneth Cole for promoting the strongest of human qualities—the ability to recognize and promote equality—in their marketing. Kenneth Cole ad for gay marriage.

‘I’m just doing what they tell me,’ we hear customer service reps say. I frequently tell the pleasant ones, “You sound like a nice person. I hope you one day find an employer who will allow you to do a great job.” (Most reps actually tell me they appreciate hearing that, and the conversation always gets better afterward.)

If management isn’t designing humanity-based customer service processes, we need a revolt.

Customer service can be an overall positive experience which helps companies keep existing customers happy. In fact, that’s how it used to be, and for good reason. It’s always cheaper to keep your existing customers happy than to attract new ones. (It also helps people speak of you in a good tone.)

If your customer service team is treating people poorly, you lose revenue as you hemorrhage customers, and you have to spend more on marketing. If, on the other hand, your team is working with human nature in mind to make sure people have positive experiences, you keep customers happy and can budget your marketing more frugally (or grow more).

Somewhere along the way, someone who was treated poorly decided they didn’t like their customers, and they wanted new ones, no matter the cost. How this attitude caught on like wildfire is something of a mystery. Barnes & Noble comes to mind. When their stores were packed with book-buying public, they brought in creature comforts and chocolate because people buy those things when they are comfortable. Customers bought less of these items when BN changed to aggressive sales tactics that made people uncomfortable. They could have taken the hint, it seems.

The companies who buck the trend, like Zappos and CDBaby, stand out for it. Both of these stellar examples embrace human nature in everything they do, and their reputations (and profits) rock because of it.

Poor customer service is the rule that should never have gained prominence because it lacks a fundamental level of humanity, and can lead only to failure. It’s refreshing to see smart companies challenge it. Good customer service is good marketing and a business fundamental.

We all tell ourselves little lies. It’s how we get past the unbelievable; how we embrace the impossible, inconvenient, or unacceptable, which is kind of a weird habit because in the long run, it always comes back to bite us.

Companies are dishonest with themselves all the time when it comes to their marketing. It most often manifests in false messages in advertising, websites, promises.

I’ve seen clients self-inflate budgets they can’t afford to increase or talk themselves into buying advertising space they can’t afford. The most common of lies people and businesses market to themselves are in regards to the claims they make about their products. When they do it – and people do it every day – they open a bottomless can of worms with two heads, eleven lives and sharp fangs that inflict ‘lie hangover,’ a highly poisonous substance. And the thing is, there is absolutely no need for it.

There’s a difference between polishing a boring truth and being misleading. One involves first telling yourself a lie, then marketing it to others until you both believe it. The better path involves strong creative. That’s it. Nothing misleading, negative, or fang-bearing.

Honesty in marketing is truly all that’s needed to connect with people.

How do you market from within? Do you tell yourself convenient half-truths, or are you honest and up-front with yourself?

Honest marketing begins within. When you are honest with yourself, you manifest what you need, and it comes through in everything you do. Whether or not they tell you directly, people notice; you see it as people trust your brand and messages, and your business rises as direct result.

Funny thing is, each time this has happened, the businessperson tried to negotiate on price (bigly, like 50% or more discount big), then wound up going with another buddy deal after I refused to give them one.

Could I give them a deal? Sure, I could (not 50%), but that would only serve to set us both up to fail, and I have no interest in failure. They shouldn’t either (but they often do). After all, they came to me because they found out that ‘getting a deal’ netted them less than what they wanted.

I’m rarely given the opportunity to ask people if they are being honest with themselves when they go for the next buddy deal. Then again, I already know the answer and they probably do too, deep down inside.

Buddy deals are great when it’s a long-time friends equation, but when it’s that person you met at a networking party once and exchanged cards with, there’s no ‘buddy’ in the deal. Seeking a deal there is essentially trying to put one over on the person being asked. Perhaps worse, however, is the fact that the person doing the asking isn’t being honest with themselves, which undermines the foundations of both their marketing and their brand.

This is a blog about marketing, working better, and customer service, for uncommon thinkers and unusual companies.

The scenario: A customer calls to complain they have been overbilled by $10 every month for two years, and they have the paperwork to prove it. Your company can easily see he is correct, but you have a policy of crediting bills for only up to six months. Your company would have to refund $240. In a monotone voice, your customer service representative tells the customer they will not do the refund, and to pay their bill, or service will be interrupted… In essence to go pound sand.

The common solution: Do everything you can to beat down the customer’s will and keep their money, without regard for retaining their business.

The better solution: Give them their money back without any fight whatsoever. If you know you are wrong, don’t fight about it, and you will keep a happy customer. If you have documentation which clearly shows the customer is wrong, prove it by sending it to them, with no disrespect or fighting.

For anyone thinking your company would not treat customers to the above scenario, you would be surprised at how common this policy is for large corporations. Telecoms and cable companies in particular are famous for it (what a terrible thing to be famous for!), as well as banks and mortgage companies.

Good customer service is good marketing. It’s a rule to thrive by.