Marketing Monday: Catch 'em Off Guard

It's not exactly a secret that the best marketing is effective. And maybe the second-best marketing is effective because it is memorable. I'm sure there is some science or reference articles or extra-long think pieces I could link to to prove this thesis, but it's Monday of a hectic week and so I'm going to own that that sounds good to me right now and it fits in with my point today: this bear is owning it. 

This bear. This bear, man. Pop-ups are annoying. This bear is owning it! AND he's being charming about it, which is what made me stop, look twice, laugh, show my husband, screenshot it, and post about it here two days later. 

Look! Look at him!

Smug little fella.

Full disclosure: It didn't make me fork over my email address (rarely does anything make me do that, in fairness), but it did endear me to the brand and branding and ensured that I would be back. And that I will probably sign up for that discount when I'm ready to buy something.

PS - My 2016 Gift Guide goes live one week from tomorrow! I'm featuring some Emily McDowell products this year, and trust me when I saw you want to check out her stuff. 

Marketing Monday: Why the Why

Today, I'm into this blog post over at KAI Partners, from a friend of mine, Sarah Walsh (this isn't in any way sponsored: I just like this post a whole lot). Sarah's talking about 'why', and why it "seems to be having a moment" in business. The article focuses mostly on making transitions and change go more smoothly, but 'why' is–and must be–a crucial touchpoint from the ground up, in everything from changes to the software your employees use to your marketing plans.

If you don't know the why in your marketing plan, then you don't know the who, which means you don't know the how or the what. And where does that leave you?

Photo from LinkedIn SlideShare, Simon Sinek, via Kai Partners.

When I speak with prospective clients, I ask them some standard questions. I ask them about who their competition is, what sets them apart, who their ideal client is, how their clients find them, and how they'd like their clients to find them. I ask them questions that paints a picture of who they are and what they do. But all of these questions are designed to get at the root of who they are, of what they stand for: of why they do what they do, of what drives them. Sometimes this is really easy. Sometimes it's harder than you'd expect.

Have you heard of the Five Whys? It's a way of getting beyond superficial reasons to a real root cause of a problem, and it's essentially what my questions get at. Yes, in order to be successful we need to know where we're going, but as the old (butchered) saying goes, you need to know where you're coming from and why you're on the train in the first place and what's fueling your train and how to keep fueling it and who's on it in order to get the outcome you want. 

Screenshot from the example at isixsigma.com.

The pinned tweet on my Twitter profile is this one:

This often ends up being one of the first things I tell clients: Be true to yourself and the rest will follow. #WednesdayWisdom

— Caitlin Hannah (@TheCopyCait) April 28, 2016

Which brings us full circle: all of this talk about 'why' goes to authenticity. Authenticity is easy to believe in, whereas selling (proverbially) something you don't believe in is not. In general, but in content marketing specifically, what you're really selling is the story about what you're selling. At the end of the day, that's what it comes down to. And people don't want to be sold to or talked at. They want to have a conversation, be told a story, and believe in what you do. 

Friday Find: Warming my Cold New England Cockles

It's no secret around here that I'm originally from New England. This means I'm contractually obliged to be a New England sports fan. And by contractually, I mean there's a blood oath which, I assume, breaking is punishable by death. At the very least, definitely by disownment.

If you're also from New England and you are on Facebook, I'm sure you've already seen the video below.

If you're not, you might appreciate it anyway. Not that I care if you do. (Oops, sorry, my Bostonian popped out.)

The pride of our city, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, got together with the other pride of our city, Tom Brady, to raise money for three causes by promising every New Englander's dream: drinking beer and eating pizza with the three of them.

Omaze is running this fundraiser, and from what I can tell they're doing a bang-up job of it. They buried the lede a bit, in my opinion, but then again maybe they didn't. (It was not intuitive for me to find information on the charities it benefits. I had to Google them, but could only find out about two of them, because I couldn't decipher the logo of the third one. The charities were not linked on the fundraiser page. Is this somehow by design, or is it a horrible oversight?)

To find the video, I Googled "tom ben matt boston" [sic] [lazy] and look what I got back. That is one smart Google Ad: they know their audience.

The more you donate, the more prize entries you get. And look at what's up for grabs, besides the beer and pizza thing:

Again I say: SMAHT. They do indeed know their audience.

Anyway, you should watch this video, and you should also check out the fundraiser here.