Capulet Communications

During our social media marketing bootcamps and some of the other speaking we do, we briefly cover advertising on the web. The 15-second precis: only spend your money where you can target your audience with razor-like precision, and rapidly measure outcomes. Google AdWords and Facebook ads are two good places to start.

It's right around this time that somebody usually raises their hand and offers some variation of "I'm skeptical about your advice, because I never click online ads".

It's a classic misstep of logic that everybody makes occasionally: "I behave a certain way, so my customers will behave the same way". Its assumptions like these that can limit new ideas about reaching your audience.

I also sometimes encounter a certain snobbishness from tech marketers, who assert that most of their geeky target audiences uses browser-based ad-blockers, rendering online advertising ineffective. As with the above assumption, I encourage them to spend a little money and test that hypothesis. We've had clients who get the lion's share of their annual revenue (which was not insubstantial) through judicious use of Google AdWords.

I guess this is just another blog post about assuming, an ass, you and me, but I encounter the behaviour often enough (and sometimes in myself) that it's worth keeping in mind.

Lately we've been handling a lot of launches for start-ups. We enjoy this immensely--we like being able to both strategize and then execute on that strategy. Plus, we often contribute to the start-ups' web presence by writing their website copy. Occasionally we even contribute to the development process of their app (for it seems these days that most of our clients have web apps).

Some clients, I think, expect to get 50,000 visitors the first week they launch. This happens on the odd occasion (bonjour, RobotReplay), but it's more the exception than the rule. So, sometimes we have to urge our clients to be patient. Seth Godin has our back on this one:

The media wants overnight successes (so they have someone to tear down). Ignore them. Ignore the early adopter critics that never have enough to play with. Ignore your investors that want proven tactics and predictable instant results. Listen instead to your real customers, to your vision and make something for the long haul. Because that's how long it's going to take, guys.

Here's one resource the start-up community could use: an anonymous database of actual visitor and user numbers for the first year of operation. That would help us set client expectations beyond the small data set to which we have access. Maybe we ought to talk to Boot Up Labs about that.

I recently read three cutting critiques of marketing and advertising in Second Life. The first is by Rebecca Lieb (found via Adam):

Inhabitants of virtual worlds don't have real-world needs. To get very far in Second Life, you do need money (in the form of Linden dollars) to buy goods, services, and property. No small quantity of the virtual currency is spent on goods and services related to virtual sex. Way-far-out-there virtual sex, and no small number of sex businesses (one of which recently changed hands for $50,000) often seem like the primary purpose of Second Life. As ClickZ columnist Ian Schafer told the "Los Angeles Times," "One of the most frequently purchased items in Second Life is genitalia."

Ms. Lieb refers to an LA Times article, discussing some of the abandoned marketing projects littering the virtual world:

But the sites of many of the companies remaining in Second Life are empty. During a recent in-world visit, Best Buy Co.'s Geek Squad Island was devoid of visitors and the virtual staff that was supposed to be online.

The schedule of events on Sun Microsystems Inc.'s site was blank, and the green landscape of Dell Island was deserted. Signs posted on the window of the empty American Apparel store said it had closed up shop.

Ever since I started working in technology, I've watched companies make the same communications error again and again. When talking about their products, they start by talking about "how it works" or "what it does".

Here's a secret: hardly anybody cares how it works. They may say they do, but what they really mean is this:

How will it make my life better (where 'better' means 'more fun' or 'more productive' or 'longer' and so forth)?

I Built It and Here's What It Does

I first observed this phenomenon when I worked as a technical writer, writing and editing software manuals. I'd often review support documentation for a product that was written by the software engineers who built it.

Inevitably, the docs would itemize the product's functionality, often by describing each interface element: "The Save button enables you to save your work" and so forth.

It's an understandable mistake among developers. They built it, and they're describing how it works from their perspective.

The right way to write docs (and any product collateral) is to focus on tasks, not functionality. If the user will be saving files, then provide a topic called "How to Save Files" or "Saving a File". 

But before you get into the nitty-gritty details, you need to answer that all important question: how will this make my life better? 

Via Chris Pirillo, I learned about Pitchwire. From their pitch to Chris:

PitchWire is an online community for influencers (journalists, bloggers and analysts) and publicists that promotes responsible pitching and transparency. The results are more successful “hits” and a better relationship between influencers and publicists.

Leveraging PitchWire’s patent-pending technology, you can create a personalized PitchWire page, your first line of communication (or defense in some cases) with the PR community. You can also find sources and content for an upcoming story and manage your pitches, sources and contacts in a CRM-like database (think of it as a MySpace.com, eHarmony.com and Salesforce.com all rolled into one).

Off the top of my head, this sounds a bit like The WeblogWire, which appears to have gone the way of all times.

Well, I'm (ahem) both an influencer and a publicist. Why don't I try out both sides of the service and pitch myself?