The Importance of Communication

It may seem that I’m stating the obvious, but it’s very difficult to over-emphasize the importance of a business’s communications with their customers.  Whether your business is blogging, web design, or shoe manufacturing, there are a few hard and fast rules of marketing communications:

1. 
   

   Find the channels of communication your customers use

   
   


2. 
   

   Speak to them through those channels

   
   


3. 
   

   Do it often

   
   

 Many “old-world” businesses, one of which was a past employer, find themselves languishing in the world of Web 2.0, when it comes to marketing trends.  Understandably so.  Shampoo or Antacids are of little interest to the stereotypically young, tech savvy netizen.  We imagine them spending all day surfing sites like Digg and Mashable, eating up info about even the most doomed of web startups, and see no way to monetize on a “tech trend.”  But we’re missing the big picture.

 As a result of this Web 2.0 revolution, customers are starting to expect increasing levels of transparency from the business they patronize, and increasing levels of communication.  Sure they eat up every tweet from the Boxee Development team, but hair care tips from their favorite shampoo brand - tons of women would love that.

 There are plenty of channels of communication for you to connect with your customers: Facebook Pages, Twitter, blogs, etc.  Most of these are even free.  This where rules 2 and 3 come in.  You have to communicate with your customers.  A web consulting client of mine voiced an opinion I think a lot of people have: “We figured we’d make a lot of money off selling our stuff online, so we put a website, but nothing is happening.”  Goody for you . . . a website!  Your potential customers are inundated with branding and marketing messages from 100’s of businesses per day.  You have to bring some sort of “value added” service to them.  This may mean having a blog with golfing tips and secrets, if you make golf club covers, or skin care tips, if you make lotions . . . or it may just mean keeping an open channel of communication open with your customers, having an upper-level exec responding to comments and questions, and using customer input for future product revisions. 

 The real marketable secret of Web 2.0 is that it makes everyone “special.”  Bloggers are Pulitzer Prize winning journalists in their own minds.  Fans report on the latest X-Box cheat code like reporters covering the Iraq war.  If you give fans and customers a space to be heard, and a real and reliable voice to an industry that they personally care about, then they’ll respond by giving you their loyalty and trust.

 

Here’s a (fictional) example, using the Shampoo idea from a few paragraphs up:

 Fu-Fu Hair Shampoo is a mid-to high end shampoo, sold predominantly in salons and beauty shops.  They want to capitalize on their currently dormant online presence, so they open a Facebook Page for their product.  They upload customer testimonials, and before and after photo shoots of satisfied customers, and models (shot as customer shots...hey..this is marketing) and encourage their users to do the same.  They make a few friends, and encourage them to recommend the page to all their friends, and so on.  Fans vote on the most drastic hair transformation, once a month, with the winner receiving a small gift basket of free Fu-Fu Hair Shampoo and Conditioner products.  Fu-Fu places a link to their facebook page on their home page, and integrates the company blog with the Facebook API (ask your tech person about that) to cross promote both channels of communication.  Web traffic starts to pick up, and the internet is slightly a buzz about the promotional giveaways.

 Then . . . bad news!  A customer used Fu-Fu Hair Shampoo and got a pretty nasty rash, and a flakey scalp.  Upon closer inspection, she realizes that Fu-Fu Hair Shampoo uses an ingredient that is a common allergen.  She sends in a complaint.  Old world response would be to apologize, ask to cover an doctor bills, make sure she’s okay, refund her money, and then conduct a small study to find out what percentage of people suffer from similar allergies, and whether or not it is beneficial, cost wise, to address this ingredient.

Web 2.0 Response:  A company executive posts this complaint letter on the company blog and facebook page, with the promise of an immediate end to the use of that ingredient.  The company executive goes on to say that Fu-Fu Hair Shampoo is now introducing an allergen-free “green” shampoo, and asks for community input on what the ultimate in hair-care would be for them.

2-3 months later, the company posts a blog outlining the most requested features of the new shampoo, and introduces the new product: created by fans.  This new product is available a nice premium to the regular product, and has a vastly increased profit margin.

Company makes money.

 You can now add in tons of different scenarios to really capitalize on the PR side of this event - but needless to say, there are news outlets that would eat it up.  The Web isn’t about a site, or page, or anything of that nature.  It’s about communication.  Using it as a way to stay in touch with your customers will only increase your loyalty and sales.

I am clean. (Flash is dirty)

Web design is like crowd-sourcing dating advice: everyone has a different opinion about what is pretty, and what you should be looking for.  We can all think of a pretty and fun site rendered totally in flash, and many sites seek to copy that . . . to be talked about and remembered for their eye-candy.  And for some sites, and in some industries, that's expected, and totally fine.  

For instance, graphic designers - they should love flash.  It shows off the pretty things they can make and animate.  But business sites, especially sites with brick-and-mortar should shy away.  The fact is - flash is a burdensome beast that will slow even higher-end computers to a crawl at times; and flash is totally inaccessible via mobile phone.  And let's be clear - there are more internet-ready mobile devices than there are computers on the internet.

One of the reasons I restarted this blog here, with this design, is to find my "web-zen."  I prefer text, and all my pretty buttons in HTML, instead of graphics and flash.  If you come to my site, you come to experience the content - which, at this point, is largely text.  The photos, audio, or video you may encounter here should load quickly, and be easy to navigate.  

I like clean.  Flash, on the other hand, is anything but clean.  The animations make it slow to navigate, and if the content you're wanting to reference is 3-5 clicks in, it's just obnoxious.  At my current job, we have very little flash on our site - and I'm on a mission to squash what is there.  It's counterintuitive to any business that wants to sell or service anything other than pretty graphics and animations.  Make your sites simple, easy to navigate, and make the most important content to your users  easily accessible in intuitive ways.

Apple scored a hit with their iPhone because of those key points - oh... and the iPhones don't have flash either.

Rethinking me.

TheLimitless.com, the current URL, has been around in some for or fashion for nearly 10 years. I've generally used it to tell a singular story - my own story, and recently others', of rethinking our preconceived ideas about God, taking our mental limitations off of him, and allowing him to work in our lives.

Over the last two years, I attempted to create a Christian blogging community around this notion. I only had two people register for blogs. Heh. The fact is, there are tons of great free blogging services out there, and some even better ones available for pay, and I had little to offer. I've blogged very seldomly during that time, since most of my time was spent building the site, and I think the site, and I, suffered a little for it. Lately I've been rethinking where this site fits in my life, and what types of things I want to share. I may never have the readership and the income of other blogs, but I plan to discuss things that interest me, basically. And I think those things will interest a few of my readers. If not... Well this site is all about me anyway.

On a separate site, I wrote occasionally about Online Marketing and how to do it. I'll probably bring that content here, and continue blogging about the church and how we can use these new social technologies to enhance some outreaches. And of course you'll probably see a few political posts as well.  And you're just as likely to hear my thoughts on a recent comic book as you are to find a podcast here one day.

Thanks for sticking around through my crazy journey. I look forward to sharing more with you all soon.

Bobs Diner

Super excited about eating the food at this little dive.

Posted via web from caseyp's posterous

Book Review: "Green" by Ted Dekker

Green is the final book in a multi-colored series by Ted Dekker that I've been wanting to read for some time now.  According to the publisher, "This is Book Zero, the Circle Reborn, both the beginning and the end. The preferred starting point for new readers . . . and the perfect climax for the countless fans who’ve experienced Black, Red, and White."  They're marketing this as a good starting point for new readers, and on that count, I can say without doubt, that it failed miserably.  I have not read the previous books in the series, and it was only about the last 100 pages that I really had some meaningful grasp of what in the world was going on.  The basics you're given, but there was so little explained, and what was explained was done in a way that really interrupted the story line.  It sounds like a great idea - creating a circular series . . . but it seemed like it was pieced together as such as an afterthought.  And the absolutely horrible ending only reinforces that notion.

On a positive note, Ted Dekker can certainly write a page turner.  If I just shut my brain off to all of the glaring plot holes and ridiculously flawed logic, it was fun.  And despite the fact that I was almost certainly offended by the possibly heretical ideas that fueled the story-line, it kept me involved in the story, and actually illustrated some real spiritual truths in a way that I found very surprising.  This is a baby and bath-water scenario, and I think that overall it's worth a read.  And while it may not be totally necessary to read, The Circle Trilogy, Black, Red, and White in advance, I heartily recommend it.

Abe's Feed house - Best Seafood in South Arkansas?

Abe's Ole Feed House - somewhere in backwoods South Arkansas.

Best seafood in South Arkansas?

These charming fellows greeted us at the door for our evening of fine dining.

SeaFood Buffet

Posted via web from caseyp's posterous

Barna: Jesus' Health Care Plan Would Include Everyone

One of my biggest pet peeves is people bringing in the religious trump card: "Jesus supports my politics!" into a political debate.  Look at what George Barna has to say:

Popular Christian pollster George Barna weighed in on the health care debate this week, asserting that Jesus would support universal coverage.

Looking at the Bible for guidance, Barna wrote that he found stories of a Jesus who healed hundreds of people who were poor and suffering. Whether the people believed in Him or not, Jesus had no condition to healing someone who was sick.

“You can describe Jesus’ health care strategy in four words: whoever, whatever, whenever, wherever,” wrote Barna in an editorial.

Jesus confronted illnesses and problems from paralysis and leprosy to demon possession and death. And he asked his followers to also heal others to put into action their love and compassion for those in need.

“Often, those whom He healed did not thank Him, and He was never paid for his medical care – but He healed them regardless, because it enabled Him to love those who lacked hope,” he said.

Based on the Bible stories, Barna said the health care strategy exemplified by Jesus called for “people to help people.” But if God’s people fail to serve others in need, then he suggested they support the government, which is “acting as a national safety net,” to run programs to help the needy.

But ultimately, it is God’s people, or collectively the Church, who are responsible for caring for the poor and sick, Barna maintained. He applauded Christian efforts to set up medical clinics, pregnancy centers and hospitals in the country.

“Imagine what an impact the Church would have on society if it truly reflected the model Jesus gave us of how to care for one another!”

The Christian pollster said he was prompted to write the editorial because surveys continually show that Americans are struggling to figure out what to think about health care reform. In the editorial, he looked at specific accounts in the New Testament that guides Christians on how to view the poor and deal with people’s medical needs.

On the Web: http://www.barna.org/

via christianpost.com

Seriously?  Barna should know better.  God is above politics and squabbling.  JESUS wouldn't be for the health care plan . . . Jesus would just go miraculously heal people.  And unless the Obama Administration has THAT little trick up their sleeve, I don't believe you can compare the two.  Yes, the Church is called to care for the poor, sick, needy, widows, and etc.  Yes we have failed miserably at that task.  Yes the health care system is in serious need of reform, and people on both sides of the aisle can agree on that.  But claiming Jesus is involved in this political nit-picking, and that he is on Obama's side?  That's jumping the shark, Mr. Barna.

Next, I'm imagining Mr. Barna will be encouraging us to worship Obama as the Messiah himself.  After all, Jesus is already supporting, him... maybe he IS Jesus!!!!?!?!?!?!

Posted via web from caseyp's posterous