7 Required Reading Containers for Every Marketer

Need that perfect gift for the marketer in your life?

Try a reading container (book).

Here are my top seven picks for the year:

Daily Rituals. Mason Currey's little book delivers an enchanting look at the work-habits of nearly 200 composers, filmmakers, novelists, philosophers, playwrights, painters and poets.

Email Marketing Rules. Moses took four decades to write his laws. So we should be grateful it's taken only half that time for someone to codify the rules of email marketing. Chad White's encyclopedic treatment is a must-read.

The Content Code. Mark Schaefer makes all the other social media gurus look like chumps. Want to crack the code? Crack open this book! And if you want more social media marketing secrets, read Jeffrey Rohrs' Audience.

Communicate to Influence. Speech coach to the stars Ben Decker shares his secret method for swaying any audience. Learn why triads are the "perfect framework" for sales pitches, product launches, motivational talks and business briefings.

Trust Me, I'm Lying. Media manipulator Ryan Holiday's book does for the Internet what The Jungle did for meat packing. Trust me, you'll never read Business Insider, The Daily Beast, Drudge Report, BuzzFeed, Politico or Huffington Post with credulity again.

Writing Tools. Roy Peter Clark's advice to writers, simply put, is the best book of its kind. And if you want to really impress the marketer in your life, pair it with a copy of William Blundell's classic, The Art and Craft of Feature Writing.

Born to Blog. Blogs are foundational to social success, and Mark Schaefer's street-smart advice is priceless.

Face Facts

In a controlled experiment, the UK's Behavioural Insights Team studied the effect stock shots of faces had on the responses of 1 million visitors to the website of a charitable organization.

The researchers found the use of stock photos of people's faces significantly reduced conversions.

They concluded that, because marketers over-expose web users to these kind of photos, users simply tune them out—and ignore any content that accompanies them.

"The use of a stock photo discouraged individuals, who saw it as a marketing gimmick," the researchers said.

What Do Women Want?

What do female executives—or male ones, for that matter—want from B2B salespeople?

Personalized content.

Channeling Freud, Harris recently asked, When it comes to sales pitches, what do you want?

Harris learned executives want pitches that are personalized:

• 89% want pitches personalized to their company’s industry

• 83% want pitches personalized to their specific problem

• 70% want pitches personalized to their role in the company

Harris also asked, When it comes to sales emails, what do you want?

The pollsters learned executives want sales emails with content:

• 84% want case studies

• 81% want articles

• 78% want white papers

• 72% want brochures

• 72% want videos

We live in an on-demand world; we want what we want, when we want it. Do your salespeople provide it?

NOTE: Today's post is yet another milestone for Copy Points: No. 500. Coming soon: Post No. 501.

A $49 Cure for Tone Deafness

Tone deaf? 

Well, good news: there's an app for that.

For only $49 a month, Crystal will provide you the empathy you sorely lack.

A Gmail add-on, Crystal scrapes your colleagues' social media posts; analyzes the posts; and attaches to each individual one of 64 different personality types.

Then, whenever you craft an email, the app prompts you to revise your words and ideas, so they sync with the reader's personality type.

Autocorrect, meet Myers-Briggs.

Crystal also suggests when to tighten your message; toss in an emoji; or use a little humor to soften things.

The end result? All your emails turn out more pleasant and pithy.

Crystal's developers claim their algorithm assigns personality types with 80% accuracy.

You can boost that accuracy, too, by answering multiple-choice questions about a colleague (such as, "If there were a conflict at work, how would he or she react?").

Why Success Stories Rule

While you keep dishing out vainglory, only success stories "spark imagination and generate discussion," writes Theo Priestley in Forbes.

"There’s a definite sense of pride behind retelling a company history, or the deep technical passion in the product itself, but the solution only comes alive when there’s a story," Priestley says.

A product-design and marketing consultant, Priestley bristles over the naiveté of most marketers, who honestly believe their bluster is convincing.

Stories trump marketing megalomania, Preistley says, for three reasons:

Stories show how your brand is perceived in the market. Success stories illustrate clearly how your product differs from competitors'. 

Stories allow you to express an opinion. "Opinions matter, even if they’re controversial," Priestley says. They matter, because opinions ask customers to think.

Stories connect marketing and sales. Success stories let marketers and salespeople work as a team to deliver concise, consistent messages.

The 120 Commandments

It took Moses four decades to write his laws, so we should be grateful it's taken only half that time for someone to codify the rules of email marketing.

And it was well worth the wait.

Writer, editor and e-mail marketer Chad White's extraordinary handbook, Email Marketing Rules: A Step-by-Step Guide to the Best Practices that Power Email Marketing Success, is by far the most intelligible, comprehensive and practical handbook yet written on the subject.

The 300-page book makes it unassailably clear—and not just from his bio on the back— that White is an accomplished "hands-on" email marketer; that he's not only been to the mountain, but around the block.

White walks you through 120 essential e-mail marketing rules-of-thumb, or in his words "the rules that separate great marketers from good marketers."

And the trip is eye-opening.

Encyclopedic in scope, Email Marketing Rules covers everything you ever wanted to know, and leaves out the hucksterism that normally pollutes books of this sort.

Rules aside, the glossaries larded throughout the book make it worth reading. So does the concluding chapter, "The Future."

 
My sole criticism of White's book: I couldn't read it 20 years ago.

Five stars for Email Marketing Rules. Buy it. Read it. Keep it handy.

Spotlighting the Skeptics

Can you be trusted with customers' data?

The answer depends on who you ask, according to a new study by Royal Mail MarketReach.

The firm asked 7,000 consumers in the UK whether they trusted marketers to use their data ethically, and protect it from thieves and hackers. 

Its findings show:

• Older people worry about potential data abuse more than younger people;

• Women are more reluctant to give marketers data, and want greater reassurance that their data will be safe, than men; and

• High-wage earners trust marketers with their data more than low-wage earners do.

Jumping the Shark

Well aware that most customers are "deletists," email marketers will swim any length to catch you.

Sometimes, too far.

A marketing automation provider recently sent me an email with the following subject line:

Don't open this message unless…

The "payoff" (a fairly insipid one) appeared in the body of the email:

You want to automate your marketing woes away!

Obviously, I took the bait.

But I ask: Why would a company that sells, of all things, email marketing services sink to such lows?

So be warned.

Avoid clickbait subject lines. 

Even if they increase opens, they'll take a bite out of your brand.

White Noise

Too much content is killing content marketing, says William Yates, an executive with the UK-based digital agency Novacom.

Marketers know full well customers are time-starved, but continue nonetheless to spew "protracted blogs, long, drawn out how-to articles, and over-written so-called white papers."

Most of this content is "textual junk," Yates says; and the oversupply threatens to turn marketing communications into "marketing white noise."

In fact, Yates contends, a transition is already afoot: customers are becoming more discerning.

"Discernment is the other side of the transition coin, and as this side of the coin is flipped and hits the sunlight, and discrimination prevails, so this incessant stream of nonsense will be perceived for what it actually is: valueless."

A Thing of Beauty

What's more important In marketing emails, copy or design?

In a new report on email marketing from the Center for Exhibition Industry Research, digital strategist Jason Falls answers the question—categorically.

It's copy.

"Nothing makes an email more powerful than expertly written copy," Falls writes.

"Catching the recipient’s attention, taking them on a quick journey, and making them believe that more than anything they have to take the action you want them to take and take it right now, is a thing of beauty."

Falls quotes Derek Halpern, a fellow digital guru who "swears by text-only emails."

“I’ve experimented with both simple text and fancy HTML," Halpern says, "and in all my experience, simple text generates the best results."

Should You Use "Free" in Your Subject Lines?

Although the adjective can stampede customers, most experts urge you never use "free" in the subject line of marketing emails.

That's because "free" is a so-called "trigger word" which, thanks to spam filters, might well earn you a goose egg in the delivery column.

Similar trigger words include "urgent," "guaranteed," amazing" and "unlimited."

But there's good news for marketers.

As spam filters get smarter, they're learning to distinguish emails sent by bona fide marketers from those blasted by flimflammers.

Smarter spam filtration means marketers can take "free" off the list of trigger words.

I asked digital guru Jason Falls, who recommends rule-breaking to email marketers, whether you should worry about using "free" in subject lines.

"There are actually two reasons it's only a minimal concern," Jason said. 

"First, only spam filters set to a very high level of filtration would weed it out. I'd guess you've seen some 'free' headlines in your inbox in the last few months.

"Also, once you have someone subscribing to your email list, most email systems and filtration methods learn to trust emails that you see, but don't mark as spam. It's sort of a machine-learning way of white listing email addresses. 

"So using a headline like that with a segmented list of people you have sent to before, have opened before, or are long-time list members means the email is more likely to get through than not."

Clickbait Headlines Do More Harm than Good

Meager response rates are tempting an ever-increasing number of marketers—even B2B ones—to resort to using "clickbait" headlines, those sensational promises that dupe you into reading thinly related content.

You know the kind:

What this customer said was so insane it will make your jaw drop...   

But the more sensational the headline, the greater the risk of disappointing prospects once you lure them to read nothing more than your usual sales pitch.

Disappointment never does your brand credit. 

Repeated disappointments will ultimately damage it.

How to Breed More Believers

Customers come to your marketing content as skeptics.

It's your job to turn them into believers.

A proven way to combat skepticism is to substantiate your product claims with statistics.

Far better than other details, statistics strengthen your content's persuasiveness, even when they're from a third party.

Consider the following claims (by a window manufacturer):

SageGlass is ideal for buildings where sustainability is a goal. It controls the sunlight and heat that enter a building, providing great thermal efficiency. It also means buildings can use smaller, more efficient HVAC systems, dramatically reducing energy consumption.

Consider how much more powerful the claims become when statistics are added:

Researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory have said that full deployment of dynamic, highly insulating glazing can save up to five percent of the US energy budget. That’s equivalent to over 160 gigawatts of electricity generated annually by fossil fuels. Such savings could reduce CO2 emissions by 300 million metric tons.

What Content is the Most Effective?

What content works best for attracting new B2B leads?

Research reports, according to a new survey by content creator Ascend2.

The firm asked more than 400 marketers to rate a variety of devices for their ability to generate leads.

Thirty percent of marketers chose research reports as the most effective device.

Twenty-eight percent chose Webinars and twenty-six percent chose white papers.

A research report can act like a prospect-magnet, provided it asks the right questions and answers them in an honest way, according to the firm's blog.

Reports that don't focus on customers' "common pain points" or that merely recycle your opinions won't woo prospects, the firm says.

In Media Res

Attention-grabbing copy leads with a bang; namely, the thing that matters most to your prospects.

Let prospects know from the first few words they read that you can help them reach their most important goal.

Don't start with throw-away statements, in the mistaken belief you need to warm them to you.

You may remember from school there's an ancient technique for literary narrative called in media res, dating way back to Homer's Iliad.

Latin for "in the middle of things," in media res plunges the audience into a crucial situation right at the start of a story.

The chain of events leading to the situation is never related; or is revealed only later in the narrative.

The technique works, because it involves the audience immediately.

Remember in media res when you begin your next email, Web page, ad, brochure, script or sales letter.

Feelings First

Note to B2B marketers: Money isn't everything.

Yes, money informs all business decisions. But emotion propels buying decisions—including the decision to buy your product.

Your product not only has to be the right choice; it has to feel like it. Without that feeling, all options seem pretty much the same.

Leading with the detailed financial arguments needed to seal buying decisions can take the wind out of your sails (pun intended).

So before piling on proof points, rouse your customer. 

Tell attention-grabbing stories of "before and after" transformations experienced by other customers.

Omit those stories and you'll find yourself merely reciting a lot of facts and figures, which feed the brain, but starve the gut.

Sales gurus Erik Peterson and Tim Riesterer, in Conversations That Win the Complex Sale, caution:

"One of the most common mistakes sales professionals make when selling is that they lead too early with proof. They believe that all they need to do is use the brute force of facts and logic in their pitch, and the prospect will buy from them. What you need to understand is that proof has its place. But it should come only after you've created the emotional momentum in your prospect that makes him want to move from where he is to where your solution can take him."

To Sell More, Connect the Dots

How often do you receive, as I did this week, an unsolicited email like this?

Hi,

Hope you are doing well.

I am following up with the email I sent you regarding IT Decision Makers.

I’m curious if you had a chance to read my previous email and take this initiative further.

Please send over your data requirement and the criteria of your target market to process quality, counts, samples and pricing.

Please note that the database can be customized in exact line with your need.

Thanks and I look forward to your reply.

Warm regards,

Carlton

What's wrong with this email?

1. The sender didn't distinguish his product from the hundreds of competing ones.
    
2. The sender wants the reader to write down and send him specifications, but the instructions are vague and the task sounds daunting.

Want to sell more? Connect the dots for your prospect. 

1. Your prospect needs to know how your product's different. Spell out the difference and help her visualize success by using it.
   
   
2. Your prospect's busy. Make it easy for her to choose your product by leading her through the first step toward buying it.

Hole, Baby, Hole

Renowned marketing guru and Harvard professor Ted Levitt liked to tell students, “People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch hole.”

Pardon the pun, but it's surprising this decades-old saw has reentered everyday discussions of social media marketing.

It's not as if Levitt's insight doesn't deserve resurrection. It does.

That's because most marketers still believe they're selling drills.

How about you?

Is your head screwed on right?

Your motto should be, Hole, Baby, Hole.

Dan Pink on the Secret to Must-Read Emails

Best-selling author Dan Pink contributed today's post. His new book, To Sell is Human, occupies the No. 1 spot on the best-seller lists of The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post; and the No. 2 spot on The New York Times.

What's the secret to a must-read email?

Researchers from Carnegie-Mellon University studied this issue by sitting with email recipients and asking them to narrate which emails they opened and why. The researchers' conclusions were stark: the most effective email Subject lines appealed to either utility or curiosity.

That is, the emails most likely to be opened had Subject lines that either:

• Indicated the email was directly related and relevant to the recipient's work; or
  
  
• Provoked a level of uncertainty that made the recipient curious about what the message contained

The principles of utility and curiosity operate somewhat differently based on the situation of the recipient. The researchers found that utility works best when people have a heavy email load—and that curiosity can be extremely effective when the email load is lighter.

Since people have so much email these days, my approach is generally to use Subject lines that emphasize the usefulness of the email's contents—and emails themselves that are as concise as I can possibly create.

Perhaps the best advice is not to get caught in the mushy middle.

Craft the Subject line so that it's immediately clear that the contents of the email are useful (for example, “Three solutions to our paper supplier problem”). Or craft the Subject line so that it gets people curious (for example, “You're not going to believe what I learned about paper suppliers!”). But avoid falling in between those poles with Subject lines like "Followup," "Question" and so on.

The mushy middle is where emails go to die.

5 Newsletter Must-Haves

Promoting an event?

Digital marketer Juli Cummins, writing for Innovation Insider, says these five features should be included in your next newsletter:

Videos. Videos are smart because they're easy to share and watch on mobile devices. Including one on how to use your Website can boost registrations.

QR codes. QR codes drive readers to videos, Websites, photos and other content you can't include in the newsletter.

Personalization. You can boost readership by segmenting your list. Segment attendees by category, interests or preferences and blast targeted newsletters.

Special deals. Reward readers with newsletter exclusives like gift cards and discounts.

Short cuts. Devote a chunk of your newsletter to Web links to useful info. Include a single sign-on link that lets readers register without entering a username and password.