Grifter is a 20th century Americanism that stems from the English word graft, meaning “the obtaining of profit by shady means, especially bribery, blackmail, or the abuse of power.”
Before there was QAnon, there was Glenn Beck, another grifter.
Beck monetized right-wing conspiracy theories, prying millions from the pockets of gullible followers. In a bold show of cynicism, Beck named his company Mercury Radio Arts after Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre on the Air, whose 1939 broadcast of War of the Worlds famously faked out gullible fans.
Beck was a grifter, and proud of it.
The next time you hear another crackpot claim about Dominion Voting or Lizard People, remember to follow the money.
That phrase came from the late William Goldman's script for the 1976 film "All The President’s Men," the political thriller about Watergate.
Deep Throat told Woodward and Bernstein that if they hoped ever to understand how Washington worked, they should "Follow the money."
Most Americans expect the media to inform them, but a majority (58%) think it's harder than ever to rely on the media for objective news, says a new study by Gallup and the Knight Foundation.
TV programs remain Americans' primary news source, relied on by two-thirds of the adult population. Websites are the next most-popular source. Equal proportions of Americans (41%) rely on social media sites as rely on newspapers to stay informed, according to the study. Reliance on newspapers is most common among older Americans and Americans with graduate degrees. Only a quarter of Americans are confident they can distinguish facts from opinions. Age, education and party affiliation affect that confidence. And a quarter of Americans admit they get their news only from sources with a clear political bent.
After 10 years as a user of Kaspersky anti-virus software, I'm switching brands, due to the treatment I received by an offshore sales rep. My credit card was stolen a few months ago, so to allow my subscription to auto-renew, I contacted Kaspersky (which doesn't permit users to change the credit card numbers it keeps on file). The rep who finally took my call refused to stop reading from a script of "security" questions that were blatantly meant to upsell me. Each time I asked her what her questions had to do with security, she insisted they were for my own good. None of them were. After 10 minutes of this, I told her I'd switch to the leading competitor, unless she helped me update my credit card info.
She wasted another 15 minutes of my time bumbling around with this process, to no avail.
I politely thanked her for the help and hung up. Now I'm moving on to the competitor.
Walk a mile in your customers' shoes, CEOs. Try a quarter-mile, if you have no time for customers.
Harmonize your message with customers’ notions of “truth;”
Speak authentically; and
Achieve artless clarity.
To achieve those three things, you must:
Get out of the office and talk to customers. Lots of them. Large ones. Small ones. Happy ones. Not-so-happy ones. And don't stop until you have a firm grasp of the "scene" they’ve painted inside their heads. For better or worse, that's the world they inhabit, and the only one they know.
Revise the premise of your message to conform to the customers' worldview. When you next tell your story, begin with their "truth." And when you speak, at all costs resist the temptation to challenge that worldview. Customers will dignify your message with a moment of their attention only if your message meshes with their notions of who’s sincere, honest and caring.
Tell stories.Customers spot disingenuous organizations a mile away. Your words trigger their BS detectors—even if you’re squeaky clean. They no longer tolerate the expert opinion, the reasoned argument, the manufacturer’s warranty, the “act now” deadline, or the product-claim based on the avoidance of pain. So skip the superlatives, ambiguities, unsupported claims, advertising clichés, jargon, legalisms, fine print, and fear-based sales-talk. Just tell stories. "Once upon a time..."
Speak as tersely as possible. If you keep it simple, you’re trustworthy; if you don’t, you’re not. Don't say, "Membership in the association provides professionals the opportunity to pre-register for our annual conference at the member-only rate of $495 instead of the non-member rate of $595.” Say, "Membership saves you $100 on our annual conference.”
Include context, to assure you’re understood. Don't say, "We serve more than 100,000 dentists.” Say, "We serve more than 100,000 dentists, two-thirds of all dentists practicing in the US today.”
Omit unimportant facts. Don't say, "With more than 300 programmable features, the MLX is a workhorse that directly replaces our SP-88 series.” Say, "The MLX is a powerful new workhorse, with more than 300 programmable features.”
Use plain, crisp words and lively figures of speech. Don't say, "Our exhibition is the most comprehensive and efficient way to see the industry’s latest offerings.” Say, "A day at our show gives you a year’s worth of trends, tips and technologies.”
Minimize tech- and corporate-speak. Don't say, "Our face-to-face and e-learning opportunities will provide leading-edge techniques to expand your skill set through world-class experts." Say, "Learn the latest techniques from experts in our seminars and Webinars.”
A recent survey by PwC shows one in two CEOs think lack of trust threatens company growth. They have good reason: Prerequisite to any purchase is trust. And trust is a rare commodity these days.
Why do we trust each other, anyway?
Researchers in California asked test-subjects to choose any amount of money they wished to, and transmit it to strangers via computer. But first, they told the subjects that the money they sent—whatever the amount—would automatically triple in value, after they sent it. They also told the strangers they could keep the money they got, or share it with the senders. Before and after each transmission, the researchers measured the amount of oxytocin—the brain chemical responsible for "social bonding"—in both the senders and receivers.
The researchers found the more money recipients got (money being the gauge for trust among senders), the more oxytocin their brains produced; and the more oxytocin their brains produced, the more likely they were to share that money with senders (money also being the gauge for trust among recipients).
The researchers' conclusion: Oxytocin reduces our fear of trusting a stranger. I'd like to encourage the Content Marketing Institute to fund a comparable experiment to prove my pet theory: Marketing content produces oxytocin.
If the Institute is unwilling, you can send me money (via computer), and I'll fund the experiment. It'll be money well spent. Trust me.
I was eight when I decided to distrust government. Since I was not particularly precocious, distrust of government must have been something adults bred in kids in those days, the same way they bred healthy teeth in us. Maybe my distrust came from an additive in the water. Or maybe it came from watching Duck and Cover in the school gymnasium. There were troubles at the time with the Russians in Cuba, and our principal decided we should assemble each morning in the gym for an air-raid drill. My elementary school was less than 10 miles from the Empire State Building, well-known from TV news as a target for the Russians' missiles. As we watched Duck and Cover for maybe the tenth time one morning, my pal Mookie—a walking encyclopedia of esoterica—leaned over and said, "The movie's really stupid. It acts like you can hide, but when the bomb goes off, in six seconds we all turn into jelly." I knew Mookie's data was always indisputable, and thus I learned to stop worrying, love the bomb, and distrust government. Still do. And you? What's your story?
Trust "is now the deciding factor in whether a society can function," says Richard Edelman, president and CEO.
And trust has a gaping rip in its side.
According to the survey, 53% of people distrust institutions;and 32% are unsure of them. Over 75% believe they serve only the rich.
"Trust in institutions has evaporated to such an extent that falsehood can be misconstrued as fact, strength as intelligence, and self-interest as social compact," Edelman says.
The root causes are globalization and automation, which continue to eliminate jobs.
Can someone save our ship?
Edelman believes business, "the one institution that retains some trust," can.
But "business must get out in front and become an effective advocate on policy, moving away from lobbying toward direct public discourse that provides context on trade, immigration and innovation, outlining both benefits and disadvantages."
He also thinks social media can rescue us.
"Company-owned social media channels should supplement mainstream media to educate and to encourage dialogue. Business should provide citizens with platforms that invite them to help shape policy—giving them a positive outlet for their views and fears."
I'm not so sure. For my money, I'd bet our rescuers will be:
Entrepreneurs, whose aim isn't to shed jobs, but create them
Teachers, whose aim is to produce useful citizens
Writers, whose aim is to inform
Artists, whose aim is to inspire; and
Philosophers, whose aim is to help us distinguish truth from lies
B2B marketers who want to build trust among customers should try theme-based marketing, says Corey Olfert, head of content marketing strategy at GE Digital.
Most marketing focuses on the brand; theme-based marketing focuses on help. It lionizes customers, by helping them navigate change. "Theme-based marketing forces your business to put your audience’s needs and their challenges at the center of your marketing," Olfert says. Done right, theme-based marketing:
Builds trust in your company by showing you have perspective on today's issues and can provide concrete guidance;
Lets customers learn about you while they self-educate; and
Gives you a "True North guide" for all your marketing content.
So how do you identify a theme? It's easy:
Interview a cross-section of customers, your company's top executives and salespeople, and your biggest channel partners, Olfert says. Be sure to segment your interviews by region. "What’s important in the United States may not be important in France, South Africa or China," he says.
Read industry analysts’ forecasts and trend reports in your space and look for potential themes. You can also ask the analysts to identify the hot-button issues their clients obsess over.
Monitor media coverage and social media conversations about issues.
Study competitors' theme-based marketing—and go in a different direction. Choose an issue that will still be relevant in two years, vet it with a few customers, and "make sure your perspective on the issue, and the guidance and recommendations you’re providing, are differentiated and true to your business," Olfert says.
Better the devil you know than the devil you don't'.
— Irish Proverb
How often are you flummoxed by a prospect who decides to do nothing, or stick with an incumbent supplier it hates?
Princeton psychology professor Daniel Kahneman won a Nobel Prize in Economics for explaining why clients do this.
Kahneman’s research challenged conventional economic theory, proving people make irrational decisions all the time. A key basis for those decisions is "risk aversion." People are more motivated to avoid a loss than to acquire a gain. In fact, the perceived loss has twice the influence on the decision the equivalent gain has. How do you counteract risk aversion? In the way you explain the potential loss.
You need to do careful research to pinpoint the loss (generic claims never work, and cheesy fear-mongering backfires); and then show the prospect it will avoid that loss by choosing you. Here are three things you should do:
Provide your prospect insight. A financial advisor had trouble selling doctors deferred compensation plans. It used a white paper, Healthcare Post-Obamacare, to get meetings with physician groups. The white paper was chock full of gloomy news and predictions of losses, many of which had little to do with deferred compensation plans; but the data motivated doctors to meet with the advisor and discuss the firm's products.
Prove over and over you produce results. The top Realtor in my home town mails homeowners postcards every week. Each one boasts of the rapid speed and ginormous sale price at which she just sold a home. If I fear getting a below-market price for my home, I might remain in it. Or I might just give her a call.
Make your case. Case studies that emphasize how you helped clients dodge disasters demonstrate you can do the same for them. Software provider Minitab proved this in a case study about Ford Motor Company's use of its product. Ford's launch of Fiesta was jeopardized when the automaker found ugly brush marks on every vehicle's carpet. Minitab helped Ford avert showroom nightmares by enabling it to evaluate the results of 34 test fixes in 12 days, and choose the right one.
Content creators have begun to recognize their art is as old as Methuselah; that it's less about hoodwinking Google and automating posts, and more about intriguing readers.
The rules for generating good content are, in fact, the very same ones Associated Press reporters used in 1846, when the organization was founded.
I'm soon to reach my 10th anniversary as a blogger. The blogosphere 10 years ago was a trash heap of get-rich-quick schemers bent on selling stuff. A few pioneers—Chris Brogan was one—proclaimed at the time content marketing was a permutation of PR; that it was all about educating customers, connecting with them, and earning their trust. But that was the view of outliers. The herd chased fads and went in for cheap and tawdry tricks.
My gut told me the outliers were right and that the rest of the crazy world would catch on one day. It took 3,650 days. "In a world of zero marginal cost, being trusted is the single most urgent way to build a business," Seth Godin says. "You don’t get trusted if you’re constantly measuring and tweaking and manipulating so that someone will buy from you.
"The challenge that we have when we industrialize content is we are asking people who don’t care to work their way through a bunch of checklists to make a number go up, as opposed to being human beings connecting with other human beings."
If you create content and haven't caught on yet, you still have time. A little, anyway.
Prerequisite to any purchase is trust. Yet, hour after hour, high-handed CEOs, white collar bandits and cagey politicos destroy customers' trust. Joining them are hordes of con artists, jackleg manufacturers, self-dealing bloggers and unsavory street marketers.
To build trust, you first need to establish a comfort zone where customer engagement and conversation can begin; inside that zone, you earn trust. (The English word "trust" in fact comes from theGerman "Trost," which means “comfort.”)
The age-old way to establish a comfort zone was to use symbols. But, thanks to the relentless pursuit of margins, that practice has largely vanished.
Hotels used to display fresh-cut flowers in the lobby. Banks used to build with a lot of granite and marble. Department stores used to welcome you at the door and serve tea and biscuits. And gas stations used to be staffed by attendants dressed like hospital workers. Today, businesses no longer use symbols to build comfort zones, but rely instead on "transparency" (a notion that only surfaced with the arrival of e-commerce). There's a huge problem with that. Transparency can't be the bedrock on which to found a comfort zone, because customers care about what you symbolize, not what you divulge.(Don't believe me? Think about our two major presidential candidates.) If your business hasn't embraced symbols, hoping instead to gain trust by appearing "transparent," it's urgent to do so. And if it has abandoned symbols, it's time to go back to them.
"Every new customer you bring on who isn’t the right fit presents a churn risk," says Dan Tyre on Hubspot.
Churn is a risk, because it opens new doors to bad reviews.
What are the signs to watch for? The bad-fit buyer:
Is considerably larger or smaller than your typical customer
Operates in an industry outside your target market or time zone
Is discourteous and responds to questions with emotions, rather than facts
Doesn’t want to answer questions or makes contradictory statements
Is unwilling to take direction and seems competitive
Doesn’t have resources (money, time, staff)
Seeks a "silver bullet"
Goes from excited to apathetic and back again
Is disorganized and can’t spend time with you
Cancels meetings with short or no notice
Doesn’t follow simple directions (like please read the one-page outline)
Seems to be going through the motions
Has to hear you say the same thing at least four times before he gets it
"Almost all prospects will show some of these indicators," Tyre says. "The key is to be 100% transparent, have open conversations with your prospects, and set expectations at every step of the process."
Before a judge ruled against its admission in 1693, spectral evidence was used to condemn Salem's witches to death. A defendant could be convicted solely on the testimony of a witness who claimed the defendant appeared to him or her in a dream. Inadmissible in a court of law, spectral evidence is a red herring that still holds sway in today's court of public opinion. We're engulfed by everyday examples:
Every social media user has the attention span of a goldfish (although NIH never issued that finding).
Every business must innovate or die (although only 3% of new consumer products enjoy first-year sales above $50 million—the benchmark of a successful launch).
Every Planned Parenthood clinic profits from fetal tissue sales (although the activist behind the claim has admitted to faking his documentary).
Before your next witch hunt, please, check your facts.
A new study shows customers alter their self-labels when served an ad they think targets them because of their web browsing, provided the ad matches their aspirations. More importantly, they also increase brand consideration. To reach this conclusion, the researchers conducted four experiments:
They served web-browsing college students an ad for a restaurant with “Refreshingly Sophisticated American Classics.” They told one group the ad was served because of their web browsing; they told another, because of their demographics. The first group was more likely to label themselves as having "sophisticated food preferences," and was more likely to dine at the restaurant, than the second.
They served students an ad for a luxury watch, telling one group the ad was based on their web browsing; another, the ad was not. The first group of students was more likely to label themselves as "sophisticated" than the other group.
They served students an ad for a pro-environment speaker. Students told the ad was served because of their web browsing were more likely to label themselves “green” and donate to an environmental charity, than students who thought the ad wasn't targeted.
They served students an ad for an "outdoorsy" hot chocolate. Students with an interest in the outdoors were swayed by the ad; students without an interest in the outdoors weren't. The experiment proved, unless they already aspire to something, people wont alter their self-labels because of an ad.
The upshot?
Web advertisers should be more transparent, because targeted ads with statements like "This is recommended based on your browsing history" can increase brand consideration.
Once upon a time, I had the privilege of interviewing madman George Lois for a magazine article about ad creative. When I asked, "What makes an ad effective?" Lois said, "An ad has to kick you in the ass with an idea you like." In other words, the advertiser needs to startle you, then evoke a little love. Last year's most-shared ads, according to Unruly, did just this. Each ad transmitted a powerful idea by marshaling a string of surprising sounds and images that, taken together, can't help but excite love… at least a little. As Don Draper said in Mad Men, “Advertising is based on one thing: happiness. And you know what happiness is? Happiness is the smell of a new car. It's freedom from fear. It's a billboard on the side of the road that screams reassurance that whatever you are doing is okay. You are okay.” And now for last year's most-shared ad…
Read more about emotion's role in advertising here.
"Hardly a week goes by without someone saying the worlds of B2B and B2C marketing are converging," Gary Slack wrote recently in this blog.
To picture the two worlds as one, he asks us to imagine a place where municipalities buy equipment on impulse, and manufacturers buy machinery and materials without due diligence.
"Were this all to start happening," Gary says, "pigs would be flying, too.
"Consumer and business purchasers and purchases are just too different—always have been and always will be."
But what if… just what if, instead of businesses, consumers changed?
In that alternate world:
All consumers would have split personalities (at least six, called a "team").
Before every purchase, they would email an inscrutable document to at least 15 suppliers, and demand a response within 10 days.
All consumers would postpone their purchases until their incomes are certain.
AdAge would be repackaged as an insert in O, and B2C would collapse into B2B, forming a supercontinent named Omnicom.
Mary Boone co-authored today's post. She is considered a leading authority on the design of meetings to incorporate engagement. Bob: For as long as I've been involved in event promotion, I've been stymied by the ubiquitous chili pepper brochure. From time immemorial, every event planner who's ever held an event of any size anywhere in the American Southwest, it seems, has illustrated the cover of her promotional brochure with a chili pepper. I understand why a B2C event planner might use the tactic. But why—when attendees are time-starved, budget-conscious and results-driven—do B2B event planners persist in the belief that destination matters? That destination influences prospective attendees' decision to attend a B2B event, or prefer one event over another? The answer: DMOs. Destination Marketing Organizations (in quainter times called "Convention and Visitors Bureaus") have brainwashed two generations of B2B event producers. And not for the better. In the drive to "put heads in beds," DMOs have propagated the myth that B2B events are just a form of tourism.
Their sway over B2B event planners has cost the planners dearly—in attendance, income and career. That's why I insist chili pepper burns. Mary:
I don’t think the answer to this situation is to dismantle DMOs. I think the answer is to raise awareness and educate.
Imagine this. An event planner is putting together an event. She is trying to figure out, among a million other details, where to hold it.
What if she knows the “Flo” (think Progressive insurance) of DMO professionals? She calls Flo. “Flo, I need to hold this event somewhere and I’m not sure where.”
Flo: “Tell me more about the objectives of the event. What’s your organization trying to achieve? What type of environment is going to support those objectives? Tell me more about the culture of your organization…”
Then, after a great conversation, Flo says, “You know, I’d love to be able to say that Chili Pepper, Texas, has the perfect venue for you, but this one time I have to admit that Vancouver, B.C., might be better.”
Shock and awe. So this time Flo doesn’t get the business, but guess who our planner is going to call every time she needs help?
If DMOs are educated to be consultative, client-centric, and business-focused in their interactions with planners, they can be deeply essential to the process of strategically selecting a location that matches the needs of both the event and the business.
Videos are the future of B2B content marketing. Seven in 10 B2B marketers already use them, according to Demand Metric. That's little wonder, when one in two people watch marketing videos on line every day, as Liz Alton reports in Sales and Marketing Daily Advisor. Videos' matchless power comes from their "immediacy and intimacy," Alton says. She describes five kinds of videos B2B marketers use: Explainer.Explainer videos are "short, focused videos that give an elevator pitch of what products and services you offer." They're often produced in whiteboard style.
Case studies.Case studies give customers "an inside look at your work," Alton says. They can be testimonials or project reviews that prove you deliver results. How-to. How-to videos address FAQs you receive. Depending on the complexity of the topic, they can provide quick tips or in-depth guidance. Real-time. Meerkat and Periscope let you connect with customers in the moment. "Companies are using the tools for live Q&As, to report in from events and trade shows, and to respond to industry news," Alton says. Culture. Culture videos let you showcase staff, illustrate workflows, or give a glimpse of your systems in action. Many customers crave this “behind the scenes” look, Alton says. But wait, there's more... Besides boosting your brand, marketing videos attract more customers to your website, thanks to Google, says Swati JoshiinThe Huffington Post. "The fact that Google owns YouTube plays a role in video’s increased popularity," she says. "Google has been constantly adjusting its algorithm to give its users a meaningful experience while searching. To satisfy user intent, they show a variety of results, and not just exact keyword matches. As a result, search results now prominently feature videos among top results."
Impatient with blabbermouths, Archie Bunker was prompt to say,"Stifle yourself."
Of the two greatest sins B2B marketers cannot resist—jargon and pomposity—the more deadly is pomposity. Jargon merely baffles brains. But pomposity kills affinity—and engagement. Though it's tempting to reach for flowers like endwise, discoverable, holistic,generative and ninja-like, it's self-defeating. "Godfather of direct marketing," Herschell Gordon Lewis, puts it plainly in Copywriting Secrets and Tactics: “Overstretching for colorful words can damage reader empathy. Stay within acceptable bounds. Once again we see hard evidence that strong direct response writing can require the discipline of vocabulary suppression.” Tempted by showy vocabulary? Stifle yourself.
