Yours Truly

Tonight and every weekday night, Bob Bailey in the transcribed adventures of the man with the action-packed expense account, America's fabulous free-lance insurance investigator...

— Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar

Serial proved crime pays—and that podcasting deserves every marketer's attention.

One in five Americans listens to a podcast every month, according to Pew Research, and broadcast-quality production has never been easier (or cheaper) since Tascam introduced MiniStudio Creator at The NAB Show last month.

"Time-shifted radio," podcasts attract loyal followers and forge rich connections.

Podcasting on a regular basis (as content marketing expert Mark Schaefer does) is a brilliant way to enrich a blog; and podcasting from live events will amplify any brand's presence.

The podcast-listening experience is unique in social channels: audio is intimate in a way video and images are not.

Content literally lodges in your head—the spot where brands want to be.

Marketers, furthermore, can enhance their podcasts with supplementary content and commentary, and track leads from specific podcasts by including custom URL callouts.

Still not sold? Consider three more facts:

• Podcast listeners spend an average of 4 hours a week listening to podcasts, according to Edison Research;
  
• 70% of podcast listeners are Millennials, according to Nielson; and
  
• Podcast listeners are twice as likely to follow your brand as the average social media user, according to Edison Research.

Heads Up

Repeat customers produce 41% of revenue, according to Forrester.

Yet B2B marketers spend nearly all their money on lead gen.

Jay Baer at Convince & Convert calls it a Ponzi Scheme.

The fault lies with senior management: it makes lead gen marketers' key performance indicator.

Baer hopes "all B2B marketers muster the courage to look beyond the monthly and quarterly sales-qualified leads numbers that dangle over their collective necks like a guillotine."

You should spend more marketing money on retention.

Just a heads up.

Section 8

Citing the president's conduct during recent media interviews, opinion columnist Paul Krugman says Donald Trump may be coming unglued.

"Senior moments, when you can’t remember a name or phrase, or misremember where it came from, happen to many of us," Krugman writes.

"But that Economist interview was basically one long senior moment—and it wasn’t very different from other recent interviews with the commander in chief."

Trump indeed looks long in the tooth, and thus vulnerable to senior moments.

My parents—both dyed-in-the-wool Democrats and World War II veterans—would have sided with Krugman and called Trump a "Section 8."

During that war, servicemen and women battling psychiatric problems fell under Section 8 of US Army Regulation 615-360. Anyone who merely hinted he was cuckoo would be evaluated by a "Section 8 board" and discharged. His fellows would call him a "Section 8."

If Trump looks old, know that the phrase "long in the tooth" is even older.

It comes from 16th-century animal husbandry. Sheep's and horses' teeth, unlike humans', grow longer with age, so a breeder could tell an animal's age from the length of its teeth (and still can).

The phrase "dyed in the wool" also comes from the 16th century, when wool-production was England's largest industry. When wool is dyed before it's turned into yarn, the color becomes fixed and unyielding.

Breakout at Tiffany's

Will brands take stands?

Last week, Tiffany & Co. placed an anti-Trump ad in The New York Times. The ad broke the same day on social media.

Two days before the company ran its ad in the Times, Tiffany joined Google, Facebook, Microsoft and other brands to run a comparable ad in the paper.

I predict we'll see more brands take stands as Trump's extremism escalates and his standing in polls plummets.

Business and politics normally don't mix.

But "normal" is up for grabs.

POSTSCRIPT: In related news, Trump is now calling his daughter Tiffany by the name "Cat."



UPDATE: Patagonia has joined the list!

Braggin' (or How to Blow Up Sales)

Folks got no use for braggin'.

— Jimmy Shirl

Playing with adjectives is like playing with dynamite.

You can blow up potential sales.

The copy pitching National Retail Federation's annual convention ("Retail's Big Show") illustrates the hazard:

The three day event offers unparalleled education, collegial networking with 34,500 of your newest friends, and an enormous Expo Hall full of technologies and solutions.

Do the adjectives make the nouns that describe the event more vivid?

You decide. In my view:

• I understand the unparalleled education isn't a geometry lesson; but—besides being without peer—what is the attraction? Is the education useful? Practical? Advanced? Intensive? Digestible?
  
  
• Collegial networking sure sounds more attractive than its opposite (adversarial networking). But, practically speaking, how do you network with 34,500 people in three days? That would require—provided you never slept, ate, or took potty breaks—speaking with each attendee no more than 7.5 seconds. That's a tough way to make newest friends.
  
  
• An enormous Expo Hall also sounds more attractive than it opposite (a puny one). But how enormous is it? Bigger than Dallas? Than Ben Hur? Than a breadbox? And does every attendee equate vastness with productivity and time well spent?

It's safe to say the adjective-slinging copywriter strove, not to sell, but to please her client. Whatever happened to modesty, restraint, sincerity, dignity and good taste?

Here's the same copy adjective-free:

The event offers education, networking, and an Expo Hall full of technologies and solutions.

That's certainly clear, more sincere, and less preposterous. But does it sell?

The answer: it doesn't unsell.

Adjectives like unparalled, collegial, newest and enormous unsell, because they lack credence.

Nixing the adjectives and substituting stronger nouns and verbs would improve the copy's salesmanship:

Retail's Big Show arms you with insights, enriches your relationships, and introduces you to hundreds of technologies and solutions.

If that's not to your liking, substituting specifics instead would strengthen the copy's salesmanship:

Retail's Big Show equips you with a choice of over 125 educational sessions, countless opportunities to network with colleagues, and access to technologies and solutions from 490 providers.

And if that's too dry for you, using emotionally laden adjectives, instead of bombastic ones, would work:

Retail's Big Show outfits you for survival, delivering three full days of trend- and strategy-sessions designed for tomorrow's retail winners... countless opportunities to widen and renew your professional network... and nearly 500 chances to test-drive the tech innovations your competitors are considering—this very moment.