The MadAveGroup Blog

I’ll bet you’re great at something. Maybe a lot of things.

Even if one of those things is owning or managing a business, though, it’s likely that your strengths and interests aren’t broad enough to cover every customer touchpoint.

For instance, let’s say you run an auto repair facility. You and your team are wizards under the hood - mechanically and technically excellent. And, yes, that excellence is ultimately what your customers pay you for. But it may not be enough to attract and keep new customers.

If the exterior of your building could use a serious power wash, if navigating your parking lot is a nightmare, if the guys at your counter aren’t proactively helpful, if your website is cluttered, if your restrooms aren’t clean, plenty of people won’t even consider coming in or coming back.

It’s the rare person or team that can deliver a consistently great service AND nail all the expected extras. It can be even tougher to think outside yourself and recognize opportunities to delight customers. But going to that next level can mean the difference between merely doing business and providing an experience that customers return for and willingly promote for you.

Maybe you’ll never be the kind of person who thinks to spruce up the landscaping around your shop, or send a hand-written card to your new customers, or continually reinforce your employees’ telephone skills. That’s okay, as long as you partner with people who can evaluate the experience you provide, look for missed opportunities to connect with customers, and then put a plan or process into place that helps you move from being great at one thing to being great at a lot of things.

This recorded webinar is about delivering better caller experiences. Take a listen.

We’re growing, so we’re always on the lookout for top talent. That means we see a lot of résumés - and a lot of résumé problems.

So, I called on a few of our agency leaders for their best résumé tips. First, a few of my own.

What Are You Selling? 

When I’m writing marketing copy, I put myself in the audience’s shoes, and consider what they might want in exchange for the time they spend with my content. With your résumé, you’re marketing yourself to employers. So, think about what those people want from an employee.

Study their help wanted ad. Read their website and social pages. What do they value? Can you deliver that? If so, do your résumé and other self-promotional materials make that apparent? Do they make hiring you an easy "buying" decision?

If you include an objective on your résumé, take the time to customize it for the job you’re applying for. I automatically rule out applicants whose objective has nothing to do with our type of work or the position we’re offering.

And sprinkle testimonials about your work and skills throughout your résumé and website. Let your biggest fans speak for you.

It’s All About Presentation

Our Director of Marketing Management April Cochran offers three tips.

“If you’re applying for a marketing job, be creative with your résumé. It should appeal to a hiring team like good marketing would.

“In today’s world, you have to keep your LinkedIn page updated. Include the URL on your résumé and a link to the page on your personal website. If you’re a creative, your website should feature examples of your work.

“And I can’t believe I have to suggest this, but always proof your résumé. It’s amazing how many errors I’ve found over the years.”

Is it Relevant?

“I don’t care that you worked at a car wash or a fast food restaurant while you were in college, unless you can show how those types of jobs relate to the position you’re applying for now. What’s on your résumé should have relevance to where you want to be professionally.” - Nikki Kellers / Director, MadAve Collective

Know What You Want

MadAveGroup CEO Jerry Brown has been hiring for 30 years. He suggests “defining your career goals very specifically, and then going for that type of job. It’s important to be able to show upward movement with each job change. When interviewing with a company, show that you know that company very well, and use your cover letter to explain why they should hire you.”

Show Your Successes

“It’s okay to list your past responsibilities broadly,” said Director of BusinessVoice, Steve Evert. “That information helps me understand what you did in those roles. But, if you want to be noticed, show the objectively measurable successes and accomplishments you’ve had in each of those roles.

“Also, if you held three different positions at one company, make sure the layout of your résumé doesn’t suggest at a quick glance that you worked at three different companies during that time. Employers are often leery of someone who leaves a company every couple of years.”

The window in this picture is next to the door of a county government office.

The staff's hope must be that customers will read each sign and learn the do's and don'ts of conducting business with this department before even walking through that door.

But the signs ain't workin'.

Over the years, I've seen literally thousands of people enter that office, and not one has even slowed down to glance at that collection of paper taped to the glass.

Why? 

It's too much to take in. Never mind the inconsistent look and the negative tone of the messages that “welcome” you to this office. It's the sheer amount of information that's overwhelming and off-putting.

So, ask yourself if customers might be ignoring or even turned off by an over-abundance of your messaging.

• Does your website copy need to be simplified or better organized?
• Do you try to force too many details into your radio spots?
• Could your social content be more concise?
• Are you sending emails too frequently?

People are distracted. They're in a hurry, and their attention spans are shrinking. That means that too much of even the best content may be disregarded because it takes too long to read and process. 

In the new year ahead, work to focus your message, wherever it may be. Make it as easy as possible for your audience to see, understand and remember your main point.

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Marketing is no laughing matter - except when it involves pitting pairs of marketers head-to-head in a joke-off of semi-epic proportions. Happy holidays from all of us MadAveGroup. 
 

If you have anything to say about how your brand sounds, you'll want to check out these blog posts. They're from BusinessVoice, our Caller Experience Marketing agency. The team also creates radio commercials, audio logos, and other forms of audio marketing.

1) In “One Way to Tell Your Story to Callers On Hold,” we profile a very special On Hold Marketing production we created for a local school. It’s won several awards, primarily by winning the audience’s collective heart. We also suggest a way you can capture the same type of emotion in your OHM and other marketing channels.

2) Does your company advertise on radio? If so, there’s a very good reason to let someone other than the local air talent or production director write and record your spots. See what it is in the post “Don’t Let the Radio Station Produce Your Commercials.” (Listen to our MarCom Platinum Award-winning radio campaign for Ray's Trash.)

3) Yes, your callers on hold are out of sight, but have you put them out of your mind as well? If so, that’s a problem. In this post, you’ll hear an example of how one company is clearly not thinking about their callers. We break down their approach to help you avoid wasting your callers’ time on hold. Read and listen to “Are You Subjecting Your Callers to This?”

4) And because every one of your company’s touchpoints can make or break a customer relationship, don’t miss the post “Are Poor Phone Skills Costing You Money?” 

Want to build instant trust with a new customer?

Resist any urge to oversell.

My wife called a new-to-us HVAC contractor when our furnace wouldn’t kick in for the first time this season.

One of their techs arrived the next day. He was friendly and answered my questions in plain English. Turns out that our furnace just needed to be cleaned.

I paid the tech, then asked if I should call him every fall for a cleaning. He stood there with the $90 I’d just given him for about 10 minutes of work and said, “No. Maybe every couple of years.” Boom! Immediate trust!

He turned down my offer of more frequent business and more money because he knew I didn’t need his service. I understood right away that he had my best interest at heart.

Our agency works with an automotive services provider who doesn’t want us to try to boost the per-ticket revenue for each vehicle that pulls into their shops.

They don’t like to overwhelm their customers with larger maintenance or repair bills. Instead, they work toward building trust and long-term relationships. Yes, they let customers know what type of service their cars need, but they prioritize those needs, encouraging drivers to “come back in six months” when the work will actually need to be done.

High-pressure sales tactics don’t feel good. And any time a customer senses you’re more interested in your wallet than hers, you risk losing - or never earning - her trust.

I AM A MAN.

The phrase appeared on signs carried nearly 50 years ago by striking sanitation department employees in Memphis, Tennessee. The African-American workers were protesting low pay and poor job conditions following the deaths of two co-workers.

In my role as a blogger, I'm always looking for marketing and communication lessons to share. And I see an important point we can take away from the signs those striking workers carried.

I AM A MAN.

Just four simple words. An obvious statement. Yet, it’s one of the most jarring sentences I’ve ever read.

In a documentary about the event, James Douglas, a strike participant, said the protests were about claiming “the same dignity and the same courtesy any other citizen of Memphis has.”

The thought that, still, in 1968 - during my lifetime - these American citizens needed to remind their fellow countrymen of their equality - and even their humanity - was and is deeply disturbing.

The person who wrote or chose the phrase “I AM A MAN” as a rallying cry understood - and knew in his bones - what those words meant. As he, too, was likely denied the basic rights of manhood in his own society, he most certainly felt the empowerment in that declaration.

I'm not equating the struggle for human rights with selling soap. I'm encouraging you to mean what you say - or write - about your work or your mission. Feel it first before you express it.

As you craft your own message, keep this simple, compelling phrase in your heart:

I AM A MAN.

Then ask yourself: Do I believe what I've written? Would it change anything? Will it matter to people?

Will you create a memorable experience for your clients or customers today?

Will you listen a little more intently for unspoken needs or frustrations?

Will you offer an unexpected solution?

Will you push yourself a little bit harder to deliver an encounter they'll remember, come back again to enjoy, and even tell others about?

Will you find a way to add value and give more than is expected of you and your company? And will you do it willingly and cheerfully, recognizing the joy in that effort?

Not only is that how you earn loyal customers, it’s how - little by little - you make the world a better place.

It’s all up to you.

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Our Creative Consultants write a lot of copy: On Hold Marketing, blog posts, website and social content, emails, video scripts, radio and TV commercials.

And we talk often about how to improve what we do.

So, we compiled a few thoughts on creating marketing content. If you write for your company, you might find these suggestions valuable. (Let us know if we can help.)

1) Your title is your promise to your reader. If someone starts reading your article or blog post, it's likely that your title drew him in. If he stops reading, it's probably because you didn't deliver on that title.

No one wants to feel like they've been suckered. And you don't want to earn a reputation for misleading your audience or wasting their time. So, a) don't use click bait-style headlines to hook readers, and b) make sure your content stays focused on the idea, information or solution promised in your title.

2) No one cares. When writing and editing, start with that assumption: “No one cares about what I have to say with this copy.” That helps you avoid the “if-I-write-it-they'll-read-it” fallacy.

Then, get to work on making your audience care! Deliver value to your readers. Surprise them with new information, original thought, or unique insight. Challenge them. Give them take-aways they can apply in their life or work. In other words, write to encourage your readers to come back for more.

3) Respect your readers' time. Long blocks of text can seem overwhelming, and for busy or slower readers, they represent more of a commitment. You owe it to your audience to do the work of honing and tightening your copy.

Especially in today's time-crunched world, effective writing is about communicating efficiently. Every word you leave on the page should count. So get to the point!

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On June 13th, 2017, the 120-year-old Wachter Building next to our UpTown Toledo offices was destroyed by fire.

As news of the fire spread, people from neighboring buildings poured into an adjacent parking lot to watch firefighters attack the blaze.

And as many of those people pulled out their cell phones to capture images or video of the scene, I noticed something: they all stood in one spot - far from what was happening - and shot what had to be merely an “overview” of the action.

This was hardly an everyday occurrence: a three-alarm fire was engulfing an historic structure. There were a dozen fire trucks and 70 firefighters onsite; motion; intensity; the sound of sirens in the air; thick, black smoke everywhere; a collapsing building.

And all most people saw - and recorded - was one perspective.

As a contrast, take a look at the video above. It was shot from every side of the burning building. Long, cover shots mixed with tighter views. Pans and tilts, cuts and crossfades. Quick visual side stories of the people fighting the fire, their trucks and equipment.

The Point

Your company’s story is not one-sided. To tell a more interesting version of that story, you have to be willing to look at it from all possible angles. The big picture and the details. The obvious and the unexpected.

Separating your company or product begins with your curiosity about what else is possible. So poke around. Ask questions. And then, tell your brand’s story by compiling insightful “shots” one at a time, giving your customers a unique look into your world.

Remember - from the parking lot, everyone’s view of the fire was the same.