Remarkable Marketing … from Seth Godin

I am in Belgium this week to hear Seth Godin speak to a number of marketing, advertising and business enthusiasts. It’s a great opportunity, of which I’m very excited to be a part! In honor of the guest speaker tonight, below are ten of my favorite “Godin”isms:

1. Write what you believe, not what sells :: 12 proven ways to get your post to the top of digg
2. The way to win is to make things that tiny (or large!) groups want to talk about, or care about, or engage in. That’s the story that spreads :: Anatomy of a campaign
3. In a presentation to non-scientists (or to bored scientists), the purpose of a chart or graph is to make one point, vividly. Tell a story and move on. If you can’t be both vivid and truthful, it doesn’t belong in your presentation :: Bar graphs vs. pie charts
4. Are you better at what you do than you were a month or two ago? :: Better?
5. You can contact just about anyone you want. The only rule is you need to contact them personally, with respect, and do it months before you need their help! Contact them about them, not about you. :: Catchers and Throwers
6. The mistake so many marketers make is that they conjoin the urgency of making another sale with the timing to earn the right to make that sale. In other words, you must build trust before you need it. Building trust right when you want to make a sale is just too late. :: Drip drip goes the Twit
7. Creativity loves a problem, but it hates a lousy audience. :: Grave new world
8. We tend to use new tools to do less. We try to save time and money at the same time, and end up depersonalizing and commodifying what we do. […] It’s so so easy to hide behind technology, to use it as a shield, instead of as a clever tool to actually get you closer to the customers you depend on. :: Old marketing with new tools
9. When in doubt, challenge the strategy, not the tactics. […] None of us are doing enough to challenge the assignment. Every day, I spend at least an hour of my time looking at my work and what I’ve chosen to do next and wonder, “is this big enough?” :: Thinking bigger
10. Products that are remarkable get talked about. :: What do you know?

And three extras (from What do you know):

• A product for everyone rarely reaches much of anyone.
• Knowing what to do is very, very different than actually doing it
• You’re not in charge. And your prospects don’t care about you.

Seth is all about telling a story that spreads. Making it believable and being passionate about what it is that you do. That is marketing that is remarkable.

Check out this fun video from the Antwerp Central station, which, ironically, is right across the street from where Seth will be speaking tonight. It’s a fun, quick video and it will make you smile.

Sound of Music – Central Station Antwerp: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EYAUazLI9k

Notice at the beginning of the video how most people were curious, but not involved. They were standing on the sidelines, willing to give up a minute to see the outcome. By the end, most of the sideliners were either clapping their hands, dancing in their spot, or putting down their briefcases to join in … and pulling their friends in, too!

Can you see the similarities to your business? How are you capturing the attention of your audience, changing their attitude from passive passerby to engaged brand champion? How are you pleasantly surprising and spreading your story today?

Filed under: Brand, Marketing, Passion, Relationships

Keeping your heart in business

I was in Germany this week with friends and we planned two stops in Rüdesheim, the heart of the country’s wine region: the famous Drösselgasse and Siegfried’s Musikkabinet. Normally, the town is teeming with wine enthusiasts from around the world, with the streets so thick of tourists that you overhear conversations in German, French, English and Chinese within one minute of the walk. This week, the street was a ghost town. Icy cobblestone streets, bitter cold wind and not a tourist in sight…except for the three of us. Not one light was on in any restaurant along the Drösselgasse.

After finally finding a small restaurant in town, catching the eye of every local German (notably by being in the wrong place during the wrong season) and several glasses of wine and Rüdesheimers, we chatted with one of the locals, Susana. She expressed genuine curiosity for why we would want to visit the wine town in the dead of winter, and told us that the famed Musikkabinet was closed until April. Seeing the drop of our expressions, she turned and motioned to her dinner companion, Jens Wendel, who was sitting at the next table. Susana smiled to us and said “here is the man you need to talk to. He owns the Musikkabinet. And there,” she said turning around, “is his father Siegfried, the founder of the museum. I’ll bet if you buy Jens a beer, he’ll open the museum for you”.

Long story short, not only did we get a midnight tour of Jen’s museum, we met Adolph Störzel, a local vintner, who gave us a private tour of his winery the next day.

Susana explained why she, Jens and Adolph were so willing to be hospitable to us: she said, “When you represent something, it’s all about the heart. You can’t forget the reason behind why you are doing things. We represent our country and this is the way that we can show people our passion for the country we love”.

There is so much wisdom in Susanna’s statement. How true this is for anything we are doing in life, especially in business. The heart is the vital core that sustains a business.

It’s the reason people want Wegman’s to be their local grocer; it’s the reason people wait for hours in the summer heat and bitter cold of Oklahoma to have a Meers Burger, it’s what propels the Harley Davidson community of riders, and it’s what keeps Patagonia true to their founding principles. It’s the reason cities like Rüdesheim keep their quaint, original, endearing, old-world, authentic appeal. There is a pervasive and authentic passion encompassing the product, and it keeps customers close to the heart of why you exist.

People want to be involved in something bigger than who they are, something unique, exciting and one-of-a-kind. When you represent a brand with heart and passion, you take your customers along for the ride. Passion is what keeps people coming back, and keeps customers talking about what you do. It’s not the easy path. At times, it is inconvenient and can be more expensive. But it’s what makes you unique. It is what makes you memorable, and it is what keeps people committed to your business in the long term.

If you want a competitive advantage that cannot be replicated, that will keep people talking for years, give your customers an experience or a product like none other; give them one from the heart.

Filed under: Business, Heart, Passion