Our client Speakeasy Coffee Company and CEO Nelson Floyd explains his deep fascination and commitment to roasting the finest coffee available. Nelson’s a master at his craft, and we highly recommend that you coffee lovers pick up a bag of Speakeasy’s custom roasted coffee and give it a try. We’d love to hear what you think!
Category: Branding
Personalization: Why It Works
Everywhere you look, marketing content is personalized. From grocery store receipts to your Amazon recommendations to postcards in the mailbox, companies are personalizing their communications to address who their customers are and what their customers need.
Are you capitalizing on those opportunities, too?
How to Use a Clear Call to Action to Convert Customers
Have you ever wondered how lion tamers keep wild cats nearly three times their size at bay?
While methods have evolved over the years, traditionally lions were subdued by three tools: a whip, a stool, and a handful of tasty snacks. While the whip or snacks make sense, perhaps you wonder why a stool was used (instead of a sword or a flame, for example)?
How can a small piece of furniture intimidate the king of all cats?
The truth is, the lion is not afraid of the chair, he’s confused by the multiple points on its legs. Cats are single-minded creatures, and the bobbing points of the chair legs confuse the lion into a less focused state. When the lion loses its train of thought, it is distracted from the instinct to pounce on a weaker opponent.
Muddled Communication Can Paralyze Your Prospects
Ever try to rush your kids through breakfast and get stuck at the cereal cupboard?
As they browse a shelf of eight boxes, they slump and groan: “There’s nothing to eat!” What started as a hurry-up turns into a traffic jam. You vow that next time, you’ll only offer toast and Cheerios.
When we don’t give customers a simple, singular call to action, they may also fall into decision fatigue.
Does your website or your print materials overwhelm customers with possibilities?
Psychologist Sheena Iyengar, a professor at Columbia Business School, co-authored a study that showed significantly more conversions happened when shoppers had fewer options. In her example, shoppers had to choose from a display with six different flavors of jam versus a display with 24 different flavors of jam. How did they compare? The conversion rate for the six-flavor table was 30%, while the 24-flavor table was only 3%.
Analysis can lead to paralysis!
What about your method for calling prospects to action? Does your advertisement ask them to commit to a 30-day trial AND use a customer discount code DURING a selected 14-day window? Does your podcast ask people to share with a friend, AND subscribe, AND download previous episodes (all in one breath)?
Perhaps you need to take a step back and use these three evaluation tools:
1. Know Your Main Goal
When you ask people to do several tasks at once (like visiting your website and joining your e-mail list), you’ve probably overshadowed your main goal with several smaller goals.
Focus on one main goal for customer conversion, and use customer loyalty programs down the road to call customers to greater steps of engagement or loyalty.
2. Test Action Statements in Advance
If your communication is a mist in the office, it’s probably a fog on the streets. To determine which CTAs are crystal clear, run some A/B tests with sample customers and find out which ones are generating momentum.
3. Pack Some Punch
Start call to action statements with a strong command verb, like buy, shop, order, subscribe, or win. Use concise phrases that build enthusiasm.
Which of these CTA statements excites you more? “Consider many of our 200 exciting destination possibilities,” or “Plan your dream vacation today!”
Keep things sweet, simple, and customer-focused. Once they take the bait you can always present them with more!
What Your Brand Colors Say to Your Customers
Do you ever wonder why so many fast food restaurants use red in their logos? Or why so many hospitals and healthcare organizations use the color blue in their logos? This phenomenon is hardly random. Psychologists have spent years studying colors’ effect on human behavior, and you can be sure that the results are worth understanding when you’re choosing your brand’s colors.
Hungry Anyone?
Besides being associated with love, energy, and vitality, the color red stimulates our appetites. It’s no wonder fast food chains such as McDonalds, Carl’s Jr., KFC, Wendy’s and Popeye’s have integrated the color red prominently in their logos and trade dress. If you’re developing a logo and brand identity for your restaurant, food or beverage products, incorporating red may not be a bad idea. Caveat: Remember when your parents would ask you, “If Jimmy jumped off a cliff, would you do it, too?” I know, some of you said yes, just to be obstinate, but don’t doom your product to a lifetime lost in a sea of sameness just because the research says it’ll make people hungry.
Starbucks founders Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegl, and Gordon Bowker clearly didn’t follow Jimmy off the cliff when they created their iconic green and white logo. Their caffeinated clientele aren’t looking for any more stimulation beyond that which is provided by the aroma of ground coffee beans in the air. What they are looking for, and what the color green represents, is harmony, tranquility, and calm. The founders’ goal was to create an environment that would encourage people to sit back, relax and drink their coffee with friends. By luring customers in with the green and white siren and surrounding them with warm, natural tones, they created a movement.
Trust Issues Anyone?
Kaiser Permanente, Blue Cross, Blue Shield, AT&T, Forbes, Ford and countless other corporations all use the color blue predominantly in their brand identities. It’s not just because blue is hands-down the favorite color of the majority of men and women, but rather, blue is associated with calmness and peace. Psychologists have found that when people view the color blue, they feel confident, comfortable and trusting. Of course, healthcare providers, purveyors of information, and one of the oldest car manufacturers in the history of man would want people to associate their products and services with trustworthiness and dependability.
Plucking Personality from the Rainbow
The colors that you choose for your brand need to reflect not only your product’s personality but also the personality of those you wish will buy your product. You want them to feel a certain way when they think about your product, and while not all colors will universally affect everyone in the same way, statistically speaking the odds are ever in your favor. With that said, here are some handy guidelines to understanding color when picking your brand colors.
Yellow
Evokes feelings of optimism, clarity and warmth
Orange
Brings up feelings of cheer, confidence, and friendliness
Red
Arouses the senses with excitement, passion, and love
Purple
Imagination and creativity are the hallmarks of this color
The 4 Key Steps to Successful Branding
Here’s your marketing truth for the day:
Branding is one of the most powerful weapons you have in your quest to attract the widest possible audience and differentiate yourself from your competitors in a meaningful way.
Though the kind of brand you’re trying to build may change as your company grows and evolves, the steps used create and cultivate that brand won’t.
Here are 4 key steps to successful branding that will be useful today and remain useful for a lifetime.
Keep Your Customers in Mind
Just like you wouldn’t try to offer a service or release a product you know your target audience doesn’t want, don’t brand yourself in a way that wouldn’t appeal to your customers.
To keep your customers in mind, ask yourself these questions and continue to address and re-address them as you move forward in the planning of your marketing and branding strategy.
Do your target customers respond well to direct mail materials?
Are they the type of people who like “larger than life” materials like print billboards?
Keep It Simple
One of the main keys to successful branding is the ability to clearly communicate the company’s core values.
But remember to keep it simple.
Never use ten words when five will suffice.
In some instances, you may not have to use words at all if you are able to communicate the idea behind what your brand stands for in an image.
Take It Slow
Though your brand may naturally evolve as your business changes and grows, you still need to take things slowly.
If all of your marketing materials reflect one version of your brand in Quarter 1 but then a completely different version in Quarter 4, you’re going to end up developing a schizophrenic reputation among your target market.
If you make too many quick changes changes that are too, you risk confusing your brand with itself and creating the idea that you’re actually two different companies.