Hey, Boo.
I'm at the self-scan checkout (my preferred line) at the local Stop & Shop. And when my blueberries don't scan (there was no ....BOOP!....), I punch in the UPC code on the side of the plastic container.
"Oh, you know that trick!" says a friendly voice behind me. I turn and see a woman wearing a Stop & Shop apron. She's smiling warmly.
The punch-in-the-code instructions were on the scanner, to be fair. I'm not a magician. I just know how to read.
But I didn't say that. Instead I joked that I should get a job there, since I was already trained.
"Oh yes, you should!" she said, with surprising gusto. She's been there 8 years, and she loooooves it. She said loves just that like, drawing out the ooooo.
It's union, she said, leaning toward me. She works just part-time, but she gets 3 weeks of vacation, 1 week of sick time, a few personal days, and they reimburse her for school. "And the store manager. So wonderful!"
I can't recall the last time any front-line, apron-wearing worker enthused about their role quite so much. And because she was Indian, she spoke with a lilt that made the supermarket's policies and her manager sound not only wonderful... but also beautiful.
That One Time in the Midwest
Last week, I spoke at an internal meeting of a large company's marketing and communications teams about bringing a bolder and braver edge to their marketing.
I hate throwing around the word "awesome" too casually—but holy wow this group truly was.
Having an outside speaker come in to throw around opinions about people's work can be... well, a little dicey.
I get it. We can all feel vulnerable. We can be defensive. We throw up roadblocks before even considering the opportunities. Feelings could get hurt. Territories can feel encroached on. There's an art to communicating with groups in such circumstances. You can't usually be blunt.
But, last week, this group didn't flinch.
They didn't want anything soft-pedaled or sugar-coated or toned-down.
They heard critiques not criticism.
They dug in and talked ideas out, right in the middle of my session.
The room bubbled like a hotdish at a potluck.
It was... awesome. (I used that word twice for emphasis.)
What made this event different?
Because someone important had their back. Just as my Stop & Shop friend had called out her wonderful manager in a sea of other perks.
In this company's case, that one important person was a senior leader sitting at a table right up front—and she'd opened the day by saying this:
I don't know all the answers—many of you know more than I do. But we're here to figure it out. And when we do, I'll have your back.
Or something like that. I wasn't taking notes, because honestly I couldn't get past that comment she made about not having all the answers. This senior leader stood up in front of 70 of her staff and one stranger (me) and admitted that she didn't know everything there was to know about everything.
It sounds goofy to say my pulse quickened. But it was something like that. The room suddenly had more oxygen. I felt lucky to be there. Was everyone sitting up a little taller? It seemed like it.
We hear all the time about the importance of leadership. That whether you're leading a team or a project or a community, that a key to leading is staying open and vulnerable. We know about the importance of giving employees access to learning opportunities leading to growth because happier stronger more successful companies best-practices retention yada yada yada....
We all know this stuff intellectually. We hear it from everyone, everywhere.
But how often do we actually see it?
How often do we feel it?
How often do we feel in our bones the difference it makes—whether at a grocery store checkout, or inside a Midwest conference room?
Not nearly enough, maybe?
* * *
Here are 5 things I thought worth sharing this week:
1.
Stance and Deliver
"Tone of voice is still, flabbergastingly, the most under-exploited power behind great B2B brands," writes Doug Kessler. (I'd argue it's under-exploited by all the other Bs, too.)
From Doug:
Pretty much every category of every market has a company that rose to the top not by saying new things but by saying things in a fresh, distinctive way.
From MailChimp to MarketingProfs, Slack to Xero, Drift to Box to Hubspot, Typeform, Wistia... (the list goes on and... actually it doesn't go on for that long at all).
Voice matters because a distinctive, real personality delivers "a series of tiny surprises that add up to a sense that 'these people might be for real when they say they have my interests at heart,'" Doug says. But voice alone can't do it: you need to pair voice with its twin sibling—what Doug calls "stance."
👉 👉 👉 Love this: Doug coins a new term. "Voicewashing: those companies that use a kooky, playful voice as a cover for a sneaky, venal business."
2.
Time for Slow-cial Media?
In the past year, I've spent less and less time on Facebook. Email newsletters have become my way of staying connected to the kind of information I used to get in my Facebook feed.
My consumption of news has become slower... but that's been good: It gives me time to figure out what I think about something without bias from the commenters and likers on social media.
I might ultimately share my figured-out thoughts on social media. But the difference is that I give myself time to think: I can swim around in the deep pool for a bit, alone, without being splashed by that opinionated jerk who decides to cannonball right off the diving board.
Time to think before speaking is embedded in email. That's almost impossible to experience on social media, especially with hot-button or political posts. Which is why I call email "Slow-cial Media."
That's not the only reason I prefer Slow-cial Media to Social Media these days. On the Emma blog I shared 11 reasons why we marketers should all be obsessed with our email programs (as much as I am!)
I hope this post reframes email for you, too.
3.
Free Preach
Customer testimonials preach to other would-be customers: Hey! It's awesome here! (Or to quote Rosemary Clooney... Come-on-a-my-house! 🎶)
Done right, testimonials don't sell as much as hold up a mirror to your business, allowing a would-be customer to see a bit of themselves reflected back. They answer the questions: Is this company right for me? Do I belong here? Is this thing the answer FOR ME?
There's an art to creating a great testimonial. Writing at Hotjar, Sean D'Souza serves up the 6 questions you need to ask to get a powerful testimonial. Then he lobs over 7 great companies that are killing at the testimonial game.
☝️
I'd quibble with one point: Don't banish testimonials to the Siberia of a single "testimonials page," as if they need to huddle for warmth.
Instead, scatter testimonials strategically across your site/social channels. Otherwise,
Sean's advice is solid.
4.
Writing Tips from Dr. Seuss
Dr. Seuss Day was last week, March 2. In MarketingProfs, Lisa Shomo breaks down four literary devices Dr. Seuss used in his beloved books, then challenges you to use those Seuss-ian tactics in your own copy and writing. Try a little repetition, alliteration, rhyme, and the oddball invented word:
And to Think
That I Saw It on MarketingProfs Street.
🎉 🎉 🎉 Wanna have some fun? Write a Seuss-inspired poem and send it to me! Here's mine:
Should you, would you write like Seuss?
Would you, could you be footloose?
Splentastic? Bombastic? Contentedly-tastic?
Give it a shot! Get going! Vamoose!
P.S. Dr. Seuss almost ditched writing. Above is a thank-you letter he sent to the former college classmate who stopped The Cat in the Hat author from burning his first children's book manuscript. In the 1930s, the two had randomly bumped into each other on a NYC street, and later Seuss wrote: "That's one of the reasons I believe in luck. If I'd been going down the other side of Madison Avenue, I would be in the
dry-cleaning business today!" The letter was part Seuss's papers that sold last month at auction for $8,529.
5.
Shoutout for International Women's Day
International Women's Day shouldn't even need to be a thing. But it is because we do need it.
In honor of International Women's Day last Friday, Oracle and Girl Geek X asked me to share a story of a woman who's inspired me. So I did, in a video.
👉 👉 👉
And also: Pittsburgh-based marketing agency Carney has developed a stylish, fun ebook to promote MissFits, its community celebrating and supporting the evolution of professional women. I was honored to be included, especially since Carney actually ran with my sometimes ridiculous answers.
Check it out.
TOOL'S GOLD
🚫 Dr. Suess Day was also National Grammar Day (weird, since Seuss played by his own rules).
I got one wrong in this grammar quiz. You?
↪️ One to bookmark:
Really Good Emails is a handpicked collection of 3,800+ really great email design and resources. It's powered by community submissions and the editors' "own obsessive drive to find the best email examples out there."
SHELFIE
My friend Randy Frisch's new book pushes us to rethink how we approach content for complex buyer journeys. Plus, the Kindle version is a mere 99 cents right now (or it was, as of 5 AM this morning)!
LOVE LETTERS
High-fives from around the internet.
Be well. Much love. Thanks for reading this far.
