Whose Job Is It Anyway?

One of my favourite maxims is "vision without execution is hallucination".  Not sure who coined the phrase but I like it.  It's all very well saying "let's do something" and it's something else to actually get it done, especially if it involves people.

It's helpful to have some "getting stuff done" tools in your toolkit and one tool that I've found helpful in the past is "RACI".

To get from an idea to reality, we need to know who is going to do the work.  This is where RACI comes in.

RACI stands for "Responsible, Accountable, Consulted and Informed".  It's a usually framework to understand the roles of all the actors in a system required to get a task done.

Responsible
The responsible person is the doer.  (Or doers, i.e. those that actually do the work and deliver to the agreed standards, time frames or expectations).

Accountable
The buck stops here.  This person is answerable for the correct and thorough completion of the task.  It can only be be one person.  The accountable person may well delegate their tasks to a responsible person but they cannot delegate their accountability.

Consulted
Their opinion is sought, these are experts whose skills or knowledge can influence the success of the task.  It's a two way communication flow between the Responsible and Consulted parties. It can be more than one person.

Informed
(Or - told). Those who need to know what's going on.  Not necessarily during task, more likely on completion.  It's a one way communication and it's usually many people.

In any project, you write down all of the tasks down as the rows in your matrix.  In the columns, write either names or job titles.  In the grid, type R, A, C or I in each cell. 



If you do this with all of the people involved you can then get consensus on who does what.

It provides a good grounding for the next part of organising - what interactions (e.g. meetings) and documents are required during the project to make sure everyone gets what they need from the others involved.

Just ask

Picture courtesy of Andrew Kidd

This morning I was asked "why" questions, one after the other. A barrage of questions about why things are the way they are. This wasn't in a team meeting or a management discussion. It was over the breakfast table with an insistent four year old.

That's the thing about four year olds, they just ask you straight up. They're not worried about what you think of them, they just want to know. It's a natural curiosity.

Some of the greatest minds in human history kept asking questions long after the age of four. Some of the best never stopped.

I recently resumed learning to play guitar after a 25 year gap. This time around I have a massive advantage because I can find the answer to almost any question straight away. How do I play a specific song? Look it up on YouTube and there are plenty of people ready with a show and tell.

There's a revolution in online learning happening right now thanks to the internet. That's the difference that the last 25 years have given us. Universities such as Stanford are putting entire courses online. Wikipedia is available almost anywhere, anytime to anyone. Put it this way, if you have a question, it's never been easier to find an answer.

The ability to ask the right questions is an underrated skill. If I were interviewing someone for a job, I am much more interested in the questions they ask than the answers they give. The ability and willingness to ask useful and insightful questions is the mark of someone that applies themselves to a problem and who will overcome obstacles.

It's never been more important than now to keep asking questions. As an adult it's a habit and skill we need to nurture. The good news is that it's never been easier to get answers.

This gives me great optimism for humanity and the world that today's 4 year olds will inherit.

It also is a humbling reminder that today like every day I need to  keep asking questions.

Stay on the Yellow Brick Road

The path most travelled and the path of least resistance are often the same.

On a recent supermarket trip I was at the check-out.  I saw the usual chewing gum, cooking magazines, batteries and chocolate on display.  High profit items that customers impulsively buy as they wait to pay for the rest of their goods.  I wonder, if supermarkets had to rely on people only buying what they came to the shop to buy, would they actually make a profit at all?

On this occasion, I had to deal not only with the persuasion of my inner self ('hmmm, I really fancy some chocolate right now') but also with the persuasion of my kids who were asking for lollipops and magazines with free plastic toys.  To avoid giving in to my kids I felt it necessary to not yield to myself as well.  In the process, our local supermarket missed a few extra pounds profit and our family saved some unnecessary expense.

Marketing folks have of course always understood that to generate a customer response they need to place the goods and services as close to the customer's existing path as they possibly can.  The supermarket checkout is a classic example and has been taken to new extremes these days by almost every retailer.  If I try and buy a bottle of water at the airport at the newsagent or chemist I will inevitably meet with a queuing system that sees me waiting for the next available checkout whilst I have a chance to view almost all the high profit impulsive purchase products that the retailer has to offer.  Chocolates, crisps, suncream, ear-plugs, travel pillows, tissues....the aim is to convert paying customers to higher paying customers.

Marketing folks online also get this.  Why do you think Google Adwords has been so successful at generating results for marketeers?  Because the potential customers are already there.  In this case the challenge is not to convert an existing customer, the challenge is to acquire a new customer.  As we know that potential customers are already on Google (and we know their intentions from their keywords) we can take advantage of their existing path and offer them our products and services.

Likewise with TV advertising.  You wouldn't ask parents to 'please come downtown tomorrow to view the new home cleaning product advert on a big screen'. No, you'd probably put the advert on a kids TV channel hoping they'd see it whilst they watch TV with their kids.

The best way to make change happen is to find and use the path most travelled.

Managers in businesses however don't quite get this.  If they have a program of change that they want to achieve, they need to think marketing and they need to think about distribution channels, paths and existing behaviours.  So many don't.

It's essential to start thinking about internal comms in the same way as external comms.  Who are my audience?  Where can I reach them?  How do I integrate my message into their existing behaviour?  How can I get the results I want from their existing environment?

In a previous job, our tech team were trying to figure out how to build knowledge and awareness within the customer support team about how our products worked.  Their solution, although commendable for the effort put in, was ineffective. They decided to create blog and wiki where they would explain how things worked.  New posts would be available by RSS feed.

What needed to happen for this to work was that all the customer support people needed to have a separate login for the wiki.  Then, they all needed to configure their email client to pick up the RSS feed.  Then they needed to remember to check the RSS feed folder in their inbox on a regular basis and read the articles. Sounds dead easy if you work in tech. It failed.

Imagine if our supermarket had a separate room for all of their high margin add-on sales.  You had to go there specifically in order to see the product offerings.  And you needed to pick up a separate basket in order to carry these products to the check-out in addition to your main trolley.  They wouldn't sell anything would they?  Of course, not.

The path most travelled is why the supermarket check-out system works for the add on sales.  The path most travelled is also the reason the tech wiki failed.

For the tech wiki project to work it needed to use the systems that the customer support staff were already using on a daily basis.  There were three; the company back office system, the CRM database and email.  Anything outside of these three systems was irrelevant because support staff were busy enough dealing with these three systems to think about adding another.

So, when trying to introduce a change to an organisation, focus on making your change happen using existing pathways.  Making change happen is hard enough.  Having to create new pathways at the same time makes it even harder.

As a bonus, not only is the path most travelled the easiest place to introduce your change, it's also the path of least resistance.

No matter what their discipline or function, the more a manager thinks like a marketeer, the most likely he or she will succeed.  Be where people are and be where they are receptive.

Find and use the path most travelled. It could be your yellow brick road.

Once upon a time in Soho

I was having lunch with a friend in a lovely vegetarian café in Soho this week and we were talking about work.  He and I work in different companies, different jobs, but we share an interest in how the world works and a desire to learn.

He said, 'The bit I don’t get, is how to get my point across to the decision makers.  I can blind them with logic, I can build a great presentation….'

He was struggling with what so many of us struggle with, influencing others.  A few moments later we went back to the topic and I said, 'So, what other ways are there do you think to get a point across?'  He started thinking out loud and after a few sentences he started getting warmer when he said, 'metaphor'.

I find that most people use a, rational approach, a deductive logical approach to solving problems and indentifying opportunities.  Think it through, understand cause and effect, then put a solution together.  The trouble is if you want others to adopt your solution, telling them so in a rational way doesn’t have the impact and influence.

How to get your point across?

I said to my friend, 'You could tell a story.  Stories capture attention because we’ve been wired for tens of thousands of years to communicate using stories'.  (For example, Jesus told parables, he didn’t  state a moral code as such – he explained what  people living that code did).  I went on, 'it may be that you had a vivid conversation with a customer about your product and this validates the conclusion you came to using data and logic.  If you tell the story first, then provide supporting data, you’ll have way more impact'.

(Of course – be sure to tell stories that support your rational conclusions, not the other way around.  Anecdote is not data.  Fool others, but don’t fool yourself – be sure the data supports the anecdote).

We continued our conversation and discussed the presentation methods and sales techniques that really work.  Logic featured as back up, not a leading strategy.  Other than stories, we identified using imagery, analogies and experiences. 

It’s no co-incidence that I started writing this blog post as a story.  I was hoping it  would capture your attention better than it would if I just started out with explaining how to get a point across.  Well did it?

Remember – we have two brains.  A logical one and an emotional one.  The emotional  one always wins the battle for influence and the triggers you can use  (stories, images, experience, patterns) are very different to the way in which you came up with the solution (logic, analysis, reasoning).

So, by all means solve a problem.  To get others to act on your solution figure out how you can tell a story.

My friend and I will be meeting up in another month.  Maybe I’ll bring you back another story.

Meandering Meetings and Excessive Email

Recently I saw a debate on an online forum about productivity.  A strange place to debate perhaps given that online forums are possibly one of the best ways to be unproductive. Part of the discussion questioned the value of meetings (meetings are toxic, a time-waster, just don't have them) and one contributor advocated that email is best - that you get more done by email than by meeting face to face.  This, in complete contrast to one of my colleagues who detests email and prefers to meet face to face - for just the same reasons.

We all have opinions it seems.  Some say meetings are effective and that email is counter-productive, others say that email is highly productive and meetings are a waste of time.  I simplify of course.  There's other interaction methods such as IM, telephone calls, SMS, faxes (remember those?), conference calls... etc!

If anyone tells me that one belief, faith, method or product is categorically better than another - I don't believe them.

This world has been built on oversimplification.  We simplify because the world is too complex. Some say an Apple Mac is always better than a PC?  Is it?  Always?  Sometimes maybe it is, sometimes not - it depends on what it's been used for.  Context.  A is better than B only some of the time, but B can sometimes be the best way.

Emails or meetings?  Learn to know the difference. I believe that if a message doesn't get through, it's not the fault of the recipient.  The sender needs to communicate in a way that the receiver understands.  Some people respond well to email, others don't.  Understand your audience and figure out which channel to use to get the job done.  If a meeting will get the job done, have a meeting.  If email will work best (for that audience) - use email.

Getting things done requires time to focus, time to collaborate, time to be challenged, time to ask for feedback, time to make decisions.  Saying one method of communications is bad or better is totally missing the point. Context matters.  You're sending or receiving a message.  This is basic marketing communications; understand the audience, select the best channel to engage with them.  Adapt.

One more closing thought.  Being productive does not equal being busy.  I've found that good work is rarely done in one sitting.  Starting a job and seeing it through are important, but equally important are the gaps in between where free thought (say - in the shower, in bed, walking to work) allows ideas to cascade, collide and connect.  Returning to the job in hand, your ideas are firmer, maybe you have new ideas - or see new methods.  My mantra is to focus, but be free.  I try to give myself time to explore my thoughts with others, (say - in coffee shops, or at lunch) - and not feel guilty about it.  It just might not look like I'm busy.

Judge me on the output and not the input or the method.

Being Human, Implications For Organisations

Here’s where I’m currently at; it’s my belief that there are four key building blocks that form our perception of life:

Language
Emotion
Senses
Memory

I also reckon that if you view an organisation (or company) in the same way, it allows you to figure out how to influence its thinking and behaviour.

This is a tentative conclusion that I’ve reached after discussion and thought over the past few weeks. I’ve been thinking about what elements form the “essence” of our experience and understanding. It started when I realised that we as humans differ immensely from our animal friends in our use of language. Our brains articulate ideas and facts through language and our intentional communication, whether through speech, expression, or text, is rooted in a linguistic thought process. Language is intensely powerful in its ability to convey meaning but if used inconsistently can hide meaning. More about that later.

Then, realising that non-intentional communication (reactive expression for example) is more likely a result of emotion than language, I started to understand that there are some fundamental building blocks that allow the grey matter in our skulls to interact with its environment. There’s language, there’s emotion. Building blocks.

Another core building block (or a set of building blocks of course) are our five senses; sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch. These are inputs that guide us on our way.

For us to learn and to put into context our situation, we have memory. Memory, whether physical or mental, allows us to recognise patterns, store knowledge, build skills and interpret emotions.

These then are four core building blocks of being human: language, emotion, senses and memory.

Mastering these building blocks can lead to integrity, success and contentment.

Implications for organisations

As soon as you realise that these four building blocks exist, and that if they are developed and mature it can lead to integrity, success and contentment, you start to assess an organisation against the four areas.

Language

- Do we use inclusive language? I personally am on a mission to remove acronyms and abbreviations from my communication and where possible to remove it throughout the company. If you don’t know what an acronym means, you feel excluded, or just don’t understand.

- In meetings, does everyone understand the meaning of words? This is especially important in a multi-cultural company. I often pick up on complicated words and ask people to explain them for the benefit of the group. I know I understand the word, but I’m concerned that others might not.

- Do we all have the same vocabulary? What we call things carries immense power. Words convey meaning; therefore what you call something (e.g. “team member”, colleague”, “employee”, staff member”, “worker”) determines many things, not least of all how it affects company culture. Personally I detest the use of the word “department” because it conveys compartmentalisation, and I want to build a company culture of teamwork where the best people work together to get the job done. Naming of products, processes, procedures, office areas, events and job titles all matters. Far more than you can ever imagine. Change the language, change the culture.

Emotions

- Knowing whether we are slaves to our emotions or whether we are acting rationally is an important skill as a human being. Knowing when to listen to your emotions is important in life, and therefore this is also the case within companies. Ego, pride, fear, greediness – these for example are all emotions that a company can evoke in the way it reacts to its environment. Sometimes these are useful, sometimes not, but a company needs to be self-aware to understand if it’s acting emotionally and if so, why this is so?

Senses

- Of course, if we are to make business decisions, it’s good to have accurate information about your environment: your customers, your investors, your team, and your competitors. To gain this information, you need to look and listen, and sometimes, taste, touch or smell (particularly useful in the case of a restaurant business for example). Companies that fail to hone their senses, fail their potential.

Memory

- Winston Churchill said, “Success is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm”. By experiencing life we start to understand what works and what doesn’t. Trial and error has always been a certain way to learn. In this context, it’s our memory that serves us, that helps us recognise patterns and to build up intuition.

- As a Firefighter, Chef or CEO, every successful individual has along the way learnt from their mistakes. As a company therefore, how do you help yourself become a learning organisation?

- For a start, recognise mistakes, admit failure. Discuss what could go better next time.

- Also, create methods to store knowledge. People come and go. Whether in the form of documentation or training others, without making an effort to store skills and knowledge, they’ll leak, they’ll fade and you’ll have to re-learn.


If you want in business to create a happy and successful company built with integrity, pay attention to the four building blocks of human experience: language, emotion, memory and senses.

Seven Steps To Heaven

Where online marketing fits in creating customer value, and what this means for return-on-investment calculations

Ecommerce is relatively young, but it’s maturing fast. Increasingly there are few businesses that don’t / can’t exploit the online channel as a route to market.

Many have used online marketing to great effect, and there are plenty with experience and success in areas such as email marketing, SEO, paid search and affiliate marketing.

Of course, the great thing about these methods is that they can be measured and spend can be justified with the success that it brings. However, all too often these channels are viewed in isolation and success is sometimes simply measured by the number of transactions that can be directly attributed to the relevant email, affiliate or search campaign.

It’s clear to me however that to measure success, online marketing investments must be viewed in their context of the overall marketing strategy.

Getting back to basics - what is marketing?

Marketing is concerned with creating value for customers and extracting value from customers.

Long term value creation is based on sustainable competitive advantage, which is derived from the ability to provide superior value for customers and provides the reason why customers consistently buy from one company rather than another.

In ecommerce the value we can provide for customers is based on a number of different factors, including, but not limited to...
- Price
- Choice
- Filter and choice selection tools
- Ease of purchase and payment
- Brand reassurance (if the site is well known)
- Personalisation
- Reviews / advice from other customers
- Delivery and shipping
- Customer service

When we spend money on marketing activity to communicate our proposition to our customers and our potential customers, we are doing three things...

1. Bring new customers (acquisition)
   
2. Generate repeat purchases from existing customers (retention)
   
3. Generate more revenue per customer (development)
   

Given the above I think it really helps to understand WHY you are investing in SEO / PPC / Affiliates / Email etc. A good starting point is to think about customer value and then think about how much a customer is worth to you over their lifetime.

I’ve been a customer at Amazon.co.uk for about 10 years now. I may well be a customer there for another 30 years if they don’t screw up. Clearly, whatever activity they did 10 years ago to get me on board worked, but importantly, it must be measured not against my initial purchase but on the total lifetime customer value.

Over 10 years, I have purchased 190 items. I just checked, on my account history, it’s all there! Plus I rented DVDs on a subscription for 3 years. I am probably worth to Amazon about £4,000 over the 10 year period. PLUS – being a fan I’ve recommended many people over the years.

My first order was Steve Redgrave’s book of rowing, £16. Great book. I don’t know how much Amazon had to spend to acquire me as a customer, but I know for sure that if they had measured their marketing investment on my first purchase only, they would have got it completely wrong.

How to calculate a lifetime customer ROI...

CUSTOMER VALUE
[Price] x [Annual Volume] x [Customer Years]
+ Referral Value
+ Promotional Value
= Total Customer Lifetime Value

VALUE CREATION COSTS
(Cost of Acquisition)
+ (Cost of Retention)
+ (Cost of Development)
+ (Special Requirements)
+ (Marketing Overhead)
= Total Value Creation Costs

TOTAL VALUE = (CUSTOMER VALUE - VALUE CREATION COSTS)

On a really simple level, to gain a sustainable competitive advantage any business needs to provide
- the best customer value (however the customer judges value)
- and the best return on marketing investment over the full customer lifecycle

To help put this into perspective, I find the following model useful.



It shows the key stages in “owning” a customer and for each stage; specific promotional goals are required to achieve the customer response. For a company to be truly successful they need to draw potential customers through all stages.

These stages are the steps by which customers receive and use information in reaching decisions about what actions they will take. From not knowing about your product/service to recommending it to others, there are 7 steps to heaven.

The highest marketing costs are usually for the first stages, on the left. The biggest returns come from the stages on the right.

Now to the crux of what this article addresses...

Where do all of the “online marketing” methods fit on the model above? By understanding this, you have a framework to better present your marketing spend in its proper context.

Awareness: Does the customer know that the product/service exists?

• Online PR, social media marketing
  
• Finding a link to the product when doing a Google search on a relevant keyword (PPC / SEO)
  
• Finding the site on a search from their mobile phone
  
• Clicking on a banner advertisement
  
• Seeing a reference from a known company (contra deals / competitions)
  

Interest: Does the customer think that product might meet their needs?

• If the customer does not know what they are looking for: inspiration is needed, ideas and suggestions
  
• Special offers can drive interest for price-sensitive customers
  
• SEO/PPC must match on specific keywords used and tailor the ad copy to that interest
  

Evaluation: Does the customer have enough information to make a decision?

• Build great content. Photos, maps, specifications, availability
  
• Peer reviews and expert reviews, the community can provide the content
  
• Provide booking services that allow customers to compare and contrast options. Search and filter tools are needed to narrow down choices
  
• Create a shortlist, share with friends (collaborative decision making)
  

Preference: Does the customer choose your product to purchase?

• If the customer already knows that they want a specific product and they search by product name, be sure your PPC / SEO / affiliates takes them directly to the product
  
• Have the product in stock
  
• Ease of purchase (payment methods)
  

1st purchase: Can the customer make a purchase easily?

• Always available, real time, 24/7
  
• On all places where the customer might be (as many websites as possible – affiliates, plus own website)
  
• SMS / email confirmations. Delivery and shipping instructions. 
  

Repeat purchase: Can you easily communicate with existing customers and maintain a relationship with them?

• Make it easy for your site/product to be found again through search 
  
• Maintain a customer database
  
• Email marketing
  
• Segmentation / personalisation of messages
  

Advocacy: Is the customer so impressed by the service that they tell others and generate even more business?

• Customer satisfaction emails
  
• Customer reviews
  
• Guest recognition and personalisation
  
• Case studies and customer-based PR stories, distribute online
  

I find that looking at online marketing as part of the overall marketing strategy helps to provide a better understanding of how to calculate a meaningful return-on-investment beyond the immediate gratification offered by same-session conversion metrics.

What’s obvious to me from the above is that not only is online marketing core to the success of an ecommerce business, but that website product management is also clearly a marketing activity. Often there’s confusion about who owns the website functionality. To me it’s clear; it’s part of the overall customer experience, and forms part of the marketing mix.

One important final note; as we are all different as individuals, so are companies and products. There are some products that do not lend themselves to a lifetime customer value view as much as others. Products or services that are bought infrequently need to mainly address customer acquisition, whereas products or services that are bought frequently or repeatedly required much more emphasis on retention and development.

I’d love to hear comments on how the above list could be expanded. If you have any thoughts about what should / shouldn’t sit on the 7 steps to heaven, let me know!

Don't Be Mediocre, Be A Generalist

Here's a problem. Most e-commerce websites suck. They're average, sub-optimal.

They suck. If they were high street shops you'd see what I mean. Some would not be signposted. My mother would not be able to find anything she wanted in the store, let alone figure out how to pay. They might not even be found if you called directory enquiries. Lighting would be poor, there would be no space to park and you'd be unsure if you were being served by rip-off merchants or a legitimate business.

Sure, there are some great websites out there. A few. However, because web customers are in many ways "invisible" to the businesses that are trying to serve them, site managers running these sites get away with mediocrity.

Small businesses or large businesses, the problem is the same.

In small businesses you need an all rounder running your web business: he or she needs to be able to do a bit of everything and do it really well to be effective. These all-rounders are few and far between. So - good websites for small businesses are few and far between.

In a large web business, you end up with different "specialists" taking on different roles. You get the design team, the merchandising team, the online marketing team, the tech team, the product planning team, the analytics team, etc. They are all brilliant at what they do. Brilliant.

Just why does the site that you end up with suck if they are brilliant? The really great websites are the ones where the teams do "joined up thinking". The site design team know something about SEO. The analytics team knows something about PPC. The product planning team understand affiliate marketing. If they all understand the basic principles behind all of the main disciplines, you'll do fine. If not you can end up with mediocrity. Division of labour brings pockets of excellence and general mediocrity.

The solution to me is clear: every person involved in delivering the website and running it should be familiar with the basics of how all the main disciplines work.

I will give somple examples of what are these "key disciplines" that are needed to overcome mediocrity and suggest 5 tips on how to acquire those skills. I don't for a moment suggest that anyone can be an "expert" in all of these areas. What I am suggesting is that everyone in an ecommerce business that can affect the business results needs to be a "generalist" and be fluent in the basic principles.

This is true whether you are a one-person site manager doing everything or whether you are a specialist in a big company.

Consider ecommerce websites to be like high street shops. If you are running a traditional "bricks and mortar" business, you need to do three things...

1. Attract customers
2. Persuade them to buy when they come through the door. (And ideally, maximise this so that they
buy more than they would normally have done).
3. Encourage them to come back to shop again and become a regular "repeat customer".

Quite simply, running a website / web service is all about customer acquisition, conversion and retention.

Acquisition

Retail is all about selling the right product to the right person at the right time. So to get this right, there's some preparation needed in terms of customer insight / research, developing a brand, building a proposition, product planning & strategy, business case modelling. Then once you have a product you need a communications plan, (including, but not excluding online PR). On a technical side, you need to understand search engine optimisation (3 core pillars; site structure, content and reputation), search engine marketing (paid search), affiliate marketing, social media optimisation, RSS, blogs, ad serving.

Conversion

Here, the most important discipline is user-centred design, also information architecture, followed closely by merchandising techniques and understanding effective calls to action. Think about good error handling, optimising shopping "funnels", accessibility, compelling copy writing, tactical promotions and you might just have scratched the surface.

Retention

Plenty to learn about here too, from email marketing to direct mail (CRM), use of confirmation emails, special offers, customer database management and that's just scratching the surface.

And more...

Underpinning all of the above is a good understanding of web analytics (for traffic sources, keyword analysis, conversion tracking - and a whole lot more).

And to get stuff done, to make it all happen they also need to understand a little about technical things like technical architecture, software development methodologies, project management techniques, be a great tester.

To add some real flavour to the mix, key principles of many academic disciplines come in useful, economics, sociology and psychology.

And to be effective in business generally, you need to know about HR issues for the countries in which you operate, be a great manager, have good negotiation skills, know a little bit about contract law.

If you find someone who does all of the above well and them let them loose on your website - now you're talking! Also, point them my way, I'd love to meet them!


So - if you're just starting out...

5 tips to become a great E-commerce "generalist"

1. Work with great people

We learn so much from working with other people. Put yourself with the best you can find and learn from them. Soak it up.

2. Apply yourself

This industry is only about 10 years old. Most of the so called experts became experts by just applying themselves and learning from their mistakes. You can too.

3. Attend training

If you can, go on specialist training courses. There are few places such as e-consultancy.com where you can get a kick start

4. Read, read and read

You can never read enough. Some of my favourite books are listed here if you need ideas.

5. Have a go

For me this is the most important advice of all. Have a go! I didn't know anything about setting up RSS feeds until I had to do one for this blog. Figure it out, and just try.


One day, most websites will be great. Until then, if you are a "generalist", go make some money!

"The General"

Copywriting Using Personality Types

One of the most useful tips on copywriting I've seen in recent years was from "Call To Action" by Bryan Eisenberg and Jerrfey Eisenberg (2005, Wizard Academy Press).

They start from the assumption that when you sell a product or service, different buyers need different information depending on their personality.

The Eisenbergs describe 4 personality types. I am really going to oversimplify this, but in essence the different personality types are best reached through different communications.

The Competitive. This person wants accomplishment. Goal oriented folks, who want to know why your product will solve their problem.

The Spontaneous. This type of person likes the personal touch, hates cold hard facts. They like to know why your service/product is the right fit for their need. This person wants acceptance. The approach best used with these types is to provide assurances, guarantees, an emphasis on personal service.

The Humanistic. Creative types who enjoy helping others and socialising. They want to know who else has used your service to solve their problems. They value testimonials, reviews and the knowledge that others have already used your product successfully.

The Methodical. These types like accuracy. Facts. Figure, statistics, methodology. They like logical information displayed in detail.

The Eisenbergs give an example of one paragraph that addresses all 4 types in 3 sentences.

"Our approach is personalised to meet your objectives. The bottom line is that your results are guaranteed. Explore our methodology to discover how thousands of clients just like you have been delighted"

Here's the same sentence with the personality types that are addressed highlighted...

"[Our approach is personalised to meet your objectives]*2. The [bottom line]*1 is that [your results are guaranteed]*1. Explore our [methodology]*4 to discover how [thousands of clients just like you have been delighted]*3"

1 = Competitive
2 = Spontaneous
3 = Humanistic
4 = Methodical


I thought I would give this a go myself.

I found this copy about Hummus Bros, one of my favourite lunch spots in Soho.

"Hummus Bros is about feeding you homemade hummus with mouth watering toppings, scooped off your own individual bowl with warm pitta bread, and accompanied by refreshing salads and juices. We focus on taste, value for money, freshness and simplicity. We are proud to be the only place in the UK to concentrate solely on what we love most - hummus."


So, here's my attempt to re-write it using the personality type approach...

"Tasty, great value for money, fresh and simple. There's a reason why the Soho locals fill our seats every lunchtime. Take homemade hummus and add your choice of a range of hot or cold healthy toppings to create your personal feast. Add brown or white pitta bread (hot or cold, small or large) and accompany with a refreshing salad or juice and enjoy with friends. We guarantee you will leave you feeling nourished and satisfied and will want to come back for more. We are proud to be the only place in the UK to concentrate solely on what we love most - hummus."

Here's where the personality types are addressed:

"Tasty, great value for money, fresh and simple. [There's a reason why the Soho locals fill our seats every lunchtime]*3. Take homemade hummus and add your choice of a range of hot or cold healthy toppings to [create your personal feast]*2. Add [brown or white pitta bread (hot or cold, small or large)]*4 and accompany with a refreshing salad or juice and [enjoy with friends]*3. [We guarantee you will leave feeling nourished and satisfied]*1 and will want to come back for more. We are proud to be the [only place in the UK]*1 to concentrate solely on what we love most - hummus".

1 = Competitive
2 = Spontaneous
3 = Humanistic
4 = Methodical

What do you think? Does it work better? Comments welcome.

I would imagine that better copy should lead to better conversion.

What, Why, Who, When and How

The 5 senses of getting things done.

Think about it, at a very basic level, a lot of human communication really is about these 5 simple words.

What - describes the situation (past, present future) and whether you want it to change or stay the same.

Why - the logic (or not) that explains the situation or need

Who - person or groups of people that are responsible, need to know, are to blame, are the audience, stakeholders, participants or enablers

When - is this now, in the past or in the future, specifically; either a date or a time

How - How did it happen, how does it happen, or how will it happen?


When you are putting a project together and you want to "get stuff done", it's good to always remember these 5 words. Whether it's building a website, running a marketing campaign, setting goals for an employee or making changes to a system or process, these 5 words are to a project what the 5 senses are to us in everyday life.

To be effective we use our senses all the time. Sometimes we use our sight more than our smell, sometimes our hearing more than our touch. If you want to get things done, you need to use your 5 communication channels of What, Why, Who, When and How.

So every time you write an email asking for something, write a project plan, or present a business plan, make sure you've thought about all 5.

Say I want to ask my tech team to build a new webpage for a promotion. Sure, I can say "what" I want. However, if I miss out "why" I might not quite get what I wanted.

Adding "why" allows my audience to understand the reasons driving the "what", and makes it more likely that they understand the context. Also, if you tell someone why you want them to do something, they're more likely to do it than if you don't.

What if I miss out "when"? Of course, that's pretty obvious, I might get it late (at which point I'm going crazy), or the page is useless.

I might not know "who" needs to build the page, (my CTO might decide that), but I can say "who" the audience is and "who" the stakeholders are. This will help the tech team to gather further information that will make the project a success.

Again, I might not have all of the answers to "how" it will get built, but I can give my own "how" we will prioritise it, "how" we will get information and content, "how" we will market it and link it through the site, "how" we will pay for it or get paid for it.

What, Why, Who, When and How

A good communication includes as much useful detail as possible for each of these 5 words.

Think about it next time you write a project plan or ask for something in an email.

You might just get what you wanted.

The User-Centred World

I predict a move from user-centred design to a user-centred web, and eventually to a user-centred world.

Imagine a world where all of your relationships, communication, interests and interactions are wrapped into a single digital communication portal. This portal would save all of your contact details, conversations & messages, whether these be phone calls, instant messages, emails photos, videos, music & other media.

Importantly, this portal would transcend any one device and any one software or hardware provider. It would not be just on your PC. It would not just be on your mobile phone. It would not be just through your TV. It would not just be through Google, Microsoft, Yahoo! or Facebook. This portal would sync with any device that you use, at any time, for any reason.

Imagine also that this portal could interact with you in your real world as well as your virtual world. It would track your position through GPS on your mobile phone (say) and give you directions to reach your friends in the vicinity. Maybe you would exchange contact details with new contacts just by bluetooth, and this would automatically sync with your online services such as your email, blog or birthday reminders list.

Why would we want this?

Why not? The digital era is getting ever so complicated. I've lost count of how many logins I have for different sites and services. Even keeping my contact lists up to date gets a little crazy... Mobile phone (personal, work), Outlook (personal, work), social networking site A, social networking site b, webmail a, webmail b, webmail c, address book at home.

Why should I have to keep of these devices in sync? As a human being my life is being carved up arbitrarily by the fact that different companies supply me with different devices, software and services. Do I care? My friends are my friends. My family is my family, and my work colleagues are my work colleagues. Real life is not divided into mobile phone, email, IM and social networking providers.

I want to interact with the real world as easily as possible. I want to have everything in one place. That one place is ME!

YOU are the centre of your universe and I am the centre of mine. (OK, some wouldn't agree, so don't get all philosophical on me now - let's keep this simple shall we!?)

I want to interact with people I like, need or can help. I don't want to interact with the rest of the world - life is too short!

I want to interact with companies that offer me things that I am interested in. I don't want to interact with companies that are polluting my life and time with things that I don't care about.

(Don't try and sell me a bed shorter than 2 metres in length (I won't fit in it). Don't try and sell me a steak (I'm vegetarian). Don't try and sell me shoes unless you stock size 12 - you're wasting my time. However, if you offer me a DVD subscription service better and cheaper than the one I have now, I might just be interested).

Anyway - if I could interact with all these people and companies through one profile, in any place, on any device, in a way that suits me, well that would be the user-centred world.

User-centred design can deliver commercial success. I predict though that the user-centred world will be absolutely more commercially successful than our current world. It's the ultimate "long-tail" in action.

This is already happening and I believe it will accelerate over the next few years. What example trends are there in this direction?

Users requesting information (pull, not push)

Google's iGoogle (personalised homepages)

RSS feeds

Customisation of desktops in Windows Vista

Tivo TV / Sky Plus

Podcasts

Contact across multiple devices

IM on mobile phones and PC

Email on a Blackberry

Mapping relationships and sharing interests

Social bookmarking (e.g. del.icio.us, Reddit)

Social networking (Facebook, MySpace, Bebo and others)

Business networking tools (Plaxo / Linkedin)

Infrastructure

Open-source software (e.g. Linux, Android)

Open source knowledge bases (e.g. Wikipedia)

Web enabled phones

GPS

Fingerprint based payment systems

Retina scanning security systems

Wi-Fi

10 steps to the user-centred world

1. User interests will be saved against user profiles and will be updated in real time in response to user activity
2. User relationships will be saved, categorised and constantly modified
3. There will be eventually a single user profile for each user
4. User locations will be tracked in the real world as they move about
5. Profiles in the digital world will transition to real world
6. All communication devices will centre on the same user profile
7. Content will be delivered to the user at the user's request
8. Advertising will be requested by the consumer, (pull not push)
9. "Popularity" will become increasingly more important in driving brands
10. Globalisation will allow faster networking of individuals and companies in a single digital reality that is entwined with the real world

Consumer demand for simplicity and convenience will ultimately take us down this path.

Remind me to read this post in 15 years time to see if we've done it.

I See What You're Saying, But...

Earlier this year I was lucky enough to spend a day with Alec Grimsley where we focused on amongst other things, how to run effective meetings.

One thing in particular has stuck with me since that day (it's not the only thing of course)...the effect of using the word "but".

"But", as it turns out is quite a polarising word.

Consider these two sentences....

A: I know we need to change customer behaviour, but I think we should follow this course of action.

B: Mary, I agree with you that we need to change customer behaviour, and I'd like to suggest that we could do it better by following this course of action.

Phrase A is our default, hard-wired way of talking in meetings. When you hear the "B" word, it instantly sounds like the person opposes you. Opposition means you veer towards a defence and/or attack. Immediately tensions can get raised, issues become amplified bigger than they need to be and sides are taken. Polarisation of opinion develops, especially when these two people both use "but" in everything they say - especially when they start sentences with "but".

Phrase B however has very little confrontation. The first part of the sentence suggests common ground/agreement, whilst the second part of the sentence takes the discussion to a new area without creating an aggressive front.

Read through the two examples again and you'll see what I mean.

Now, listen out for the word "but" in your next meeting. I guarantee you will hear it all the time.

Next, just try once in a meeting to avoid using the "but" word and replace it with "and". Almost all "but" sentences can be turned into "and" sentences. Try it and you'll realise just how hard it is to overturn your natural tendencies.

You could also try to use it in your day to email communications, your proposals, your family conversations. It's incredibly powerful.

Every day I try and remove the word from my sentences. I find it difficult and it is never easy. It is quite amazing how it can diffuse a situation that would have otherwise unnecessarily escalated.

Try it - no more but. Just use and. Good luck!