Archive | April, 2021

I just read an article over at HubSpot that touts the ‘10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint’ as created by Guy Kawasaki. I want to state up front that I have nothing against Guy. I’ve read his books and he gives great advice on many topics. But I suspect that one day Guy needed something to write about and was fresh out of ideas. That’s when he decided to share his own 10/20/30 rule of PowerPoint with readers, and now it’s gospel among speakers and video creators.

It’s also, in my opinion, nonsense.

The rule says that you must never use more than 10 slides in a presentation, you must never go over 20 minutes and you must never use fonts smaller than 30 point. Even if you don’t do PowerPoint presentations or make slideshow videos, you can tell at one glance this rule is wrong. The clue is a certain phrase that appears not just once, but three times. Go back now and see if you can spot it.

That’s right…

“You must never.”

You must never do this and you must never do that, and it’s all rubbish.

Very few rules apply all of the time. In fact, the only hard and fast rule I can think of right now is that if you want to keep living, you have to keep breathing. But I can even think of an exception to that rule, too.

And yet I see new marketers make this mistake time and time again. Their favorite expert-guru type says they MUST do this and this and this without deviation, and the new marketer will struggle to follow those rules until they collapse in frustration.

Never mind that the expert-guru works in internet marketing and the new marketer works in hobbies. Never mind that the expert-guru has a following of 100,000 with huge name recognition while the new marketer has neither. Never mind that the expert-guru has a staff of 5 with 20 outsourcers at his beck and call while the new marketer is trying to do it all herself.

Almost no rule applies all of the time. While it makes perfect sense to follow the guidance of someone wiser and more seasoned than you, it makes equal sense to adapt their advice to your situation, to your niche and to your audience.

There will be times when you need more than 10 slides, when your talk might be a lot longer than 20 minutes (especially if you are teaching) and when your font might not be 30 point. And that, my friend, is okay.

One last thing… when you become a big shot in your niche, or if you already are a big shot, please do everyone a favor and teach others not to work in absolutes and to instead think for themselves.

And the next time you catch me saying “you must” do anything, be kind. I make this mistake myself from time to time, but I’m working on removing words like ‘must,’ ‘should’ and ‘never’ from my vocabulary.

Emojis aren’t just for friends; they’re also dynamite at capturing your customers’ attention, increasing user engagement and even helping to close sales. The funny thing is that most businesses think emojis are best left to 16-year old girls: “We want to maintain a professional appearance to our customers which is why we will never use emojis in any of our communications,” said the out-of-touch company executive to the marketing team struggling to increase lackluster sales.

In the last 100 years of advertising, there has NEVER been a time when the personal touch didn’t increase the value of business to consumer communication. It doesn’t matter if it’s an email, a social media post, an article or a sales letter. Giving all of your communications a personal touch with emojis just makes good marketing sense.

What are emojis? 👀

Emojis are small icons and images using Unicode Standard. They’re used in all forms of digital communication. Emojis can be yellow smileys or represent common objects such as food, animals, sports, transportation and more.

In marketing, the vast majority of the emojis you use will be emoticons – emojis that represent emotions with facial representations. 😍 And it’s emoticons we’ll be referring to in the rest of this article, even though we’ll still use the term emoji.

Why do emojis enhance your marketing message?

There are many reasons emojis improve marketing, and here are a few:

They capture attention. You receive a hundred new emails. 99 use 100% text in the subject line while one uses a smiley face or a heart. All else being equal, which one do you notice first?

They convey meaning. A text message that ends with a period gives a slightly different feeling than one ending with an exclamation point. Let’s see what happens if we use an emoji, too.

“I’m excited about this.”

vs

“I’m excited about this!”

vs

“I’m excited about this!😁”

The sentiment is the same but the conveyed feelings vary between the 3.

Visual is faster than text. Your brain processes visuals 60,000 times faster than text. And since emojis are images, the brain can process emojis in a flash.

More likes, more shares, more comments. Based on multiple studies, emojis in Facebook posts lead to 57% more likes, 33% more shares and 33% more comments compared to Facebook posts with no emojis. Do you use emojis in your Facebook ads? If not, you might want to start.

Your brain sees emojis as an actual face. A study from the School of Psychology in Flinders University, Australia shows the brain behaving the same way regardless of whether it’s seeing a human face or an emoji. That’s why emoji user engagement is higher than plain text user engagement.

Human faces – and now emojis – increase engagement. For decades we’ve known that people will look at human faces longer than at almost any other image in an advertisement. And now that we know the brain sees emojis the same way it sees faces, it’s pretty obvious we need to use them in all of our written communications.

Emojis make your customers happy. 😊 Not only do your customers feel happier when they use emojis, they also feel happier and like the sender more when they receive emojis, too. And happy customers are almost always more likely to convert, whether it’s to join your mailing list, forward your message or buy your product.

Humanizes your business. Emojis can be the perfect way to convey the fact there is a real live person sending the message, rather than some faceless company.

Better connections. According to the Emoji Trend Report, emojis help users better communicate their thoughts and feelings and connect to people.

How to Find Your Emojis

Because you can’t create most emojis using your text keyboard, you need to download or open a separate one.

Here’s how:

iPhone and iPads

iPhones and iPads have the emoji keyboard built into the operating system. To add the keyboard…

•    Open Settings
•    Tap General > Keyboard > Keyboards
•    Tap Add New Keyboard > Emoji

To access the keyboard, open your Messages or Mail. Tap the 🌐 next to the microphone, which should change your keyboard. If you have any other keyboards added, you might have to tap the icon a couple times.

Android

Newer Android phones have emojis built into the keyboard. But older models require you to download a third-party app like Kika, SwiftKey, or Textra.

From there, apply the new emojis to your keyboard like this:

Settings > Language and Input > Virtual Keyboard > Manage Keyboards

Now select the keyboard you’d like to download.

Mac

On both Mac and Windows you can Google an emoji and then copy and paste it into your message. But there is an easier way to do it:

When you’re typing on your Mac and want to insert an emoji, simply tap Control + Command + Spacebar to pop open the emoji keyboard. 😉

Tap the emoji you want to use or drag and drop if it doesn’t insert automatically.

You can also turn on the emoji keyboard on your Mac by tapping the Apple icon in the top left corner. Then, open System Preferences > Keyboard and click Show Keyboard and Emoji Viewers in Menu Bar.

This places a shortcut in the menu bar, and with one tap you can access all emojis and symbols.

Windows

Again, you can copy and paste if you’re so inclined. You can also use the keyboard shortcut for Windows which is…

Windows Key + Period or Windows Key + Semicolon 😎

This shortcut brings up the built-in keyboard from which you can tap the emoji you want to use.

Most Popular Emojis and When to Use

Laughing Emoji 😂 is the most commonly used emoji on Twitter, and also the most popular according to Apple’s data. Use this in conjunction with humor, such as when you regale your readers on the stupid thing you did last night.

Red Heart Emoji ❤️ and Heart Eyes Emoji 😍 can be used when you are referring to something or someone you love as well as how much you appreciate your customers. A little trickier but worth trying: Use it to indicate just how much your prospect will love your product.

Embarrassed/Flushed Face Emoji 😊 can demonstrate your humility and gratitude when receiving praise or an award.

Side Eye Emoji 😏 is good to use if you want to show the playful side of your brand or if you’re making a joke and you want to indicate that you’re kidding.

Eyes Emoji 👀 can be used to draw attention to a link or image.

Thinking Emoji 🤔 shows you are deep in thought, such as when you’re not sure about a controversial issue, or when you’re explaining the thinking process you went through to arrive at your conclusion.

Sweat Emoji 😅 is used to express a close call. “Whew! That could have been bad!”

Hand Up Emoji 🙋‍ is great for getting social media participation. For example, you could post, “Who thinks smooth peanut butter is better than crunchy? Give me a “🙋‍” if you agree!”

Tips for Using Emojis in Business

•    Let your customers use emojis to give you quick feedback. The preferred choice of customers to let a brand know they’re doing a good job is the thumbs up, 👍 followed by a star ✨ or a smiley face. 🤩

•    Avoid anything cryptic or ambiguous. If the emoji doesn’t clearly communicate your intended message, don’t use it. 🍕 (Pizza, anyone? You see what I mean.)

•    Emojis are for complimenting your message, not replacing it.

•    Since women 👩 tend to use emojis more than men 🧔, consider your target market when deciding how often to use emojis.

•    Don’t think that only young people use emojis because they are popular at all ages, although the meaning of certain emojis can be slightly different for a 20-year old and a 60-year old.

•    Use emotional emojis to break down barriers and humanize your brand.

•    Consider creating your own emojis for your brand. For example, they might look like other emojis except they are wearing something like a hat or bowtie that identifies them with your business.

•    If you are communicating with an individual in business and you are unsure, use social mimicry for clues. If they are using an informal tone or if they use an emoji themselves, then it’s fine to send your own emojis.

•    Use only common emojis that are easy to understand or already universal. The idea is to improve your communications, not bewilder your audience.

Know that a small segment of your audience will be totally clueless about emojis and another small segment will take emoji use to an artform. For example, Cosmo published a 2,200 word article on the importance of choosing the just right color and style of heart emojis for the right occasions.

It’s all the people in between those two extremes that you are targeting with your emojis, so don’t sweat it if you don’t always get your emoji usage exactly right – almost no one does.

Emoji Pop Quiz:

One: What year were emojis invented? Bonus points if you can name the country that originated them.

Two: What year were emojis incorporated into and standardized by Unicode, which allowed them to be used outside of Japan?

Three: How many emojis are on the Unicode Standard list? (Hint: It’s probably a LOT more than you think.)

Four: What were the 3 most popular new emojis in 2020? If you can name just ONE of them, we’ll consider you an advanced emoji user.

Five: Which emojis, according to user votes, best represented the year 2020?

Answers:

One: 1999 by a coder employed by NTT DoCoMo, a Japanese mobile service provider.

Two: 2010. Yup, believe it or not, emojis have only been worldwide for over a decade.

Three: +3,300. Seriously.

Four:
•    First place: The White Heart.
•    Second place: The Yawning Face.
•    Third Place: The brown Heart.
Winners were determined by which were most used on Twitter.

Five: The winner was the Raised Fist with Dark Skin Tone ✊🏾

And the runner up was the Microbe 🦠

Frankly, I thought it would either be the ‘Screaming-in-Terror’ emoji (if there is one) or the ‘Pile of Poo’ emoji. 😉

This isn’t about selling t-shirts, but rather the lesson we can learn from t-shirt sellers that will put money in our pocket before we even create the product.

When you sell shirts on T-Spring, you’re not committed to investing any money until you have the orders in hand. Let’s say your goal is to sell 50 t-shirts at $15 apiece. You advertise on social media and buyers commit to purchasing the actual shirts.

But until you reach the 50 order mark, or whatever number you’ve specified, you’re not obligated to pay for any shirts. Once you hit 50, the customers are billed and the lot is created and shipped. But if only 49 people pre-ordered, then the t-shirts are never made.

Why don’t more marketers use this business model for their own products?

You could open a course for “x” number of people and presell it. The course will start in 3 weeks time, but only if all the seats are filled. Or you could outline a product and presell it. If you get enough orders for it (whatever number you deem that to be) then it will be delivered on the date you’ve specified.

The point is, you are charging for a product prior to creating that product. And if you discover there isn’t enough demand for the product, you simply refund the orders that you’ve received and try it again with a different product.

The benefits to launching this way are two-fold: First, you find out up front whether or not people are willing to pay for the product you propose to create. This way you will never again create a product only to discover no one wants to buy it. Second, you get operating capital up front. If you need to outsource the creation of the product, you can simply use the money from your advance orders to get it done.

Of course, the one thing you need for this business model is a good reputation for delivering on your promises. If you’re completely unknown in your niche, this might not work for you. You’ll need to at least put out some great content and create a following before you use the T-S method for pre-launching your first product, but it will be well worth the effort.

Two more benefits of this business model are the ability to head off problems before you do a full-blown launch, as well as getting proof that your product works. By doing a pre-launch to a smaller number of buyers, you can get feedback on what your product lacks, what might be confusing or anything else you need to improve your product before doing the full-scale launch with affiliates.

And you can ask your first buyers for their testimonials as well, which will help you to sell more of your product once you launch it full scale.

I can’t see any downside to using the TS method to launch any virtual product, while there are tons of benefits to doing it this way. And yet, most marketers won’t do it. Why not? Maybe it’s because they have a belief that things can only be done a certain way because ‘that’s how it’s always been done in the past.’ Which is nonsense.

Just because most everyone else spends a month or two creating a product before they even know whether or not it will sell doesn’t mean you have to be brain dead, too. (Too rough?)

Let me tell you a quick story and then I’ll close with one last thought:

When my cousin’s daughter turned 16, she wanted to get a part time job to make extra money. I suggested a method that I knew for a fact would get her a job in 48 hours, but she flat out refused to do it because, “No one else does that.”

I dutifully drove her around anyway and she put in applications at a dozen or so businesses. A month later, not a single one of them had called her in for an interview, much less offered her a job. I asked if she was now ready to use my method, and she reluctantly said yes.

That’s when I helped her write out a letter that told a little bit about herself and her qualifications. Then we added something like this (I don’t remember the exact wording we used):

“I realize that since I’ve never held a real job, it might seem like a gamble for you to hire me. That’s why, to prove my worth, I want to work for you for 2 weeks for free, to demonstrate to you what an asset I will be to your business.”

I again drove her to about a dozen businesses, where she filled in the applications and attached a copy of the letter. Within 48 hours she had 5 interviews scheduled, and within 96 hours she had 5 job offers and requests for 3 more interviews.

That is the power of doing things differently from everybody else.

If someone tells you that you MUST create the product FIRST before you launch it, just know they have been as brainwashed into ‘right’ thinking as my second cousin.

Frankly, I think it is often best to ignore ‘established methods’ so that you can find a way that reduces risk, increases results and in this case, saves you from creating a product that won’t sell.

A few tips on selling your product prior to creating it:

•    Choose a topic you’re familiar with so that you can make the product quickly.
•    Outline the product prior to offering it for sale. This will make it super easy to write your sales offer.
•    Include plenty of enticing bullet points in your offer.
•    Make it super clear that the product has not been created yet but will be available on “X” date.
•    Also make it clear that if there is not enough response, they will be refunded and the product won’t be made.
If possible, promise to have the product ready no more than two weeks ahead of when you’re making this offer. If you have a list of your own and you’re fast at making products, reduce this to one week. For example, you make the offer on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, with the product becoming available the following Tuesday.

If you offer something like group coaching with one call a week for six weeks, you only need to get the first call ready.

Let them know they are your beta group and you’ll be looking for feedback from them, as well as offering more personalized service. Solicit their questions and comments so you can improve your product prior to doing your full launch.

One last thing… Oddly enough, tests show that conversions for lead magnets are generally HIGHER if the lead magnet is not yet created. I don’t know if this is also true for products, but it may be. I think it’s the allure of a brand new, totally up to date product (or lead magnet) that no one (NO ONE!) had yet to get their hands on.

Action Point: Make a list right now of products you’ve considered creating but you weren’t sure they would sell. Choose one and write an outline for the product and a simple sales page. Then send an email to your list and see what kind of response you get. Start to finish, you can probably do this in less than two hours and begin to see orders come in shortly thereafter.