In my everyday work, I’m not looking for universal truths and new paradigms; I’m sweating out what to put on a client’s home page.
I work at keyboard level, in execution and implementation mode. I’m not pondering the future of digital media; I’m trying to think of a sharper intro for a client’s article.
That doesn’t mean I won’t swipe a lofty insight from a pundit or guru when I can. Especially if it’s an idea that solves a client problem or helps keep a project pointing the right way. I plunder shamelessly on behalf of my clients.
Here are best ideas I’ve pinched from blogs, books and ancient scrolls. They’re good because they work, and because I wish I had thought of them myself.
1. From Dale Carnegie
“Remember that the people you are talking to are a hundred times more interested in themselves and their wants and problems than in you and your problems. . . A person’s toothache means more to them than a raging famine overseas. . . a boil on one’s neck means more than forty earthquakes a continent away.”
That passage comes from How to Win Friends and Influence People, a dusty little classic that has sold some 14 quintillion copies since 1936 — and still sells briskly today. I first read this book one rainy weekend when I found a yellowed copy under the bed in a beach house. That quote stuck in my head for ages.
While Carnegie’s prose may sound a bit dated nowadays, (who gets boils any more?) I’m impressed by how well the advice holds up.
Even with all the talk about Twitter and social media and the next new thing, human communication is still about them, not you. And it will forever be thus.
When I’m trying to structure an article or flesh out a client’s presentation, I always hear Carnegie whispering in my ear.
Nobody cares how cool your company is, how clever the product is, or what a swell writer I am. Talk to them about their problems, their aches and pains. Otherwise, they’re not listening.
2. ”Help them kick ass”
A corollary to Carnegie above, I stole this gem from Kathy Sierra, who is as famous as one can get as a software trainer and usability crusader. She is scary smart.
“How will this help the user kick ass?”
Her refrain: People who use software really don’t care about elegant features and capabilities, and all that stuff we marketers harp about.
What users do want, what will make them passionate customers for eternity, is the ability to do amazing things, to dazzle colleagues, to become masters of the universe. To kick ass.
The goal isn’t, “Gee, I’m impressed by the feature set of this program.”
It’s more like “Damn, I’m good.”
I found this idea is way bigger than software. It’s a North Star concept for whatever product or service I’m trying to sell.
When we re-orient a client’s marketing content more toward “Kicking ass,” everything instantly sits up and comes alive.
Instead of droning on about our concrete additives, we’re helping customers become the smartest formulators in the business, solving knotty concrete problems to the applause of the gallery. We’re creating a tutorial on becoming the Tiger Woods/Picasso/Roger Federer of concrete.
That’s 983% more interesting than any dumb brochure we could write. Ever.
You can find 197 more insights like this in the archives of Sierra’s Creating Passionate Users blog.
3. Try to change behavior, not attitudes
I didn’t buy this idea at first. Until I stewed about it for a few weeks and came around. And discovered that it makes sense. And it works.
This comes from Bob Hoffman, CEO of Hoffman-Lewis Advertising. It’s in his e-book The Ad Contrarian which you can download for free. You can also read his blog here.
The gist: It’s a whole lot easier to entice someone to order cheese fries, than to convince them that eating cheese fries is the smart thing to do.
The more I apply this idea, the more sense it makes. In the end, do you want people to think your idea is the best ever? Or do you want them to buy your stuff? Which would your boss prefer?
Sometimes the two go together, but often they don’t. Making them buy is sometimes way easier than getting them to change their minds.