If a guy writes a book called “UnMarketing” – your review should be more of an “UnBook Report,” right?
Content + Communications Consulting
Dissecting the buzzword “innovation” is going to get us in trouble with the pundits. After all, a good percentage of the readers, viewers and commenters on this site might, themselves, be innovative individuals.
For instance: are you the Chief Innovation Officer of your company? Good for you. You’re joining the ranks of companies that make innovation a priority. By announcing to the world that you have someone in charge of innovating, you prove that innovation is truly innovative at your company (which is probably called “Innova”).
If you don’t have a Chief Innovation Officer, then you could always hire this guy, whose ad pops up when you Google the term. (Here’s a link to the Complete Innovator.)
If you do have a Chief Innovation Officer, what is it that they do? (Other than this unfortunate recent incident from a company whose troubles go beyond hiring someone to innovate.)
Do they report into the Chief Strategy Officer?
Back in the day, Dave from Area 224 worked at a company in the financial data space. At the time, this company didn’t have a Chief Innovation Officer – but they did have a CEO whose plain-speaking style got the troops motivated. One of his favorite sayings ended up posted on quite a few cubicle walls:
If our customers knew what we were working on right now, would they pay us for it?
A-ha! That might not be “innovation” – but it makes a heck of a lot of sense in the client services universe.
Here are the challenges we’ll issue to you, gentle (innovative) readers:
Any Chief Innovation Officers who actually Innovate?
AND, is there a better way to articulate the fact that you are consultative, smart, and are adding value?
Let’s cut through the BS, please.
Thing one: I come from a family of real estate agents. Thing two: Some Realtors are really good at their jobs. Thing three: you don’t need one.
This is going to sound counter-intuitive coming from Area 224; after all, we did write the book on Social Media Marketing for Real Estate. But, after working with Realtors on marketing for the better part of the last 18 months, watching their mistakes, weeding through the home selling clutter, etc., we can safely say that most of you can sell your home without using the services of a broker.
And the great thing is this: a good chunk of the tools that will help you sell your house without a broker are free.
Ah, the counter-intuitive approach. You have a home that might need a little work, and maybe you’re 90 days away from being able to actually list the darn thing – if you focus on fixing that creaky stair, or painting the porch, or whatever.
So why do we want you to start writing?
We want you – actually we NEED you – to get in the right mindset for selling your house. And the right mindset means you need to focus on WIIFM. “What’s In It For Me.”
And the “me” is your target – the person you want to buy your house.
Go ahead, start writing for them. Here’s the approach:
“Buy my house” is not what we’re going for here. In order to get yourself in the WIIFM mindset, you have to figure out why on earth someone would want your home. Then you need to focus on a couple of the attributes of your home that are attention-grabbing.
Five-minute walk from the train, lots of kids in the neighborhood, so why are we selling our home?
Notice that the email headline leaves the reader guessing.
Any schmoe can talk about price here. You are not a schmoe, and there are scores of sites out there that will talk about price FOR YOU. That’s not the direction we’re headed with what the industry would call killer real estate sales copy.
Back to WIIFM. You don’t have to be all syrupy; but you do want to appeal to the senses.
When Bob and I first moved here, we couldn’t imagine looking out the kitchen window and being able to see our kids playing at the park. And the office upstairs was really an office – not a room with bunk beds in it. Having a beer on the front porch swing was replaced with a cup of coffee while the school bus pulls up.
Are you there yet? Imagining what made this house a home? That’s where you need to get the reader. A few paragraphs that go into details about the place – not granular stuff, just the basics, like when you replaced the furnace, or what you’ve done to the bathrooms.
The most counter-intuitive portion of the program is this: you are not selling your home with this email. In fact, you are not even talking price. Your whole point is to lay the groundwork for your underground marketing program.
You do this by asking permission.
Although it’s hard to believe, given all the history we have at this place, but we’re getting ready to sell our home. If it’s okay, we’d like to send you the listing information before we send it out to the rest of the world. Click here to confirm that it’s okay.
You’ve begun the process of circumventing the broker by putting yourself in the right mindset, and by writing some killer copy. So now what?
Yes, the rest is part of the Underground Strategies series, and, like we mentioned above, you can pre-order it below.
One has a great on-the-field product, winning this year to the tune of 90-plus games.
The other lost almost that many.
Team One has camaraderie, is in the playoffs, has charismatic leadership, players who go the extra mile for each other.
Team Two is under new management, under new ownership, doesn’t know which end is up.
The first team may well win the World Series this year.
The second team hasn’t done so in what only feels like an eternity.
So, in this corner, the Tampa Bay Rays – energy and enthusiasm on the field, tumbleweeds off it.
In the other corner, the Chicago Cubs – where winning isn’t everything (and this year it wasn’t anything), but the cash register has no problem ringing.
Probably more than anything, the Rays sell “baseball.”
The Cubs sell “the experience.”
Like it or lump it, the knock on the Northsiders has always been this: world’s largest happy hour, go for the beer, don’t pay attention to the game, free sunshine, etc.
This same experience includes “lovable losers.” This is, after all, a team whose drought of 102 years (and counting) since a World Championship has become a calling card.
But, maybe, after all, you should ask yourself: are you selling “the experience?”
Dave Van de Walle, 2008 CEO National Conference Science and Technology Track from IIT Entrepreneurship on Vimeo.
Way back when – November of 2008, Dave from Area 224 spoke at the Collegiate Entrepreneurs Organization’s annual conference. He wasn’t Dave from Area 224 then, he was Dave from U Sphere.
And he was overseeing the company through what amounted to its Hospice program, as it was nearing shutdown.
We think it’s still relevant information for marketers and business folks, and here’s why:
Hope you’ll check it out – if only to see Dave from Area 224 in action.