There’s a lot of talk in blogging and social media about giving a real face to your brand.

This is important, but it is often very badly done.

We seem to be of the collective impression that the act of clicking “like” on a photograph of a kitten turns otherwise cold and profit-hungry companies into likeable human beings.

Nothing could be further from the truth, and that is why the supposedly personal facades that we see constructed are nothing more than that – facades.

In order to be truly personal, you have to give a glimpse of yourself.

Your real self.

The self you haven’t sanitized for the viewing public.

I was guilty of not doing that for a long time because I was afraid.

I was more than happy telling other people how to bring themselves into their launches, but for many years, I contented myself with being “the nice guy”, “the helpful guy”, and “the sometimes smart and authoritative guy”.

It wasn’t me, though.

Yes, I am nice. At least I think I am. I am helpful. I’m the guy who stays late to fix your computer and then feels guilty that I didn’t figure out what was wrong faster.

I am sometimes smart, and I am occasionally authoritative.

But if you were to look through my history, you wouldn’t see much of me in it unless Jack Daniels’ or Knob Creek were involved beforehand. (Those were some good blog posts. I highly recommend loosening up before writing.)

You wouldn’t see my endless Babylon 5 references and my (only mild!) obsession with Glengarry Glen Ross.

You wouldn’t see the wardrobe that consists entirely of one pair of jeans, four black t-shirts and four of the same in dark grey.

You wouldn’t know that when I was married, I had five cats living in my master bathroom.

You wouldn’t know that I love art deco, and motorcycle boots, or that I dislike mayonnaise so much that I think I’m really afraid of it.

You’d just see a generically helpful, friendly guy who knew a lot about productivity and product launches and was utterly terrified of pissing anybody off.

(In the last year or so, however, it seems like I’ve pissed a lot of people off. It’s turned out to be kind of freeing. You should try it sometime.)

I’m not afraid to admit that I’d always been jealous of how psychotically loyal Naomi’s fans were.

I don’t think I was alone in that.

I always liked her work, and I enjoyed working with her. But it wasn’t until the Failproof promotion that I realized why her people love her so much.

I don’t know if you’re on Naomi’s list, or if you ever read her blog when she posted regularly. I don’t know if you saw her in the Failproof videos or were in her insanely popular membership program, The Speakeasy.

If you’ve seen anything that she creates – products or free content – you’ll know that her public face is… unique.

What you might not know, and what I didn’t know until I started seeing her every day, is that the Naomi you see is the exact same one that I see, that Jamie sees, that her boys see.

(That includes the swear words, in case you’ve ever wondered. They’ve been trained to scold her when she says a bad word in their presence, although her oldest ignores it now. Rest assured, Jack doesn’t. He’s always on the watch.)

She’s the one person I know who is completely, irrefutably unafraid to show you her true self.

I asked her about it once, when we were starting work on the spring training bundle. How she does it. Why she does it. You know what she said?

“What am I going to do? Lie? I’m the best show on! If I toned it down, I’d be boring.”

(I was grateful she left the trailing, “… like you” unspoken.)

So in the Failproof promotion, I tried to show up. I tried to be myself.

I was wooden about it. Looking back on the footage, I seemed to pendulum back and forth between trying to be badass and blushing at the stuff that came out of her mouth in front of my customers.

I started to get the hang of it, though.

Today, well, it’s gotten easier. I’m not totally there yet. Naomi doesn’t put up with a lot of crap as far as hiding yourself goes, so it’s a bit of baptism by fire. But it’s easier. And my work is a lot better because of it.

So today we’re going to do something a little different. Today I’m going to teach you what I’ve learned through spending an entire year in the presence of the inimitable Naomi Dunford.

(Well, I’ll teach you the parts about showing authenticity in your launches, anyway. I’m sworn to secrecy on the blackjack thing.)

The second or third piece of your launch content is a great place to start adding a personal touch.

There’s always a little confusion when you put out your first piece.

People are finding out about your launch and your new product for the first time, and everyone’s still getting their sea legs.

The vibe is always a bit weird.

By the second or third piece of content, a rhythm is being established, and it’s a good time to start filling in the picture on the person behind the name.

After this section I’ll go through the piece of launch content Naomi sent out to the IttyBiz list today and show you exactly what she did to increase the personal feel of our launch.

The products are here, for those who are interested:
http://ittybiz.com/3-for-1-preorder/

But before that, here are some guidelines and good practices you can use in your launches. They’ll really help you connect with your customers and increase sales.

Create continuity, consistency and culture.

Instructional books on how to write fiction spend a lot of time outlining the difference between plot novels and character novels. Plot novels are supposedly foremost about what happens, whereas character novels are about who it happens to.

I was reading one book that said there was no such thing as a plot-driven novel. If nobody cares about the characters, nobody cares what happens in the plot.

One of the objections raised was that the theory doesn’t hold true when the novel is simply sci-fi, or when it’s a thriller about the world being eaten by aliens.

Their response was that if nobody cares about the characters, nobody cares if they get eaten by aliens.

Characters first, always.

In Naomi’s case, her characters are consistent, and she’s created a culture around IttyBiz and her family.

Her readers have watched Jack grow up. They sent sympathy cookies when she had to give her golden retriever, Butter, away because of Jack’s allergies.

They’ve sent cards for her mother’s birthday.

They’ve celebrated her wedding anniversary and publicly reminisced about what they were doing on her LAST anniversary.

What kind of brand has this kind of love? Do you even know what you were doing on your own anniversary, let alone the anniversary of the CEO of some marketing company?

What Naomi does with this is somewhat of an art, and it can’t easily be duplicated, but there are a few defining characteristics of what she does that you can use in your own communications and promotions.

Mention people by name, preferably only their first name.

If your spouse is comfortable with it, start referring to him only by name, not as “my husband” or even “my husband, Mike.” Just Mike.

If not – and many aren’t – mention your dog by name. Mention your barber by name. The clerk at the DMV. Anything you can do to anchor yourself and your humanity in their consciousness.

(We’re going to talk about names more later.)

Plan to do the same thing over and over.

Naomi has an eye for continuity and rhythm, so she doesn’t have to do this consciously. But it’s a little more difficult for mortals.

As you’re going about your life, blogging or writing your newsletter or even your launch content, think about how you can create rhythm and repetition for the next time around.

If you mention your barber today, make a note to mention him again next month. If you find it difficult to write something on command a month later, write two pieces – one for now, and one to run in a month.

When people see the same thing, over and over again, they’re reminded of how much of a fixture you are in their life.

Add details.

The more generic you are, the less people will care about you or your offerings. If you were at an Obama rally, say you were at an Obama rally, not “an event I recently attended”.

Give the name of the movie. Hell, if you want to really let your hair down, actually admit to what you thought about it.

If you were at Contacts and Cocktails, say you were at Contacts and Cocktails, not just a networking meeting. Then when you go again next month, people have a detailed anchor, and it’s one more thing connecting them to you.

Judiciously add adjectives and adverbs.

The modifying words you choose say a lot about who you are and what you think.

I used “judiciously” up there. I could have said “carefully” or “cautiously”.

Which would you have used, and what does that say about you? One word doesn’t usually say much, but after an entire launch arc, your word choices add up.

Write how you speak.

Naomi told me that once, during a period of writers’ block, she created a new rule. When writing blog posts, she had 15 minutes – 10 to write, and 5 to edit and post. If it wasn’t done in 15 minutes, she had to run it as it stood.

I tried this once. (I made it 20 minutes because I tend to write longer than she does.) It’s amazing how much it frees your voice. It’s also amazing how much better you get at writing.

For me, the main benefit of writing the way you speak is that it makes writing a lot faster. I sometimes write 10,000 words in a day. Writing them faster does wonders for my social life.

But an easily overlooked benefit is that you never have to wonder if you sound right. If you’re out in public, or on the phone with a client, or shooting a video, you never have to second-guess yourself.

Of course you sound right. You sound like yourself.

Show weakness.

Looking back, I don’t really know what terrified me so much about appearing weak or flawed.

Maybe my perspective is different now that my every flaw (real or imagined) is all over the internet for God and Google to see.

But I just don’t get what I was so worked up about.

We tend to think that if we act flawless enough, people will actually think we’re perfect.

Not true.

They assume you’ve sanitized yourself, or they’ll make up your flaws for you.

Nobody likes perfect people. Also, they don’t believe that perfect people exist. When you’re trying so hard to be perfect, you just come off as boring.

Or a liar.

Admitting to weakness adds depth to your brand. It makes you a much more sympathetic character. It gives people a better glimpse into the actual you.

Naomi smokes. She swears. She appears to have two religions, and she’s pretty bad at both of them. Her gambling is just this side of a problem, and not only that, she favors progressive slot machines, which just proves she’s very terrible at math.

And it only makes her people love her more.

So if you sometimes regret yelling at your dog too much or you buy too many clothes or you seriously don’t know what to do because your kid is still not toilet trained at four, just say so. They’ll love you more for it.

Now, behind the scenes on what she did.

Today’s piece was about naming your products and services. You can read it here so you’ll know what we’re talking about.

(Definitely take a look at it so what’s below will make sense.)

We’ll start at the beginning.

First, the subject line.

I don’t know what I would have titled this email, but it sure wouldn’t have been “How to name a baby.”

That’s a bit of a scan stopper if I’ve ever seen one. It’s not salacious or juicy, but it feels like almost a non sequitur coming from a marketing consultant.

This added a personal touch right away.

She could have gone with the “copy Cosmo’s headlines” route and called it “7 Sexy Product Names You Can Steal Tonight” but I think some of the intimacy would have been lost in the process, don’t you?

The opening

Her next lines, which she knows will often show in the email snippet before the reader even clicks to open the email, go like this:

“Did I say “baby”?

I meant “product or service”.

Well, no matter. Near enough.

I’ve made several of each, and I see no appreciable difference in difficulty.”

This is fun, but it’s more than that. Naomi’s buyers are overwhelmingly women, and the majority are of late child-bearing age or older.

She’s speaking their language.

Later in the opening, right before she gets into the body of the piece, she says:

“(The most important part is at the end, so don’t be all, “I’ll get to it later” and then forget, because then everyone else will know and you won’t.)”

She’s sparking the readers’ curiosity and encouraging them to read all the way to the end.

(Don’t ever, ever do this unless you can back it up, by the way. They’ll never trust you again.)

Major self-deprecation

In the next section, she talks about interrupting clients when they’re talking to her to tell them she’s just come up with an amazing product name.

“I usually interrupt somebody in the middle of a conversation – quite often, I must ruefully admit, that somebody is a client – and say something along the lines of:

“Dude. I just thought of the coolest name for a product ever.

[dramatic pause]

[proposed name of product]

[dramatic pause]

Isn’t that AMAZING?!?!”

(Naturally, they always agree because I get that crazed tone in my voice that tells to the primal instincts of the people around me that they are in the company of a predator.)

Again, this is funny, which always puts people at ease. But in this case, it also puts them at ease because she’s taking herself off the pedestal.

Easter Eggs in Latin

In the gaming industry, an Easter egg is a little secret buried in the code of the game that will only be seen or appreciated by a few.

When discussing going with the simplest route to naming your products, Naomi recommends using the principle of lex parsimoniae, or the principle of economy – basically, Occam’s razor, or simplest is best.

As I mentioned yesterday, Naomi’s audience is very well educated. They will appreciate this reference. It’s not the kind of thing you see on the average business blog.

In the same section – the same header, actually – she also manages to create a small piece of nostalgia for those who knew and loved the 80’s show Three’s Company.

(That was a favor to me. We use that episode to help name our products all the time.)

Pieces of herself

Throughout the piece, she mentions what she named her cat, that she’d love to take a course in astrology, and that she verbally unleashed on me when I asked her why she didn’t like a certain well-known copywriting course. She manages to throw in chewing tobacco while she’s at it.

And not one bit of it took away from the point.

(For the record, she doesn’t chew tobacco that I know of.)

The part at the end

The ending seals it for me in terms of bonding with your audience. This is where the true paradox that is Naomi comes out.

A few lines from the end, she’s warning you not to get too creative with your product and service names. She’s not being nice about it either.

“You think people will think it’s cute, or clever, or funny, or mysterious, or intriguing.

They will not.

They will think nothing.

They will get on with checking on their Farmville crops and forget you, forget your thing, and forget its clever name that you so painstakingly picked out.

This is like naming your kid a perfectly reasonable name, taking out all of the vowels and replacing them with apostrophes.

You think it’s unique.

It’s uniquely ridiculous.”

Ouch.

But look what she says right after.

A few lines later, after some talk of babies to transition:

When I was drafting out this article, I planned to give a little paragraph telling you why I named each of my products what I did, but the truth is, the names just felt right.

Relaunch FELT like a Relaunch just like Jack felt like a Jack.

300 FELT like a 300, just like my cat felt like a Mocha.

And, silly as it is, Copywriting For People Who Categorically Don’t Want To Become Copywriters When They Grow Up FELT like, well, I won’t type it again.

They just felt right. They felt like what they were supposed to be.

If you listen quietly enough, and stop telling yourself you’re too stupid to listen to your gut, the right name will come to you. It will feel right.

And if it feels right to you, it’ll feel right to everyone else.

And the next line?

Now, enough of me being a hippie softie sap. I’ll go back to spitting tobacco before you hear from me next.

A solid close, short and succinct, gives the audience closure and a laugh.

But what did we get out of all of this?

Earlier, we talked about each piece of launch content serving two purposes – yours, and theirs.

In this piece, the reader got solid advice on what to do – and what not to do – when naming a product.

Naomi got the chance to make both of us very personal and real to her audience.

One of the other big benefits, though, was that she was able to get the names of our products anchored into the customer’s mind.

That sounds like a no-brainer, no big deal thing, but it’s a very big deal, and here’s why.

Naming something is prehistorically personal.

It gives it a sense of realness.

If your brother’s wife is pregnant, the baby is simply the baby. Once she gives birth, the baby becomes a person – a real, named human that exists.

Naming helps us form connections and attachments.

When something has a name, we’re just closer to it. We feel more connected to it.

I see a lot of sales pages where the name of the product isn’t mentioned until right above the buy button. I’ve seen some where you don’t find out the name until you click buy.

The lack of a name creates distance and keeps something at arms’ length. It doesn’t take a genius to figure how this reduces sales.

So this was an opportunity for us to make sure the reader had the name of the product reinforced from the very beginning.

That’s it for now. Next we’ll talk about piece number three, where we cover cementing your offer in your customer’s minds.

If you haven’t looked at the piece we’ve talked about in this email, you can check it out here.

Yours, as always,
Dave