It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that skiers want fresh snow, all the time.

But the effects of global warming around the world have challenged the holy quest for fresh snow. I almost canceled a trip out to Alta Snowbird this year myself, due to lack of snow. I decided to make the trip anyway, and read a great article on the way out in Wired Magazine called Powder Puffer, by Danielle Venton.

Danielle tells the story of how snow making has changed radically in the last few years. She highlighted one company called Snow Logic that has a new snow gun that expectorates winter wonderlands more efficiently. One Vermont resort projects a $235,000 projected savings and a 2.6 million-pound reduction in carbon emmissions by using the product.

It’s a great “little” story in Wired, about 1000 words. Short. Sweet. To the point.

So I looked up the Snow Logic website, to check on the “spin” from their side of the story and how they position their brand.

Here’s the Headline and Lead Copy on the Home Page:

“Redefining Low Energy Snowmaking – From The Ground Up

Snow Logic’s patented Dual Vector® Nozzle Technology redefines low-energy snowmaking. Our unique nucleation system requires 1-1.5kW / 5-8cfm through all STEPS. 

A powerful plume up to 140gpm produces the lowest cost per acre foot of snow in North America. Mobile or fixed; four step & six step guns can be fully customized.

Proudly crafted in the USA”

Unique nucleation system? That sounds scary. Snow Logic sells a product that puts smiles on faces of tens of thousands of skiers and snowboarders, and literally makes the ski world a better place. I don’t know what a powerful plume is, but it does not make me happy or connect with the brand in any way, shape or form. I do dig the Proudly Crafted in the USA, although would like to see “crafted” capitalized.

You’ll see more “tech talk” throughout the site. The gallery section is also disappointing, with virtually no shots of happy skiers or fluffy snow. Instead, it’s guns blasting big piles of snow that don’t look that much “fun” at all, at least for skiers. Even the headlines in the gallery section are a buzz kill,  like “Duel Vector Technology In Action” instead of “Byron and Greg Waist-Deep in Powder Despite No Snow In Days” playing off the dream and solution to the pain point that the product solves.

The good news is that when you combine killer technology with human content marketing, the possibilities are endless for marketing, revenue and sales.

Snow Logic just needs a bit more snow, and a bit less logic.

Sure, it’s easy to be critical, and find fault. It’s much harder to create great content that tells the story that aligns with the brand.

So here’s a great example of the brand Triumph motorcycles to leave you on a good note:

He climbed Everest after breaking his back. He’s ex-millitary. He’s been bitten by snakes and survived parachute failure. Now Bear Grylls faces adventure on the new Tiger 800Cx. Rider-focused technology, 95hp inline-triple engine, electronic traction control, switchable ABS and multiple rider modes for on and off-road feats.

Now that is great writing, storytelling and branding. What do you think? Love to here you thoughts.

Let’s face it. Most B2B companies get stuck in product or service speak with white papers, case studies and data sheets that seem “necessary” to sell services and drive revenue. “Doesn’t everybody want to hear how great our products and services are?” is the common theme.

The challenge is how to gut the gadget speak and start creating content that engages readers and keeps them coming back for more.

There are countless stories on how companies have made this transition successfully, but here’s one that should inspire.

Let’s say your company sells gadgets to businesses that make business life better.  Ever heard of Neodymium? Dysprosium? Lutetium? Yttrium crystals?  If you sold products like speakers, hybrid cars or PET scans, or just about anything electronic, you certainly would know these metals. Look to Keith Veronese author of Rare: The High-Stakes Race to Satisfy Our Need for the Scarcest Metals On Earth and contributing writer at Wired for the full story.

Keith serves up an incredible story about our dependence on these refined rare metals that power-up the gadgets and gizmo’s we use everyday. Global supplies, as it turns out, are unevenly distributed throughout the earth. China controls more than 95% of the worlds exports, and hosts the Bayan Obo rare metal deposit, the largest in the world. Options for tapping new supplies are limited, often mired in a political game. But options are opening up , like in Greenland where you’ll find the Kvanefjeld deposit below a 1.5-mile thick sheet of ice that covers most of the country.

So lets say you were the Chief Revenue Officer for an electric battery manufacturer. Would you see the opportunity to share this story with your prospect customers and align your brand with deeper knowledge that offers value and insight?

Most of us would probably give it a go, as we’re drinking the content marketing Kool Aid. The challenge becomes attributing revenue to great content, and turning that story on dirt into gold. Strangely, that’s the easy part, just come to Content Marketing Conference to see lots of attribution stories worth sharing.

Keep digging for gold…. You’ll find it everywhere!

When you look up the definition of “integrity,” it means a ‘firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic values.”  In simple terms, when a person who has integrity says something, you know they mean it. This is particularly true when it comes to content. I’ll explain.

As humans, we’re wired to be constantly assessing the information that comes our way. With more info from multiple sources, and less time to process it all, it becomes difficult to “trust” someone who we only hear from once.  Trust evolves after we have enough evidence to believe that the words from another person are in fact honest.

Integrity is when our words and actions align with our intentions. For example, we don’t tend to trust politicians because we suspect they don’t believe what they are saying, or writing. They shake our hands and listen to our stories, but only at election time. And worse, they are reluctant to admit when they are wrong, giving us a sense that they are not being completely honest all the time.

Content integrity is earned by publishing quality content at a consistent pace, and aligning the content with your intentions and actions. We tend to conclude that the more we publish, the more likely we are to attract new readers and fans — with the help of improved search engine listing positions.  While this may be true, it begs to challenge the concept that content integrity is both a practice (consistent publishing) and a state of mind (words = intention). You really can’t have one without the other, otherwise you’ll just be telling people what they want to hear, rather than the truth.

OK, so given all this philosophical babble, how much do you think we should be publishing to earn the respect of our readers and fans? Before you answer that question, should that answer be tied to who’s reading your content or your content strategy? Is it OK for your content strategy to be “SEO” driven, designed to gain more traffic and visibility to your brand? And if so, what can you publish on a larger scale that will earn the vote for content integrity?

I’ve been studying the marketing strategies of fellow Inc 5000 customers achieving explosive growth with sales. I stumbled on Stone Brewing, a company founded in 1996 by Greg Koch and Steve Wagner.  Stone Brewing is now the 10^th largest crafted brewery in the US, which they achieved without spending a penny on advertising.

One quick visit to the site, and you’ll see marketing strategy at its finest. “You must be drinking age to visit our site, please enter your birth date.” By harvesting birth dates and log-on times for first time visitors, and tracking visitation patterns, they learn more about how different brands connect with different customers and fans.

In an interview by Inc Magazine, they shared a few tips based on their success.  Attitude is everything with their marketing strategy, with eyebrow-raising brand names like Arrogant Bastard Ale, appealing to fans who love the beer, almost dissing those who don’t.  They also poke fun at the sheep-like consumers with playful T-Shirts and stickers that carry the tagline: “Fizzy yellow beer is for wussies.”

Rarely, if ever, do we see instructions for writing projects at WriterAccess that pick a fight with mediocrity or encourage an anti-corporate spirit. But hats off for those marketers that are seeking the competitive edge by standing out from the pack with aggressive tactics to win the hearts of the few that matter, not the masses that might follow.

Greg Koch also took a leadership position with craft brewing by founding the San Diego Brewers Guild, an organization created to promote and educate the public on the craft of brewing beer. This move back in 1997, just a year after he started the company, put Koch way ahead of his time when it came to content marketing.

Content marketing is not about mainstream growth. It’s about learning the wants and needs of our customers, and delivering it to them with quality content. It’s about campaigns that make readers think, and enjoy being part of something that gives back more than it takes.

This is the first post of what I hope to be a series of ideas to potentially make the world better. And better than that. From now on, we’ll refer to these as #MTWB (Make the World Better), offering some social distribution options for us all. Here we go…

There’s an email for this, and an email for that. Virtually no regulation and jammed email boxes. At the same time, the US Mail is about to go bust. Snail mail is antiquated, yet some think necessary. It’s a big problem, caught up in red government tape. Here’s a simple idea that might work for all parties.

Part One: Solve the Email Spam Problem with a New Classification System

Senders of email would need to “classify” all sent emails in a few categories:

• Sales
• Friend
• Customer
• Education
• Invite
• Fun
• Freebie
• Bills
• Legal Docs

The fewer the better, as it needs to be simple and easy. Senders would need to be accurate with categorizing, or be financially penalized. When you open mail, you would see the senders classification. You would then be able to re-classify it, as needed. Or you could just leave it alone and keep the flow going.

While we’re at it, let’s help the quality issue by rating emails:

• The content of this email exceeded my expectations
• The content of this email met my expectations
• The content of this email did not meet my expectations

All this classification and rating creates lots of new data to explore.

Part Two: The US Mail Takes On New Role

Let’s say snail mail is discontinued in the US, completely. A new-age mailman/women emerges from the dust.

They’re assigned to personally manage your INBOX, not your physical mailbox. They look over your classification violations, and protect your rights to privacy. They have authority to penalize and fine senders that break the rules. Software reads the emails, not the mailman, further protecting privacy.

The door to door walks delivering dead trees by dead wood systems end. Your email is now better, smarter, faster and wiser than before.

Sure, there are a lot of problems that would need to be flushed out, and I’m sure you can think of a few. But overall, what do you think? Can we build on this system or one like it and make the world better.

Best of all, we can keep liking and appreciating the mailman, perhaps even more than we do now.

We’re proud of our remarkable customer ratings at WriterAccess, with more than 88% of our customers rating us a 9 or 10 out of 10.  But occasionally, we do receive negative ratings, typically from customers who were not able to reap the quality they expected from the order instructions they placed or writer they selected.

We received our first ever 1 out of 10 rating over the weekend. I immediately dove in to read the comment. This is what I found:

I want to keep you my little secret

It made me think for a minute about rating systems in general. When I’m asked, “How did you hear about us?” I often want to support marketing spend by answering incorrectly, like Google Search Ad or Radio Spot.  But I come to my senses and instead think not of the spend, but the data the marketing manager needs to be successful and lower user acquisition cost by learning which channels to invest in.

Thanks David B for the great comment about WriterAccess.  We’re not quite sure what to do with your 1 out of 10. Do the readers think we should ask him to perhaps better the rating? Or should we leave it as it is and hope for the best?  Looking forward to your feedback.

When is the last time you did something special for your customer, prospect, subscriber, member or fan? My guess is a long time. Too long.

Here at WriterAccess, we try and do special things as part of our brand extension. With so many VC backed competitors pounding the streets, we feel like our service, not so much our technology, needs to become the gateway to our success.

Here’s a nice punch list for you to consider that might resonate well with your target audience.

1. Handwritten Sign Up Note. You’ve won the business. And now it’s time to go to work. But not until you grasp the full power of the two most powerful words you can ever say or write: Thank You. Handwriting those thank you notes will launch you in the right direction.

2. How Am I Doing.  Are you servicing your customers well?  If you don’t ask them, you’ll never know.  Show your customers that you care and implore them for any feedback or advice for betterment.  If they want to make it work, they’ll likely tell you how you’re doing and how it could be better.

3. LinkedIn.  Leave no stone unturned when it comes to connecting with customers.  LinkedIn. Facebook, Twitter. Bring them all on.  You certainly don’t want to stalk your customers, but you do want to find the right time to make a supportive post or comment about something that’s going on–socially, professionally or personally. But tread lightly here, and use your judgement to draw the line in the sand.

4. Happy Celebrations. There are lots of days to celebrate in life, but personalization is the key.  Social media gives us a snapshot into what’s going on, and an opportunity to be supportive after the holiday, for more personalized strategy. Birthdays recognition might be the exception, as it’s an always safe gesture to recognize anyone and everyone’s birthday.

5. Anniversary.  Why not celebrate customers’ anniversaries and acknowledge the value of their business to your own business? Depending on how many customers you are servicing and how robust your database, this could be easily automated for cruise control.

6. Heads Up.  Tell your customers about new services, products and changes that might affect their business with you. Price increases or decreases, discontinued services, new tools…the sky is the limit. The key is to make the communication feel special, like something you thought they should know or quick heads up of info you might find helpful and interesting.

7. Beta Test. Seeking your client’s opinion shows they offer more value than just revenue. Develop the most avid fans with invitations for beta tests, sneak peeks and surveys that declare you want and need their thoughts on the topic.

8. Success Stories. Everyone wants to read about success stories. The key is to make the stories engaging with information people want and need.  Avoid “selling” in the story, as nobody wants to be sold to with a case study. Instead, keep it intellectual in nature and value-driven.

9. Surprise. Everyone loves to be surprised, save that 50^th birthday party you might be dreading. Make yours special with your clients, and it’ll get passed around and associated with your brand. At WriterAccess, for example, we mail every new paying customer a copy of one of my two books, with a handwritten welcome note.

10. Confirmation.  Sending automated responses can get overwhelming and turn out counterproductive. But depending on what business your’re in, checking in with customers and confirming certain actions can go a long way towards building trust. Think banking, for example. You want to feel like your money is safe.

11. We screwed up.  Following the wisdom of the best politicians, admit when you screw up as opposed to hiding in silence.  Being honest earns trust, and trust is the catalyst to grow sales.

Look for a new Customer Service Guide I’m launching soon with more tips and advice to WOW. You can sign up in advance to receive your copy if you wish.

Philosopher Daniel Dennett, one of our best current philosophers, was an inspiration to me in college as a philosophy major.  I latched onto an article written by Maria Popova called “How to Criticize with Kindness” that’s inspired by Daniel Dennett’s book Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking.

How “charitable” should you be when you offer criticism?  Daniel Dennett offers a list of rules formulated decades ago by the legendary social psychologist and game theorist Anatol Rapoport best known for the famous tit-for-tat strategy of game theory.

How to Compose a Critical Commentary

1. You should attempt to re-express your targets position so clearly, vividly and fairly that your target says, “Thanks, I wish I’d thought of putting it that way.”
2. You should list any points of agreement.
3. You should mention anything you have learned from your target.
4. Only then are you permitted to say so much as a word of rebuttal or criticism.

Imagine, for a moment, if all the critical noise posted online followed this set of rules. Opponents would be more receptive, open and understanding. Conversations would advance toward betterment in remarkable ways.  The two opponents would find enjoyment perhaps in differing opinions.  Debates would be welcome, and intellectual challenges more enjoyed.

Here’s the story of a sales and customer service experience I had with Gigya that I think we can all learn from. Developing the right strategy and tactics to grow revenue is challenging. I’ll run you through the story quickly, and offer a summary below. Feedback welcome.

Chapter 1. A Gigya sales rep follows up on my request for a Demo. Days before the demo my assigned rep calls and requests answers required for the demo. A bit intrusive, but I answer a few questions and show enthusiasm for the demo.

Chapter 2. Demo day arrives. We kick off the call with more questions about our business, followed by a PDF presentation. What? PDF? Really? Any demo? Buhler?

Chapter 3. PDF is packed with customer logos and diagrams of how social works. The big push is Social Login, as if it’s the greatest thing since sliced bread.  Please. Do I need this? I’m dreading this pitch.

Gigya Sucks 4. I ask to skip the PDF. Just the demo of the product please, I politely ask. NO CAN DO I learn. “We need a Tech Person on the call. Next week. Say Tuesday?”

Gigya Sucks 5. The rep calls back and states: “Byron, I need confirmation that you intend to buy our product to confirm the demo next week.”

Gigya Sucks 6.  I decline. I hang up. And I’m frustrated that I’m apparently not worthy of seeing the product. The end.

Situation:  Gigya, like all SaaS models–and businesses for that matter–need to quickly find the buyers with the time, need, money and authority to purchase their product.  Spending too much time with the wrong customers will tank sales. Spending not enough time with the well matched customers will also tank sales. Finding the right formula for success is challenging.

Complexity: Marketing tactics have greatly improved over the years, so leads are easier to generate for certain products and services. Qualified leads however are more difficult to acquire, requiring advanced methodology and technology.  Sales and marketing managers need to make key decisions on where to spend and how to manage the process.

Solution: Gigya has it all wrong. Selling is not about fitting the product into the customers business. Instead, it’s about how the customer’s needs fit with the product—and that’s up to the customer to figure out, not Gigya.

Gigya needs three levels of engagement if their product is, in fact, that amazing:

1) Demo the product to the world, perhaps in groups at certain times of the day. Showcase a few problems that Gigya solves in freakishly amazing ways.

2) Tease this concept: “That’s just the beginning—put us to the test with a custom solution and we’ll show you how our technology and methodology will WOW you.”

3) For those that agree to the next step, this filtering would suggest a more serious lead, worthy of higher level “Tech Players” getting involved to improve the chances of closing.

What are your thoughts?  Do you think Gigya can improve their sales strategy? Look forward to hearing from you.

Welcome to Good Idea / Bad Idea where I sound off on business stories making headlines around the web.

1. Freelancer.com has purchased digital marketplace and forum, Warrior Forum, for AU$3.2 million, picking up over 700,000 users in the process. This is freelancer.com‘s third acquisition in a month, having also purchased Fantero.com and Poland’s Zlecenia.przez.net.

Good Idea.  When you own the name Freelancer.com, best to go big or go home. I’m not sure more is necessarily better when it comes to freelancers, but maybe bigger is somehow better?  Mechanical Turk look out, Freelancer.com is coming through.

2. Facebook is getting into the news business with its own newswire. “Facebook just launched FB Newswire to help journalists and regular people alike find the good stuff. Powered by Storyful, a service used by news organizations to help them surface newsy information, the page will post photos, videos and status updates relevant to newsworthy events all over the world.”

Good idea.  This is a super smart move by Facebook that will add value to the business world. I already get lots of “news” through my friends on FB, so this seems natural. I wonder if FB will focus on the journalists– making it simple for them to connect and track stories their colleges are reading and following.

3. Dutch newsreading platform Blendie is planning on charging readers by the article, with a return policy if the reader is unsatisfied for any reason. Many publishers remain skeptical this will be a successful business model.

Good Idea.  Surprised you. We can all make the case that “free is the only way to go” when it comes to content on the web. But great content has great value; as in money.  Best of all, a great tool is being created when an article grows in popularity, taking Must Read to a new level.  Bold. Great.  Go Quality Content!

4. CMI’s report: Enterprise Content Marketing Research: Where Does Success Lie in 2014  says having a  documented strategy improves effectiveness, among other findings.

Bad Idea.  Most companies don’t know how to create a content strategy, and struggle distinguishing between planning and strategy. Thanks for the info CMI, but how about creating an educational document on how to develop a content strategy to win the war of words on the web.