Welcome back to another Ask Me Anything, which is a series where we talk to our friends, our viewers, and our community about all of their pressing needs, questions, wants, and desires.
Let’s take a look at the mailbag. Actually, this isn’t so much a question that came in from the mailbag as it was a conversation we had in the Spin Sucks Community. And I am going to throw it out here because it goes perfectly with Michael Smart’s email from this week.
Hey, all, beyond PESO (thanks, Gini!), ABM, inbound marketing, and content marketing – what other “lingo” are you using with your clients to demonstrate that you are up on the latest and greatest in PR and marketing?
AMA: We Are All Speaking Greek
After we had this lively conversation in the Spin Sucks Community, I received Michael Smart’s weekly email.
He talks about how we all speak Greek to those who aren’t in our industry.
He uses an example of being on the phone with his accountant to go over all the numbers that he had sent him. He was asking him questions and he didn’t know the answers so he got his bookkeeper on the line.
He said:
And then my head exploded. This stuff is super important to me – it’s how much money I have to part with, and how I make sure I follow all the regulations and don’t make some mistake that could result in serious hassle and penalties.
But I had no idea what they were talking about, “Count the withholdings against distributions, otherwise he’ll have negative equity and that will limit what he can contribute to the defined benefit plan.”
And so on. I mean, that’s probably not even what they said, those are just some of the nouns and verbs I remember.
After they went back and forth for a while, I could tell (but only from the tone of their voices) they were figuring things out and getting where we needed to go. And then he says, “How does that sound to you, Michael?”
I wanted to say, “That sounds like Greek to me.”
AMA: The PR and Marketing Industry Lingo
As I read his email, I reflected back to the conversation we had about the “lingo” everyone is using to demonstrate we’re up-to-speed on the latest and greatest.
We talked about:
- Flywheel
- Reputation management
- Intentional strategies to amplify brand identity
- Increased demand for brand products and services
- Create value aligned with measurable brand business goals and objectives
- Values-based marketing
- Values-based messaging
- Environment scans
- Reputation audits
- Narrative positioning strategy
- Content strategy
As I re-read the conversation—and I contributed to it, as well—Michael’s email made me realize we are also speaking Greek!
Heck, I don’t know what some of these things mean and I’m smack dab in the middle of the industry.
AMA: Shift Your Thinking
Consider shifting this in your mind a little bit.
Rather than the lingo or the jargon that we’re using with our clients to demonstrate that we are up on the latest and greatest, the goal is to demonstrate that we are up on the latest and greatest while translating that to something they understand.
It’s no longer Greek to them. We’re no longer using jargon or lingo.
It becomes about how all of the things we do—flywheel, values-based marketing, ABM, PESO Model—is how it will affect the business.
That, then, becomes a different conversation because they’re not trying to keep up or understand what we’re talking about.
The industry already has a hard enough time because most executives don’t understand what we do—or how we do it. Let’s not make it harder than necessary on ourselves.
Start out by going through the list I posted above. Can you (for lack of a better phrase) dumb it down?
What is flywheel marketing? If I were to define that for one of our clients, I would say that the way a customer makes a decision to buy is not linear so we have to consider how they DO make decisions.
The flywheel approach allows you to be at the center of their decision-making, no matter how and when it happens, and to build trust and loyalty at the same time.
They don’t need to know HOW, but they do appreciate knowing that your efforts will build trust and loyalty while helping the company build sales.
That is going to go much further than talking to them about flywheel marketing.
Have a Question For Us?
As my mother would say, “Put that in your pipe and smoke it!”
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See you next week!
