So Here’s Your Challenge

What’s your reaction when you read a company newsletter, instruction manual, or other corporate communication? Do you think it is plastic, anti-septic, and homogenized? If so, you’re like most people — they see corporate-speak as fake, and they can sniff it a mile away.

At any point in your life, have you ever found yourself backed into a corner, uncertain how you were going to proceed?

The Trust Curve is one of the most important Marketing 2.0 concepts around. It states that as trust builds over time, the relationship strengthens and the target person (prospective client, prospective member, prospective employee, etc.) moves through the stages of awareness, preference, trial, and commitment.

Key marketing question: What happens after Commitment?

Very often marketers look to the logo, web, advertising campaigns, and earned media to execute a brand strategy. But how might they look internally to do the same? Or rather, where might they look internally to do the same?

Many people are not really comfortable developing new business relationships — or personal ones, for that matter. Yet this skill — networking — is critical to business success whether you do it within your organization, or amongst your peers in a trade association or professional group. It increases your value, and can open the door to any number of new opportunities.

Unfortunately, many see networking as the collection of business cards at trade shows, or “small talk” at cocktail receptions.

If you are listening to this Podcast, the chances are very high that you understand English. But what if you didn’t? What if your target audience didn’t? Or what if your target audience did understand, but felt more comfortable in their own mother tongue? The obvious solution: translate your content.

Have you wondered why an organization’s rebrand doesn’t seem particularly right? That maybe they missed something along the way? A bad rebrand can mean that at best, that the expected benefits aren’t delivered, and at worst, the brand is ridiculed in the market.

Have you ever been in a conversation when the other person spends more time talking about themselves than the subject at hand? They pepper the conversation with me, myself, and I, assuming that you (and others) are held spellbound by their perspective and accomplishments.

Whether real world or on the web, trust is a powerful factor. Yet there are still websites that advertise themselves as "Not Trusted" — and this is totally avoidable.

In your professional field, who is the best at what they do? Chances are, you didn’t name yourself. This is not surprising – between personal modesty, and our competitive instinct to look over our shoulders, we will usually make the comparison to others.