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The Malcolm Auld Blog

Monthly Archives: July 2015

Those two marketers walk into a bar and laugh at content marketing tools…

31 Friday Jul 2015

Posted by Malcolm Auld in Content Marketing, Copywriting, Digital, Digital marketing

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Tags

content marketing, copywriting, customer engagement, digital, digital marketing

Those two marketers find the secret content curation tool used by “experts” who peddle content marketing as the foundation for business success. Watch the content appear before your eyes…

Click here to view

avagoodweegend…

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Leading legendary lamb leg Linkfluencer looks like losing the lot…

29 Wednesday Jul 2015

Posted by Malcolm Auld in Advertising, BIG DATA, Content Marketing, Digital, Digital marketing, Marketing, Marketing Automation, Thought Leadership

≈ 12 Comments

Tags

branding, content marketing, digitalmarketing, marketing, marketing automation, Thought Leadership

Like many of you, I am always stunned at the audacity of the digital industry’s loose use of the truth, particularly when it comes to the sweeping generalisations used to manufacture credibility.

The early social media ‘experts’ were excellent at faking the truth on things like the speed of internet uptake versus existing media. It was Gisle Hannemyr who revealed the truth about internet adoption rates in his famous essay “The Internet as Hyperbole“.

diff_01

Internet uptake lagged behind TV and radio…

One area consistently full of untruths, is the statistics used to support the use of online search, in consumer buying behaviour.

A quick history lesson – prior to the internet, the Yellow Pages invited the public to “Let your fingers do the walking“. And when you wanted to buy a big-ticket item, you sought information from friends and colleagues, read reviews in media, walked around different shops and asked ‘experts’ who worked in the stores, or even invited them to your home to explain or demonstrate their wares.

In other words, humans searched for information about goods and services before they bought stuff – a very sophisticated apex primate behaviour.

yellow pages

Today, people still buy using the same habits of searching for information. But as the laziest species on the planet, humans will always travel the path of least resistance for personal gain. So now, in addition to asking others and visiting stores, people also use search engines, websites, reviews and social media to gather information before buying – online or offline.

So there’s nothing new to see here folks. Habits haven’t changed – just the technology available to behave as we’ve always behaved.

nothing to see here

Human habits haven’t changed…

Which is why this week, I was dismayed to see the following headline in a piece of ‘content‘ which was ‘curated‘ in the form a FREE Whitepaper, by a well known brand flogging marketing automation and content marketing. The company claimed:

93% of buying cycles start with an online search, and 88% of clicks come from organic search

To put it bluntly – what utter bollocks.

The truth is entirely the opposite of this claim. It’s more like 96% of all buying decisions never, ever, involve the internet, let alone search engines or organic search terms. And the punters don’t need content to help them make all their buying decisions.

Think about what you buy in a typical week. Let’s start with groceries – there are dozens of buying decisions involved with the weekly grocery purchase. In fact, your weekly grocery shopping involves the largest number (and percentage) of your weekly buying decisions.

Consider your weekly purchases – tinned food, snacks, drinks, pasta, rice, dairy, biscuits, cleaning products, personal grooming, health care, blah, blah. And then there’s your fresh food – fruit, vegetables, eggs, meat, deli-items and more. Dozens of buying decisions, most of which are made in-store, or in some case in-online-store – but almost exclusively without search engine support.

Trolley-Preview

Groceries account for the majority of weekly buying decisions…

People also make other buying decisions for things like petrol, newspapers, gifts, flowers, school things, household items, etc. But rarely on a weekly basis, do we make lots of considered purchases – apart from dining out. The majority of our buying decisions are automatic or made at point of sale.

Certainly when we have a considered purchase, like new clothes, furniture, a holiday, or car, we will undertake research and likely use search engines as part of the process. But to claim (without any supporting facts) 93% of all buying cycles start with search engines, is at least dishonest, and is grossly distorting the facts. Or maybe they’re just lousy researchers?

These falsehoods are driving the content marketing boom. Apparently humans have stopped all previous behaviour and now only use search engines and websites or Apps to gain knowledge about brands – so you’d better stop advertising, and start publishing like there’s no tomorrow.

This is obvious when you visit your local supermarkets. As you know the aisles are chock-full of shoppers frantically searching websites for content before they dare purchase anything.

deals

#helpmechooseyoghurt

Shoppers stand around with phones in hand, uploading images of products like yoghurt tubs, as the first step in their buying cycle. They post messages to their ‘friends’ such as “help me decide – should I buy the low fat apricot or the sugar-free strawberry? Like my Instagram or Facebook page, so I know what to buy” #whichyoghurtjourney #luvyoghurt #helpmechooseyoghurt #lowfat #sugarfree

I’d better go warn the green-grocer and tell him he’s about to go out of business. He hasn’t any whitepapers demonstrating his thought leadership on corn cobs. Not to mention the tomatoes – surely he can run a simple webinar to add value to his customer’s tomato buying-cycle journey? The silly bugger just has handwritten signs outside his store and at point of sale – signs like “organic navel oranges $3.99/kg“. How will they work in a non-sales, content-dominated world?

And I feel sorry for my local butcher – he’s so silly, he tries to sell things instead of just publishing secret sausage content. Yes folks, he sells for a living – how quaintly old fashioned. Hasn’t he heard the social selling mantra “selling is dead“? You no longer have to sell – just publish and all will be well.

butchers-2

He’s not a Leading Legendary Lamb Leg Linkfluencer…

Here’s how stupid he is. Today he has a sign outside his shop; “Legs of lamb only $19.99/kg – save $5/kg”. What is he thinking? Nobody will buy his lamb legs – he’s not supporting them with any video or ebook on the benefits of eating lamb. He has no content to position him as a leading legendary lamb leg Linkfluencer. The poor sod, he’s going to lose the lot.

And the local baker hasn’t even got a website – she relies on the location of her store, the quality of her pies and pastries, as well as word-of-mouth to make a living. What kind of fool is she?

All this talk of food has made me hungry. I might pick up a couple of meat pies for lunch. Shame the baker won’t be there to chat – she’s made so much money she’s holidaying in Europe.

Just imagine if she had the time to do content marketing…

 

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Pronto Valet Parking loses car keys but keeps customer with quality service…

27 Monday Jul 2015

Posted by Malcolm Auld in Customer Service

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

customer service, marketing, Pronto Valet Parking, Qantas, Sydney Airport

My Sydney readers will know the horror that is the entrance to our domestic airport terminal. In the history of all airport design, the Sydney airport is the worst in the world when it comes to accessibility by car.

Six lanes converge from three different directions at one set of traffic lights. Fifty metres along from this major intersection, is another set of lights allowing an extra lane to join the traffic jam just before the terminal.

road map 1

Traffic converges from seven lanes and four directions into two lanes..

At 6am in the morning you can arrive at this intersection and then take another 30 minutes to travel the 400 metres to the car park entrance. Once you enter the car park, you then drive back in the direction you came, to park about 300 metres away in another post code.

This all affects your ability to make your flight on time, particularly when you add in the queue for the security screening and likelihood you’re boarding at Gate 19, which is located the furthest point from the terminal entrance. This was one morning last week at 6am at the Qantas terminal:

the 50+ metre line to get to the sheep pen before the security scan

the 50+ metre line to get to the sheep pen before the security scan

Consequently the valet parking service has boomed, as it is located just inside the car park entrance, a quick walk to the terminal. It helps reduce the stress associated with the simple task of parking one’s car at an airport. Why would planners make parking an easy task, let alone a cheap one?

I use the service at least three times a month. Two weeks ago on a Friday evening, in the middle of peak hour, I arrived to collect my car. Normally it appears within five minutes. Ten minutes passed, when a driver whose English is a second language, approaches me holding half my car key. The half that doesn’t have any key. It’s the section with the battery for the door lock.

“Do you have the key?” he asked/pointed in a confused manner. I suggested that as he worked for a valet service and they had parked my car, it was unlikely the key had mysteriously found its way into my hands after I’d dropped the car off the day before. I had after all, been interstate.

keys

My key is now in two parts thanks to the parking attendant

I asked him “What happened to my key? Where’s the front half with the key bit? Who busted it?” He looked confused and said he would keep looking. There then ensued a treasure hunt around the car park floor and in every key box in the office by men in hi-viz vests, looking for half my key. I stood idly by, watching the time – I only had to be home for my daughter’s birthday dinner! Though the kind staff offered me a chair while I waited.

Unfortunately the key hunt resulted in nothing being found. Upon inspection of the remaining half of the key, I suggested the way it had broken, indicated the possibility the front half of the key might be in the driver’s pocket.

“Where’s the driver?” I asked. “He works the morning shift and has gone home“, I was told. At this point I’d been waiting about a half hour, so you can imagine I was a tad upset. I’m about to demand Pronto pays for a cab to take me home and then back again (tomorrow) so I can bring my spare key to collect my car – not to mention cover the cost of repairing my key.

Before I could speak, Sam the supervisor apologised genuinely for the inconvenience. He said they were ringing the morning driver to get him to check his pockets. If they couldn’t reach him, one of his staff would drive me home and get the spare key. He would then return to the airport and drive my car back to my home followed by another staff member to collect him.

sorry

How could I be angry or upset – despite the delay and impending peak hour traffic? Sam calmly explained everything they had done and said he would be back as soon as they reached the driver, or if not, in ten minutes. I had been texting updates to my family, who were not amused – so I shared the news.

About 5 minutes later, Sam said they had made contact with the driver and sure enough, my busted key was in his pocket and not yet in the laundry tub. He was on his way to the airport, in peak hour, and would be here in about fifteen minutes.

And so I waited some more. One bloke who had observed a few minutes of my fun, shared his story with me while waiting for his car. Apparently he left a Land Rover with them a few months ago and when they brought his car up for him, it had miraculously turned into a Maserati! I thought I might get lucky and score an upgrade too – but no luck.

granturismo_03

Maybe they’ll upgrade my car to a Maserati?

My busted key arrived and Sam completed the evening by offering me free parking on my next visit.

Don’t you just love great service? As I’ve said before – good manners always trump marketing content.

If only the supermarkets, telcos, banks, utilities and other bureaucracies could provide service like this when something goes wrong. We can only live in hope.

And in case you’re wondering, last week I enjoyed free parking – courtesy of Sam and Pronto Valet Parking…

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Telstra launches new Wi-Fi service, subject to availability of course…

02 Thursday Jul 2015

Posted by Malcolm Auld in Advertising, BIG DATA, Branding, Content Marketing, Copywriting, Customer Service, Digital marketing, Direct Marketing, Email marketing, Marketing, Marketing Automation, small data

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

advertising, BIG data, branding, copywriting, customer service, digital marketing, email marketing, small data, Telstra

There must be something in the air with regards poor customer service, if the last week is anything to go by. Woolies and Telstra struggled to understand customers, while Energy Australia’s confusing communications caused chaos.

Then yesterday I received the same email twice within 16 minutes from Telstra. I have no idea why such a BIG DATA company continues to have so many problems with their small data? Particularly given they have people working there with titles like “Data Scientist“. If they could just get their small data right, the BIG DATA will look after itself.

email image

The subject line really didn’t interest me – it was all about Telstra and not about me. It said “Big News for Wi-Fi“. I assume good old Wi-Fi enjoyed its news. I deleted the messages. But a mate contacted me about them. He’d received one and was confused by the contents, so I retrieved them to see what the “content” had to reveal.

I don’t quite understand the service as the email wasn’t very clear – I suspect it means wi-fi services are now available for Telstra customers outside their home networks – at last.

I clicked on the link and I entered my postcode to see where the Telstra Wi-Fi Hotspots were located near my home. Here’s the result:

wi-fi hot spots

Our service is subject to availability, good luck finding it

Two things struck me. Firstly there are three levels of wi-fi coverage indicated by a colour code. Unfortunately the three hot spots in my postcode have no colour coding, so I have no idea if I get low, medium, high or no coverage.

The second is more disturbing. The service is apparently “subject to availability“. I have no idea what this means. Does it mean subject to the availability of a hot spot location existing? Or is it subject to the availability of the wi-fi network?

It’s like ANZ Bank saying we offer bank branches, but they’re subject to availability. They may or may not be there when you turn up to do your banking. Isn’t it illegal to offer to sell something you don’t stock?

So in one message I’m told of big news about a new service – but there is no information about the level of service offered in my suburb. And regardless, the service is subject to availability, so may not even exist!!

As a Telstra shareholder I am again stunned at the use of my investment funds. As a customer I’m just confused at another big brand failing at customer service and small data.

Maybe I should call them to clarify what’s going on – assuming of course, the phone network isn’t subject to availability?

termsandconditions

On the other hand I might take a Bex and lie down…

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