Marketing Matters Blog

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Monthly Archives: June 2010

Five Rules for Readability

Tom Sant, author of Persuasive Business Proposals, shared five rules for making anything you write more readable. Microsoft Word can automatically tell you if you’ve met four of the rules: short sentences (average 17 words or less); short words (average five characters or less); 10th grade reading level or lower; and less than 10% passive voice. I’ve been writing for years and never knew about the “Readability Statistics” tool in Word. The fifth rule is no fluff, guff, geek or weasel words in your writing.

Press F1 while in Word to pull up the Help/Search menu. Search for Readability Statistics. Follow the instructions to turn on the feature. If using Word 2007, the “Word Options” choice is at the bottom of the right hand column of the main Word pull down menu. Once the feature is activated, you have to manually check the Spelling and Grammar of your document once. At the end of the process the summary pops up. Cool feature – I’m at a 7.0 grade reading level, 4.5 characters per word, 16.3 words per sentence and 8% for passive voice for this insight. I was higher on all these statistics and made adjustments.

How to Handle Negative Press

Whenever I get the opportunity to play a part, albeit small sometimes, in helping to make a bad situation good, it always makes the day a little better. Recently, a writer had some not-so-favorable things to say about one of our clients. They weren’t overly negative—well, he did compare the company to the sinking Titanic—but it certainly warranted an immediate discussion with our client and a few recommendations of courses of action.

When you find a client in the middle of negative press coverage, there are a couple of approaches you can recommend:

The ostrich with its head in the sand*: This is when you try to pretend the situation doesn’t exist. NEVER, EVER a good idea. Whether you like it or not, the negative press coverage is there and in today’s interactive media, it can spread quickly and escalate into an even bigger mess if not addressed properly.

I know you are, but what am I: This is when you go on the defensive and try to dispute every single claim made against you. Unless the facts presented in the piece are just out-right incorrect, then this isn’t typically a good idea. Often times, the opinion the journalist is presenting is close to the public perception of the company/product. Your job is to help change that perception, not tell people they are wrong.

Taking your medicine: One of the best things you can do to build customer loyalty is to admit when your company isn’t performing at its best. By saying, “yes, we’ve made some mistakes. We’ve heard what you would like for us to do better and this how we are working towards that,” you’ll demonstrate your company’s commitment to customer service.

We presented our client with a recommendation on what an appropriate reaction would be to this particular blog post—after all, that’s what we do.

Led by an individual whose sales and marketing acumen often makes me jealous, our client took the ball and ran. The result? Check it out for yourself here:

http://johnsciacca.webs.com/apps/blog/show/3991233-well-played-mike-well-played-

*Fun Fact: According to Wikipedia (its always right, right?), “Contrary to popular belief, Ostriches do not bury their heads in sand. This myth likely began with Pliny the Elder (A.D. 23-79), who wrote that Ostriches ‘imagine, when they have thrust their head and neck into a bush, that the whole of their body is concealed.’”

Support “Change for the Gulf” Campaign to help Oil Spill clean up

Marketing Matters would like to ask for your support in raising funds to help support restoration efforts in the Gulf of Mexico. Please join us in supporting the “Change for the Gulf” campaign started by Rich & Linda Frembes. From their website:

http://www.frembes.com/ChangefortheGulf.html

June 4, 2010

Dear friends and colleagues in the AV industry:

I’d like to share with you an idea that I hope will take hold like wildfire. As we all know, the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico is just that – a disaster. If you are like me, you probably look at the oil spill footage and wonder what you can do. My husband Rich and I were looking at this photo gallery last night and wondering the same thing.

Here is our idea: We want your change. Yes, the change you have in your pocket and in the bottom of your purse. We want it.

Next week at InfoComm, we hope to launch a campaign to collect everyone’s pocket change. I’m calling it “Change for the Gulf” and it will benefit the Gulf Restoration Network. They’ve been around since 1995 and have spearheaded efforts to protect the Gulf for the past 15 years. The BP oil spill has only made their job infinitely more difficult.

To show our commitment, Rich and I are putting up $250 of our own money as a dollar-for-dollar match. This is not a plea from a corporation. We’re putting up our personal funds because we see an opportunity and we know the big, caring heart that beats within the AV community. Update: Gary Hall of the New Green Economy is also offering $250 of his own money as matching funds! Rational Acoustics is also putting up $250 in matching funds. Total so far is $750 in matching funds as of 4:00 pm EST on June 4.

If you wish to join in this effort, here’s what we’re asking you to do:

InfoComm Exhibitors: We’d like to put a small sign and a collection jar/receptacle in your booth. That’s all we’re asking. We’ll come collect the change; we’re just asking for a small space. If you would like to do more, the door is open. Update: Middle Atlantic Products (booth C6002), Fulcrum Acoustic/Rational Acoustics (booth C7922), AVI-SPL (booth N2731), and Projector Lamp Services (booth C4849)are hosting collection jars!

InfoComm attendees: If you see a collection jar or if you see me or Rich, please drop in your change. We want the $0.06 in your pocket from the $9.94 you just paid for your convention center burger.

Non-attendees: You can donate directly to the Gulf Restoration Network via their payment site, but please use the code “AVforGulf” in the Designation Code field. You must use this code if you want your donation to count towards matching funds!

The New Green Economy is also collecting PayPal donations (URL coming shortly) so that we can track donations for matching funds. Please note: The New Green Economy is not making a profit from collecting the PayPal donations (they just have better IT than I do as a freelancer!)

If you’d like to get in touch with me to see how else we can help raise funds, email me at Linda at Frembes dot com or contact me on Twitter at @AVwriter.

If you’re on Twitter and want to spread the word, please send this page URL along with the hashtag #AVforGulf.

Please help if you can. Because even if the several thousands of us who are attending InfoComm next week can give just a few cents, it makes a big impact on the lives of many.

Many thanks,
Rich & Linda Frembes