Brad Besancon

3 Steps To Connect Your Business To An Online Audience

In this Clairiti Clip, Robert Riggs and Brad Besancon interview Brian Sullivan of the Big Design Conference about how to understand and speak to your company’s target audience.

Transcript

Robert: Hi I am Robert Riggs here with Brad Besancon for the Clarity Digital Marketing clip of the week. You know we talked with Brian Sullivan, you know Brian is the creator here in Dallas of the Big Design Conference and he usually knocks people out of their seat down, it is down, south by southwest. But we talked about, what we like to talk about is what we call audio speak.

Brad: Yeah, I mean, he says some real critical things I think in this video where he talks about each of us speak differently right. Your mind kind of drives your thoughts and your speech and how each one of us talk differently, even when we are talking about the same subject, you had it happen, we had it happen in our business discussions where somebody will say, “Well I think we are saying the same thing, you are just saying it in a different way.” He speaks to that but I think another critical piece that he speaks to is when he talks about even with companies you have these kind of silos, which we have talked before in a clarity clip or we talked about the silos of your business. And he talks about how research and development will be talking about a product different than marketing will, will be talking about differently than product development, etc. And how all these different little languages are out there and how we all have to kind of meet a common ground.

Speaker: Yeah, I think that one of the most interesting things when it comes to language, a lot of the companies that are embracing design thinking, they are doing that so they can share a common language. People just talk different so for example a product developer will talk different than a designer and they will talk different than a marketing person. All of those people are then speaking to an audience or to a customer, so having that shared experience, that common language kind of creates that first shared understanding and again…

Robert: So now Brian has talked about the importance of listening and wants all of the parts of your organization, you break down the silos and they are all speaking the same language, now it is about how do you talk to your customers.

Brad: Yeah and he is fixing to talk about another key piece, you know it is in our slogan right. Listen, think, speak for clarity, that is our little marketing piece and that is basically what he is going to say here in the next piece which is you have to listen first to your customer base and your audience, take it back, think about it and then create that common language that you can all move forward with when you are talking with your customer.

Brian: The first step to creating anything interesting or creative is to have empathy, is to listen to figure out what are those things that your customers are saying, taking that back and using a common language that will create the solutions for them so that everybody is all on the same page, they are using the same language, solving the right problem and using similar tools in order to do it.

Robert: So wrapping up what Brian has to say here is really what we talk about and we call audience speak, which is listen, think, speak so Brad is going to walk you through those steps.

Brad: Yeah what the critical piece here, the take home message that we always like to talk about in our clarity clips are, audience speak is knowing the language of your audience and being sure that you are speaking that language. You are not going to make connections, whether it is social media, a TV advertisement, a billboard, whatever your marketing piece is, whether it is online or not, you have to know the language of your audience, which is what Brian was saying is, create the common language but don’t you figure out what that language is. The marketing, you know our little slogan is your marketing for a particular product should come from your audience…

Robert: Yes, not your marketing department.

Brad: …not the marketing department. So listen first, that is the critical piece, what are they wanting, what are they needing, what is that touch point that you can hit them at. So once you figure that kind of listening part out, then you have to develop a plan, think about right and then you have to go out and actually speak it. That is the listen, think, speak that we preach so much here at clarity and what we always encourage our clients to do, it is about them, not you.

Robert: So Brian’s Big Design Conference is coming up this fall here in Dallas and we certainly encourage you to attend it, there are great speakers there and here is Brian’s contact info and that wraps this week’s Clarity Digital Marketing clip.

Brad: Have a good one guys.

Who Says Millennials Are Lazy?

by Brad Besancon

Millennial Entrepreneur, Angelia Trinidad the creator of the “Passion Planner” provides insights into the Millennial Mindset.

Ms. Trinidad launched a $650K Kickstart campaign to get her idea off the ground.

She has grown out of her parents garage into a multi-million dollar business.

Robert Riggs and Brad Besancon spoke with Angelia after her presentation to Morgan Stanley’s Women’s Leadership Summit in Dallas on May 12, 2016.

Transcript

Brad: Hello everyone, it’s Brad and Robert again with this week’s Clarity Digital Marketing Clip. And if you’ll remember from last week, we spent a little time with Dr. Nathan Harness from Texas A & M University and discussed the importance of targeting millennials, understanding millennials and how they think. Not just in your online strategy, but in general business. You better have a strategy for this group of people because they’re in upwards of close to 90 million people. And at the same conference, you got to spend a little bit of time with Angelia Trinidad, a very successful millennial from the Passion Planner.

Robert: Yes, Angelia started a Kickstarter campaign and raised $650,000.

Brad: Not bad.

Robert: For a paper product. It’s called the Passion Planner and you can chart your life’s journey. The women love it because it’s kind of a journal/diary/calendar and you can define your life goals. So, don’t underestimate these millennials, 24-25 years old, and she’s had million dollar months in sales.

Brad: Yeah.

Robert: So she talked to us about how to connect with them.

Angelia: It comes down to respect. It comes down to listening. Taking the time to ask, well how can I help you. Because a lot of people, they pitch themselves and they pitch themselves so hard that, millennials especially are really turned off by it. They’re like ‘okay, why are you trying to sell me?’ And once millennials feel like they’re being sold, like most people, once you realize that this is an advertisement, then it’s like ‘ugh’.

Brad: So what you saw from what Angelia just said, was basically don’t patronize the millennials and don’t pitch them. They don’t need a sales pitch. They’ll kind of figure it out on their own.

Robert: And one of the things that we know about socially is if you start; sell, sell, sell; you lose, lose, lose audience.

Brad: It really is the 80/20 rule. 20% of your posts should really be salesy and 80% of it should be about making that connection.

Robert: So one thing with her success I was curious about was the stereotype that millennials are kind of shiftless and lazy and entitled and you’ve got to hold their hand. So, she kind of debunks the myth of the people in her age group.

Angelia: I don’t know if they’re a myth. I feel like it’s hard to really generalize a large population. I feel like the metaphor that I use is millennials have been pushed in this beautiful wheelchair, that usually their parents or society provides for them. And they get pushed in all these directions until they graduate college, usually. And then everyone says ‘walk’. And we’re like ‘how do we walk, we’ve never walked before; you’ve been pushing us this whole time.’ So how you get that to change is you say ‘allright millennials, we’re taking you out of your wheelchair. We’re not going to make decisions for you anymore. And, let’s have you walk. Let’s have you crawl, let’s have you stumble, I’m not going to catch you.’ Because that’s what parents do, they catch you. And then they say ‘why can’t you walk?’ It’s like ‘well, I have to learn how to do it on my own. I have to fail. I have be able to get back up. I have to be able to take steps in the decisions I want.’ Because if not, then there’s going to be this expectation of ‘why can’t you sprint; I see this other person sprinting? Why can’t you do it?’ So I think the biggest thing is to just be patient and to understand that millennials need to make their own mistakes and you can’t always catch them. But you also need to be like ‘you know, I support you. And whatever decision you make I’m going to be here for you.’ And that’s it.

Brad: So as you can see folks, it’s very important that we spend some time in your business, or you spend some time with your necessary folks and team to really think about this millennial strategy. One of the things to think about is, the top two brands in millennials are Nike and Apple. They’ve figured it out. They understand that if you connect with this audience, at the youngest of the millennials that you can; we’re talking about people that are potentially born in 1980 up to the 2000. So they’re only 16, 17 years old. If you can connect with them and turn them on to your brand now, you’ll have them for the rest of their life. Under Armour is perfect at this. They turn on the young kids to their brand so that they can keep them for the rest of their lives.

Robert: So, kind of, what differentiates the social for the millennials?

Brad: Well, it’s back to what Angelia said. You have to make a connection. You can’t just pitch them or try to draw them in, right? You’re not going to fish for them. They’re too smart for that in their own mind. So you have to connect with them at a deeper level, make the better pitch, if you will, without a sales, and connect with them. And don’t try to overdo it with them. They don’t buy into that.

Robert: Well, Angelia, she’s amazing.

Brad: She’s made it. She’s figured it out.

Robert: She’s got it.

Brad: Yeah.

Robert: Well, that’s the Clarity Digital Marketing Clip of the week; and Robert Riggs, Brad Besancon, see you next week.

Brad: Have a good one, guys.

The Millennial Mindset

by Brad Besancon

Millennials will be the benefactors of the biggest transfer of wealth in history.

Does your business understand how to connect with them?

Robert Riggs and Brad Besancon of Clairiti talk to one of the nation’s top experts about the Millennial Mindset, Texas A&M University Faculty Member Nathan Harness.

Transcript

Brad: Well you’re definitely privy to why, you mentioned in your speech, where you said Apple and Nike are the number one and number two brands in millennials. And you’re proving why they spend so much time making that connection. And you also mentioned that millennials are three times more likely to go out and get advice on social media than others. So tell us a little bit about that kind of persona they live in on social media, and why it’s important for, even mid level business, not just Nike and Apple; to make that connection because it’s the future of their business, right?

Dr. Harness: It is. Yeah, absolutely. So when you think about millennials, where are they going to get advice? They can go to their mom and dad, they can go to their friends, or they can go to the web, which combines a lot of that together.

Brad: Their phone.

Dr. Harness: Absolutely.

Brad: Immediately.

Dr. Harness: How are you discovering….So, I back up into, let’s say, my generation; and I wanted to know…

Brad: He’s not a millennial, by the way, even though he looks it.

Dr. Harness: I’m not a millennial, surprise. I wanted to know what a good dentist was. I’d go to the Yellow Pages. It’s a totally, totally different environment. And I had no feedback as to whether this was a good dentist or not.

Brad: They put those in their car now, to teach their kids how to drive.

Dr. Harness: That’s right. So, today I have the incredible ability to share; sometimes among strangers; share information to provide instantaneous feedback on, normally it’s the tales of the distribution, the ups and the downs of an experience. So I get to share with others; does this make sense or does this not make sense. One of the cool things as advisors today; people are rating us. We are being rated online. People are going to the market to say; ‘do business with this person or don’t do business with this person.’

Brad: And it’s happening in every business.

Dr. Harness: It is. Absolutely. So, to have a footprint out there; I think having user driven content is important as well. So, let’s say financial services…

Brad: Especially when it’s associated with your brand.

Robert: I love that term; user driven.

Brad: Because on of the things we always preach to our clients is, it’s about them, it’s not about you.

Dr. Harness: Absolutely.

Brad: And especially in the millennials, correct?

Dr. Harness: Well, the terminology that you use. So the terminology that we use in financial services can be acronyms. It can be shorthand information. We talk about things; I’ll give you the example; this was in Texas; I said stock to somebody, and they thought I was talking about cattle.

Brad: Cattle, of course.

Dr. Harness: It’s a different animal. So being able to have user driven content, to where they are using the key search terms in a way that they think of what it is that you do. So that when the average user comes in and starts to Google or find out information about you, you don’t know what all those search terms are. They do; let them drive some of that.

Brad: That’s making that deeper connection.

Robert: Talk about, what is it that millennials value? Number one, we know, experiences.

Dr. Harness: They’re socially conscious. So socially conscious investing in the financial realm is very important to them. They also value, you hit on the head right there, is experiences. Experiences are critical. So the question becomes how do we help them get to those experiences without breaking the bank in the process. So they don’t spend all of their assets. I think part of it is driving the experience of doing business with us. So I go to the dentist today; I keep going back to the medical analogies, but I think they’re good. I go to the dentist today. Used to, when I’d go to the dentist, it was the worst experience ever; I mean it’s going to be uncomfortable; there’s nothing I can do about that. They ease it by, my dentist has a window I can see into the forest that his building’s built up against. When I lean back I’ve got a TV on the ceiling. He’s making this environment comfortable for me. And I think we’ve got incredible opportunity with millennials to take the assets that we know that they need and overlay that with the experiences they want to have. And it may come down to reframing. Helping them to understand that I have this asset as a placeholder for your trip to Europe. And then what are you going to do when you go on that trip to Europe.

Brad: See, and in our world, the whole key is creating that experience, right there in the palm of their hands, online, with your brand. We help you create that experience online.

Robert: So, finally, take away here. If you’re in business and you’re not engaging in social media; your destiny is what?

Dr. Harness: You’re behind. You’re well behind today. I would argue that, especially in the financial realm, in business in general, you are going to be an unknown commodity in the future. People will not know how to find you. What are the touch points that they have to reach out and know who you are in a real way. If there is no presence; I went to find a lawn mower; somebody to mow my yard in College Station; and the person that I chose was the only person that had a website. I didn’t know who anyone else was, other than word of mouth. So this is the new word of mouth. It is the way in which we communicate.

Brad: It’s in all levels of business.

Dr. Harness: It is.

Brad: So don’t just take Robert and Brad’s word for it, listen to the Aggie, old Nathan. That’s our Clarity Digital Clip of the week.

Are You Hitting Fouls In Social Media?

by Brad Besancon

Robert Riggs and Brad Besancon use the Twitter Rant by an Assistant Football Coach and its fallout on recruiting for a lesson on the use of checks and balances when it comes to posting in social media.

Standing at the 3rd base foul line at a Dallas baseball field, these social media experts offer advice on how not to hit fouls when it comes to Twitter and other social media platforms.

Besancon who started and managed social media for the Dallas Cowboys in his previous career talks about lessons learned.

In short, take a breath, think it over, ask a colleague for an opinion before you tap send. Or push delete.

Links to articles about the recruiting fallout for Texas A&M football:

Twitter Channel where the rant started, Aaron Morehead, Wide Receiver’s Coach at Texas A&M

Dallas Morning News Sports Day

Sports Illustrated

Transcript

Robert: Hi I’m Robert Riggs and this is Brad Besancon with the Clarity Digital Clip of the week, standing at the third base foul line, to talk about how not to hit a foul in social media. Because today Sportscenter is alive, Twitter is alive over a tweet by Texas A&M assistant football coach who’s over committing big controversy.

Brad: Or isn’t.

Robert: Yeah. The lesson is though of all of this.

Brad. Yeah. I think the lesson is though, is when you’re in a frustrated state or an emotional state, or you might just be pissed off; don’t jump on social media to express those feelings; if you’re representing a brand. Your personal stuff is your personal stuff. But when you’re out there as a football coach; we see it all the time in sports. Somebody goes off ‘the refs didn’t make a good call’ or whatever, and they go off for ten minutes on these rants; they call them social media rants. But if you’re a representative of a company, or you’re a team member of a university, or a major sports team, or whatever the case may be; take a step back, take 24 hours. If you need to do something like that from an emotional standpoint, get a piece of paper and write it down.

Robert: We do advise our business clients to hit that emotional cord with their audience.

Brad: Yeah and that’s where it gets tricky. Because we do want to attach, if you will, or connect with our clients or our followers in social media, on the emotional level. That’s the whole point, right? The whole point of social media is to make that deeper connection. It’s not just about coupons and brands. It’s ‘you’re connected with me on a deeper level’; but don’t go to the extreme. Because the minute you go the extreme, they’re going to leave because you’re going to make somebody upset, right?

Robert: Right.

Brad: You remember that from politics and some of your background in journalism.

Robert: Sure, and in broadcast journalism; we had a checks and balances in that we had producers or editors who looked at our copy before it went out. You had a second set, maybe a third set of eyes on it, so you didn’t get into trouble. Look, ask a cohort, ask a person next to you, ask a friend to take a look at it. And if you have the slightest question or doubt about your emotions at the moment, you really want somebody else to look at it. You know we do that together, because I know I’m the one who kind of pushes the envelope sometimes; and you come in with kind of a corporate view like ‘oh we’ve got to town that down.’

Brad: Yeah, and I think a checks and balances is the perfect way to look at it. Have someone on your team. Not necessarily your boss or something, maybe it is your coworker or someone who’s on your team. It’s to just review the stuff. We’re not saying be mister and missus politically correct, because sometimes in order to connect with your audience, you do have to be kind of in their face and out there and pushing that envelope. It’s just the manner in which you do it, how you do it, and remember; we hear it all the time; you hear it in your personal relationships or whatever. ‘Well I can’t tell what you meant by this on this tweet’, ‘I can’t tell what you meant by this on this text’. You have to think the same thing when you’re out there representing your company and talking to people is; they’re just reading words. They’re not with you in your presence. So you’ve got to be careful.

Robert: Okay, so the take away from this weeks Clarity Digital Clip is; step out of that batter’s box. Are you going to hit a foul and it will be ugly. Thanks, see you next week.

Is Your Mobile Business Strategy Outdated?

by Brad Besancon

Two thirds of our time online is spent on the cell phone. Two-thirds of cell phone owners check it within 15 minutes of waking up. Merriam Webster added “Nomophobia” to its dictionary to define the anxiety that 30% of cell phone users suffer when they don’t have access to their cell phones.

In this Clairiti Clip we ask the question, is your mobile business strategy as outdated as the “brick” cell phone carried by corporate raider Gordon Gekko (played by Michael Douglas) in Oliver Stone’s “Wall Street”.

Bernadette Coleman the CEO of Advice Interactive weighs in with a presentation from DFW Social Media Marketing.

Transcript

Brad: What is the first thing we grabbed before we headed out for this kind of date, this little break.

Robert: Well our phones, because this video’s being done on the phone here, but, yeah.

Brad: First thing you grab, right? And what was it recently we heard a statistics where it was ninety something percent of people, I think in the US, have this at arm’s length 24/7. It’s your alarm clock, it’s your communication tool, it’s your gaming feature, it’s everything and anything in your life is in this thing now, right in the palm of your hand.

Robert: And 65% of smartphone users reach for their phone within 15 minutes of waking up.

Brad: Isn’t that sad? I’m guilty.

Robert: So, with a connection like that don’t you think a business ought to tap into it?

Brad: Yeah, I think it brings into question, are you tapping into; or are you thinking about if you’re a business owner, how much of your business is searched for or looked at on a phone?

Robert: so we talked to Bernadette Coleman, the CEO of Advice Interactive, about how it puts you in the palm of the hand of your customer or client.

Bernadette: Why is mobile important? Because it’s the closest you can get to a consumer 24 hours a day. And if you want to reach that person, you want to reach them through mobile. It’s important to note that most people when they are doing searches now are searching on mobile devices, not on PC’s. And more importantly than that, 50% of those people that do a mobile search act upon that search within 24 hours. That’s why it’s important.

Robert: So one of the things that Bernadette talked about is that when people are searching for you, they’re doing it usually on their mobile phone and you need to be there. You need to be there with information about your business services.

Brad: Yeah. I mean one of the things that we think about is, you know when you think about an attorney or a lawyer or something; and we spoke to one of the largest firms in Dallas. And they’re head CEO, head attorney, basically said; ‘folks aren’t searching on their phone.’ And yet doctors and attorneys are two of the most highest categories of professionals searched on Google on the phone.

Robert: So, here’s what Bernadette had to say about that.

Bernadette: People searching for legal advice is many times done on the cell phone, because it happens when they’re out talking to friends or neighbors about a problem they may have and they may refer an attorney to them. And they’ll pick up their cell phone because that’s usually what’s sitting right next to them, or an ipad, and they’ll do a search from there. As a matter of fact, over 40% of searches are done for legal and 60% of medical searches are done on a mobile app and not a PC.

Robert: Okay, now that we’re back we want to show you the Clairiti mascot’s here. Our Great Danes. They’re loving it out at the park here today. How are you doing? You want to talk about mobile, okay. All right, so one of the key things is, is that you have to have a true mobile responsive site. And you’ve got to put in the kind of content that people are looking for.

Brad: Right. And when we say mobile responsive, we need to be sure we clarify that. We still run into people with a mobile site. It’s not a mobile site. It’s one site that’s mobile responsive; it’s not two separate entities going on. And when you guys think about it, put some common sense back into this. If you’re a business owner or you’re thinking about this stuff, put some common sense in. What is that you search for the most? Hours. When you’re open because I might need to run over there and get whatever it is you have. And how do I get there; directions. So it’s all simple stuff that you have to put some common sense back into your thinking with you’re online marketing plan.

Robert: So on average according to Google, we do about at least 150 sessions on our cell phones every day. Google calls this micro moments. And we’re going to let Bernadette close out this weeks Clarity Digital Clip talking about what are the two big things, if you’re a business, what do people want to know when they’re on their mobile phone.

Brad: Have a good one folks.

Bernadette: Hours of operation, mostly. And location; they are going to search for people that are closer to them within a geographic area; and that can be where they’re at close by their house or when they’re traveling down the road or into another state. It’s all about geographic location. So the two most things that are searched for on mobile today is location and hours of operation.