The Marketing Message Blog

What Michael Crichton can teach you about writing blog posts

Found an interesting article in Writer's Digest from Karen Dionne, author of Freezing Point. She lays out what she believes were Michael Crichton's top 5 writing lessons for fiction.

In reading them I was struck by the fact that all good writing, including blog posts should be written with these 5 lessons in mind.  Here's how I think they apply to blogging:

1. Challenge your reader: This is always a must. Wake people up with new concepts and ideas. Your blog is a great place to try out new ideas and let readers respond.

2. Surprise your reader: Keep her entertained and don't always go for the cliched ending. That means sometimes you'll even surprise yourself.

3. Keep the clock ticking: Don't be boring.  Say what you have to say - no fluff or filler.

4. Get your facts straight: Always. Take the effort to research if you aren't sure.

5. Play fast and loose with the facts:  Well, not really.  Don't forget he was writing fiction.  But the point that's paramount here is the idea of story.  Screenwriter Robert McKee said that a memorable story 'unites an idea with an emotion."  Be memorable.

7 Success Principles for Online Businesses

I have seven success principles that guide all my decisions about online business.  You may want to try them out and see if they make decisions easier for you.

1. Ask the right questions

Unless you ask the right marketing questions about improving your business right up front, you will waste a lot of valuable time on things that don’t matter. Abraham Lincoln was quoted as saying, “If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I’d spend six hours sharpening my ax.” You need a plan of action. 

If you’re a company of one or hundreds, you still need to make time for planninig.   For example, make a list of the main problems your customers have identified for you from tech support, customer service or sales. Then analyze those problems and group them by category.  Then, edit them down to five main questions.  This will help you see what marketing questions you should be asking.

Instead of asking a broad question like, “How can we increase revenue?” perhaps you should be asking, “How can we make it easier for our customers to check-out using our shopping cart?” You’ll continue to drill down and simplify until you have a list of very specific questions and and then set about to answer those.

2. Simplicity

Intuitively, we know that when something is easy to use, we are more likely to use it.  The moment something seems complex or hard, our attention wavers and our interest declines.  This should be a guiding principle for all the work you do online.  Making things easy for yourself and your customers will guarantee a huge return.  The founders of Google are famous for their ‘one box’ search engine.  Yahoo missed the boat with their search page by offering a page that had a lot more “stuff” on it.  Make sure you don’t fall into the trap of making things more complex because you’re not sure what will work.  “Less is more.”  If you’re not sure about what to have on your landing page or squeeze page, experiment in a small way.  You won’t know what works unless you test and isolate the winning combinations.

3. Understand the biz model for every revenue stream in your business

If that idea sounds obvious, well it should be.  But I know that in the crush of running your business you will add products and create promos that aren’t as well though out as they should be.  There’s no sin in that, Just make sure you go back after the crush is over and see if it should be more than a “one-shot”.  To advance quickly, you need to look at all your revenue generators and to break them into meaningful components of your business.

4. ‘Think Big; Act Small’

This principle becomes even more important as the days and weeks go by.  Jason Jennings’ book ‘Think Big Act Small’ details how companies succeed by maintaining a small business attitude.

Embrace the qualities that ‘smallness’ provides:

• quick improvements that can be tested

• the ability to change direction almost instantly

• employees that are close to the problem

• the ability to connect with your customers

I’ve worked with companies that assume their competitors are better because they have deeper pockets. The notion that more marketing dollars ensure success is misguided. Look at your product or service and continue to improve it in small increments. Online buyers want quality and service. In this economy, that’s even more important.

5. Be alert to what’s different in the culture and strive to understand coming trends

The popularity of online marketing tactics goes up and down like the stock market (mostly down.) Twitter, podcasts, ezines and blogs are all effective tactics if applied to the right audience at the right time.  But how to figure out what’s right for you? The key is to continually ask yourself, “What’s different today in my customer’s life and how can I meet that need?

Are customers suddenly responding to something you didn’t highlight in your products? Are they bored with your current promotions? Does some package you’re selling seem outdated?  Read everything you can about new ideas and cultural trends. You don’t have to try to apply every one of them, but you do need to know what your customer knows. Keying into changes on a weekly basis ensures that you won’t suddenly find yourself with an outdated marketing strategy and no customers.

6. If you’re not the customer, ask her!

Don’t spend your time debating with other staffers about what you ‘think’ your customer wants. Unless you ARE the target customer, you don’t really know. I have listened to endless client debates about their customer needs based on no actual customer data. Ask your customers. They will be happy to tell you what they think. If you don’t want to hear what they think, you’ve got a different problem. 

7. Prepare and do what’s difficult

I find that this principle separates the wannabes from the real innovators. If you know what tactics need to be applied to make a difference, but you are too lazy or disinterested to try them then stop reading now. Nothing you do will make a difference until you tackle the hard work necessary to grow.  

You need to make a commitment to yourself to take action.  If you need a better designed website, a new database, an easier buying process or a new social media strategy, then the time is now.