Everyone has heard the old adage, ‘you are only as good as your employees’ and at Canyon we truly believe that. Canyon’s success is not only directly a result of the ‘smarketers’ (a word we created to define our smart marketers) we hire, but by the investment we continually make to further develop marketing skills and knowledge.

At Canyon, we have started a professional development track whereby each Canyon employee will be going through a course of some sort where he/she will grow a specific new skill set or gain insight into a new marketing technology, or further develop management skills.

I was chosen to pilot this new initiative, so I joined Toastmasters.

Toastmasters is an organization that teaches public speaking and leadership skills. If you’d like to join me, we meet every Thursday at 7:00pm here, or at plenty of other locations around the Valley.

I joined Toastmasters at the beginning of August and so far this month I have been selected to give an impromptu speech, be the ‘Joke Master’ of the day where I am responsible for telling a joke that makes everyone laugh, and I have given an introductory five minute ‘Ice Breaker’ speech.

Image copyright Toastmasters International.

I have learned how to more effectively communicate, learn how body language affects your leadership abilities, how to develop an idea on command and clearly present your ideas to a group of people, and of course how to capture the audiences’ attention.

It might sound easy, but let me tell you, it has been a good challenge for me! I see great value in joining this organization and what I will learn at Toastmasters will have a direct influence on my ability to communicate internally and externally to clients.

Is professional development important to you? What things would you like to work on?

The Art of Persuasive Copywriting

Imagine you are in a fancy hotel room and you stumble across a towel re-use card in the bathroom. Which of the following two messages would have more of an impact on you?

Help save the environment by re-using your towels.

or

Help save the environment.  The majority of guests in this room reuse their towels.

According to the Journal of Consumer Research article “A Room With A Viewpoint“, authors Noah J. Goldstein, Robert B. Cialdini and Vladas Griskevicius argue that the second message, which includes a descriptive norm, would increase the likelihood of your re-using your towel by nine percent.  Now nine percent may not sound like a large increase, but in marketing terms, that additional nine percent could have massive impact. For example, in the case of targeted e-blasts, a click-through increase of nine percent would be considered a great success.

The change in wording between the two examples personalizes the meaning and provides context to reasonable societal expectations (if the majority of guests do one thing, I want to do it too). It also goes to show how influential language, and subtle variations in that language (we’re saying essentially the same thing) can be when it comes to the art of persuasion. Semantics are especially important in B2B marketing communications, where ads and collateral pieces tend to be more informational and content-heavy. At the end of the day, effective marketing depends on finding interesting and effective ways to communicate features and benefits to consumers, with a subtle persuasion factor built in to drive consumer behavior. 

So the next time you are creating an e-blast or whipping up a white paper, don’t underestimate the power of good copy (including the power of semantics).  The way your messaging is worded could make or break the success of your communications.

Would the second message listed above have more of an influence on you?  Why or why not?

Innovation is an interesting concept in business. Every company is continually innovating to remain competitive, whether through designing new internal processes or creating new products and services. While innovation remains a key component of growth, most people, including myself, find it difficult to pinpoint those consumer needs that should be fulfilled.

I recently read an article titled, “Spark Innovation Through Empathic Design” in which the authors, Dorothy Leonard and Jeffrey F. Rayport, discuss the importance of observing customers when innovating a new product or service. According to the article, the problem with listening to customers through traditional approaches, such as surveys and focus groups, is that customers don’t know what they want. Therefore, they don’t know how to improve what they currently have. Consumers are so used to current conditions that they don’t think to ask for new solutions.

This is where observation comes into play. Observing customers in the act of using your product or service before conducting quantitative research can provide an in-depth view of their thought processes and can unearth needs they didn’t know they had. 

So the next time you’re launching an exciting new product line or improving upon an existing product or service, try observing your customers before having them fill out a survey.

Have you ever used observation techniques? Did it help you discover ways to improve your product or service?

Early in my career, I had the opportunity to work in the recruitment advertising arena. With clients like Hewlett-Packard, Fujitsu and Intel, their vast recruitment needs dictated a strict adherence to EEO (equal employment opportunity) language and hiring compliance guidelines. That was my first introduction to the term “diversity,” which seemed to be more closely aligned with affirmative action than creating a diverse workforce.

Now the term has evolved and has become a catch phrase that companies use to sell themselves to prospective candidates and promote themselves through corporate communications materials. 

But, what really is the goal or benefit of a diverse workforce? The depth to which the individual and collective talents of an organization can come together when leveraged properly is astounding. Every employee, while having specific skills to contribute, inherently brings a unique set of perspectives and strengths that, when tapped into through proactive sourcing and encouragement, can raise the overall performance of the company in ways not otherwise attainable.

At Canyon we work to harness the power of our team for the good of our clients. Each of us brings a set of professional and personal experiences that helps to strategize, solutionize and consistently deliver superior marketing communications support and service. That’s Diversity at work.

How does your company support diversity efforts?