Manizesto

I have great respect for journalists. They break important news, keep government and companies in check, reveal scandals and organize what’s happening around the world so we can always know what’s going on. They also work in stressful flurries of phone calls, research and writing. Deadlines always loom. Accuracy is a must. The pay generally sucks.

In college, I was required to take a news writing class and have a semester writing for the Daily Universe. I was thrown into a noisy, crowded newsroom, assigned the Latino Metro beat, and told I had to write three 1,200 word articles and record one 30-second radio news spot per week for the next eight weeks. My student advisor, Sara Israelsen, said “Here’s the phone and here’s the computer. Good luck!”

In that stressful two months, I learned two things every marketer should:

The first was how to write slugs. A journalist’s slug is 4-8 words that says what the article is about. It’s what the layout designers use to write the headlines. The shorter and more to the point the slug, the stronger it is. Since slugs force you to boil down what you’re saying to its essence, you learn how to cut out information that is irrelevant or just noise and put more meat around your core message.

Every marketing message you develop should have a slug. What do you really want to communicate? Your slug is not your tag line. Write a slug, revise it, then say it to your customers or prospects.

The second things is there are always two sides to every issue. Everyone knows this. But as a marketer, you should remember that your message will never resonate with everyone. Instead, you should audaciously focus on talking to the audience you care about and forget about everyone else. They don’t matter to you anyway.

[Photo by snowriderguy]

Everyone wants to be responsible for the next innovative viral marketing campaign. Many try, most fail. Only the truly creative, the truly entertaining and the truly captivating ones are able to rise above the incessant noise and clutter of the Internet and get noticed.

That’s why this campaign, created by Saatchi & Saatchi New York, is worth mentioning here. The theme is universal, the writing amazing, the acting first-rate and the marketing message perfectly subtle.

Remember that unpaid viral marketing should be even more well thought out, even better produced, messaged more subtly and launched more carefully than any other marketing channel, because you’re not starting out with an expectation or a captive audience, and you’re competing with every other online medium. It’s not for the faint of heart.

Watch the video here.

After much consideration and angst, I’ve decided to make this blog fully accessible only to subscribers. Why? Four main reasons:

1. Be a part of something. Godin describes it best here. Call it a tribe, a community, a group or what-have-you, but the goal is to increase mind share and the value of the information posted here.

2. Higher engagement. When you subscribed, you invested in me too. Subscribers generally have a higher level enjoyment and engagement to a blog, making it subscriber only is a way to improve my readers’ experience.

3. Brain Juice. I think about what I write here, a lot. No more “pearls to the swine” baby! You gotta want it!

4. It’s still free. When all is said and done, you can still get great, innovative marketing tips in one click and at no cost. And you can unsubscribe whenever you want. So it’s a win-win.

To all my subscribers, thanks for keeping this blog alive and for your great feedback!

From today’s Deseret News:

“After 22 years in the Salt Lake City market, Utah’s two Bally Total Fitness locations have closed.

With no warning, members visiting those locations Wednesday discovered the lights out and doors locked following the company’s decision to permanently pull out of the area due to declining business….”This location is now closed” read a sign on the door of the Midvale location. It listed a toll-free telephone number for members to call.” (more)

I hope they don’t ever try to enter the Utah market again, because they’ve just burned a lot of bridges.

How about a letter or email that says:

“We’re sad to announce we’re closing our two Utah Bally Total Fitness locations on December 10th. It’s been a great run. We’ve enjoyed helping you reach your fitness goals. The truth is, we didn’t adjust to the competitive landscape very well. We’re sorry we let you down. We hope to be able to adjust and come back a leaner, better club sometime. If we do, we hope you’ll consider us as your gym of choice. Thanks.”

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