How to get your message across in Emails. Daniel H. Pink explains the "Email Pitch"

Further to my review of Daniel Pink's To Sell is Human, here's the second in the series of excellent videos on pitching;  this one outlines "The Email Pitch" and how to grab people's attention.

The keys are to appeal to the reader's Utility or Interest.

• The Question Pitch
• Review of Daniel Pink's To Sell is Human

Want to get your message across? Daniel H. Pink explains when to ask questions and when to make statements.

Further to my review of Daniel Pink's To Sell is Human, here's an excellent video which outlines "The Question Pitch" and when it is best to ask questions to get your message across.

 

Review of Daniel Pink's To Sell is Human

Daniel H. Pink: To Sell is Human - Book Review

Daniel H Pink's To Sell is Human traces how the world of marketing has changed with a consequence that the stereotypical image of a secondhand car salesman is a long way from best practice today.  There has been a fundamental shift in power: in the past Salesman had knowledge of the product and of pricing creating a power imbalance between salesman and customer (hence caveat emptor); however, with the rise of the Internet and social media, consumers now have knowledge and the power to bite back if they are bitten (hence caveat venditor).

Central to Pink's thesis is the argument that to a greater or lesser extent we all employ marketing techniques as part of our daily work (selling ideas to others, exhorting others to do things that we want them to do, etc.) hence his assertion that we are all to some extent in marketing.

Pitching

This is quite a practical book and one of the strongest examples of this is the section on "pitching" to others. Here Pink outlines six different ways to pitch. These would make an excellent brainstorming session for school marketing departments - How would sum up your school using the following six techniques?

1. The one-word pitch: e.g. Mastercard's "Priceless"
2. The question pitch: e.g. Ronald Regan's "Are you better off now than you were four years ago?" in the 1976 US Election campaign.
3. The rhyming pitch: e.g. "If it doesn't fit, you must acquit" from O.J. Simpson's lawyer at his trial.
4. The subject line pitch: A phrase that can fit into an email subject line (tip: utility and curiosity are the key to success here)
5. The Twitter pitch: Using 140 or fewer characters.
6. The Pixar Pitch: Employing the winning formula used by Pixar movies  (Once upon a time . . . . Every day, . . . . One day, . . . . Because of that . . . Because of that . . . . Until finally, . . . . )

Pink provides an excellent summary of his book in the form of what he terms a "Pixar Pitch":

"Once upon a time only some people were in sales. Every day, they sold stuff, we did stuff and everyone was happy. One day everything changed: All of us ended up in sales - and sales changed from a world of caveat emptor to caveat venditor. Because of that, we had to learn the new ABCs - attunement, buoyancy and clarity. Because of that, we had to learn some new skills - to pitch, to improvise, and to serve. Until finally, we realised that selling isn't some grim accommodation to a brutal marketplace culture. It's part of who we are - and therefore something we can do better by being more human."  p.172-3

Pink ends his book on a rather moral note arguing that selling needs to provide a service: he asks two questions, which all would do well to heed.

1. If the person you're selling to agrees to buy, will his or her life improve?
2. When your interaction is over, will the world be a better place than when you began?

Overview

This sits firmly in the accessible business/psychology genre much loved by our colleagues across the pond. Pink writes well and this is an easy read with lots of good practical take-aways in the form of exercises at the end of the key chapters. 

A free guide to harnessing Social Digital Media

Further to my article on Using Social and Digital Media in School Marketing, Communication and PR Strategies, I came across this useful FREE guide to The Importance of Building a Social Media Framework for your Business.

It is available to download here.

[I have no connection with this firm - but it is reassuring to see professional companies giving out free advice as a taster of what they can offer.]

Using Social and Digital Media in School Marketing, Communication and PR Strategies

My article on Using Social and Digital Media in School Marketing, Communication and PR Strategies has just been published in the Independent Schools' Council Bulletin 28 - June 2011 pp. 36-40.

Click here to download the Bulletin in pdf format.

Using Social Networking Platforms as part of a School's Communication Strategy

Schools always have been places where people come together, they always have provided a social focus for the community of parents and they always have been a hot topic on the dinner-party circuit.
Social networking platforms enable schools to continue to be a focus for shaping new communities and for bringing people together. They are fundamentally about communication and community. They are as much about listening as speaking. Not only can they provide new ways in which a school can provide up to date information about the school for parents and important ways to keep in touch with former pupils, but also they are a way to listen to these groups too. Social networking platforms a cost-effective way in which schools can extend their communication and marketing reach by “pushing” relevant information to parents and getting feedback from them.

It is not possible to set up a Facebook account for a school, but a school can set up a Facebook Group and a Facebook Page. A school Facebook Group enables anyone who is interested to keep in touch as part of their daily social networking activity. A Facebook Page operates rather like any commercial page. It is possible to have an official link [e.g. www. Facebook.com/YourSchool] and this can provide a more formal platform for the school and members of the group to publish relevant announcements, news stories, pictures and invitations to school events, such as Alumni reunions. www.facebook.com

Twitter provides an excellent information platform for schools. What is attractive about Twitter is that it is a much less invasive way of publishing information than, say, sending an email or a text. It lends itself to “pushing out” non-urgent or less important information; and thus is a very effective means of sending a gentle reminder to parents or publishing daily good news stories about the school. Twitter allows only 140 characters, which is enough to post to give the gist of a story, and it is possible to post a link to a full version of the story on the School Website. Parents can pick up school “tweets” either on their mobile phones or on their computers, at their convenience and then follow any links to the school website if they want further information. Some schools have taken the step of embedding their Twitter feed into their school website.

It is possible to set up a school Twitter account [www. Twitter.com/YourSchool]. It is possible to set up multiple Twitter accounts for a school, so news can be targeted to key groups [such as Twitter.com/YourPrep, or to Twitter.com/YourHouse]. Twitter not only can be run from a PC/Mac, but it is also available as an App so it is possible to “tweet” updates live, say, with results from a major sports tournament. www.twitter.com

The best way to manage multiple Twitter accounts is to use Tweetdeck, which is available both for PC/Mac and mobile devices. This program allows you to be logged in to more than one Twitter account at the same time and to post the same “tweet” to more than one account. It also makes the task of monitoring school Twitter accounts very straight-forward. In short it will save schools an enormous amount of time. www.tweetdeck.com

Joining LinkedIn is the Internet equivalent of exchanging a business card. It is probably the most important social-networking site for business people. LinkedIn has many of the features of Facebook (e.g. it has groups and it is possible to post to a wall and to send messages) but users tend not to post trivia about their private life. Schools will probably find a LinkedIn presence useful in terms of keeping in touch with both parents and Alumni. It is possible to set up a LinkedIn Group for your school and thus to send out news and information. LinkedIn has an excellent App for the iPhone. www.linkedin.com

This blogpost is the basis for an article 'Using Social and Digital Media as part of your School Marketing, Communication and PR Strategies' that will be published in the ISC Bulletin later this term.

School Apps as part of a School Communication and Marketing Strategy

Schools have long understood the need to have an effective website where current and prospective parents can find key information. However, there have been two related, significant changes in the way in which people use the Internet in the past few years. First, users expect to be able to access information on the move on their mobile phones and other portable devices. Secondly, no longer can it be assumed that users are prepared to visit and return to a site to “pull-down” what they want to know. Increasingly parents and prospective parents expect relevant information to come to them. Significantly different patterns of Internet use are developing on mobile devices from PC/Laptop use. Mobile users are less inclined to use a search engine, such as Google, rather they expect to use an “App” that will provide them to access to the information.

There are a number of important consequences of this for schools. Many school websites are too slow and clunky for mobile use, so Strategic Managers need to consider how they are going to accommodate this demand. One way to do this is develop a School App.

Rather like the development of school websites in the early 1990s, I suspect that most schools will eventually have their own School App. Apps are important and they are here to stay – well at least for the next ten years!

A mobile phone App will essentially allow schools to “push” information to their target audience easily. Because of their popularity with the under 40s, Apps will be increasingly important for communication with a significant proportion not only of our alumni and our prospective parents.

Phone Apps have the advantage over email in that they don’t get lost in the inbox, they are contemporary, and it is possible to get them to do virtually everything that a website can do: school calendar, events programme, news, photo galleries, sports fixtures, activities programme. Some schools have already produced App versions of their school prospectus and school videos.

Producing a School App is a major marketing/ communication project, similar to producing a new school website – and expect to pay a similar amount. A basic School App is about £1,500 and the full works can cost up to £40k. Schools will need professional help to develop a School App. Commissioning a School App just for the sake of having one is a wasted opportunity and may even be counter-productive in the long-run. It will save both time and money if, before embarking on developing a School App, Strategic Managers decide the following:

• How will the App contribute to the School’s Marketing or Communication strategy?
• Who is the target audience?
• What will the App do?
• What sort of information will the App provide? How often will this information change?
• Who in the school will be managing the information that the App provides?
• What will be the measures of success?

A School App that is targeted at providing information and daily news stories to current parents will need significantly different functionality to one that is targeted at providing prospectus-type information to prospective parents.

At present Apps are available for four platforms: iPhone, Android, Windows Phone 7 and Blackberry. The general consensus is that there will not be a convergence on these technologies in the near future so this means that a school will have to produce different versions of the App.

This blogpost is the basis for an article 'Using Social and Digital Media as part of your School Marketing, Communication and PR Strategies' that will be published in the ISC Bulletin later this term.

Using QR codes in Marketing

Now that anyone carrying an iPhone or a smartphone is potentially walking around with a QR reader, schools can harness this and use it to disseminate important information and key messages.

QR ["Quick Response"] codes are two dimensional barcodes which can encode up to about 250 characters of free text or a Website URL.

This functionality means that it is possible to link, say, a building to a relevant webpage on the School Virtual Tour. Thus QR code might enable a visitor to learn more about the history of the School Chapel or about a piece of Art Work.

A QR code could also be printed on the back of any school publication enabling the reader to link to a relevant page of the School website for further information. Yes, they could type in a link into their browser, but QR codes are quick and easy to use. Above all, they give the impression of a forward-looking school - the medium is the message!

Online QR code generators are available free online, as are QR code apps. Have fun!

Links
Free QR Code Generator
Free QR Code App for iPhone