“Wheahs the rest of the Wild Bunch?” Rob drawled.

“Both the ladies called to say they couldn’t make it,
today so it’s just you and me and Chris to solve the world’s marketing
problems,” I answered.

Chris said, “I talked to Rick earlier and he suggested a
topic.”

“What’s that?“ I asked.

“Digital Body Language” he said. “It used to be that
salespeople could read body language because they were right there in the same
room but today sales has shifted to the telephone and the only cues come from
the digital engagement of the prospect. Companies that can afford the services
are looking at data that tells them where people are in the buying process and increases
the probability of landing a sale. They look at all kinds of things but the
most common are:

          Lead
Source

Drip e-mails opened

Forms they filled out,
frequency and data requested

Web site behavior (Visits,
pages and downloads)

Social media interactions

What is happening is a shift from Brand Centric to
Visitor needs.”

“Hold it right there, boy! Thems fightin’ words,” Rob
growled. Thas the trouble with you on-line types you don’t really understand what
brand is so you think your bright shiny objects can replace it. You ever play
any poker?”

Chris, taken aback said,” Sure, mostly back in college.”

“Were y’all any good at it?” Rob said. Doesn’t matter. Do
you know what a tell is? It’s a kind of body language thing that lets you
understand what an opponent is thinking based on his or her actions. All the
young geniuses get their clocks cleaned by players that can read tells.

But the really good players will explain to you that a
tell is situational. In one situation it means one thing but in another it can
be the complete opposite. So you need at least two data points to know what it
means. And the good players may look as deep as three or more conditions that
control the situation.

Branding is not one dimensional. Done right it is full of
depth. The beauty of branding when it is done right is that it doesn’t require
arduous personalization. It is a way of positioning your product or service in
a unique way for a specific kind of person with a specific need use or
occasion. A brand doesn’t try to be all things to everybody. The homework is
done before the web site gets built. The target is identified before any sale
is attempted. And the trigger is known before the prospect hooks into it.”

I said, “I’m with Bubba on this one Chris. He knows
branding and I have feeling he’s played a little big league poker. I know the
argument from the on-line service guys is personalization but the reality is
that you have to do the work of finding out the objections before you begin to
build the content. I know because I get paid to build it. You can’t make this
stuff up as you go along and be successful. The hard part for most companies,
especially the little guys is focus. They always feel they are losing something
until they settle in on the primary reasons people buy from them and stick to
them.”

Chris asked, “what do your readers think about this issue?”

Readers, what do you think?

With luck the entire crew of marketing mercenaries will
be at lunch next week. Why don’t you and a friend join us.

Jerry Fletcher brings his strategic marketing consulting viewpoint
to these gatherings and provides a glimpse of his capabilities at www.JerryFletcher.com

Jerry speaks about
practical solutions to marketing problems to associations and companies across
the Americas and Europe. (He says he will make someone a great deal to appear
in Australia or South Africa) More at: www.NetworkingNinja.com