You're A Marketer Whether You Like It Or Not

A terribly written letter, Domino's pizza, and human behavior.

Photo by Luis Villasmil on Unsplash

I got a letter in the mail from a local politician. It was a one-pager, but it was printed on both sides. It was red and blue and had headers and paragraphs. In fact, it was completely covered in text.

It was clear that this person wanted to say a lot.

The only trouble was that by saying everything she needed to say, she said nothing.

I glanced at it. I read some of the headers. I scanned for the information I needed to make an assessment: who are you and what do you want me to do?

After about 15 seconds, I threw the flyer in the trash.

I could tell that this person wanted me to vote for them for something.

I couldn’t tell what party they were affiliated with. I couldn’t tell what her stances were on any major issues. I couldn’t even tell when she wanted me to vote for her.

What a mess.

Contrast this to Donald J. Trump’s political campaign. He told people he didn’t like immigration. He told people he didn’t like taxes. He told people he didn’t like public services. He told people he didn’t like public schools.

Last time I checked, the average American reads at an 8th-grade reading level. Trump delivered his Facebook Ads campaign at a 3rd-grade reading level and it was effective as hell.

The failure of this letter I received was not that the candidate had bad policies or stances, the failure of the letter was that it was trying to do the wrong job.

The job of the letter was to be an introduction to this person, not a dossier or a resume. The job of the letter was to tell me about one important thing, an upcoming vote, not explain all the problems with existing legislation. The job of the letter was to convince me that this person was worth remembering for a half-second. That’s it.

If you’re trying to sell pizza, you need to tell me what it is, why I should care, and how to buy the pizza. Pizza is simple and straightforward so it’s a relatively simple and straightforward offer.

“Your pizza delivered in 30 minutes or less, or it’s free.”

This Domino’s campaign was super successful. Ultimately, they ran into legal issues in the 90s about their implementation that made them shut it down—but the point is that made the offer really clear and people took action.

But this post isn’t about pizza, it’s about relationships.

If you’re trying to build trust with someone, that’s a lot harder. You probably won’t be able to do it in a single letter. It’s the job of future letters and a future campaign to incrementally build the trust needed for me to take a larger action. The first letter is just about the high-level introduction.

If you’re sending mail, you probably have 15 seconds to get your message across to the reader before they deem it not worthwhile to delay returning to the rest of the mail that looks just like what you sent.

If you’re designing a website, it’s even harder. You have around 10 seconds.

If you’re on mobile, it’s even harder. You have around 5 seconds.

I don’t make the rules. This is just how humans interact with the world.

Whatever you’re working on, it’s your job to know the actual, singular purpose of each component. It’s also your job to know how people will interact with that component. Whether you like it or not, every company is a marketing company. Every nonprofit, BCorp, SCorp, LLC, whatever. If you have to interact with a human, you’re a media company.

Get that right, and the rest will be easier.

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I know I usually write a bit more high-level about things, but I wanted to do zoom into something more tactical. I hope this is useful.

Comment and let me know if you like posts to be more strategic, more tactical, or a balance of both.