Southwest Airlines Knows Me. I’m Kind of a Big Deal
It feels like Southwest has popped up as a case study of some sort or another in every blog and book I’ve read in the last year. The most popular example has to be how it engages in social media. Why is it such a solid case study? Is it because of Southwest’s cheap fares? Partially ... but that’s definitely not all.
Most of you know that the people behind Southwest Airlines have a blog, "Nuts About Southwest," and some of you may also know they’re avid Twitter users. They’ll Tweet about new airfare deals, recent blog entries, and special promotions. But, if all they tweet about is themselves, doesn’t that go against social media 101? Good news! That’s actually not all they tweet about. They actually do care about their customers (take some notes, NWA), and I can prove it.
I was recently the recipient of their awesomeness. They tweeted about a special deal, and their link was broken. So, being the faithful citizen that I am, I tweeted back that their link was broken. Within a short period of time, they tweeted back to me that the link was fixed! I think I blushed.
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Enthusiasm Wins
A post on Copyblogger today inspired me. It opens,
Whether you’re promoting a product, a program or just an idea, exuberance sells. One of the reason blogs can be so effective is that their writers tend to show more enthusiasm than polish. And that’s not a bad thing—if you have to pick one over the other, enthusiasm wins.
As Sonia Simone says, enthusiasm can’t be faked. Likewise, I’ve always found it MUCH easier to write compelling copy for people who are excited about their products or services. When I have to struggle to find new ways of selling something through words that aren’t founded on some degree of passion, I’ve already lost the battle.
For example, several years ago, I was asked to write some copy. When I questioned, "What am I trying to convey?," my source responded, "That we’re better."
As Christopher Walken says, "Wowwy Wow Wow wow!" I couldn’t wait to get started writing engaging copy for a service that has no unique goals!
Seriously, it was among the greatest challenges I’ve faced from a writing perspective. I felt forced throughout the exercise, and when I finally delivered the product (taking longer than originally expected, since I didn’t have the personal energy to drive a quick flow of ideas), I wasn’t proud of it. Amazingly, the stakeholders thought it was great, and they found mild returns once they implemented it in their collateral.
But I wonder how my writing would have changed—and how many more conversions we could have encouraged—had the initial sell been wrought with admirable enthusiasm to energize the team and its writer.
Linking Web Buzz to MINI Sales
As if by divine circumstance after Steph’s post about her experience window shopping on the MINI web site, a recent article highlighted MINI’s work to measure the connection between online buzz and actual sales of the diminutive but spunky car.
The marketing team at MINI worked with MotiveQuest to research and measure what people were saying online about the car and MINI brand, and through their analysis, created the the Online Promoter Score in order to “correlate the relationship between marketing and online brand advocacy to sales by measuring the net frequency of people recommending a brand online.” Truly a tall order.
MINI’s Website Makes Me Want a MINI
Now that my awesome and totally reliable Saturn VUE is paid off, I realize there's no turning back -- I'm officially a financially responsible adult.
Ok, so I'm being melodramatic, but only to set up the premise for why I was checking out miniusa.com -- because I never had my, "that's financially stupid" moment all young people are supposed to have, (right?), such as buying a big-screen TV that doesn't fit in my house, or blowing every paycheck afforded by my first job out of college on some hot Audi that I treasure (while living on Ramen noodles and EasyMac as my sacrifice).
Anyway, I'm not about to jump on that stereotypical bandwagon, but I HAVE lately found my eye wandering to shiny new cars populating the beltway during my commutes. Particularly the European sporty numbers renowned for their handling and power. I imagine myself cruising in the mountains as the sun sets, windows down, wind whipping through my afro, and me feeling unusually free from my established adultness.
That all being said, I managed to find myself on miniusa.com, where I happened upon some crucial web writing that shouldn't go unnoticed.
Marketing To Avoid Decision Paralysis
If you give people too many choices, their brains will melt and they will retreat to the option thatoffers the least amount of uncertainty and confusion. In the online world, the most popular method of eliminating confusion and uncertainty is the "leave this site" option. Avoiding decision paralysis is imperative to effective marketing.
In their book, Made to Stick, Chip and Dan Heath reflect on what makes an idea stick—a topic I think quite a bit about. On the road to "sticky" marketing, my experience is that decision paralysis is a very sneaky little trickster. it’s just an easy trap to fall into, and no trap is more appealing than offering too many choices.
The Heath’s cite a study in which college students are faced with the following choices when planning their evenings:
Scenario 1:
Choice #1: Attend a lecture by an author you admire who is visiting just for the evening, or
Choice #2: Go to the library and study.
(Is "neither" an option?)
Scenario 2:
Choice #1: Attend the lecture.
Choice #2: Go to the library.
Choice #3: Watch a foreign film that you’ve been wanting to see.
The choices made between Scenario 1 and 2 are surprisingly different.