How to Hire a Freelance Marketing Writer

Don’t Overlook These Three Important Considerations

If you’re a business seeking to hire a freelance writer to help with your marketing, you’re in luck.  It’s a buyer’s market out there. 

You’ve got many choices.  There are senior people – including journalists – who’ve been laid off from their companies due to the recession.  There are kids fresh out of college who will work for little or nothing (internships). There are even writing “chop shops” in India and other places that will churn out “plagiarism-free” and “copyscape proof” articles for a song (at least according to a poorly written email pitch that I recently received).  There are established firms (like mine) that often will take on writing assignments for non-retainer clients.

Before hiring a freelance marketing writer, it’s important of course to ascertain that the writer has:

• Verifiable writing samples (see here for a creative tip on how to verify work samples)
• Expertise in your industry, the topic, and/or the type of writing assignment
• Solid knowledge of grammar, punctuation, spelling, standard proofreaders' marks and other tools of the writing trade
• Recent references

But caveat emptor.

Today it’s easy for almost anyone to hang out a virtual shingle as a freelance writer, given cheap broadband connections, computers, web services, free WiFi connections at coffee shops and libraries, and other technology.  While you may be able to get a great deal with a “newbie” freelancer, realize that there’s often a price to pay – in your time and money – associated with being a newbie’s first client.

Here are three equally important considerations when hiring a writer – things that aren’t often asked or ascertained up front that can result in events that can make the relationship go sour later.

Confidentiality and Security:  How does the writer handle your confidential information?  How and where is it stored, and how is it protected?  If your writer works remotely via WiFi from a work-sharing space or the local Starbucks, how does he make sure that your confidential information and work product don't get lost or stolen?  Does he use thumb drives or mobile devices to store your work?  Does he seem cavalier about privacy and personal security?

How does your writer treat the client relationship – as a confidential relationship or as public information to share on Facebook, LinkedIn, his blog, or Foursquare?  (Tip:  If client confidentiality is important to you, make sure to check out the writer’s social media profile before hiring him. And then agree up front on any confidentiality requirements.)

Technology Practices:   Does your writer regularly back up his work product to off-system and off-site media?  How frequently?  Is the writer sending your work product or confidential documents using free email or FTP services – or does he have his own domain name/secure email server and secure email account?  Does he have a clear-sounding telephone line, for conducting phone interviews or participating in conference calls with you?  Does he run a second digital recorder when interviewing an important product expert or a customer? 

Business Practices and Comportment: Does the writer have established rates and policies for billing you, or does he appear to be making it up as he goes along? Does he give you a defined statement of work and an estimate before beginning work?  If the writer works from a home office, will there be a dog barking or toddler crying in the background during your calls?  When interviewing an important executive, does the writer type notes while conducting the interview to “save time” instead of focusing on the interview and content collection?  Does the writer speak clearly and understandably during calls, without trendy speech affectations like vocal fry or up talk?  Does he listen?

Does the writer understand business email etiquette? For example, are his transmittal emails written with the understanding that they may be instantly forwarded to others?  Does he understand that his emails may live in your corporate archives far into the future, and act accordingly?

How do I know that these things matter when hiring a writer?  

First, because I am seeing more and more of my larger clients specify or prohibit behaviors in their contractor agreements. Which tells me that they have experienced some of these problems and their fallout frequently enough to warrant revamping a contractual document.

Second, because I’ve been hired by clients to replace other writers who practiced bad behaviors – not because of the poor quality of their work product or their inability to meet deadlines. (In fact, I once acquired a new writing client because the incumbent’s recorder batteries had run out during an important executive interview.) 

Experienced working writers will have answers to the questions above. They know that their business is not just delivering marketing copy, but also delivering confidence and convenience for the client.

A Whole Lotta Grabbin’ Going On, in Marketing

Think Twice Before Using a Trendy Word

Recently, the word “grab” has rippled through our culture and the marketing and news machines that feed it.

Marketers are telling me to “grab and go” a bottle of water with my morning coffee (Dunkin’ Donuts) or to “grab my girlfriends” and come to an evening reception to learn about incontinence and heart disease (my local hospital).

Salesmen, telemarketers and consultants who I have just met want to “grab coffee” with me.  The waitress in a sophisticated restaurant ruins my evening with “I’ll grab that drink for ya.”  I can’t even enjoy my daily business news: Headline writers have start-up companies “grabbing” millions of dollars in financing. (Headline writers appear to be in paradise: a new, hyper-trendy word with ONLY FOUR LETTERS!)

Stop all this grabbing. As a consumer, I’m begging you.

I am an adult. I don’t grab, unless it’s an emergency. I may grab to keep someone from walking into the path of a speeding car. Or to prevent my favorite piece of crystal from hitting the floor. But otherwise, I live a grab-free life. By design. 

“Grab” is yet another useful word ruined by overuse and misuse. To the extent that when I hear the word – in an advertisement, in a retail transaction, in a conversation or in a news headline – I immediately tune out.  And usually take my business or attention elsewhere.

 

What’s behind the “grab” mania?   Is there a bunch of overpaid market researchers somewhere in the ivory towers of Madison Avenue saying to their clients:  “Grab. It’s empowering yet playful.  It conveys control, with good old American haste, recklessness, and sense of entitlement.  It’s breezy and light for the GenXers and GenYers! It’s just perfect!” More likely it’s just sloppiness and lack of empathy.

Of course, it might just be me – a market of one – who has an antipathy to “grab.”  But it could be others in my demographic: Baby Boomers, who came of age in a more civil, less-careless era.

The real question: are you willing to risk making an uninformed bet, particularly if you’re counting on selling to me and my cohort?   Your trendy talk just may be our trash talk.

According to the AARP, 77+ million Americans will turn 65 over the next 19 years – a rate of 10,000 a day.  This group represents billions in disposable income. And they’re spending it not only on essentials – health care and nursing homes (where “grab” definitely takes on a whole new connotation) – but also on travel, fine food and drink, hobbies. In fact, when they think “health,” they think “lifestyle.” And they don’t want to be talked sideways or down to by GenXers (including GenXer marketing writers).

So, before associating “grab” (or any trendy word) with your brand image, think. 

Give it my Three-Pronged Wrong Test.  (You can do this test even if you’re a small business without a research budget: just ask a handful of your best customers.)  Ask yourself if your trendy word is:

Inappropriate:   Does the trendy word paint the wrong mental picture?  For example, the word “grab” might inadvertently create unpleasant connotations when used in hospital marketing.  Conversely, “grabbing” a bottle of water while I speed through the Dunkin’ Donuts drive-through creates the right connotation: fast, convenient.

Inaccurate:   When’s the last time your start-up company “grabbed” $5 million from a group of investors?  "Grabbing” $5 million may come easy to Wall Street bond traders (they just make it up, steal it or both.) But if you’re like most of my friends and clients who have founded start-up companies, you worked long and hard to obtain that money. You didn’t steal it. You likely nearly killed yourself to get the investors to give that $5 million to you instead of another start-up.  Wouldn’t a more accurate headline then be “Start-up X Wins $5 Million"?  ("Wins" = ONLY FOUR LETTERS. Q.E.D.)

Insinuating:   Does the trendy word convey too much informality or familiarity?  I am unlikely to “grab” coffee with someone I just met.  Nor do I want to “grab” a glass of wine when I am having an elegant, relaxed dinner – or have someone “grab” the wine for me.  Or “grab” another size of a designer skirt from the rack in an exclusive boutique.

Words matter –printed and spoken.  Politicians, Hollywood, and major brands agonize over the right words to persuade us.  More marketers should follow their lead, at least philosophically – and stop being so sloppy.

Three Essential Questions for Your PR Firm

How to Get Useful Answers before Signing on the Dotted Line

During the course of my career, I’ve been involved in many public relations (PR) agency searches.  I’ve counseled clients on hiring PR agencies and have run searches.  I’ve also organized and led agency presentations when I was an executive with three large PR firms. 

Here are three questions that are essential to an effective search, but that don’t get asked often enough, in my experience.  Plus, some tips on how to get useful answers.

Are these the people who will be on my account team? If not, why not?  A good agency relationship is like a marriage: trust and chemistry are important.

Therefore, before finalizing your decision, you want to make sure to meet the main team members – the people you will be working with daily, who will be on the phone with media and analysts, and who will be writing and thinking for your business or brand.  These are the people with whom you’ll be in the trenches.  You have to feel confident in them. 

You also want to understand the roles that each person will play, and what percentage of the total account time each will spend on your business.  One criticism of PR firms is that they tend to push too much work down to junior, less-experienced people. Although a lot of PR has become automated – through email, social media and PR list-building/mass-mailing services,* good PR still ultimately comes down to people, their judgment, and their empathy for others.

How to get useful answers:

Ask to meet the main two or three people who will be on your account team. Conduct a mini-interview with each team member to gauge his communications skills, how he thinks on his feet, and how he approaches people and problems. Will he be a good representative of your brand?

Ask the firm’s principals how they ensure quality control over the work in general and the work of junior people specifically – including how the firm recovers from errors or mistakes. 

For example: On 9/11/2001, an enterprising junior account executive (AE) in a Boston-area PR firm quickly retooled her product pitch to the media to capitalize on the World Trade Center disaster as it was still unfolding. Members of the media were appalled and quickly wrote about the incident. The junior AE and her firm themselves became the story – something most reputable PR firms never want to have happen. A stunning lack of judgment? Poor supervision? Both?  How can you and your firm make sure that something like this doesn’t happen to you and your brand?

Pay attention to how well the firm's principals listen to you. Poor listening skills can lead to missed communication, errors and higher costs. Will run-away talkers be congenitally incapable of keeping your confidence? If they aren’t listening to you, will they listen to the media?

Finally, consider specifying the team in your contract with the firm.  You may be able to give yourself an out should there be significant changes in the team that affect the quality or continuity of your program.

Do your people write well?  During my years in the PR business, the number-one client complaint about PR firms has been poor writing skills. Back when I started my career, journalism-quality writing skills were a requirement for not only getting a job in a PR firm but also advancing within it.  (This is why some of the best writers in PR firms today are often the founders or most senior-level executives – even in large Madison Avenue firms.) 

Good writing is a mainstay of effective PR, even in an era increasingly dominated by blogs, Tweets, Facebook posts, multimedia and other short-form content. In fact, the shorter the format, the more important the quality of the writing.

Because prose is prologue. Ideas don’t really exist and can’t be communicated until they are written down in some form – whether it’s a compelling news release that’s going out to the world over BusinessWire, or your script for a telephone pitch to a journalist.

Kurt Vonnegut summed it up pretty well in Armageddon in Retrospect: “If you can’t write clearly, you probably don’t think nearly as well as you think you do.”

How to get useful answers:

Ask for and read samples written by your proposed account team or account executive, ideally in advance of the presentation meeting. Pick one sample and ask the writer to take you through the process of writing it. Then, ask him to give his copy a letter grade.  See if you agree.

Ask about the firm’s editorial system.  What processes do they have in place to ensure quality control over all copy?

You might even give your proposed AE a short writing test – live, under newsroom-type conditions.

Some PR agencies have dealt with the writing problem by creating writing services groups.  Such groups can be a useful service – particularly for heads-down writing such as bylined articles.  But you’re in big trouble – and can expect big invoices – if the person who is representing your company daily to trade press or industry analysts can’t write a coherent, powerful pitch or news release lede on his own.

How much experience do you have with a situation like mine?  If you’re like most clients, you ideally want your PR firm to have experience working in your industry, with knowledge of its competitors, customers and influencers.

But I’d argue that the more important question is whether the firm has ever worked with a company in your situation. Your situation includes your business problem or opportunity, your specific challenges (aggressive competitor, inexperienced management team, problem product), your timetable, and your budget. The PR firms will of course want to show their very best and flashiest work, even if it is irrelevant to you.

How to get useful answers:

Give the finalists in your search enough information about your situation so they can present relevant experience.  (Note: the most relevant experience may not be in your industry.)

Probe them to understand how they defined the client's problem and went about solving it. Here’s your chance to see how they think.

Consider putting the finalists under non-disclosure and giving them a briefing so they can give you a thoughtful proposal on how they would approach your situation.

Hiring a PR firm can be stressful, fun and educational all at the same time.  Most companies learn a lot during the process – including information that can make you a more-shrewd client.  Treat the PR agency search as a strategic decision and take your time to do it well – whether you’re a start-up or an established entity. Your brand is in the balance.

Note:  A special thanks to my long-time colleague, the late Joe Roy, another veteran corporate and PR agency executive, for sharing his experience and advice with me for this article.

* Considered spam by many journalists.

Marketers and Communications Pros - Listen and Listen Well

Five Tips for Bringing Back the Lost Art of Listening

As a marketing consultant and writer, I often collaborate on client projects with other marketing and communications consultants retained by the clients.  The purpose is usually to (1) collect information about the client’s business, strategy, products or expertise; (2) obtain the client’s feedback on programs that we have created; or (3) brainstorm with the client.

Collaborating with other professionals is almost always a good thing. It gives me the opportunity to work with other professionals who have complementary skills and who share my interest in making the client successful.

However, in the last few years, I have noticed a disturbing trend.  Many marketing and communications people don’t listen – usually to the detriment of the client and the project.

Here are a few examples of what I mean. 

• In interviewing a CEO, a PR person loses critical time from a tight 30-minute timeslot with his ham-handed attempt at bonding with the CEO.  The false start not only wastes time, but also gets the “speed” interview off to a false start, from which it never truly recovers.
• The head of a PR firm talks on and on about social media 101, without taking a breath. She is apparently unaware of the client’s familiarity with the subject – and his growing irritation in being talked down to.
• In conducting an interview with a customer for a case study, a marketing person deviates on the very first question on the list that was sent to the customer in advance. Instead of asking the short, open-ended question, the marketer twists it into a loaded question that reflects his own biases – and shows how “smart” he is. The customer is so confused that she asks that the question be repeated.  The interview is derailed, and the client’s careful preparation wasted.
  

In all three cases, the problem was lack of listening.  The PR person, agency head and the marketer were all intent on talking about themselves or talking to themselves instead of listening to the client. They were falling short on their jobs as professional communicators: understanding what the other person wants, needs and values – and what knowledge he can contribute to the project or program. 

I’m certainly not immune to this.  Recently, I caught myself blathering on and on about some obscure detail.  The client was polite but annoyed, and I apologized later for not being a better listener.

One challenge:  Technology can often work against us.  Many meetings and interactions today take place over the telephone or via audio-only Web conferences. Without the benefit of body language, we often lose important cues about whether we are talking too much, or whether the listener is confused, irritated or bored.  In addition, even the best communications systems introduce a time delay – even if it is barely perceptible – creating an asynchronous discussion.  As a result, we should all listen harder and be more creative in our approaches to listening.

Here are five tips for being a better professional listener:

Stick to the agenda: If the purpose of your conversation is mainly to elicit information from the client, put your energy and focus on that. When preparing for conducting a telephone interview, I usually send along a short bio in advance with my list of questions. The list of questions also includes a sentence about the goal of the interview. This cuts down the need for extraneous conversation before you get to work listening.

Stop selling:  Don’t waste time selling yourself – you’ve already got the business, or you wouldn’t be on the call, right?  Conversely, if you’re already on shaky ground, you’ll just make things worse.  In arranging the call or conference, send a brief agenda with names and titles in advance. I am amazed at how many meetings or calls waste time with introductions – an open-ended opportunity for people to sell themselves, based on their agendas – when simple business etiquette could have nipped this in the bud.

Slow down:  Speak clearly and more slowly than you do in person. Take a beat at the end of sentences, so people have an opportunity to break in and ask a question or make a comment. This will help prevent the conversation from getting off track.

Don’t assume:  Before delving into a soliloquy about a subject, ask your audience about his level of familiarity; then adjust your explanation accordingly. You’ll win points for empathy and brevity, as well as save some energy.  Everyone wins.

“Watch” for verbal cues:  Train yourself to listen for verbal cues in people’s voices: irritation, satisfaction, confusion and so on.  Some body language does come through the phone line or the web. This is the reason that I always try to smile when I am on telephone calls – and sit up straight so that I don’t compress my diaphragm and “depress” my speech. People can tell.  Hint: practice recognizing body language with your spouse or business partner. Have him or her talk to you with various facial expressions, while you have your eyes closed.

Whenever you’re in doubt about the value of talking, stop and take a breath.  You’ll feel better – and just maybe jog yourself back into creative listening.

Outsourcing Your Social Media Marketing? Beware.

How to Avoid Out-of-Brand Experiences that Wreck Your Credibility

Social media marketing is the hot marketing trend today – so much so that many marketers can’t get enough of it fast enough. Some marketers are choosing to outsource their social media marketing programs, or portions of them. And there is no shortage of social media marketing “experts” ready to take your money and take on your brand.

And possibly trash your brand, as Chrysler recently found out. An employee of Chrysler’s social media marketing agency posted a Tweet that included profanity and criticized the marketer’s home town. In short: the employee stepped out of brand, making a personal comment that reflected negatively on the Chrysler brand. Although Chrysler responded promptly and decisively, the situation was a black eye for the brand, and the agency lost the business.

I can understand why companies – particularly larger ones – may choose to outsource their social media marketing presence. But I wonder how many realize the risks – and take steps to protect themselves?

Before you entrust your brand to someone – be it a social media marketing agency or an enthusiastic employee – make sure that he understands, respects and cares for your brand as much as you do. The most important part of social media marketing is the social part: the people who converse on your behalf. So choose carefully and plan wisely.

Ask yourself the following questions:

Who’s representing my brand? As a former corporate public relations manager, I always wanted to know exactly who from our PR firm would be representing my company to the media – preferably a seasoned, knowledgeable business person and not the newest hire. Fast-forward to 2011: why wouldn’t I want to know exactly who would be representing my company and brand to the world via social media?

Understand who is representing your brand: his qualifications, his feelings about your product or company, his demeanor. Ask to meet and interview that person. Picture yourself talking with this person at a bar or a softball game. How does it feel? If your feelings are anything but positive, ask for someone else on your account.

What are the rules? Create a written social media policy that everyone understands and agrees to. Keep it simple – a page or so. List what you will talk about, what you won’t talk about, and how to handle special situations (such as negative comments or product complaints). It’s usually prudent to review your social media policy with your legal counsel.

Have three to five brand attributes that your social media reps should adhere to and convey during social media conversations. Better still, print this information on an index card that reps can post on their computer monitors, or create a note that they can reference from their mobile devices.

If you are outsourcing your social media marketing to an outside firm, ask how the firm trains and supervises its people. Also ask about policies for handling and reporting errors.

Finally, make sure to incorporate social media into your crisis communications plan – as a potential crisis not just part of your media mix.

What’s my technology risk? HootSuite, TweetDeck and other applications can automate social media posting for both individuals and teams. Technology can be good when it makes you more efficient, smarter, and more scientific about what you’re doing. But technology can also be bad if it replaces common sense, caution or thinking.

Understand the risks in the tools that you use. For example, the HootSuite dashboard gives you a birds-eye (no pun intended) view of multiple Twitter accounts, using a single log-in. You can post a single Tweet to one or all of the accounts in a single step. It’s all too easy, if you are not careful, to post a Tweet to the wrong account.

This simple mistake may not be a tragedy if it involves your personal accounts. But what if you’re mixing multiple client accounts – or multiple brand personas – in a single dashboard?

So, use technology defensively, not just prospectively. For example: clearly separate personal social media accounts from official brand accounts.

Also, use technology as a buffer or a sanity-check. For example: HootSuite allows you to schedule Tweets – great for when you are going to be on an airplane when you want a Tweet to hit. However, I often make use of the scheduling feature to sanity-check important Tweets before publication; by scheduling a Tweet 15 minutes into the future, I can proofread the Tweet and check any links or cross-references before it is published.

The bottom line: think before you Tweet or post. Most social media are relatively forgiving – you can sometimes correct errors if you are quick about it. However, the social media audience is usually less forgiving – as Chrysler and Aflac now know all too well. A faux pas by a major brand can be around the world – and on its way to “viral” – in seconds. A moment’s thought can often prevent heartbreak.

My advice is to spend time thoughtfully designing, testing and bullet-proofing your program up-front – no matter who is going to run it for you. This investment will pay off.

Businesses that treat social media marketing as a checklist item will get what they pay for: good and hard.

Mea Culpa Marketing: Does It Work?

Is “Going Viral” Worth It if It Kills the Host?

As consumers, we’re increasingly being assaulted with marketing campaigns that irritate us, shock us and enrage us. The new formula goes something like this:

• Marketer creates and airs a television campaign that blatantly insults or stereotypes a segment of the population, depicts anti-social behavior, or is just in plain bad taste. (Yes, the latter is still possible to achieve if one works hard enough, even with today’s low bar.)

• Consumers recoil in horror. They flock to social media, posting thousands of messages about the campaign.

• Marketer pretends to be stunned by the market response, and suggests that it never dreamed its campaign would offend so many people.

• Marketer issues apology. It enlists the Professionally Offended – for example, advocacy groups or academic experts– to assist in its rehabilitation. It makes some sort of charitable donation to the offended group(s). Mainstream and social media duly report on the mea culpa, creating another wave of free news coverage for the marketer.

Recent high-profile examples of mea culpa marketing include:

Groupon: This marketer used the plight of the Tibetan people as the introduction for discounted coupons for Himalayan restaurants, chirped with a smug face by actor Timothy Hutton.

HomeAway: This marketer apparently thought it hilarious to launch an infant (played by a doll and labeled “test baby”) into a wall or through it. And even more hilarious to give people a Web-site game where they could place someone’s face on a baby before launching it.

Kraft: This marketer used a scolding, black-clad Greek grandmother to sell Greek yogurt to young women, raising hackles in the Greek-American community.

Mea culpa marketing campaigns tend to proliferate at Super Bowl time. Businesses that have invested millions in TV production and time – including startups – clearly want to get the most out of their investments. Super Bowl advertising has become a mini-industry, attracting lots of press coverage by the mainstream media and consumer engagement on social media. It’s apparently no longer good enough to aim to be the best commercial. Or even the worst commercial, securing your brand’s place in infamy. Marketers today have to really think creatively about how to break through the clutter.

As a consumer, I resent being so blatantly manipulated by marketers. And I respond accordingly, by shunning the marketer and not buying its products.*

As a marketer, I am curiously waiting to see the net effect of these campaigns. The cynic in me believes that many of these offensive campaigns were completely intentional. How could a professional marketer think that launching a baby (albeit fake) into a wall would possibly be perceived as okay by most people? Or that it is funny to exploit the plight of politically oppressed people to sell restaurant meals to overfed Americans?

As a marketer in the pre-Internet days, I was involved in my share of bad-news marketing situations. Our policy was to act quickly and decisively to acknowledge the situation, take corrective action, and then communicate the action thoroughly and clearly. The goal was to prevent press coverage of the story from extending beyond one or two days maximum.

Clearly times have changed, mostly because of the Internet. Groupon appeared to stumble around for days in responding to its situation, extending the story for nearly a week after the Super Bowl broadcast.

Time will tell whether these mea culpa marketing campaigns were profitable for the marketers.

In the meantime, here are some observations.

There is no such thing as an inside joke any more: The Internet brings anyone and everyone to your campaigns, not just the people you are targeting. This means people of different cultures who speak different languages and so on. Someone will be confused, or offended, or both. Your inside joke may be their first – and only – exposure to your brand.

The Offended is big business: There are private advocacy groups that represent segments of the population (for example, Greek-Americans) or problems (child abuse, brain injuries, political oppression in Tibet). There are also published authors, academics, government organizations and NGOs. All can be counted on to respond to a mea culpa campaign, because their missions, businesses and livelihoods depend on it. Further, today social media gives virtually anyone who is offended a platform for expressing himself – and a ready platform for such forms of expression as organizing a worldwide boycott of your product, inciting the vandalizing of your premises, or harassing your executives.

Most consumers have short memories: Particularly given information overload, consumers over time may remember your brand or company name, but not why they remember it. And, once they have vented their initial outrage online, many consumers will move on to the next thing and may continue to buy your product. The lure of discounts for restaurant meals may win out over moral outrage – particularly for people feeding families in today’s economy. Or not.

The Internet has a long memory: Conversely, a quick search on Google or Bing will instantly remind a curious consumer why they heard of you. Far into the future.

So, before considering a mea culpa marketing strategy, ask yourself: “Do I feel lucky?” All the market research in the world may not help.

According to Nielsen, Groupon’s Super Bowl ads boosted traffic to the company ‘s Web site by only 3%. By comparison, HomeAway’s post-Super Bowl traffic was up 27%.

* Obviously, I am contributing to the wave of press coverage of bad behavior.

Three Ways to Wreck a Marketing Interview

Tips for Fixing Common Mistakes in Marketing Interviews

As a business writer and marketing consultant, I conduct a lot of interviews, many of them by telephone. I interview my clients’ customers, partners, external consultants and internal experts to obtain information, insights and “color commentary.” I have conducted more than a thousand interviews over the course of my career.

Sometimes I am asked to participate in interviews conducted by other people. From these interviews, I have observed common interviewer behaviors that undermine the interview process.

Here are the three most common mistakes, with tips for preventing them. (For purposes of this article, I refer to the interviewee as “the speaker.”)

Deviating from the Questions: Experienced interviewers almost always send a list of questions to the speaker in advance. If the speaker has the questions in advance, he can prepare better. (Even experienced speakers appreciate this opportunity.) At a minimum, the speaker knows the goal of the interview, what to expect and roughly how long the interview will last.

If you send the questions, stick to them – particularly at the beginning of the interview. If you begin with a different question than the speaker expects, you will likely rattle him and get the interview off to a rocky start (from which it may not recover). An experienced speaker – one who participates in many interviews – may be able to roll with the punches; however, other speakers may become distracted or even terrified by a starter question from left field.

Tip: Follow the questions provided in advance. To ask questions not on the list, look for natural opportunities to work them in – later in the interview. Interviewers call this technique “branching.” It works.

Interrupting the Speaker: In the interest of moving the interview along, inexperienced interviewers may interrupt the speaker – usually cutting in at the end of the sentence. Resist this! It’s the number-one interview killer. When you interrupt the speaker, you interrupt his train of thought, which slows down the interview and hurts content quality. Worse, speakers often deliver the best content at the end of sentences – which you will “clip off” if you interrupt. Poof – gone forever.

Tips: Train yourself not to interrupt. (It took me years to train myself.) Practice on your colleagues and friends. Also, record your practice interviews so that you are aware of your interruption habits (and other not-so-good habits.)

Try this instead of interrupting: When a speaker arrives at the end of a sentence, silently count to three before asking your next question. In fact, before moving to the next question, I often will ask: “Anything else about [insert topic of the question here]?” Often, the speaker will have an additional thought that (a) succinctly sums up his answer (sound bite!) or (b) gives you the headline for your marketing document.

Special Bonus Tip: The habit of interrupting usually develops because inexperienced interviewers pack too many questions into the allotted time for the interview. I typically allow one question for every four to five minutes. If you finish your questions early, you will get points from the speaker – or you can ask another wrap-up question. (Wrap-up questions often yield the best content of all, because at this point your speaker is completely warmed up and relaxed.)

Meandering: In the courtroom, lawyers never ask a question to which they don’t know the answer. In a marketing interview, experienced interviewers never ask a question that doesn’t contribute to the purpose of the interview. Experienced interviewers go into interviews with an end-result in mind. For example: you want the speaker to validate (or invalidate) an idea, or to provide three ways that your product helped his business.

Don’t attempt to turn an interview (a structured Q&A) into a free-form brainstorming session crammed with many different topics. It never works. You will confuse and usually irritate your speaker, and you will generally not get useful content. If you want to conduct a brainstorming session, define it that way and state your purpose in advance.

Tip: Clearly understand and state the purpose of the interview in advance; include details on how you plan to use the information, the content approval process, and the timeline for your project. An interview is a process – not a transaction – and providing context will help the speaker through the process. If you insist on asking a “while-I-have-you-here” question during the interview, allow time for it at the end.

A great interview is like a river. It gently flows, providing new insights and delights as it turns around the bends. Occasionally, it reveals rapids or a rock. However, if you picture the interview as a river, you will keep the canoe upright and navigate around obstructions – or turn them into productive, instead of destructive, moments.

For more tips on conducting successful interviews, see “The Customer Interview and How to Ace It" and "The Customer Interview and How to Ace It - Part II."

Happy interviewing.

Do Your Customers See Dead People?

The Importance of Looking at Your Business with the Customer’s Eye

When your customers interact with your business, do they deal with real people? Or mindless automation? And how do you know?

Automation and the human touch clearly aren’t mutually exclusive in customer interaction. Businesses like Zappos.com have proven this. And many smaller businesses are proving it through the use of social media. Properly used, social media mixes live people with automation to help find customers and make fans.

But a lot of businesses get customer interaction wrong: dead wrong. They make easily avoidable mistakes – in spite of the millions that companies invest in automation and in software for monitoring the customer experience.

Often, it’s the little things. Consider the story of the national debt collection agency that robo-signed a dead employee’s name to thousands of affidavits in debt-collection lawsuits.

Beyond landing the company in the public eye and under regulators’ scrutiny, what sort of message does this practice send about the company? If they make this kind of mistake with legal paperwork, what else might be wrong at the company?

We’ve learned that the financial industry is a bit of a protected species, so perhaps it doesn’t have to play by the same rules as the rest of the business world. However, other companies – including large, publicly held companies in other industries – often suffer from the same disease.

In his book Real-Time Marketing & PR: How to Instantly Engage Your Market, Connect with Customers, and Create Products that Grow Your Business Now, David Meerman Scott recounts his experiment with contacting the Fortune 100. A prominent blogger and contributing editor to publications, David contacted, via email, the media relations people at each company, with an inquiry for an article he was writing; he included his journalism credentials. He heard back from 28 of the 100. The relative response times for the companies ranged from snappy (10 minutes) to never, and a number involved inane and completely irrelevant robo-responses. (His experience in finding whom to contact is a story in itself.)

Why was this so hard? David was a customer: a journalist writing about a public company. All of these companies make a pretense of being reachable. They all have Web sites – often lavish Web sites. Many have automated forms and links on their Web sites. But the system breaks down there for many. So much for the real-time economy.

More recently, I was thwarted in reaching a firm in the information publishing business. I tried every avenue (except the US Postal Service). I navigated a confusing phonemail tree and left a detailed message in their general mailbox. I clicked on their Press Inquiry link on their Web site – and had three emails bounce back (I tried from both my email client and Webmail). I finally identified the human being who might be able to help me. But my personal email to that person was never returned, nor did I receive a response from the handy contact form that they provided on the contact’s bio on their Web site.

My recommendation: Marketers or business owners should regularly test their customers’ experience with the business. Personally. Beyond any automated testing you may do. Or secret shoppers you may employ. What’s it like to buy from your company? Return a product? Get a question answered? What does it feel like?

True, as a marketer or business owner, you can never be 100% objective about your own business. But just spending an hour in the customers’ shoes might be a revelation.

When I was working for an advertising agency many years ago, a retail client hired us to walk through a few of their locations “with the customer’s eye.” Yes, the results were subjective – and perhaps even biased, you may say – but they were very human. And the results added a dimension to the retailer's traditional research.

The good news is that small changes can often make a big difference.

Here are three obvious places to start:

Your Web Site: Test the email addresses, contact forms and links. Do they work? How quickly do you get a response? Is the response relevant? Coherent? Indecipherable? Lawyer-ese for “go away?”

Your Phone System: Make sure that your phonemail is easily navigable. Have a process and schedule for checking the general mailbox and routing or responding to the inquiries.

It’s also helpful if the automated voice on the system matches your brand. It’s disconcerting to a call a bank or brokerage firm and hear what appears to be a five-year-old girl answering. Pick the person on your staff who most represents your brand – a successful broker or financial adviser, in this case – and have that person make the recording. Or outsource this task to a firm that specializes in this type of thing.

Your Social Media Program: Have a protocol for responding to questions to your company on social media. Promptly. Most large companies – particularly those that consciously use social media for customer service (such as Comcast) – have this down pat, often using teams of people with real names and faces. For better or worse, these companies are setting the bar for all companies. Respond to queries promptly, and in the tone of your brand.

Remember that these forms of electronic media are proxies for your brand. They should reflect the personality of your brand, even though they are automation not actual people.

Or, you can continue to let your customers see dead people – and suffer the consequences.

Navigating a Corporate Crisis: Would You Sail or Fail?

Why Every Business Needs A Crisis Management and Crisis Communications Plan

As part of its year-end analysis of 2010, The Wall Street Journal published a post-mortem on the top corporate crises of the year – from BP’s Gulf oil spill to Toyota’s safety recall. With the help of crisis-communications and crisis-management experts, the article briefly examines each crisis, how effectively the company responded, and what the company might have done differently to achieve a better outcome.

While I disagree with some of the statements in the article,* it contains some useful lessons and ideas for every business.

The main lesson: Every company – even smaller businesses – should have a crisis communications plan in place. Smaller companies may not be in the public eye or under government scrutiny as much as larger, publicly held companies. However, smaller companies may be less able than larger companies to absorb the business damage from crises such as a product problem or a fire.

Professional PR or reputation management consultants can often be extremely helpful in such a crisis, but they can be pricey. If you are a smaller business on a tight budget, you can create your own crisis communications plan. It’s mostly common sense.

Here are a few tips:

First, define the most likely crises. What are the most likely crises that could happen in your business? What are the likely elements of the crisis (for example, interest by your local media)? Describe the scenario in detail. You can’t anticipate every possible scenario, obviously, but at least you will have some crisis thinking in place.

Next, outline a brief plan of action for each scenario. For example, in the event of a serious customer complaint that “goes viral” on social media, what is your policy for dealing with customer complaints? Do you refund or replace, without question? Or require a return? Does the policy need to be revisited? Then, define how you will communicate your actions and to which audiences. What’s the most efficient way to reach each audience?

Create a phone or email “tree” of the people in the company who need to be notified or involved in resolving the crisis. Keep it detailed but short and updated. In some cases, you may want to include your legal counsel on the tree.

Identify key members of the media and other important channels for reaching your audience, such as local business leaders or industry analysts. Make sure you have current contact information for each person.

Identify who will be your media spokesperson, and make sure that that person is readily available to the media via cellphone and email.

Write everything down, and share your plan with managers and executives. Make sure that everyone understands the process – and who to contact if they have questions.

Don’t forget employees. Make sure that line employees – often the first people to become aware of a crisis – know the process. Typically, you do not want non-authorized employees speaking to the media on behalf of the company. So, tell employees simply and exactly what they should do. Don’t leave them guessing in the heat of the moment about what to do or who to contact.

Always do a post-mortem. After any crisis, analyze how well your process worked. Update your process as necessary, in writing. Don’t forget to close the loop by briefing employees on how you handled the crisis and answering any questions they may have. Employees also may have ideas for improvement.

Don’t forget social media. Social media can accelerate some crises, by broadcasting the event and enabling lots of public discussion. On the plus side, social media – a company blog, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter – can help assuage crises by giving you a real-time, unfiltered way to convey information and engage in a direct dialog with your audiences.

If you are already using social media, make sure you include social media in your plans. If you are not using social media, familiarize yourself with it now because it more than likely will play a role in your crisis. Members of the traditional media (magazines, newspapers, local media, and Web press) participate in social media, and may use social media discussion as a source for information or stories.

In a crisis, it’s important to respond to public discussion using the same media. For example, if a customer complaint goes viral on Twitter, you must respond on Twitter (although you may use other media as well). That’s where the audience is. Ignore it at your peril.

David Meerman Scott’s book, Real-Time Marketing & PR: How to Instantly Engage Your Market, Connect with Customers, and Create Products that Grow Your Business Now, contains some great advice about using real-time media in a crisis (see pages 124-131).

Obviously, it’s impossible to anticipate every possible crisis. However, if you follow the steps above, you will have a template in place to work from. You won’t be starting with a blank piece of paper if a crisis does happen.

Finally, view every crisis as an opportunity to deepen your engagement with customers. By doing the right thing and communicating it quickly and effectively, you may end up with more customers and an improved reputation.

*Particularly that the oil spill was unexpected (I think it was inevitable)

Is Business Getting Soft?

Five Pieces of Weak, Confusing Patter to Ban from Your Language

President Barack Obama has been criticized of late for weak messages and language. This doesn’t surprise me: he’s a 21st-century politician in an industry (politics) that’s fast reaching its nadir.

What does surprise me – and scares me – is the growing number of business people who regularly use weak, unnecessary language or patter.

“Patter” is language that fills in the breaths between statements and questions. Patter appears to be on the upswing, probably because we have so many bits to fill – hence its extensive use in social media. But just because the bits are there, you don’t have to fill them.

Here are five pieces of patter that you should exorcise from your business language:

• “Just Saying”: As opposed to what?

• “IMHO”: If you feel unqualified to offer an opinion, then don’t.

• “My Two Cents”: If your opinion is really only worth two cents, then why say it? And why admit to it?

• “Oh, and” (often followed by “did I mention?"): Did you really forget to mention it? If so, was it because you don’t think clearly? Or because it was an afterthought? Many people seem to use “oh, and” and “did I mention” to set off the most important item in a list. This makes no sense to me at all.

• “Kind of,” when used to obscure what it refers to (“we were kind of confused”), not distinguish it (“Kate Moss is a different kind of cover girl”)

In business, “kind of” is a pox on precision. It calls into question the truth of whatever term it modifies, as well as the knowledge and seriousness of the speaker. The phrase is cropping up in many executive quotations in news stories, making me wonder if reporters’ word processors have a macro that automatically inserts it into quotes.

“Kind of” is particularly deadly when it describes a corporate action or financials. It makes me wonder: “Doesn’t the speaker know how much, or how little?” “If he means ‘approximately’ or ‘estimated,’ why not say this, instead of using the verbal equivalent of a shrug of the shoulders?”

Here are two recent examples:

Example 1: “When [former Walmart CEO Lee] Scott was thinking about what qualities his successor should have, he saw a match with [new Walmart CEO Mike] Duke’s skills. ‘I kind of thought -- and I think the board thought - that the company could be better managed,’ says Scott, who is careful to say that it was the directors who picked Duke for the job, not him.”

Example 2: “Roche, the Swiss pharmaceutical company, wanted to increase its visibility to U.S. investors but worried about associating with over-the-counter offerings, says Thomas Kudsk Larsen, head of investor relations in North America. The OTCQX designation addressed those concerns, and the company started trading there in 2007. ‘By segregating out high-quality companies, we kind of get away from the reputation of the Pink Sheets,’ Larsen says.”

Perhaps by using equivocal patter, business people hope that they won’t offend anyone. (Offending anyone is the third rail in our Post-Crisis world.)

True, if you wallpaper your business speech with weak, equivocal patter, you probably won’t offend anyone. But I can almost guarantee that people won’t remember you – or the points you are trying to make.

Perhaps this is the idea?

The Reluctant CEO Blogger

When Blogging, CEOs Should Do it Right or Not Do It at All

There’s been a lot of debate about whether CEOs should blog. The CEO’s main job is to allocate and optimize resources – including his own time – to meet the company’s goals. So, why don’t more companies apply this criterion to CEO blogs?

In my travels as a marketing consultant, I have encountered some CEOs who start blogging and using other social media merely because it's trendy - not because it's central to their business strategies.

The thinking usually goes something like this:

“The people at [my company] have finally persuaded me to share my ideas via social media. So, I'm now blogging about [subject]. Here goes."

In situations like those above, it seems as if the company has no clear goal or strategy – other than to jump on the blogging bandwagon. The company also does not have a well-thought-out plan: the CEO seems unsure about what to do, how to do it, or why he’s doing it. Precious resources – starting with the CEO’s time – are being allocated to a project of ill-defined value.

My opinion: this CEO should not be blogging.

In contrast, meet my long-time colleague and client Guy Hoffman. A former software entrepreneur, Guy is founder and CEO of U.S. HomeTeam, a company that offers new property and casualty (P&C) insurance products that make more profits for carriers and agents while providing more choice and value for consumers. The goal is to make everybody involved in the insurance transaction a winner – hence the use of “team” in the company’s name.

The P&C insurance industry being pretty resistant to innovation, Guy started his CEO blog, “Insurance Matters,” to help educate consumers, carriers, agents and service providers about the value of change. The blog talks about the importance of insurance in a good personal financial plan – something that most consumers don’t spend much time thinking about – and about the constraints of current products.

Equally important, the blog communicates the company’s Conscious Capitalism philosophy. It shares the company’s purpose and the culture it is building to achieve that purpose.

Guy writes the blog himself: it sounds like him and is authentic. He has a regular editorial schedule, and he SEOs his topics and blog headlines. His team promotes the content through the company’s social-media program (Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn).

The blog is attracting followers and fans, and it’s generating click-throughs – albeit a bit more slowly than Guy would like (not a surprise given the subject matter). However, Guy knows he’s creating a body of content that keeps his Web site fresh and the company well-represented in search engines, while having other potential uses. The blog is cathartic and stimulating for Guy, helping him create a dialog with the industry and shape his ideas for new products, markets and customers. In short: the blog is meeting his business goals.

Before sending your CEO off to blog, I recommend the following:

Have a goal. Know what you are trying to achieve, who you are trying to reach, and why.

Make an honest assessment of your CEO’s potential as a blogger. Does he have the time? Does he have the willingness? Can he and will he contribute substantively to the growth of a blog, which is a long-term proposition?

Have a plan, including:

• an editorial mission and guidelines, including what the CEO will and will not write about.

• an editorial calendar, defining how frequently you will publish. (If someone must edit or approve the CEO’s blog articles before publication, remember to build this additional time into your calendar.)

• an editorial “machine,” for identifying timely topics that the CEO may want to blog about. This machine might include Google alerts, a marketing assistant who monitors the Web and forwards news and articles, or both.

• a promotion plan, for promoting the blog on social and traditional media – including other blogs that your CEO may want to follow and comment on.

• a policy for how you will handle comments on the blog.

• a simple measurement program.

Have the first several posts written before the blog goes online. This will enable you to get off to a strong start while the blog gets established.

Remember that the best CEO blogs are those that reflect the personality of the CEO and the brand characteristics of the company – and bring both alive in a natural, authentic way.

If you don’t have a clear understanding of your goal and your ability to meet that goal, do not proceed.

Don’t Let Me-Marketing Wreck Your Brand

Guinness’ Message in a Bottle Falls Flat

My husband likes to have a beer before dinner. Although he’s a committed Corona man, once in a while he likes to try something different. Recently, he picked up a six-pack of Guinness Draught.

While taking his first sip, he froze. He heard something clinking inside the bottle. Rock? Used syringe?

As it turns out, it was neither. It was not product tampering; the object was put there intentionally by the company.

The object was a “rocket widget delivering you the same great taste of Guinness Draught” (the company’s words). Of course, silly us, we would have realized this had we read this information before opening and drinking the beer. After all, the information was printed on the bottle: sideways, on the side of bottle, in small, all-caps white type reversed out of brown – visible only through a magnifying glass. (The kind of print a company’s lawyers hope you won’t read.) To read the message at this point in his beer-drinking experience, my husband would have had to turn the bottle on its side – spilling its contents. Instead, he dumped the contents in the sink, hoping to be able to see the object.

After being relieved that my husband wasn’t poisoned, we were stunned and then angry. How could the company think that inserting a foreign object in a food product was okay? Moreover, how could Guinness – a brand that has been around since 1759, has a reputation for quality, and stands behind its products so much that its founder’s (trademarked) signature is proudly stamped on each bottle – think it was okay? What were the marketers thinking?

My answer: they weren’t thinking – at least about their customers.

Was the rocket widget part of some big advertising campaign, or some point of purchase promotion, or some new social media viral campaign? My husband may not be in Guinness’ target demographic: perhaps there is some group of consumers that think it’s cool to have pieces of plastic in their food to “fun it up?” Or was there a technical reason for the piece of plastic in the beer bottle? (We later found out that there was.) But if so, why isn’t this more clearly communicated on the bottle instead of buried in small type, in vague marketing copy? Particularly if the company is trying to attract new consumers to the brand, or bring former consumers back to the brand?

I don’t know. I don’t care. I am not intrigued. I am confused. I am angry. This is thoughtless marketing: the marketers thought more about themselves than about the customer experience. The marketer is indulging in “me-marketing,” or marketing to themselves.

And, as far as our family is concerned, the marketer frittered away 250 years of brand image. We will never buy or drink Guinness Draught again.

I don’t pretend to know what was in Guinness’ head when it created the marketing communications campaign for their new technical advance. Or how (or if) they tested the marketing copy before putting it onto the market, although I assume that they must have.

There’s an object (sorry) lesson here for the rest of us marketers: When designing marketing campaigns, it’s essential to put yourself in the customer’s place.

Here are four things to remember:

• Ask yourself what it’s like to be on the receiving end of the marketing experience – really. Better still, ask your friends or a stranger unfamiliar with your product.

• Test test test. If you’re a small business without a big marketing budget, test new marketing concepts on your current customers or on your Facebook and Twitter fans before rolling the concepts out to everyone. Customers and fans are usually flattered to be asked, and most will be sincere in their responses.

• Don’t assume that every customer is reading all your advertising or news releases, or following every opinion on social media, or receiving every marketing message within the nice, neat context of a campaign. Yes, some people want to be “in the know” and will “work” for your product. But many other people just want a beer. So, each marketing message has to stand on its own. This is certainly the case with something as dramatic as changing the actual product configuration.

• Finally, remember that every marketing technique should be consistent with the brand. If it isn’t consistent, you’re sending the wrong message to the market.

A PR Succession Strategy – Do You Have One?

Chief PR Person Leaving? Have a PR Plan, or Face the Consequences

Most companies have established communications policies they follow when important executives leave. For publicly held companies, the departure of certain executives may be material information. For any company, saying the right thing is just good business. An executive’s departure (or temporary illness) may affect the company’s reputation.

So, why do so many companies fail to have a similar policy in place for when their chief public relations person leaves? PR people come and go all the time – either voluntarily or involuntarily.

Your chief PR person is usually the front line to journalists, bloggers, industry analysts, and possibly financial analysts. His departure will be noticed – possibly more quickly than the departure of a senior executive. His departure also may send a message (accurate or inaccurate) about the company and its stability. Many reporters and journalists assume that the chief PR person has insights into subtle changes in the company, which may or may not figure into the departure. (For example: a good high-level PR person will spot a change in the CEO before anyone else does.)

And reporters often keep track, as one company I know learned the hard way. When the chief PR person left, the beat reporter remarked to the temporary replacement: “That’s the seventh PR director to have left in 10 years, you know.” The temporary replacement to the PR person was aware of only five – but the reporter was right.

So, it’s important to have a communications policy that kicks in when your chief PR person leaves, to both protect the company’s reputation and ensure continuity. (It’s usually good to check with Human Resources and your Legal Department when you develop your policy, as there may be contractual or other legal considerations.)

It’s critical to make a seamless and immediate transition to a successor – even if it’s only a temporary solution.

Keep in mind that many reporters routinely watch for clues of senior managers’ attitudes toward the Public Relations department – for example, senior managers who disdain, ignore or fear the PR department. Therefore, when a senior PR person leaves, sloppiness or delay in the transition may reveal or confirm those attitudes.

So, you need a policy and a communications plan to execute it. Here are five things to think about as you create your plan:

(1) Check All Connections
Change access (passwords) to the chief PR person’s company phone/cellphone, phonemail and email immediately, and forward to a successor. This should be done immediately, or by the end of the day at the latest. (In a company under fire, this is crucial – the chief PR person may get dozens of calls or emails every day.) If your PR person used a personal cellphone for business, ask that he change his voicemail message temporarily to refer company calls back to the company. The bottom line: Never leave the press hanging.

(2) Don’t Drop the Ball
Debrief your chief PR person about projects in progress. Identify what press opportunities or inquiries are in progress, and understand their status. Proactively call or email reporters on important inquiries to provide them with the new PR contact.

(3) Agree on a Statement
Just as you would for a departing senior executive, have a statement about the chief PR person’s departure that the departing chief PR person and the company can agree on. Provide it to the successor, the chief PR person’s manager and anyone else who may have to answer questions about the departure. Then stick to the script.

(4) Prepare for the Worst, Hope for the Best
Sometimes employment or consulting relationships end badly. Don’t be surprised if news about the PR person’s departure ends up in blogs, on social networks and even in the mainstream media – remember you are dealing with a communications professional who is both concerned with his personal brand and adept at using the media. Most PR professionals are ethical and governed by their profession’s code of conduct, but never rely on this alone.

(5) Don’t Drop Your Guard
Set up Google Alerts to monitor for the person’s name, and keep them in place for a reasonable amount of time. This way you will know immediately if any stories run, and can respond accordingly.

By having an established communications policy in place for your chief PR person’s departure, you can ensure continuity of service to the press and other important constituents. And you can usually prevent PR from becoming the story, instead of telling your story.