Stop Kanye'ing Your Audience

Since the early 2000s, we have known people don't like pop-ups ... yet they're still being used. "I know you're trying to leave my site, but HEY! Look at this!" "Don't go! Here's more stuff you don't want!" Or the pop-ups appear before you even see the content you thought you wanted to see. [caption id="attachment_25931" align="aligncenter" width="520"] Slide image courtesy of Wil Reynolds and C3 (it's so perfect).[/caption] Say what? The request to "stop Kanye'ing your audience" was one of the many things Wil Reynolds of SEER Interactive asked of his audience during the keynote, "The Ranking Farce — and What You Should Do About It" on Day 1 of C3, hosted by Conductor on Oct. 28-29. What does he mean? Well, remember what happened during the 2009 MTV Music Awards? Taylor Swift won for the Best Female Video, and during her acceptance speech, Kanye came up on the stage and said: “Yo Taylor, I’m really happy for you, Imma let you finish but Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time … one of the best videos of all time!” He took the mic out of her hand, made his statement, then MTV cut to commercial. Ms. Swift did not get to finish (though when Beyonce won for Video of the Year, she did invite Taylor up to finish her acceptance). Marketers are doing this, and not just with pop-ups. Many are more concerned with telling the customers what they need and how they should buy it, instead of listening and just letting them finish. Wil explained that customers are interested in experiences that "Make me a better me." "People don't buy products, they buy better versions of themselves ..." But marketers Kanye their customers there, too. The focus stops short on the product, or the No. 1 ranking on a search engine results page (SERP). But as the slide above shows, your business isn't selling your product, it's selling the experience your product gives the customer to be better. A great example Wil gave was how Serious Eats' guide to grilling steaks improved his steak grilling game, made him smarter about steak cuts, techniques, etc., and helped him impress friends and family. So, when the site showed products from affiliates — like a grill or charcoal chimney — he wasn't put off by it because Serious Eats had already earned his trust. "Content levels me up," he explained So ask yourself: Is your content leveling people up? Or are you Kanye'ing them with pop-ups they don't want, sales pushes they don't need and no content that helps them be the best version of themselves. Because if you are, another marketer is going to be the Beyonce to your Taylor Swift customer. Do yourself a favor: The awesome folks at Conductor have made the C3 keynote videos available, so check out Wil's right here: https://youtu.be/2w-eI27qbPs And I dare you to not get a little marketing crush on him and his mad presentation skills.

CRM

Stop Kanye'ing Your Audience

Melissa Ward

About

Subscriptions

Events

Publications

WORK SMARTER - LEARN, GROW AND BE INSPIRED.

Subscribe today!

Melissa Ward