Communications

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Vision Leaks, Part IV

Posted by on 22 Apr 2008 | Tagged as: Communications, thoughts on church, thoughts on life.

This reminds me of what I previously blogged about here, here, here and here.

2 Peter 1:12-13 (NIV):

So I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you now have. I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body.

Preconceived Notions, Part 2

Posted by on 12 Feb 2008 | Tagged as: Communications

In Part 1, I talked about slimeball lawyers.
In Part 2, we tackle the badgering car salesmen.

When you think of a car salesman…you have preconceived notions. You are probably very selective of who you would buy a car from. Car Salesman are known for being high pressure, rude and downright badgery (yeah, i made that word up).

But enter the Johnson family of car dealerships. Instead of playing along with the idea that all salesman are slimeball badgers, they played into the preconceived notions of people to create a rocking great car ad. And slowly, they are changing the notion people have about Johnson dealerships.

Here are some of their ads:

My personal favorite, I think, ‘wiggle room’:

Several ads in one video:

So the question is, how are you playing in to the preconceived notions about you? Your job? Your _________?

Preconceived Notions, Part 1

Posted by on 12 Feb 2008 | Tagged as: Communications, my life.

Today while I was brushing my teeth, I noticed a commercial on television. The guy was one of those slimeball lawyers. He was talking about medical mistakes, and he said something like:

Medical mistakes are one of the leading causes of death in America. If you […] have been a victim of a medical mistake, call [the slimeballs] at 1.800.SLIME-BALL

Did you get that? If you died as a result of something, go ahead and call the slimeballs.

What a slimeball.
Don’t be a slimeball.

But, here is what I want to leave you with today. People have preconceived notions about you, your job and your church. What do you do with those? Unless you’re careful, you play right in to those preconceived notions, and simply reinforce people’s opinions.
Instead of playing in to the slimeball lawyer notion, couldn’t they have gone about this a different way?

Telemarketers…

Posted by on 04 Jan 2008 | Tagged as: Communications

I just got off the phone with a telemarketer. Here’s a brief excerpt from the conversation:

T: I just need to verify some information, okay?
N:What is this for?
T: Yes, Your local Yellow Pages.
N: What Yellow Pages?
T: Yes, Your local Yellow Pages.
N: Where will this appear?
T: Yes, Your local Yellow Pages.
N: Will this appear on a website?
T: If you sign up for the web [unintelligible], it will, but if not, it will appear in print for your Yellow Pages.
N: What yellow pages?
T: Your local Yellow Pages.
N: What is the name of the company?
T: Yes, [unintelligible] Yellow Pages.
N: That’s not my local yellow pages. I work with local sales reps, and I’ve never heard of your company.
T: Yes, it is your local Yellow Pages.
N: No, not interested.
T: This is your local Yellow Pages.

I’m not exaggerating, either. actually, i think I left off a couple ‘Yes, your local Yellow Pages’ responses…
Don’t be like this, please.

Repeat.

Posted by on 04 Jan 2008 | Tagged as: Communications, thoughts on life.

I have a new Email signature I’ve been using for about two weeks. I think I found this quote from Seth Godin, if memory serves me correct (and it normally does).

Repeat yourself until everyone is annoyed but your accountant.
-Jay Levinson

This reminds me of something Andy Stanley has said:

Vision Leaks.

How often to give vision to those around you? Can people figure out what you want, why you want it? Do you provide your spouse/dating partner vision for your relationship? Are you doing marriage/dating ‘aimlessly’? Does your spouse think you are? Remember, vision leaks, so repeat yourself until everyone is annoyed…

Winter Weather Driving People to the Web.

Posted by on 12 Dec 2007 | Tagged as: Communications, Tech Stuff.

This past weekend, the winter weather outside was simply horrible!

When I arrived at New Hope at 8:25 a.m., the weather wasn’t too bad. It was freezing rain a bit, but nothing too bad. At 9:30, I walked outside to find 1/4″ ice on my car, and the sidewalks very slick from ice.

The freezing rain continued to worsen as the morning progressed.

Off and on over the past two months, we have told our people at New Hope they can find out if we cancel a service by logging on to NewHope.in or calling in to the office and listen to the recorded greeting, and I honestly wondered what the response rate would be to our driving people to the website.
Well, on Sunday, our website traffic was up 450% of the daily average for the previous 30 days. In fact, traffic was more than twice as high as our highest day of traffic ever, which was a peak from an invite drive we did earlier this year.

So…driving people to the website worked. I was very thrilled to know people respond when we drive them to the website.
Yes! I would like to move toward driving people more to the web for even more information, and I think our gathered data confirms people are willing to go to the web for their info…

Did any of my readers here log on to check the status this weekend?

Vision Leaks.

Posted by on 26 Jul 2007 | Tagged as: churches on the ball., Communications

Vision leaks.
– Andy Stanley

Just because someone bought into a vision at one time, it does not mean they will always remain in tune with that vision, because vision leaks. The excitement slows down, and eventually become frustration.

It is impossible to present the vision too frequently. Vision large and visions for smaller segments of the whole as well.

You can’t share the vision enough. Try it.

McDonalds on Gofbot.com

Posted by on 04 Jul 2007 | Tagged as: Communications, random.

I was just watching television, and saw a very unique commercial for gofbot.com, which was supposed to be the next big thing–“Bigger than a Big Mac”.
The commercial showed many people passing along the so-thought viral idea of gofbot.com, saying it’s supposed to be “bigger than a Big Mac.”
At the end of the commercial, it shows the founders checking the site to see how many visitors they had…Total: 0000003.

Watch the commercial now:

And then the tag, ‘Nothing is bigger than a Big Mac.’ It was a McDonalds commercial after all. So I thought to myself, I wonder what this site is really?
So i went to gofbot.com, and it was the exact screen the founders saw when they checked how many visitors they had (which was very cool), only this time, it was Total: 0000004. Very Cleaver! My first thought was actually, ‘Whoa! i was the first person to click this after the commercial aired.’ that thought lasted about 2 seconds. This was all very cool.

So i clicked to see where it would take me (i assumed to a McDonald’s page), and i got this link: http://www.mcdonalds.com/burgers%20

It is a broken link! How crappy is that? Hundreds of thousands of dollars, and they can’t get a little link correct? (if you remove the ‘%20’ from the end of the URL, it works properly–in layman’s terms, some web guy added one extra space before he saved it!).

Send the extra 30 seconds and $5 actually testing your products. You’ll be glad you did.

EDIT: Just so people will stop telling me otherwise, I KNOW THEY FIXED THE BAD LINK SHORTLY AFTER I POSTED THIS!

Time to stop using PowerPoint?

Posted by on 25 Jun 2007 | Tagged as: Communications, New Hope stuff.

PowerPoint: Waste bin
I’ve been holding this one in for a couple of months. But I wanted to share it now. Presentation Zen asks a great question: Is it finally time to ditch PowerPoint?
Well, is it?

I stopped doing design in PowerPoint (PPT) about three years ago. As i watched presentations, I became bored. They were annoying. Fairly disgusting, really. I now develop everything possible in Photoshop, utilizing its great advanced image editing capabilities. I do use PPT to display the images, but only as a means of display. PPT is a great display tool if the slides are properly designed.

This is a great read, and asks some great questions. Do you have any thoughts on PPT?

Hamburger.

Posted by on 25 Jun 2007 | Tagged as: Communications

hamburgerEver wonder why people at McDonald’s do not greet you with, “Hello, what are you going to buy from me today?”

Instead, it is, “Hello, what can I get for you?”

Do you see the difference? The first is about me. (you buy from me), the second, is all about you.

People don’t care about you (sorry). They care about themselves. If you want to help get people from point A to point B, it has to be for their own benefit, not yours. In their timing. On their schedule. On their terms.

Church Marketing via Doughnuts?

Posted by on 21 Jun 2007 | Tagged as: Communications

The following in an excerpt (a complete ‘chapter,’ actually) from Seth Godin’s Small is the New Big:

Today’s New York Times reports that the Radiant Church in Surprise, Arizona spends $16,000 a year on Krispy Kreme doughnuts.
The health risks aside, this is smart marketing. (And is there anything wrong with a church doing marketing? Churches have always done marketing.)
Marketing doesn’t mean advertising.

What are you doing to aid your church in marketing? Even a smile is marketing. Do you smile?
ADDENDUM: not smiling is marketing, too!

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