Marketing Messaging

It is our job as marketers to communicate sometimes complex information, to convey strategies that help people make decisions, and to share it all in an entertaining way. Stories aren’t widgets and marketing isn’t always predictable. We must draw on the insights about our audiences, the buyers, and what our goals are. Some of these TED Talks may not be from the past year, but these are timeless pieces of inspiration about those interactions with some great takeaways. They address the  simple things that make up the complexity of people and their relationships. Use these TED Talks for engagement as they continue to inspire creativity, challenge you, and encourage personalization.

If you’re looking for #MondayMotivation, #TransformationTuesday, #WednesdayWisdom, #ThursdayThoughts, or #FridayFeeling nuggets, tap into these 10 TED Talks selected just for you.

How to Start a Movement

With help from some surprising footage, Derek Sivers explains how movements really get started. (Hint: it takes two.) It takes a leader to start and then a collection of followers which you need to nurture in order to keep them. Leadership is over glorified, but it’s the followers that transform. Have the courage to show others how to follow. 3 minutes, 9 seconds.

404, the Story of a Page Not Found

A Marketer’s worst nightmare is not being found. If your website is all of a sudden not found, then your credibility can suffer. Nobody wants to see the “404: Page Not Found.” But as Renny Gleeson shows us, while he runs through a slideshow of creative and funny 404 pages, every error is really a chance to build a better relationship. Focus on what you are, don’t worry about what you are not, and remember you must be found. Renny emphasizes, “Little things, done right, matter. Well-designed moments build brands. A simple mistake can tell me what you aren’t. Or remind me why I love you.” 4 minutes, 7 seconds.

Why Videos Go Viral 

Kevin Allocca is head of culture and trends at YouTube, and he has deep thoughts about silly web video. In this talk from TEDYouth, he shares the four reasons a video goes viral. Tastemakers, like celebrities and thought leaders, introduce us to new and interesting things. Communities form and share things that resonate within their circles. Then there’s the participation and “unexpected” factor. 7 minutes, 20 seconds.

What Physics Taught Me About Marketing

Maybe physics and marketing don’t have a lot in common (in fact most of us went into marketing to avoid physics), but you have to be able to communicate more intricate information and that’s where Don Cobley hits the intersections with ease. Most of us in marketing come from different backgrounds before we find our home. There are parallels in marketing, just like in physics as Don points out,“No matter how much you’ve invested in your brand, one bad week can undermine decades of good work so be really careful to avoid the screw-ups that can undermine your brand.” 7 minutes, 38 seconds.

10 Ways to Have a Better Conversation

When your job hinges on how well you talk to people, you learn a lot about how to have conversations — and that most of us don’t do it very well. Celeste Headlee has worked as a radio host for decades and knows the ingredients of a great conversation: honesty, brevity, clarity and a healthy amount of listening. May 2015. 11 minutes, 44 seconds.

Why You Should Talk to Strangers

“When you talk to strangers, you’re making beautiful interruptions into the expected narrative of your daily life — and theirs,” says Kio Stark. “For a minute, I felt like my existence as a person, was noticed.” In this delightful talk, Stark explores the overlooked benefits of pushing past our default discomfort when it comes to strangers and embracing those fleeting but profoundly beautiful moments of genuine connection. February 2016. 11 minutes, 52 seconds.

How to Make Choosing Easier 

We all want customized experiences and products — but when faced with 700 options, consumers freeze up. With fascinating new research, Sheena Lyengar demonstrates how businesses (and others) can improve the experience of choosing. Her 4 key tips: cut, concretize, categorize, and condition. 16 minutes, 5 seconds.

How to Get Your Ideas to Spread

Ideas that spread, win! How do you touch people so they remember your brand and what you stand for? Figure out what people want. In a world of too many options and too little time, our obvious choice is to just ignore the ordinary stuff. Marketing guru Seth Godin spells out why, when it comes to getting our attention, bad or bizarre ideas are more successful than boring ones. Design is free when you bring things to scale and you must be remarkable. A classic TED Talk. 17 minutes, 1 second.

Choice, Happiness, and Spaghetti Sauce

“Tipping Point” author Malcolm Gladwell* gets inside the food industry’s pursuit of the perfect spaghetti sauce — and makes a larger argument about the nature of choice and happiness. By being aware of these data points, we can appeal to our customers’ feelings and needs. A classic TED Talk. 17 minutes, 30 seconds.

*Haven’t heard of Malcolm Gladwell? Check out his books, Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking and Tipping Point: How Little Things Make a Big Difference. They’re must reads.

The Clues to a Great Story

Want to hear a TED Talk with funny accents, strong narratives and amusement that will catch you off guard with jokes? Filmmaker Andrew Stanton (“Toy Story,” “WALL-E”) shares what he knows about storytelling — starting at the end and working back to the beginning. Make people care and ensure that your content is engaging. (Note: Contains an instance of graphic language.)  February 2012. 19 minutes,16 seconds.

Keep the Talks Going

Which talks resonate the most with you? Be sure to share your favorite from this list on social. See one that isn’t listed here? Share it in the comments.

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A Front-Row Seat to Paradigm Shifts

As a technology integrator, MR2 Solutions has had a front row seat to the paradigm shifts occurring in today’s IT landscape. We’re watching rapidly evolving technologies, such as virtualization, the software-defined data center, hyper-convergence and Cloud, really reshape IT environments – along with the role of IT professionals.

It’s no longer enough to share basic information or even demonstrate stand-alone IT solutions. Our customers and prospects need more comprehensive consulting than ever before. It’s our job to provide in-depth strategic insight into how new IT solutions will work within their established infrastructures. They also require detailed information to make informed technology decisions that address today’s business needs, while staying at least one step ahead of tomorrow’s IT challenges.

We have to be mindful of the fact that our audience is incredibly time- and resource-constrained. Today’s IT professionals are on the front lines of most businesses. They are constantly putting out fires and being tasked to do much more with less. They’re expected to address emergencies occurring now and see what technologies are on that horizon that they can adopt to help the business grow and innovate, all while staying within budget.

To compete for, capture and keep their attention involves maintaining a healthy database of qualified leads along with in-depth educational materials and carefully planned marketing outreach. If we’re interrupting their day, we better be providing value. That means we need more support from our suppliers. Thankfully, our strategic partner SimpliVity understands all of these challenges and has provided us with access to the Zift Solutions platform.

The Same Old Approach Doesn’t Work in Today’s IT World

Prior to Zift, we were doing a lot of field marketing events as a means of lead generation. We planned lunch-and-learns, webinars, movies, sporting events and more, many of which were quite successful. However, it was impossible to ignore the sales and marketing inefficiencies.

We could only effectively engage a small portion of attendees before and after an event, and had only a few weeks to follow up. If their interest wasn’t fairly immediate, we had no easy way to maintain contact after events and we had limited visibility into what interested prospects.

We now have SimpliVity-provided pre-packaged campaigns that we can easily customize and brand as our own through Zift. We look like experts from the start and are sharing in-depth, educational content with potential clients. We can see exactly what prospects are clicking on and tap into what interests them, be it a white paper on hyper-convergence or a data sheet on cloud services. We’re much more proactive with prospects as we have more visibility into their behavior along with an automated way to circle back and provide value-added, educational assets to continue, and deepen, the conversation.

Using Zift has strengthened our outreach along with our SimpliVity partnership. Of course, integrating any new tool into a sales process takes time. For those just getting started with Zift or considering Channel Marketing & Management (CMM) tools, I encourage you to really learn more about what these powerful solutions can do for your organization. You can start by reading MR2’s own success story to see how we’ve transformed own marketing and sales processes. Then, feel free to reach out and ask questions in the comments section below.

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