The trick is this. If you want to increase responsiveness to all of your marketing and sales campaigns, the trick is this: Humanize Yourself. Be a person in a world of automatons, faceless bots and girls at the cashier's of the local pharmacy chain who file their finger nails and talk on their mobile phones while you wait in line, juggling several differently-sized and oddly-shaped objects because you thought that you probably wouldn't need a cart. Be at least one half of a conversation with prospective or existing client.
Let your readers know there is a living, sensitive, caring, flesh-and-blood personality behind your efforts who isn't afraid to make mistakes, laugh at himself or herself, and to express joy or disappointment.
Some of it can be incorporated in your copy writing style, but the places where it counts most is at the end of your correspondence, with a self-deprecating or funny p.s. (nobody can resist reading a p.s. -- it's Human Nature), or in the form of an emoticon... a simple, childish but wonderful trick which acts to reduce your recipients' defenses and opens a gateway to let you in!
You can place emoticons at various places within your message, and they are not only Humanizing, but they serve as anchors to punctuate important points - they give your readers pause and an opportunity to stop and think about what you might be thinking.
Better still, you can use emoticons in emails, text messages, newsletter briefs, responses to customer inquiries, on service tickets, and even in those special customer service chat room (or IM) services where you can use the typewriter QWERTY keyboard on your transmitting apparatus (PC, Notebook, Razr, IPhone, Droid, tablet -- any of these things as new ones come out every week). It does not mean that you're not serious; in fact, used creatively, strategically placed emoticons can show that you really DO care, and you ARE serious.
Or not.
Here's what UserVoice had to say:
Make 84% more users happy simply by using emoticons.
It sounds stupid, right? Why should a silly little face make any difference in a support ticket? o_0
But the fact is: it does. Our research
shows that support tickets featuring emoticons are more likely to get
kudos from users.
Don’t think of it as a goofy affectation - think of it
as a communication tool.
Before you get frustrated and make a D:< face, swing by our blog post for more information. Once you factor in body language and user preconceptions, a little :) starts to make sense...
Enjoy, and Happy Halloween!
-Evan Hamilton
Head of Community, UserVoice
Head of Community, UserVoice
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I don't know this Hamilton character, but I'll bet that I could be him in a fight -- if he didn't get me smiling at my own foolishness first. The advice is great, and I would advise all my readers and colleagues at The Mad Marketing Tactics Blog to take it to heart ( <3 ) and to take it seriously :-(
Only kidding. Evan is quite right. Go with it! ;-)
You know....despite myself, I think that I'd like this fellow Evan Hamilton although we've never met.
EMOTICON TOOLS, LISTS AND SITES OF INTEREST
Please have a look at these emoticon-infested...er, ah... emoticon-rich sites:
Text-Based Emoticons
http://pc.net/emoticons/
MSN Messenger Emoticons
http://messenger.msn.com/Resource/Emoticons.aspx
Free App for iPhone And Other Apple-Based Tools To Add Emoticons To Your Mails And Texts
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/emoticons/id354870264?mt=8
The Complete List Of Downloadable Cool Smileys
http://www.cool-smileys.com/text-emoticons
Downloadable Copy And Paste Web Smileys (Code Snippets)
http://www.websmileys.com/
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Douglas E Castle
p.s. This Halloween I'm thinking of dressing up as an adult and fooling everyone...
p.p.s. It's true: "Sometimes the simplest things are the most elusive and the most brilliant."
-- Douglas
#MadMarketing
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