Like every company, it has a persuasive story to tell. But MessageMedia is failing to tell it
WHAT AN IRONY, that a company like MessageMedia Inc., devoted to helping its Internet clients do a better job of selling online, does such a poor job of selling itself in print.
The ad it did recently that I’ve chosen for this issue’s makeover shows just a giant white fingerprint against a black background, with a dozen words whirling in the whorl: “One-of-a-kind e-messaging solutions, for your one-of-a-kind customer.” That’s all.
I’m not able to judge its value as a work of art. But if an Andy Warhol silk-screen print of a Marilyn Monroe photo is worth umpty-million dollars, I’d say a 6-foot blow-up of this fingerprint on a gallery wall might go for at least $5,000.
But as an ad for MessageMedia’s services, for my money it’s really not worth very much at all.
Like every company, it has a persuasive story to tell. (If it doesn’t, it shouldn’t be in business.) But MessageMedia is failing to tell it.
I’ll grant that it’s hard to keep B-to-B advertising of service firms like this from becoming very dry and abstract.
But one simple, timeless technique for getting around this is just to tell a story. A claim suddenly becomes a fact once you prove it with a story.
Another way to prove your claim is to point out who your customers are. The more prestigious your customers, the more impressive this is. If they chose your firm, you must be good. And if you have favorable quotes from your customers? Even better.
MessageMedia has the stories. It has the customers. It has the quotes. Why not use them?
Its list of clients includes such companies as Cisco Systems, E*Trade, Intuit, Martha Stewart, Reader’s Digest, SmartMoney, Sony Music, Toshiba, Wachovia Bank, and Countrywide Home Loans.
Wow. Why hide those lights under a bushel?
I found one of the clients, Countrywide, featured on MessageMedia’s Web site. Digging a little further, I found that Countrywide is a powerful example of clicks-and-bricks marketing. It seems to do everything right. It’s developed a site for borrowers that’s a wonderful example of succeeding through customer service.
But Countrywide has two markets — the borrowers themselves and real estate agents. If Countrywide can get realtors to recommend it first, that gives it a huge edge.
So Countrywide created a second Web site — Realtor Advantage — just for realtors, and filled it with attractive service features. But how to get the realtors to keep coming back? That’s where MessageMedia comes in.
Countrywide decided to e-mail a monthly newsletter as a follow-up to Realtor Advantage visitors, and chose MessageMedia to help it develop and deliver the newsletter. Each issue contains ideas and features to help the realtors, and links to bring them back to the site. Every time a new issue is sent out, Web traffic at Realtor Advantage doubles. Isn’t that a story worth telling?
So in my makeover headline and subhead, I feature the Countrywide story. Notice the use of the word “we.” The ad doesn’t just say, “They achieved something wonderful,” it’s saying, “We helped them achieve something wonderful.” So an instant connection is made between the success story and the advertiser.
The photo of a happy realtor and its caption emotionally reinforces the idea of customer satisfaction. It also makes the ad more inviting — people like to look at pictures of people.
The body copy tells the success story and MessageMedia’s part in it. Then it presents a good MessageMedia customer testimonial and an impressive list of some of its clients.
The copy in the box indicates that this is just one of many such successes that MessageMedia has achieved for its clients, and hints that more will be forthcoming in an ad series.
Now, isn’t that better than just a great big fingerprint?
THOMAS L. COLLINS, co-founder and first creative director of Rapp & Collins and co-author with Stan Rapp of four books on marketing, is currently an independent marketing consultant and copywriter in Manhattan.
To send your comments, opinions or suggestions, write me at 424 West End Ave., #11-B, New York, NY 10024, or e-mail me at tomlyle@rcn.com.
