Hi there.
Welcome to November! Only one month to go before Detty December and a break from work, phew. Counting down the days till then.
Let's dive into this month!
đ1 Interesting Thing
Last month, Enterscale organised a Creatorsâ Day Out event for Disha and that opened my eyes to quite a few things. With so many things being virtual these days, itâs easy to forget the importance of physical events.
We highlighted some of the key takeaways from the event in this post, but Iâll mention two of them here:
Physical events let you sit face-to-face with real users and have conversations with them. As someone who has held virtual user interviews in the past, I can tell you that the conversations in physical events feel so much richer because people are speaking naturally and theyâre not just interacting with you, but with other users. During the event, we got validation for some of the ideas we had, heard feature recommendations from real users, and got more insight into how exactly users used the product and what impact it had on their day-to-day lives. This feedback had relevance for all teams â engineering, marketing, product, customer support, you name it.
Physical events let you build a stronger community around your product. The people who get invited to physical events often become your superfans because they feel valued and loved. After the event, we saw a huge difference in the way the attendees engaged with us on social media and the way we engaged with them because we had had previous in-person conversations and felt an emotional connection. These users are also more likely to become brand advocates â we saw people posting about Disha unprovoked on social media and asking other people to join. People will always believe other people over brands so events are a great way to invest in your trust bank and build deeper loyalty.
Of course, physical events are more expensive than virtual ones, so the scale and frequency of your events will differ based on the size of your business. Your events donât have to be super fancy â you can sit a few users in a coffee shop, play some games, and have candid conversations.
đ3 Insights
#1. Get deeper insights with customer storytelling
One of the best things about the Disha event was being able to listen to how users actually use the product and what impact it had on their lives.
We often make the mistake of asking for usersâ feedback or opinions, rather than asking about their stories. When youâre conducting user research, itâs more useful to ask questions about how users use your product in their regular day-to-day lives, rather than asking what they love about your product.
When youâre formulating questions to ask your users, check to see if youâre asking questions that encourage them to tell you stories. Instead of asking what they love about your product, ask them to give an example of a time your product saved them money, made them money, saved them time, saved their lives, etc.
Cowrywise is an example of a brand that is doing a great job with customer storytelling. Hereâs an example. In their Money Chronicles, they ask questions like:
âWhat has changed for your finances since youâve been on Cowrywise?â
âHave you met or surpassed any financial goals since using Cowrywise? Tell us about itâ
âWhat would you say to someone whoâs stalling to begin using Cowrywise?â
#2. Use subtitles in video content
This one is pretty straightforward. Thereâs so much research around how users on social media (particularly Instagram and Facebook) watch video content and ads with the sound turned off that I found it hard to pick a single one to link to here. Iâll just let the data speak for itself.
From Verizon Media:
â69% of people report viewing of videos without sound [when] in public placesâ
â80% of people say they are more likely to watch an entire video when captions are availableâ
â80% of people who use captions arenât deaf or hard of hearingâ
â37% of video viewers report captioning encourages them to turn sound on because it made them more interested in the videoâ
From Chatterblast:
âMost people preferred sound off (31.59% with sound on vs. 68.41% with sound off)â
From Instapageâs silent video test:
âOnly 12% of people who view Instapage videos turn the sound onâ
âCTA clicks fell by 26% when captions were removedâ
âAverage total view time was 5% higher on the variation with captions, and it was watched by 3% more viewersâ
Enough said.
#3. Grammar is different on the internet
One of the most interesting phenomena Iâve observed on social media is how seemingly-basic concepts like punctuation and sentence case affect perception of tone on the internet. This is important for marketers who need to communicate specific brand voices and tones on social media.
content that is written in small caps throughout is perceived as non-threatening, open, and witty. however, this only applies to short-form content (e.g. Tweets & WhatsApp messages). when small caps are used throughout in more long-form content, content becomes hard to read. this paragraph is an example.
If your brand has a more witty, light-hearted tone (like Netflix), tweeting in small caps from time to time might help get that tone across.
ON THE OTHER HAND, CONTENT THAT IS WRITTEN IN ALL CAPS IS PERCEIVED AS LOUD AND SHOUTY. However, when only a few TEXTS are written in ALL CAPS, you call more attention to them, so you can use all caps to EMPHASIZE important words in your sentence.
You can use all caps in short-form posts to show excitement or you can highlight important words with all-caps to emphasize your point. Netflix does this on Twitter by writing names of their shows in all-caps.
Correct punctuation (especially full stops) in one-on-one conversation reads as threatening or passive-aggressive and people take them as an indicator of your mood and tone. When you end virtual conversations with full stops, especially for single-sentence messages, recipients will often perceive that you are angry or displeased with them. If you want to portray openness in your responses to customersâ messages (especially on WhatsApp), you could try ending sentences without fullstops when you send shorter messages.
Emojis are often used to soften messages. When people say things that might otherwise be perceived as rude or that might indicate anger or displeasure, they will often add emojis at the end of their sentences to add some levity and soften the blow.
People often need to qualify messages with repetition or add-ons to show sincerity. Thatâs why simply responding âThank youâ or âThanksâ to a compliment online is often not enough. People perceive more sincerity from you if you instead say âthank youuuâ âthanksss" or âthank you so muchâ. You can also add a heart emoji to pack an extra punch.
Iâll use an example to bring this home. Think about how the tone in these sentences feel different:
âyou know thatâs not what we saidâ
âyou KNOW thatâs not what we saidâ
âYOU KNOW THATâS NOT WHAT WE SAIDâ
âYou know thatâs not what we said.â
âYou know thatâs not what we saidđâ
âĄ5 Pieces of Marketing
#1. This product copy by Monsterđđ˝
#2. This Add Existing Account page by Twitterđđ˝
#3. This pop-up by Grammarly for Gmailđđ˝
#4. This error page from Dashthisđđ˝
#5. This new feature by Cowrywiseđđ˝
A little about you
Iâm on a quest to know more about my subscribers, so every month, Iâll have a random question here to help me know a little about you. Donât worry, itâs completely anonymous. This monthâs question:
What I Read This Month
Why We Stopped Giving Money as Referral Bonus on Cowrywise - An important lesson for anyone building a referral system in Nigeria.
The Optimal Free Trial Length - Read this if you run a subscription-based SaaS and are trying to decide on the best free trial length.
Why Patreon Is Struggling - Especially important if you work in the creator economy and want to avoid making the same mistakes Patreon did.
Make people want to âgrabâ your product - Very useful data-backed insight about how a simple shift in product positioning in photography can increase conversions.
5-Bit Fridayâs: #1 - How They Growâs new weekly column has 5 extremely useful snackable takeaways from the startup/tech universe.
What is the exact optimal time to publish? - Maybe Iâll make Marketing For Geekâs newsletters more consistentđ.