How do you communicate passion?

Superlatives, lots of exclamation marks, big promises in huge text, all-caps and the like might have worked at one time but today's prospective clients will see through that in a jiffy.

Your marketing message is just that - a message - a story you tell the people who don't know you yet. You're communicating your potential to help them. Does it matter how you do this? Of course.

More important though is the story you "tell" your clients through your actions. It's all fine and good to say you're the best, but if you can't back up your claims, you'll be found out and dumped in due course.

The better way to communicate passion is to have your clients do that for you. They'll only do it when you've delighted them. Make them WANT to tell others how great you really are and let their passion speak for you.

This is why I'm so keen on testimonials. We just launched a major website revision for Island 10 Fishing Lodge and an important part of the site were the video and written testimonials. All I did was ask clients to tell me about their experience at Island 10 and they said such nice things about the place the owner blushed when he saw the footage.

If you're looking for an edge in your marketing, look to your customers first. If you're delighting them, they'll be happy to evangelize about you. If they're not, perhaps you'll want to consider fixing what's broken.

What the heck is a passioneer?

Great question. Thanks for asking.

We're not pioneers - there are lots of people who've used the tools we use before.

We're not engineers - did you know some of those people have NO personalities?

We're not Mouseketeers - I hate the ear thing.

We're not Marketeers - that's Carrie's thing.

We're Passioneers - and in our definition, a Passioneer is: one who works with companies and organizations to infuse Passion and Joy into their work, bring out their best and communicate their Passion powerfully and effectively to the people who will care the most.

It's about reaching your target audience and sharing with them your enthusiasm about the compelling reasons you do what you do. By doing so, you will strengthen the bonds of your online community and move closer to attaining your online goals.

A translation for cynics: we're internet marketers who say we have a different approach than the other internet marketing companies in the marketplace.

I'm proud to be a passioneer. Are you the one in your business?

Better Isn't Better When . . .

• nobody knows about it;
• the "betterness" isn't obvious;
• the "betterness" isn't communicated.

A story from a client about two organizations in his industry.

Organization #1 is a non-profit, has high standards and to achieve certification, you need to demonstrate extensive knowledge and put in a couple of years of study.

Organization #2 is a for-profit company that will certify anyone who can pass the organization's online certification test. It was demonstrated on television that a 12-year old with no industry knowledge could pass the test. The certification therefore requires next-to-no industry knowledge and virtually no time investment.

#1 has a small marketing budget due to its small membership. #2 has a large marketing budget because of its large membership.

To make things more interesting, because of government regulations, #1 can not say anything overtly bad about #2.

Despite the fact that individuals certified by #1 are arguably "better" than those certified by #2, the general public doesn't know that. The marketing of #2 is far superior to #1's efforts, so #1 is generally ignored.

Imagine having a root canal performed by person with no training. Ouch - with LOTS more ouches to come.

Imagine the same root canal performed by a professional dental surgeon. Ouch - but a much better probable outcome.

If masses of under-qualified individuals marketed dental surgery better than professional dental surgeons, which would you choose? Would you still choose the professional? Not doing so would be ridiculous. But what if you couldn't tell which was which? That would be scary.

Yet every day, consumers choose companies that have an industry certification that is essentially meaningless, largely because #2's better marketing drowns out the efforts of #1, which has a better "product".

Organization #1 has a serious problem - and it's primarily a marketing issue. More awareness. More focus on creating a compelling story on WHY their certification is better and why, by extension, their certified members are the best in the industry.

The good news: things can change - if organization #1 and its members get passionate about what they do.

They need to tell a better story, tell it to more people, and tell it because they really CARE. Who cares more - the person with several years training and the certification that demonstrates their capability to do the best possible job or a person who took an online course that virtually anyone could pass?

The sad thing is, the story I've told could describe ANY organization in any unregulated industry. Ignorant buyers - beware.