A few months ago, I was chatting to a client about possible emails for a marketing campaign.

He was unsure which was the best one. He had three choices, and couldn’t decide. And yet the answer was staring him in the face.

All three.

Take his prospect list, lop off a sample, divide the lopped bit into three equal parts. Then send out one email to each part. Whichever works best is the one you go with.

Encouraged by the results, he decided to take it one step farther. Rather than send this email to the remainder of the list, he had me write three variations on it. Then, he lopped off another bit, and split it into three again.

Even more encouraging.

The results were stellar for one, and average for the other two. So the stellar email was the one that eventually went out, with the best response he’s had in a long time.

And yet it wasn’t the obvious choice.

In fact, I know if he or I had seen it on Day 1, we’d both have said it didn’t stand  a chance of success. It wasn’t assertive enough, didn’t have a killer offer, and was slightly left-of-centre. We’d have dismissed it as an also-ran.

And we’d have been wrong.

But the only way of getting to the right answer was by trying out different solutions, and daring to fail. On a small scale, of course. Then, we succeeded – on a much bigger one.

Trial and error was at the heart of Tim Harford’s recent talk at TED Global in Edinburgh.

Harford is the fresh-faced economist who makes numbers sexy and explains the realities behind dry statistics in an engaging way.

It was thanks to him that I learned last year about ‘vanity sizing’ of jeans – where waist measurements are deliberately understated, so you think you’re thinner than you are.

In a world obsessed with certainty, and desperate to be right, Harford makes an eloquent plea for a little humility. If we admit we don’t know, it makes it easier to find out. If we stop trying to nail everything down and open our minds up to other outcomes, problems often magically fall away.

Trial, error and the God complex is, as all TED talks are, limited to 18 minutes, and Tim comes in right on schedule. (Note the countdown clock at his feet, by the way. Enough to give even the most assured presenter the jitters.)

If you’re reading in an email, click here to view the video.

And if you want to find out more about jeans that flatter the fatter, check out Tim’s programme More or Less on the the BBC Radio 4 website.

Quick question: what’s the symbol above?

If like me, and like Kathyrn Schulz, you thought it was a Chinese character, think again.

Schulz is a journalist, author and public speaker, and the world’s leading ‘wrongologist’. She’s spent the last five years looking at why we misunderstand the signs around us (see above) and why we do everything we can to avoid thinking about being wrong.

Her TED talk ‘On being wrong’ will get you thinking about whether you’re on the right path, and whether you really know what you think you do.

It’s so easy, when you’re launching a campaign, weighing up options or analysing results, to see what you want to see.

We all do it.

Often, we’ve made up our minds before we even examine the evidence. We then fit the facts to our preconceptions. That’s why just this week, now that we’re back to the usual chilly April weather after last week’s unseasonal summer-like temperatures, people are still walking around in shorts and t-shirts.

Schulz’s thought-provoking presentation ranges from Wily E. Coyote (of Road Runner fame) to the surgeon at Beth Israel hospital in Boston who operated on the wrong leg, from Hosni Mubarak to St Augustine.

If, as I do, you like being right and hate being wrong (or rather, as Schulz correctly points out, realising you’re wrong) you have to watch this.

Trust me. I’m right on this one.

(If you’re reading this in an email, click here to see the video.)

Find out more:

• Right is might: Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error by Kathryn Schulz at Amazon.co.uk.

Related posts:

1. When things go wrong, do you get it right?
2. More is better – right?

Three unrelated themes this time.

Except they’re not.

They all take something that’s ‘obvious’ and turn it on its head. They’re about coming at something from a different angle, and solving a problem creatively.

1. Brick in the wall

It’s three whole years since I highlighted a funny, compassionate and intelligent presentation by Sir Ken Robinson at TED entitled Do schools kill creativity?

It appealed to my inner rebel – and my outer one too.

And I wasn’t alone. His landmark talk was downloaded over 4 million times, striking a chord with a global audience.

And now he’s back.

His 2010 talk – Bring on the learning revolution! – will make you stop and think about how best to find your niche. His central idea, that ‘education dislocates people from their natural talents’, is a powerful and persuasive one.

He also talks about the ‘tyranny of common sense’, something we hear every day in the business world (‘we’ve always done it that way!’). And why education shouldn’t be linear (because life isn’t).

It’s all there – from Eric Clapton to fast food, from dreaming about being a fireman to why nobody under 25 wears a wristwatch (do you?).

Enjoy.

[If you're reading in email, click here to see the talk on TED.com]

2. Tomayto, tomahto

What’s your company’s tone of voice?

And before you say business-like or professional, think about who you like to do business with. Businesses or people? Faceless and anonymous, or personal and friendly?

Would you like to do business with your company?

I thought about tone of voice again this week when I re-read a blog post from the Wise Old Man of Marketing, Seth Godin.

What sort of accent do you have? starts with the obvious (accent) and extends the idea.

Writing, he says, has an accent. And actions have grammar.

He’s right. Everything we say, everything we do, every interaction we have with people sends out a subtle message.

Don’t know the difference between principle and principal? (Find out.) Think you are sounds more professional than you’re? (Think again.) Don’t have an address on your website? (Include one.) Don’t make it obvious what your prospect should do next? (Change that.) Like to include ‘takes up to 28 days’ to make sure you’re covered on delivery lead times? (Nothing takes a month.)

Everything sends out a signal, whether we like it or not.

So what signals are you sending out?

3. It’s all in a name

Can’t think of a name for your business? Tell me about it.

Actually, don’t. Instead, jump on over to Wordoid.com. And you’ll have a new business name in next to no time.

The idea is simple – you suggest a word to use as the basis (e.g. tech, shop, idea, high, first, micro) and it’ll create a new word for you.

You can choose to put your word at the beginning, middle or end of the new word. And you can choose to make it sound natural, almost natural or (bizarre, but actually kind of funky) hardly natural.

It even checks whether the .com and .net domains are available for the new word. And best of all, it’s free.

Could naming your business get any easier?

Thought not. So what are you waiting for?

Find out more:

• Do schools kill creativity? Sir Ken Robinson’s original 2006 talk.

Related posts:

1. Just what you wanted for Christmas
2. Three things you should remember
3. Free advertising is just a step away
4. What sort of mind do you have?

Time for words to give way to pictures this week. Moving pictures.

First up is Rory Sutherland, vice-chairman of advertising agency Ogilvy UK. If you read The Spectator, you’ll know he writes The Wiki Man, a fortnightly column on technology.

His July 2009 talk to TED in Oxford, Life Lessons Learned from an Ad Man, is fast, furious, and very, very funny. But it also has a serious side, that ties in with my last post.

With effortless ease, he moves from champagne on Eurostar to prostitutes in Turkey, from potatoes in Russia to driving in Italy, and makes his point with wit and intelligence.

And his conclusion? It’s easier to tinker with perception than to change reality.

See what you think.

(Click here if you’re reading this in email, and can’t see the embedded video.)

A tangled web

I started watching Jonathan Zittrain‘s presentation, The Web as random acts of kindness, in a dubious frame of mind.

Why? Well maybe it’s all the horror stories I’ve been reading recently about online stalking, sacking and scamming.

But Sittrain highlights the positive side of the web, and shows how it’s built on trust, altruism and selflessness.

Well, most of the time.

I particularly liked his image of beer bottles being passed from person to person as an analogy of how packet data works. And next time I’m in a Chinese restaurant, I’m definitely going to look out for stir-fried Wikipedia.

(Click here to watch Sittrain in action if you’re reading this in email and can’t see the embedded video.)

Ride the wave

Heard of the iPad? Of course you have.

What about Blendtec?

Thought not. But maybe that’s about to change.

You see, the folks at Blendtec have hit on the novel idea of surfing the wave of other, better-known companies’ brand equity.

By blending, of course. Not blending in, just blending.

Their Will it Blend? videos on Youtube are a hoot. They’ve blended glow sticks, lighters and marbles. And a Ford Fiesta.

But by far their most popular video is blending an iPad, which has gone viral. To date, it’s had over 6 million hits.

A clever idea, brilliantly done.

(Reading in an email? You know what to do.)

We were sitting in an art gallery, my friend and I. Art led to life, and that led to the universe and everything, as we sipped our skinny cappuccinos.

And then, she came out with something that stopped me in my tracks.

“Kevin,” she said, lazily stirring her frothy beverage, “have you ever considered the possibility that you might be autistic?”

Autistic, me?

Like the kid in Mark Haddon’s runaway success The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time? Or like Daniel Tammet, who can recall Pi to 22,514 decimal places?

Um, no. Not really.

I could have taken umbrage, but I didn’t. What she was really getting at is that her mind functions very differently to mine. Her spelling is often patchy, but she has a wonderful sense of colour and shape. She’s hopeless with foreign languages, but has a keen ear for English accents.

Her comment came after I’d mentioned that for me, days had colours. Monday is green, Tuesday is blue, Wednesday is orange, and so on.

Before you get worried, I don’t taste numbers or smell words or feel images. I just do the day/colour thing. That’s all.

I know what you’re thinking (maybe)

I thought about that episode again just recently when I watched Temple Grandin’s talk called The world needs all kinds of minds at TED 2010.

Grandin herself thinks in pictures, and says it took her a long time before she realised that others perceived the world in a very different way.

She identifies three groups, and gives examples of what professions they’re best suited to:

• Visual thinkers, who make good graphic designers, photographers and creators.
• Pattern thinkers, who often go on to become programmers and mathematicians.
• Verbal thinkers, who want to know everything about everything, and make good journalists or actors.

Minds, audiences, messages

So how does all of this relate to your sales and marketing messages? The mailshots you send, the websites you put up, the brochures you write?

Well, it means that you need to really think about your audience.

And often, we don’t. We assume they’re visual, when actually they’re verbal. Or that they see patterns, when in fact, they see the whole picture. Or that they’re details people, like we are – but really, they’re not.

So what can you do to get around it? Well why not:

• Use pictures and words. Combine strong graphics that send out a clear, positive message, backed up by enough detail to satisfy the curious.
• Summarise and give detail. If you use headings and bullets, skimmers can skim. And details-focused people can read the bits in between.
• Offer them a choice. Looking for technical details? Step this way, sir. Want a marketing overview? Second on the left, madam. If you structure your copy so people can branch off, you’ll keep all the minds happy.

And always remember, that what you think is obvious may not be that obvious. As sure as night follows day.

And as sure as Saturday is red (but then, you knew that, didn’t you?).

Enjoy.

[If you're reading this in an email and can't see the video, click here: Temple Grandin: The world needs all kinds of minds.]

Related posts:

1. Three ideas that (sort of) work
2. Should you mention the competition?
3. How to market without marketing
4. The secrets of successful web copywriting – Pt 1
5. Three things you should remember