Top 5 Tips Gleaned Working from my Local Starbucks (and what that can teach us about marketing)

So my Internet connection is down again (death to Comcast) and I am, of course, behind on deadline and helpless without access to Google to find out how much green anacondas weigh. (Don't ask).

To solve that problem, I have taken myself off to Starbucks to use their wireless for a couple of hours in exchange for the price of an iced-venti-chai-skim, which brings me to the first tip:

1. Know how to order your drink. Can you rattle off your usual Starbucks order? Of course you can. It's one of the biggest mockeries people make about Starbucks, right? But the language they've built around their coffee is a huge part of their brand.

There is a lesson here for marketers, does your audience know how to order what they want from you? Do they understand and respond to the language you're using in your appeals and proposals? Have you made it easy (ie: created a clear call to action) for people to be able to know exactly what they're going to get when they order from you? Someone who orders a caramel machiatto with whip is not going to be happy to get a Cafe Americain black.

2. Consider the power of visual appeal and meeting expectations. Okay. This one can go either way because one person's comfort with Starbucks is another person's unending annoyance. (I have a friend who is convinced that the prevalence of Starbucks is a definitive sign that the Apocalypse is upon us, but that's another post on a different blog.) The application of this lesson is -- do your donors know you when they see you? Do your materials have a standard, professional look and feel that people can recognize? Are your materials consistent? Are they visually appealing? Do you have a standard color palette? Standard fonts?

3. Give something away for free. A very nice barrista just brought me a small paper cup full of a blend he thought I might like. It's from Guatemala and he had a whole story that went with it about how he roasted the beans, (which actually was not as weirdly boring as it sounds now). He was offering me something to try and sharing an experience with me. He engaged me on many levels -- with friendliness, with a gift, and with a story.

4. Find out what your regulars like. That's the corollary to the tip above. (Yes, I admit to being a regular at my local Starbucks. Sue me.) So after about 20 minutes, the barrista came back to ask if I'd liked the sample. If I wanted something milder, he said, he had several recommendations. He was focused on me as an "audience," trying to find something that would suit me.

Many times with donors we offer them one thing and don't pay attention to their signals. They may reject one offering, but that might not mean they aren't interested in other projects. Maybe that just wasn't the right fit. I am in the market for a new blend for my morning coffee, but the sample he brought me was too bitter. Maybe your donor, like me, would like something a little milder (maybe a Kenyan blend) or something bolder (maybe a mild Sumatran). They don't want to pay to dig a new freshwater well in that village in Namibia, but they might be interested in supporting a micro-lending project to support an orphanage in Colombia. Pay attention to their signals. Ask them what kind of projects they're looking for. Offer to bring them something else to try. Or better yet, bring a couple of backup flavors with you to the ask.

5. Bring earphones and an iPod. Dudes. Seriously. The very scary guy at the table next to me is not only hogging the one operable electrical outlet in the whole place, he is also apparently taking "World of Warcraft" way too seriously for a man in a public place. I wasn't too worried until his computer started bleating like a herd of terrified sheep and he started swearing and laughing and talking to it. Now he's making machine gun sounds. Or maybe that was a grenade launcher.

Pray for me.

And just for the record -- green anacondas can weigh as much as 500 pounds and the longest reliably documented specimen was apparently 37 feet long. 37 feet!

-- Cara