If you go in for laparoscopic surgery, you get holes in your stomach.

Four to five small incisions where a doctor will place tubes. These tubes allow her to insert her tools for work.

Then, she’ll blow up your stomach with gas to give her room to work. Lastly, she’ll place a camera in there to see what she’s working on.

After this prep work is done, she performs the surgery. It can last anywhere from thirty minutes to hours. It all depends on what needs to be done.

Once the surgery is complete, she begins to stitch up your stomach. Closing those holes properly is important. If she doesn’t close them right, you can get a hernia during recovery.

In order to close those holes properly, some doctors will use a specific tool.

That was the tool I sold.

It was used for a minute or two at the end of a surgery.

While important, the tool didn’t really take up that much of the doctor’s attention.

It was my job to make that one to two minutes seem important enough to think about using my specific tool.

The reality is, your product probably only plays a small part in something bigger.

Just like the tool I sold for the end of surgery.

If your product plays a small part, your customer will probably only give you a small piece of their attention.

As marketers, it’s good to know where we fit. Chances are, you are not the most important thing in that customers day.

We can’t market to customers like we are.

While the work we do is important, there are other important things as well.

Just like in that surgery, closing up a patient is important. But, the doctor is also concerned with removing the problem area that was the reason for the surgery in the first place.

My tool was not more important than that.

Get to the point in the first line.

That’s how you format an email in Germany.

At least, according to my friend.

Not sure how it started, but my friend and I got onto the topic of email communication differences between the Americans and the Germans.

The difference is American emails begin with pleasantries and background. Then, you get to the point and your ask at the end.

German emails require your point be in line 1.

This cultural norm, while seemingly small on the surface, might have a big impact in how we communicate.

For me, I realized this might be a key reason why my email marketing campaigns were not performing as well in the European market.

It’s the translation vs. localization debate. Even if you speak the same language.

It’s easier than ever to take your company global. Thus, we’ll run into these situations more often.

Instinctively, we know these nuances matter.

But, it’s good to remind ourselves there are differences. Large and small.

And that’s ok.

We should acknowledge them. Make the necessary changes, even if we don’t agree with the difference.

Who knows, it could be why your marketing campaign is underperforming.

Johnny Cash released Folsom Prison Blues in 1955.

It wasn’t until many years later that he managed to actually land himself in prison, if only for a night.

While Cash sang about and played in prisons, having never been, he was speaking a truth.

At the time, not entirely his own truth, but his audiences.

He was a master at it. Wearing black as a symbol for the neglected. He was the man in black.

It was his trade mark.

It’s what he sang.

He sang a truth about an audience. And, they loved him for it.

I love him for it.

The same holds true for our marketing.

Understanding our audience. Telling a story that’s their truth.

We buy stories, so tell a great story.

All you need is three chords and the truth.