Beyond 'Happy New Month Ma': Customizing Messages that Sell

Today on the podcast, we're going to be looking at how to use your clipboard in Google, your clipboard in your Android phone. That's for those of you who use Android phones. You know, on the keyboard there's a feature that it's called clipboard. It makes it easy to copy and paste stuff and just makes one of these things that we can use to make our workload a whole lot easier so we can copy and paste messages instead of having to type messages over and over and over again.

Now, the reason why we are doing this today is because lots of us are trying to improve our situation, trying to grow our business. And our primary means of doing that is the mobile phone. So we might as well just learn how to use these these features to make us much more effective. Now I'm making today's recording out and about the car wash actually, So expect to hear some noise in the background. Now, if you are tired of using business strategies that work in America and the UK but don't seem to work in Nigeria, then this podcast is your jam.

Welcome to the podcast. I'm your host, Tavi Shima Ayede and for years I've been bringing you guys the best, the dopest insights that work for the Nigerian market. So if you want to stop wasting time and you want to grow your business the Nigerian way, then stay tuned into the podcast, subscribe on Spotify, YouTube, Apple or any player of your choice. And if you'd love to connect, you can call, send me a text message or WhatsApp me on 08064662140.

But a warning to many of you who reach out are trying to collect money from me and guys I didn't like. It doesn't make sense. I have over 1200 episodes of the podcast so far. I'm trying to deliver value to you guys every single time. And you guys pay nothing for the podcast. You reach out to me, you have a question, I answer it for free. It's not everybody that I talked to that it has to end up in the consulting session.

So to be honest, it's kind of insulting when like I'm doing all this stuff for free and then you reach out to me, you're trying to collect money from me. You guys should stop it. It's just downright rude. So where are we? So on the podcast now how to use clipboard in your Google keypad. That's for those of you who still use your phone and use thumbs to type. Now, even for those of us who use Bluetooth keyboards, external keyboards, we still have access to the to the clipboard.

I'll just tell you how. I'll explain that later. Well, for those of you listening to the podcast for the first time, you don't even know what a clipboard is because surprisingly lots of people are not aware of the clipboard. It's just that a clipboard has been, I don't even know when the thing started, but if I say it's been around for like 20 years, I won't be lying because I've been using clipboards since like, I don't know, shortly after uni.

So I'm surprised that people don't know about it. But basically it's a feature on your phone, especially your Android phone. I know for sure it's on Android phone for iPhone. I'm not sure if they have a similar feature. I don't know what it's called, but it makes it easy to copy and paste and then it makes it easy for you to work in a faster way. You're going to be able to respond to messages quicker because in business there are some responses that are just templated.

You know, like for instance, somebody says do you respond on public holidays? Do you open on public holidays? You don't have to type every single time yes, I'm open on public holidays between the hours of you know, 9:00 to 3:00. If you're going to be typing that for everybody who says do you work on public holidays? You know you go to type, you know it's just excessive typing. So what you do is you just type that thing one time.

Yes, I'm open on public holidays and I open between the hours of nine to three. And if you can't reach me on so, so, so then send an e-mail to blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, or call. So, so, so, so, so if it's an emergency, so you will now copy that thing. Now when you copy it, it's in a feature called clipboard in your Android phone. It's there temporarily. So what you now do is while you're stealing messages, you will now see how will I put it?

Now there are three icons to I think the top right. I mean, I should have checked my phone before doing this thing. And if I remember correctly, I think it's like 3 icons to the top right? So the one that looks like a sheet of paper with lines on it does the clipboard. So you click on that and then it will now show you. I think the last, is it the last five or maybe the last 10 messages that you copied, whether you pasted it or not is a different thing.

But the last five messages that you copied or the last 10 that you copied will be there. All you have to do now is just go to that message that we want to put on clipboard permanently. Just long press it now hold it down. 123A menu will now come up. You now select the one that looks like a pin just would pin there. Now that message is going to be permanently in your clipboard so that it will be like a standard set of messages, a standard response that you can select and have people ask you some questions.

So that now in the future, anybody who says do you open on weekends? Do you open on public holidays? All you have to do is just open clipboard and then tap. The thing will now paste and then you send. So it saves you typing. For those of us who are using phone to run our business, I'm telling you, this thing is a time saver. There's some messages that we keep typing over and over and over. Like take for instance, price packages.

By the way, I do not agree with you people just sending price package. Anyhow, I believe that even though your options are three yes, and even though last last, at the end of the day, we will discuss the history, but still be engaging people in the conversation form. Pretend that you're interested in them. Pretend that you're trying to figure out that's that's for those of you who don't even care. You only just only collect your money and go.

Just pretend that you care that you're curious about them. Engage them in conversation after that. Then you can now copy and paste your prize packages. It'll reduce the chance of people ghosting. They feel like they're already in a conversation with someone who knows them, who is interested with them. And then quite frankly, sometimes when you're having a conversation, it gives the the opportunity to build some rapport and also to build some credibility, to build some trust.

So I'm not one of these people who recommend to you that whenever somebody says are you open December 26th and how much you now copy and paste, paste your your prices. That's absolute rubbish. It's madness, it's laziness and it's ineffective. You know that issue doesn't work so people should stop it. Yes, have your price list in your clipboard, but pretend and give you the person first. Oh yes, I'm available December 26th.

What is it that you have planned? And then you start talking, talking, talking, talking, talking person, let's say you're a caterer person says, oh, his mom sees, his mom sees 70th birthday, congratulations. So mommy and Jesus Christ, they have the same birthday. You know, you laugh about it, say no, no, Jesus Christ is December 25th, Mom, he's 26th. You say, OK, Jesus Christ seen your mom see by just one day, you know, you laugh about it and that's OK.

What do you guys have planned or where you guys OK, You're oh, you're in Abuja and no problem. I'm in Abuja as well. OK. So is it breakfast, is it lunch? Is it something you know? You talk, talk, talk, talk, talk. After that you now copy and paste your price lists. Use some use some common sense. If somebody says are you open December 26th and you just say yes, then you copy and paste price list, you're effectively leaving the ball in their courts.

If they're interested, let them pay is how to do business and get somebody in conversation first build some upon now sound like a human being. When you guys know they text back and forth. You know you don't they flow. You know when you now put the price list, is there somebody can say my dear, I say is is simple by they were doing no is not waiting. You know, I know you can laugh or you can joke about it and then start negotiating back and forth.

So for those of you who this is how you use clipboard, you just carry your price packages. Golden package this silver package, this platinum package this. Then every single time somebody asks you a question, you just copy and paste your your price packages. My friend has rude. It's rude, it's ineffective. OK, it's not rude, but it's ineffective and it's short term thinking. You're trying to do the easiest thing. You're not trying to do the most effective thing.

So even though we have clipboard and we're using clipboard, we should still be engaging people in the conversation. Selling, let me say it loud and clear in case there's anybody listening the first time and the person hasn't picked it up yet. Selling is always a conversation. Selling always have. You always has a human element. It's not transactional, don't keep it transactional. The people who can afford to be transactional are people who bought out on scale and you know, large multi, sorry, larger international transactions and you know, stuff like that.

So if you are Amazon, you know, you don't have time to build a relationship with billions of people. So keep it as transactional as possible. If I Amazon doesn't want anybody to call them, that's why the phone number is hard to find. So when you're at that level, you know, yes, make everything robotic, but at the beginning in the SME stage, believe me, one-on-one interaction, human conversation, you know, I'm talking to a human being kind of levels.

It moves things forward a lot. And let me stop ranting is ready 99 minutes now. So if you're going to wonder, OK, clipboard. But Tavi Shima, why did you think of keyboard today? And it's very simple. You know how I keep telling you guys that, you know, this whole thing of happy new month, happy new month, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah is not a good idea. Look for value added ways of look for messaging strategies that add value to people's lives.

I've already done the podcast episode about that to show how from a business perspective, you can put out valuable content to send it to people every single month. And that keeps you top of mind. Funny enough, the, the business that inspired that, that's the eye clinic that keeps on sending me happy new month. Happy new month. They did it again, they sent me happy new month. And of course, you know, I, I ignored the message, but if they had done something value add,

which is oh, Mr. Tavishma, I noticed that you haven't come for the eye checkup in the last two years. At your age, it is advisable that you come for eye checkup every so, so, so and so. And in fact, since this is the 1st of October and Nigeria is celebrating 65 years, how about you come in for a free eye checkup tomorrow? We can schedule you at 10 AM. Would you be interested? Now that kind of messages value add, it has come at the 1st of the month.

You have also said happy new month. You have also said happy independence. But because it's a value add, something, you know, I might respond and say, oh, I'm not available tomorrow. Does the offer still last until Friday? And then of course, the person will say, of course, it lasts until Friday because remember, this is the goal is an eye doctor. The thing is, I will come in now if there's a problem with my eye, no problem, there were some money because I have to fix my eye.

If there's no problem with my eye, if my eye has not gotten worse, at least as I'm passing the receptionist, because you know how they designed these eye clinics, You know the glass case is there with all the brand new glasses, everything looking nice, everything looking sweet. And you know those words are used glasses. You know the temptation. Now you're happy with your glasses or nothing is wrong. But as you pass by, you just see one frame like this frame sweet die, you know, as the receptionist, you know, can I

try this frame? So of course you can. She will now open it. You now try it. And then she was like, oh God, this thing fits you very, very well. You now start doing calculation in your head. OK, this frame that I'm using is not really bad. You ask her how much he says, oh, so this is a new line is not too expensive, but it's only 70,000 naira. In your mind you're now thinking 70K can I can I70K70K70K. You know what bottom line is this, that kind of messaging can get somebody in.

If there's a problem, you make some extra money. If there's not a problem, there's room for you to get the person to, you know, exchange frames, you know, buy new frames or you know, you can cross sell or upsell on something. But most importantly, sending that kind of message value add getting people into the store. So please stop with this happy new month, happy new month, happy new month. In fact, I think that episode I

recorded was called, I think was called while your happy new month message isn't working or something like that. So just go and check it anyway. So the reason why we're discussing clipboard today is because I received another happy new month message and the message started with ma. Now, if you have been listening to this podcast for Evil 5 minutes, you know clearly that I am a guy. I am not a man at all. If I am a man, then I must be an incredibly handsome woman.

I am not a man. And like I told you guys on our previous episode, I'm saying it again, when you're sending out these broadcast blanketed messages that you do not personalize or that you do not customize, this thing comes across as very insincere. Very, very insincere. I am not a woman. So the moment you send this message saying all kinds of nice things because the guy was talking about how my advice to him was good and everything and all, the moment I saw my, I just need, you know what?

This guy prepared this message for like maybe 10 or 20 people and he just broadcasted it to all of us. The message just sounds insincere. It sounds not relevant. Everybody knows it's a broadcast. In the beginning, broadcast used to be easy to tell because the caller will be one kind. But now people have become really sharp about it. The caller doesn't show anymore. I don't know. I don't know how they do it, you know? But basically the message comes across as insincere, irrelevant.

People ignore it. Nobody would take this message seriously. And look, let's face it, by the time one particular person receives these kinds of messages from you, like 5-6 time, they will stop taking you seriously. I repeat, in case you guys are not being hearing it, think about it. Let's say you and me were cool. You and me were friends and then me that I'm supposed to be your guy, Your very guy. I send you like 10 of these messages straight in a row.

Will you be taking me seriously? Think about it. If you will not take me seriously, why do you think by continuing to send messages like this the other people are taking you seriously? Stop it now. This is how you use clipboard and it's the reason why I'm making today's episode. The formula is this. I've said it on the podcast many times and I'm saying it in case there's somebody who's just here for the first time. The formula for using clipboard is this copy and paste and then edit before you send.

Again, copy and paste and then edit before you send. The copy and paste is to make this work quick, quick, fast, fast, fast. But then you are not sending messages to robots. All of us are not equal. We are all different. So you gasp change some elements in the message so that the team will flow. So if somebody says are you open on public holidays and you notice that the person is a Sir, all you do is you copy and you paste and then you now edit.

In the beginning, you will put good morning Sir, then you will send makes it sound less like it's a robotic automated something. Something sounds like you're paying attention again, the formula is copy and then paste and then edit before you send. There is no message that you will create that will work one time for every single person in every single circumstance. So check copy it. Yes pin it to clipboard. Yes Somebody ask a question.

Good. Does this apply? OK, compose. Open the compose box, you send the message, click on the clipboard, hit paste. Everything will boot there and then. Before you send, edit the relevant places, then you send. The whole idea is for us to personalize or customize our messages. It don't mean the same thing. Let me explain. The goal is to personalize or to customize the message because even though what we're doing is copy and paste, at least let us pretend that we are paying attention to these people.

Let us pretend even if you don't care or you want to, do you want to collect money? Quick, quick, pretend to be interested. So personalize or customize the message. Now personalize the message means when you change the message in a way that it can apply to certain kinds of groups of people. That is why you change the message and then you put demographics. So to personalize is when you say something like, oh, good morning, Sir.

Good morning, Ma. Good morning engineer. Good morning, deaconess. Good morning Alhaji. Good morning professors. That simple thing of personalizing good morning Alhaji. Alhaji will feel like you're talking to him because clearly you can't broadcast good morning Alhaji to everybody in your phone book. Not everybody is an Alhaji. Good morning, Deaconess. You can't broadcast that to everybody because not everybody on your phone is a deaconess.

So when Deaconess Akubiru receives the message, she will feel like you're talking to her. You, you know that what you did was copy, paste and edit. But Deaconess Akubiru, she will feel as if you want her una de Yan. You're in a conversation. You feel me? Now you see how this thing works? It is copy, paste, edit, then send. So that is personalized when you just change something so they think can apply to a group of people.

Customized is when you change it so that the message is unique to the individual. So if you say good morning deaconess, that is personalizing. But you know, there are lots of deaconesses in the world where if you say good morning, Deaconess Akubero, how many Deaconess Akubero are there in the world? That message seems customized to her. She will now know for sure that people are having a conversation. Even though you, you know truly that what you did was copy and paste and then edit.

You're the one who knows you're doing copy and paste. You're doing some small automation. That's not really automation anyway. So that's the difference in personalized and customized. When you personalize, you can apply to any group of people. What shall we've narrowed it down small using the demographics. So when you send a message, I say good morning, Sir, good morning, Ma, good morning engineer, good morning, prophetess.

No, that is personalizing. Good morning, Alhaji. When you customize, you make the message particular or unique to that person. So let's say to me now, for instance, if you're sending a message to me and say, hey, Mr. Taf, how many Mr. Tafs do you know that is customizing? There's some people, so my relatives who say who call me baby daddy. You know, that's because, you know, you know, of course I have kids now. So say baby daddy, what's up?

That one, you know, who feel as if it can only be me they're talking to my wife calls me Lord Sugar. And because of that, there's some people, especially my wife's colleagues. I started calling me Lord Sugar. Although there's one of our colleagues who keeps calling me the Sugar Man. And in my mind, I'm like, you know, Madam, it's not the Sugar man. In fact, the Sugar man sounds funny, you know, or my father-in-law would say king TA.

How far? So if you're sending this message, you know, copy and paste, but then you're now changing the header or changing the outro or changing some small things in between to now fix to now. How would I put it to now reflect some of these things personalized or customized message. You're increasing the chances that people are reading your messages. And that is the goal, to increase the chances of your messages being read.

So again, the formula is copy, paste and then edit. When you're editing, we try to customize or we try to personalize. If time is really tight on your hand, then just personalize, at least copy paste and then say, good morning, Sir, good morning, ma, good morning, Sir, good morning, ma, good morning, Sir, good morning, ma. That won't waste your time. Or at least it's better than saying good morning, ma to everybody. And then half the people who receive that message are men and they know that.

You know what? Let me just ignore this guy. But then if you really have time, customize the message. It won't take you too much time if you copy paste and send, but then you tweak it. You say good morning, Ma, you know it's it's OK. But I really think you should take the time out and then just delete that first part and write good morning Deaconess Akubero and then send. It will take you more time to be adding everybody's name, Good morning to delete and then put Deaconess Akubero send the next one.

Malam Unisa send the next one, copy paste, twist it and Team Ghazi send. Yes, it's taking you time, but The thing is, we're increasing the chances of our businesses being read. Remember, we are in business. We want people to read our messages. We want them to digest the message. We want them to understand the message because we're hoping that by sending messages, eventually over time, we're going to get people to take action on certain things.

And the prayer is that the more that they take actions on these things, the more the chances that these people will be giving us money, transferring money to our pockets, and the more that they transfer money to our pockets if we are doing what is good, you know, money management, investing money, things like that, over time, we should be getting richer and richer and richer. So that's the goal. So it's copy and then paste and then edit.

So please, let's take advantage of these things, especially since messages in the West so far that is North North America, Western Europe messages already have over 90% open rate. That's when you take all of them collectively. That's Telegram plus WhatsApp plus text messages. In fact, in some places, like in some places in North America, text message, that's common SMS, normal SMS has a 98% open rate. That is beautiful.

Think about it. Think about it, when you send e-mail, how many people check, how many people respond, how many people acknowledge. But then when it comes to messages, common SMS, 98% open rate, that means if you send SMS to 1000 people, it means 900, Abby, 998 people will open it. Abby, Abby is 980. Yeah, If you send it to 1000 people, 980 of them will open it. So that's what we're trying to take advantage of. Messages have high open rates.

Let's take advantage of that. Let's keep the tone nice. Let's keep it conversational or talking to somebody, let them feel like they're talking to a human being. Right now in 2025, people don't like chatting with bots, at least in Niger. Who knows if you're listening to this podcast in 2045, maybe things have changed and people are OK with chatting with bots. But right now in 2025, people don't like chatting with bots in Niger.

Keep a conversation now. Let them know they say human being. At the other end of that line, we're trying to establish real time contact. That's the benefit with all these messages in real time contact that I will send the message at 7:45 AM Deaconess Akbaro will see it. She'll respond maybe around that kind 11 AM and I can respond again. And who knows, maybe before 5 PMI can arrange a meeting. That's the goal. And let's use messaging to build trust and let's use messages to build relationships.

But one thing is for sure, you are not building trust, You are not building relationships, you are not building conversational and you're not having real time impact. When you send a message to someone, the message starts, good morning Ma. And meanwhile the guy is a Sir. So let's not be lazy please. You're using clipboard. The formula is copy, paste and then edit before you send. Again, it is copy, paste and edit before you send.

I won't say it the third time. Then the strategy is whether personalized or we customize. Personalized means, let's narrow it down to a group of people. Customized means let's narrow it down to one person in particular. So to personalize you just say good morning, good morning, Sir. Good morning, Ma. That is personalizing is broad or good morning Deaconess now and is still broad, but good morning Deaconess Akubero Deaconess to know that it is you that she's talking to.

So that's it. The word is enough otherwise. But I know that anyway, people keep doing these sorts of things. And I know that next month, on the 1st of November, next month, I know I'll continue receiving these messages again. But somebody who now say good morning Ma, it happens every single month. So I know next month somebody will still send me a message, Good morning Ma again. And that's another person that I'm going to ignore.

And then by the time I open the inbox and I see that, oh, you know what? I've received 20 messages from this person. And each time it's a happy new month message. And the person I see who keeps calling me Ma, I'm like, oh, this person hasn't even bothered to store my own phone number. Why am I keeping this person as a contact anyway? And then for me, I moved to archive because, you know, you never know. But then normal human beings,

now normal human beings who are not in business, what do you think they do? If you don't believe me, go and ask your wife. Go and ask your girlfriend. Go and ask your boyfriend. Go and ask your side piece. Go and ask your mom. See. Go and ask your popsy ordinary people what do they do to these messages? Whatever the answer they give you is precisely what people are doing to your own messages as well. If you don't believe me.

All right, so that's it. And that's all for today. Remember, if you'd love to connect, you can call, send me a text message or WhatsApp message on 08064662140. And if you love all these realistic and relevant content that works with the Nigerian market, then you're in luck because in this very feed that you're listening to, we have over 1000 episodes of Practical Insights still here. In fact, on YouTube, you know, past like there's almost like 1003 on YouTube.

Scroll down, continue to listen, continue to binge, but then take some notes. Apply one or two things. Whether you give me money or not, apply one or two things. The satisfaction that I get is when somebody reaches out to me and say, I listened to this podcast episode. I didn't like what you say. It makes me happy because at least people are engaging will now debate like, OK, what is it that you didn't like? I tried this one, it didn't work.

Oh, really? It didn't work. OK, how did you try it? We now brainstorm a couple of things. And that's how I get ideas for the podcast. I can now come up. That's why people say that the podcast is practical is because I've spoken to someone who said I tried it in work under social circumstances. I come back here and I make another podcast episode. Previously I said this, I'm sorry, I gave the impression that was this. This is actually what I meant.

This is how you apply it when you're in this and this and this context. So it makes me very, very glad. And then people who say I tried it, the thing worked. I love the testimony. In fact, I'll even make a podcast episode sharing the testimony. All right, so that's it. Keep listening. I'll see you guys soon.