Why You Need to Listen Before You Act
November 27, 2008
Back when I worked at an advertising agency I used to dread “brainstorms”.
I actually love brainstorming, it’s just the boss of this company had a strange idea of what brainstorming meant. In his mind the only opinion that mattered was his.
What made it worse, he and his special work lady friend would team up and have their own “private brainstorms”. So the spontanious idea generation brilliance was often pre-arranged beforehand.
That wasn’t even the worst part. It was when it would go like this:
That’s a dumb idea, I would never do that.
I wouldn’t buy one of those.
No, I think these types of customers would shop where I do, I would never be seen in that store.
My choice would be red. I like red.
Well my wife says that is so last year.
Do you see the problem?
We had clients in all kinds of markets, from beans, public transport all the way to perfume. Every single time, instead of looking at the target audience, he would decide what was best based on his own tastes and biases. This despite him not being a 24 year old female, the fact he probably thought beans were something only poor people ate, and he certainly wouldn’t be seen getting a bus.
Using yourself as the template is a sure way to kill any marketing campaign before it gets past day one. You are not building for yourself, you have to appeal to your target audience.
Acting before you listen could cause not just wasted time and budget, but also long term damage to your brand.
Bing Bang or Soft Launch - Which is Best?
November 26, 2008
The internet marketing world has become addicted to the “big event” kind of product launch. You know the kind of thing, a million bucks of sales in 9 minutes?
Why then do many companies still launch quietly and gradually?
In fact those companies that do these big launches have several factors going on behind the scenes that you often never hear about:
- It isn’t the first time the product has launched - Just because it is presented as new and you haven’t heard about it before, don’t be fooled. Nobody is misleading you, they just don’t tell you about all the quiter launches that preceeded the one you are seeing. Where do you think they got all those testimonials?
- You only hear about the successes - Many big launches fall flat. The marketing world prefers to concentrate and focus on the big successes, or spin the less than stellar launches in a positive light.
- A cash windfall might not be the best for your business - When I pre-launched my own product, a blogging course, I did it quietly because I want to learn as I teach. I knew when my product faced reality there were going to be tweaks and additions I needed to make. It’s also my plan for my product to become my long term core offering. Why would I spoil all that by making a big fuss about an unfinished product on day one? Once I am happy I have everything polished, rather than one big launch I can do rolling launches, and continue to improve.
So you might have guessed that I prefer to effectively always be launching.
Start by attracting an interested audience. Segment the prospects from readers, and introduce them to your product. Rather than drive wide and diverse internet traffic to a sales letter page, build awareness and interest over time. Most important, open communication so you can be responsive, listen to your early customers, give them the attention they need and work on their feedback.
As you improve based on this feedback, every new addition, bonus, change is a new reason to go out to the market with your communication. Each new partner is a new audience to expose your message to, while always having the benefit of the lessons learned from the last one.
Don’t think you have to have a home-run 1-day launch. That might work for internet marketing celebrities, but I recommend instead you build a long term sustainable business.
Bite the Bullet to Make Progress
November 24, 2008
Sometimes what seems like hard, invisible work can be unpleasant but pay off hugely.
I am sure there are a ton of tasks like that in your business. They are awfully boring, you get no credit (if people know you are doing them the task at all), but life for everyone is harder if they don’t get done.
- Filing
- Paperwork
- Billing
- Support
- Calls
Like the business equivalent of spring cleaning, get the backlog out of the way and do a little every day and it is far easier. Or pay someone to do the heavy lifting then you do the maintenance side.
In the blogging world one of those tasks would be “editorial calendars“. At the moment I am working on one for this blog, but coincidentally I just had an interesting consulting call with a client who had been struggling but took this piece of advice and wanted to tell me she had great results. She is stressing less over her content and getting it done in half the time.
Are there tasks in your business you are avoiding but would pay off, no matter how unglamorous these jobs are?
The Fundemental Difference Between Business and Selling
November 20, 2008
When you create and sell a product then you have a business, right? Wrong.
I don’t like to dampen the enthusiasm of people who embark on selling online but a few times I have had to point out that just making a sale does not equate to having a real business.
Anyone who sells a single item on eBay could make a similar claim.
Fact is, even selling one product once to many people does not mean you have a solid, sustainable business. Anyone who has been involved in a fad can tell you that, or any one-hit-wonder in the top 40 singles charts.
The difference between selling a single product and having a growing and stable business is repeat custom. This requires you to have systems and procedures set up for customer service, upgrades, up-sells, cross-sells and, well, overall good quality.
Yes we can all point to utility and cable companies who have next to zero customer service at best and abusive “help” lines at worst, but you are not in a monopoly so get that idea out of your head right now. Let’s face it, who would want to put their names to that kind of thing any way?
Attracting a customer will be the hardest and most expensive thing you do, so don’t throw them away. If you are currently selling one product, work out how you can sell the same product over and over to the same person (subscription), how you can sell related products (cross-sell) or upgrades, and how you can keep them happy long term.
Stop Selling and Start Agreeing
November 18, 2008
Sometimes I have to be careful when talking about what I do for a living. It seems when I say I create advertising, marketing, sales letters or (gasp) make money selling stuff on the internet, some folks decide at best I am a hacker, hustler, pirate or at worst I kick puppies for fun.
OK, it’s not quite that bad, but “selling” has definitely been given bad press, and especially online.
Fact is though, a lot of the hard-sell is really unnecessary.
In many cases if you find a market that is in need of something they will be only too eager to tell you what it is they want, how they want it delivered, and sometimes even how you should sell it to them.
Don’t believe me?
Think of the last time you couldn’t find a product or a service you were looking for. For any need there is a set of requirements and expectations. Show that you can solve the requirement and meet those expectations you are well on the way to a sale.
It’s much easier to match the conversation in your prospects head rather than try to sell someone a thing they don’t want or realize that they need. Find out what their challenge is, match what you have to offer to their challenge, then answer any questions they might raise before they articulate them.
The best way to do this? Find a real human being in your target market and ask!
Globalization and Understanding Your Target Audience
November 15, 2008
Many small businesses are culture shocked when they start trading online. While most internet users that you will come in contact will have a good grasp of the English language, the specific ways we communicate can cause problems.
How much of a problem depends on the business you are in. For example I have clients who are Realtors who are mostly concerned with a strictly defined target geographic area. It doesn’t matter so much that they use words like “condo” that are largely unheard of outside North America.
On the other hand those clients and friends who work in internet publishing have to face these issues all the time. Everything from phrasing (eg. is it “football” or “soccer”, depends who you are talking to!) through to colloquialism and currencies.
I even get corrected in my English when I use British spellings, even though I am a Brit born in Canada. Apparently “organise” should be “organize” if you don’t want a bunch of folks “correcting” you.
All you can do is be sensitive to the issues and try to either avoid conflict, confusion or corrections, or explain yourself well. There are excellent international sales consultants who can help you navigate the traps and pitfalls also.
Just remember not everyone lives and works where you do, we are all citizens of the internet now!
The Mousetrap Landmine and How to Avoid it
November 13, 2008
Have you ever heard the phrase
Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door
?
Unfortunately, Ralph Waldo Emerson might have been a smart guy, but that is really bad advice.
The idea is all you need to do is invent something really cool, and you will automatically get sales. We all know that is false. Tragically, a lot of us know that is false from harsh, personal experience.
Having a super duper trapper of vermin is not enough, you have to do way more than just create something better, you have to promote it, and even more than that, break through the noise to make a real impact on people.
That isn’t even the bottom line. The real bottom line is while you are focusing on better moustraps, your customers are worrying about their infestation. They don’t care about your tool, product or service, they want the benefits.
As they say, people don’t buy power drills, they buy holes in their wall. Some sales experts would even have you believe they are really buying fitted, finished shelves, or maybe even somewhere deep in their subconscious, their significant others approval!
To make your business a success you need to
- Address your customers real, pressing needs
- In a way they understand
- and come to them with their problem, solution and benefits
If all you are doing is trying to build a better moustrap, that is, trying to improve on an old idea, you are not even at phase 1!
Specialisms Versus Mass Market
November 11, 2008
When you go into business a common worry is lack of sales.
It’s good to think about this, after all a business with no sales … has no business.
But the problem comes when the business owner tries to counter this worry by making the situation worse:
- Trying to be all things to all people
- Never turning work down
- Undercutting own prices
- Having a list of products and services a mile long
- Being kind of ok at 1,000 things and brilliant at zero
The combined effect of all of these “solutions” is the company gains a luke warm reputation at best, at worst no reputation at all, and razor thin profit margins.
What happens when you are a specialist, though?
- You make a name for yourself
- The more you do one thing, the more experience you gain and the better you get at it
- Which leads to stellar customer service and results
- Prices can be increased because you are an expert
You know what the really crazy thing is? Specialists can bolt on additional services because their flagship offering brings in loyal customers who don’t want to go anywhere else because their previous customer experience was so fantastic.
Think of your favorite big companies and most came from having one hit, a hero product, after which all the rest came. Without the one hit you might never have heard of them.
One day EasyBilling might do everything for your small business from open your boxes to make coffee, but right now it is a billing and invoice system. Not because the developers couldn’t do more, but because we want you to be absolutely delighted with the one thing it does really really well!
If you are trying to be mass market right now, do reconsider until you have made a name for yourself in one area … then go nuts!
Removing Irritations from Your Small Business
November 10, 2008
Many people get into business because they have skills or knowledge and enjoy implementing the gifts they have.
Think about all the business people you know. They might be a natural salesperson, a brilliant cook, great at making things, fixing things, or taking things apart.
Another common thread is “I am done with having a boss”.
What we seldom think too hard about is all the other stuff that comes along when you go into business for yourself.
All of a sudden, like it or not, WE are the sales, admin, accounts, PR, complaints and maintenance departments. While we might decide to go into business so we can spend time baking, writing software code or helping clients select fabrics, most of the time we seem to do everything but.
I am sure as well as cashflow, this is something that ends a great many small businesses prematurely.
What can be done about it?
The internet provides some answers.
For a start there are tools such as EasyBilling.com that take most of the heavy lifting out of invoices and billing. Automation and systems can free up your time to do real work rather than paper work.
The stuff that remains requires manual effort, but that doesn’t mean you need to take on full time staff. Why not investigate virtual assistants? You can find people who work over the internet that will take your calls, organise your diary, answer emails. Instead of doing envelope stuffing and cold calling, find a freelancer on a reasonable hourly rate.
It seems in the internet age whatever you don’t like doing, you can outsource if you only look!
Naming Your Product or Service
November 7, 2008
How do you name your own products and services? Why is EasyBilling.com named EasyBilling?
In the internet world many marketers have become obsessed with search engines. They would have you believe that if people often put in the words “walrus polishing kit baltimore” that your website should be called something along the lines of “baltimore-walrus-polishing-kits.com”.
What they fail to understand is the internet is not just about traffic!
If you switch your mindset from business owner to customer for a second, you can see exactly what I mean.
Anyone who is new to the internet world assumes there are three steps in the process:
- Traffic
- Click
- Sale!
Broadly speaking it does kind of go like that, but only at 1,000 feet. In actual fact there is much more to it. Think of your train of thought as you search, click and visit a site for the first time:
- OK I am looking for Walrus Polishing
- Here are my results
- Who are these folks?
- This one looks interesting
- The title and description seems what I need
- Good, this is what I need
- Can I trust these guys?
- Putting in my credit card number …
- Hurray, my polishing kit will be rushed to be in 48 hours
- I must tell my friends
A huge percentage of sites fail at step #7 - TRUST! Also, never underestimate the power of word of mouth. How much in the way of word of mouth will a website 250 words long and full of hyphens get?
If you call your company, product or service by a long, incomprehensible name, how much of a draw will it be? Your name needs to be:
- Easy to say and spell
- Friendly and attractive
- Beneficial and brandable
Hence, rather than “secure-online-invoicing-and-billing-service.com”, we are working on a product called EasyBilling.com!
When you are thinking of names, rather than cater to search engines, put yourself in customer shoes, see which names are appealing and pronouncable. Your future raving fans will thank you!
The Business Software Success Formula
November 5, 2008
EasyBilling.com is a business software startup. This means everyone involved thinks a lot about applications, tools, users and the business marketplace.
What quickly became apparent to me, through all this business software thinking and reflecting on other startups I have been involved with, is how it is a good thing I am not running this development.
I have been afflicted with a problem. The problem is called “Feature-Creep-Itis”.
Yes, I am a feature-addict, a gold-plater, a wish-list monster and a “more is better” kind of guy. (Which is wrong, by the way). Thankfully Peter and Luis do not share the same affliction and so they will be able to keep my requests in check.
This is not an issue isolated to business software either, it goes for most product or service categories.
How you know when you are doing too much?
To answer this important question, I came up with a nice diagram!
As you can see, you will be successful when your user needs, intersect with your technology, and it is easy to use. Everything is in balance.
If yours is not a technology driven company, replace technology with “delivery”, “creativity”, or some other aspect of your service.
The important thing here is providing “enough to delight” rather than too much.
Too much slows down development, sometimes to the point where you can never launch, or over-burdens the user where they can not find the features they need, or are too confused to even try. In non-technical companies you get the same thing, where sales copy is full of features nobody cares about so rather than being more compelling the product appears irrelevant to prospect’s needs.
What you often see in software is the technology bubble gains way too much emphasis, ease of use is left out of the equation, or the company is so eager to please that they forget to address the actual user needs, what the real requirements are.
This is why there are so many tools out there that are solutions looking for a problem.
So the success formula?
Address real user needs in an easy to use way with the appropriate technology.
Simple, right?
Well, the formula is simple, achieving it is the real challenge …