Leverage Blog: How to Exploit the Web.

The Long Tail

Simply put, the Long Tail is a look at the company of tomorrow.  Maybe.

It's a theory advanced by Chris Anderson, the Editor-in-Chief of Wired Magazine, that makes a strong case for specialized business-models. Niche-companies with focused, highly-targeted services can compete with giant companies...and win.  So what does this look like from a 20,000 foot view?

1.  The internet makes it possible to target a very specific customer. (Example:  Pay-per-click advertising on search engines enables a niche business to target the specific words that describe their services...and not spend a dime on the rest.)

2.  And the search engines now make it easy for customers to find a very specialized company. (Example:  A Google search for "Environmental consulting company in Oakland, CA." This person knows just what they are looking for-- in this case a certain-type of company in a specific location.)

3.  The website behaves like a salesforce. (Example: An online tour introduces the firm's service, FAQ's anticipate objections and respond, quote-request form set expectations about pricing,  live-chat makes an instant conversation easy for the prospect...more.)

4.  If product inventory is online, you don't need a warehouse.  And you don't need shelf-space.  The Long Tail theory doesn't suggest that brick and mortar businesses will disappear, only that niche-businesses will spring up-- and do very, very well.

5.  You can listen to your customer like never before.  (Example:  Blogs.  The enable you to demonstrate your expertise, ask questions, gather feedback and refine your offering.)

Keep Long Tail on your radar.  Read more at The Long Tail.

We're not living in the Information Age

Paul Saffo, a Forecaster at The Institute for the Future (IFTF), Stanford professor and all-around guru recently declared we're not living in the Information Age. He calls it Media:

"...In the old media, all we could do was press our noses against the Glass and watch.  This new world of personal media- the web, the internet etc. - not only delivers the world to [our] living rooms, but everywhere.  And we get to answer back.  And we're expected to answer back.."

Media more accurately describes the exchange aspect of today's information.  The interactivity.  And this is impacting every business out there,.  You can sell tires or manufacture parts or design buildings--  regardless of industry, your customer expects to interact with you pre- and post -sale..and they expect you to answer back.

How will your customer expect to interact with you tomorrow?

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Of note:  The web design agency I created for small business three years ago is called Wheel Media.  Was I prescient, or just lucky?

 

Email marketing works

I came across some data from the marketing and research firm DoubleClick and I was inspired to share: Email works.

...E-mail continues to be a viable direct marketing tactic. Seventy-eight percent said they made a purchase as a result of an e-mail, 59 percent redeemed an e-mail coupon in a store and almost one-third have clicked on an e-mail and made an immediate purchase. Another third reported clicking on e-mails for information and returning later to make purchases...  [December 2005]

The advantages of focus

During a recent discussion about the new companies (I hesitate using the term 'startup.' Why is that?) buzzing around the Bay Area the topic of new product development came up.

Some firms cannot stop innovating new products/services.  They love their customer and they want to deliver the world, so they create new offerings, new services, new payment models.  New new new.

My experience as the Director of Product Marketing for a fast-moving startup (gulp) in 2000 was that introducing new products made it hard to market those already in the mix.  Sure, the new products we're a good for our customers and fit into our core-business, but the challenge was time.  Let's say with 20 offerings each gets an hour.  If you're driving 5 offerings each gets 4 hours.  Hmm.  If you can succeed on all 20 with that single hour by all means, rollout now.  If.

Our company faced the challenge of advancing each fantastic, interesting new product an inch each day when it needed a yard to gain traction.  Many factors outside of our control sealed our fate, but this one made things that much more challenging.

On the other side of the specturm, many firms don't seem to innovate new products at all.  This is slowing growth by either a little or a lot, and usually is part of the culture of the organization.  This doesn't mean a consulting agency should start selling lawnmowers, but simply start thinking new.  The fastest way to break out of this rut is to talk with 3 customers and ask them what they do with your product, how they use it, what else they want it to do, and what else they'd like you do do.  Mow their lawn? Well, that's a start.

Email Marketing: Where to Start

Email marketing is a big topic and my 'Getting Started' posts aim to be brief, so let me offer some quick, simple ideas on how to begin and save the fine-points for another day.  Note that I'm a fan of permission-based email marketing, AKA, 'opt-in.'

1.  Decide what you want to say

• Provide information to your readers
• Develop a voice, a message, and a mission

2.  Build your own list

• Start collecting names on your website
• Add your current and past clients to your list (ask permission.)

3.  Send in HTML

• Look smart, sophisticated and professional to your client
• Provide links back to your site

4.  Obey the SPAM laws

• Unsubscribe link
• Physical address
• Etc.

5.  Be consistent

• Send a monthly newsletter out MONTHLY, no less, no more.
• Always have an extra month's worth of content, so you're not scrambling around at the last minute if things get busy at publishing time.

Email marketing is a great way to turn a friend into a customer, and a customer into a salesperson. (For more on this see this post.)

Good copy for your website

Todd Anthony, a rockstar copywriter currently at Yahoo!, has a new post about how to write for the web. I'll call it The 7 habits of highly successful websites.

My .02 on the subject:  Many SME's don't spend much time on the words on their website, but they should.  Good copy is what converts a website visitor into someone who requests a quote.

...you do have a 'Request a Quote' page don't you?

eCommerce: Not just for product sales?

I met with the sales & marketing director of a large hosted shopping-cart solution yesterday and he asked an excellent question:  With about 70% of small businesses selling services rather than products, how long will it take for SB service companies to leverage eCommerce?

• Attorney's selling chunks of time online?
• Contractors accepting payments online?

or...

• Pay for your haircut before you drive over?
• Your car wash?

And he's a smart cookie, so he suggested the eCommerce platform for SM B's could be easily tweaked to accommodate online scheduling as well.  What would that look like?:

• Go online, schedule your haircut appointment for next Tuesday, pay for it.  That took 284 seconds.
  • You didn't have to pick up the phone.
  • Your stylist (no, not 'barber') didn't have to answer your call
  • You didn't have to make sure you had cash in your wallet when you rushed over (late) on Tuesday.

Slick.

We have some of this right now, of course.  Fandango is a good example, but the opportunity for 1000's of other markets is there.  Waiting.

Web 2.0

Why should the small-medium business exec. care about web 2.0?

Because the venture capital firm Draper Fisher will be funding the web 2.0 startup TagWorld?  (Props to Michael Arrington for the news.) Not exactly.  Web 2.0 is important because it will impact the way your customers work with you.

Web 2.0 describes a new generation of websites that are more dynamic. Rather than a solitary experience, like reading a newspaper online or browsing through a catalog, these sites enable visitors to interact with each other.

For example, think about a photo-sharing site where visitors can upload vacation images.  A web 2.0 site enables other visitors to post a comment on each photo.  And each photo can have keywords associated with it (called tags) to make it easy for people to find the photo (i.e., paris, eiffel tower...) And visitors can group together their favorite photos for everyone to see.  And the site will show everyone what is most popular at that moment.

Wow. Visit Flickr.com to experience it.

The more users that add their opinion the more visibility the information will garner.  Communities are forming around special interests, and the trend will continue.

What will the online communities that develop around your companies product or service say about you?

Viral Marketing

Viral Marketing.

Broadly put, viral marketing is the practice of people outside your company to promoting you.  You'll also hear the term WOM, or word-of-mouth marketing, or "buzz" marketing, and the Fortune 1000 has been successfully using this tactic for 6-7 years.

More than a customer referral, a product or service that has gone viral has inspired people to shout from the rooftops, call their friends and email their associates. They are proactive and loyal. And they're your most valuable resource because the people they are talking-to trust their endorsement.

Do things to make your service viral.  Do them now.  Identify the customers that are opinion-leaders and engage them. Ask them to help shape your service, give them a title, provide them with a discount.

Recommendation:  Get started today.

Customers becoming salespeople

Seth Godin recently made another useful observation about building customer relationships (and sales:)

• Turn strangers into friends
• Turn friends into customers
• Turn customers into salespeople

Of course every business wants viral marketing to be a part of their strategy. The key is to begin at the beginning.  "Friends" are everyone that knows who you are and what you sell...but aren't customers.  They may have requested a quote from your website or visited your store (the physical space or online) but they didn't buy.  Yet.

So how do you turn these 'friends' into customers?  Fortunately there's more than one path to success. But if the goal is too convert a small slice of the new customers into salespeople down-the-road we need to inspire and connect with them all the way through the sales cycle, from when they first walk-in the door to 30 days after they purchased your product or service.  Talk to them about their need, how they will use your product, about how your service affects their life, about what you could do differently next time.

Connect with them.
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Coming soon:  Turning customers into salespeople.