Your product/service vastly improves your customers’
lives.In today’s world of stimulus
saturation, how do you get your message across?Let’s look at two approaches. This example is taken from a company whose
product helps organizations manage their IT resources.
·“It takes 82% of companies with over
1000 employees, up to 10 days, to retrieve an employee’s PC when the employee
is terminated.During this time, 25% of
ex-employees access their former employer’s computer, causing an estimated
$54.6 million in damage.”
·“About 6 months ago, an account
manager at Company X, a financial services company, was let go, but HR never
retrieved his computer. He immediately went home and transferred all his
accounts to a home computer. He then sent his customers an email notifying them
that his company was changing their email addresses and phone numbers. Two
months later, Company X noticed a high rate of customer defections. Turns out,
the account manager joined a competitor and recruited many of his former
clients….many of the clients never realized they had changed service
providers…The impact, as you can imagine, was enormous…”
Which one of these approaches is more convincing?
People like stories – regardless of age position, title, or
educational background, humans are social creatures.Therefore, good marketing starts with good
story telling.
One place where people typically “blow it” is the classic
sales presentation. How many presentations have you sat through, where the
presenter spews statistics and market figures like Mt. Vesuvius
on a bad day. People’s eyes glaze over, heads bonk on the table, and then the
presenter says, “and this reminds me of a story…” All of a sudden, eyes are
open, people are wake up, and there is electricity in the air. Now, the
audience is engaged.
We have all been there. And it seems so obvious. Why then, do
people continue to present numbing statistics and marketing figures? I think a lot of this has to do with people’s
fear of public speaking. It is much easier to stick to dry facts, rather than to
“be yourself” in front of a group of customers, bosses, or peers.
Here are some practical tips for engaging your audience in
order to get your message across:
·A theme or metaphor for you message
can be extremely powerful, if it is familiar and if it fits the situation. For
example, if you are offering a service to help organizations achieve regulatory
compliance, a metaphor about the complexity of planning a vacation would be
intuitive, since both are quite complex and difficult – even more so, when you
don’t know the landscape. Note: beware of jaded metaphors, such as “the
Internet as a highway of information” – these are awful.
·Make sure what you are saying is
sincere. It is easier than you think to detect BS. And it is a major turnoff.
·Come up with a story, anecdote,
joke you feel comfortable telling. One of the most embarrassing
presentations I sat through was where a presenter tried to tell a personal, emotional
story. He was so nervous that it took him about 10 minutes to tell a 2 minute
story. All the while, the audience was looking at the floor and shuffling their
feet…just waiting for the presenter to stop already.
·Be respectful. Be careful about
poking fun- your joke may be misunderstood or misconstrued and might offend
someone in the audience. I was once present in a presentation where someone
made an innocuous joke about the current situation being at DEFCON 5. One of
the audience members was an old submarine hand, and he found the reference
offensive.
·If you aren’t funny, don’t try and
tell a joke. Test out your story with a friendly, but honest audience before
you go “live.”
·Keep it short. The story help you
promote your message, not take on a life of its own.
How do you get people to know they need your product or service?
One way, is to assume they know they need it and assume they are actively looking for it. All you have to do is sit back and offer them a series of reasons why your product is the best.Create some Google Ads, tweak your website for SEO, and then build a landing page that describes your product’s technical benefits.
Way number two, is to assume that there are many, many people out there who are not aware of your product or service, or they don’t realize that it can make their lives better in some way. Analyze the customers’ problem, assess why they would, or wouldn’t buy any product, and then figure out why they would buy your product over a competitor’s.
Seems like a “no-brainer,” right?Not so fast.Consider this…
At a“DEMO-like” event this week, I heard a revenue stage CEO say that his consumer product sells into a “multi-billion dollar” annual market, yet he is taking only a very small slice of the pie.The CEO’s five minute product presentation primarily spoke about why his product is technically better than the competition. He wrapped up his presentation by describing “awesome” features his company is now developing. An audience member raised his hand and asked, “If your product is so much better than the competition’s, why aren’t you investing in marketing it, rather than developing another product with more features?”The CEO thought for a minute and said, “We are doing marketing.Do you know how much we spend each month on Google Ads?”
It wasn’t the first time I have heard this in the last few months.Part of the problem lies with the fact that entrepreneurs generally understand technology, but they don’t understand how to reach their audience.They also assume that they themselves represent the “average customer,” which is generally far from the truth.
Google’s Search, Google Ads, and the spread of social media and networks have created a new reality. Today, it is feasible for anybody sitting at home to potentially reach millions and millions of people, worldwide. Companies can theoretically cut out the middleman and go directly to the customer.But this is like giving everyone in Hyde Park a megaphone and telling them they can speak to everyone else in the park. Since everyone is now blasting through the megaphone, all you get is more noise, no more information.
Yes, social media brings tremendous value to marketing,
Yes, it will likely lower marketing costs, if done properly.
Yes, it may cut out the middleman in some cases.
But, it does not mean you don’t have to still figure out how to use the new media to reach your audience, build a story, and target your potential market. See my last post for some concrete suggestions….
Everyone’s talking about the latest buzz-term de jour – “social marketing.” It started with blogging, then it spread to Facebook and LinkedIn, and now it’s Twitter…
The idea goes something like this – create a presence (i.e. page or entry) on one of these tools, then use it to spread your message virally. People will see your message automatically; you don’t need to actually find them.Instantly and effortlessly you have access to millions of people, without having to work hard, and more importantly, without having to spend any money.In the “old-world,” you actually had to target your customers and think about how to reach them; in the “new world” you just have to “be there” and create some buzz.The socio-sphere has made the world flat!The only thing you have to do is create some buzz.So goes the argument.
But how do you get people to notice your buzz? And therein lies the rub.Some people try to “game the system.” For example, some companies pay people to write recommendations, to create phony reviews or ratings, or to tag information that posted on various blogs or social networks.A more sophisticated approach is to create an ecosystem of recommenders. For example, I recommend your product and then you recommend mine.A third permutation of this method involves paying an outside company to manage the process; they hire the pseudo-recommenders and create all the appropriate links and re-tweets.
I think these methods are largely ineffective and in fact counterproductive (even if you don’t get caught). Here’s why:
The socio-sphere is a huge place and too many other folks doing the same thing. Unless you are a big company with huge budgets, you won’t win. If you are a big company, you shouldn’t be doing this for obvious reputation concerns.
It is impossible to generate a “virtual crowd” with a handful of people. You will waste enormous amounts of precious time with few results.
If you can’t truly engage people with a meaningful message, it will not propagate no matter how many re-tweets, links, tags, or recommendations you create.
It won’t last – in today’s age of instantaneous global social networks, this hour’s news is tomorrow’s ancient history.
So is social marketing just the latest marketing gimmick?On the contrary, social networks represent essential marketing tools, when used properly.Here is what I suggest for a successful social marketing campaign:
·Invest the time and effort to clearly define your market and produce solid messages.Analyze why a customer would buy your product/service versus a competitor or versus buying nothing. Without a solid marketing message for a well-defined target market, you won’t be successful no matter what. Nothing new, and no short-cuts here.
·Validate your messages – test your messages with a few prospects, analysts, bloggers, and other people who you feel understand your market.
·Generate quality content that speaks to the concerns and interests of your target market; content that is informative, not sales-y. Nobody wants to read a brochure or data sheet. On the other hand, a white paper, a short video or a podcast that discusses a market problem and then offers some approaches to solving it (including your product’s), are of great interest.
·Make the information easily available for people to get – post it on your web site, blog page, and on publicly-available sites for white papers, presentations (e.g. SlideShare), videos (e.g. YouTube), and make sure you brand the content so that people know where it came from.
·Identify important market influencers – analysts, bloggers, reporters, etc. who would be interested.
Here is where social media comes in…
·Connect with these market influencers on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and their blog sites.
·Use social media to make the influencers aware of your information. If you have created an interesting, provocative piece, it will get a mention. Don’t expect the really big names (e.g. Techcrunch for high tech) to show an interest, because these guys are inundated with releases vying for their attention. Rather, focus on more targeted outlets. For example, post updates on relevant LinkedIn groups, Twitter, blog sites, etc.
·Keep it real; a relationship with a market influencer is a two-way street. Build an honest two way dialogue that benefits both parties. When they have questions about what vendors are doing, you should be ready and willing to give them the time to address their interests.
·Be vigilant in responding to comments about your content. Seek out related content and respond with real comments…NOT product plugs.
In short, the idea is to become an active participant in a real community. This involves hard work; you need to constantly think of creative content and “market it.” This is vastly different than the old world of pushing a product or service, but it can be more effective, and here’s why. When you produce valuable content, you become an asset. You provide customers and prospects with valuable information and therefore, you become a trusted resource.
And here is where I believe the true power of social marketing comes to bear. Social marketing allows people to find human resources who can help them solve a problem. It becomes easy to connect with these folks on a meaningful and ongoing basis. Once you become a trusted resource, it is easy to be heard.
To sum up:
Is social marketing cheaper than “old marketing?” Yes, because the production and distribution costs are low to non-existent.
Is it easier? No, because you need to be constantly creating meaningful content. You need to be constantly online tracking it and responding to the community.
Is it more effective? You bet. When done properly, not only will (company-branded) information propagate, but you will also become a trusted resource – just the thing you want to be in today’s crowded and competitive market where marketing slogans and messages are trivial to copy.
Based on my last post, I thought it might be helpful to
present several ideas about how to get small/young companies to focus on
investing in strategic marketing, early in the product/service development
cycle.
First, let's look at the sources of the problem.
"Gotta
get it out the door!"--CEOs are under the gun from the "get go" --
budgets are tight and there is tremendous pressure to get to market
quickly. As such, an activity that is not absolutely necessary is shelved
for later consideration. The mantra, "let's get the product out and then
we can deal with the rest" is a fairly common one. It
"If
you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail"--in small companies,
CEOs often come with technology or finance backgrounds. It is much easier for
them to focus on the issues with which they feel comfortable. To the
uninitiated, marketing appears to be anything from fluff to black magic.
To
many young CEOs, marketing reeks of bloated budgets, time-wasting
fluff-mongers, and generally an impediment to getting any real work done.
(See Dilbert for more information ... .)
Trying to explain the value of marketing is generally a
waste of time. Rarely do I hear a CEO say they don't believe in marketing; they
all "get it," they just don't have any resources for it now ... Here is how
you can cut through the noise and get executives to understand what good
marketing can provide. This advice is equally valid for internal resources and
outsourced marketers looking for an engagement.
Start
small--everyone knows that there are certain marketing pieces that any
company needs; it might be data sheets, customer case studies, or a sales
presentation. CEOs will spring for these. Once you begin, filling in the
content require good messages and proper positioning. At this point, most
companies will spend some time doing some messaging exercises--although
they won't want to pay for it and they won't want to "waste time"
validating the messages either.
Projects
that have clear deliverables are easier to digest--while it is difficult
to propose a serious lead generation project with poor targeting and poor
messaging, the process does lend itself for finagling some proper product
marketing activities. For example, as part of a lead generation campaign,
I often propose a white paper describing the market need and the
product/service's unique value. This exercise almost always leads to a
serious discussion about how the company's sees itself, and the company
should go to market.
Do
your homework--showing a CEO what a competitor has been able to
accomplish with good marketing is often a catalyst for getting attention. When
a competitor is getting a lot of market traction, mentions in the relevant
forums, etc., CEOs get nervous. Fear is a great motivator. Also,
presenting a competitive market map shows the CEO you mean business and
that you get it.
Stay
away from anything that sounds expensive, flashy, or fluffy. Proposing an
expensive trade show with a customized booth and giveaways is almost
always a non-starter for young, thrifty CEOs.
Leverage
industry influencers to amplify a company's message. A project to work
with industry influencers is often well-received, if you don't propose a
$15K+ subscription to an analyst group. Try and quantify the deliverables
up front in order to set expectations realistically.
These suggestions won't guarantee success, but they offer a
good start to getting off on the right foot. Comments and feedback are welcome.
I have had the opportunity to meet with a variety of high tech companies in the last few weeks, and I am amazed by some of the "wisdom" that comes from the mouths of CEOs in today’s day and age. Here are a few of the “doozies” – if you hear similar things in your company, RUN, DON’T WALK to the exits!
“I know our website isn’t very clear, but customers who are looking for our kind of product will understand we mean.”
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“Let our competitors spend their money on marketing and awareness; we don’t need that because we have a better product.”
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“We don’t want to actively pursue customers or generate awareness, because that might antagonize our (one) reseller.”
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I told one CEO that I couldn’t figure out what his company’s product does from their web site; this was his response: “That is intentional. We ask our customers what they need, and then we tell them that that is exactly what our product does.”
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“We don’t talk to industry analysts, because we all know that the only way you can get a positive rating is to pay them.”
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“Marketing is expensive and the return is so small. I can get a lot more mileage by developing additional product features.”
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In a consolidating market where several competitors have already been bought up by large conglomerates, this is what one CEO had to say about investing in brand awareness. “It’s too soon to get the word out…maybe in a year or two, but not now. I mean, what would I do if somebody actually responded to a campaign – I wouldn’t even have anyone to call them back.”
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When commenting on the company’s decision to return to a market that proved unsuccessful in the past, with the same offering, this is what one CEO had to say. “I know it doesn’t make much sense, but we have to try something different. We know what we are doing now isn’t working.”
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I asked a CEO of a brand new startup, to identify his customers. This was his response: “We don’t have any customers right now. We don’t have a budget to work with customers. We plan to build a product for 8 months, then look for additional funding to engage with customers.”
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One company had a very small competitor in Norway. They got a customer request from a company in Finland, which I thought was pretty lucky, consdering there was little outreach in that area.
Me: “That sounds like a great opportunity – I wonder how they heard about you.”
CEO:“Ignore them – I’ll bet it’s that company in Norway trying to get information about us.”
Me: “How could that be? This a legitimate Finnish company; that company is in Norway.”
CEO: “Norway, Finland….what’s the difference?”
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“I know we lose money on each customer, but what we lose on each customer, we make up in volume.” (Okay, I made that one up, but it doesn’t sound that different from the other silliness, does it?)
Your company is only as good its people. An awful cliché, but it is usually true. Hiring the wrong people is the most critical mistake a small company can make, so it makes sense to learn from others. Here are some important hiring don’t and do’s:
Don’ts
·An all-star team doesn’t usually work. There isn’t enough space for all the egos. Rather, a small company needs the appropriate combination of talent, culture, and most-importantly “drive” to move the company forward. Later on, as the company grows, these needs will necessarily change, but forgo the urge to build a dream team.
·Don’t hire (only) people like yourself – People prefer to be around similar people. Hiring too many identical people promotes groupthink.
Don't be afraid to hire people with more experience or expertise than yourself. Your business needs many types of expertise, no one has a monopoly on experience
·Don’t discount people who might “rock the boat” –managers are often wary of dissention, so they hire people who won’t be too vocal. Good employees can often prevent fatal mistakes if their input and feedback are appreciated.
·Be wary of hiring too many people with big company backgrounds –Managers are often impressed with big company names and job titles. These folks are used to working with a support staff that you don’t, and won’t have. Small companies usually do better with people who can “carry their own bags.” Look for people with broad experience, rather than narrow, big company backgrounds.. It is not always true, but more often than not, big company professionals cringe at the thought of flying economy, doing their own presentations, preparing their own demos, etc. (There are similar issues related to for-profits vs. non-profits, government vs. the private sector, etc.)
·Don’t hire people who don’t fit the company culture – For example, if the company culture is a top-down hierarchy, don’t hire people who want to join a more “team-oriented” company. The friction created will be corrosive.
Do’s
Do hire people with growth potential. Often, people who thrive in small companies find themselves “out of water” once the company grows. Try to find those that can thrive in both environments. Look for people who have proven success with this, and check references.
Do create an environment where diverse viewpoints and complementary skills are welcomed and hire appropriately. Groupthink and suppression of dissension are two great “company killers.”
Do hire people who can do lots of different things themselves, without a big support staff. People with backgrounds in managing contractors and outsourcers are particularly valuable.
Do find people who can thrive in an environment of uncertainty. Young companies are like roller coasters, since they experience lots of sudden ups and downs, until the company can provide its viability in the marketplace.
Do hire people who are passionate about their work. In small companies, the difference between success and failure often depend on the extra effort exerted by key employees at critical junctures. Dedicated employees who spend a holiday weekend troubleshooting a customer’s problem can be the difference between “making it” or going out of business. Compensate accordingly.
Do understand what drives your employees, particularly the young ones. Today’s young graduates thrive in a collaborative environment, and will often forgo higher pay, for a good work environment. Create an attractive environment for the type of people you want to hire.
Do be open to new ideas. You won't be judged by who came up with an idea, but rather by the results.
“We don’t want to let the cat out of the bag too soon.”
“We know what our customers want, for god’s sake, we are average users ourselves”
“We need to focus on our product; customer feedback will delay the product release. We can always fix it later.”
These are common statements made by companies/entrepreneurs.The problem is that you almost never have the chance to “do it over” if you screw up the first time. Valuable time and money are gone and your reputation is damaged.
What can you do to get valuable feedback early, without delaying the product release? The first thing to remember is that there will always be constant tension between “getting it right” and “getting it out.” There is no magic formula, but starting with the right mindset and building the appropriate infrastructure for incorporating changes as the product is being built, are two critical success factors. Building the appropriate product management processes for incorporating changes (and testing them) is super important. Young companies are notorious for falling in to the “there is never time to do it right, but there is always time to do it over” syndrome.
Practically speaking – how do you solicit feedback and use it to be successful in the market as early as possible? Here are some recommendations:
·Work with a controlled customer base before you even write the product specs. This can be friends, family, business associates, former customers, as long as they are typical users of your product or service. Try to balance sophisticated users with simple users – young companies tend to skew product feedback to sophisticated users who ask for all sorts of bells and whistles that just make the “mass user” experience more difficult. Start with a small number and add more as the product becomes more defined. Too much variance at the beginning will complicate the product definition. Picking the right customer sample is not simple; prior experience is very valuable. You might want to engage with domain experts/consultants for help.
·Don’t ask customers what they want. This is a common mistake. People are usually very poor at describing what they want or need. People want to be helpful, so they will respond to this question, but it is almost never what they really want.Rather, build a story board that tells people what you are proposing and let them provide feedback. Most people are better editors than they are authors. Refine this relentlessly as you talk to more people. The outcome of this process should be consistent feedback.
·Understand alternatives solutions – young companies focus too much on competitive products instead of what “people are doing today” – for example, if you are offering a mass emailing service, your competition might likely be Excel spreadsheets and some scripts, rather than a competing service.
·As product development progresses, keep in constant contact with these “design partners” – once they provide feedback, let them know how you reacted and gauge their response. If at all possible, let them try out modifications as soon as possible.
·If you are working with a product/service for the masses – track usage online; there are tools available for this.Several key things to track are
oHow long are people working with the product per product session?
oWhat operations are they using (and not using)?
oHow often do they use the product?
I experienced this first hand when building a data network CAD system. Tracking usage of early users, we were surprised to find out that most customers did not actually use the product to build a network, but rather to figure out what network components they already had installed. (These findings were in direct contradiction to feedback from focus groups.)This feedback was critical for prioritizing future features.
·Make it easy for users to provide feedback, for example a “provide feedback” button or wiki. People generally won’t fill out forms or questionnaires. They will just stop using the product. For more sophisticated products/services, you will likely need to actively solicit feedback via phone or direct contact.
·Build alpha and beta versions early on – even if only part of the product is functional, let people try it as early as humanely possible. As long as there is sufficient utility in the product, get it out there.Make sure you disable or hide features that don’t work. I find that people are generally forgiving of bugs as long as they feel there is significant utility in what you are providing (and as long as it doesn’t lose their data, crash their computer, etc.). A clear danger sign is not being able to get users for your product early on.
·If feedback is generally negative, don’t hesitate to pull the alpha/beta program and fix what needs to be fixed. People may be forgiving but they aren’t masochists.
·Remember, the overall goal is to get customers early on, so offer a way to automatically convert testers to customers. Incentive plans, introductory pricing, and even offering the product for free in exchange for endorsements or qualified leads, are all valid approaches, depending on the product/service.
When you reach general product release with at least several real users who have paid money for your product and/or provided named endorsements, then you have done something right.
This is the first installment in a series of “mini-articles” that examine the top major mistakes startups and small companies make.This post looks at how blindly following a company vision cause a young/small company to do the wrong things. It also offers some suggestions about how to avoid this mistake.
By nature, entrepreneurs are a confident, risk-taking, brash, defiant lot. These qualities are important because they help company founders overcome the inevitable difficulties and nay-saying that comes with every new venture. Some common “nay-sayings” are the following:
“If your idea was so good, somebody would have done it already.” (This is the “there is nothing new under the sun” response.)
“There is no market for your offering”
“It is too easy to copy your idea – once you do it, (insert big company name here) will copy it and you will be out of business.”
“Somebody is already doing it, you won’t succeed.”
[Side note: Nalebuff and Ayres, in their excellent book “Why Not: How To Use Everyday Ingenuity to Solve Problems Big and Small” present some amusing anecdotes that illustrate that the notion "there is no room for new ideas" is not new. One example provided, was the complete and utter rejection of Christopher Columbus’ “business plan” by the Spanish Royal Commission assigned to vet the westward journey. “The Commission rejected Columbus’ proposal to sail west with the view that ‘so many centuries after the Creation, it is unlikely that anyone could find hitherto unknown lands of any value.’” Another example given is Lord Kelvin’s infamous quote in 1900 that “there is nothing new to be discovered in Physics.” This, just several years before Einstein’s landmark papers that stood the world of science on its head.]
In order to succeed in building a viable business, good entrepreneurs must develop a thick skin and must not become discouraged by negativity. This is natural and healthy.In a sense, rejecting some negative responses becomes a healthy reflex.
However, this almost always creates a problem with inexperienced entrepreneurs when legitimate customers, partners, and indeed early employees reject the founders’ vision. The reflex to reject criticism means that legitimate feedback is often filtered out. Which entrepreneur has not uttered one of the following statements in response to negative feedback?
“Those guys just don’t ‘get it’”
“That guy is a bozo – he wouldn’t know a great idea if it hit him over the head”
“It will be fun proving her wrong”
“Dinosaurs!”
As a result, leaders of young companies often gravitate to sources of positive feedback and ignore one of the best opportunities to correct themselves (before it is too late).
You should be worried when you aren’t getting push-back. Push-back makes you think; push-back makes you analyze whether you are on the right track. Particularly, statements like the following are extremely valuable, when they are specific and detailed:
“Your product won’t work here because….”
“We can do the same thing with (insert other product here)...”
“Nobody will trust their passwords/file security/personal details, etc. to a small company like yours”
My favorite “get lost” statement, which should send off a “five alarm” warning if you hear it, is the following:
“I really like your product, but I wouldn’t be the one to use it. You might want to talk to….” (where … represents the perpetual “someone else”)
These types of objections should help you enhance your product, focus your market position, or at the minimum, sharpen your marketing messages before you launch. In all cases, this type of information should provide valuable assistance to see if you are on the right track.
Few companies have the foresight early on to spend the time and effort analyzing feedback.The more common case is the “damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead” scenario. The startup plows ahead with their product/service plans, investing lots of time and money, only to discover that the offering falls flat on its face.Then what?Is it the product? Is it the messaging?Maybe the wrong target market?The pricing model? Maybe it is just early and you ARE on the right track? How can you know?
Admitting a mistake at this point is not easy, particularly for venture-funded companies. At this stage, with so much already invested, it is difficult to do the right thing. The tendency is to keep plugging away with the same offering, and just try harder. Often, the right thing to do is to step back and analyze your feedback (or lack thereof.)
Several danger signs of “drinking your own Kool-Aid” are the following phenomena:
Early on, company leaders do not participate in day-to-day planning meetings (or planning meetings don’t exist in any structured manner). Developers work according to general visionary statements….and fill in the gaps themselves.
Product direction changes on a(too) frequent basis, often without any sort of due process
There are few, if any interactions with customers/partners to gauge interest about the product/service during the development cycle.
There are customer/partner meetings, but it is filtered by company leaders. Feedback to the developer and marketing teams is not provided in any detailed or consistent manner – i.e. there is a disconnect between customer feedback and the internal operations
Negative reports/articles about the market are ignored or rejected without serious consideration and without an effort to discuss the issues with the authors.
It is wrong to think that all forms of structured process necessarily lead to bureaucracy and slow response times. Processes do not need to be more complicated than a written summary and a short discussion, which can be carried out during a weekly team meeting.
Falling prey to “drinking your own Kool-Aid” often leads directly to other cardinal mistakes, including not validating the market, not working with customers early on, and overestimating the offering’s uniqueness in the market. These will be covered in the next post.
Young companies have small margins for error. Mistakes made early on can sink a company before its gets off the ground. Below is a list of 10 common mistakes made by young, small companies. In the list below, I use the generic term “product” to refer to either a product or a service.
Over the next few posts, I will expound on these ideas; for now, here is the list :
“Drinking Your Own Kool-Aid” – Overestimating the Enthusiasm for Your Product/Service – thinking your product is more special than your customers perceive.
Not Validating Market Demand – thinking that your product is a “winner” before making sure you get a solid base of people who agree
Starting to Work with Customers Too Late – only engaging with customers when the product is ready for sale.
Underestimating the Difficulty in Penetrating the Market – not expending enough effort to reach customers and to get them to try the product.
Overestimating the Product’s Uniqueness – related to “drinking your own Kool-Aid” this refers to not taking competition into account, where competition can be another product or service, or whatever customers are using today.
Underestimating the Effort Needed to Build the Product – promising to get to market before you can actually finish the product.
Hiring the Wrong Kind of People – hiring “big-company types” who are used to having a support staff to help them do their work.
Not Focusing – being tempted by side projects and spreading yourself too thin to focus on developing your company’s main value proposition
Not Pricing Correctly – under or over-pricing the product may inhibit adoption.
Not Having a Long-term Vision That Scales –having a “one-trick pony” that does not lead to future sales
In the entrepreneurial spirit of “under-promise and over-deliver,” here are two more mistakes young companies make:
Never Finishing the Product – the “never time to do it right, but there is always time to do it over” syndrome. Constantly redo-ing the product but never finishing it.
Not Offering Employees Enough Fun – sadly, a common quality of many startups – despite what you read in the pubs.
Disclaimer – as the veteran of six startup companies (two that were successfully sold), these are mistakes I have seen time and again. If you have some additional ideas, feel free to comment.
As the fall marketing “season” gets underway, now is a good time to propose some simple and free ideas for tracking web leads.
In many businesses today, the way to create sales leads is to run a variety of marketing activities, which drive prospects to a web site. Once a prospect clicks through to the web site, they fill out a form to identify themselves and their needs.If people fill out the form and answer the form questions, you can potentially get a treasure trove of data about your marketing programs. For example, you can ask questions such as “how did you hear about this offer?”This kind of feedback is extremely valuable, since it helps you know where to focus your marketing efforts going forward – i.e. what is working and what isn’t.
In my experience, however, people rarely fill out the forms and when they do, the information is often incomplete and inaccurate.So if you are running an integrated campaign with several touch points (e.g. webinar, published articles, blog posts, email blasts, etc.), how can you know what activities were more effective than others? There are hordes of consultants who will sell you services to analyze this type of information, but for young and small companies, I have found that a few simple tricks are usually good enough and offer decent feedback.Here are some ideas:
For each marketing activity, use a different “virtual” link for the web landing page. For example, if someone clicks through on an email you sent them, the link will take them to a web form, but it will identify the source of the prospect as an email recipient.If they click on a banner ad, the link they select identifies them as coming from a specific ad. The landing page form the prospect sees in both cases is exactly the same, but because they were directed from different sources, you can identify whether the email or ad is generating more leads.
Extend the previous method to test your marketing messages – for example, randomly send out mail to your email list using multiple marketing messages. Each message drives the email recipient to a different landing page. This way, you can see which messages are driving more traffic to the download page. Of course, the same idea can be used for testing multiple messages on banner ads, print ads, white paper postings – pretty much any marketing outreach activity.
Use Google Analytics (or other similar services) to track where your web site visitors are coming from. Once registered, you will be able to analyze how many people hit your web site, which page they viewed initially, and how long they spent on the site.While many web visitors are hidden behind their ISP IP addresses, you can still identify a large number of corporate visitors. This can be a boon when you are targeting specific prospects – you can see how many people from the prospective company responded to your outreach.
While not 100% scientific, these methods are often good enough to understand where to focus your efforts.And note that these methods are all free. While it will take a bit of work to set up the web forms with multiple links, it is an amazingly inexpensive way to understand how your marketing efforts are working.
I would be happy to get feedback on other simple methods that are working for you.
