Category: Marketing Insight

Freshness

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

On first thoughts we’d assume that green grocers and web developers are in an entirely different business. But upon closer expection there are quite a few similarities. Similarities which can’t be ignored.

First of all – it needs to easy to find what your after. If it’s not obvious, if we can’t see it  we’ll assume it isn’t there.

Secondly – we need things clearly categorised.we need to be able to sort the apples from the oranges. So it makes sense to have them in different sections. Not all bundled up in the one place in a rainbow of colors.

But most important of all things need to be fresh. They need to know it and we need to show it. There is nothing worse than a static website – not only do we want, but we ‘expect’ frequent change.

Clue number 1 – the refresh button.
Clue number 2 – it’s software – it’s made to be malleable.

People want to see what ‘we’ and ‘they’ the members / users are up to. What members are doing, what’s changed, that it’s live, that the site represents what’s happening in the physcial world. This matters for every website, that is any business which happens to have a website. Not just businesses with the web as it’s primary forum.  Youtube does it with it’s most viewed by the day, feature videos and promoted videos. Flickr shows a different photo everytime we click in it. Most cool sites let us register for updates or run a regularly updated blog. It isn’t hard – just important.

Start blog says – change things up a little a lot

Buying vs Selling

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

The ultimate goal of any entrepreneur is to have people buying stuff from you. Our job as entrepreneurs is move our brand from a position of selling, to place where people come to buy. This takes time and continuous refinement of whatever we make, do or market. Truly successful brands don’t really sell stuff – it’s bought.

As Gitomer would say:

People don’t like to be sold, but they love to buy.

And so the most profitable sales interactions are defined by the audience. Women tend to say ‘They bought a pair of shoes’. Not that the shoes were sold to them.

Startups should remember – We start out selling, in the hope that it evolves into buying.

Rambo – the ultimate boostrapper

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

Rambo First Blood part 1, is a movie all entreprenuers ought invest 2 hours watching.

The key lessons is simple: The ultimate resource is creativity. It’s game winning. John Rambo single handedly defeats an army choc full of resources, through ‘creative boostrapping’. Bootstrapping which then invented new tactics the competitors didn’t even consider. Key words that come to mind are; Insight, Passion, Risk, Mind Control, Tenacity, Belief and Courage. This film should be the first lesson in any entrepreneurial learning forum. Be like Rambo and win.

25 years on this film still rocks. There are so many cool scenes I won’t ruin it here by explaining them. Better yet, go watch it, then tell us your favourite scene and why in the comments below.

Testimonials

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

Testimonial pages are fairly predictable. Find a bunch of your best customers, get them to say something nice. Convince new customers you and your team are a bunch of trustworthy, nice people to do business with.

Problem is this: predictable = skeptical

Here’s an idea: Take a random sample of comments including ‘some’ bad. The implicit assumption here is that we have more good reviews than bad. If we don’t forget the testimonials and fix your stuff.

Once we’ve got a representative sample of testimonials including some negative what we’ve done is taken our brand into the realms of reality. Result: Increased levels of trust and reduced skepticism.

  • We are saying that we are real – we occasionally make mistakes.
  • We are saying we are honest – which is refreshing.
  • We are saying we can’t please everyone – which is authentic.

Startups out there – differentiate your self with some authenticity.

Media diet – startup style

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

As promoted in the 4 hour work week a media diet is a nice way save time. For entrepreneurs a different type of media diet is required.

A business trends diet

Here’s how – avoid all business related articles as they pertain to new strategies & trends.

Here’s why – We already know enough to be successful. Our problem is doing the stuff.

Unless we are just starting in the business world – we’ve heard every strategy and the fact is that most ‘new’ business ideas are simple derivatives of business theories which have been around since the birth of commerce. Cables channels and tech stuff is the worst. Who’s got the time to read 86 posts from techcrunch every day? – not me.

We ought just trust our judgment and make the call that we know enough to get moving…and the rest we’ll learn on the job…. So in the spirit of this blog entry, ignore the articles you were about to read and get back to your stuff.

Outsourcing – Visuals vs Backend

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

As webpreneurs we all now employ offshore coders to develop sites using super cool resources like Odesk and Elance. The process is a simple one. But just like all things good, there are some catches. Here’s some advice from someone whose done, does it and occasionally avoids it.

The main thing you need is patience and very considered briefs. When there is a language barrier, ideas and words can be taken very literally.

Our experience is that some (not all) offshore IT practioners are indifferent with ‘visual’ requirements. Maybe it’s a cultural implication. And there are many things we’ve had done much better offshore, like finding creative solutions to technical problems. We’ve worked with some great creative bootstrappers. But it’s clear that more developed markets put a much higher value on ‘aesthetics‘. So we get all our rentoid visuals done locally, while we outsource alot of our backend work. It’s akin to a convenience store you might see in India, there just not quite as pretty as those in Australia and the USA. See below.

Western Convenience Store

Convenience Store India