Tag: Advertising

Industrial Tourism

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

Industrial Tourism is big business. It’s a little know fact the Boeing factory in Seattle has over  180,000 visitors a year.  At $15 a ticket that is approx $2.7 million in high margin revenue.

boeing 787 dreamliner

Local Australia firm fosters brewing has a popular brewery tour at their Melbourne plant (you get a free beer at the end of it) as does Media conglomerate NBC in the Rockerfella Centre in New York. None of this is free, and they are all fully booked pretty much every day.  The thing that is almost as powerful as the cash such Industrial Tourism generates, is the relationship it builds with the brand.

It is pretty cool to be taken into the ‘secret back room’, even though we can all be pretty sure that Boeing or any large conglomerate are not about to give away any secrets on said tours. But this is where startups and SME’s can do it even better. We can let our early adopters into our Factory, Alpha testing, Retail back room, Warehouse, New Product Development session. We can let them expose our secret goodness to the market for us. Especially if we do something awesome like make great software, use recycled materials or anything creative.

So the question for startups is this: How can we let our early adopters and brand evangalists into our secret world to spread our world?

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Delayed Revenue Model vs Free (DRM)

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

I know I am being a bit of a dog with a bone here. But we really need to put this ‘Free’ stupidity to rest once and for all. Sure it’s semantics, but this is what the Free model really is:

Delayed Revenue Model

If we have a so called ‘Free’ model, we are simply providing resources (at out cost) in order to extract revenue through alternative means later, or via a trade sale to incumbents who see value in what we have created. In both cases the ultimate goal is Revenue.

delayed

In many ways it’s riskier to go down the free track, simple because time and money are inextricably linked. If we don’t end up ‘Monetizing’ (another word I hate) then we are simply in the wealth transfer business.

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How to make a sales call

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

Today I was out making sales calls in my local industrial area where there are a lot of different rental companies. Idea being to get these rental / hire companies using rentoid.com to generate extra business. The timing is good, because we have a zero cost entry platform and times are tough in the B to B arena.

But the thing that really matters is how I’ve been making the sales calls. Firstly, these guys are B to B, trades focused guys. renting mainly industrial equipment. The last thing they want to some tech / web geek give them bullshit about how the internet is going to save them…. So here’s what I’ve done instead:

  1. I haven’t shaved for 3 days – got a good beard growing. I’m wearing jeans and boots with a fairly standard zip up jumper. When I walk in I look like a customer, in fact I look like they do. I’m less threatening and this is obvious with the positive greetings I’m receiving.
  2. When I drop in (remember it’s a cold call) I say, ‘You know I live around the corner, I drive past here everyday and I’ve been meaning to drop in for ages. You know I’ve got web business which is all about rental companies…..” And I do live close enough to use this line. It is genuine.
  3. The F Bomb – Yep, I’m dropping this one big time – for one simple reason – they are. I’ll use whatever language they use. If they like swearing, so do I. I’m matching their culture in dress and language.
  4. I know their business. I don’t walk in and say ‘So tell me about your business’ – I do my homework before I turn up. Granted I know enough about the rental industry now to adapt to different segments pretty quick. I know what matters to them and get the conversation into that area quickly.
  5. I don’t try and sell anything on the first call. We do have a free entry to rentoid – but we also sell integrated web technologies. But I don’t try to sell anything.  Just get them to like me in fact, I’m selling me. People buy things from people they like. Then they find a logical or business reason to justify their decision after they’ve already made it.
  6. I follow up with whatever I promise. Information, phone calls, data whatever they need. I try to show I’ll be a valuable resource.
  7. I get rejected too. It’s a numbers game, and each rejection is a lesson for honing my skills for the next call.

I’m learning heaps and I’m loving it.

Start up blog says – get out there and start selling.

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Best in the world (How to be)

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

You are reading the number 1 startup blog in the world! Pretty cool huh. Just Google the words ‘Start up blog’ anywhere in the English speaking world.

It wasn’t always that way – when I started I was over 100 pages deep in Google. Now I have more than 30,000 readers.

Number 1

Fast forward nearly 4 years, a blog entry every single day, on the same general topic (Startups & entrepreneurship), sharing knowledge and practicing what I preach I’ve made it to number 1. There were no tricks, no SEO, no overt social media promotion, not even the .com domain. It came down to 2 things:

1. Consistent output – high frequency of delivery

2. Useful content.

That’s it.

If you want to win, to be the best, then work towards it every day.

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Difference between traditional & social media

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

This is the difference between traditional and social media in one simple chart (albeit a little fuzzy). Forget all the crap you have read on how social media differs to traditional media. This is it summarized right here on startup blog in terms which matter for business:

Difference between traditional & social media

I’ve made some notes above. Don’t believe what you’ve heard – old media isn’t dead – sure it’s more expensive for the return, but it still kicks but. When rentoid was featured on a nightly news TV show as a positive story, we had more hits that one day than we did for the entire year. And we had been and are investing a tremendous amount of time on new and social media. It’s been a two year effort.

If you want a few other qualitative ideas to take with you then here’s a few:

  • They work better together
  • Social media is incredibly slow but has a compound effect
  • If I had endless funds available for media, I’d still prefer traditional media (for now)

These comments are based on fact and real experience in Australia from my business rentoid.com which has had heavy exposure in both.

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VB Regulars – new TVC is Radvertising

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

VB have just launched another advertising campaign titled ‘the Regulars’ – which is a shift from the 20 year old ‘Hard earned thirst’ campaign we all know the tune of….

Take a look – then I’ll give you my thoughts below:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whjNr-hjr7E]

I think it is excellent. If this doesn’t turn around the brand, then nothing will (FYI – the brand has had periods decline for many years now).

Why is it excellent?

Well, beer used to be a reward for effort type product in the mainstream beer category. Historically VB fit the mould for labourers, tradesman et al. As we move from a manufacturing to an information society,  hard earned thirst doesn’t seem to make sense, everyday people does. The current social climate has changed and the Regulars reflects this. The execution of the idea is an absolute benchmark and manages to integrate a bit of ‘celebrity’ without alienating the Regulars, in fact – it promotes the everyday man to the celebrity.

This is clearly Radvertising.

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