Theresa Q's Viewspage on Marketkeeping

A Scientific approach to looking for customers #li

When I get frustrated about the difficulty of finding new customers, Rob May is a good person to help me get over it. Finding customers is one of the riskiest, most expensive, dangerous activities that a company undertakes. When someone tells you that you just have to keep your nose to the grindstone and meet more people--they are wrong. If you don't find the right place to meet those people, you will never have a sustainable marketing model. 

Coconut Headsets: Customer Validation, 2012-Feb-21 by Rob May

Remember that your goal as an entrepreneur is to deploy capital effectively, and one of the most effective ways to use capital is to de-risk the business. This means investing in areas that help you learn about the market. The riskiest part of your funnel is the top of funnel, because that is the part over which you have the least control. Let me say that again. Focus on top of funnel the most, because that is where you have the least control. Your customer acquisition options are largely external and dependent on market structure, thus they are out of your control. Your conversion rates once users hit your site are primarily internal and under your control.

Creativity is defined by constraints, a tribute to Norman Berry #li

When I was being taught how to provide direction for creative people at Oglivy & Mather, they said that a narrowly focused objective was crucial to a campaign's success. 

I'm proud to say that I actually heard Norman Berry say "Give me the freedom of a tightly defined strategy." He said it often. 

Wired: Need to create? Get a constraint, 2011-Nov-13, by Jonah Lehrer (via DailyGood)

The larger lesson is that the brain is a neural tangle of near infinite possibility, which means that it spends a lot of time and energy choosing what not to notice. As a result, creativity is traded away for efficiency; we think in literal prose, not symbolist poetry. And this is why constraints are so important: It’s not until we encounter an unexpected hindrance – a challenge we can’t easily resolve – that the chains of cognition are loosened, giving us newfound access to the weird connections simmering in the unconscious.

How to avoid customers that are too small

When deciding whether or not to work with someone, you must pay close attention to the context of their questions. Some people want to learn, and some people just really don't. For those of us who love to learn, it's mysterious but a very, very real concern. 

If your prospect doesn't understand what you do they must either 1) trust you to handle it, or 2) display a willingness to learn from you. It's hard to walk away from someone who really could use your help. Visit the link below to see a very entertaining example. 

Digital Life: The Complete Myth of Local Advertising, 2010-Nov-20, by Shelly Palmer

There is no incremental local retail advertising to be had. The money simply isn’t there. If a local company is big enough advertise, it is already doing it. If it is not big enough to advertise — there’s a reason. The myth of local advertising is that it exists at all. It simply does not.

Straighten up and email right, says Jakob Nielsen

Like automobiles, email newsletters are powerful and dangerous. Usability expert Jakob Nielsen reminds us how challenging it can be as he picks apart these examples.

useit.com Alertbox: UK Election Email Newsletters Rated, 2010-Apr-26, by Jakob Nielsen:

Since our earliest user research into email newsletters 8 years ago, we've known that newsletters are a superb mechanism for growing a relationship with customers. Indeed, when we recently asked users why they were visiting particular websites, the most common response was, "I was reminded to do so because I received an email newsletter from the site."

Beyond being good for business, newsletters are an effective means for political candidates to stay in touch with their supporters during an election campaign. (Twitter and Facebook campaigning might get more press coverage, but representatives from all 3 parties told The Economist that the old-fashioned newsletter is actually the more effective campaigning tool.)

Before You Join the Social Media Party

Over at Brazen Careerist, Matt talks about what it takes for an individual to be successful in social media. If you think you'd like to join the rest of us using social media, or worse, if you feel competitive pressure to use Facebook, Twitter, or any other social media tool, please consider these 15 steps. I encourage you to read Matt's original post, which is very insightful, or click through to my paraphrase. Whenever I actually intend to use advice, I re-write it in my own language, so that it becomes part of my thinking. Thanks, Matt!

Brazen Careerist: Invest For Success: 15 Steps To Effective Social Media Marketing And Better Blogging, 2009-Oct-27, by Matt Cheuvront

Your blog and Social Media presence is an INVESTMENT – An investment that takes patience and perseverance to see real success. It’s also an investment with goals and benchmarks that will continually adapt and change.

Theresa's version of Matt's 15 Steps:

Give then receive

Take a gamble on the value of the content on your web site. If it's actually valuable, your visitors will reward you by coming back, sharing and even registering. Another good point is that the people who register afterwards are a better match to what you provide (pre-qualified).

FutureLab Marketing & Strategy Innovation blog: Collecting Visitor Info: Reward vs. Reciprocity, 2009-Aug-29, by Roger Dooley:

In fact, most users confronted with a form won’t complete it....a reciprocity strategy works better – give them the info they want, and then ask for their information. In the impressively titled Embedded Persuasive Strategies to Obtain Visitors’ Data, Gamberini et al found that twice as many visitors gave up their information if they were able to access the information first.

Beat subscription risk

No one ever asks for more email. They may be anxious to know about your next sale or what new products are arriving, but they will never subscribe unless you make it clear that it's the only way to find out. Michael Katz of Blue Penguin Development recently explained it well.

E-Newsletter On E-Newsletters: Kick Open Your Front Door, 2009-Aug-21, by Michael Katz:

Nobody in 2009 is looking for more stuff to subscribe to… you need to convince them. ... A sales page is a single page, somewhere on your web site, whose sole function is to convince people to take the plunge. (Here's the one I use.)