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Posts Tagged ‘marketing’

Make Free Easy

Wednesday, December 14th, 2011

Do you give stuff away for free? When you do, how many hoops do you make us jump through?

I recently participated in an online focus group. One of the things they offered us was a coupon for a free sample of the product we were looking at. Free? Sign me up!

I finally got the coupon (a couple of weeks later). It’s been sitting in my Inbox for over a week. Why? Because of what is required to print it.

The coupon is only good for one printing. I need to be sure my printer is on, ready to go, with paper loaded and my ink cartridge full. I’m not kidding. Those were the instructions.

Now my printer is, how do I put this? Old and cranky. With my luck it would be in a mood when I tried to print the coupon, and I’d be out of luck.

I get that they don’t want me printing zillions of these things for friends, family, clients, etc. But seriously. Does it need to be this hard? Kind of makes me feel not trusted, which doesn’t leave me.with a warm fuzzy about them and their product.

Giving stuff away is good. It allows us to try before we buy. But don’t treat your potential clients like criminals or make it so hard that we say “No thanks!”

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Tags: Giving, marketing
Posted in General | 2 Comments »

Amazon Lending Library

Friday, November 4th, 2011

You may recall a few weeks back when I posted an article about how Amazon was, in my opinion, being reactive in the ebook space and not innovative. Well, some things have changed, and I wanted to update my comments.

Since that post, Amazon has come out with the Kindle Fire and several new Kindles, including a touch screen model. I had said Amazon needed to respond to the desire to have touch screens on e-readers, and I thought they needed a worthy competitor to the Nook Color.

Looks like they’ve done both, even though personally, there are some things about the Kindle Fire I’m not crazy about (like limited access to competitors’ ebook reader apps). Sure, it maintains their lock on content, but even the new Kobo Vox could load the Kindle app without rooting or otherwise messing with the operating system. At some point, you have to keep customers because they are loyal, not because you metaphorically locked them in jail.

But that’s a post for another day.

The new Kindles, however nice, are still reactive. They don’t push the limits too far. I closed my last post with requesting that Amazon answer a need no one else is answering, and they did that yesterday.

People have been asking for a “Netflix for e-books” for some time, and Amazon just released it yesterday. All Amazon Prime members have access to a limited selection of ebooks, for free, with no due dates.

No one’s really happy with it yet. The selection of books is tiny (about 5000), and you can only borrow one a month. Books by the big publishers still aren’t present, so you might not find that new best seller everyone’s talking about. In addition, it only works on Kindle devices, not apps, so I can’t take advantage of it. (But with the Fire so cheap, I might consider getting one in the future, even though it’s not the device I was hoping for.)

But think about it! Netflix had to build up their streaming content over time, and I’m sure Amazon will do the same. I believe in a couple of years, this will grow and be an excellent way to read ebooks. Publishers want to stop piracy. The music industry learned that the best way to stop piracy was to make content cheap and easy to buy.

Amazon has been trying to make that happen in the ebook space for some time. This is the next step in that process. Let’s see how it plays out, but I’m excited, even though I can’t take advantage of it right now.

Way to go, Amazon! You listened to your customers and are working to keep us happy.

Anyone else have an opinion about the new lending library?

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Tags: marketing, sales
Posted in General | 1 Comment »

The Flexibility of Social Media

Monday, September 19th, 2011

I was meeting with someone last week about using social media, and she got me thinking about different ways to get value from social media.

Let me start by saying her attitude toward Twitter was…umm…less than positive. She said she considered it a waste of time because it “was just celebrities and other people talking about where they are and what they’re doing.”

True, there’s an awful lot of that happening on Twitter (and Facebook). We talked some more, and she told me some of her challenges in marketing her business. The three that relate to this post were:

1. Blogs and other content in her industry generally contained uninspired content
2. She wanted a source of indexed content
3. Some of the people she wanted to meet are hard to get to

As we talked, I realized Twitter could help her with all three.

1. Better content

As a blogger, I rely on Twitter to point me to good content as a source of inspiration. I’ve added to posts, disagreed with other posts and synthesized information to create my own analyses. Sometimes, I even repost material on my blog. I’d guess that 1/4 to a 1/3 of my content comes from inspirations gleaned from my reading.

I’m sure she and others could use Twitter as a similar source of information.

2. Indexed source of information

Well, no Twitter isn’t indexed, but the search feature isn’t bad. If you are looking for information on a particular topic, you can create a search and then follow that search instead of following a person. As you follow that search, you’ll likely find certain names popping up over and over. If they’re stuff is good, you could start following them.

3. Access to people

Maybe some of the people you want to meet are on Twitter. It’s funny. I’m noticing some people are more likely to respond to a Twitter @Mention than a phone call or email. So search Twitter. If the people or companies you want to meet with are present, build a virtual relationship. If you do it right, the virtual relationship can be transformed into a face-to-face relationship, giving you access to someone you might not have been able to meet otherwise.

See, social media can be good for a lot more than pushing your product or service or keeping up with the antics of your favorite celebrity.

How about you? How have you used social media to grow or add value to your business?

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Tags: blogging, marketing, Relationship building, social media
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How Apple Forced Me To Buy A Nook Color

Wednesday, July 27th, 2011

This post is about how loyalties can change and actions can have unintended consequences.

Until a few months ago, I did all my reading on my iPhone. I had a ton of e-reader apps: Kobo, Nook, Kindle, Stanza, iBooks and Overdrive for library books. Yes, it was a pain to keep track of what books I had in which app, but I liked the freedom to get books from anywhere.

Most of my e-book money went to Amazon because they had the best selection and usually the best prices.

Then the Sony app was rejected by Apple, who decided to finally enforce their in-app purchase rules. Everyone said the sky was falling and that there would be no e-reader apps in the App Store, and on top of that, Hulu, Netflix, Dropbox and other, similar apps were probably going to vanish as well.

Did I believe the sky was falling? No, but all of a sudden, having a bunch of apps seemed to be a pain, and uncertainty made me uncomfortable enough to consider a change.

Before all this, I was likely to have entered the tablet world with an iPad. I already knew Apple and liked their products. It was kind of expensive, but I could have justified it.

Not any more! I wanted an option that didn’t involve Apple. So, there was the first unintended consequence. Apple lost money on me.

Naturally, I looked at the Kindle since I spent most of my e-book money at Amazon. But I’ve never liked the look and feel of the Kindle. I prefer a soft keyboard to a hard one on a e-reader. And I love touchscreens.

The Sony products were beautiful but too expensive.

So I looked at the Nook. I could root it and still run the Kindle app. It supported all the other bookstores, except iBooks, and I wasn’t interested in buying from them anyway.

So I bought my Nook Color. And still haven’t rooted it. I like the stock operating system. I like the way the reader functions. I like having all my books in one place!

So I still buy a few books from Amazon, but only ones that are DRM-free, and I convert them to Nook format. I can buy from Kobo, Sony and Barnes and Noble. I can get library books, and I don’t have to mess with a bunch of apps.

So where do you think I spend most of my e-book money now? Yes, at Barnes and Noble. They are the easiest. I can buy, download and be reading within minutes. All the other stores require me to hook my Nook up to my computer. Not hard, but why bother if I don’t have to?

You know what’s ironic? I had been right. The sky didn’t falling. All the e-book apps are still available, without direct links to stores, but I never cared about that. But now I have my Nook, and I’m not going back to reading on my iPhone.

So what’s the moral of this story? Well, Barnes and Noble provided a good product that meets my needs. But that’s the small part. Understand that customer loyalty is fickle. I was loyal to both Apple and Amazon. But they didn’t meet my needs, so now I’m loyal to Barnes and Noble. But that could change in the future as well.

Customers are only loyal as long as you listen to them and meet their needs. Stop doing those, and you’ll lose them. Maybe not right away, but eventually something will make them uncomfortable enough that they will look for another option.

That’s good for your competitor. But not for you.

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Tags: marketing, Relationship building, reputation
Posted in General | 3 Comments »

Niche Your Way To More Business

Friday, July 22nd, 2011

The title may sound counter-intuitive, but I think if you consider your niche well, you’ll find it to be true.

Yesterday, I was having lunch with a new coach, and we started talking about niching. She wasn’t sure what niche she wanted to target, and as we talked, I mentioned ADD coaching and coaching for people with Asperger’s Syndrome. She’d never thought of those, and she has skills in working with both communities. It sounded like she’d be perfect.

What was the benefit for her in targeting those niches?

1. They are clearly defined and easy to describe

Rather than saying she’s a life coach or even a life coach specializing in working with disabilities, she’s narrowed the disability. She can create clear triggers to generate referrals. She can target specific strategic partners and show her value in working with people with those disabilities. I’ve repeated again and again the importance of being specific.

2. Those niches opened up a market she hadn’t considered

Both disorders are being diagnosed more in adults, and many of her targets are bright, well-educated and successful. In other words, they have the money to pay for her services. And a strong need for coaching. She should have an ample pool of potential clients to target, and most of her competition is not targeting them, which gives her an advantage.

3. She is passionate about helping them

She had said she wanted to work with people with disabilities, but she was concerned about finding paying clients. She had family members with both disorders, so she’s highly interested in working with them. Isn’t it nice when working with your passion can also make a living?

Look at your client profile. Can you develop or describe a niche that feeds your passion, works to your strengths and isn’t what your competition is targeting? If you can, you’ll have more business and be happier serving your clients. Not a bad situation, eh?

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Tags: communication, marketing, Referrals, Triggers
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Electronic Marketing Thoughts

Friday, June 10th, 2011

A couple of days ago, I received an email newsletter from an author. I’m not sure how I got on her newsletter list since a) she lives in another country so I’m pretty sure I haven’t met her in person, b) I’ve never bought one of her books and c) the email address she used isn’t on the web as far as I know.

But that aside, I didn’t mind receiving the newsletter because a) I thought I wanted to buy one of her books and b) the newsletter had some serious marketing problems, so she gave me an excuse to write a blog post.

This post focuses on the “I wanted to buy her book” statement. She made it about as difficult as possible. She was promoting a book starting a new series, which was good. She also talked about her other series and mentioned both the latest book and the first book. All that was good. I’m not interested in her new series, but I was interested in her existing series, and telling me the first book was excellent. Now I know where to start.

That was the good. Now the not-so-good. There were no direct links to buy her books. Bad! If you want us to buy your stuff, please make it easy on us. Links are good. Links to the exact site you want us to buy from are even better. What do I mean by that?

Well, her books are available on Amazon (US and UK), Smashwords and Barnes and Noble. Her best commission comes from Amazon, so she might want to direct us there. However, she said in her newsletter that the majority of her sales come from Amazon, so she might want to direct us to one of the other sites to boost sales there. Either way, the buyer will follow the link presented.

Since there was no link, I did my research. I went to all three sites. And that’s where she lost her sale from me. I found four different versions of her books with three different prices.

Which one should I buy? She’s self-published, so quality is an issue. Is the version with the latest publication date the most up-to-date and best version? Are they all the same? Am I getting anything different or better by paying $4.99 vs. $2.99 vs. $2.39?

Since I don’t know the answer, I opted to pass on her books for now. Maybe later when I’ve read some reviews and know what I’m getting.

See the problem? The unsolicited email newsletter could have turned me off. No link to buy could have turned me off. Not knowing which version of the product to buy certainly turned me off.

She made me, as a potential buyer, jump through unnecessary hoops. So instead of a sale and (hopefully) new fan, she got this blog post.

Probably not what she was looking for. What do you think? Should I email her an (unsolicited) link to this post? Think she’d read it and pay attention?

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Tags: e-marketing, marketing, sales
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