Showing posts with label betalkaboutable. Show all posts
Showing posts with label betalkaboutable. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Amazing observation Derek!

Last year at RUBYCONF, I had the exquisite pleasure of meeting Derek (the narrator).  This is such a great observation from a truly inspirational, bright, and compassionate leader.


Thursday, June 16, 2011

Know Your Industry

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit."
- Aristotle
Inspiring People who Know their Industry
I get inspired by people regularly...particularly people with vision who can also execute.  As an author, you are an entrprenuer, and it's important to find and surround yourself with people (virtually or phsyically) who inspire you to keep pushing forward.  For me, Dave Williams is definitely one of those people who "knows his industry."  One of his recent articles is a super example of knowing your industry.  When you read his article on Facebook Advertising, you realize very quickly just how much Dave knows about Facebook and advertising.  Heck, I feel like I need to read this article 20 times just to learn everything that is mentioned in here.  If they haven't already, someone will probably write a 200 page book on the same information in the article...it's packed!

Knowing Your Industry
As Larry (my dad) and I have started the marketing planning work for marketing "the book," we have been doing a lot of research on what is going on in the publishing industry.  We are reading 100s of pieces of information about the market, the industry players, how money flows, what innovative authors are doing, the profile of our target market, book reviewers, etc.  There is a knowledge threshold you really need to clear to understand an industry and how to market yourself in that industry - know the book industry in addition to the industry of the market your book is going to go into (e.g. consumer entertainment, motivation, business, finance, psychology, etc.).  Meeting a knowledge threshold is important...and it takes time...but really costs nothing...the cost is a commitment to learn...and some spare time.  Musicians often fail in this area...they love music but they don't pay attention to business.  Music may be their passion, but if they want to make a living at it, they better understand the business side...I am willing to bet that any musician who has more than one platinum hit over the course of a decade has really learned the biz.  Authors...know the industry.

Why is Knowing Your Industry Important?
Because when you are making decisions about where to spend your time and energy, you are trying to optimize the ROI on your efforts (unless you are just writing as a non-profit).  Whether you know it consciously or not, you are constantly processing inputs that direct your energy...you are in a feedback loop.  And, the market is sending some feedback information to you.  Seeing and understanding what is going on in the book industry will help influence and improve your decisions...and ultimately your ROI.

Perhaps I am stating the obvious, but I am just sharing what is going on in our journey of taking a book to market.  As always, feedback, comments, criticism, etc. is welcomed and appreciated.  As well, let me know what ideas or topics you might want to see me cover.  Thank you for reading!

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Market Planning for Our Book


"There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else."
Sam Walton, Walmart
Do I Need a Marketing Plan?
Marketing plans typically outline a target audience, goals, timelines, the message to the audience, possibly a creative treatment, and the detailed plans and budgets for each tactic in the campaign.  Even as a small company or independent author, it is very helpful to think through these things.  There are a myriad of choices and you need to select only the best things to work on…the ones with the most potential at the least cost (i.e. money or time investment)…you cannot do it all!  No one can.  Picking the first thing that comes to mind is probably risky.  Come up with a bunch of potential ideas; quickly weigh the pros and cons of results and costs, then keep moving the ball forward!



Who’s Our Audience?
Of course, it’s really important to understand your audience, their behavior, and what influences them.  For authors, this means that we have to understand book reviewers.  These are a very influential and passionate segment…we love them because they are typically more passionate about books than anyone on the planet!  Once we know who they are, we need to figure out how to help them accomplish their goals and line our goals up with theirs.

Creating the List of Reviewers
Typing “book reviews” in Google brings up 97,000,000 results and checking adwords shows 368,000  global monthly searches and 201,000 in the US.  So, every month (according to Google), a bunch of searches are done…and adding all related keywords and sub-searches would likely show that there are millions of searches on this topic per month.  It’s our job as marketers to try and hone this list down.  Every marketer has limited time, resources, and budget…one key is finding the optimal way to reach your audience.  Clearly, we cannot address 97 million websites or pretend we can be a top search result for all of these.  We may only have 5 days to spend trying to reach reviewers, and it’s probably better to spend a day getting the best , most targeted, most relevant list possible than 5 days on a random list.

What We are Doing
For our book, we are going to hone our list down by relevance and reach, then balance this list with the cost it takes us to engage with them.  For example, reaching the NY Times might be very difficult and take a lot of energy or money…but reaching the top 10 psychology book reviewers might not be.  Then again, getting on the NY Times review list would probably reach a ton of people and sell a lot of books.  There is always a balance, always trade-offs, and always a time to just do the work and quit thinking about it.

Generating a list of relevant book reviewers is one of my goals for this week.  I’ll probably group and catgegorize the list a few different ways.  Depending on how search savvy and comprehensive you are, this could take you an hour or a day.  Once I get a template that I like, I’ll eventually publish it…please let me know what questions, comments, or thoughts you have on this or if you’d like to collaborate!

Friday, June 3, 2011

So, Let's Talk strategy! (Part 1)

"Perception is strong and sight weak. In strategy it is important to see distant things as if they were close and to take a distanced view of close things." - Miyamoto Musashi (1584 - 1645), Japanese Swordsman

"The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do." - Michael Porter

NOTE: This is part one of this article, and parts 2 and 3 will eventually provide more detail.

Strategy Foundations
LJB and I had a super strategy session this morning...and I plan to share a specific info about it in the very near future...but first, I want to provide some foundational thoughts to strategy. At the end of the day, authors want to connect with people and share something of value with the them. In return, profit-oriented authors make money. So, how do we devise a strategy for your work to make money?

Betalkaboutable Strategy #1 - Know Your Freakin' Customer!
Aside from stealing or counterfeiting, the ONLY way to make money is to help people...and get paid for your product or service that helped them. So, you need to know how your work is helping your fellow human. If you've failed to figure this out, keep failing and don't stop...but make sure you learn from each failure! Know your customer better than they know themselves!



Betalkaboutable Strategy #2 - No Sucky Content!
There are a million things you can do to try and make money as "an author," but your content CANNOT SUCK! You have to have a great, talkaboutable product if you are an author (or an artist or musician for that matter). CC and Ann wrote contentrulesbook.com, and it covers a lot of this type of info about content. To disclose, CC is a friend, and he totally knows what he is talking about. Other than that book, I would study any other great authors and any good content out there on the internizzle...study it.



Now, I believe firmly in a concept (and am pretty sure I came up with the concept) called "Return on Content." This is based on the marketing operations measurement work I've done...for example, we invested in white papers at Siebel. Those papers took time/money to make...and some produced way more leads and business than others! The same rule applies to media companies who will shut off a TV show that doesn't have enough audience (as audience = ad dollars). Authors, marketers, media companies, and software companies create a TON of content...it's endless. Where do you focus? How do you maximize the return on the investment in content? Well, first...it really helps to think of your investment of time and/or money in content as something that needs to maximize a return. Then, you manufacture content, measure the return, and optimize it. So, that means you need to get a feedback loop in place ASAP...that way, you know when you are creating good content and you know what metrics you are moving the needle on. If you don't know where to start, you gotta start somewhere! Take a an educated risk.

betalkaboutable Strategy #3 - betalkaboutable!
This should be obvious, but if people don't want to talk about your content, it sucks. If people aren't talking about your content/media/work, refer to rule #1 and #2. In the world of social media, people are in a constant state of talking, liking, twitching, and talking about content as noted here. It's now part of human behavior...if you have great content, people will talk about it...and being talkaboutable leads to sales!

That's it for now! Feedback always appreciated!

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Example: The Human Brain and $15 versus $150 haircuts

In exploring how one of my clients could differentiate themselves in a market that is generally commoditized, this question came to me.  How is it that one hair stylist can charge $15 and another $150 for a haircut?  How is a 10x factor in cost reasonable?  What is so different about these two?





















Photo Credit: Luca Doninni Barber's Ecstasy

As a marketer, I began to identify key differentiators and benefits that set these two "hair services" apart.  One could consider that styling, location, time spent, customer service, entertainment factor, quality, reputation, and luxury appeal separate the two services and enable one "haircut provider" to charge ten times more.  As a psychology enthusiast, I know that we are all driven by the way the brain works.  According to the NeuroLeadership Institute, our social behavior is governed by an overarching organizing principle of minimizing threat and maximizing reward.  So, let's look at how each of these differentiators minimizes threat and maximizes reward.

1. Styling - Having the right style, the latest style, the sexiest style.  This can make someone feel relatively more important than others.  It can also garner more compliments and make the person feel better about themselves.  Being a hair stylist who can create or copy the latest "Hollywood hairdo" is worth paying extra for because it "makes me look and feel like" a movie star.  All of these things are highly rewarding to the brain.  A threat would be "being out of style."

2. Location - High end hair salons are often in trendy or high net-income areas.  Being able to say, "I had it done at XYZ Salon in Trendytown" feels good.  It separates you from others who didn't go there.  People will pay more to say you had it done at a certain place or in a certain location.  Even if they don't brag about it, they just feel better knowing that they went somewhere special versus the same shopping center as the Wal-Mart.

3. Time spent - Higher end "hair cuts" tend to be booked in hour increments instead of a 15 or 30 min barber shop.  Of course, if we are talking color, it's much longer.  In any event, there is a value in spending more time with a customer.  Being with someone builds up your relationship with them - the brain senses this as more rewarding.  If you have a first-time client for 15 minutes, you don't get to know them, you don't get to connect with them, and you don't get to share with them.  Smart stylists will even make the first haircut extra-long to "maximize the relatedness" to that new customer.  Related-ness is rewarding to the brain - we are more attracted to people we share more in common with and repelled by those we don't.

4. Customer service - Higher end salons can provide better customer service.  They offer beverages, they know you personally, they invite you to events, and they talk to you about life's problems.  These are all more rewarding to the human brain - we feel more secure, safer, and special.

5. Entertainment factor - Higher end stylists keep you engaged and entertained while working with you.  They don't just work with a shut mouth.  They ask you about your family, the drama in your life, they share funny stories, they engage with you.  You aren't bored, you are entertained.  Again, this reinforces pleasant times, safety, enjoyment.  A hairstylist may not be the best at cutting hair, but if you leave their feeling happy and entertained and joyful of the experience, you are going back...it's too rewarding to feel that entertained and have that much fun.

6. Quality - This one is simple.  They cannot do a bad job.  The cut must look good.  It must be complete.  It must not have errors.  If it does, it is a threat to someone's personal identity.  One botched hair cut or color means a customer is never coming back...and likely complaining to 10 people about you.

7. Reputation - The reputation is built on doing a good job and also doing it for certain people.  Again, status falls into play...it is rewarding to go to the same stylist as a famous or wealthy person...or to go "where the rich go."  It makes you feel special.

9. Luxury appeal - Everyone wants to be "behind the velvet rope" and feel special.  They want to be unique.  They want to be better than others.  They want to be able to afford the best or most expensive of something.  It makes them feel safe, secure, and powerful.  The brain releases chemicals that make people feel positive about what they can afford.

Each one of these differentiators reinforces a very strong element of human behavior and rewards the brain...to the tune of 10x more money.

Friday, July 16, 2010

Google Social Circle

This was announced last year, but I hadn't seen it in search results until today.

Google is clearly taking social very seriously...this is unreal.

Facebook versus Google - let's get ready to ruuuuuuuuummmmmmmmbbble!



Saturday, July 3, 2010

Launching Businesses: Process versus Design - 3 Considerations for Growth



My friend Dean recently emailed me about his company, ZeroDragConsulting.com. Dean is quite an amazing guy…besides being extremely good at what he does, he is a triathlete. He knows and loves how to push himself to his limits and grow from it…that’s freakin’ cool.

He asked me a direct question about his business, but I thought that I’d answer in a general way as well…and publish on “ze pervaziv blog” (meant to be said with a Jacques Cousteau accent @;-).

Basically, the question was around the amount of “process” that start-ups need to grow. Here are 3 key summary considerations that I see and more detail follows (click read more):
1. The Design Process
2. The Process of the 5th Discipline
3. Balancing the Two



The Design Process

My perspective on “design” comes from two things: One, I studied industrial design at Georgia Tech with an undergrad thesis in HCI…two, I love design…my old blog (though currently down, the new is here) was about all things design…it is one of my passions…and I apply design principles to everything I do, every second, of every day. From an entrepreneurial perspective, I’ve started about 8 or so companies (most failed)...and worked as part of many start-ups and launched products at various companies (e.g. iXL, WebMD, Fibermarket, eSasa, Kinzan, Siebel, Oracle, Podshow/Mevio, MarketingCentral, Unica).

Entrepreneurs and intra-prenuers must be creative…they are doing something the world has never seen before and looking for feedback from the world (I am guessing this might also be the origin of hello world). If you are really following a true design process, feedback comes in two main forms: One is “I like that…I’ll give you money for it” and ...two is “I don’t like that…but I’ll tell you why.” This applies to the design of anything…a product, service offering, business, main entree, painting, song, sales pitch, call center script, etc.

Entrepreneurs have to design an entire business that surrounds their new product or service. To do so, they have to learn…and evolve fast. If you go to market with something that customers don’t respond to (with money), you are out of business. After you create, you have to learn AND change to grow. Creativity is critical to being an entrepreneur…I’ll call this the createlearnchangegrow model.

Having trained for a sprint triathlon with Dean a while back, I also know that the createlearnchangegrow model applies to the human body…to grow you don’t just do the same thing again and again…you cross-train, you push your limit to do more, you learn from others who have been there, etc. I just launched a project for The Atlanta Beat yesterday, and I asked Christa “what makes a woman pro soccer player tick?” She said something along the lines of “it’s about pushing yourself to be the best you can be…you are in a constant, hard-core state of wanting to improve and be your best.” Now, that is a super lesson for all entrepreneurs and product launch peeps.

Net/Net: Bringing something new to market requires a certain amount of flexibility while you iron out the kinks…or re-invent yourself on the fly…you have to have enough change built in to get it right…and not get crushed by process. When I met Rabble, I found out first-hand that Twitter did this…but that is a story for another time.



The Process of the 5th Discipline

My perspective on “process” comes from Siebel and Oracle. I spent about 6 at Siebel and 1 at Oracle. At Siebel, I ended up running a world-class, award winning marketing operations team…our processes and measurements were some of the best in the world. If you’ve been in the software business for any length of time, you probably know that the industry exists largely to automate things…to make processes better, faster, cheaper, and more measurable. Oracle asked me to lead a global implementation of Siebel CRM…strong process discipline is required to implement CRM on a global scale and get results. For example, in my few conversations with Judy, it was clear that she wanted to measure results to optimize them…and to get that…you need processes.

So, at some point…a start-up or even some new product/service launch wants to scale or grow. From a biological perspective, the strongest survive and replicate. You’ve figured out a formula, now you want to manufacture it. So, entrepreneurs also have to design a business that can grow, scale, replicate, etc. Once you know a large enough customer segment likes your product, you grow. Growth can be painful or not. Before Google, Siebel was the fastest company in the history of the world to grow from $0 to $1B. That is why I went there…I wanted to learn everything I could. My experience was that they largely lived the 5th Discipline and were very strong on developing feedback processes and measurements.

Again, in my training with Dean…I’d listen to my body…I could push myself to grow, but there was a limit. As well, I couldn’t just train once…I needed discipline to improve faster, to help my body heal faster, to grow more. This discipline is process…it is replication.

Net/Net: At some point, a start-up or new product launch has to replicate, grow, scale, etc. Processes, tools, measurements become very important to help with growing pains and ultimately improve ROI.



Balancing the Two

Balance the two is the key to success. For me, balance is part of every aspect of my life…I’ve tattooed a symbol for balance on my body twice (two times so that it is balanced out @;-)...cause I find that I need to always remind myself of this. If there is too much focus on either creativity and design versus process and scale, then things die. Now, some friction between the two is required…it’s even ok if it creates smoke or fire, but the friction needs to be managed so that it does not kill the business… alignment, timing, balance, lack of ego…these things allow frictionless-ness. As examples of problems…an entrepreneur can be the most amazing creative on the planet…someone who can evolve and flex effortlessly…and their lack of focus means they never focus on addressing a specific segment and growing revenues…or the entrepreneur could put too much process in place too early and miss the mark with their product or service while suffocating the business with unnecessary overhead.

Net/Net: Balance design and process. Design the balance into the process.

Again, this is just one person’s perspective…so, I’d be quite curious what others think and appreciate any dialogue on this topic.

Monday, June 28, 2010

Betalking or betalkaboutable?

there is
there is "betalking" ...and...there is
"betalkaboutable" .
no matter what, you likely want the latter.

Betalkaboutable.com launches

betalkaboutable.com has launched! see the video on the top right of the homepage to get a sense of what we do!!!