So I was in my office today and my Droid was nudging me to take a quick snapshot of a stunning view of some of my favorite business books... it's so hard to say no to a Droid...
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Snapshot of some of my favorite business books
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Search Engine Optimization for Dummies and Dummy-Impersonators
This post is for those of you who see the acronym SEO and feel your throat tighten, your palms begin to sweat, and think to yourself, "ughhh, I know we need this SEO stuff for or to our website, I only wish I knew what SEO stood for!.." (And no, you're far from a dummy if you find SEO confusing - I used this title purely to help my Google page rank for this post ;)
No matter how confused you ever become about Search Engine Optimization, if you remember the following you will always be able to reorient yourself and make a quick "recovery":
Google is just a librarian...
Think of Google as the head librarian of our 21st century digital library - a library filled with all the world's websites, including yours.
Google's job is simply to provide its patrons (i.e., users of its search engine) with the best information on the topics they are searching for, usually provided in the form of website links, images or videos.
For example, let's say a nice, eligible bachelor named Larry wants to find out what he can do to "tame" his fiery dragon breath and make it past date #1. Larry comes up to the library counter (i.e., www.google.com) and asks Google for information about Halitosis. Google, at lightning speed, runs to the Halitosis section of the "library", and grabs ALL of the websites on Halitosis. When Google returns to the counter, she places all of the Halitosis sites in front of Larry, sorting them from most relevant & most popular to least relevant & least popular.That is Google's search engine in a nutshell. (And yes, it was recently revealed by the company that Google's search engine is in fact female)
...SEO is simply good book labeling
So how does SEO come into play within this "digital library" of all the world's websites?
Think of SEO as the process of effectively labeling & categorizing your website so that Google understands what your site is about and therefore knows when to include it as part of a person's search results.
Going back to our Halitosis example, imagine there are 2 websites on the topic of bad breath. Site A's name is, "How to Eliminate Bad Breath", and site B's is, "Fighting the Enemy One Brush at a Time".
The main sections of site A (think titles of book chapters) include definitively breath-related headings like "Where bad breath comes from", "Top tips for beating Halitosis" and "Why brushing alone won't prevent bad breath". In contrast, the main sections of site B include somewhat vague, albeit more humorous headings such as, "Readying for battle", "Exorcising your tongue", and "The war within".
Which of these 2 websites do you think Google would rank higher on the list of Halitosis sites it returns to our eligible, yet breath-challenged bachelor? Unfortunately it's not the site with the more creative copywriter. Sorry.
Google's no poet, so easy on the metaphors
While Google is one heck of a librarian, she's not a mind reader - at least not yet. In other words, you need to be extremely clear and literal with your website content, especially when it comes to major headings & titles.
Think of it this way - if you're thumbing through a book trying to figure out what it's about, you're most likely going to look at the book's cover, leaflets, chapter names, and index. Google ""thumbs through" your website in much the same way. So cute and overly metaphoric titles like "Making it to date #2" will only help drag your site's Google ranking down... and with it, your website traffic.
Now that you hopefully have a better 50,000-foot view of SEO, below are a few resources that I've found to be particularly insightful for SEO newbies.
GODZILLA ILLUSTRATION: TANYA DASHEVSKY
Additional SEO sources for beginners looking to get a little dirt on their hands
- Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day (solid book that teaches you the core principles & tactics)
- SEO Moz - beginners guide (SEO Moz is one of the best all-around SEO sites)
"Would you like a coke with your product-sandwich?"
How many times have you been asked the above question at your local wine store?
"Huh?" you say.... okay, so maybe you weren't asked the question explicitly... instead it was embedded in the array of differently priced wines displayed throughout the shop.
For those of you who, like me, know little about wine, when was the last time you went into a wine store and bought the cheapest wine on the shelf? When was the last time you bought the most expensive wine on the shelf? My guess is that most of you can't recall the last time you did either because when you go to the wine store you "play it safe" and usually buy a wine priced "somewhere in the middle". I know I do.
Little did you realize that your local wine store was employing a product-sandwich strategy, drawing you helplessly towards that mid-priced bottle of wine! And you thought you were in control! :)
What is a Product-Sandwich Strategy?
In a nutshell, the strategy involves creating/selling a (very) high-priced version of your product so that the next price down appears more moderate in comparison. Often times this "next price down" would be considered expensive by the customer in absolute terms, but in relative terms (i.e., next to your "Rolls Royce" model) it appears reasonably priced. If implemented successfully, the net impact on your business is a boon in sales of the mid-priced version.
Why does the Product-Sandwich Strategy work?
The Product-Sandwich strategy is based on the principle that when buying an unfamiliar product or service people tend to purchase a mid-priced version of it. Why? It all comes down to risk aversion - fear of making a bad purchase and flushing money down the toilet bowl. This toilet-bowl-infused aversion is the reason we shy away from the pricey models ("How much better could that stereo possibly sound?") and reject the cheap ones ("I bet this stereo would die after a month!").
Can I use a Product-Sandwich Strategy in my business?
Businesses that sell hard-to-value goods (e.g., perfume, body lotion, wine, caskets), or whose target customers tend to be product novices are generally best suited for a Product-Sandwich strategy.
- Think selling perfume to people who don't know the difference between eau de toilette and the water in their toilets.
- Or selling car oil to someone who doesn't happen to have a name embroidered on his shirt.
Make sure customers are made aware of the range of price points
One critical success factor for any product sandwich strategy is to ensure that your customers are aware of the different price points of your products, most notably your high-priced version. It is this awareness that leads your customers to view the mid-priced products as the mid-priced products, and hence the "safe, yet reasonable choice".
What do you think?
Have you ever employed a product-sandwich or similar such strategy? If so, how successful was it? What did you learn? What worked? What didn't work?
What ethical issues, if any, does this bring up for you? Do you view this as psychological manipulation or just good, plain marketing strategy?
Please share your experiences, comments, thoughts or questions.
Additional info sources on Product-Sandwich strategy & the psychology behind it
- Stumbling on Happiness
(Dan Gilbert's great follow-up book to his TED talk)
...and for those who really hate wine stores & happen to have iPhones
Using the 5Ws to reduce customer churn
My love for the 5Ws was professed (or at least implied) in a prior post, proving that I am not afraid to express my deep affection for abstract concepts - luckily I have a very understanding wife. So here we go again, another ode to the 5Ws, one of the simplest yet most powerful ways to generate ideas to improve your business.
Let's kick things off with a marketing poem that's all about reducing customer churn... or as I like to put it, fixing those darn leaks in your bucket 'o customers:
There's a hole in the bucket, dear Liza, dear Liza...
Then fix it dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry...
With what should I fix it, dear Liza, dear Liza?...
With the 5Ws dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry
With the 5Ws dear Henry, dear Henry, with the 5Ws...
How to use the 5Ws to reduce customer churn
- Use the 5Ws churn matrix to generate ideas. Use the 5Ws Customer Churn Matrix (see it below) to generate as many ideas as possible for why customers might cancel or reduce the use of your product or service. You will be amazed at how rich & vivid your perspective on your customers will become (no, I didn't borrow this line from an infomercial).
- Validate your ideas. Which of your ideas actually result in customer churn? There are a number of ways to validate your ideas, from surveying canceled customers to bouncing them off customer service reps.*
- Find the biggest leaks. Of the cancellation reasons you have validated, which ones account for the largest % of customer attrition? You want to make sure you focus your attention on the biggest chunks to maximize the business impact of your efforts.
- Design ways to plug the holes. How can you reduce or eliminate the biggest drivers of customer churn? Common strategies include making enhancements to your product or service, creating promotional or loyalty programs, retraining your sales & service reps, altering your approach to distribution, and developing new partnerships.
- Plug away! Unfortunately it's not enough to simply think up cool & innovative ways to reduce customer attrition... you have to execute, execute, execute...
- Measure & adjust. What's working? What's not working? What could work if you made a few minor tweaks? At this point you're looking to optimize your strategies through ongoing measurement & adjustments.
Please share your experiences!
Enough about the 5Ws and my curious fascination with matrices! How do you go about identifying why your customers cancel your service? What have you found to be most effective? Please share your experiences - good, bad or ugly.
Additional posts on using the 5Ws to improve your business
- Marketing & the 5 W's: why every marketer should take a journalism class
- Marketing & the 5 W's: a framework for marketing innovation
*While you should always be surveying canceled customers and speaking with service reps, arming yourself with the ideas generated from the matrix will significantly enhance the value you derive from these activities.
Marcom case study: the “Hyatt Shuttle” of New York’s Grand Central Station
It’s not often these days I’m stopped in my tracks (no pun intended) by an ad or related form of marketing communication. Most of them seem to fuse with the background becoming invisible in mere seconds. This week was an exception, however, and it underscores one of the core principles any marketer should keep in mind when crafting effective marketing communications…
My encounter with "The Shuttle"
As I boarded the Shuttle train this morning, half-awake from my morning coffee, I was brought to full attention by a completely transformed subway interior (for those unfamiliar, the shuttle is a train that runs between Time Square & Grand Central Station in NYC). Beyond the expected surprise I felt from entering a subway car that had been bathed in the accoutrement of a solitary theme, there were a few reasons in particular that made the experience so memorable. And, it serves as a great example of how marketers can cut through the clutter – objective number one for any marketing communication. This feat was all the more impressive give
Why the Hyatt Shuttle = effective marketing communication
So what made the experience so compelling?
For starters, the train’s interior broke any existing schema (or expectation) I had for “what the 
In place of slick, high-design ads pressed into the metal picture frames that dot the subway’s interior were color graphs printed on basic white printer paper; graphs that reminded me of the simple bar charts Microsoft Excel spit out circa 1989 . The charts, whose effectiveness was heightened by their simplicity, depicted how much more successful 
At its essence, Hyatt transformed a cold, unfriendly space (the inside of a NYC subway) into a warm, inviting place - the inference being that Hyatt Conference Centers create the type of warm, inviting atmospheres conducive to effective business schmoozing & networking.
Now I’m neither an event planner nor coordinator of large-scale meetings, so I cannot speak to the level of influence "The Hyatt Shuttle” might have on my decision-making for those upcoming conferences.
However, to some degree that’s irrelevant. “The Hyatt Shuttle” compelled me to whip out my blackberry on a crowded train and snap away - much to the annoyance of my fellow commuters. It got me to write this post with blurry crackberry photos attached for the entire world to see (or 0.00022% of the Internet world per my latest Alexa rankings). And perhaps most compelling - Hyatt was able to convert me into an online PR guy who’s apparently willing to work for free. All Hyatt had to do was serve up a unique experience that added a little bit of zest to my otherwise predictable day. Clever, high-ROI strategy… and heck of a marketing communications case study for marketers to sink their teeth into & leverage for their own business.
The Law of the Unexpected
Let’s bubble-up this mini case study and see what useful principles we can derive for you to use in your business… at its core, what made The Hyatt Shuttle so compelling is that it successfully employed the law of the unexpected, which simply states that throw something out there that I don’t expect and you’ll capture my attention... think giraffe in a field of cows, an orange in a bowl of apples, or your waiter at The Four Seasons dressed in a white t-shirt & cut-off jean shorts.
How to apply the law of the unexpected to your marketing communication
Let's get right to what you're no doubt wondering - how to apply the law to your own marcom efforts... (to be continued... coming soon...)
If you’d like to read more about the law of the unexpected and other means for cutting through the clutter, I highly recommend:
Engaging Influentials: Twitter and Beyond
By David Capece, Managing Partner at Sparxoo
With the rapid adoption of social media, we have accelerated into a network economy. In a network economy, connectivity enables value to be created and shared by network members. The larger the network, the greater the potential benefits. In the digital world, network activities take place on an open platform that enables participation and cloud computing (think Wikipedia and widgets).
In networks, some members are more connected and active, and therefore have more influence. These influentials are important members because they add significantly more value to the network. In the digital world, they blog, twitter, upload videos, experiment with new gadgets, and create widgets. As early adopters, they tend to be trendsetters that are followed by their friends and sometimes the masses. The book, the Whuffie Factor, talks about Social Capital, and how our society is increasingly motivated to become more useful and creative. Today, more people want to be influencers, and they want to be enabled.
In 2009, Twitter has emerged as one of the most talked about platforms in the network economy. Indeed, there is a simple network exchange on Twitter: influencer creates bite-size content, and follower discovers new information. Here are a few examples of the exchange:
- Gavin Newsom, mayor of San Francisco and California Governor Candidate, has over 500,000 followers. He keeps his followers informed about upcoming events and fundraising, and enables them to interact with him directly.
- Mike Massimino, a NASA astronaut, has over 400,000 followers. He combines his human life story with a behind the scenes look at being an astronaut.
- And of course there is Oprah, approaching 1.4 million followers.
While we are all familiar with Twitter, there are many more communities that engage and enable an influential audience with network principles. One of the key elements of a network is the idea of reciprocity. The idea of “I win, you lose” doesn’t work in a network, or it will fall apart. Instead, there must be mutual win-win exchanges. One such example is at Triggerstreet, was founded in 2002 by Academy Award Winner Kevin Spacey, which is a community for emerging artists. The promise of the network is to democratize exposure and offer a career boost through a network of peers who review your work, rate it, and provide feedback. Further, the network has engaged influentials in the form of participating judges, including Michael Myers, Sean Penn, Snoop Dog, Sheryl Crow, and Liv Tyler.
It is this very concept of participation by influentials that is becoming increasingly important with each passing day. In our world of choice and overcapacity, influentials are an important element of the decision making process. As we de-emphasize paid media such as television commercials and print ads, the power of earned media and word of mouth is amplified. As you consider new ways to share your story and build your reputation, learn from entrepreneurial initiatives that listen to and engage the influentials.
Our first example is Jodangle which helps you listen to and monitor the online chatter by influentials. In an environment where influential content originates from an exploding number of information sources, Jodange provides intelligence on who and what is influencing customers, competitors, and the overall marketplace. In April 2009, Jodangle received $1.2 million of investments.
Our second and third examples are currently in development at DreamIt Ventures, which helps entrepreneurs launch their ventures and build great companies. Trendsta is a new way for trendsetting teens to test and review the latest hot products. Like BuzzAgent, the principal is that word-of-mouth marketing is powerful. Trendsta has even more of a laser focus on the influentials by engaging trendy teens in the digital world. Our final example is Scribnia, which is a rating and discovery engine for bloggers and columnists. Much like Triggerstreet, the promise is to build an influential community that is engaged in sharing creative work and providing feedback.
Consider your role in the network economy. How you are going to add value to and expand your network? As you build your presence and your reputation, listen to the conversation around you, pursue authentic participation, and engage influentials who can amplify your message.
Original post: http://sparxoo.com/2009/07/01/engaging-influentials-twitter-and-beyond/
Grow or die! Product fertilizer to grow your top line
Apologies on the overly dramatic, “please-read-me!” title. I figured I’d jump into the pool with the rest of the bloggers attempting to get the attention of the 1.6 billion of you bouncing around the virtual world.
Anyhow, you’re probably familiar with the phrase, “whatever stops growing eventually dies”. And, while I don’t subscribe to this black & white, morbid declaration, we all know that when it comes to your business, growth is essential.
So in the spirit of doing my little part to help get our economy back on its feet, I’ve decided to write a series of brief articles about different growth drivers (tools, frameworks) you can use to grow your products & your business, and perhaps even add a few inches to your height. So let’s get started…
Growth driver #1: develop different versions of your product to suit different usage scenarios
Take mustard. Yes, mustard.
You’re at a baseball game with some friends. Perhaps you’ve enjoyed a few beers. You head out to one of the fine stadium restrooms to reduce your inner-bladder pressure, and you decide to pick up a hotdog on your way back to your seat. Guldens, right? The perfect neon-yellow goo to spread on your ‘dog. No questions asked. Right place, right time. Guldens all the way.
Flash forward 2 months. You find yourself at a very formal cocktail party. Pinkies out, fancy degrees flying about, drinks you would otherwise never drink, people doing their best to inject British-inflexions. You make your way over to the hors d'oeuvre table and sample a selection of finely smoked meats. Grey Poupon, anyone? Again, no questions asked. Right place, right time. It’s a Grey Poupon moment.
(sorry, I just couldn't help but include the most classic Grey Poupon commercial ever produced. enjoy!)
Let's put aside the mustard and put growth driver #1 to work for you:
1. Make a list of the different situations in which your product or service is used (or needed).
2. For each scenario you’ve identified, jot down those characteristics or dimensions that make it different from the other scenarios on your list. Characteristics could include the physical environment, the people you’re with, your main objective at the time you use the product, your main reason for needing the product, the time of year, the activity you’re engaged in at the time you need the product, etc.
3. For each scenario ask yourself what changes you could make to your service in order to provide greater value to your customers given the unique characteristics of the situation.
Examples could include adding complementary services, increasing or decreasing the performance level of certain features or dimensions, adding or eliminating certain features, making changes to physical dimensions of the product, etc. Whatever you come up with, it should be dictated by the unique needs of your customer under the given scenario.
Real-world examples of growth driver #1. Different versions of the product for different usage occasions.
- Candles: For romantic dinners, for keeping the bugs away when camping, for festive holidays, for scenting the air, for birthdays.
- Travel insurance: For safaris, for ski trips, for family vacations, for cruises, for long-stay trips, for international trips.
- Suits: For hot climates, for formal events, for casual events, for outdoor events, for weddings, for funerals.
Happy growing!
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Additional posts that discuss growth strategies:
- Innoviation via other worlds: a tool for generating powerful ideas for your business
- Enhance your innovation by tapping your product's value-creation web
Great books that discuss scenario-based product innovation:
