Category: Marketing

Categories
Entrepreneurship Marketing Sales Uncategorized

4 Ways to Reinvigorate Slumping Sales

Slumps suck! Unfortunately, everyone hits them from time to time. They don’t have to signal the end of your business. They’re probably not a sign of incompetence. They’re not the world’s way of telling you to wake up from the dream of entrepreneurship. They’re the market’s way of saying it’s time to roll up your sleeves, dust off your idea book, and innovate your way out of the downturn. Instead of being the beginning of the end, slow sales can be a catalyst that reignites the fire of your motivation.

When sales plateau, you may be tempted to think something negative: that your initial success was due only to the novelty of any new business. Could that be the case? Yes. But often, it’s not. One major truth that eludes a lot of entrepreneurs is that novelty is always a factor in driving sales. If the initial novelty has worn off, that doesn’t mean it’s time to pack it in. It means it’s time for some more novelty! With innovative, attention-grabbing marketing, you can ride the natural roller-coaster of the business cycle back to the top.

When you recognize that you’re in a slump, it’s time to communicate, promote, and introduce a whole new audience to your product. Fortunately, there are some tried-and-true methods:

1. Have a Sale

Could it be that simple? Well, no. While having a sale is one of the oldest tricks in the book, it will only truly reinvigorate business if there’s a creative twist to it. This twist has to create a sense of urgency about your product, and generate real excitement. That’s why it should be time-dependent. Structure your sale so that the sooner a given customer takes advantage of it, the better the deal will be.

For example, you can place a specific time limit on a sale, such as a 48-hour sale, a 24-hour sale, or even a 12-hour sale. The shorter the sale, the more urgency it creates. One effective (and very inventive) sale model uses incremental pricing: slightly raising the price of your product as the sale goes on, creating a race among customers for the best deal. Outside-the-box entrepreneur Jason Zook’s Bumpsale software works this way; each time a sale is made, the price goes up until it reaches a maximum just below full retail. Everyone gets a deal, but the earlier, the better.

2. Host a Webinar

The new frontier in online marketing, webinars are the ideal way for online companies to drum up business. They are the best way to earn credibility, build trust, and generally prove the worth of your product to an audience. Not only do they build rapport with people, but (when done right), they lead to big sales conversions.

The key is to make the webinar as valuable as possible for your audience. Use webinars to showcase your expertise while giving your audience something they’ll truly appreciate. Be sure to use chat features to interact with your audience and answer their questions. Make it a group experience, and foster a real connection with attendees.

At the end of the day, people prefer to buy products from sources they trust. Webinars create that trust more effectively than any other form or marketing. Both myself and my partner here at The $100 MBA believe so firmly in the power of webinars that we’ve created a sister company, Webinar Ninja, which offers exclusive webinar software. To decide if webinars are right for your business, feel free to check out our free course on webinar hosting.

3. Sponsor an Event

Another great way to build up some hype, especially for physical businesses with real-world locations, is to sponsor an event. This can be done by online businesses as well; you’ll just have to find a venue. A decent party can go a long way towards generating buzz about your product, and lead to an uptick in sales. Invest in some food, some drinks, and some entertainment, and a party with as few as 20-30 guests can get your business’ ball rolling again.

Make your event relevant to your local community. Choose a venue that’s familiar and well-known. If you have a physical location, hold it there and use the event as a way to reach out to your neighbors. Consider sponsoring a charitable event, like a fundraiser for a local institution or a local family in need. The good will you build will come back to your business.

Too often, businesses throw big Grand Opening parties and are never heard from again. Sponsoring regular events can not only be a fun and effective way to build relationships, but a wise investment that keeps your product on people’s minds.

4. Launch Something

You can’t replace the original “newness” of the company you’ve already built, but you can inject some new newness into it! Launch something. Maybe it’s a new product. Maybe it’s a major add-on, plug-in, or alteration to an existing product. Any significant development has the power to draw new attention to your business and stimulate sales.

It doesn’t have to be drastic. Launching a new avenue of marketing can also make a big splash. Launch a YouTube channel. Launch a new podcast. Create a blog, if you don’t have one already. Even a radical redesign of your website can create a ripple effect, so long as there’s a fresh reason to check your business out. Short of a total rebranding, there innumerable ways to give your business a rebirth. Whichever you choose, include new, valuable content to reward those who check out your new development.

In martial arts, there’s a concept known as “beginner’s mind.” What it boils down to is the ability of someone who’s already well down the path to approach their development with the same enthusiasm and open-mindedness that made them start training in the first place. Entrepreneurs can apply this idea when their new business isn’t so new anymore, and the danger of stagnation is looming. Look at sales plateaus not as setbacks, but as challenges. Learn to enjoy the dynamic struggle of reinvigorating your sales and breathing new life into your passion. If you can learn not to fear the low points, the highs are right around the corner.

Categories
Entrepreneurship Marketing Uncategorized

Spoil Your Subscribers

If there’s one word that can sum up my approach to marketing independent businesses, it’s this: give. Give and give and give, asking nothing in return, and if your product is right, all that giving will come back to you. The key to modern online entrepreneurial success is to stand out and prove yourself by giving valuable content to your audience.

That’s not to say you’re running a charity. Every act of giving (in this context) is an investment. By consistently offering value to your audience over a long period, you’re earning their business. It’s counterintuitive, I know. You work to produce valuable content- content that costs you time and money- and then you give it away without recouping your expenses. It sounds like the opposite of a smart business model. It sounds like flushing resources down the e-toilet.

It’s anything but.

There are other factors, but on the whole, I firmly believe this: the success of an independent business and the volume of its sales rise in direct proportion to the quantity and quality of free content given away. It’s worked for us here at Business Republic, and it’s worked for some of my most successful colleagues. A commitment to quality content marketing can give your business a huge advantage in our endlessly crowded online marketplace because it builds genuine trust, loyalty, and meaningful branding.

Advertising vs. Trials vs. Content Marketing

When we advertise, we simply make an argument for our merits. When we give to our audience, we prove our merits. We take the risk out of the process for the customer by assuring them of our competence, not by asking them to believe in it. This doesn’t only make sales offers far more tempting, it makes future sales easier by building a stronger relationship.

The free idea validation course at the $100 MBA is a good example. It’s the kind of thing we sell, but we give it away. Yes, we “lose” something when we offer it free of charge, in the sense that the costs of creating it aren’t replenished by its sale. What we gain, though, is every potential customer who knows that our product works for them. They don’t suspect it based on advertising or a small sample of our product. They find out first hand.

How is this different from a free trial? For one, it’s permanent. There is no expiration date on our audience’s ability to access our free content. Also, the idea validation course is just one example of a wealth of free content we’re constantly inviting subscribers to enjoy. This blog, our videos and webinars, and all the other content we produce is a never-ending stream of beneficial gifts to subscribers.

Maybe it takes a month. Maybe it takes a year. Maybe a given subscriber never buys a thing, but recommends our services to someone else. Regardless, the free content more than pays for itself in the amount of overall sales conversions we score by putting it out there. Spoiling doesn’t work right away, but it works for us.

Purposeful Spoiling

Our free content isn’t a side project. It’s part and parcel of our overall sales strategy. It’s built into our projections for overhead. Its creation is a permanent fixture in our schedule. We’re not offering afterthoughts or mere enticements. The free content is self-contained, and doesn’t require the customer to buy anything else to make use of it. It comes with absolutely no strings, unless you consider the opportunity to occasionally make sales offers a string.

“Occasionally” is the key word. When utilizing content marketing, it’s just as important to limit your sales offers as it is to be generous with the free stuff. Not annoying our audience with incessant offers is just as much a part of how we spoil them as the free content is. Our subscribers can attest to the fact that we send multiple emails a week, but we only make between 3 and 5 actual sales offers annually. I like to think that that ratio of content to offers is something that proves our good intentions. It builds the kind of trust that creates lifetime customers rather than one-time sales.

When spoiling your own audience, be sure to be genuine. Make your emails personable, honest, mercifully short, and above all, valuable. Prioritize what it is you’re giving them, rather than the effect you hope all this giving will eventually have. Yes, the emails are relationship-builders for you. Yes, you want it to lead to sales. For the subscriber, however, each email should be primarily a value-delivery system. What they get out of it has to take precedence. What you get out of it will ultimately come from the subscriber’s conscious, informed choice.

Getting it Right

When a company spoils their subscribers, the eventual sales offers don’t feel like a pitch or an advertisement. What they feel like is what they are: a new level in a genuine relationship. The company/customer relationship is like any other in that actions speak louder than words. Week after week of valuable content without intrusive or annoying sales pitches represents action, not promises.

A great example of this approach is pjrvs.com. Paul Jarvis’ freelancer-guidance service is a great product, but he doesn’t expect anyone to take that on faith. If you’re a writer or other “creative” looking to market your skills on your own terms, subscribe to his email list and see what good content marketing looks like. Justin Jackson is another business-guidance guru who takes the same approach. Their content-based approach to earning sales opportunities, along with our own, is a model for how to profit from honestly-earned trust. That’s why they’ve both been featured as guest teachers on the $100 MBA Show podcast.

I’ve also seen content marketing done wrong. I won’t name names, but there are endless examples of businesses who take a subscription as an invitation to fill their subscribers’ inboxes with junk mail. These businesses are the reason Google blessed us all with the ability to filter “promotions” out of our lives. Badgering, incessant sales offers that give the subscriber nothing may get you a few apples, but offering real value plants a tree. In any relationship, the party that asks for everything finds themselves alone. Business relationships are no different, and work best when they’re reciprocal.

In a nutshell, I believe in creating a solid product, spoiling your subscribers with free quality content, and letting word of mouth do the rest. Like Paul Jarvis and Justin Jackson, you can use this formula to build up the kind of reputation that makes an independent business sustainable.

Understand that business is a long-term endeavor. Take the big-picture approach, and be comfortable with the fact that success is built over time. Your goal in spoiling your audience is to create lifetime customers out of a relatively small number of people, rather than throwing ads at a wider audience and hoping to nab immediate sales. It takes patience, but it pays off handsomely.

Categories
Marketing Sales Uncategorized

The Effectiveness of Free Trials

The free trial: it’s a business strategy as old as…well, I’m not sure how old it is exactly, but at least since the first time a month’s worth of forging was offered free at Ye Olde Blacksmith’s, businesses have tried to get people through the door by letting customers experience the product before they pay for it. But the question remains: does it actually work? Is the free trial a viable move that actually leads to demonstrable gains in sales?

If you guessed that the answer is “it depends,” you must have read this blog before. Different kinds of businesses do it, but it doesn’t work well for all of them. In fact, I’ve personally found it doesn’t work well for my own business (more on that below). That doesn’t mean it can’t work for yours. The real questions are: when does it work, and why? In the cases where it doesn’t work, are there alternatives?

When Free Trials Work

Certain types of businesses are perfect for the free trial. Generally, these are offline businesses with a real-world location. They sell a service that requires the customer to come to their location, rather than a product or service that’s deliverable. They get paid for this service on a recurring (usually monthly) basis. The free trial is a game-changer for these businesses, because they depend on getting people quite literally through the door, week after week and month after month.

Gyms, yoga studios, dojos, and even cooking classes benefit the most from the free trial. This is because these kinds of businesses can only thrive by convincing people to create a habit or modify their lifestyle. This commitment is understandably daunting, so allowing customers to get started in a risk-free way does wonders for generating sales. The customer tries the service without spending a dime, they build it into their schedule, and most importantly they get accustomed to it.

Ultimately, the customer signs up for the real thing at the end of the trial period. Ideally this is because they loved the service, found it a perfect match, and were so impressed that they couldn’t imagine giving it up. Sometimes, though, the customer has simply gotten comfortable. Even if they’re not blown away by the particulars of the business, people tend to stick with what they’ve been doing.

The free trial brings the customers in. Familiarity, a feeling of community, and simple habit keep them coming back.

Using Free Trials Online

Online businesses are trickier when it comes to free trials. Generally, online service businesses with a recurring payment system have the best chance at converting trials to sales. Lynda.com and treehouse are two prime examples. Both offer training; treehouse is mainly an online code-writing clinic, while Lynda.com offers tutorials in everything from marketing to cooking. Both offer free trials for new users, and both get sales conversions out of it.

To smoothly transition customers from the trial phase and ensure conversions, both sites require a credit card number to begin the free trial, despite there not being anything to pay for at that point. At the end of the trial, the customer is automatically enrolled and the card automatically charged each month, unless the customer actively opts out of the service. This is the best way for an online business to turn trials into sales- by leaving little or no gap, no interruption between the trial period and the real deal.

It’s important to note that this model is not to be confused with free trial scams in which a customer is unknowingly charged after the trial period, or in which opting out of the service is made difficult or impossible. A legitimate arrangement is clearly communicated with the customer from the outset, and cancellation is as easy as a few clicks of the mouse. When using this model, it’s vital to be explicit about the terms and ensure that the customer knows they’re secure.

Our Free Trial Experiment

Of course, I wouldn’t feel qualified to give advice on free trials had I never offered one myself. About a year ago, the $100 MBA experimented with a free trial, and to put it bluntly, it didn’t go well. That’s not because there’s anything wrong with free trials. It’s simply because free trials aren’t compatible with our business model. Mostly, the price structure of the $100 MBA doesn’t really lend itself to getting customers that way.

Technically, it was an “almost free” trial, since we offered temporary access to our programs for $1. For the cost of an arcade game, new customers could get the $100 MBA experience for a week. We didn’t know how it would go, but we knew the analytics would tell the story, and they did: after 6 months, it was clear that it was a dud. We simply saw no significant increase in customers overall, nor could we attribute many of the new signups we did get to the promotion.

While we didn’t get the sales, however, we did get valuable lessons.

The Alternative: Content Marketing

The reason for our free trial’s outcome wasn’t the promotion itself, but the facts of our normal sales model. The $100 MBA is a membership service, but we have a single fee for lifetime access. As mentioned, free trials work best in convincing customers to commit to recurring charges, rather than to making one purchase. Besides that, there was already a better way for customers to find out if our product is up their alley: our content marketing.

Simply put, we already give away free content. Lots of it. Regularly. Anyone who visits our website, reads our blog, or listens to our podcast is already getting a pretty clear picture of what we do. We even offer one of our most popular courses (on idea validation) free to anyone who wants it. At the end of the day, a week of access to everything else isn’t likely to convince anyone who wasn’t convinced already. Combine that with our arguably insane titular price tag, and it’s no surprise that a free trial didn’t send units flying off the virtual shelves.

In the end, the experiment confirmed our belief in content marketing as the best strategy for our kind of businesses. Blogs, eBooks, videos, trial versions of software, and webinars are all great ways to forge relationships with customers. By simply putting the content out there, with zero obligations on the consumer, we build the trust that supports sales. In a way, it’s a sort of never-ending, ongoing free trial that we work to refresh every day, producing new content to draw new members in.

Content marketing is also a good strategy for online businesses that sell physical goods. By constantly sharing their thoughts and ideas on the industry they’re in, or the activities their product supports, online retailers position themselves as people to be trusted, and give their products the stamp of expertise. Combined with a customer-friendly, no-risk return policy, content marketing can make customers feel as comfortable as any trial can.

Whatever your business is, I’d encourage you to experiment with all kinds of promotional strategies, including free trials. After all, if you’re not experimenting, you’re probably not innovating. Not everything you try will work out, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth doing. The key is to gather and keep data, and use analytics to determine what works best. Give trial periods a…well, trial period of at least 6 weeks, and see what happens.

In the best-case scenario, you earn a significant amount of business. In the worst-case scenario, you learn something you can carry into your next experiment.

Categories
Entrepreneurship Marketing Uncategorized

3 Must-Know Principles of Marketing

Marketing: it’s a mysterious and somewhat vague term. Many new business people aren’t quite sure what it actually means. Does it refer to advertising? To building web traffic? To branding? The answer is that it’s none of those things, but also all of them. It encapsulates your entire business’s approach to gaining customers. If your marketing strategy is too narrowly focused on any one aspect, it misses the point. Likewise, any one thing you do that isn’t done with marketing in mind can take your business off track. That’s why it’s important to develop a comprehensive strategy.

Marketing is the way you bring people to your business, but that’s only leading the proverbial horse to water. To make them drink requires more than simply “getting your name out there.” It requires building intrigue in your business in a way that earns you the opportunity to sell. It’s making people aware of your business, but also making them want to learn more. It’s not simply promotion. It’s the first step in a relationship.

I’ve learned that good marketing comes down to a certain mindset. This mindset involves defining the role of your business in a customer’s life, rather than just “chasing” customers and trying to sell them something. It may sound a bit sentimental, but a business that focuses on relationship-building as a marketing strategy creates customers that are loyal, proud, and ultimately your best advertising.

In taking this approach, I use three simple strategies:

1. Solve someone’s problem. This is basically step one for any business that hopes to succeed, yet so many budding entrepreneurs miss it. The first key to building a business that will attract interest is to position your product as the solution to a problem or an alleviator of pain. Yoga instructors alleviate the pain and weakness of an unfit body and an unsound mind. Car dealers alleviate the pain of commuting or the pain of social inadequacy. The $100 MBA alleviates the pain of an entrepreneurial spirit being held back by a lack of formal business education. Whatever you sell, it needs to be an answer, not just a product. By addressing a genuine problem in a customer’s life, your product becomes more valuable than its retail price.

2. Go for depth, not width. I used to be a teacher, and later an administrator. In education, there’s a real problem with curriculum that’s “a mile wide and an inch deep.” It’s when teachers are forced to cover so much content, and there’s so much information to be memorized, that students only understand it at a superficial level. Being able to name and date every battle of the Civil War is great, but a far more useful skill is to be able to discuss why it happened and what its effects were.

Marketing has a similar problem, with businesses trying to reach out to so many customers, but only on a superficial level. By blasting simple ads onto social media, or in newspapers, or on highway billboards, businesses aren’t connecting with anyone, they’re simply “getting their name out there.” That can only take you so far.

A better approach is to build deeper relationships with less people. Yes, less people. Casting a net full of holes won’t get you much fish, no matter how wide it is. But if you offer your time, some valuable content, and a genuine connection to a smaller group of people, you’re more likely to turn them into regular customers.

By the numbers, “deep marketing” to as little as 500 people, when done right, is worth more than an ad seen by 5,000 people. This is where content marketing comes in; even if you’re selling a physical product, it’s imperative to create informational and instructional content. Blogs, videos and webinars are offered free of charge, and your reputation grows. By producing and giving away content to a targeted audience, you forge a connection. You gain credibility and trust, and that ultimately turns into sales.

3. ABM (Always Be Marketing). Effective marketing isn’t something you do once and consider accomplished. It’s something you’re doing all the time, and is reflected in every aspect of your business. It’s the key to continued growth. By integrating marketing into all of your business practices, you’re ensuring a future for your company by building on the reputation that draws new customers in.

Again, this is why I’m such a strong advocate of offering valuable content. This blog is something that people find informative, helpful, and ultimately valuable (or so I’d like to think). It’s free content, as are the videos, guides, infographics and e-books we offer to anyone who’s interested. A given consumer may read the blog and not buy anything, but we’ve earned his or her trust. Maybe they buy something down the road. Maybe they refer others who are ready for our full services. Whatever happens, the content drives our marketing by building a more loyal following than any advertisement can. We know that when you offer value, you create intrigue, not just awareness.

That’s why I like to think of marketing as the art of building lots of little relationships, as frequently as possible. This is what distinguishes it from mere advertising. While advertising has its role, reality isn’t Mad Men; people aren’t truly moved to action until they feel a connection.

Good marketing takes practice. It’s a cumulative skill, one that’s developed over the length of an entrepreneurial career. As your business evolves, your ability to market becomes more and more sophisticated. There’s no final, perfect strategy. There’s no formula. There’s just being yourself, and getting better at it every day.

Categories
Entrepreneurship Marketing Sales Uncategorized

Should You Upsell?

There’s a controversial practice in the world of online sales that’s got some consumers crying “scam.” Those who defend the practice say it’s nothing more than honest (if aggressive) salesmanship. Like some other sales practices, it seems to tread the line between an offer and an attempt at manipulation. I’m talking about upselling.

Upselling is about as old a practice as selling itself. Customer buys something, salesperson tries to get them to buy something else while the wallet is already out. Simple, right? But in my experience, upselling can in fact be scammy and dishonest. As in so many things, it’s not a matter of whether it’s right or wrong to upsell. It’s how you go about it that determines whether or not it’s ethical.

For example, at almost every restaurant, the server will wait until you’ve reached what you think is the end of your meal, but just as the plates are cleared comes the inevitable question: Dessert? No one complains about this. Some people like dessert. Some people light up at the mere mention of it, because somehow, no matter how many times we go out to eat, we manage to forget it exists until a waiter reminds us. Some people never order it, but they’re not offended by the suggestion. The point is, nobody sees a few tantalizing descriptions of pie as an act of deceit.

Likewise, every electronics store, used car outlet, and sporting goods store upsells insurance. No one in the last 20 years has purchased a TV, used Honda, or a treadmill without being offered some kind of extended warranty. The actual value of these warranties is more than debatable, but again, no one seems to think they’re being hoodwinked. The offers are simply expected, and mostly rejected. No harm done.

So what differentiates a legitimate upsale from a predatory act? I’ve found that there are certain markers or signs that make it pretty clear that an upsell is crossing the line between selling and scamming. Once you know the signs, they’re fairly obvious. That makes it easy to avoid being scammed, and can help you be honest with yourself about your own upselling practices. There are three major red flags:

1. The upsell is necessary to use the product. If what’s being upsold is a necessary part of the original product sold, somebody isn’t playing fair. For example, while it’s not considered scammy to upsell an extended warranty on a TV, it would be foul play to “upsell” the remote. The TV can’t function, at least not fully, without it, so it should come as part of what the original price covers. An extended warranty on a car is optional. The steering wheel isn’t. Upselling dessert? Fine. Upselling a fork? Shame.

Anyone who lures customers in with the promise of a certain product being able to do a certain thing, then withholds a key component, isn’t selling. They’re holding part of someone already paid for hostage, and it’s a bad way of doing business.

2. Extreme pushiness. There is nothing more irritating when you’re at a point of sale than being harassed by repeated attempts at upselling. To be asked once if you want to apply for a store credit card is one thing. To be asked four different times if you want additional items is quite another. Online, repeated pop-ups or other obstacles placed between the customer and the checkout is not only abusive, it’s counterproductive.

The extra time a website forces a customer to spend in the checkout process doesn’t increase the odds of selling more product. It increases the odds that the customer will abandon the cart and take their business somewhere where a transaction goes according to common rules of decency. When someone checks out at the $100MBA or our sister company, Webinar Ninja, for example, it’s a one-page affair. The customer buys what they buy. We try to get them to buy more by sending a follow up email, but mostly by making sure our product is so good that they’ll want more. That’s it.

3. A lack of transparency. Whenever a business isn’t being clear about what exactly they’re selling, especially regarding what’s included in each purchase, it’s a bad sign. A common scam is for a business to include something only temporarily; somewhere in the fine print it says that the customer only gets this or that service for 3 months, after which they’re on their own. Again, if it’s a superfluous enhancement, that’s fine- but too often it’s something the customer needs in order to use the product.

Be clear about what you’re selling, and what you’re upselling. Make sure that the customer knows that what you’re offering on the side is optional, and that what you’ve already sold them is all they need- even if they decide they want something extra. Playing games with the components of your product may put customers in a position to have to give you more money in the short term, but you can be assured the resentment will catch up to you.

So in the end, should you try upselling tactics to increase sales? Personally, I don’t do it. I like to think that we earn return business by making a good product, and by keeping non-stalkery lines of communication open with our customers. That doesn’t mean it’s not possible to upsell ethically. Before you commit to doing so, the best thing to do is ask yourself how it feels. Does your gut tell you that something isn’t right? Do you have doubts that you can’t shake?

Remember that anything that doesn’t foster a business culture of honesty, transparency, and mutual benefit isn’t worth doing- even if it makes a few extra bucks. In the long run, your honesty will earn you a following that will sustain your business for years. That’s a far better investment.

Categories
Entrepreneurship Marketing

Periscope: Should You Use It?

For entrepreneurs who are wisely taking advantage of social media, it seems like there’s always a hot new app being released that promises to revolutionize the way you connect to your audience. However, not every app is the next Instagram. How do you know which apps are a good investment of your time? Lately, there’s been a great deal of buzz surrounding an app that does something undeniably cool. The app is Periscope. But is it right for you and your business?

Periscope is an app that works through Twitter, which we can all agree is still a relevant, almost mandatory tool if you really want to utilize social media. The enhancement is that it allows you to stream live video feeds through your phone, bringing your audience right to wherever you are in real time. Your followers can interact, leaving Hearts (Twitter’s version of a “Like”) and comments. Because of its connection to Twitter, all of your Twitter followers get a notification and can be seamlessly added to your Periscope audience with minimal effort on their part (there’s no real “registration” to speak of for Twitter users).

This app is making a big splash so far, including among my own friends and colleagues. With its slogan “Exploring the world through someone else’s eyes,” Periscope promises a window into the life and experience of the user for whoever cares to follow them- including potential customers. So how useful might it be to you? Is this something you need in the way most businesses need a website and an email list? Are you missing out if you aren’t Periscoping? Is that even a verb?

The answers to those questions are: it depends, it depends, not necessarily, and no. It is the fastest growing app I’ve seen in a while. It’s not the only app that allows you to livestream from your phone (Meerkat, for example, has been offering that for a while now), but it is the most buzz-generating. It’s seemingly tailored for today’s cutting edge social media users; it’s fast, it’s fairly unstructured, it’s mobile, and it’s generally used on the fly. It may represent the next step towards a world in which we are truly always online, and any second of the day or night can be put immediately to the purpose of selling whatever it is you sell. It’s perhaps the most intimate connection you can make to your audience.

That doesn’t mean it’s a good thing.

It doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing, either. For those of us in business, any form of outreach and connection to your audience is an opportunity, but some opportunities are better than others. Periscope is a truly great way to connect and foster the kind of personal relationships that breed trust and credibility. Its uses as a business tool, however, are limited.

Compare a live streaming phone-feed to a webinar, for example. It’s no secret that I’m a strong advocate of using webinars to sell your product, and that’s because good webinar platforms come with a whole host of features that enhance your presentation and allow you to showcase your passion and expertise. You could argue that a live feed can do that, and it can- but that doesn’t mean it will translate to sales. A webinar is carefully prepared, purposefully structured, and includes any number of visual aids, screen-sharing, and interactive features like chat. All of this is designed to produce sales conversions, and they produce them phenomenally well.

Streaming live from your phone, on the other hand, is a more seat-of-your-pants approach, and in my opinion, one that’s not likely to lead directly to sales. Besides the total lack of features, a live streaming app like Periscope lacks one key thing: registration. Your audience can simply watch you do whatever it is you do on Periscope without giving an email address or even a name. Since email is still the king of online marketing strategies (no matter how many pop-up ads you may see), it’s hard to see how Periscope can generate you sales. With no way to continue the conversation, there’s no opportunity to make a pitch.

The best way to use Periscope, then, is as a supplement to your online marketing. Don’t think of it as the way to build your audience in a conversion-conducive way any more than you do Twitter itself. In fact, that’s all Periscope is: Twitter Live. And just as Twitter and other social media marketing has its place, so does Periscope- on the periphery of your overall marketing scheme.

My advice is to experiment with Periscope, and use it when it’s convenient. Whenever possible, show what you would Tweet, rather than just Tweeting it. For audience engagement and for infusing your brand with a real human personality, it can’t be beat. There’s nothing wrong with helping to grow your audience with interesting videos. Just remember that all you’re doing is growing it- you’re not selling to it. Anything that decreases the distance between you and your target market is a bonus, if not a real marketing plan in itself.

Periscope is also a great way to get yourself camera-ready. If you’re camera shy, or just inexperienced, Periscope might be the best way to beef up your charisma. Finding your voice, knowing how to move and act naturally on camera, knowing how to film yourself: these things are important skills, and Periscope offers an opportunity to hone them. In fact, your webinars will probably benefit from some Periscope experience the same way an athlete’s game benefits from the weight room. Transmitting your personality to your audience in real time takes practice, and it’s hard to argue that Periscope isn’t good practice.

If you’ve been reading my blogs or listening to my podcasts, you know that I’m usually very cautious when it comes to recommending social media apps. In fact, I see an over-emphasis on social media as a trap that too many budding entrepreneurs find themselves caught in, because a big following often seems like a surefire way to make sales. Unfortunately, it’s just not- or it’s not necessarily. Social media in general can be a great supplement, but if it’s not part of an informed overall marketing plan, it can become nothing but a distraction.

If you’re ever worried about “missing out” on social media opportunities like the one offered by Periscope, simply utilize smart scheduling. Schedule specific times to experiment with things like Periscope and any other tools that may or may not have an impact. As long as you don’t let it detract from what’s most important- your product, your content production, and more proven marketing tools- it can’t hurt. The impulse to stay on the cutting edge is a healthy one. What’s important is accommodating that impulse in a smart way, without taking your eyes off the prize.

Categories
Entrepreneurship Marketing Uncategorized

Defining Your Audience: 4 Strategies

One of the most important steps in building a successful business is figuring out to whom it caters. In fact, it should be one of the first things you decide when you venture into the world of entrepreneurship. Your own passion and expertise should guide the creation of your product, but the difference between a hobby and a business is that they do so with a market of consumers in mind. That’s why it’s so important to carefully define your target audience.

In doing so, you’ll want to be specific. Simply targeting “teenagers” or “pet owners” or “hipsters” is only the start. You’ll want to narrow the field to appeal to a distinct archetype, a kind of customer that you can serve better than anyone else. While narrowing the target audience may seem counter-intuitive (Appeal to less people, you say?), it’s actually the case that the most successful small businesses make their money by offering a specific solution to a specific need. “Teenagers with a heavy course load at school,” “pet owners who live in apartments,” or “hipsters with particularly unruly beards” are all target markets that can be served way more effectively, with the right product.

Even if you’re not in the early phase of building an independent business, it’s never too late to define your audience. In fact, it’s necessary to revisit the question over and over, periodically sharpening the image of your customer- especially as your business grows and innovates its products. By consistently keeping your target audience in mind, you’ll be sure to tailor your products in the ways that best ensure customer satisfaction. In that sense, defining your audience is the most important aspect of designing your product. To do so, use these tried-and-true strategies:

Be Specific. Very specific, about what it is your product offers. Whatever makes your product uniquely valuable, whatever sets it apart from the competition, will help you define exactly who you’re selling it to. Selling shoes isn’t specific enough to define an audience. Even selling athletic shoes isn’t specific enough. Even selling basketball shoes still falls short of the kind of specificity needed to pinpoint your target market.

To continue with the shoe example, a sufficiently specific product would be a basketball shoe with added ankle support to avoid sprains. By zeroing in on the most particular aspects of your product, you define who it’s made for. The thin-ankled, regular sufferers of an injury common to one sport, is a narrow but important demographic, one that your company could have all to it itself by focusing on its needs. No, it’s not a “big tent” strategy designed to convince the broader market to buy your shoe, but the aim here is brand loyalty, not mass appeal. That’s the key to small business: the loyalty of smaller markets.

Focus on one person. Literally. A single customer, real or hypothetical, who best represents your targeted market. This may sound like an extremely specific strategy, but it works when you apply what you learn to the demographic as a whole. In business jargon, companies refer to an “avatar.” If you tailor your product to your avatar, it will be popular among everyone who shares his or her key preferences. Your avatar is a stand-in for the hundreds, thousands, or millions of people you hope to target, but through him or her, you target them in a more personalized way.

Have a headline and three bullet points. Come up with a headline that encapsulates what your product is offering to your specific audience. This forces you to really articulate not just what your product is, but who it’s for. Then, come up with three short selling points that would further entice this targeted audience. Think of it as an exercise in marksmanship- by coming up with this headline and these bullet points, you’re forcing yourself to think in terms of what would make a particular audience respond. You’re aiming for the precise needs that you’re in the business of fulfilling.

Here’s how this would look in our sneaker example:

Constantly playing on a sore ankle? Introducing FlexForce:

  • Scientifically proven to reduce the risk of sprain
  • No more annoying braces
  • Play with confidence and without fear of injury

It looks like an ad, and it could be. But the point of the exercise is to cultivate the mindset of identifying the customer, and getting inside their heads to meet their needs.

Build long-term relationships. Once you think you know who your audience is, refine your understanding of their needs by getting to know them as intimately as possible. When you seek them out, envision yourself serving them not for a single sale, but for years on end. This is a relationship, not a fling, and the companies with the most loyal following are the companies that do everything they can to keep a running conversation with their audience.

At Business Republic, for example, we’ve put a great deal of effort into our freecontent- the blogs and podcasts for both the $100 MBA and our software company, Webinar Ninja. The reason we expend so much time and capital on things that don’t make us a dime? Relationship-building. We offer value, and in return we get the opportunity to serve an audience that knows us as well as we know them.

It’s a reciprocal relationship built on familiarity, credibility and trust. Two years into the $100 MBA and a year into Webinar Ninja, we like to think that our audience is well-defined, and that we can meet its needs in ways that other companies wouldn’t think to.

Defining and targeting a specific audience can seem like it’s limiting. Intuition tells us that every product should have as broad an appeal as possible, right? But in the world of small business and independent entrepreneurship, success is built on a guerrilla strategy, taking on precisely defined targets rather than huge swaths of the consumer world. Defining your audience isn’t casting a smaller net- it’s simply choosing to cast it exactly where the fish are.