The Dip
Philly and NY are now sold out
Thanks for the enthusiasm and feedback about the Dip Tour.
The Dip
Why people love bestseller lists
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Bestseller lists are everywhere, mostly because they work.
They work because deep down, many people want to do what other people are doing. Things are popular because they’re popular. Hits sound better.
It’s a Catch-22 of course (you can’t be a hit until you’re a hit). If you’re in an industry with no bestseller list, do your best to create one.
The Dip just hit #1 on the CEO READ daily bestseller list, by the way
No exceptions
Leaving aside the obvious contradiction of strategy (laptop users are more likely to buy books and less likely to steal stuff, so why not let them in the store and offer them a mesh bag to carry about), this sign highlights one of the silliest (and common) policy rules: no exceptions.
No exceptions? Really?
If I gave you a million dollars could you make an exception?
And on top of the unreality of the idea, consider the message it sends to the consumer. “We’re so busy and so centralized and so hierarchical that you shouldn’t even bother to discuss this with our staff.” Or, the short version, “go away.”
Why not try a sign that says,
WELCOME!
To keep costs down, we require anyone carrying a bag bigger than this square to check it. Our check area is run by Ralph, who is kind and honest, but I hope you can understand that we can’t be responsible for any items you might want to check. If this is a problem for you, consider asking for one of our mesh bags, which can safely tote your laptop or camera. Thanks for shopping at the Strand… we’re really glad you’re here.
If making a sign gets you all stressed out, let someone else do it for you.
Learning from bananas
It turns out that it’s a lot easier to peel a banana if you start from the ‘wrong’ end.
You don’t even have to use your teeth.
Here’s the thing: I know this. I’ve tried it. It’s true.
I still peel a banana the hard way. It feels like the right thing to do.
Selling change is much harder than you think.
The Dip is now on iTunes
Go to the iTunes store, hit audiobooks. $7.95 for the unabridged edition. Thanks for listening. (Here’s the link. Thanks, Eric.)
[I’m told that for some reason I don’t understand, this doesn’t run on some older versions of the iPod. If you’re in that situation, please don’t buy from the iTunes store until they’ve fixed the problem. In the meantime, the CD is at B&N for $5. I apologize for the hassle.]
How to misuse Google Analytics
You may very well already have Google Analytics installed. It’s free, it’s accurate and it’s cool. Google lets anyone with a website measure their traffic and dozens of other metrics. The entire dashboard is focused on how many people come to your site, how many pages they view when they get there and how long they stay.
Given our desire to be popular combined with Google’s desire to give users what they want, it’s not surprising that traffic is the key driver of the program.
But traffic is a red herring. At best, it’s distracting, a stand-in for something more useful. At worst, though, it’s dangerous, because the quest for traffic causes you to make bad decisions.
Why do you have a site? What’s your goal? Is it to sell something? To receive email? To spread an idea? Whatever it is, you can probably measure it. And measure it you should. Every other piece of Analytics data is trivial compared to that one number.
Short version: if you don’t understand how to do goal tracking and funnel analysis, don’t use Analytics until you do.
Google offers Analytics for a reason. They’re not being selfless… they understand that efficient websites are more likely to buy traffic, because those sites can more easily convert traffic into revenue. The purpose of the program, then, isn’t to stroke your ego (or make you feel inadequate). Instead, it’s a tool to help you redesign your site every single day to make your ultimate efficiency go up.
Impossible markets
Kevin points us to the broken ipod store.
Our life has become a Saturday Night Live sketch. The question is this: now that you can connect anyone, who will you connect?
The Dip
Cover bands don’t change the world
In fact, cover bands rarely sell out the Beacon Theatre.
That’s part of what we covered in this podcast. Creative professionals have an imperative, and that’s to challenge the status quo. For the status quo, clients don’t need you, do they?
Absentee Ballots
Very few people vote by absentee ballot (though the number goes up every year). This is interesting because it’s usually easier, more convenient and more certain. It’s free and it works. If you’re going to vote, why wait until the last minute?
Because, I think, people like the idea of COD. They like the certainty of getting something right now in exchange for their effort. They want to know that nothing in the world changed between the day they would have had to send in their ballot and the day of the election.
This leads to two opportunities for most marketers. The first is that you could slice off the portion of the market that likes to order in advance (in a market where that’s not really available). So you could sell your product or service long ahead of time and offer a discount or certainty that appeals to this group. Or, you could do the opposite. You could find a product (like Girl Scout Cookies) that are only offered ahead of time and figure out how to sell them in a retail fashion, like at the reception desk at work. Buy a bunch on spec and sell em when they come in.
Which leads, in a surprisingly untortured way, to pub day for my new book, The Dip. For those that didn’t pre-order (and the reasons are obvious–what if you forgot how to read between then and now?), here are some useful links. It’s out now and you can get it the moment you pay for it:
At Barnes & Noble (less than $10 for members).
The $5 abridged CD audio edition (exclusive to BN).
At Amazon.
And the brand-new free PDF manifesto, with links to 8CR. Feel free to share.
The Dip
Building a bigger valley of death
In this interview, I talk about ways entrepreneurs and others can make it more difficult for competitors to follow in their footsteps.