Do a google search for Bob Ray, and you’ll end up with this page as the first match. This is as it should be. If you already know you want to buy some Bob and Ray recordings, you’re motivated enough to poke around and find what you want.
What makes something a good page for the motivated searcher doesn’t necessarily translate into a page that can pay for itself with offers.
Do a search on ‘comedy’ and if you’re in the right part of the world, you might encounter the ad on the left (in a black box) for an Andrew Dice Clay concert that’s taking place in New Jersey.
The organization running this ad is hoping that a big enough percentage of those clicking on it will convert so they can run the ad more often.
The problem with this offer is that it is slapped on top of a page that was never intended to convert someone who had responded to an offer. The page it links to looks like this.
So, what happens when an advertiser runs an offer and connects to a page like this? They blame the offer. They blame the medium. They complain that it just doesn’t work for them.
Of course it doesn’t work!
Not because of the offer but because of the page the offer connected to. And even if the page was perfectly formatted, it’s unlikely it would work. Why? Because it’s unlikely that you’re going to be able to turn someone from a stranger (pre-offer) into a loyal customer with a single page.
Smart internet marketers have learned that it’s a step by step process, not an event.
Instead of this:
offer —> sale
it works like this:
offer—> sample —> permission —> learning —> sample —> sale —> subscription.
If you can’t embrace this, I think you need to walk away from the medium entirely. On the other hand, this is the engine that is capable of growing businesses in a predictable, straightforward way.
I call it an ‘offer culture.’ The same way Lillian Vernon and LL Bean developed a direct mail culture, some organizations are developing an offer culture. They search out new places to run their offers, test them quickly, adjust their landing pages, experiment with how many steps they need between first contact and closed sale… these organizations really understand the value of a long-term customer, because they’ve earned them.
In working with the early advertisers in Squidoo offers, there has been a clear dichotomy between marketers and those making offers. The same thing is obviously true among regular Google adwords buyers. Are you on the bus?
[Chad points us to this article from five years ago…]
April 18, 2007
This guy quit his (amazing) job and ended up starting his well-known company at the age of 48. Never too late to confront your Dip. Free hardcover for the first person to send me a note with his name.
[boy, that was quick. It’s Enzo Ferrari. I am amazed at how many of you were willing to use the file name of the jpg in an effort to give yourself an unfair advantage. Don’t forget, I used to be a game designer. It’s a lot harder to cheat on me than that…]
April 17, 2007
Stefan Stern who writes for the Financial Times wrote this review for Accounting and Business, a UK journal found here:
Vince Lombardi is one of the most venerated American football coaches in history. The team he built, the Green Bay Packers, won the NFL championship five times in the nine years he was coaching them. And Lombardi came up with one of the world’s most famous motivational commands of all, beloved of managers everywhere: “Quitters never win, and winners never quit.”
Seth Godin, the marketing guru, blogger and best-selling author of Purple Cow, quotes Lombardi at the start of this slim new book. And Godin’s verdict on the great Lombardi’s views? “Bad advice.”
That is typical Godin, who possesses one of the cheekiest and most energetic voices in business today. That is partly why his latest offering is worth a look even though, at nearly £7 for 100 pages, it might not appear to offer the best value for money. (Well, I did say he was cheeky, didn’t I?)
Godin’s counter-intuitive insight is simply this: winners do quit, they quit all the time, it’s just that they pick the right moment and the right place to quit, so that they can concentrate their fire on an area where winning is a much more likely (and indeed more profitable) outcome.
The book’s title refers to that low point in any task or project where we have to decide whether to carry on with what we are doing – in the hope of overcoming a dip – or whether we should in fact abandon the work in hand and move on. One of our biggest problems, Godin says, is that we fail to recognise when a dip is in fact a cul-de-sac, a dead end. He hails Jack Welch, former chief executive of General Electric, as a boss who knew when certain business units were coming up against a dead end. “Be number one or number two in a sector, or get out of it,” was the Welch doctrine.
Quitting is important because winning is important, Godin says. “Extraordinary benefits accrue to the tiny majority of people who are able to push just a tiny bit longer than most,” he writes. “Extraordinary benefits also accrue to the tiny majority with the guts to quit early and refocus their efforts on something new.”
Godin is the enemy of muddling through, making do, and coping. Either get through the dip and reach for the stars, or find something else to do, he advises. But don’t mess with “Mr Inbetween”.
“The most common response to the dip is to play it safe,” Godin says. “To do ordinary, blameless work, work that’s beyond reproach. When faced with the dip most people ‘suck it up’ and try to average their way to success. Which is precisely why so few people end up the best in the world… The problem with coping is that it never leads to exceptional performance,” he adds. “Mediocre work is rarely because of a lack of talent and often because of the cul-de-sac. All coping does is waste your time and misdirect your energy. If the best you can do is cope, you’re better off quitting.”
So that’s us told then. Sounds like a good place to stop!
And yes, I know the competition is fierce. In fact, the title of the post is pretty redundant. But still.
Thanks to Bas for the link. Here’s my ppt riff. And yes, I still think it applies to any field, at any level. No exceptions for doctors, CEOs, structural engineers or marketers.
Jon from New Zealand writes:
I was amused by my own behaviour this morning.
I was looking for a welder of stainless steel to make up some security gates.
I went to a website list of suitable contractors, clicked on all those in my area and ended up with 25 pages opened. I then called the first one and asked if they could make up something to my drawing. They couldn’t (not their type of business) but I had a very pleasant and helpful discussion with the owner about stainless steel in general.
I then asked if he could suggest anyone else that might be able to do the work. He suggested a name and number. I called them, discussed the project and am waiting for their quote.
I then closed the other 24 web pages – unseen or contacted.
The rapport that I felt (from a perfect stranger) was sufficient to make me take his recommendation and pursue a quote from his referred "friend" in preference to the other 24 open pages. Funny that! The need for a personal link goes deep.
Modems are no match for human interaction and trust. Not carefully tracked online ratings, but the sound of a voice, the tone of authority, the receipt of a favor. It matters more than it ever did.
The very first time I ever presented the Purple Cow was years ago at Ted. I get nervous just watching it. The neatest part of the site, though, is how they handle the ratings.
That video is nothing compared to this array of trick bowling shots, however.
April 16, 2007
Thanks to the hordes who responded to my post about quitters. Books went out on Friday, and I wish I could have sent one to everyone.
So, who’s a quitter? Several people pointed out that Scott Adams (Dilbert) didn’t quit, he was fired. (This is a great interview, sent in by Nancy, one of the longest I’ve ever read with anyone about anything). Actually, my opinion is that Scott quit conceptually, even though he kept showing up.
Others: Jeff Foxworthy, John Legend, Scott Clark, Gandhi, Tom Peters, Shea Gunther, Ernie Mosteller, Francis Crick, Bill Gates, Ray Kroc, Howard Stern, Francis Obikwelu, Dave Ramsey, Suze Orman, Harrison Ford, John Piper, Willem de Kooning, Jill Konrath, John Grisham, Jeff Bezos, Michael Bloomberg, Shawn Carter, Rowan Manahan, Ralph Roberts, Dan Schapiro, and even Apple, home of the Newton and the Apple III.
There were many more, but that ought to get you started.
It’s not often that I disagree with Hugh, but this time, I do: gapingvoid.
The headline of his post is, "How well does open source currently meet the needs of shareholders and CEOs". I think this question is part of the problem.
Almost no new idea meets the needs of shareholders and CEOs. That’s because most of all they need predictability and apparent freedom from risk. This is why public companies are almost always on the road to disaster. They flee from change in order to do what they think is meeting the needs of those constituents. They fight changes in laws, policies, technologies and markets because their CEO (especially) wants a nice even flight pattern while he racks up big time options.
Shrink wrap software feels safe. Secure. Supported. Beyond reproach.
But…
It turns out that open source can do a brilliant job of meeting their actual needs (lower overhead to install and maintain, higher productivity to use, more stable over time) but the problem is that apparent needs (playing it safe, making your boss happy) almost always get in the way. Until it’s too late. When it’s too late, the competition has leapfrogged you.
Simple example: blogging. Blogging doesn’t seem to fit into the command and control mindset of media companies. It doesn’t seem to have obvious ad-driven or traffic-driven payoffs. It represents a threat (or at least volatility) to the stock price. So they ignore them. Until, of course, a blog has a greater circulation than the company’s magazine.
April 15, 2007
What should my local chiropractor do? Or the acupuncturist? Or the pet store? What about that small church or mosque?
The web has changed the game for a lot of organizations, but for the local business, it’s more of a threat and a quandary than an asset. My doctor went to a seminar yesterday ($100+) where the ‘expert’ was busy selling her on buying a domain name, hiring a designer, using web development software, understanding site maps and navigation and keywords and metatags and servers…
These are businesses that have trouble dealing with the Yellow Pages. Too much trouble, too much time, way too expensive. So, should local micro-businesses just ignore the web? Or should they become experts in the art of building and maintaining a website?
We’re talking about people who don’t like to tweak. About local businesses that are struggling to be found by people a block or a mile or five miles away. Entrepreneurs who can’t be bothered to understand typography or HTML. Why does my dog’s vet have such a lame website? Why do basement waterproofing sites sit moribund? Do they all have to become experts and spend the money–or sit it out and lose out?
I think there’s a third way, one that gets them just about everything they need, takes an hour or two a month and costs about $60 a year. Here goes:
Step one: head on over to Typepad and sign up for their cheapest service. It’s about $5 a month. Pick a ‘quiet’ and professional blog layout. Your first post should include the name of your business, your address, your specialty and your hours and phone number. Click the button that says "Feature this post." From now on, this post will be at the top of your blog (which is really your ‘website’, so first time visitors
will see it front and center. When you go on vacation or stock a new line of products or have a story to tell, just blog it.
The beauty of this first step is that for $5 you have a web server, a professional layout, no worries about design, a site you can edit yourself in no time and no hassles with weird domain names.
Next step: build a Squidoo lens about your business. List your hours and stuff. Then insert a google map of where you’re located. Put in a list of books if you think your potential (or current) customers will benefit from an understanding of what you do. Insert a guestbook so your favorite customers can give you testimonials. Put in an RSS feed from your blog, so every time you update it, it will show up here, too. If this is too tricky, have your smart next-door-neighbor do it for you. You won’t have to do it again.
Next step: Get a sign featuring your name and phone number. Something 1 foot by 2 foot or so. Printed on cardboard. Now, take your digital camera and start taking pictures. Pictures of your offices. Of your staff. Of your satisfied customers. Each picture should include the sign! Now, go post those pictures on Flickr. (And then put the pictures into a set and pull that set into your Squidoo lens, and post the best pictures on your blog too).
Last step: Ask your best customers to build Squidoo lenses about your business. Ask the ones who blog to mention you in their blogs. Ask the happiest of all to pose for a picture holding your sign, or to give you a testimonial for your blog.
So, you’ve probably invested a few hours by now. You’ve spent a few dollars, read a book or two on blogging. But you haven’t become an expert, not by a longshot, in any technologies. You haven’t tweaked a font or focused on a sitemap. Instead, you’ve been running your dry cleaner or writing your sermons.
Even better, no one is judging you on whether or not you’re an expert at building websites. No one is choosing not to do business with you because your website looks like your cat designed it. And you’re not spending big money tweaking tweaking tweaking just to get the last ounce of blood out of your site.
A month later, if someone types, migraine acupuncture des moines, into Google, they ought to find you. Or pet store 10706. The beauty of your situation is this: if only 5 or 10 new people a week find you via this ring of links and google searches, you’re going to have a shot at doubling your customer base within a year. For $60.
April 14, 2007
