When I checkout my latest Blockbuster videos they told me that my local store would be closing/moving. Either way, there wasn’t going to be a local store for me to visit any longer.
I wasn’t too upset. After all, I would just choose another video store. At least that’s what I thought.
When I went to the new video store, I was completely overwhelmed with the number of options and prices that they had going on. When the woman started going over all of them (they weren’t written down — she just had to know them) – my eyes literally glazed over out of confusion. Good thing she gave me this HUGE sheet of coupons with some of them outlined:
“We have a $1 favorites section filled with moves you’ll love. We guarantee it or your next one is FREE”
“You can build your own family video bundle! Add 2 select snack items for just $3 with any 2 paid rentals”
“With every new release rental Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, you get a $1 rental FREE”
“When you rent any 3 five-Nite new releases you get 1 FREE – look for the purple and yellow stickers”
“As a new member you get half-price rentals for your first 30 days”
This is just a sample. I haven’t listed them all – at least I don’t think I have. Honestly, my head spins just thinking about all the options.
You see, I had gotten spoiled by Blockbuster. I had joined this video “swap” program. I paid one monthly fee (don’t ask me what it was, I don’t remember) I only know that I would pay a flat fee for the privilege of walking in there, choosing any 2 new releases and swapping out the 2 I had with me. I was in and out in as long as it took me to choose.
There were due dates and no late fees. The monthly fee was its own incentive to swap your videos frequently. Because the more frequently you swapped them out – the cheaper they got at the end of the month. But if you suddenly got busy and didn’t watch them when you thought you would — no biggie. You just returned them when you were ready and got 2 more.
I hadn’t even realized the habit that had set it. Not to mention the fact that I no longer remembered what the monthly fee was. They had my money every month — guaranteed.
What I Learned When the Blockbuster Moved
- Subscription pricing tied to a product yields a habit that’s hard to break. In my Blockbuster experience after the initial value had been justified in paying the monthly fee – I was done thinking about it. My focus shifted to the repeat behavior of swapping videos. In what ways can you take the focus off the price and put it on having customers repeat behavior?
- Too many pricing options make customers angry. I’m already mad at having to pay a renewal fee for not having time to watch my video – and keeping it an extra day. Too many choices – I will have to think about which sticker the video has, can I keep it for 5 days, is it worth 50 cents more? Too many pricing options confuse and piss customers off.
- Going to a video store for me – is like going to a book store. Visiting a video store is a completely different, more tactile experience than ordering something online. When Blockbuster simplified their pricing – I felt free to focus on what I wanted to see. If your business is being effected negatively by online orders – re-think the purchasing experience at the store. In what ways can you make it an experience and not a transaction?
I’m curious about what you think? In what ways has a product’s or services pricing effected how you feel about the brand?
My friend Doug Peters sent me this little clip. And since February is often the month where people get a little “down”, I thought it might be appropriate to share this with you.
If you’re feeling a little down, it will give you that little extra push you need to do what needs to get done. After all, if all of these people could overcome the challenges placed on their plates – certainly we can do the same with ours.
Are You Fearless?
I’m thinking about how powerful fear is; whether fear of success or fear of failure – it’s paralyzing.
The people in this video are fearless. Today, I’m going to be fearless too. How about you?
Bill Finlay is an old friend and an old boss of mine. He’s been a scientist, a storyteller, a plant manager, a marketing director, a CEO and this month he’s launched something new — a web site and a blog.
Bill is launching the “Renaissance Project” where he will coach people to do the improbable. I’m writing about this today because watching him blog and grow this site will give you something you won’t find these days — the opportunity to watch a real guy go through the process of transforming their passion into a business.
What You’ll See
The Renaissance Project blog is so much fun to read. Bill has chosen to use the blog to fill you in on how his web site is coming. He’ll share the tools he’s using, what he likes and what he doesn’t. Another fun backstory that you’ll get to hear is his own personal Renaissance Journey.
I expect to read about personal and professional victories as well as defeats. I’m already fully engaged and interested in his progress. I wonder how his Renaissance Diet is going to be going. I especially can’t wait to hear how he overcame Super Bowl party temptations.
He’s exploring with what he’s going to offer to his subscribers on his site. I’m looking forward to reading about what he’s thinking and trying. If you join me in the reading, you might even get to contribute your own ideas.
This is a Rare Opportunity
I’m telling you about this because it’s an opportunity to participate in a business creation journey and follow it through a blog. We don’t get to see too many of these kinds of blogs – so you’ll want to follow this one just to see where it goes.
So join me in welcoming my friend Bill to the business blogging community – stop by Renaissance Project Blog - give it a read and leave Bill a comment!
Used to be that simply getting your blog listed on another “popular” blog’s blogroll was enough to build traffic to your site. These days, that doesn’t seem to be as popular as guest posting.
At a time when good content is hard to come by – guest posting is a wonderful way to get your brand and expertise noticed by others. Think of it as an “advertorial”; an educational ad that you post for FREE on a related blog or site.
You may have noticed that I’ve been using guest posts recently to feature services and tools that my readers might find interesting. It’s a win-win situation for everyone involved. The guest writer gets some added visibility to a new audience and I get interesting content written by an expert in a particular area.
If you’re a new blogger or have recently gone into business, try reaching out to other bloggers in a related industry and ask if you can post articles on their site.
Hints for Great Guest Posts
- Educate – Don’t Sell. This is an opportunity to educate a new audience about your expertise. You are selling by virtue of being included in the blog. There is no need to over-do it.
- Keep it Conversational. Keep your tone friendly and conversational. Pretend that you are sitting at a bar with a friend and just sharing information that they will find helpful.
- Offer links and examples. Show examples of what you are talking about so that the audience can get a sense of context. In other words – help them choose.
- Provide an “About the author” bio. Create a super-short About the Author bio to include with your article. It should contain no more than two sentences about who you are and what you do as well as a link. It’s best to provide a link to a blog where they can read other articles – but a web site will do.
Now you’re ready to start promoting yourself, your company and your brand. Reach out to your favorite blogs and contribute content – you’ll be surprised at how open people are to learn about what you offer.
Valentine’s Day is rapidly approaching and whether you personally view it as the most romantic day of the year or an annual, tacky ordeal there’s no question it can have a positive effect on many small businesses.
One of the best ways to take advantage of this potential bump in profitability is through email marketing. Email is a very effective way to bring highly-tailored messages to specific audiences. And since many people are prone to read into the gifts they receive from a significant other, it gives you an opportunity to use Cupid’s arrows to target your customers and prospects.
Following are 10 things you should do, beginning today, to make sure your Valentine’s Day doesn’t pass with a lot of empty promises and wilted dreams.
1. Start now! It’s less than a month out from the big day so best to start compiling your copy, imagery, offers, etc. now. You don’t want to inundate your recipients by email, but a rough schedule could entail:
a. Email 1: Friday, Jan 29th: Initial offer
b. Email 2: Friday, Feb 5th: Offer Reminder
c. Email 3: Thursday, February 11th: Reminder 2 – “Three days left `till Valentine’s Day!”
d. Email 4: Wednesday, Feb 17th: Thank you follow-up email to all customers who took advantage of the offer. Say thank you and extend another offer to these loyal customers.
2. Use a Valentine’s Day template with a nice balance of valentine-specific copy and imagery to get people in the mood and thinking about the event.
3. Segment your list. Split out your list by gender. Send female oriented offers to the guys and male oriented offers to the ladies.
4. Make sure your offer is compelling. Most people are still paying off their bills from the Christmas holiday season, so make sure the offer is affordable and is compelling enough to encourage them to act.
5. Partner with companies who offer complementary services or products for an offer that can’t be ignored. Example: Spa services and floral shop (walk away from your spa treatment with a dozen red roses), Restaurant and flower shop (have a bouquet of flowers ready at the table when you arrive), etc. Get creative as the possibilities are endless!
6. Target a special email to people who bought from you last year around Valentine’s Day with an even better offer for this loyal audience.
7. Make it easy for people to take advantage of your offer. If fulfillment is to come to the store, give clear directions or a store finder link, if by phone, make phone numbers prominent, or if online, make the button or text link stand out in the email. Printable coupons or promo codes always work well.
8. Help spread your message to more people by using forward-to-a-friend functionality.
9. Use email to promote a special Valentine’s Day draw to win a prize – to collect emails and grow your email subscriber list.
10. Send a Happy Valentine’s Day email postcard to show customer appreciation – thank loyal customers by providing complimentary redeemable points (if you have a points program) or a free gift for Valentine’s Day.
The Valentine’s Day colors may officially be red and pink. But follow the tips above and you’re sure to be seeing green by the end of the day.
About the Author: Wendy Lowe is director of product marketing for Campaigner (www.campaigner.com), the email marketing solution that enables organizations to have highly personalized one-to-one email dialogues with their customers, measure how they respond, and analyze those responses to interact in a more intelligent, automated way – resulting in more profitable relationships. Campaigner is provided by Protus, provider of the highest quality Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) communication tools for small-to-medium businesses (SMB) and enterprise organizations, including my1voice, the cost-effective, feature-rich virtual phone service, and award-winning MyFax, the fastest growing Internet fax service. Wendy can be reached at wlowe@protus.com.
I’ve already done a post telling you all about Tungle - THE coolest new scheduling tool on the planet! Today, I want to tell you about a new feature — Tungle Me.
I’m not exactly sure how “new” it is. But I discovered it yesterday and it’s new to me.
The number one feature and benefit of Tungle (to me) is it’s ability to whittle down the endless time, frustration and e-mail back-and-forth that goes on in scheduling a meeting. It’s bad enough with two people — but each additional person exponentially increases the complexity and e-mail proliferation around a simple meeting. If you think about it – you’re probably spending more time coordinating everyone than you will at the meeting.
Tungle solves all this with just one e-mail from the meeting originator. As the meeting originator, you simply invite everyone to the meeting using the e-mail invite in Tungle. The address book is seamless with whatever address book you’re using — so there’s no cutting and pasting. Then Tungle connects with your calendar and shows you exactly what you have scheduled and where you have free time. Just select the ranges of dates and times when you can meet, send your folks an invitation and you’re all set.
But Now There’s MORE
Tungle’s NEW and fabulous “Tungle Me” feature makes this even easier. Because once you’re a Tungle user — you want EVERYONE to be a Tungle user. And Tungle makes it easy with this new personalized calendar page that give you your very own URL — mine is http://tungle.me/IvanaTaylor. You’ve got your picture and all your contact info on this page. Then you’ve got your calendar with only your free time showing.
Do you know what this MEANS? Now you just give people your Personalized Tungle Page and tell them to “Tungle Me” when you want to meet.
I’ve already put this in my e-mail signature and have already used it. This eliminates ONE more step because I no longer have to be the meeting originator – AND I can use Tungle.
Thank You Tungle!
Leave it to my new friend Bob Cassin (Entrepreneur and Mobile Marketing Guru Guy — more on that later) to come up with the most logical, common sense rule on mobile call ettiquette!
Are you ready? Here is the new rule on how to deal with a dropped call — PASS this one on!!!
Dropped Call Rule:
If you’re on a call and the call drops — the person who INITIATED the call is the one responsible for calling back.
There you go – it’s that simple.
How often have you been on a call and it drops. Then two of you waste valuable time trying to call each other back and get voice mail. Then each of you waits thinking the other person is going to call you back.
STOP THE INSANITY – follow the rule!
Pass on this wonderful rule of cell phone etiquette!
What about YOU? Do you have any mobile mobile phone etiquette tips? Leave them in the comments below!
This is a great time in the year to start looking into what new opportunities you can bring into your business. In order to help you in this respect, I’d like to share some useful link love that you may have missed around the web that can help you build your brand and market your small business.
Trends
There has been a flurry of activity around the hottest trends that are coming up this year. Check some of these fantastic articles. Then pick out a few trends (Opportunities or Threats) and see how you can incorporate them to build on your existing strengths or minimize your weaknesses.
Rural Business Trends by Becky McRay – I had never thought that business trends would be that different for the rural sector but Becky brings some real insight. If you’re running a business that serves the burbs, then you need to check these out.
iPhone Apps for Small Business: If you’re using an iPhone, check out these apps. If you’re an entrepreneurial and savvy technical type or have access to a techie — then look at translating some of these apps for other mobile devices or maybe even facebook. Apps are BIG business.
Web Trends: If you’re still only toe-deep in the world of the web. Jump in or you’ll be out in the cold.
Must to Marketing: These 10 easy tips will get your customers heading in the right direction — toward you.
New Applications
Guy Kawasaki’s Favorite Apps: I was inspired by this article to write another trendy app article. I’m still doing some research on mine – but this one will pique your interest while you wait.
Use crowdsourcing iPhone Apps: Crowdsourcing is a trend that is still up and coming – the QuestionPro version is on an iPhone app now.
Interesting Stuff
Get an online Presence: Here are 6 ways to build your online presence.
Best Books of 2009: On Small Business Trends, we’ve been taking advantage of doing tons of book reviews. Our readers are readers so we asked them to vote to pick their best books. Here’s how we did it and here are the best books!
If you haven’t already, be sure to register for FREE over at www.DIYMarketers.com because we’re launching some awesome new programs with some of the best business authors today along with special DIY Marketing tools and classes.
Leave a comment and tell me what DIY Marketing tools and tips YOU want in 2010!
As a part of the Small Business Trends expert group, I get to write articles that are posted on the Open Forum blog. My last article “10 Must Do Marketing Tips” got a lot of traction, so I thought I’d do another kind of list article that people could use in the coming months as they put together their marketing plans.
My idea was to pull together a list of hot applications; some that I use a lot and some that I wish I could use more. Well, in the process of doing the research I found that Guy Kawasaki did a post on his Favorite Apps on the Open Forum blog. “RATS!”, I thought. ”He beat me to the punch.” Undaunted, I started looking for another twist.
So now, I’m exploring the top trends and apps that YOU think marketers and small businesses can’t do without!
Leave a comment below with your ideas.
So far, I’m listing Google Wave (c’mon people register and start using it, it’s no fun being there all alone!) Virtual collaboration will only start getting bigger and better.
Location-based applications like BrightKite were floundering and maybe before their time. Now FourSquare has gotten into the mix. I’ve registered and posted a couple of things, but still don’t see how it will replace Twitter.
Augmented Reality Apps are getting popular on the Andoid systems and iPhone. I’ve been asking around about how a small business can be sure that they are included when potential customers are scanning the area with their phones.
So there you have it — send me your ideas and links. Don’t forget to leave a link to your blog so I can give you credit!
We’ve spent the last few years getting our feet wet with social media tools. This year, it’s time to make all that learning pay off. I got this cool presentation link from my social media measurement guru, Adam Henderson.
I love this fun presentation about social media ROI. There are so many things to learn here:
- Social media is a marketing tool and not a toy.
- I think of social media as being in the PR family – it builds brand and reputation and gives you the opportunity to put stories and a human face on your company
- It has spawned a new “Manager” to add to your team – the social media manager. Doing it right requires time and effort.
- All is worth NOTHING (I like to say the big ‘Nishta’) if you’re not making money and generating customers.
- You have to know what to measure: transactions, new customers and dollars per transaction
What have you learned from social media and ROI this year and what will you do with it in 2010?
