Rajeh Sety is an entrepreneur, author and speaker based in Silicon valley. His blog is Life Beyond Code.
His recent entry on "Enrichment" is worth reading and I wanted to pass this on to you, given the spirit of the holiday season. So here it is:
"We are all on a search- a search for more meaning in our lives. Through choosing to enrich other people's lives, you add meaning to their life and your own.
Some simple steps to follow:
1. Commit: Commit to lifetime - relationships that span events, companies, causes and geographic boundaries.
2. Care: care for the concerns of others as if they are your own.
3. Connect: Aim to connect those who will benefit and enrich each others lives in equal measure
4. Communication: Communicate candidly. Tell people what they should hear rather than what they want to hear.
5. Expand capacity: Aim to expand people's capacity to help them give and get more from their own lives.
The Litmus Test: If you are truly enriching someone's life, they will typically miss you in their past. They think their lives would have been even better if they had met you earlier.
You are only as rich as the enrichment you bring to the world around you."
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Monday, December 14, 2009
"TRYITVERTISING
One of my followers dropped me a comment that this was originally a blank post. I am not quite sure how that happened, but no doubt it did, because I am editing it as I'm thinking.
I was going to write about an idea I had called "tryitvertising".
Simply stated, every 3 months, you sell your customer, via email, a pass for $5. This pass entitles the customer (and up to x# of people?) to get1 hour of bowling and shoe rentals.
Why would you do this?
Because it just might activate someone who has not been in the center in a while (remember, the average open play customer only comes to your center twice in one year!!) and you just might get the opportunity to sell that customer on the benefits of a specific short season league you are trying to form or get their interest on a about a special event.
Each pass would have a 3 month expiration and once it was gone, it is gone. This would be set up as an automatic bill that hits the customer's credit card every 3 months. No hassle for you, easy for the customer.
The customer must sign up for a minimum of 4 passes. So lets assume that 500 customers sign up for this; that would be $10,000 annually coming in over the internet? Bang, you have a money making machine while you sleep!
Any "triers" out there?
I was going to write about an idea I had called "tryitvertising".
Simply stated, every 3 months, you sell your customer, via email, a pass for $5. This pass entitles the customer (and up to x# of people?) to get1 hour of bowling and shoe rentals.
Why would you do this?
Because it just might activate someone who has not been in the center in a while (remember, the average open play customer only comes to your center twice in one year!!) and you just might get the opportunity to sell that customer on the benefits of a specific short season league you are trying to form or get their interest on a about a special event.
Each pass would have a 3 month expiration and once it was gone, it is gone. This would be set up as an automatic bill that hits the customer's credit card every 3 months. No hassle for you, easy for the customer.
The customer must sign up for a minimum of 4 passes. So lets assume that 500 customers sign up for this; that would be $10,000 annually coming in over the internet? Bang, you have a money making machine while you sleep!
Any "triers" out there?
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Lessons from Apple
With a friend, you can talk for hours about health care, recession, housing, taxes and the environment. With all these issues (oh yes, don't forget the eye of the Tiger fiasco), is it any wonder that we seek more and more information to be more informed; to make better decisions; and to be more responsible).
But something is happening out there. Our need for information is completely and totally saturated by the volume of information we receive knowingly and unknowingly. "Enough", we say, yet our email box continually runneth over.
And we are blaming Google. A 21 billion dollar company that some claim is the most successful in the history of the world. That's quite a claim!
The anti-Google people have emerged saying that the all consuming search engine is not only eating the world, but is eating itself. Its very strategy of SEO (Search engine Optimization) drives a finite market to an ever increasing number of messages which are ultimately sold at lower and lower prices.
What got me thinking about this was a link to an MSNBC article "Why Apple Does Everything Wrong", sent to me by Wood Foss, Proprietor of Alley Katz in Westerly RI. Apple is not a great internet marketer. It doesn't blog, has a limited presence on face book and believes more in brand focus.
They also makes great products.
Ask anyone who owns Ipods, MAC computers, Iphones; zealots everyone. Thy proclaim the sanctity of their purchasers...and they tell everyone who asks and some who don't.
They also build their brand with very cool television advertising combined with dimensionally hip billboards and exhaustive and credible sales training (check out an Apple Retail store, whew!! and let me know your experience with the sales people) they rock. So here is the irony. A new media company spending more money on traditional forms of old media than on new media internet based platforms.
Whats going on?
I think its the backlash that is making Apple cool. They are doing what everybody talks about, but no "new media" company has had the guts to do except Apple; and that is to not flood the finite market with seemingly "another email" or "another blog" or even "another face book posting"; established by the SEO genies.
Now I am not saying that these tools are not important. Any one in their right mind knows that. It's just that we have become addicted to this "digital crack", so much so that we may have forgotten about human behavior. In fact, a Nasdaq listed company called eXelate has just completed a study that shows 80% of all advertising clicks are done by 16% of the total audience. Sounds like the old 80/20 rule to me.
As new as the new media is, it should teach us that new gets old pretty quickly these days. More importantly, we all need to know how to mix the new media and the old media together to get to our customers with our "message of opportunity" for him
Oh yes, a great product would help too.
But something is happening out there. Our need for information is completely and totally saturated by the volume of information we receive knowingly and unknowingly. "Enough", we say, yet our email box continually runneth over.
And we are blaming Google. A 21 billion dollar company that some claim is the most successful in the history of the world. That's quite a claim!
The anti-Google people have emerged saying that the all consuming search engine is not only eating the world, but is eating itself. Its very strategy of SEO (Search engine Optimization) drives a finite market to an ever increasing number of messages which are ultimately sold at lower and lower prices.
What got me thinking about this was a link to an MSNBC article "Why Apple Does Everything Wrong", sent to me by Wood Foss, Proprietor of Alley Katz in Westerly RI. Apple is not a great internet marketer. It doesn't blog, has a limited presence on face book and believes more in brand focus.
They also makes great products.
Ask anyone who owns Ipods, MAC computers, Iphones; zealots everyone. Thy proclaim the sanctity of their purchasers...and they tell everyone who asks and some who don't.
They also build their brand with very cool television advertising combined with dimensionally hip billboards and exhaustive and credible sales training (check out an Apple Retail store, whew!! and let me know your experience with the sales people) they rock. So here is the irony. A new media company spending more money on traditional forms of old media than on new media internet based platforms.
Whats going on?
I think its the backlash that is making Apple cool. They are doing what everybody talks about, but no "new media" company has had the guts to do except Apple; and that is to not flood the finite market with seemingly "another email" or "another blog" or even "another face book posting"; established by the SEO genies.
Now I am not saying that these tools are not important. Any one in their right mind knows that. It's just that we have become addicted to this "digital crack", so much so that we may have forgotten about human behavior. In fact, a Nasdaq listed company called eXelate has just completed a study that shows 80% of all advertising clicks are done by 16% of the total audience. Sounds like the old 80/20 rule to me.
As new as the new media is, it should teach us that new gets old pretty quickly these days. More importantly, we all need to know how to mix the new media and the old media together to get to our customers with our "message of opportunity" for him
Oh yes, a great product would help too.
Monday, December 7, 2009
The Voice
You know, its hell when you're sick and when you lose your voice like I did this past week, it's hell especially if you are a marketer.
But how many of us occasionally lose our marketing voice?. Look at companies like Caldor, Montgomery Wards, Woolworth and other big box retailers that have lost their voice. They just didn't know how to talk to their customer about satisfying their customers changing needs. More recently, GM and Chrysler lost their voice and we all know what happened to them.
The voice, as I call it is our marketing mantra; it is who we are, it is how we communicate; it is the tone we set. It is the trust we have built.
If you are not reacting to your customers needs, they won't hear your voice. Here is an example. To us, a short season bowling league may be 12 to 24 weeks, but to today's open play bowler who may want some more competition and camaraderie that league bowling offers, their idea of a short season is 6 to 8 weeks. You may not like to hear that, but that's what they are saying. And they are also saying they only want to do this once a month or every other week. What's our voice going to be? Will it be "yes we hear you, but you can only have a 12 week or 16 week product because well, gee, its easier for us and besides you'll really like it?" Or are we going to say "We hear you and well, gee, we have a dynamite short season adult child program on a weekend day (when they want to bowl)that you are just going to love?"
Get your message strong in January; its the best time to start short season programs and the best time for our customers to hear our marketing "voice".
And take your Tami Flu.
But how many of us occasionally lose our marketing voice?. Look at companies like Caldor, Montgomery Wards, Woolworth and other big box retailers that have lost their voice. They just didn't know how to talk to their customer about satisfying their customers changing needs. More recently, GM and Chrysler lost their voice and we all know what happened to them.
The voice, as I call it is our marketing mantra; it is who we are, it is how we communicate; it is the tone we set. It is the trust we have built.
If you are not reacting to your customers needs, they won't hear your voice. Here is an example. To us, a short season bowling league may be 12 to 24 weeks, but to today's open play bowler who may want some more competition and camaraderie that league bowling offers, their idea of a short season is 6 to 8 weeks. You may not like to hear that, but that's what they are saying. And they are also saying they only want to do this once a month or every other week. What's our voice going to be? Will it be "yes we hear you, but you can only have a 12 week or 16 week product because well, gee, its easier for us and besides you'll really like it?" Or are we going to say "We hear you and well, gee, we have a dynamite short season adult child program on a weekend day (when they want to bowl)that you are just going to love?"
Get your message strong in January; its the best time to start short season programs and the best time for our customers to hear our marketing "voice".
And take your Tami Flu.
Thursday, December 3, 2009
A Coupon Cornucopia
Package goods marketers describe the distribution of free product as a way to get trial - the ability to get new purchases from non users or low users. In our industry we describe the process of getting trial as the distribution of free games.
In our business, free games are a marketing staple. We use it as a reward, as an incentive, as a gift, as a donation and as an apology.
When we get people to join a have a ball league, we might give them 5 free games or 10 free games at the end of the program. When we want to generate additional traffic we can distribute thousands of free games within our community, via shoe leather, via direct mail and now via email, facebook or twitter. If the lanes break down during open play, we will give free games to those unlucky participants too. Overall, it is a very useful tool.
What is not as well used is the bounce back coupon and if it is being used, it is stuck at "just one offer". The purpose of the bounce back is to give the customer an incentive to return to our business again by offering a reduced price offering for one of our products.
However we should be testing a series of offers. Test a "$5 off when you spend $15". Put a 1 month expiration on it. "This coupon valid 30 days from (date)".
Then after the month is over, test a straight $5 offer, valid Monday through Thursday from 9a to close. Again put a 30 day expiration on it.
The following month, test another offer. Maybe a FREE pizza. After 3 months test them all by distributing one of the three to a different customer every day. at the end of the fourth month you will know which one "pulled better".
You can even distribute bounce backs for a specific program. Give your cosmic bowlers a reason to come in on Wednesdays at 930pm. What incentive can you give them to bring a friend. Dollars off? Free Games? Food? Contributions to a Charity?
Why go through this process?
Because what you or I think is a great offer does not mean a lot.
In fact, it means nothing.
We need to let the customer tell us what offer motivates him off to get off his apathy and into our center.
Every day in every way.
In our business, free games are a marketing staple. We use it as a reward, as an incentive, as a gift, as a donation and as an apology.
When we get people to join a have a ball league, we might give them 5 free games or 10 free games at the end of the program. When we want to generate additional traffic we can distribute thousands of free games within our community, via shoe leather, via direct mail and now via email, facebook or twitter. If the lanes break down during open play, we will give free games to those unlucky participants too. Overall, it is a very useful tool.
What is not as well used is the bounce back coupon and if it is being used, it is stuck at "just one offer". The purpose of the bounce back is to give the customer an incentive to return to our business again by offering a reduced price offering for one of our products.
However we should be testing a series of offers. Test a "$5 off when you spend $15". Put a 1 month expiration on it. "This coupon valid 30 days from (date)".
Then after the month is over, test a straight $5 offer, valid Monday through Thursday from 9a to close. Again put a 30 day expiration on it.
The following month, test another offer. Maybe a FREE pizza. After 3 months test them all by distributing one of the three to a different customer every day. at the end of the fourth month you will know which one "pulled better".
You can even distribute bounce backs for a specific program. Give your cosmic bowlers a reason to come in on Wednesdays at 930pm. What incentive can you give them to bring a friend. Dollars off? Free Games? Food? Contributions to a Charity?
Why go through this process?
Because what you or I think is a great offer does not mean a lot.
In fact, it means nothing.
We need to let the customer tell us what offer motivates him off to get off his apathy and into our center.
Every day in every way.
Friday, November 27, 2009
Who is Buying?
In visiting my clients, I often here the lamentable phrases like, " our programs are really good, we offer great stuff, but as hard as we try, people just aren't buying it; its just not selling".
The second lamentable phrase I hear is, "We're a league based house; we only offer 32 week programs, now they want shorter and shorter league seasons, its just not fair!".
To these phrases I often say, "Hey Larry, your center is basing its marketing strategy on what you want to offer, not what the prospective customer wants to buy.
Would you buy something from someone who says you ought to buy this product even though you know there is something out there that's a better product or a cooler product?
Just because you try hard or sell better, doesn't mean that customers are going to go looking for your same old product. You wouldn't either, right?
If a product doesn't meet your needs as a consumer, why would it be good enough for you as a marketer?
Would you really buy into a 32 week program, when NEW consumers (like you) tell us they just want 6 to 8 week sessions?
Change is a good thing.
Try it.
It will make your marketing more productive.
The second lamentable phrase I hear is, "We're a league based house; we only offer 32 week programs, now they want shorter and shorter league seasons, its just not fair!".
To these phrases I often say, "Hey Larry, your center is basing its marketing strategy on what you want to offer, not what the prospective customer wants to buy.
Would you buy something from someone who says you ought to buy this product even though you know there is something out there that's a better product or a cooler product?
Just because you try hard or sell better, doesn't mean that customers are going to go looking for your same old product. You wouldn't either, right?
If a product doesn't meet your needs as a consumer, why would it be good enough for you as a marketer?
Would you really buy into a 32 week program, when NEW consumers (like you) tell us they just want 6 to 8 week sessions?
Change is a good thing.
Try it.
It will make your marketing more productive.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Thanksgving Every Day
Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. Many of us will be at home with our families basking in the joy of good food, fun and lively conversation intermingled with a healthy dose of football.
The warmth of the home and hearth; a day off from the daily routine and, perhaps, even seeing some old friends we haven't seen in a while will make a day we can well remember.
Wouldn't it be great if our existing customers and new customers feel that kind of feeling every time they come into our bowling and entertainment center?
Start out with a "Welcome to Happy Lanes" sign in your front entrance.
Train your desk people to at least say "Welcome to Happy Lanes, My name is Fred" and ask "Have you been here before?" to any one who comes in.
Then make sure your person shakes hands, smiles and says "Welcome to Happy Lanes, how may I help you today?" or "Welcome back to Happy Lanes, how may I help you today."
Just start with this small step.
And maybe it will start to feel like Thanksgiving day, every day.
The warmth of the home and hearth; a day off from the daily routine and, perhaps, even seeing some old friends we haven't seen in a while will make a day we can well remember.
Wouldn't it be great if our existing customers and new customers feel that kind of feeling every time they come into our bowling and entertainment center?
Start out with a "Welcome to Happy Lanes" sign in your front entrance.
Train your desk people to at least say "Welcome to Happy Lanes, My name is Fred" and ask "Have you been here before?" to any one who comes in.
Then make sure your person shakes hands, smiles and says "Welcome to Happy Lanes, how may I help you today?" or "Welcome back to Happy Lanes, how may I help you today."
Just start with this small step.
And maybe it will start to feel like Thanksgiving day, every day.
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