Jay Zheng's Marketing Blog

Promise More

I saw this quote today: “Promise less than you know you will deliver to get referrals without asking for them”.

It may very well be true. But I also this that is the lazy approach to getting referrals.

The difficult way, the right way of building a remarkable brand, and perhaps the road most businesses elect not to take is to promise more than you know you can deliver, then over-deliver.

Content Creators

The Internet world doesn’t need more website builders.

In fact, one could argue that with tools available today, the Internet world is very likely over-populated with website builders who are capable of building fully functional websites to satisfy the needs of any type of business. CMS, forums, eCommerce, social media, whatever.

I think most businesses today need help on what comes after the creation of their websites. A lot of them seem to be completely lost on what to add onto the initial content of their websites.

Content creators are the people who are able to identify and create interesting and relevant content daily/weekly/monthly to a business’ target audience group, in order to increase the value of your brand.

The best content creators could be found within your organization, except that most of the time, you don’t look for them.

Perhaps the answer to great website content is too simple that most businesses choose to ignore: encourage everyone within your organization to become content creators, and you would have great content for as long as your business exists.

The Cost of Doing

Here is the cost of doing something online, and it applies to almost everything.

#1) A domain name that costs about $10 a year.

#2) A hosting service that costs about $8 a month.

Best Case scenario? With about $100 every year, you have a chance to create something online that could totally change someone’s life along with yours.

Worst case? You lose that $100 for the year.

This is one of those times where the potential for gain should outweigh the fear of loss by a really wide margin.

So now the question: why haven’t you started by now?

You Can’t Fake It

I am more and more convinced that you can’t really fake anything anymore. Online or offline.

It’s so easy to spot a business who just wants to sell something to make money, from one that really cares about its customers.

It’s so easy to spot an employee who is just trying to get by with his daily job, from one who really cares to make a difference.

It’s so easy to spot a website who is just trying to trick you into buying something, from one that really cares to solve your problem.

The easiest way to convince your audiences is to not having to convince them at all.

So stop faking. Care.

Define Your Goals

The truth is, marketing effort that gives your brand long-term benefits probably won’t solve your short-term problems. And vice versa.

You should know that more often than not, the two conflict each other.

Choose wisely and work hard. But first, define your short-term and long-term goals. Don’t fall into the trap of having the wrong expectations with your investments.

Facebook Display Ads

Here is something significant, I think, as Facebook just blows away everyone in display ads.

…and the gap will only get bigger, much bigger.

Facebook may be doing something that hasn’t been done since Google was introduced to the world, which is, changing the way everyone interacts with the Web. Not just some early adopters, but EVERYONE.

However, even though its ad impressions are increasing, Facebook still needs to figure out a way to turn those impressions into actual revenue, a category it still trails Yahoo by a wide margin. And of course, as far as revenue per unique visitor goes, Google is still the king. They were not included in this equation because their ads are text instead of “display”.

As I have said before, I believe Facebook ought to be doing a much better job with ads on their platform, and they should be working hard on utilizing the information in their database to benefit their customers. What do you think? Does Facebook have a chance to overtake Google as the most profitable online business?

The Second Part

As marketers, we first job is to come up with a great story. If you are having a little trouble with that, here is a video clip from Ira Glass which you might find helpful.

The second part of our job, though, often gets overlooked. For marketers to be considered successful, the audiences would have to be convinced that the (great) story is true.

The problem for us is, more often than not, the story of our business is pretty dull and straight forward. It usually goes something like this, “we make the best product. You should buy from us.” If that’s the case for your boring company, then the second part of our job becomes even more critical.

When you feel that you can’t make your dull story great, stop spending more time, effort and resources trying to make it just a bit more entertaining — that won’t help you. Instead, work on the second part.

Once you have managed to establish credibility and trustworthiness, perhaps all you really need to say is, “we make the best product. You should buy from us.”

Instant Results

Businesses LOVE instant results. In fact, they have all kinds of wrong expectations about them.

Build a website, and you will instantly get visitors.
Be on Facebook, and you will instantly have fans.
Upload a video to Youtube, and you will instantly have views.
Get on Twitter, and you will instantly have followers.
Run a TV ad, you will instantly gain marketshare

Of course, none of the above is actually true.

The only thing that will instantly make a difference for you is when you decide, right now, that you want to become great.

The minute you make that decision, it instantly changes the way you talk, think and do things.

Initial Users

The number of customers/clients/users at the beginning of a business is irrelevant.

With the 400 million users that Facebook has today, does it really matter whether they started with 5,000 or 5 million users at their first launch? In other words, how much more effort does it take to get 399 million users than 395 million?

Many people hesitate to start anything because they don’t have any initial clients. Don’t. Start with one. That’s good enough.

The number you should really be focusing on is the number of users who would grab their friends and say, “hey, you have got to try this.”

Sadly, for most businesses, that number is 0.

Web 3.0?

Web 3.0 from Kate Ray on Vimeo.

There are some great ideas in this video. Nothing is certain yet, of course, except for one: if any of us are able to predict what Web 3.0 will become, then Web 3.0 have failed all of us.

Ira Glass on Storytelling

Above everything else, marketing has always been about storytelling. Average stories are normally forgotten; the great ones stick with us for a very long time.

Problem, though, is that great storytelling is difficult. Here is Ira Glass breaking down the essential elements of what makes a great story.

Change the Rules

This is probably as perfect an argument as there is on why changing the rules of the game could bring you both market share and profit, while at the same time, destroy your competitors by hitting them in areas which they can’t defend.

On paper, the iPad is more expensive with less features than perhaps any netbook with similar SPEC. Yet, the netbook market has basically stopped growing as of April of 2010 from an astonishing 640% year-to-year growth rate only 10 months ago.

You should worry when price becomes your only effective marketing tool. There might just be someone around the corner holding an “iPad” for your industry.

Half-assed Effort

Half-assed effort usually leads to half-assed result. I think everyone could agree on that.

While some businesses are looking to get things started online (blog, social media, video, etc.), they often take the route of “testing it out” or “we don’t have to spend all of our effort on it just yet until it’s proven to work”. So they half-ass the project.

Unfortunately, half-ass result on the Internet is NO result.

Out of the 10,000 websites solving the exact same problem online, maybe 10 will get noticed. If you are #2,000 (better than 80% of your competition), you get nothing.

Remember that next time you hold back on your online campaigns.

Know Your Success

For a lot of businesses who have had some success, online or offline, knowing what got you here is critical. It allows you to focus your energy and resources on the things that matter, while avoid wasting them on some new toys that don’t make a lot of common sense.

So next time you are in a meeting, before the “what” and “how”, question why you are in the position that you right now. Dig deep. Don’t stop until you have figure out a way to duplicate that success.

Build it, and They Will Come...

“Build it, and they will come.”

As far as most small business owners are concerned, that is probably everything they could hope for with their plans on starting a website to reach end-users.

Or perhaps “build it, spend some money on online advertising, and they will come” is a bit more accurate in some cases.

Either way, both of these wishful thinkings couldn’t be more further away from the truth.

Here are some hard facts about the online world:

#1) Advertising online isn’t the same as advertising on TV years ago. You don’t necessarily get the best placement even if you spend the most money. For example, arguably the best place for your online ad is on the Google’s homepage, except you will never get on there.

#2) Even when you have traffic, hits, views or whatever, they don’t always turn into revenue. You can make a funny video with a cat playing piano in your backyard, post it on Youtube.com and get millions of views. Are you going to make any money from it? Highly doubtful.

#3) People don’t oppose mediocrity online; they don’t talk about it either. In fact, they will simply ignore. That means, if your website is just like your competitors, you will be ignored.

#4) If you are just starting your website, chances are, there are already thousands of people who have done the same thing. Out of those, a handful have been really good at it. Understand that they are already years ahead of you. And you will never catch someone ahead of you if both of you are moving at the same speed. Translation: do the same things as your “favorite” competitor, and lose.

The conclusions:

- Don’t start a website unless you plan on doing things differently — a lot different from everybody else in your industry. If you are to “steal” an idea, steal from someone outside of your industry.

- Don’t sell yet. Start by creating conversations. Turn conversations into attention into interest into fandom, and finally into sales. Money might buy you some attention so you can skip the conversation stage, but bear in mind that it’s also much more difficult to turn those attention into interest.

- Lower your expectations, start small and act small. But think big.

- Once you start, don’t ever stop. You can yank the project altogether. But as long as the project is still going, do something to it everyday. Yes, that includes weekends and/or off hours.

Build it, spend thousands of hours on it, and maybe eventually they will come.

Will Your iPad Blend?

Notice the 5 million plus views on essentially a blender commercial.

The difference between this and a TV commercial? For whatever reason, we chose to watch it on our own terms rather than being interrupted by someone else.

Being 5 Hours Late

Things happen, and sometimes not according to your plan. What would you do when a 2:00pm delivery arrives at your customer’s site at 7:00pm, and you have no way of improving the situation?

I think the following actions should be considered, and in that specific order:

#1) Call and inform.
Don’t be afraid to confront the customer. Most of them are understanding. You should be the one who initiates most of the communication. Call and explain what happened. Let them know that you will give them updated information every hour — even when the updated information isn’t always “good news”.

#2) Apologize and mean it.
You should apologize. Maybe the whole thing is your fault, maybe it isn’t. Who cares. It certainly isn’t your customer’s fault. Sure, saying you are sorry doesn’t make the whole thing better, but it won’t make it worse.

#3) Take accountability and the blame.
Have someone in charge contact the customer. Don’t put your customer on hold for 10 minutes while you look for someone in charge — that doesn’t help at all. You don’t always need to have the ideal solution, but you should always take the responsibilities on behalf of your company.

#4) Offer to make it better.
Maybe a 10% discount on their next purchase, or a free installation while you are finally at their site. I don’t know, but offer something. Again, it might or might not help, but it won’t hurt. You have already screwed up the first date, do something a little extra on the second one.

We Do Not Serve…

I wonder how many businesses have the courage to refuse to make what everyone else is selling, even when most of their customers expect them to.

Earth Day

It’s easy to show our support for Earth Day, easy to declare that we “recycle, reuse or reduce” — it doesn’t really cost us anything, and we end up feeling pretty good about it. Why not do it? There probably won’t be anyone who can or will go against us about being environmentally conscious.

But…why do we need an Earth Day?

The fact is, since the first Earth Day 40 years ago, this planet that we live on has gotten worse, a lot worse. You could easily argue that without Earth Day’s efforts, we might be in much worse shape than we are today, and that may very well be true. But it is more likely that Earth Day has had little or zero impact on the condition of the earth.

Could we have done a (much) better job? Absolutely. Should we? Probably.

I am afraid that nothing is going to change — our mother earth is going to keep getting worse — if we just keep doing what we do everyday, regardless of how much we recycle, reuse or reduce. The only way that we are going to make any difference whatsoever, is to go out and make a conscious effort of doing a little extra.

- If you carpool to work with 1 person everyday, pick one day of the week to carpool with 2 people. And do that for the rest of your life.

- If you use reusable shopping bags every time you go to the super market, give one away to one of your friends every month. And do that for the rest of your life.

- If your average monthly electric bill is $100, pick a month every year during which you will only use half of that amount. And do that for the rest of your life.

Yes, you guessed it. The key, is to do that little extra for the rest of your life.

Happy Earth Day!