There's Nothing New Under The Sun, Or Is There?

There’sNothing NewUnder the SunOr is there?

I was born in 1974. My 1st job wasHi, modeling underwearI’m Mike Darnell and Roman toysNice Meeting You!I’m aWeb Project ManagerYou can find me atKPIs.co - The KeyPerformanceIndicators blog & atVimi.co – my business

Man’s engagement incommerce predates written history

In many respects it’s astonishing how little has changed…

Trading in goods and services is one of the things that defines us as humans

But sometimes it seems we’re so inundatedwith buzzwords we forget human behaviorhas changed very little over time…

As far as our behavior is concerned THERE’S NOTHINGNEW UNDER THE SUN

Accepting this as our baseline it’s worthwhilegoing back to the basics…

What’s our GOAL?

Whether our business is focused on providingServices, Products or both,its goal is to generate…

PROFIT

This is,and always has been,the goal of businesses

Achieving this goal depends on our ability to make Sales

…which depends on our Marketing

Convincing, but notprofitable…

It’s here that weconfuse ourselves by believing man has changed

Woman maybe. Man?Not so much…

So what is“Marketing” anyway?

“The process of promoting products and services to enhance sales… …Generating the strategy that underliessales techniques, business communication, and business developments… …an integrated process through which companies build customer relationships and create value for their customers and for themselves”

“The process of promoting products and services to enhance sales… Even though this …Generating the strategy that underlies definition is based onsales techniques, business communication, and business developments… Wikipedia, a service that owes its …an integrated process through Web, existence to the which companies build customer it in no place does relationships andmentionvalue for the create we need their customers and for themselves” Web to do marketing…

For me this is a key observation that lies at the heart ofsuccessful online marketing

It’s not aboutTechnology

It’s aboutPeople

Get that right…

…And you’reguaranteedSuccess

Every business aims to providevalue via the services and products it offers

Successful businesses determinewhat motivates clients to seek them out and implement strategies tocapitalize on these understandings

The 1 st thingyou need to figure out is

What motivatesClients to choose You?

There are a number of possibilities:

• Price• Location• Quality of Service• Business Intelligence and Practices{Of course other options exist toobut we only have about an hour…}

Once you understand why your clients choose you, you can look for ways to Amplify your advantage

This is where the Web comes in handy…

The Web offersbusinesses that compete on price a multitude of options to reduce operational costs inorder to further increase their competitive edge

The most obvious of these is using the Web to sell your products

Offering productsonline reduces theoverheads associatedwith brick-and-mortar shops.Contrary to whatmany people think,you don’t alwayshave to start yourown Website…

…In fact in some cases you’rebetter off without one.The Web offers manyopportunities in this respect.Ebay and AmazonMarketplaceare two of the bigger names

Identifying a niche and focusing one’sefforts on matching its needs is a great marketing strategy

This is the premiseat the heart ofsites like:Etsy {handicrafts}…

Lulu {books}…

Tunecore {music}…

…and many more

Reducing sourcingcosts is another wayto make your pricingmore attractiveSites like Alibaba…

…and Ec21,have opened up thesourcing process,making it simpler than everto find the products youwant, at the prices youneed.

Deal in Services?

Elance…

…and Odeskare opportunities to connect with providers,as well as clients

Location

Elance, Odesk, and other sites like them, are all evidence to one of the mostprofound changes the Web has made to how we do business…

…The Web has voided the traditional correlation between our location, and our revenue streams…

...Many of us deal daily with clients and suppliers we’ve never met, and think nothing of it. This was inconceivable just a few years ago…

Interestingly overthe past 2-3 yearswe’re witnessing anew phenomenon.One that owes itsexistence to theubiquity of the socialWeb, and the rapidascent of Web-on-mobile.

The Web now connects peoplenot only Globally, but also at the Hyper-local level too

We’ve become soaccustomed toFacebook events weno longer thinkmuch about what arevolution theyrepresent incomparison to theway we did thingsbefore…

…But Facebook is so all-encompassing that we have ahard time making events stand out.Both as guests and as organizers...

…Enter sites like Meetup and Eventbrite.Both are dedicated exclusively to organizing and managing events,each with it’s own particular twist on the paradigm.

Meetup focuses on thecommunity relatedaspects of any givengathering, and serves asan excellent platformfor meeting andinteracting withindividuals with likeminded interests andpassions.

These can rangefrom the relatively mundane…

…To the“Kinda out there”

Eventbrite’s approach is perhaps more pragmatic andoriented towards the commercial aspects of eventorganization: Promoting, Managing, Ticketing…

…But it has its fair share of “ClothesOptional” events too

QR Codes andLocation based serviceslike GoogleLatitude andFoursquare,are empowering us tointeract with ourcontacts and clients notonly based on Wherethey are but alsoWhen…

QR Your “Closed” signCodes, can now be anthose little opportunity tofunky Black send people toand White your Website’ssquare“barcodes” “Contactwe see Us” page…everywhere,enable usersto use theirmobilephone’scamera toconnect to aURL.

Simply enabling Google Latitude on your mobiledevice and sharing your location with yourcontacts will let you see at a glanceWho’s Where Now

Foursquare enablesbusinesses to incentivizeclients based on location,venue or branch.In Thailand look at Ensogo…

Service

The Web has completelyrevolutionized how businesses address their Customer Service issues

For better or worse everything ever postedonline will eventually be available for all to see

The real-timeaspects of Webconnectivity wementioned beforeadd a new level ofurgency tohandling theseissues.One unflatteringtweet can easilyturn into a PRnightmare…

The real-timeaspects of Webconnectivity wementioned beforeadd a new level ofurgency tohandling these My HTC has not yetissues. attempted this…One unflatteringtweet can easilyturn into a PRnightmare…

With over 100,000,000 usersTwitter can rightfully claim toBE the Real Time Web

Often spammy and noisy it is, for better or for worse, a reflection of what peoplehave to say RIGHT NOW

The secret to using it successfully is to be able tozero-in on the conversations that matter To YOU

Involvement is, by definition,at The Moment of Relevance

The scope for optimizing yourCustomer Service via the Web is far from being limited to Twitter…

Designed withcustomer service andsupport in mind,services likeUservoice andGetsatisfactionenable you to interactwith your clientsabout service andsupport issues

Every comment and idea is accounted for,and serves as a platform for debate

Over time you’ll deal lesswith recurring issues,freeing you to dedicatemore time to the new onesthat pop up...

For many smaller businesses this might seem excessive,however an occasional poll or survey is still very much a requirement…

Wouldn’t it be great to finally know what your customers Really Think About You?

The Web abounds with great free pollservices designed to meet this exact need.Polldaddy and Surveymonkey aretwo of the market leaders in this respect…

…But countless othersexist as well.Including a bunch ofFacebook apps youcan use to add pollingto your business page.

At the end of the day thequality of your CustomerService depends on how efficiently you run your business...

…If you’re not yet using a Customer Relation Managementsystem {CRM} now is as good a time as any to start

Designed to address all the aspects of managing yourteams’ relationships with your clients and prospects as they mature through your sales cycle…

…Any one of these systems, when properly and meticulously used, will minimize the risk your business misses a task oropportunity because someone “Dropped the Ball”

…Furthermore,as time passes they’llgradually amass andstore all the data yourbusiness accumulatesensuring changes inpersonnel, orUnforeseeableDisasters, have aminimal impact onyour operations

Which leads us to our Final Point…

Business Intelligence

We live in a Data Driven age.Accessing, processing and distributing the Right Data at the Right Time to the Right People dictates our success

LinkedIn is by far the world’s largest business oriented networking site

I’m pretty sure that like myself,you all have a profile…

Is it as good as it can be?

A good profileshould be a greatway to learn moreabout you andyour businesscontacts:• Testimonials• Experience• Interests• Etc…

Being active on Linkedin groups relevant to yourbusiness is a great way to Demonstrateyour expertise, Promote yourbusiness and Generate leads

Assisting others anddemonstrating your expertiseneedn’t be limited to LinkedIn

The Q-A paradigm has been addressed a few times on the Web already, including by the giants: Yahoo! and Google {Google’s service is no longer active}

The mostpromisingservice in thisniche today isQuora.It’s popular withearly adoptersand WhenProperlyUsed, can bea great way toget the answersyou need

When we accept that no matterwhat our business our ability to interact with People is always a core competence…

…It immediately becomes evident that it’s in our best interest to know as much aspossible about the individuals we communicate with

Social email services like Xobni and Rapportive give a great deal of insight about the people we’re in contact with and have the added benefit of not actually requiring much from us in terms of time investment…Xobnireveals awealth of dataabout our Outlook contacts

Rapportive does the same directly from your Gmail

Obviously there are other ways,beyond those listed here to rise above the fray, distinguish ourselves, and attract customers…

…It’s safe to say that whateverthe strategy you’ve been using, if it provides benefit, someone probably created a Web service to leverage it… {if they haven’t you’ve got a killer startup on your hands!}

All you need to do is find thatservice and dedicate the time andeffort required to Master It.Yes, this is Hard Work……But it’s Worth It

The past few slides listed a bunch of sites that, with Dedication,will give you the edge you need in order to succeed

Now’s the time to circle back to our basic premise:It’s Not About Technology. It’s About People!

Primarily its about your Customers

Which of these technologieswill make Their Life Easier when dealing with you?

And it’s also about You: Which of these technologiescan you implement to gain the Greatest Benefit in the Shortest Time?

1 Ask yourself:What do I hope to get out of this?

2Do your research and figure out which services are most likelyto provide you with the results you hope for

3 Set a goal for theReturn On Investment you hope to get

4Determine how you’re going to evaluate your results

The only way you can truly evaluate these efforts is by doing some split testing…

Can you guesswhich one did better?

B = 17%improvement

…Never Assume Anything!

I’m the 1stto admitthis isn’tRocketScience

Which is why it never ceases toamaze me how few and far between are the businesses that actually conduct themselves this way…

It all goes back to the basic premise of this chat….

Regardless of how amazing our technology is

There’s very little that’s new under the sun insofar as our interactions with ourselves and one another are concerned

THANK YOU : ) Mike@KPIs.co | 08-2441-8150If youenjoyedthisplease The Key PerformanceconsiderSharing, Indicator BlogLiking,Tweeting

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There's Nothing New Under The Sun, Or Is There?

by Mike Darnell - Vimi.co on Jan 18, 2011

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There’s Nothing New Under The Sun, Or Is There? — Presentation Transcript