Remember, Agenda’s Are Flawed
Remember, agenda’s are flawed, it’s true, there has yet to be an agenda that didn’t have a negative impact on any group or organization. For every special interest group, the chosen ones, power brokers, no matter what you call them, that’s are where the flaws live. Very rarely does the interests or good of others come to mind by those with an agenda, even if they believe their agenda favors everyone.
Agenda’s typically come from a person, or person’s, who want a specific thing to happen, or a desired outcome, they truly believe this is the way to achieve it. Agenda’s tend to be self serving, they come from a sense of power to drive the wants and needs of an individual.
The flaws are human in nature, they are power hungry, and normally short sighted, unless the agenda is determined through a process that sees it is good for everyone. Every group and organization wrestles with this demon, there is no permanent cure.
Tactics and strategy are the clothes of the agenda, we hide behind them, as we do in our personal life and our work life. Everyone has an agenda, we dress it up to prevent the truth from being revealed. Agenda’s are what makes us human, it’s what makes our business human.
If we claim to question the status quo, but never the motives of an agenda, what good is in the agenda, we set ourselves up to fail. But failing is good right, yet another set of clothes to hide the truth. We justify everything, even our agenda’s, so remember, agenda’s are flawed.
The Future Of Business – The Secret To Customer Acquisition
It used to be, the only way to win at acquiring customers was to buy as much advertising as you could afford. The more you spent, the higher the results. That is and was the traditional advertising model that worked for a bricks & mortar business. Today the game has changed, yes traditional ways still work, not because it’s effective, because it’s what older generations prefer it, and they still have the money.
It’s easy to reach a traditional buyer, just run enough ads on traditional advertising vehicles, and you’ll get their attention. Today the customer with money is getting younger by the minute, and we need to market to them differently. We have to make offers that make us extremely uncomfortable. It used to be, if you wanted to get the greatest reach, you ran radio & television ads, newspaper has never had the same reach. You could run 30 second ads on radio for $30 a piece, but to get the frequency for it to be effective, you had to run more than 3 spots a day. The minimum would be 10 spots a day, because the life span of a radio ad is much like a Tweet on Twitter, about 20 minutes. So to have a successful customer acquisition campaign you had to spend significant amounts of money. The same held true for television, but at a much higher cost, not to run the ads, but to make the ad. Customer acquisition campaigns can also be considered branding campaigns, but they are different.
Today we have the Internet, we can reach more people via the NET than we could with radio & television together, for FREE! I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know, I am wondering why there is still such resistance to it. The resistance has the power to kill your business, and you the business owner must guard against it, not succumb to it.
The challenge with having such great reach on the Internet isn’t the cost, it’s being found, and being heard. Hence, we have a new kind of advertising vehicle like Google, Yahoo & Bing. These powerful search networks have really just adopted the traditional way of advertising for the Internet. If you want to be found, land on the first page, you now have a sufficient budget to have that desired result.
Today you can purchase qualified traffic, which, if you speak to them the right way, will become newly acquired customers. The same challenge you had with traditional mediums, holds true with digital ad networks, you need to dedicate resources to get the desired results you’re looking for.
The secret to customer acquisition today, is by leveraging and Open & Free Business Model, where free is the driving force. Like the resistance, free has the same problem, for reasons unknown to me, entrepreneurs and business owners can’t seem to wrap their brains around free. We understand loss leader concepts, but not free, I suspect the fear of giving something away and not getting paid is far greater than we would like to believe.
Companies that have figured out how to use free, have also figured out how to generate revenue because of it. Companies like Google, Spotify, Skype, Vimeo, Twitter, Evernote, Grooveshark and many more. These companies have proven free works, and they have mastered acquiring customers, they have mastered list building to the 9th degree. It does work, but we seem to have more reasons not to use the model. Whatever the excuse is, it’ll work.
You want to get more customers, give them something they want….for free, and then figure out how to monetize your new customers. The old business models are in the genre of win-lose, the open and free business model is about win-win, where everyone benefits. Mater giving products and services for free, and you will have an entirely new market to sell to. The concept makes sense, it just sounds and feels foreign.
FREE is not the enemy, free is your best friend, learn to embrace free, figure out where free fits in your business, because free is the secret to customer acquisition.
Related articles
- The Definition Of The Open & Free Business Model (owengreaves.com)
- The Future Of Business – Build Small Loyal Communities (owengreaves.com)
- The Future Of Business – Create. Differentiate. Deliver. (owengreaves.com)
The Future Of Business – Deliver.
It seems rather obvious doesn’t it, at some point you have to deliver, you have to deliver something. You don’t start a business or any kind of venture without eventually delivering a product or service. Without delivering you don’t really have a business do you. Why would you go through the process of creating something if you didn’t want someone to see it or know about it. Sure you could create something for you and you alone, but you’re still delivering, you’re delivering to yourself.
If you’ve created something awesome, and you have a plan to differentiate your creation, you must deliver it to someone. How will you ever sleep at night if you don’t?
The only way to change the world, to make a difference, to influence others, is to deliver. Delivering can be as simple as showing up, but you will deliver something when you do.
This equation can be applied to anything, the only way to get good at it, is to do it. Read it, learn it, live it.
Create. Differentiate. Deliver.
The Future Of Business – Differentiate.
Being creative can be fun, it can also be exhausting, it all depends on how you’re wired, what’s you favorite part of being in the creative zone? For me, it’s trying to find the right message, or to make my product or service different. How do I relate my product or service so that it isn’t like anyone else’s, I want it to be different. Hence, Differentiate.
It’s one thing to create something awesome, it’s another to differentiate it from anyone else selling the same product or service. I believe this is the secret sauce of any product or service you try to sell. How do you differentiate it from all the others that look, smell, and feel just like your product or service. This is also why there are marketing firms in the world, it’s the one area most struggle with, it’s not that easy for most business owners.
The biggest difference between you and everyone else, is you! You are the scarcity, there is only one of you, no one can steal that or duplicate it. Someone can steal your identity in terms of identification, but they can duplicate your personality, you are the genuine you. This genuine you creates another problem, you don’t know how, and you don’t want to promote yourself, it’s uncomfortable, and that’s why you need someone from the outside looking in to handle it on your behave.
I hate pumping my own tires, you know, promoting myself, telling the world how awesome I am, how incredible my product or service is. There are those who love it, but most don’t. Having said that, we need to find a way to fight through uncomfortable feeling, because it’s holding us back from success, no matter what the venture might be. It’s a stronghold in your life, it’s bad self-talk and it needs to be stopped in it’s tracks. I’m not suggesting you be arrogant and egotistical because it doesn’t work. And you most definitely do not want to call yourself an expert or guru.
Surround yourself with creative people who know your work, like your work, even love your work, even if they are spread all over the world. Skype is a beautiful thing. Put those creative people to work on marketing you and your product and services, if you don’t know any, you will find some with a little work. If you have built a following online or in your community, someone in that following is creative and loves your work. Build your team and change the world, differentiate yourself from everyone doing the same thing you are, be the best you can be and let the chips fall where they may.
The same rule applies here as it does with creating something, don’t analyze, just do it, do your due diligence and deliver when ready. Build your team, then get to it. Remember, novelty always sells, but it has a short life span, because novelty tends to wear out fast, sell what differentiates you, that has a longer life, especially if your product or service has a level of need.
The Future Of Business – Is To Create!
The greatest of creations ever made, were you and I, we’re amazing! We can do things no other creature or animal on earth can do, we can stop before we respond, we can decide how we want to respond to stimuli. We have so many abilities, one of them is the ability to create, we can create incredible solutions to world problems, we can see things through our ability of foresight, the list is endless.
This blog’s tag-line is: Create. Differentiate. Deliver.
These three words sum up what the business of the future will need focus on.
All of us have ideas, we’re spiritual creative beings, we strive to conquer, we survive, we overcome, we’re passionate, we love, and we have a desire to help one another. Mostly, we like to create, we like to build and conquer. The problem many struggle with, fear, and what to create. A good place to start is, what drives you, what energizes you, what you’re true passion is, listen for the voice within. Many search external clues, the true passion is in you, create that. Seth Godin calls it “ART”, the art each one of us carries within but is scared to let out. Mostly because of fear.
It doesn’t matter what you create, what matters is that you do something, let the art in you be heard, seen and found, you will change your world. So create, make something, solve a problem, eventually you will find a way to monetize your creation. Let the world do the marketing for you, you just let the world know where to find your creation.
The fear of failure is a powerful force, the cost of doing nothing is far greater than failing, so create and fail as often as you can. That failing will teach you more than you will ever learn doing nothing. Don’t analyze, just do! Create!
