Sunday, April 26th, 2009
As any marketer should know, the adoption process, or steps that people go through before a purchasing decision, works like this:
Awareness –> Trial –> Purchase/Usage
Unfortunately, when it comes to campaigns or initiatives, awareness is all too often the focus, but the linkage between awaerness and conversion or a purchase is so far away, that it doesn’t always work out well for the brand. Trial is just a step that is way too underrated in the marketing process.
Let’s put it this way: Awareness is sitting at the pub watching an ad on the sports channel for a different beer than what you’re drinking. Trial is your buddy next to you asking you to try his beer, which is also a different beer than what you’re drinking. Which is more likely to work better (assuming the beer doesn’t taste foul)?
With a freemium feature (one where basic features are available for free, but extra features are paid for), you incorporate awareness and trial all at once, and that’s something iPhone app creators are doing to gain users in a really competitive and swamped marketplace.
Let’s see how it works:
Awareness
I’m subscribed to App Shopper and a few other blogs that do nothing but aggregate and share the new apps available on the iTunes app store daily. This is where app developers go to to try to get awareness.
Trial
If someone notices an app from any one of these aggregators, the next step would be to download it from the App Store and try it out. I did this recently with Airport Mania and Best of 101 Dog Tricks, and really liked the free versions, though the features were really limited for the free version.
Purchase/Usage
If the apps blow the consumer away (and if they’re good, they will), then purchase is just one click away. From the company’s perspective, there’s nothing to lose. The more people get it free to try, the more people are aware of it and could pass it on to other people willing to buy.
There are so many apps out there (or products, or services) and it’s hard to make a decision to shell out $1.99 (or $19.99 or $199.99) for your offering when all I have to go on is awareness. Offer something that proves your product is kick-ass and worth paying for, and consumers pretty much will do just that.
Tags: adoption process, advertising campaign, aggregator, airport mania, app shopper, awareness, best of 101 dog tricks, competitive marketplace, conversion, induces trial, inducing trial, initiatives, iphone app, itunes app store, marketer, Marketing, purchase, purchasing decision, trial, usage
Posted in Marketing, case studies | No Comments »
Friday, February 20th, 2009
I came across this cool app called
Twitter Sheep, which scans your followers’ bios and comes up with a cool little tag cloud. Here’s mine:
Twitter Sheep
What’s yours like! Post your link in the comments!
Tags: bios, blogger, community, digital, flock, followers on twitter, Marketing, pr, Singapore, social media, student, tag cloud, technology, twitter, twitter sheep, web
Posted in Fun, twitter | 4 Comments »
Thursday, February 5th, 2009
After yesterday’s post detailing how Evernote has changed my life, it’s no secret I’m a huge fan of the service. Evernote isn’t the only option for storing data in the “cloud”, but why is it such a great one? I think there are a few key lessons that can be learned.
1) Focus on creating an awesome product
I was listening to Managing the Gray with CC Chapman, and Evernote CEO Phil Libin was being interviewed. Something that he mentioned was the conscious decision to focus on product development and spend on engineers and creating an awesome product instead of spending on marketing. Instead, they let it evolve organically by word of mouth. It’s something I personally believe in. Make sure your product is the best it can be, and doesn’t suck, before even thinking about marketing it or reaching out.
2) Freemium model
When you look at other “cloud” storage apps like Hordit and gasp at unlimited storage, Evernote’s 40MB per month for the free version and 500MB per month for the paid version ($45/year) may seem far away in comparison. However, I’m convinced Evernote has it’s business model planned out correctly. I use Evernote daily and I have used 0.1MB out of my 40MB free, with 2 days left to go. Unless you’re an obsessive hi-res photo-uploader, there is no reason why 40Mb isn’t enough. As a student, I don’t need a premium services (yet), so I appreciate the effort to cater to both the free and the paid user segment is something
3) Participating in the online space
Whether it’s participating in podcast interviews like on Managing the Gray, having an Evernote blog, a Twitter account, a Facebook page or a Friendfeed page, there’s no doubt Evernote’s presence online is both everywhere and value-adding
4) Listening to their fans
Of course, there’s no use just having a presence online if you don’t use it to engage with your fans. Their most recent email update reads:
As many of you know, we’re big fans of Twitter. A while back we asked you to tell us what you liked about our @Evernote tweeting and what you didn’t. The response was clear: more suggestions on how to use Evernote and fewer links to media coverage. So, for those interested in the latter, we just launched a second Twitter account focused solely on media and blogosphere coverage. Check it out: http://www.twitter.com/evernotepress
As a company, the desire to push out your press releases is overwhelming, but I think being receptive to fan’s opinions and actually changing behavior, is a huge plus and shows great respect for Evernote users.
I’m sure there are many other things Evernote is doing right, but these are the four that really jump out at me. What else do you think Evernote has done right?
Tags: cc chapman, cloud, evernote, facebook, freemium, friendfeed, hordit, managing the gray, Marketing, phil libin, product development, twitter
Posted in Tools, case studies | No Comments »
Friday, March 28th, 2008
Remember the chance to win a Wii? How many of you brushed it off and didn’t join it? Well, Nadia (the person I was voting for) and Claudia (the person I found it out from) both walked away happy, winning the Australia trip and Wii respectively. (Damn I’m jealous).
Obviously this is great news to those who won, but here’s a big question: Who remembers the company who organised the event?
I ask because I don’t. Even though I voted every day for a week.
Is such an online campaign considered successful if it’s largely popular and social, but people can’t remember much beyond the prizes and prize destination? What metrics should marketers and/or communicators use to determine the success or failure of such a campaign? Would love to hear from all of you who are smarter than me. (A considerable lot!)
Tags: campaign failures, campaign results, campaign successes, claudia, internet advertising, Marketing, marketing metrics, nadia, nadnut, online campaign, online metrics, web 2.0 advertising, web campaigns, win a wii, win australia trip
Posted in Marketing, social media | 6 Comments »
Saturday, February 2nd, 2008
Jaffe Juice #102 was released with perfect timing, on a day that I had lots of driving around to do. The beginning, a Scrabulous introduction is hilarious and well worth listening to, though of course, not the only thing you should listen to.
Early in the podcast, there’s a conversation about whether you would prefer 10 good relationships or 5 million impressions. Just one person in a room full of professionals voted for 10 good relationships. Perhaps some reason can be attributed to the fact that the numbers really are very far apart, and I suppose even for someone who wants to go down the relationship path, it might be hard explaining why you’d want to spend so much money on 10 relationships vs 5 million impressions, especially to a boss who’s well stuck in old marketing.
That said, I’m actually pretty curious about what number it would have to be before people start agreeing with 10 relationships. 3 million? 1 million? I was thinking to myself the other day that I wish I had done my Advertising module later, because I know so much more about new media and new marketing now than I did 4 months ago, and I have no doubt the new ways can be equally if not more effective. However, I’m reminded that unfortunately, the client and to some extent the professor, still graded very much on old marketing, which is sad.
What could be a worse situation than having the knowledge of how to make things better, but have people around you who don’t realise or recognise it?
Tags: advertising, impressions, jaffe juice, Marketing, new marketing, new media, old marketing, Podcasts, relationships, scrabulous, social media
Posted in Marketing, Podcasts, social media | 5 Comments »
Monday, January 21st, 2008
As reported by Advertising Age, advertisers and marketers are beginning to turn to podcasts for places to sell (or at least create a presence) for their products.
I think that’s pretty interesting for people thinking about doing their own podcasts (I keep thinking about Scooter groups on WetPaint). After all, even the people who do Mugglecast are getting money and stuff (I say stuff because it ranges from Subway coupons to other things).
I guess the biggest draw here is not so much the amount of reach, but who you’re reaching. Harry Potter merchandisers could easily tap into Mugglecast, Pottercast and the others out there, and of course, Scooter wheel retailers could target Scooter groups. Better ways to spend marketing dollars, no?
Tags: advertising, Marketing, mugglecast, podcasting
Posted in Marketing, social media | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, January 15th, 2008
There’s another post over at Marketing Pilgrim touching on the same article I posted about yesterday (original article here).
I think Marketing Pilgrim says the same thing as Seth Godin, in that obviously Googling something for hard facts is normal, but Googling for critical thinking is just going to fail. If people use multiple Google/Wiki sources to pool together their essay/paper and help structure it, it shouldn’t be a problem. But just taking the first search result from Google and repeating that definitely isn’t a good idea.
Tags: Google, Marketing, marketing pilgrim, Research, Search, Wikipedia
Posted in Google, Marketing, Research, Search | No Comments »
Monday, January 14th, 2008
I finished Game Of Thrones, but before starting on the next book, I’ve decided to pick up Meatball Sundae instead.
Meatball Sunday, is Seth Godin’s new book (What? So soon after The Dip?), comparing Old Marketing (Meatballs) as one flavour, and New Marketing as the other (the Sundae toppings). What’s important in the book is probably the 14 New Marketing trends that he’s observed and comments on. I’m only at chapter one, but if you’re curious, Brand Autopsy has more.
Tags: Books, Marketing, meatball sundae, new marketing, old marketing, seth godin
Posted in Books, Marketing | 1 Comment »
