Category Archives: Product Marketing

These are all my posts about Product Marketing.

Grub With Us uses Meetup.com style marketing

Posted on by

Grubwith.us is an easy way to meet new people over dinner. My buddy David Kadavy keeps telling me about how awesome it is.

I also love the way they are marketing the concept. They now let you create your own meals and invite your friends. Pretty similar to meetup.com but instead focused around just meeting people over dinner. Currently the way they make sales is simply word of mouth and press. A customer has to learn about the site (either through press or friends), go to the site, and then sign up.

Now, in the new model they are trying out, they will be getting direct sales from people wanting to throw their own dinner parties. The value proposition for you to do this is pretty high, grubwith.us takes care of splitting the check and figuring out the best menu possible.

In the future I can see going to GrubWith.Us anytime I want to eat. Eating dinner with like minded people will be way more fun than eating alone. I’m really pumped about their new marketing initiative this will definitely grow their brand.

 

Quaker’s Instant Oatmeal Packaging

Posted on by

I started eating Oatmeal in the morning because it gives me a jump start on the day. Quaker has done an amazing job with their packaging. They answer all my doubts right away.

1. They say “1-Minute” and show and image of a microwave

2. The show hearts next to the nutrition facts. Makes me feel like I’m doing something good for my body

How Yobongo gets you to tweet

Posted on by

I found out about Yobongo from a friends tweet. He doesn’t tweet often so when he tweets I click. I went to the website and decided to sign up with my email address (mainly because my buddy tweeted it). After you enter in your email address they ask you to refer 3 friends to get early access into their beta. I thought this was a great way to leverage other people to share on their social networks.

Update: Great comment about yobongo’s execution
Yeah dude they put a lot of pressure on me to tweet so I could get invited. They had a perfectly executed PR stunt. 
1. They got techcrunch to give them an exclusive. 
2. They then created a special link for TechCrunch readers to get priority on the beta invite. 
3. Then once I signed up they put even more pressure on me to tweet so I would get invited. 
I was intrigued enough with the product that I thought what the hell might as well do it.

How to Win with an Online Store (hint: Don’t sell things on Amazon)

Posted on by

Squishable is my favorite company this month. You probably never heard of them unless you are a frequent visitor of cuteoverload. They are doing everything right as an online store.

Here are the things they are doing well:

#1 Their product is something that Amazon doesn’t sell. It is unique and different.

#2 They show people actually using and enjoying their products right on the homepage. You don’t have to feel weird about buying the product… it is normal.. because other people have bought them! Customers using your products are the best testimonials. They also have a massive photo gallery of their fans using their product.

#3 They are social. When I say social most people think Twitter and Facebook. These guys give “Social Media Marketing” a whole new meaning. They have daily pictures, video contests, shareable avatars, vote for new squishables, travel blogs, and much more.
#4 They offer products for fanatics. For example checkout this Android Squishable. It is perfect for Android enthusiasts.

#5 Their sales content (the stuff you read on their website). It isn’t markety. It isn’t gimmicky. It is fun to read. The girls that started it really love it.

Read their description for the Squishable T-Rex:

Psychology 101 says that humans deal with scary situations by making jokes. It’s true! Say you were a proto-mammal out in the primeval savanna, and you saw a giant Tyrannosaurus Rex thundering towards you. Would you stay rooted to the spot in terror, or would you say, “What a silly looking creature…let’s make fun of him from that tiny, safe cave over there!”. 

If you said the latter, congratulations! You survived to reproduce and your many descendants continue to make fun of terrifying bipedal carnivores to this day.

This particular T-Rex is adorable and fuzzy and wants only to cuddle and maybe nibble on your nose. Best part? He was designed in conjunction with Ryan North of Dinosaur Comics! Read his comic! It’s good!

 

#6 They know where to find customers. You will find their advertisements on cute focused blogs.

AirBnB Leverages Craigslist in a Really Cool Way

Posted on by
I’m a huge fan of AirBnB. I really like the way they leverage all the traffic craigslist gets. Craiglist is the first place people look for sublets.

After you create a post on AirBnB they send you a sweet email (displayed below)


The email is trying to convince you to post your AirBnB listing on Craigslist.

Check out some of the great lines in this email:
1. “increases your earnings by $500/month” – awesome cash incentive for you to do this.
2. “Click here to re-post A couch in the mission in 1 click.” – it is super easy to do.  wow 1 click!

The reason AirBnB does this is because if you make money they make money. They also will get flagged by craigslist if they post it for you.

Zynga got huge by piggy backing off of Facebook. PayPal piggy backed off of eBay. Pretty cool how AirBnB is piggy backing off craigslist.

PS: The AirBnB CEO gave a very inspiring talk at Startup School. Check it out.


2/11/2011 UPDATE: I just got a reminder from the “Air Team” to repost to Craigslist.


I love 3 main things about this reminder
#1″Instant Sign-In” – I’m pretty sure most people don’t remember their login right off the bat
#2 “Repost to Craigslist” button – wonderful call to action
#3 Signed by “The Airteam” – this made me think their is something more to airbnb – a separate group looking out for me. Great branding.

If you want to learn more about how airbnb implemented this check out the comments on Hacker News.

The Power of Cookies and how PayPal uses them

Posted on by

If PayPal knows you have used PayPal this is what your checkout screen looks like:

PayPal knows you have an account or have used their service before.  They don’t even give you the option to pay with a credit card.  They will make way more money if you pay with PayPal.

This is what PayPal looks like if you don’t have a PayPal cookie on your computer:

Notice how they offer you to enter in a credit card this time.  They know you aren’t familiar with PayPal   and logging into PayPal is a major drag.  This way they can grab the sale as soon as possible.  (Although the next step after entering your billing information they will ask you to open a PayPal account).

Your best customers are the ones you already sold to.

Posted on by

I got some advice from my good friend George Mosher the other day.  It should have been obvious to me but it wasn’t.  He said “Your best customers are the ones you have already sold to.”  You see this a lot in all sorts of businesses.  For example GoDaddy sends me coupons every 3-6 months to buy another domain.

Ikea sends catalogs.  Yahoo sends postcards reminding you to use their advertising program.  All 3 of these companies know that it is easier to convince an existing customer than find and convince a new customer.

Another cool thing that GoDaddy does is they constantly up sell you.  Here are the things they have tried to up sell me:
– 2 years of hosting (instead of month to month), if I say no to 2 years they say “how about 1 year”, if I say no to 1 year they say “how about 6 month”
– Purchase 10 years of domain ownership all at once
– SSL certificates

The lesson I learned from George was this: Don’t ever give up on customers you have already sold to.  Email/Mail/Call them every 3-6 months with some sort of offerring or a friendly hello.

Perry Marshall is an email marketing Genius

Posted on by

I’m on Perry Marshall’s newsletter.  I love the way he markets his ebooks.


First he sends an email (below) in story format about how he facebook is changing the world (helping old people, killing off illiteracy, etc)

Yesterday I heard from a very reliable source that Facebook has triggered a sea change in the nursing home industry. This comes from a client of one of my business mentors. 

The #1 reason people die is their friends have died or been dispersed to the four winds; their family doesn’t visit them anymore, and they have no more reason to get up in the morning. I’m sure all of us have visited long-term care facilities and seen the blank stares and hopelessness of aged people living out their last days.

Facebook has changed that. There are many, many 77 year old folks in nursing homes who now have 60 Facebook friends and interact with them on an hourly basis. This is literally extending life spans – to the point of wreaking havoc in the long-term care industry. 

This is because many of the payment models are based on people living only so long and their communities on Facebook are literally extending their lives.

(It’s also creating some interesting social gaffes. Like after a person dies their friends are still getting reminders: “You haven’t reached out to Ethel for awhile. Send her a note. Click here to POKE Ethel.”)

It’s also obliterating illiteracy. Kids might be able to fake reading books in school, but they can’t fake writing comments on their friends’ pages. I seriously believe that within 5 years, nearly every single kid in the developed world will be able to read, write and type – because of Facebook. 

Within 10 years, the same will be true in developing countries – because of mobile phones. Yesterday I saw a video of men with pickaxes in Rwanda digging 6 foot trenches for fiber optic cable. Rwanda is rapidly becoming the most wired country in Africa.

To hard-core, driven business types, Facebook might seem like a toy. That’s what most people thought about the Internet 10-12 years ago. It turned out to be something much bigger than that, didn’t it?

I don’t know if Facebook is a perfect fit for your business or not, but if you haven’t taken our free self-evaluation you might want to do that right now. It literally takes 60 seconds and you can do it at http://www.IsFacebookForMe.com.


 He then concludes his email with a “Is Facebook a good fit for your business or not survery” After completing a list of questions about if Facebook is right from my business it gives me a “Yes!  Facebook is right for your business.” and an action item prompting me to Download the Full Analysis of What Works on Facebook and How It Relates to Your Business.  This is a great way to sell his newest eBook.

Kudos!

 

 

Double Incentive

Posted on by

Threadnow offers a double incentive to get you to suggest your friends to other friends.  They are trying so many things to get you to suggest friends:

1. Using your friends name
2. Using pictures of your friends
3. A chance to win an iPad
Before they were only using #1 and #2.  I wonder if their conversions will increase with the iPad offer.