June 3, 2010
Best practices are often used to try to reduce the risk of failure. But oftentimes, these strategies are things that worked well six months ago, and have since been embraced my many others. For something to be a “best practice,” it often means it has been tried so often, by so many people, that you… Continue »
May 27, 2010
Last week, I was chatting with Andrew Davis about the connection between online and offline behavior. He & his team shared two blog posts about the topic over at Tipping Point Labs: Online is a Great Place to Spark Offline Action Transferring Offline Action back Online Today, I want to chat about the concept of… Continue »
February 25, 2010
Many businesses are established because they find an idea that has taken hold in our culture, and want a piece of that pie. So if Starbucks can earn billions each quarter, what you often find is smaller upstarts vying to capture 1% of that market. You saw this when Google became a juggernaut, with new… Continue »
February 11, 2010
David Taub successfully transitioned his guitar instruction business to the online world, and now earns his living via the web. Today, I want to share the reasons that online made sense for him, and his tips to building a successful online business. David’s brand is Next Level Guitar, which I profiled a few weeks back. He… Continue »
February 4, 2010
Our last post talked about how you can spend 15 minutes per day to listen to your customers online, and how that can benefit your business. Today, I want to talk about using that same 15 minutes to learn what how savvy business people and companies are using the web to get closer to their… Continue »
February 2, 2010
Yesterday I wrote about “having a customer strategy, not a social media strategy.” Today I want to address how to do that in practical terms. Whenever I speak with people about leveraging social media, the primary challenge for them is not understanding that there is value, and not even a huge barrier in skillset. The… Continue »
January 19, 2010
There are some compelling statistics that show how keeping an existing customer is cheaper and more profitable than trying to get new customers: Acquiring a customer costs 5 to 10 times more than retaining one. A 5 percent increase in retention yields profit increases of 25 to 100 percent. Repeat customers spend, on average, 67… Continue »
December 30, 2009
Recently, I went to see the movie Avatar. My experience was far more complex than I had expected, and has left me considering how businesses make and break commitments to their customers. The story is in two parts, as I had to go to two theaters to try to see the film. Theater #1: Making… Continue »