The Whole Product

Whole Product
Reading Guy's blog today, he lays down some simple rules around Geek Marketing 101. It always come down to a few basic rules. They're basically the same rules we were taught in our first marketing class. The rules are simple, sticking to them is what's hard. Technology companies love to solve problems that don't exist - "because they can". Companies are popping up all over the landscape (I talk to them every day) that have interesting products but they will never amount to much.

It's because making the product might be a 5% slice of the success pie.


" Whole Product" diagrams can be useful tools to get customers to understand that you need to have a "complete solution" if you want it to take off. Early adopters will suffer through complicated instructions, difficult downloads and installations, no customer support - but mainstream users need to be spoon fed.

The Rules:

1. Does It Solve A Problem - Have you solved a problem the customer recognizes. Have you identified the customers pain. If not, you have a vitamin and not a pain killer. You want a pain killer.

2. Is It Easy To Understand - Seriously, 5 words should do it. 2 words is better. Do the "mom test" If mom doesn't understand it, change something until she does.

3. Is It Easy To Get - Have you removed the barriers between you and having your customers use your product. In a 2.0 world we are talking free trials, no cost, fast, easy. Get it in their hands or nothing good will happen.

4. Is It Easy To Use - At Apple our rule was, "1 minute after they start to use it , they feel like calling their friends". ......" You will not believe what I just got".

5. Is It Easy To Share - In this ultra-connected world, your customers are your marketing department. If your customers are not marketing your product, you have problems. We used to call it evangelism, now we call it sharing. Your product needs to have "embedded viral components" - active mechanisms built directly into the application that assume your customers will want to tell everyone they know. Make it easy for them to do so.

http://donthorson.typepad.com/don_thorson/2006/10/whole_product.html

Why do marketing campaigns fail and customers leave?

Here are the reasons people gave for wanting off companies’ email blasts.
Email was too frequent: 54%
The emails became repetitive or boring: 49% (an additional 25% said the emails were never relevant in the first place)
I get too much email and need to pare it down: 47%

When people do find a email from a marketer boring, about two-thirds say they’ll click on the ‘unsubscribe’ link. But 8% say they’ll classify the email as spam.

The top three reasons consumers ‘unliked’ a company on Facebook:
The company posted too frequently: 47%
My wall was becoming crowded with marketing messages and I needed to get rid of some of them: 43%
The content became repetitive or boring over time: 38%. (Another 19% said the content wasn’t relevant from the start, and 17% said the company’s posts were too chit-chatty and not focused on value.)

Why consumers unfollow on Twitter
The company’s tweets became boring over time (52%). An additional 15% said the content wasn’t relevant from the start. Some 21% say the tweets were too promotional, and 20% said the tweets didn’t focus on value
41% needed to cut down on the number of tweets they saw
39% said the company tweeted too frequently