business & marketing fundamentals

Why does my business exist?

And why should

anyone care?

What does my business exist? Value proposition Why do my customers care? Brand How do I measure success? Analytics

A VALUE PROPOSITION is a company’s reason for existence. The company needs to answer: “why is the customer better off?” This takes many forms, but one popular way to communicate this clearly and concisely is an elevator pitch.

Why does my business exist?

“Your value proposition lies at the intersection of unmet market needs, company core competencies and currently unclaimed positions.” --Kristin Tedesco “Strategy is based on a differentiated customer value proposition. Satisfying customers is the source of sustainable value creation.” --Robert Kaplan and David Norton

What is a value proposition?

Understanding your business. Your customers and their needs. And how you fulfill them.

Hint: Your most important metrics will come out of understanding this well!

Turn your value proposition into an elevator pitch.

A concise definition of a business communicating its value proposition and its customers.

What is an elevator pitch?

For (target customer), who has (customer need), (product name) is a (market category) that has (one key benefit). Unlike (competition), the product (differentiation).

For ecommerce companies that need to make marketing decisions backed by data, Tycoon is an easy-to-understand analytics service with crystal clear design and crazy good support. Unlike Google Analytics, Tycoon is specifically for ecommerce teams.

Identity Needs Behavior

Why do my customers care? Who are my customers?

CUSTOMER PERSONAS intricately define a company’s target customers beyond shallow characteristics such as age, sex, income, education and location. Although certainly a good start, a customer empathy map is a helpful exercise that more fully describes the person – motivations, concerns and behaviors.

Who are my customers?

LANGUAGE BARRIER Be careful to avoid words that your customer may know, but don’t ever actually use. A company touting that it’s “multi-platform” service or its “responsive design” is industry jargon. How does your customer actually speak?

THINK & FEEL What are the customers’ hopes, fear, and dreams? What do they think about all day?

SEE What does their environment look like? What do they see? What’s around them? Cities? Countries?

HEAR Who influences the customer? Celebrities? Entrepreneurs? Media brands? Their friends?

SAY & DO How do your customers act? Where do they speak out? How do they use social media?

Your brand is not up to you

A BRAND is a person’s gut feeling about a product, service, or organization. Because brands are defined by individuals - not companies or markets. It’s not what you say it is, it’s what they say it is.

“A brand is the set of expectations, memories, stories and relationships that, taken together, account for a consumer’s decision to choose one product or service over another.” –Seth Godin “A brand is emotional shorthand for accumulated or assumed information. A brand is present when the value of what a product, service, or personality means to its audience is greater than what it does for the audience.” – Austin McGhee

Watch this: http://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action

HAVE A PERSONALITY EASY. ANSWER THREE QUESTIONS: 1. How can you change

customer’s life? 2. What you stand for? 3. Who or what you hate?

NOW HAVE MISSION, VALUES, ENEMY. THAT ENOUGH FOR MINIMUM VIABLE PERSONALITY.

http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2011/09/minimum-viable-personality.html

Personality is API for loyalty.

How do I get people to my site?

There’s not just outside your website. There’s not just inside your website. Holistic experience deserves holistic, measurable strategy.

Consider Evaluate

BuyEnjoy

Advocate

Bond

Loyalty Loop

Customer Decision Journeyby Harvard Business Review

PQ x CP

Prospect Quality - Closeness to target customer // Does this prospect resemble your target customer? How much so?

Conversion Probability - Closeness to purchase decision // Is this prospect ready to buy (or donate, signup, etc.)? How strong is their intent?

Are you driving brand awareness or outcomes?

Conversion Probability

Prospect Quality

Brand Awareness Point of Sale

Beware: Unreliable

Avoid Like The Plague

Affi

liate

Mar

ketin

g

Retargeting

Conversion Probability  

Prospect Quality  D

ispl

ay

Social Media Email

Search

Running a site without analytics is flying blind.

Analytics enable you to confidently take action or make a decision. Use Analytics to track Key Performance Indicators and growing trends across: 1. Site Performance 2. Consumer Behavior 3. Advertising & Marketing Campaigns 4. Content Performance

Four steps to being data-driven…

2. Establish normalcy

Ecommerce example: Visits * Conversion Rate * Average Order Value = Revenue

Know your typical daily, weekly and monthly numbers.

3. Suspect exceptions If something deviates outside your normal range - above or below - investigate it thoroughly. You may find a problem that needs fixing, or uncover a new opportunity.

4. Compare + contrast Why does search traffic see better conversion rates than Facebook visitors? What products are outperforming the norm?

1. Determine KPIs

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