5 Thoughts On DEMO 2009

by Nathan W. Burke on March 3, 2009

Long time, no post. Over on blogstring.com, I’ve been covering the DEMO 2009 event, and I’ve noticed a few trends.

1. Things aren’t free anymore- Back when I was at DEMO fall 2007, everything seemed free. The prevailing attitude was: a) announce your app and get people to sign up for free b) build as large a userbase as possble c) _______________ d) profit. Just asking about a business model seemed like an inappropriate question. But that’s all changed. While there were still a few consumer-facing free apps, it looks like just about every one of them has a clear path to monetization. Whether that path is through subscription fees or through an affiliate/ad model, presenting companies are much more eager to talk about how they’ll bring in the revenue.

2. Email is still a target– I find it interesting that companies are still trying to improve on email. That’s not a value judgment, just an observation. This year there are a few companies trying to make email more useful:

  • CC:Betty– Like IWantSandy before it, CC:Betty is an email assistant. Simply cc: betty@ccbetty.com on any email, and the service will parse the message and will format the contents into an “online mail space”.
  • Gwabbit-Gwabbit is an Outlook add-on that makes the process of adding contacts to your address book much simpler and more automatic.

3. Collaboration is still a target- Companies like Citrix Online, Vokle, and Ontier all launched a product that includes “online collaboration” features. The problem with collaboration is that it’s different for everyone. It’s different by task, by industry, by function, etc. It seems like all of the vendors offering collaboration tools are trying to be everything to everyone and end up being overly generic and inflexible. But I think some of the tools launched here are starting to add some value. With broadband and the availability of built-in web cams and skype, it should be easy to share your screen, share documents, and be able to do version-tracking. But it’s not. Let’s hope we can get there.

4. Companies believe they have no competition– Okay, this one is weird to me. On oh, say, 90% of the profile pages the companies claim to have no direct competition. On the one hand, I totally understand that these are optimistic companies who tryly believe they have something new to offer. If they were just doing the same thing as competitors, why would they bother trying to start a company? Makes sense, right? But on the other hand, I can’t really think of a product out there that doesn’t have a competitor and I think that’s a good thing.

If there’s no competition you have to ask why. Is it because there isn’t a viable business there? Is it because the technology isn’t there yet? Or is it because the company is truly innovative and has something no one has thought of yet? The last one is rare.

5. Skits are hard to watch– I’m overly sensitive about this, but I don’t really understand why presenters continue to try the infomercial approach. I could be totally off on this one, but it seems like it is so much more effective to have one presenter describe the product, the vision, etc., then show it to the crowd. But every year at least one company does the informercial thing. Those 6 minutes up there on stage are pretty valuable, so trying to be cute isn’t usually worth it.

I love watching launch events like this, and am always excited to check out the latest and greatest. This year’s DEMO is no different, and if you’d like to check out my thoughts on the presenting companies, click here.

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Inbound Marketing- Why Bother If You Ignore The Last Steps?

by Nathan W. Burke on February 20, 2009

Folks, you’ve heard of inbound marketing as an idea. It’s the marketing equivalent of fishing vs. hunting. You put out the content, you try to lure people to your site, basically you do all you can to get the customers to come to you. When inbound marketing is done correctly, the business is getting lots of calls and emails requesting information on what they have to offer. Think of it as the opposite of cold calling prospects.

Every company, regardless of industry, says they want more leads. More business is always a good thing, right?

In my experience it’s the idea of an avalance of leads that is appealing to most companies while the reality is something different entirely. Companies are more than willing to do the effort to get prospects into the top end of the funnel, but seem to lose focus and ignore the details when they get past the first stage in the sales cycle (this seems to be true in companies that sell a product/subscription as well as ad-supported companies who see registration as the final stage of conversion).

Let me give you three real-world examples, all of which happened to me on the same day last Sunday. My girlfriend and I are starting to quickly outgrow our 1 bedroom basement apartment. When I lived there by myself it was fine, but with two people and two pets it’s a little crowded. Because of that we’ve been looking around for a new spot. All of these places advertise heavily.

1. Forbes Lofts- While you can’t see anything useful in this photo, forbes lofts is a huge new complex on the water in Chelsea, MA. They have a gigantic banner advertising the website and phone number on their buildings, and I see it every day while driving. The idea of a loft really appealed to us, so we went to the website. The site advertises an open house each Sunday from 11-3. Here’s what they say:

These tours will highlight the recent progress on site, including the windmill, new entrance road, salt marsh tidal canal, and development of the new harbor side pavilion! R.S.V.P. is not required, but appreciated.

Well, we decided to RSVP just in case. On Sunday we showed up at the site and no one was there. Not a single person was to be found, and we were standing in the exact spot listed on the site. I looked up the phone number and called while we were staying there, but it went directly to voicemail. I said “Hi, this is Nathan Burke. We RSVP’d for the open house today, and no one seems to be here. We’ll hang around for a few more minutes, so if anyone is around, please come by. Otherwise, please give me a call at xxx-xxx-xxxx. Thanks.”

It’s been 5 full days, and I still have not heard back from them.

2. The Atlantica– The Atlantica is a relatively new condo complex on the beach, and we literally drive by it every day. They always advertise their Saturday and Sunday open house, so we decided to swing by after being let down at the Forbes lofts. I looked at their web site as well, which gave 12-3 as the weekend open house hours. When we opened the other door there was a sign giving the number for the sales office, so I punched it in.

Direct to voicemail. We hung up and left.

3. Surfside Lofts– Yet another new complex within spitting distance of where we currently live. Since we were 0 for 2 in the day, we thought we’d try one more time, and it looked like we’d actually be able to see something. At the door we found a buzzer with the number to the sales office. After calling, a woman told us to come in, and that she’d be right down.

We walked in and saw a sign pointing to the model unit. We went in (door was open), and took a look around. After 15 minutes or so, we decided to buzz the sales office again, as we thought we might have misheard her. After the second buzz, we heard “I’m on the 4th floor, give me a minute!”

Right. We left immediately.

Now, these are just three real-world examples that show the problem I’m seeing…..the huge gap in effort between no-touch mass marketing and actually closing a sale. It’s really easy to put out content on the web and ignore it. It’s much more difficult to follow-up with those looking for more information on what you’re selling.

While it may not be a perfectly fair comparison to online inbound marketing (where it’s not always necessary to individually communicate with a potential customer, since the sale can happen immediately) I think the concept is sound. Getting the prospect to the site is just the first step. Failing to give enough information on what to do next will not only blow the sale, it’ll waste your potential customer’s time. It’s worse than nothing.

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Plinky Launches As A Blogger’s Friend, A Marketer’s Dream

by Nathan W. Burke on February 11, 2009

My article titled Plinky Launches As A Blogger’s Friend, A Marketer’s Dream is now available on Media Bullseye.

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Should Everything Have a “Share This”?

by Nathan W. Burke on February 10, 2009

Okay, so I think this is a question of philosophy. It’s really a question of “does it hurt to have it?” Let me back up and actually tell you what I’m talking about.

The “Share this with others” buttons that have become so ubiquitous are actually starting to bother me in certain circumstances. For instance, I just got an email from a company asking me to fill out their survey. In the bottom of the email message I see this:

Why would I share that with others? To me, this would be the equivalent of taking a credit card offer out of my mailbox, driving it down to the local TV news station, and persuading the anchor to read the offer on the evening newscast. To me, that’s a little bit past absurd.

Well, why not?

I get it. The small chance that someone actually goes through the trouble of digging, stumbling, redditing, bookmarking, etc. your article justifies having the option. But do people really do that? It seems to me that people will come to a blog post after reading a headline on a social news site, but they wouldn’t submit a blog post to a social news site. Other than contributing content that others will like, what’s the motivation for doing so? If you’re just a casual blog reader, are you sufficiently motivated to submit an article to social sites?

But there’s something desperate about adding a “share this” to EVERYTHING online. Here’s a good example. Widemile is an SEO firm, and they have a “share this” widget on their privacy policy. Seriously.

Netconcepts is another SEO firm that actually has a share this widget on their customer inquiry form. Yep, I’m sure people would get a lot of value from that page on digg, reddit, stumbleupon, etc.

So, am I just being an angry old man, or do you feel the same? Doesn’t it just feel lazy? It reminds me of something Mitch Hedberg said: “When someone hands you a flyer, it’s like he’s saying, ‘Here, you throw this away.”

When I see a “Share This” in a ridiculous page, it’s like the folks behind the site are saying “Here, you promote this for us even if there’s no value here.”

Note: I realize that many sites are built on a template-based framework, and adding a share this embed code makes it show up on all pages. So yeah, I guess if your enitre site is built that way I can understand. But that seems cop-out-ish.

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User Acquisition Technique: Giving Away iTunes Gift Cards

by Nathan W. Burke on January 29, 2009

Marta Kagan is a bonafide marketing genius. At least that’s what she calls herself. She’s right.

Marta works for Viximo, the Boston-area virtual goods startup, and the company just released an iPhone app called TrueFlirt. Since Marta is tasked with getting folks to buy the app, she came up with what I think is a pretty awesome strategy. I’ve always been a huge fan of Marta’s work, as she is truly creative and original. You’ll see in the voice she uses. Here’s the message I received on facebook:

** 48-HOUR FRIENDS-ONLY OFFER: FREE $10 ITUNES CARD **

Just when you thought friending me on Facebook couldn’t be any more thrilling, I figured out how to make it just so! Some people might call it "bribery," I like to call it "marketing". Basically, it involves me giving you a $10 iTunes gift card — and no, you don’t have to do something crazy like eat bugs to get it.

Here’s the dealio:

1. Go to the iTunes App Store now and download TrueFlirt, the sexy little iPhone app (built by my posse here at Viximo) that lets you flirt—with style. TrueFlirt is just $3.99 through Valentine’s Day—and much less filling than those sugary Necco hearts. Here’s the link: http://tinyurl.com/TrueFlirt

2. FLIRT WITH ME! No, really. TrueFlirt lets you send virtual "flirts" to other iPhone users. To get your $10 iTunes gift card, you’ll have to send that first flirt to me.

Personally, I’d love for you to send the Love Potion flirt (I’m kinda thirsty), but I’ll let you take your pick—there are 10 gorgeous "flirts" to choose from.

Here’s the number to send your flirt to: 617-417-7444

(No, I wont tell your girlfriend—or boyfriend or husband or wife—that you sent me a flirt. It’s all good, clean fun in the name of "marketing," remember?)

**IMPORTANT: Be sure to add a message with your email address so I can get you your iTunes gift card lickety split.**

3. Rate & review TrueFlirt at the iTunes App Store. (Here’s the link again http://tinyurl.com/TrueFlirt)

4. Join the TrueFlirt Facebook ‘Fan Club’ here: http://tinyurl.com/TrueFlirtFans

5. (Optional) Tell your friends! Know someone who has an iPhone? Think they might like a free $10 iTunes gift card? Forward this message to them.

So let’s review—
How to Get Your Free $10 iTunes Gift Card—without even leaving your chair:
Buy the app, send a flirt, write a review, join the club, pass it on…!
Easy peasy rice & cheesy.

Isn’t Facebook friendship a beautiful thing?

Flirt on,
Marta

**Note to friends who don’t have an iPhone:
WHAT?! YOU DON’T HAVE AN iPHONE YET?! Honestly, I’m not even sure why we’re friends. (Just kidding.) Seriously – I’d love to share the wealth with you despite your poor choice of technology, but unfortunately TrueFlirt was made only for the iPhone. Get back to me when you’ve realized the error of your ways. 😉

Marta also duplicated the message on her blog in a post called "Flirt with me. I dare you. (I’ll also give you $10)"

Personally, I think this is awesome. If I had an iPhone, I’d do it in a second. Why? Well, first of all, people with iPhones buy songs on iTunes. So it would just make sense economically to spend $4 to get a $10 iTunes card. Second, I’d tell people I know about the deal since it’s basically a free $5 for doing something insanely simple.

And since her free $10 iTunes promotion is only good for 48 hours, it’s not like Viximo is going to continue to lose money acquiring each user. Instead, they’re basically paying a small amount of money to build buzz, thus moving TrueFlirt up in the iTunes App Gallery. Right now it has 22 Reviews (not bad for one day), a few of them are 5 stars.

I think this is excellent. Thoughts?

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What Free Online Services Would You Pay For? How Much?

by Nathan W. Burke on January 27, 2009

I’ve had a lot of conversations about startup monetization lately and have been noticing a trend where services are moving away from simply building a userbase and worrying about revenue later. To survive in the startup world right now, the path to making money has to be clear (especially if you’re trying to raise cash to get started).

So which of the services you currently use for free would you actually pay for? And how much would you be willing to pay for each?

The following is a list of services I use and what I think I’d pay for them. After that, I’m going to list some miscellaneous examples. I’d love to hear what you think. Which services would you pay for, and how much?

1. Facebook– I really rarely use facebook, but do value the connections that exist there. I only go to facebook when I get an email notice (friend request, message, etc.), but do connect my facebook with my twitter account and my blogs. So to me, facebook is a friend aggregator and another publishing mechanism.

Would I pay for it? Yes.
How much? $5 a month

2. Twitter- I use twitter all the time, on my mobile and my laptop. I embed my twitter badge on my blogs (when it works), and I’ve been playing around with the API to see what I can do.

Would I pay for it? Yes
How much? $15 a month

3. LinkedIn- Lately I’ve been using LinkedIn a lot. It’s one of those services that you don’t think about when you don’t need it, but when you need it, it’s really, really useful.

Would I pay for it? Probably not. Sure, it’s really convenient, but I think I could do without it.
How much? I wouldn’t pay monthly, but maybe $20 for a year.

4. Gmail– I depend on gmail. Absolutely depend on it. Since the moment I got the beta invite way back when, gmail has been my default email account. Jobs come and go, so if it is an important email, I store it in gmail. Out of all these services, gmail is the one I can’t be without.

Would I pay for it? Yep. Absolutely.
How much? $25 a month or more if they blackmailed me.

5. Flickr- I love flickr but don’t use it as much as I probably should. It’s really easy to hit the free account limit, and since the PRO account is fairly inexpensive, I moved to the pro account.

Would I pay for it? Yes.
How much? $2 a month (a pro account is $25ish a year, unlimited)

6. StumbleUpon– Sure, this could be an apples to bowling shoes comparison, but I thought I’d throw a weird one in here. I use stumbleupon daily, but don’t think of it as a necessity.

Would I pay for it? No
How much? Um, I said no. So, I’m not going to pay for it.

7. BlogTalkRadio- I love BlogTalkRadio and am still surprised it is a free service.

Would I pay for it? Yep
How much? $20 per year

8. YouTube- When I have a video, I usually post it to YouTube, but I don’t spend much time as a viewer on YouTube. I wouldn’t pay for it.

Would I pay for it? No.

9. GetSatisfaction- GetSatisfaction is awesome for site owners, and is a great customer service site for users. If I owned a web service company, I’d definitely pay for it.

Would I pay for it? If I were an owner, yep.
How much? $15-20 a month for a company account

10. HackerNews- I like social news sites like reddit as much as the next guy, but they’re usually pretty broad in scope. That’s why I love Hacker News, as they are laser-focused on tech and startup news. If I had to pay for that exclusivity I’d do it.

Would I pay for it? Yes.
How Much? $5 a month

Miscellaneous Examples

  • Blogging platforms like Blogger and WordPress.com
  • RSS readers like Google Reader
  • Event sites like Upcoming.com, meetup.com, etc.
  • Wikis
  • Social Bookmarking sites like delicious and diigo
  • Social news sites like reddit or digg

So, what would you pay for? How much?

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New Boston Area Startup Marketing Group And Site

by Nathan W. Burke on January 26, 2009

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been kicking around the thought of having some kind of event series focused on startup marketing. The idea is to get a bunch of Boston-area tech entrepreneurs together to talk about the challenges they face in getting past all the noise and getting their products/services noticed. I’ve been reaching out to some folks here in the Boston startup community and have received very positive feedback….it looks like people would really like to get together to share tips and info.

So, with all that out of the way, let me introduce you to two things:

1. BostonStartupMarketing.com–  I set this up as a community site for the group. I’ll be announcing events here, and I’d love it if people in the Boston startup community want to contribute posts. If you’re interested, please register at the site and let me know. Also, if you see any posts on other blogs relevant to startup marketing or Boston-based startups, or know any blogs that would be good for the blogroll, let me know and I’ll be happy to post them. I want this site to be a resource, so if you see something useful, send it along.

2. The Boston Area Startup Marketing Group– I created a group on meetup.com for Boston area entrepreneurs and marketers, and I’ll use this group as a way to announce events. If you’re interested, please join the group, and I’ll be in touch when events are planned.

If you’re in the Boston area and want to get involved, please let me know. I’m definitely not the greatest event planner, so I’d love any help, tips, suggestions, etc.

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Questions For Startups Killing Free Membership And Going Pay Only

by Nathan W. Burke on January 22, 2009

Lately I’ve been noticing a trend: startups that have offered free membership to their sites are now going pay-only. Even sites that have been built on the “freemium” model (free membership with feature limitations or pay memberships with unlimited use) are ditching the “free” part of their offering. While these startups are blaming the free service termination on the economy and declining ad rates, the question remains: is it a good strategy to dismiss a large pool of potential converts?

Two of the most recent examples:


1. Jott– The voice-to-text service added a premium version back in August, and just announced they’re killing the free version entirely on February 2. From their blog:

If you’re reading this, you’ve probably heard that we’re ending Jott’s free services (Jott Basic and Jott Notepad for the iPhone). Unfortunately, it’s true, beginning on February 2nd. Plans for current paying customers are not changing.

Whether you are a paid or a free customer, we thank you for all of the support you’ve given us over the past couple of years, and the support you’ll hopefully give us in the future.

Why is Jott ending its free services?
As we’ve said many times, one of our goals was to always offer a high quality, free version of Jott. But as with many businesses right now, the economic environment is forcing a change in plans. When we started, we made quality our top priority, and we will always be committed to this. As you know, we use a combination of automated speech recognition and human quality assurance to deliver this, and it costs real money to do it well.While we’ve made remarkable progress at innovating costs out of the system, the current climate is forcing us to focus 100% of our energy on getting to profitability. The great news is that with this change we are within sight of that goal.

2. Sprout Builder– The platform that allowed users to build multimedia web content without being flash developers launched at DEMO 08 has gone fee-only.

From their email:

Over the last year Sprout has provided you with a free solution for creating interactive Flash content and widgets. Like many technology companies, we offered our service for free while we worked on our products, spoke with customers and developed our go-to-market strategy. Now that we have developed a solution worthy of creative professionals at the best agencies in the world, it is time for us to monetize. Starting in early February, we will begin charging for our service. We hope that you have found value from Sprout Builder and will continue to use our services.

Which brings me to a couple of questions. If you’re from a startup that has gone the freemium to pay-only route, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Here they are:

1. What percentage of free users convert to paid users?
Looking at a TechCrunch article that covered Jott, they say:

In August voice-to-text service Jott moved out of beta and added a premium feature for $4/month. Since then, the company says, about 30% of Jott’s active users have opted for the premium, no-ads version of the service.

30% seems really, really high to me, but I could be way off. But even if 30% of the free users upgraded, that leaves 70% that are gone completely. That’s 70% of the people that have heard about you, come to your site, and actually signed up to use your service.

2. What is the cost of keeping free members?
Like I mentioned above, most startups would kill to keep their users, especially when they have a premium version to offer. With such a captive audience already using the product, there are great opportunities to plug the full version in every communication.

3. Are there competitors ready to take your free users?
When you get rid of your free users (especially if they are frequent users of your service), they’re likely to look for another service to replace you. What if there are other services that would welcome your subscribers?

4. How will startups attract new users without a free version?
Without a free version to hook new users, how do you sell users on paying for the service? A 30 or 60 day trial? If that’s the case, what’s the point of getting rid of the free users? Is it solely the ability to charge them after 30 or 60 days? Is it the simple shift from
a) users that are freely using the service without offering up their credit cards

to

b) users that are using the service, but have their credit card on file, so if they forget to cancel, or think the service is ok, you can charge them

I’m not knocking the strategy. It certainly has a higher probability of making some cash, but free trial vs. freemium upgrade certainly feel like very different animals. One motivates me to check it out and bail immediately, looking for flaws and reasons to stop payment. The other makes me actually try something out at no cost, and if I feel that the service is useful, I’ll pay for it by making the choice myself.

5. Will the cost of your service be enough to be profitable?
Finally, the big question: even with a high conversion rate, is the charge enough to make sufficient profit?

Like many of my posts, this one is more of a curiosity than anything, and I’d really love to hear some feedback. What do you think of the disappearance of the “free version” of online services? What does it take to actually make you upgrade to the premium version?

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Ted Dziuba on “It’s All About The Page Rank Stupid”

by Nathan W. Burke on January 20, 2009

Ted Dziuba, the blogger most well known for the awesome Uncov blog has a great post about corporate blogging on his personal blog called "It’s All About The Page Rank Stupid." As always, Ted leads off with a strongly worded opening:

If you’re running an online business and have hired a consultant who tells you that you should have a corporate blog to "better connect with the community", fire that consultant.

If you have a corporate blog that is only marginally more interesting than a press release wire, you’re wasting your time.

Ted goes on to say that a corporate blog serves one purpose: distribution. Again, from Ted:

Anyway, how does a blog get you distribution if you’re not concentrating on branding? PageRank. You can and should use your blog for link-building and search engine optimization.

He goes on to use Mint.com as an example of a company that is using their corporate blog to build inbound links to up their google juice. They offer a blog on personal finance that has inbound links to the mint.com service on each post. Since the blog is popular and has thousands of readers, the value of those links to google is relatively high.

This shouldn’t be terribly shocking to anyone, but I think it’s valuable for two reasons. First, it reinforces the fact that blogs can be incredibly useful and in a quantifiable way. Second, if you’re not actually writing useful content on your corporate blog that people see value in, you’re wasting your time.

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In A Down Economy Startups Rise From Coworking

by Nathan W. Burke on January 16, 2009

My article, In A Down Economy Startups Rise From Coworking is now available at MediaBullseye.

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