Tag: profit

Have you thought of everything?

books
Image by austinevan

You’ve all heard of (and probably read) Seth Godin’s excellent book Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us (Amazon Affiliate link). He talks about finding (or creating) your audience and leading those passionate people to new things. If you have a business, at some point (like every point) you’re going to want to monetize the tribe.

ABC’s LOST has one of the most passionate tribes since Star Wars. Even if you’ve never seen the show, if you’re on Twitter or Facebook (or have any water cooler talk at the office) you’ve encountered people talking about the show.

Now ABC’s business model doesn’t really include monetizing a certain show’s fan base other than promoting them to advertisers while the show is on the air. There’s an official LOST Facebook page, but they’ve gone mostly silent since the show ended. There are tons of unofficial message boards, fan pages, blogs and web pages devoted to the show.

One such site, LostBlog.com, has no interest in shutting (or slowing) down after the show’s finale. They’ve organized rewatch discussion boards (planned times to rewatch certain episodes, starting from the pilot) and highlight the Twitter conversation, including new “Losties” who are beginning to watch the show for the first time.

They’ve also organized a  LOST book club where fans will be reading through books featured, mentioned, or alluded to in the series (and believe me, there are a lot). They continue to have advertisers and they use the Amazon affiliate program, so while I doubt they’re making a fortune they’re definitely monetizing.

The question is, are your tribes doing the same thing? Are they setting up discussion boards, activities or events centered around your product separate from you? If so, is that okay with you (because your business model, like ABC’s, ignores profitability after a certain point) or would you like to get in on the action?

One of the ways this might happen is if you never thought of rewatch parties or a LOST book club. So think outside the island. Have you thought of every way you can grow your business, even if a certain product is “over”? I’m betting you can’t afford to miss opportunities like these. So… what haven’t you thought of?

Easy as…

Easy as pie
Image by Caitlinator

Is your business easy for your customers? Some of you will say Yes first and then worry about it. Some will immediately begin arguing “All things worth having are worth working for…” The truth is whether you are a B2B, B2C or B2G, your product/service needs to be easy.

Staples has had success with their Easy Button campaign. They have a simple message: press the Easy Button, and all your office supply/ink/printing needs are met. Why is this effective? Because Staples is saying they understand you have bigger things to worry about– and whether your customers are business owners, Congressmen, housewives, schoolteachers or anything else, they have bigger things to worry about than your business.

At work recently I have begun ordering lunch a few times a week. I found a favorite place to order, Restaurant X. They have delicious food, reasonable prices and are only a couple blocks from my office. The first time they delivered right on time, but even after I had ordered a couple of times their [new] delivery people kept getting lost. A couple of times by the time my food arrived it was cold and I had lost whatever brief slip of time I’d been able to carve out for lunch in the first place. Then one day I called and they told me they couldn’t deliver during the lunch rush. Wait… couldn’t deliver lunch? Besides the fact that their website and menus’ largest text proclaims WE DELIVER, they are a downtown eatery within blocks of large office buildings, including mine, and they couldn’t deliver lunch. (On an earlier occasion, too, a coworker had wanted to order with me and Restaurant X told me they “couldn’t split orders”. Since neither she nor I had cash to reimburse one another, she cancelled her order.)

That coworker happened to think of Restaurant Y, a place with similar food a few miles away in a more residential area. Their prices are a little higher (a dollar or two per dish), but I decided to give them a try. They happily delivered, on time, and never got lost. Soon several other people in the office were ordering when I did because they’d seen my food (starting from when I was ordering from Restaurant X), and the drivers come out one time to deliver multiple orders. They patiently take an order and get transferred from phone to phone taking multiple credit cards.

You know what? I like Restaurant X’s food a little bit better, and would appreciate spending a few dollars less on lunch. But on those days I haven’t had time to pack anything and don’t have time to go out, only one thing matters: who can bring me lunch? I need to press the easy button and have lunch appear.

How could your business make it easier for your customers? How are you doing it already?