It’s a very funny feeling, steeping outside the realm to the web and starting to market your business in the ‘real world’. However, I’ve taken the plunge.

How to get in the press without a PR company

Tim and I were fortunate enough to meet Sam Farrow from the NZPA who has been walking us through the ins and outs of writing and submitting a press release.

Most small businesses in New Zealand aren’t aware that you don’t need to hire a PR company or pay advertising fees to get into the press. What I like about the NZPA is, that with a little cunning, it lets you play the same game that the big boys do. When you submit a press release to the NZPA, you pay a fee to get it on ‘the wire’ (a constantly updated list of all press releases that gets sent to different newspapers and tv and radio stations depending on the deal you choose). Basically it lets you avoid having to find and schmooze particular journalists or pay a fortune for a PR company that has.

How to increase the odds of being published

While the press is a funny beast and you can’t guarantee being published – in fact it may take a while before anything you write gets published, there are things you can do to up the odds. I submitted out first press release a week or two ago, and have compiled a list of advice that Sam sent through with my own little tweaks :)

• Look at the news all the time! If you submit your press release at the same time as larger companies have big news, you will be forgotten. Slow news days are better than big news days. It’s also a good idea to stay on topic! Look at what’s making the news and fit in around it.
• Think about the business result you are trying to achieve. Is it to raise your local profile? Encourage local sales? Get speaking engagements?…
• Think strategically. You want to keep hitting the spot with your message so think about your key message and submit several news articles around the same theme. Think about everything that happens in the business and is newsworthy and how it fits into our strategy.
• Define your target audience. Who are you trying to connect to? Who are you trying to sell to? Is it the government or small business owners or consumers?
• Define your desired result. Is it to get them to want to buy or to make contact? Is it purely so they hear your name?

Next week… Writing your first press release

I have been a web designer long enough to know that behind even the ugliest of sites lies some very successful companies. A lot of people just don’t see the web as a marketing channel and have an ugly looking, amateur website as their only online representation. That’s like sending your five year old along to a sales meeting. Not only does it look unprofessional, it actively puts customers off!

I realised this fact with a bang when i was looking for a company to print tshirts for PlanHQ. I looked at quite a few websites and to be frank, they all looked like they were run out of some 12 year old’s garage and I had absolutely no faith that I would actually get anything for my money.

In the end, I actually went and visited the premises of a business BEFORE committing to purchase – this is someone who’s normally happy buying anything online. It struck me that t-shirt printing sites all had several things in common:

• They didn’t understand google. It is very hard to search for a t-shirt printing company, I had the nagging feeling there were a lot more out there but I would never be able to find them.
• T-shirt printing companies didn’t simplify their product. I just wanted a few t-shirts printed, I didn’t want it to feel like a very complicated, high risk task! I wanted an easy process (choose a t-shirt, submit your image in this format at this resolution, pay your money, wait 2 days, get your t-shirt couriered). That was, in the end how the process worked where I went, but honestly, you would never have guessed (the place I went to didn’t even have a website)
• T-shirt companies don’t understand the importance of beauty This is pretty frightening as I trust them to make my clothes look cool. Ugly sites put me off! Even though I know it’s psychological and a website is often no reflection on a company (!), I still was put off even calling most of the places I found.

T-shirt companies are not alone

A lot of other companies are in the same boat, but t-shirt companies are such an easy example of businesses that could totally take advantage of the web. If I was a t-shirt company that printed corporate tees, I’d ensure people could do it all online. Otherwise, every time someone wants a batch done it takes hours out of their day. They simply cannot afford to do it!

T-shirt companies could easily make my life easier by embracing the web. If I could find one half-decent site I would switch my business to them in a flash. Seriously.

I’ve recently subscribed to another email newsletter that I REALLY enjoy – gone are the days where these things are mainly spam, Get to The Point is ‘Small business secrets in 60 seconds’… One topic daily that gives you a little ‘ahh cool’ moment when you read it.

I have been buying a lot off stuff off Trademe recently. This uncovered an interesting phenomenon. Trademe works on a feedback system, when you make a trade, you offer feedback on the other party, the buyer or the seller. This raises or lowers their trust profile and affects future sales.

A fairer marketplace

The theory behind this is that it creates a far more honest marketplace… You have to be fair or else everyone knows about it. The thing is, now everyone is so worked up about their feedback, it’s actually created an environment of suspicion.

A weird side effect

I bought a phone for my flat, I sent an email to the seller requesting pick up details and got a reply. I then sent a further email requesting bank account details and trying to confirm a pick up time. They didn’t get it. The next thing I know, I’m being sent an email accusing me of being a ‘time waster’ and questioning if I ‘even want the phone’. Which I found fairly shocking. The issue was resolved with a fast phone call, but it seemed a weird reaction. When the truth was discovered, the opposite occurred and they obviously were a little afraid that I would turn on them!

My boyfriend had a similar issue when trying to buy glasses. After weeks of communication, the glasses never arrived. Eventually his money was returned and he wrote polite but firm piece of feedback which questioned if maybe the glasses were ever sent. The response was immediate and viscous. He is now the angry owner of feedback that claims he is a scammer.

Freakonomics

I’m quite new to buying on Trademe and I actually found myself AFRAID of not picking something up on time or not contacting the buyer immediately. It actually became surprising stressful.

I’m reading Freakonomics at the moment which is a book all about incentives, but also shows how everything has unintended side effects. This was one particular one I’d never considered arising from such a perfect sounding solution to trust int he marketplace.

I’ve been chatting to entrepreneur Patrick McPhee from Splurf about PlanHQ featuring in a startup TV series he’s getting going for New Zealand, due to start screening later this year.

The idea is to show everyone the reality of startups, and the startup culture here in New Zealand. Hopefully by opening our doors we’ll be assisting those in startups by showing our mistakes and successes and providing a little inspiration to those who aren’t in business for themselves to maybe get amongst. Patrick and crew have just released a 30 minute pilot video below, interested in any thoughts. (Note: The outcomes in the pilot are fictional and are for illustration only)

Startup TV Pilot

Online Videos by Veoh.com

The inspiration – Startup.com the Movie

In terms of the style of how the story is to be told, Patrick refers to Startup.com the Movie which follows an online startup govworks.com which goes from inception, to raising $US 60 milion and a couple of hundred staff to dead. Not an ideal outcome ofcourse, but failures are part of success, although in this case, and at this time of the web, was all too common.

Seeing your mistakes from others

I remember watching the movie startup.com in 2003 shortly after I’d helped raise $11 million for early stage energy management technology company Energy intellect. It was the first time I’d watched a movie that had things I could genuinely relate too, and it forced immediate learning. I saw the things that I/we had done wrong, watching someone else make mistakes and seeing them as mistakes certainly helps you.

CrazyEgg has been around a fair while, and like a lot of things, I looked at it and thought ‘wow, that would be cool to try… If only I could be bothered signing up for another Web 2.0 account’.

Well, I’m pleased to announce that yesterday I gave it a shot.

What is Crazyegg?

Crazyegg visually displays where your visitors click on your website, which helps you see the success of various buttons, menus and links (and find out what people think IS a link). You can look at four very nice graphics showing various views on the information, including the EXACT point where people click… And seriously it’s so amazing, you become obsessed with your website.

What’s I’ve learned in a day

People think PlanHQ is Powered by Silverstripe

While our website IS made using the Silverstripe CMS, PlanHQ itself is definitely built using Ruby on Rails. We suspected that some people wondered how we built an entire planning application on Silverstripe, and using Crazyegg, I saw that the link to Silverstripe was one of the most commonly clicked links… Which really supports our suspicion.

I have now updated the text.

People Think the images in our tour are links

That was a surprising but very interesting discovery. We’re still unsure of what to do :)

Why Crazyegg is so Awesome

Crazyegg pretty much makes every user of your website or application a tester. Every single user now provides you with valuable information about what they find confusing, easy and interesting… Without them having to do ANYTHING but use your site.
We’re hoping to embed Crazyegg in PlanHQ to see where people run into problems and what is most interesting to them. The information it provides is literally like sitting down with every single customer and finding out what they think.

That’s truly amazing.

And the smallest account is free.

What a bargain.

But I recommend (having experience with selling web products) signing up for a paid account. This tool is truly worth every penny you spend.

I’m a little late on this one, by now the furore over the 2012 (Terribly awful) Olympic games logo has died down… However, I’m far more interested in the backlash than the logo itself and what this means for branding, who ‘owns’ it and who controls it.

How did they get it so wrong?

Seriously. How could a branding company that charged over $NZ1 million for the logo be so far off? Any non-expert, average Joe outsider can look at the thing and IMMEDIATELY see that it in no way:

• Reflects London
• Reflects the Olympic games

The logo is virtually unreadable and looks like it belongs in the 80′s, The website looks like something a kid created. It’s like the branding company was so arrogant, they put five minutes into the job on the basis that their name alone would make anything fly. It appears these guys were relying on their ‘expert’ status to reenact the fairy story ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes’. Clearly, they hoped people would believe their ears and not their eyes and change their perception of ‘Brand London’ to
their own half-hearted effort.

But they failed dismally

The Backlash Begins

This is an interesting case where taxpayer money went into the brand while taxpayers were also the main consumers of it – these people truly owned the brand in every way… And they were quick to make their unhappiness known with:

• Almost 50,000 signatures on a petition to change the London 2012 logo
• Heaps of Londoners submitting their own logos for consideration (some of which are actually quite good)
• The London Mayor saying he ‘wouldn’t pay them a penny’

What Does this Mean for Branding?

The big brands of the past (the Cokes, Nikes, Mc Donalds and co) who define a brand and then get consumers to ADOPT it are becoming a thing of the past. Consumers these days are so aware of branding that we have developed our own personal brands. Instead of adopting the persona of a company’s brand, we expect their brand to match our own, or else they don’t get our business.

Lessons from London 2012

• Don’t be a ‘branding expert’ – The days of justifying branding disasters by explaining the ‘creative process’ behind them are over. No one cares about the ‘creative process’ and when you have to fall back on it because the end result is so shoddy, consumers just think you’re a loser.
• Don’t charge an absolute fortune for a logo, simply because you can… Pricing should be based on he difficulty and accuracy of portraying the brand, not the size of the organization commissioning it.
• Don’t think your logo design will be any better than a monkey’s just because you have a branding company.
• Don’t force your consumers to adopt your brand. Instead, adopt theirs.

The biggest disaster in the London 2012 logo disaster was not that the logo was exceptionally ugly, or that it caused epileptic fits… It was that the branding company tried to tell London citizens who they were and what their city was instead of asking them.

One advantage of being a small business is that you have a very limited marketing budget. Yes, it is an advantage. You don’t have the ability to exploit traditional marketing avenues so you’re stuck with making the most out of any opportunity that presents itself.

Your Body is Your Tool

Just before we sent Nik and Koz off to the US to the RailsConf, we had PlanHQ t-shirts made. The fact Koz promptly lost his and forgot to wear it during his keynote aside, these guys were clearly representing us. But t-shirts are old news right? Not if you do them cleverly.

PlanHQ

PlanHQ is all about bringing your plans to life… So what better than personalised t-shirts that proclaim your one goal in life… ‘Sell my company to Google’, ‘Make developer’s lives better’, ‘Still dance when I’m 90′. Each t-shirt is slightly different and unique to the wearer, and because PanHQ is focused around setting goals and achieving them, what better way to introduce people to our business than getting them to think about theirs?

Xero

Xero sells accounting software, a traditionally dull industry, full of dull colours and ‘boring people’… But Xero don’t see themselves like that. Xero have recently come out with a range of T-shirts in blues and pinks that are so bright that when you wear one, it’s impossible not to be noticed. They have added to these t-shirts the somewhat cheeky line ‘Xero Style’. Through these t-shirts, Xero make a bold statement about their attitude towards accounting: It’s fun, it’s cool and it’s the cutting edge of fashion. Who would have thought?

FexEx

A little more famous example is the FedEx t-shirts that personify what Fed-Ex is all about – delivering parcels. It’s unique, it’s quirky and more importantly, it stands out in a crowd and it makes people giggle. This is another business that COULD have sat down and figured that they provide a dull but necessary service and rely solely on the fact that consumers will use their service out of necessity. Instead they put in a little bit of clever thinking and made something that PEOPLE LIKE TO WEAR. And when people like to wear something that markets your company, they become your walking billboard.
T-shirts aren’t expensive. T-shirts are hot right now. Exploit the opportunity.

The town is your Canvas

Smaller businesses may get a lot of benefit from exploiting walls, lampposts and footpaths around town. Once again… an old marketing idea with a new slant.
Instead of adapting to your surroundings, adapt your surroundings to you, look out for how you can turn an existing object into something that personifies what your company is about. Anyone can paste a notice to lamppost, how many people however, have turned a lamppost into a ballerina? Posting a few of these up around the local schools (think school crossing poles and the routes home) is bound to get the attention of the target market without you parting with anything more than the cost of a few photocopies.

If your business has a physical premises that you can alter the outside of (even temporarily), you can use it to convey what you do. Everyone can have a sign outside their office, but no matter how slick and professional it is, it will never have the impact that this dude has as he punches a crack in the pavement with his bare fist. You don’t even have to see the words ‘Karate school’ to know what you will get inside this building.

Creativity is King

These days, you shouldn’t have to spend a lot of money marketing your business. The world truly is your oyster and all you have to do is find the opportunities to make an impact. We’ve got a few more ideas up our sleeves which may come out at some point soon, and would love to see and hear about more success stories from tight marketing budgets :)

UPDATE: Changed atrocious spelling of ‘guerrilla’ because Nik got worked up about it ;)

I was in Fiji the week before last, and finally got around to reading Seth Godin’s Purple Cow. I can’t say I was enthralled by the book but I liked the concept of always thinking about the remarkable. This weekend I had breakfast at a place called The Chocolate Fish Cafe, a place that has totally embraced the concept of being a Purple Cow.

How the Chocolate Fish Cafe is Remarkable

Instead of walking 2 minutes to any of the cafes surrounding where I live, we got in the car and drove 20 minutes to the Chocolate Fish Cafe. In fact, I’d go so far to say that every single patron of the place had to drive there. This is in a city where virtually everything is in easy walking distance. Also, unlike most places in Wellington, every single time I’ve been to the Chocolate Fish Cafe, I’ve had a very long wait to get my food. Normally this makes people angry, at the Chocolate Fish, we all sit around patiently. How do they do it?

• The Chocolate Fish Cafe is limited by Geography and has to have the outside eating area ACROSS THE ROAD from the main restaurant. They have embraced this constraint and turned it into an advantage. Their bright yellow ‘Waiter Crossing’ signs are famous around Wellington, as are the fluorescent jackets that waiting staff wear.
• The Chocolate Fish Cafe is a quirky place. Every single chair has been handpainted with a different picture. I stood up off mine and looked down into the open jaws of a shark that had presumably been biting my bottom throughout my dining experience.
• Because the place is chocka block full of people, The Chocolate Fish Cafe has come up with easy ways to use LESS SERVICE. You get your own menu off a central stack, they have water dispensers around the place where people queue in friendly fashion to get their own water. They don’t apologise for this either, but once again, turn it to their advantage. This time they had a big sign up saying ‘sick of slow service? We need you to join us as a cook!’
• The Chocolate Fish Cafe has turned themselves into an institution. They sell versions of the rocks they use as table numbers, they sell paintings of the cafe, and neat little post cards, guides to the city and other weird and wonderful objects including a clay seagull devouring a chocolate fish. They have created a tourist attraction out of a cafe.
• Wellington has a whole lot of waterfront. The Chocolate Fish Cafe is about as far round as you can go from the city. But it’s a stunning drive or cycle and makes a nice lazy weekend activity. A trip out for food turns into an outing.

One thing I got from Purple Cow is that every single constraint can and should be turned into something remarkable. Everything should be looked at in the context of making it remarkable. If you are a marketer or a small business owner needing some inspiration, the easiest thing I can think of is asking the same question about every shop you visit or product you use ‘how could this be a Purple Cow?’. It’s amazing what you come up with.

Short Video’s can be a really powerful way of connecting people with ideas, and when you see a well told story in video it can really immerse you and inspire feeling, insight and sometimes action.

Connecting the dots – The video experience
The opportunity with video that you don’t get with other forms of content, like these words I’m writing, is to very quickly show the connection between things that may otherwise not be immediately and obviously related.

The Machine is us/using us
This is a pretty cool 5 minute, no talk all action and music story of how the web is growing with us, starting right from the basics it quickly flys into current time taking you for the ride.

Connecting an Online Experience with the ground
I’ve just in the last week met up and started working with a last term film student, Pattara, on a couple of video ideas. He popped along and grabbed some footage of a startup funding seminar I presented at as a start and we’re going to get some footage of some cool PlanHQ customers chatting about and showing how they’re growing their businesses, meeting their goals and making it happen. The aim here is to show people how PlanHQ is used to drive action, and blend the world of the online PlanHQ experience with what it’s really doing making it happening on the ground.

30 second Video Intro for ProjectX
Heres a short video friends from New Zealand Online Mapping company ProjectX who run zoomin and power the Trademesmaps site