"For the first 15 years after sliced bread was available, no one knew about it, no one bought it, no one cared about it. It took Wonder Bread to make sliced bread popular. This is true for almost every product. The success is less about the patent or your factory, it is about what you can do to make your idea spread. Companies who can spread ideas (with great marketing!) are the ones who will win." I don't really have much to add to the video. It is absolutely worth the 20 minutes to watch it.
This video is over a year old. Seth has a lot of new ideas and thoughts since then. If you want to learn about Seth Godin's latest ideas in person, come see him speak at the Inbound Marketing Summit.
See Seth Godin speak LIVE at the Inbound Marketing Summit
Plus lots of other great speakers like David Meerman Scott, Chris Brogan and more.
One of the major principles behind all of Seth's advice is that you need to create a "Purple Cow". He wrote a book by this title about the entire concept. But basically a "Purple Cow" is something remarkable, meaning that you remark about it to others. If you are driving down the road and see a cow, your reaction is "oh, a cow". But if you drove down the street and saw a purple cow... you would say, "WOW! A Purple Cow! Pull over! Grab the video camera, I'm gonna run out there and check this out, let's put it on YouTube!" Your job as a marketer is to build Purple Cows and get people to talk about your purple cows as often as possible. Got it?
Well, the next response I get from a lot of marketers is "My company builds [insert boring product here]. There is no way I can make that interesting or remarkable. I just have to put up a normal brochureware website, do print ads and hope for the best." My response... WRONG. It is possible for every single product out there to have something remarkable about it or the people that use it or how they use it. Someone, someplace, is passionate about using or building the product. And as a marketer, you need to tap into that passion and make a purple cow out of it. Even the lowly toilet, usually a quite boring product, can be a purple cow.
Even a Toilet Can be a Purple Cow - 2 Examples
This first example is a viral video by a Swedish toilet company that showcases a feature of their toilet that makes it a purple cow. Thanks to David Meerman Scottfor pointing me toward this example from his blog. (The video is safe for work.) PS - As of writing, this video is the first result on YouTube when you search for "toilet", and has over 1.9 million views. How cool is that?
The second example comes from a trip I took to Japan. It was my first time to Japan, and the hotel had a toilet that I thought was so cool that I actually took out my cell phone and filmed it and photographed it. Seriously! If you are used to the boring toilets that are in the rest of the world, this thing is pretty intense. I never ended up doing anything with my video, but that's OK, since there are a bunch of other videos on YouTube about the shower toilet, which further proves my point that they are remarkable. Here is an example of a video with almost 6,000 views that shows of some of the features of this remarkable toilet. (The video is safe for work.)
Can you think of example of a "boring" product that became a purple cow? How did it happen? Are you coming to the Inbound Marketing Summit on September 8? Leave a comment below and let's discuss.
See Seth Godin speak LIVE at the Inbound Marketing Summit
Plus lots of other great speakers like David Meerman Scott, Chris Brogan and more.
We have decided to declare this week "Seth Godin Week" on the HubSpot Internet Marketing Blog. We'll publish an article each day related to Seth, his books, his blog and/or his ideas.
Why are we doing a "Seth Godin Week"? Well, Seth Godin will be speaking at the Inbound Marketing Summit marketing conference in Boston/Cambridge on September 8.
I am very excited to meet Seth and see him speak!
But, today, let's talk about how Seth got his start. Permission Marketing. He wrote a book of this title back in 1999. What is Permission Marketing? Basically, it refers to all of the marketing techniques where you are gaining people's permission before you start to market to them. TV ads? Nope, they interrupt the show I am trying to watch. Telemarketing? No way! Rented email lists... nope! Getting found in things like search engines, providing useful information people actually want to consume, and using viral marketing techniques are some of the principles behind permission marketing. Over the years I think permission marketing has evolved into Inbound Marketing, now that things like blogging, social networks, SEO and other techniques have become more of a complete discipline. Seth Godin talks about 5 Levels of Permission in the book, and how marketers start at the lowest level (level 5, "situation" and work your way up - if you are good. Here is some info about each level, I borrow language extensively from the book here.
The Five Levels of Permission Marketing
Intravenous. Your doctor has your permission to put whatever she wants into your arm, and then charge you for the treatment and expect you to pay. The marketer who has this level of permission can make buying decisions on behalf of the buyer. The only downside is if you mess it up, you'll lose the permission. Automatic replenishment of the spring water in your office or the oil in your home are examples of this. Why do people submit to this type of marketing? To save time, to save money, because some people don't like to make a choice, and to avoid stock outs.
Points. Airline frequent flier miles and credit card points are examples of this level of permission marketing. People opt-in to these programs because of the benefits you give them. They give you permission to track their purchases and to send them special offers based on their purchase patterns.
Personal relationships. This form of permission ranks behind "points" because it doesn't scale. [In 2008, I actually think that things like blogging and social networking might allow this to scale better, maybe making it #2. - Mike Volpe] This is the form of marketing used in very large transactions, like on Wall Street and on Madison Avenue. When you have a personal relationship, you have permission to ask questions, see if someone is interested in a new service, and recommend other products. Again, if you mess it up, you'll lose the permission, so be smart.
Brand trust. This is the type of trust that outbound interruption marketers aspire to hold (it is scary that they only aspire to stage #2!). Brand trust is dramatically overrated. It's extraordinarily expensive to create, takes a very long time to develop, is hard to measure, and is harder still to manipulate. You can use brand trust to create brand extensions, or cross sell other products. But the first time you break the trust by not keeping the customer's best interest at heart, you'll damage the value of your brand greatly.
Situation. This is the permission you get when a customer calls your 800 number or asks a store clerk for advice, etc. Compared to TV ads or other interruption marketing, this situation gives the average marketer a lot more options. Remember that your employees who deal with customers and prospects are the tool to use for situational permission. McDonald's has generated billions with the situational permission phrase of "Do you want fries with that?". The question later became "Do you want to Super Size that?", and maybe they ruined their brand value by not keeping their customer's health in mind, leading to the movie "Super Size Me".
How to you bring the concepts of Permission Marketing into your company? What level of permission have you attained? Have any of Seth Godin's books or ideas influenced your marketing? Leave a comment so we can discuss.
See Seth Godin speak LIVE at the Inbound Marketing Summit
Plus lots of other great speakers like David Meerman Scott, Chris Brogan and more.
Recently, MITX hosted a panel about using social media for lead generation recently, and someone asked a question about what a traditional print design firm could do to leverage inbound marketing (social media, blogs, search engines) for their business. I captured two of the answers on video, and the common theme was "passion".
Chris Brogan a blogger and social media guy talks about how the Smart Car is a great design, and people are passionate about it, and maybe the print firm could talk about the good and bad aspects of the Smart Car design to demonstrate their design expertise. "Good design encourages us to take an action."
Chris Penn, a podcaster and blogger, talks about how passion is important and knowing what's important to your audience. He starts his answer by mentioning how his passion for marketing led him to start a "Marketing Over Coffee" podcast series, and he continues with some ideas of what someone passionate about design might be able to talk about.
Passion is Essential to Inbound Marketing
I agree with Chris and Chris that the print design firm needs to think about what content it could create that would be interesting to marketing people (the people they sell to). Here are some other ideas for how a traditional design firm might use inbound marketing:
Start a blog with images of good and bad design and how to evaluate design from a marketing perspective
Blog about how to select the best print design vendor for you
Create a series of videos about how to get the most out of your print design firm
Create a group on Facebook dedicated to using print design in marketing
Notice anything? Each of these ideas require someone at your company to be passionate about what you do, and then share their passion with the world. Who is passionate at your company? How do you share that passion with the world?
See Seth Godin speak LIVE at the Inbound Marketing Summit
Plus lots of other great speakers like David Meerman Scott, Chris Brogan and more.
Picture this: You're standing at the front of a ballroom full of customers and potential customers. You have a product you're proud of, and your customers are happy. The more your customers talk about your product, the more your potential customers convert.
You talk for a few minutes about your product, then you open the floor for comments and discussion -- only you add two conditions: nobody gets to introduce themselves and all comments are moderated by you before they're shared with the room. Then you go sit in the corner and talk with your VP of Sales. You make it clear you're not going to listen or participate.
Sounds crazy. Nobody would do that. It would kill the conversation and suck the life out of the room, not to mention your sales funnel.
Except serious, smart companies do it every day -- on their blogs.
They set up a blog, summon their inner Hemingway for the posts, then suffocate commenting and conversation:
They insist on moderating comments before publishing them.
They don't allow commenters to identify themselves with a url.
They don't respond to comments or participate in discussions taking place in the comments.
They don't learn from or listen to commenters.
Then they wonder why their blog isn't taking off.
Successful business blogs have the kind of atmosphere you'd want in that ballroom. They're opportunities for you to talk about your product and your industry, but also to listen and interact.
If you don't engage with commenters in the ballroom, everybody goes to get a cup of coffee. Same with the blog.
See Seth Godin speak LIVE at the Inbound Marketing Summit
Plus lots of other great speakers like David Meerman Scott, Chris Brogan and more.
alexis ohanian, the co-founder of reddit is a great guy, a creative
visionary and a starter of things. But most importantly alexis (or kn0thing
as he is known online) is single-handedly responsible for what modest success I
have as an entrepreneur -- and any future success I might have. He's second
only to my mother in making me possible. This bold admission was arrived
upon after some negotiation with alexis. His modesty would not allow him to
take full credit for my success. (His modesty is widely acclaimed and
demonstrated through his use of all lower-case characters for many proper nouns
associated with him -- hence the weird capitalization in the title of this article.)
Back to why alexis is responsible for my success. alexis and Steve Huffman begat reddit (this is the first time I've used the word begat in a sentence --
it feels good). reddit sort of begat OnStartups.com (my startup blog) by
driving a bunch of traffic in the early days and helping build that crucial
initial readership. OnStartups.com sort of begat HubSpot (my current marketing
software startup). So there you have it. alexis begat reddit begat
OnStartups.com begat HubSpot begat my plan for global domination.
For more about what alexis is doing now (like breadpig), visit alexisohanian.com
alexis ohanian Proust Questionnaire
Device you would never give up? My laptop. Granted, I'm
typing on her right now, so I'd better answer that way.
Blog you read most frequently? TechCrunch Just kidding! I get all my
startup news from the conversations I overhear in SF cafes; I strive for
credibility.
(Real answer: Threat Level,
which is owned by my parent company.)
Social Media Tool you actually use? I had to Google
"Social Media Tool," but I'm still not sure what it is. All the results I got
were Twitter-related; it's just not stable enough for me. I do actually use my
BlackBerry every day, though.
Favorite Newspaper(s)? The Guardian -- it helps me learn English,
too.
Person that inspires you? The
last time I was asked this, I said Obama, but after his vote on the telecom
immunity bill, I'm denying him the shoutout. You're on notice, Barack.
My mother and father inspire me on a near daily basis.
Who Was Your Best Manager? Why? Tony, my manager for two
years at Pizza Hut. He told me I could make a successful living as a
professional waiter in a big city like New York. This means a lot to a 16 year
old, as did the fact that he let me take free pizzas home.
Your first "real" job?: Frankly, I don't think I've had
one. My first non-lawnmowing job was in the summer after 8th grade, when I
worked as a sales rep for a now-bankrupt company called Sidea. We demoed
software and hardware in a booth at my local CompUSA.
One day, after helping a customer choose between two mice, he handed me his
business card and offered me a sales job at his company (food-related, I
remember). I was an overweight kid until the end of high school, so he probably
thought I was older -- and would enjoy a job working with food.
Where Do You Do Your Best Thinking? Shower. That's why I
sometimes take so long in there, honest.
What Do You Most Value In
Employees/Colleagues? Discipline: the ability to commit to something
and get it done.
What Would You Like To Be The World's Best At? Speech
& debate. Or cuddling. But not both at once.
Which business visionary would you most like interviewed
next? Former Fannie Mae CEO, Franklin Raines.
See Seth Godin speak LIVE at the Inbound Marketing Summit
Plus lots of other great speakers like David Meerman Scott, Chris Brogan and more.
Do you think you have what it takes to produce content that spreads like wildfire? Then put your creativity where your mouth is and compete to win $5,000 for writing that brilliantly insightful article or producing that hilarious video. Intrigued? Read on...
We're huge on publishing content here as part of a greater inbound marketing strategy and have even had some success with our content going viral (lots of articles on the front page of Digg and viral tools like Website Grader and Press Release Grader). We've had our share of failures, too (we consider this a necessary evil when attempting to produce viral content).
So, we're going to try and enlist the creative minds out there to help produce more viral content. And we're putting our wallet behind this to the tune of $5,000. You can win more than once, and we'll keep running the contest for the next 3 months or until we run out of money ($50K).
How to Win the $50,000 Viral Marketing Contest
Complete this form to enter. If your proposal is accepted, we'll email you and then you can complete the article or video.
Once completed, you deliver the content to us and if we think it rocks, we'll post it on our blog or YouTube account. We will pay you $100 for an article or $200 for a video that we post.
If your content is a viral success, we'll pay you $5,000. Success for an article means getting to the front page of Digg. Success for a video means over 10,000 views on YouTube in under 30 days.
The content must be original and created by you, and ownership of the content passes to HubSpot when we publish it.
Scripts or other automated tools to drive votes or views are not allowed.
We'll keep running the contest for the next 3 months or until we spend $50,000, whichever comes first. We might extend the contest depending on the results, so stay tuned.
Recently we headed out to Austin, TX for SEM for SMB, an event focused on how small businesses can leverage the Internet to grow their business with techniques such as search engine optimization and search engine marketing. HubSpot's own VP Marketing, Mike Volpe, started off the second day with a presentation on how to craft an Inbound Marketing strategy that combines SEO with blogging and social media for the greatest marketing results. Below is the video (40 minutes) and the slides can be downloaded from SlideShare.net/HubSpot.
Key points:
If you can combine SEO, blogging, and social media, you will achieve exponential results as each of these efforts work together
The key determinants of success for inbound marketing are (1) content, (2) inbound links, and (3) fans/friends/subscribers
The primary components of your inbound marketing strategy are (1) publishing content, (2) monitoring what people are saying about you, and (3) promoting flattering content
How have you been able to combine your SEO, blogging, and social media efforts? What kind of results have you seen? Do you have any tips to share about implementing an effective inbound marketing strategy? Leave a comment below.
See Seth Godin speak LIVE at the Inbound Marketing Summit
Plus lots of other great speakers like David Meerman Scott, Chris Brogan and more.
I was recently posed the question: do you use social networks for business or personal use?
It's taken me some time now to accept and embrace the fact that there is no clear delineation between my "business" life and my "personal" life, whether this be in my activities, interests, or social networks. Social networks are made for connecting with people with similar interests - it's as simple as that. Relationships are relationships, and that person who you just signed up as a customer might also be your favorite dinner buddy, or family events might morph into a huge discussion about Internet marketing, or whatever your industry may be.
This actually showcases two interesting things about social networking:
Social media calls for transparency and authenticity.
Social media invites you to share your life, thoughts, and opinions. And for others to do the same. All in public. On top of that, to be "successful" in social networks, you need to be authentic - people want to connect with people, not brands or static profiles. For the controlling marketer, this public, somewhat unfiltered sharing that's going on - about their company or by their employees - can be really tough to deal with. You can't control social media, so the best you can do is be authentic and transparent about what's going on with you and your company.
You can connect with people on a variety of levels.
Because people are sharing their lives in social media, it's not all business, business, business. I know when someone is celebrating his daughter's birthday, or when someone else is going on a fishing trip with some college buddies. All of these are opportunities to connect with people on a personal level and, again, people are interested in connecting with people. When it comes to doing business, asking for advice, or what have you, you will have already developed a relationship based on common interests and trust.
As an interesting example of how social networks are breaking down the barriers between "business" and "pleasure", here's a snapshot of my news feed on facebook, a traditionally personal social network: on the left there's a news feed item that 11 of my friends - HubSpot colleagues - were tagged in an album, HubSpot's 2nd Birthday Party, while on the right there are status updates, two of them from twitter friends and only one from a high school friend.
The point is relationships are relationships, and you don't need - nor will you be able - to differentiate between your business contacts from your personal contacts. They are now one and the same and you can accept and embrace it and develop stronger connections with each, otherwise you are closing yourself to some really interesting opportunities.
See Seth Godin speak LIVE at the Inbound Marketing Summit
Plus lots of other great speakers like David Meerman Scott, Chris Brogan and more.
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