Tag: advertising

The price you want

FabrizioLeave a comment

You have a good product, some customers, and then you start losing opportunities because they say you are too expensive.

Two options.

You cut the prices (discounts, special offers, etc. fall into this same category). It’s a risky game, of course everybody else can follow you there.

You work on perceived value. And you can go about it like this.

  1. Express value – Many times features are disguised as value, often mere functional value, so you need to start digging what the customer really wants.
  2. Reframe value – It might be that the problem you are solving is not worth the price you are asking, so you need to figure out if there is a deeper feeling, ambition, desire that you can leverage.
  3. Work on brand – Your story, your tone, your appeal can make your product desirable and unlock a fear of being left out.

Cutting prices is short-term (and short-viewed), working on perceived value takes resources and time.

The sooner you start working on 1, 2, and 3, in parallel, the better positioned you will be to ask the price you want.

In context

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In it’s most popular form, Goodhart’s law states that when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.

You do not have a healthy company because your revenue increases year after year. Revenue is just one measure of the health of a company, and it should be put in context.

You do not have a great place to work because your engagement score says so. Engagement score is just one measure of how your employees feel, and it should be put in context.

You do not have a terrific team because they meet their targets quarter after quarter. Numbers are just one measure of how well your team is doing, and they should be put in context.

You do not have a successful campaign because you are getting clicks. Clicks are just one measure of the success of a campaign, and they should be put in context.

The point is, measures are easy to game, and the more you put them at the center of every conversation, the more people will be inclined to game them.

It takes time and effort to take the whole picture into consideration. It takes awareness, it takes courage, it takes honesty. It is the only way you can truly assess how you are doing and make adjustments, so that you don’t wake up one day in a place where you had never wanted to go.

What works

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Things that work in marketing:

  • Building your brand
  • Creating content that resonates with you audience
  • Being featured in publications your audience trusts (not because you paid them)
  • Being found when people experience the pain you are addressing

Things that do not work in marketing:The greatest illusion

This one is from Rand Fishkin, worth remembering after the summer.

Lazy adjectives

Fabrizio1 Comment

A pervasive offering is not going to make you win.

A best-in-class solution is a fake promise.

Seamless integration with other tools is a given.

An optimized tool to increase productivity is just not enough.

A customer-driven way to increase leads is meaningless.

Unless it is to describe something that’s truly making you stand out, avoid using adjectives in your copy. Their use is inflated and they do not add any meaningful hint at the value you deliver.

They are a lazy shortcut.

Take the time to explain instead. In as little words as possible. In a clear language. In words your audience can relate to (and other audiences can’t).

Do the work.

Aligning

Fabrizio3 Comments

Internal alignment is often that spot where every manager in the organization is happy, while everyone looking from the outside (customers included) have no clue what is going on.

Aligning is important, but it needs to happen on broad topics. Values, principles, long-term targets.

When alignment gets down to the tactics, to the details, it turns into agreement. It becomes a patchwork that at best reflects the ego and desires of a limited amount of people.