Products scale quite nicely than you.
Services? Not so much.

While I'm beating the bushes 24/7 at Sendside, I've got some systems in place around launching products that's working quite well, and it's all built on the premise that incremental value is scalable only around products, not services.

I think I know something about this. After all, I was a painter for about 20 years. Artists have perhaps the poorest business model there is. Painting is a huge time investment and you'll need some serious inventory with no assurance that what you're doing will sell. At least to start.

One of my epiphanies came when I entered the limited edition print market. Suddenly I was painting a single painting, but selling it thousands of times. (Incedentally this does drive up the price of the original which is also nice.)

But before I wax too philosophic, let me come back to my point. Products scale. So my crack team organized under my medical spa site at Medical Spa MD is busy creating value by leveraging our expertise to take specific products to market.

Last year we launched a new site that ships wholesale Botox worldwide. In the next month we're launching three new services: Teeth whitening, medical outsourcing, and do it yourself SEO. There are about eight other products, services, and partherships lined up behind those. And that's just for Medical Spa MD.

I've got designs on the artist, painter, headshot photography and actor markets in NY and LA since I've got some experience there as well. While I'm not quite at the four-hour work week with these sidelines, I'm probably close to eight... and I work on weekends.

Of course I couldn't do this myself. I have a team that reside in various locations around the world; California, New York, India... And they do the heavy lifting. I'm just around to provide direction, and to pay the bills. Fortunately, with scale comes profitability.

The worst plastic surgery billboard I've ever seen. In fact, it may be the worst plastic surgery ad too.

This is what happens when someone in the laser clinic is doing the marketing and advertising for plastic surgeons.

I've actually seen this billboard. It's along I-15 in Utah and I've driven past it a few times. Each time shaking my head in utter disbelief that anyone describing themselves as a 'cosmetic surgeon' could be attached to such bad taste. (And the actual design is worse. Quite obviously the work of a $6 an hour kid that's still in high school.) How could anyone think that this would move a woman to get plastic surgery?

The Gateway Aesthetic Institute & Laser Center is the cosmetic dermatology practice of Dr. Mark Taylor but there's usually a plastic surgeon to be found. I guess now it's 'Dr. Heidi'. According to the Gateway Aesthetic Institue's web site, Dr. Heidi is actually:

Heidi Regenass, M.D., a board certified plastic surgeon who comes to Gateway Aesthetic from Phoenix, Arizona, where she owned her own successful practice.

Dr. Regenass brings an international flair to cosmetic plastic surgery. Dr. Regenass specializes in plastic surgery procedures that rejuvenate the face and body, enhancing one’s natural beauty.

It may well be that this as was designed by Gateway Aesthetic Institute and Dr. Regenass didn't have anything to do with it. In that case I feel sorry for her. It's got to be embarrassing to have your name attached to something this crass and trite.

What the Bad Billboard Project says about Dr. Heidi's boob job billboard:

My business used to be housed in an office a few feet from this billboard. Only it was a different billboard back then. I was driving by, saw this, and felt like I couldn’t pass it up. It is poorly designed, to be sure, but I’m not sure that matters so much, at least as far as getting your attention. Whether it would actually result in increased sales, I’m not sure. Probably, since many people don’t appreciate good design, either consciously or subconsciously. As for me, I’m thoroughly offended and would certainly never let Dr. Heidi get her dirty paws on me.

Of course, not all 12 million US scientists therefore agree with ‘The Consensus’. But this puts the PetitionProject’s 31,486 signatories in some kind of context.

Our maths here is somewhat coarse. Some better data suggests the ‘consensus’ figure is around 97.5% of publishing climatologists and around 90% of all publishing scientists supporting the human-induced climate theory. See this study for more details (PDF – Doran And Zimmerman 2009)

Actually, here’s how some of it looks:

Skeptical Field

Among the climate skeptic scientists, we wondered which fields of science were most represented. We expected climate and earth sciences. But we got…

In fact, when you adjust the PetitionProject’s odd categorisation – they filed ‘chemical engineers’ as chemists and physical engineers as ‘physicists’ – the total number of engineers who signed the petition, by our reckoning, jumps to 49%

Why so many engineers?

informationisbeautiful.net

It's pretty often that when I hear of PETA being mentioned, it's in a kind of dismissive and condescending way. Of course, you could just watch the video.

Pledge to go fur-free at PETA.org.

OK, I'm excited. Sendside's integrated with Salesforce CRM and we're now available on Salesforce's Appexchange Marketplace for any business using Salesforce.com. And... we've received our first review, a stunningly well written comment from one of our clients, Vetrazzo, a green manufacturer of high-end recycled glass surfaces.

Here's what Vetrazzo has to say about Sendside in their review of Sendside on the Salesforce Appexchange.

Integrating with Salesforce gives Salesforce users all the benefits of Sendside's external communications (multi-dimensional tabbed messaging, Sendside Packages, instant notifications, detailed reporting and analytics) directly from inside a Salesforce account. It's a perfect pairing of two complementary technologies.

The result is that management can see into the sales funnel (which is why businesses implement Salesforce) and gives the sales team a real reason to use Salesforce and close more deals (which the sales guys like).

Here's the copy from Vetrazzo's Appexchange review:

At Vetrazzo, we use the Sendside Packages technology for automated lead follow up on all our web inquiries. We're able to send them a rich content, customized information package that hits the prospect immediately - while they're still excited about Vetrazzo from their website visit.

When we presented Vetrazzo Recycled Glass Surfacing at the Dreamforce Keynote, we received a flood of traffic to our booth on the exhibit floor; people flocked to see the product. All the lead data we captured onsite was gathered through a force.com site and then triggered a Sendside Package full of product content as a follow up. So if you were one of the many hundreds that filled out that form and received a package from Vetrazzo - that's Sendside.

In short, value is great, they've been very supportive and we're working on integrating this tool into our overall marketing strategy more comprehensively.

Very nice to have our first Salesforce integration review of Sendside on the Appexchange be a perfect 5 stars.

Simple Ideas

(images via onthegroundlookingup, gothamist, stephengates)

It doesn’t take much to get a reaction from people when it comes to guerrilla marketing.  Above we see how sandal-maker Havianes used the vibrant colors of their own products to catch eyes in Paris.  Cleverly placed prop-replicas from V For Vendetta caused thought-provoking pause in the step of passers-by, and coffee-giant Folgers had the bright idea to use a manhole in New York to remind city-goers just how good a steaming cup of coffee can look in the morning.  Meanwhile, an adventurous plastic surgeon found success in a local coffeehouse.

Good For Any Purpose

(images via geckoandfly, arrestedmotion, adofdamonth)

Many public-awareness campaigns are using guerrilla tactics in their ads.  Here we see smoking targeted in a Cancer ad giving us a glimpse of our early demise.  Cities around the globe began spotting graffiti referring to the then-upcoming Watchmen movie, in a bold move that not only mimicked the film and its graphic-novel predecessor, but also made viewers think a little more politically.  DHL took the comedic route in a fun global stunt that showcased their package tracking, by placing large pixelated mouse-pointers on their couriers.

It Shows Up in the Most Unexpected Places

(images via pzrservices, whatsthecrack, myselectedads, parsons)

Reynolds Wrap had a great idea for inner-cities with their wrapping of storefronts campaign; it was nearly impossible to walk by and not notice the familiar household item now super-sized.  Beach-goers were surprised to find enormous clams scattered about, only to then find an advert for a local eatery sealed inside them.  An Indian BBQ seller got creative with street-drains, while Nationwide Insurance got friendly with a paint company, and created a hilarious, building-sized ad that was absolutely impossible to miss.  It really is the simple things that are most overlooked, unless they’re guerrilla.

Guerrilla marketing somtimes = strategic marketing.

Posted via web from 1 to 1 Strategic Marketing

Posted via email from Sendsider

Posted via email from Sendsider

from Scott C.

A simple diagram of how Packages work for sales, marketing, and management.

1. Marketing creates the content.
2. Sales personalizes and sends as a 1 to 1 'personal' communication with instant read notifications.
3. Management, Marketing, and Sales can all see the results.

For Marketing

Packages give marketing capabilities they never had before.  In the past, Marketing was responsible for 'getting leads' and then handing them off to sales. It's a 'fire and forget' system that doesnt' give Marketing any feedback into what's actualy working to close deasl. But with Sendside, Marketing can design the individual, personal communications that are being used by Sales, and see exactly how they're being used, and what's working.

For Sales

For a sales rep, Sendside opens up an entirely new world. No more time waste. Instead of wasting time making endless follow-up calls to ask if a prospect has 'had a chance to take a look a those materials", every sales rep is instantly notified when a prospect opens a Package, and knows what they're looking at. The effect is dramatic. Some of our clients are seeing sales acceleration above 50%.

For Management

Sendside's reporting and analytics give sales managers insight into the individual communications that the sales team is sending. What's working. What's not. Management know has the ability to make better decisions because they can actually see how successful deals happened, and they can reproduce that exactly in the future.

Sales Acceleration with Sendside Packages.

Posted via web from Sendsider