Posts Tagged ‘marketing’

Upcoming Relocation, Rebrand, and Revamp

by Brian Casel  ·  8.16.2010  ·  Business

This summer has been a time of reflection for my business, and it has led me to a decision I’ve been contemplating for some time now.  You may have caught my tweets and dribbbles about it already…

I will be relocating, rebranding, and revamping this blog.

This site will soon go by the name of the CasJam Design Blog (location TBA).  It will be less of a personal blog, and more of a professional industry blog about the business of design (and other related topics).  Here are a few thoughts on why I’m making this switch:

The  CasJam Design Blog will a centralized point of investment in my business.

I’ve come to realize that building an audience and community is the most valuable long-term asset for any online business.  The CasJam Design Blog is where I plan to focus the majority of my efforts and resources moving forward.

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Tracking Sales vs. Creating Sales

by Brian Casel  ·  5.10.2010  ·  Business

As a first-timer when it comes to running a product-based business (ThemeJam), I’m doing my fair share of experimenting and learning on the job.  A lot of that is in the marketing/advertising/tracking department.

I’ve got all the basics down, like running Google Analytics, setting up “Goals”, advertising with Adwords and tracking conversions.  E-Junkie (the shopping cart/downloads service that I use) offers a few more guidelines for properly tracking conversions, which I’ve implemented.  All of this tracking, analyzing, tweaking, and optimizing really takes a lot of time and focused energy to get the most the out of it.

But the truth of the matter is that I’m not all that interested in it.  I don’t particularly enjoy combing over the numbers, referring sites, keyword performance metrics, and whatnot.  It’s one of those things that once you open it up, you get sucked into and before you know it you’ve spent your entire morning on it when you could have been getting much more productive work done.

I personally believe the best tactic for increasing sales is to focus that analyzing, tweaking, optimizing, perfecting on your products and not your stats.  There are always ways to improve your product.  Maybe it’s adding a new feature or removing an unnecessary one.  Maybe it’s improving your documentation or fixing bugs.  Perhaps it’s time to design a new release for your product line.  These are ways of being truly productive, and they’re all things I really enjoy doing.  I don’t care (and often don’t even notice) the amount of time I spend on these tasks.

Now that I’m 3 months in on ThemeJam, I can look back and assess a very clear picture:  The first 1-2 months had relatively low sales, and I believe it’s because I spent too much time stressing over keyword tracking and traffic analysis.  In April I took a “set it and forget it” approach and saw a significant increase in revenue.  I also worked the hardest in April, churning out new themes, improving the others, and offering support.

I must note that I don’t completely ignore the stats or ways to improve my site’s performance.  I do check in on my analytics roughly once per week for about 30 minutes.  This amount of time commitment allows me to keep my finger on the pulse, notice any red flags, and make minor improvements over time.  It also gives me the freedom to focus my efforts on the stuff I really want to be doing:  Designing, coding, and serving customers.

It’s all about striking a balance that works for you and allows you to do your job with as much enjoyment as possible.  That’s the real recipe for a successful business.

How do you strike the balance between production work and promotion/analysis?

Competition or Insecurity?

by Brian Casel  ·  3.5.2010  ·  Business

I can’t help but notice that so many TV commercials today are focused on attacking their direct competitors.

Sure, the classic Coke vs. Pepsi battle has been going on for decades, and that’s always been somewhat entertaining.  But today we see it in every industry, every product, every ad.

How about this Dominoes pizza commercial, offering a discount because they “beat” Papa Johns in some bullshit taste test?

Or the fact that every cell phone commercial is a direct rebuttal of the other guy’s previous commercial?  See AT&T vs. Verizon, or Sprint vs. AT&T & Verizon.

Here in the local NYC market, there is a constant TV battle between the cable providers:  Verizon Fios vs. “Other guys”.  Optimum making fun of that commercial.

Is this all they’ve got?

Talk about insecurity.

Whatever happened to offering a quality product, with honest customer support, and having confidence that your customers will support you based on these things?  Does every company now need to directly attack their competitors?  Is this what people want to see?  Is this what drives sales today?

It’s like these companies are high school bullies, trying to make a name for themselves simply by bringing down everyone else.  I don’t know about you, but to me, that screams insecurity.

I’m turned off

Why would I want to buy a product that cares so much about beating up the other guy?  That’s not a personality I relate with.  How does that approach attract me to their brand?

It doesn’t.  My prediction is eventually these types of desperate big dollar ads will open opportunities for the smaller guys to make a name for themselves with a quality product, quality support, and reasonable pricing.  I think it’s already happening.

Sessions of Social Media and nothing else.

by Brian Casel  ·  1.11.2010  ·  Bits

This is the time of the year that everyone loves to make bold goals based on the calendar.  Like, publish a new blog post every week for a year (guilty), post a daily photo 365 days strait (cool idea, but not for me), etc.

Well, I’ve got one for myself…

Weekly social media sessions

Here’s what I mean:  Simply dedicate one entire morning or afternoon per week (4-5 hours) to engaging in social media and nothing else.

During these social media sessions, I will do any of the following:

  • Write blog posts for my sites
  • Write and submit guest articles for other sites
  • Read and comment on blogs
  • Tweet it up
  • Write and respond to forum threads
  • Engage on facebook

I will not:

  • Design or code websites
  • Take client phone calls or meetings
  • Respond to client emails
  • Do any project related work (client or personal)
  • Hunt for new business leads

OK, so what’s the point?

Most people engage in social media when the mood strikes.  Maybe that’s once or twice per week, maybe it’s several times throughout each day.  I probably fall into the latter, but often lack consistency.  Some days I’ll engage in 20 different ways throughout the day, other days I go “dark” and don’t engage at all.

This… experiment, if you will, is to see what, if any impact a weekly dedicated social media session might have.  What type of impact am I looking for?

More quality traffic to my three sites/businesses.  That is, folks who have gotten to know me on the web, follow my updates and share interest in the things I put out there.  I’m not looking for spiking traffic numbers, but I am looking for more interaction in the form of comments, tweets, RTs, and eventually sales and new clients.

A boost in my own personal brand, behind my business brands that I’m working to build.  As I’m preparing to launch ThemeJam, I want to avoid creating a faceless brand without some type of personality.  And I’m not going to contrive a brand persona that’s not genuine.  So my own social media presence will be the driving force behind that aspect of promoting the ThemeJam brand.

I’ll become more informed about this chaotic web industry we’re in.  I already have my finger on the pulse through my jam-packed Google Reader and Twitter feeds, but this will help me dig deeper.  Especially through engaging in the forums, which is often where more real ideas are shared and lack the self-censorship that often comes with blog posts (mine included).

And finally, the X factor.  Something I’m not taking into account or anticipating as a result of dedicated social media engagement.  This might prove to be the most interesting impact of this project.

Don’t worry…

(Not that you would, I just want to say…) I won’t be slacking on any project work by keeping it off my plate during these sessions.  Customer service remains a top priority for me, and that will be attended to during other parts of the day / week.

This is simply a way to create some structure, boundries, and guidelines for this project.

Another guideline might be that I should conduct these sessions away from my home computer.  I’m currently sitting in a Starbucks typing away on my netbook.  It’s the perfect combination of caffeine, and only enough computing power for web surfing and typing.  This could become the routine…

So there you have it.  My official calendar-based goal for 2010.  Let’s see how it pans out.

The Proven Original vs. the New Competitor

by Brian Casel  ·  11.24.2009  ·  Business

kindle-nookThe holiday season is underway (it seems that annoying Christmas music is unveiled earlier every year) and I can’t help but think about my wishlist this year.

Being a web / technology junkie, there’s always some device that I’ve got to get my hands on.  Last year it was a smart phone.  This year it’s an eBook reader.  So now the question is, do I want the Nook from Barns and Noble or the Kindle from Amazon?  Let me re-phrase that…

Do I want the Kindle or the (maybe) Kindle Killer?

The Proven Original

The Kindle is the proven original.  It was first to market.  It’s now in it’s second generation, which means it had time to develop and work out the kinks.  I can be reasonably sure that I won’t be disappointed with the Kindle because of it’s already apparent popularity.

There’s certainly a solid case to be made for the first to market.  It was the purple cow.  The game changer.  The visionary.  Now that the Kindle is in it’s second generation, it dictates where the market goes.  It rolls out the features that push the product forward, and sets the bar for competitors.  It has the longer, more developed customer base (tribe).

The iPhone is the proven original.  It was the game changer.  And last I checked, the iPhone has not been killed (here’s a great post on why that is).

The New Competitor

The Nook is the new competitor.  It’s clearly marketed as the Kindle Killer.  It’s got the same price tag and the feature set is almost identical to that of the Kindle (with subtle differences).

Being the 2nd to market (or at least 2nd major player to this market) could be good or could be bad.  The goal of the Nook is not to define a new market or introduce a remarkable product.  The goal of the Nook is to enter an already proven market (thanks to the Kindle) with a better product.  Whether it’s really better or not remains to be seen.

Maybe the Nook truly improves upon the weaknesses of the Kindle.  Since we’re past the point of educating the market about eBook readers, Barns and Noble could spend their efforts on creating the best possible product.

The Droid is the new competitor.  When I was shopping for my smart phone, I was seriously considering the G1.  Android phones show more and more promise with each new supporting phone, but I still think iPhone is a step ahead in usability, and the community around it.

The Verdict

My inclination is to go with the proven original.  Last year, I got the iPhone.  This year I think I’ll go for the Kindle.  I just don’t fully trust the first generation of any product.  There are always kinks to work out and community feedback to process.  When it comes to electronic devices, the next generation is almost always better than the first.  And the game changer is almost always better than the piggy backer.

Of course, I can always stick with the real proven original:  Books.

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