In my previous post, I blogged about a free headset that was sent to me by an old friend. Sure, he got some promotional benefit out of it — but I wasn’t blogging to send him business, to thank him, or as a quid-pro-quo. I wrote the blog post because it met the editorial standards [...]
Archive | August, 2011
A special sample starts the conversation
For a complex product, no amount of marketing copy will convince someone to buy. But one free sample can get an entire office talking about how great it is. For example: Headsets.com sent me a sample of this amazing wireless OfficeRunner headset. It has an incredible range, so I was wandering all over the office, [...]
Free help = more customers
How do you get new business in a world where everyone pretty much sells the same stuff online? Win with better service. Here’s a great example: CabinetParts.com knows that finding matching hinges is a pain. So they let you email them a picture of your old hinges, and they’ll tell you what you need, for free. [...]
15%
From Direct Marketing News: In a survey of engineers and industrial professionals, only 15% of respondents indicated that they have a Twittter account and more than half of respondents indicated that they are not at all likely to sign up in the future. Those figures don’t exactly scream "we need to be in social media [...]
How to lose $1,000 by not looking at the obvious
In two cities, I had major cable TV problems at my house. Each case involved 8-10 visits by all sorts of trained (and untrained) technicians at an average cost to the cable company of $100/visit. In both cases, the problem was a frayed $3 wire — which could have been fixed in 10 minutes. But [...]
Should we forgive the sleazy behavior once companies get famous?
Many famous dot-coms did a lot of sleazy, spammy things in their early days. AOL, Microsoft, and other major players in the online advertising industry bought and absorbed some very ugly promoters of pop-ups, spam, and deceptive ad practices. Today, startup Thumbtack is shamelessly harvesting emails off of Craigslist and mass-spamming fake personal emails to [...]
Work With Me
We're the community for social media leaders at the world's greatest brands. Learn more >>
Learn about my keynote speeches >>
