During this year’s Future Insights Live conference, a few hand-selected attendees had the opportunity to pitch their mobile or web app to a panel of judges that included, among others, Jason Calacanis, angel investor and founder of the video learning site Mahalo.com, and Jason Nazar, founder of the document resource site, DocStoc.com. After hearing the pitches, the panel asked each presenter questions in order to better understand the apps and the company’s business models.
Through their questions and commentary, they provided the following tips on how to successfully pitch a business and/or product. Although the guidance was for pitching to investors, these same tips apply when speaking to, or marketing to, your customer base.
During development and pitching, don’t try to be all things to all people. You’ll end up diluting the value or benefit of your product and fail to meaningfully connecting to anyone.
Describe your product or service in a way that presents a solution to a problem or existing need; don’t simply read off a list of features. By focusing on the core audience and speaking to their main need (see tip #1 above), you’ll be able to frame your product or service in a way that makes it compelling to that audience. That, in turn, does better at motivating action (to buy, to share, etc.)
Use real-life or persona-based examples to tell your product’s or service’s story. Give it context so that it is relatable; people will be able to better visualize your product or service as something that fills their need; solves their problem; as something that can be easily integrated into their life.
Use your authentic voice when you are explaining your product or service; show that you have passion/enthusiasm for what you’ve developed. Face it, no matter how exciting a thing is, if it’s presented in a neutral–what I really mean is boring–way, not a lot of people are going to jump out of their seats to support it. If you can’t even get animated about what you’ve developed, how can you expect others to be excited about it?
Listen to the questions you are asked (with deep concentration); then provide a specific, concise answer. You will lose people’s attention fast if you can’t deliver the information they expect or if you take them down a random path they did not anticipate.
Plan to iterate and develop based on user needs; don’t make changes based on emotion or assumptions. You may LOVE feature XYZ of your product or service and think that it’s exactly what people need (even though they may not realize it yet). But, if you don’t pay attention to what the market is telling you, you may lose momentum and be passed up by someone else that knows how to listen better than you.
Take a look at your business and marketing processes to date. How can you improve on communicating the purpose and value of your business, product, or service to targeted audiences? Based on your own experience, do you have additional tips to offer?
It’s official! QuantumDigital just launched QuantumCards, the first direct mail marketing iPhone app designed to help SMBs grow local business while on the go.
Through QuantumCards, users can create, print and mail vibrant, full-color postcards to market their business in local neighborhoods–right from their iPhone. What’s unique about this application is that it offers users the ability to generate neighborhood mailing lists on the fly by using their smartphone’s geo-location feature or by typing in a target location. Service-based business professionals–like house painters, landscapers, real estate agents, or residential cleaners–no longer have to walk door to door distributing business cards or door hangers to prospects surrounding job sites. They can simply take a picture with their iPhone, write a personal message, and even link to their website or a video via QR code, then mail postcards to the neighborhood audience. SMBs can market their business in a matter of minutes; postcards mail next business day so they can start seeing results quickly.
Other benefits:
Allows businesses to market to local neighborhoods within minutes while on the go
Provides a social aspect to traditional marketing (take a photo with happy clients, share real events in real places, include a personal message, etc.)
Gives users the ability to link to digital content via QR code
Offers easy-to-execute marketing that both novice and expert marketer can use
QuantumCards is an ideal application for:
HOA (home owners association) groups and community advocates
Service-based businesses such as remodelers, roofers, landscapers, etc.
Locally owned businesses that rely on patronage from nearby audiences
Busy real estate professionals, home inspectors, etc.
Temporary and/or pop-up businesses needing local exposure fast
As more and more marketers are adopting mobile tools and technologies to promote their business, many may find the QuantumCards app to be an invaluable tool for keeping in touch with clients and generating additional local business.
Try QuantumCards for yourself. Download the app for free and instantly get your first postcard at no cost. If you post a review of your experience on the iTunes app store, you may also enter to win a $100 iTunes gift card courtesy of QuantumDigital.
What do you think of this new marketing application?
Finding yourself in the midst of a creative block is the pits! What’s worse is that the more you fight it and try to work through an idea roadblock, the more frustrated you feel. When it comes to generating the latest and greatest BIG IDEA that will get your business noticed, sometimes it helps to let down your guard and simply play the role of spectator for a bit. Often, checking out what others are doing and allowing yourself to be inspired by their work can help kick start the creative mechanism in your own mind.
Here are a few great sources to turn to when you find yourself in a creative rut.
“Showcase and discover the latest work from top online portfolios by creative professionals across industries.”
Explore projects from a wide range of industries and focus in on specific types of talent (copywriting, graphic design, information architecture, fashion, packaging, etc).
This virtual pin board hosts a collection of images people find on the web. It’s not just for do-it-yourself craft makers and moms; the site allows professionals to share what inspires them in their industry. You can search the site for collections of infographics, direct mail ideas, neat-o advertising concepts, and more.
“World’s largest funding platform for creative projects.”
Kickstarter is a cool site that allows just about anyone to present an idea for a project, business, product, etc. and collect micro investments to turn that idea into a reality. Aside from the fact that this is a cool way to fund your project, Kickstarter is a super resource to see innovation in the marketplace. By looking through the projects on the site, you can gain insight on emerging trends and see the perspective of other entrepreneurs. Read More »
Didn’t get to attend the SXSW Interactive Festival in Austin this year? Have no fear. There’s a ton of notes available on Twitter. To make it easier than sifting through all of the information to find useful bits of information, I’ve outlined some helpful tweets from just a couple of the panels that I attended.
Feel free to use the associated hashtags to discover more information about each panel or leave a comment for this post to get a conversation started here.
Why Small is the New Big and Big is the New Small
Twitter Hashtag: #eggcellent
What was this panel about? Size doesn’t matter anymore. The over-riding lesson we are learning worldwide is that a business that gets ahead of the curve is a smart one, not necessarily a big one. The rapid development and adoption of information communication technologies (ICT) over the last ten years is driving this change. As consequence, businesses are leveraging new web, mobile and social technologies to interact with customers and prospects in a whole new way. A role reversal between SMB and Large Enterprise is taking place: SMB is becoming more ubiquitous and quantitative while Enterprise is becoming more personalized and qualitative. This session explores the causes, corrections, and outcomes of the changing dynamics within the marketplace that now allow SMB and Large Enterprise companies to compete for the same customers.
Takeaways:
Social is transforming IT, making it more accessible for small businesses to go to market & compete w/ the big boys.
Everything is becoming more local. Even big business needs to find ways to be unique & visible in local markets.
Get hyper-personal; make your customers your board members and sales force. They can be the greatest influencers that attract more business for you.
When customers are cheap to acquire don’t forget to work on loyalty and retaining that customer
Identify your differentiators and make those things drive your business. It’s not just about price.
What you do with data regardless of how big (or small) of a company you are is what will differentiate you
FutureShop–Virtual QR Stores, NFC Receipts & More
Twitter Hashtag: #futureshop
What was this panel about? The mobile shopping revolution isn’t theoretical, it’s here and it’s all around us. Innovations abound such as Tesco’s virtual QR grocery store in a Korean subway station, Levi’s digital fitting rooms, Nestlé’s instant deals for UPC scans of ice cream, and NFC payments that obliterate consumers’ need for a physical wallet. Providers of these and other game changing consumer experiences are mashing up new capabilities to create magical experiences and frenzied user adoption. Read More »
You don’t have to be a trekkie to recognize the value in these time-honored leadership lessons from two of Star Trek’s most celebrated captains – Kirk and Picard. Among my favorites are these gems of 23rd and 24th century wisdom:
Never stop learning
Don’t play it safe – seize opportunities in front of you
Always value ethical actions over expedient ones
Play poker, not chess
Challenge your team to help them grow
Have advisors with different worldviews
As Spock would most likely observe, “to disagree with any of these would be most illogical.” You would do well to apply these principles across all phases of your marketing – dare I say it – enterprise!
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