It's Not About You - It's About Them | Digital Product Launch Pt. 3

So - we’ve got an album that no-one knows exists, we have no access to or influence with industry gatekeepers, we have no budget to significantly impact awareness and our plan for circumventing the music business failed because it required too much work from people we had no relationship with.

Nice problem huh!?

Re-Focus On The Market

So we stopped thinking like a record label, like a business, and for the first time started to think as altruistically as possible from the perspective of the people who are actually grieving.  What is it they need, and how can we help them get it?

I’m oversimplifying here but, the thing that most helps people dealing with grief is connection.

They may not know it and the way they connect may be unique and different from yours, but the underlying behavior that helps to alleviate grief is some type of connection with other human beings who have experienced something similar.

The True Problem

There’s too much information.

Whether you’re looking for music, for political news, for the right trainer or lawyer or insurance agent, or even help with your grief - there’s just way too many options out there.  Google does a pretty good job and social connections help, but finding what you need is becoming harder not easier.

Curation - A Global Trend

The fully digitized music world has already made the transition to playlists - curated indexes created by taste-makers.  As local businesses we strive to be reviewed and featured in Yelp, Foursquare, and Google - again, nothing more than indexes “curated” by customer feedback.

These things exist because they work, because they create value for the end user by saving them time.

So how do we serve people who are looking for help with grief?

Next Week: The Grief Directory

Dealing with Loss or Grief? Listen to this, it really helps you feel better.

Image Credit: Unsplash

My SEO is crap but I'm busier than ever

That's what the local San Fernando Valley artisan laughed as I gave him my money. 

I was looking for a local skilled professional and knew that if I used Google I'd just get sponsored results and the big chains.  So I used Yelp and searched around my zip code and read the reviews.

This behavior is going to become more and more common - and yes - there are pros and cons of the whole review thing and no you shouldn't stop adding content and improving your website's search engine visibility, but...

Getting customers to help you

The most powerful thing a customer can do for you - aside from give you money - is to write positively about you on the internet - and the most dominant place for that is Yelp with Foursquare making a strong play for second place.

Make it part of your plan

As part of your marketing plan for 2014 (you are writing one of those yes?,)  you might want to allocate more time to those two networks. 

If you've got no idea where to start or would just like to be efficient and not waste time making rookie mistakes, email me or give me a call on 310 980 2499 and we'll have a chat.

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Image Credit: SEO by Sean McEntee on Flickr

Written while listening to "God Knows" - published next week on music2work2

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Geolocation - Really?

Take Away:

Get ready for local

It’s about mobile

Smart phone penetration is projected to be 50% of the US market by the end of this year – closer to 80% by the end of 2012.

Smart phone users access the internet through their phone just as much if not more than desktop users.

Smart phone users have the internet in their pocket and they are getting more comfortable with using it on the go.

It’s about location

If you use a smart phone you’re already aware of apps that ask to use your location.

If you search using your smart phone your location is submitted (unless turned off) as part of your search criteria

Google and the others have already tweaked their search algorithm to give greater weight to location in search results.

It’s not about being the Mayor

Location data is relatively new and people are still figuring it out.

Sure it’s nice to be the mayor of your local Starbucks on Foursquare or the Duke of the Townhouse on Yelp but what is the benefit to you, the business owner?

The more activity that surrounds your business as a location, i.e. – the more people that interact with it, check in, comment, review on Yelp, Foursquare, Google places etc., the better your business will do in search results – particularly for mobile customers.

What to do?

Make sure your business is registered on the big three:

https://google.com/places/

https://foursquare.com/business/

https://biz.yelp.com/

Once you are registered you can incorporate your local profiles into your content strategy as part of your overall marketing effort. If you don’t know where to start, raise this with me in your next session.