Content Discovery Tools. Guide. If you’re a visiting dignitary whose country has a Gross National Product equal to or greater than the State of California, your visit to Silicon Valley consists of a lunch/dinner with some combination of the founders of Google, Facebook, Apple and Twitter and several brand name venture capitalists. If you have time, the President of Stanford will throw in a tour, and then you can drive by Intel or some Clean Tech firm for a photo op standing in front of an impressive looking piece of equipment. The “official dignitary” tour of Silicon Valley is like taking the jungle cruise at Disneyland and saying you’ve been to Africa. Because you and your entourage don’t know the difference between large innovative companies who once were startups (Google, Facebook, et al) and a real startup, you never really get to see what makes the valley tick.
I’m leaving out all the traditional stops that you can get from the guidebooks. Palo Alto – The Beating Heart 1Start your tour in Palo Alto. Business model canvas. Ultimately, customers are the only relevant judges of your business model. However, even before you test your model in the market, you can assess its design with 7 questions that go well beyond the conventional focus on products and market segments. First things first. In order to assess your business model you should sketch it out on the Business Model Canvas outlined in the video below. If you want to know more about the Canvas and how to use it you can read Business Model Generation of which 70 pages are available for free on our website .
Every business model has a product and/or service at its center that focuses on a customer’s job-to-be-done. That’s it as to the basics. The time, effort, or budget a customer has to spend to switch from one product or service provider to another is called “switching costs”. A great example of designing switching costs into a business model is Apple’s introduction of the iPod in 2001. An impressive example of scalability is Facebook. Tools You Gotta Use. Setting up your e-commerce empire (even if it’s just one site for now) is impossible without using the right tools. Some are free, some are not, and they also change over time as some tools become out-dated and new tools hit the scene. Here we give you an up to date snapshot of what we are currently using: While we have some private High PR linking services that we use, we unfortunately have to keep them private.
We have also ranked sites without them though, and always grab a couple of link diversity packages the likes of which can be found on a range of different sites. Currently we are using Nichecommerceseo.com, and will generally just use the 3rd package they offer, as it gives the most “bang” for its “buck”. Email/Calendar/Document Sharing: Google Apps For Your Domain – If you’ve ever used a system like gmail or hotmail, then you’ll recognise Google Apps For Your Domain when you first login. But wait, there’s even more. Price – $5 per user. Domain Name Registration Hosting. WarriorForum - Internet Marketing Forums. Subscrea. Google Apps for Business.
Subscrea Blog. Found My Animal Collapsible Canvas Water Bowl | Modest Wanderer & Co. 3 Content Marketing Trends to Pay Attention to in 2013. We hear it all the time: “Content is King.” Content marketing is become more of a focus for B2B marketers as they begin to see the transition from telling to showing. Content enables marketers to provide buyers with the information they need while still promoting themselves as a thought leader and business that adds value to others. Relevance to the content recipient as well as how the content is distributed are things businesses need to pay attention to in 2013.
Each year, there are some shifts in the marketing world, whether it is the adoption of a new platform or a transition from one strategy to the next. Content Creation The number of B2B marketers creating in-house content has risen 18 percentage points. Visuals Marketers are beginning to see the impact of visuals in their content marketing strategies and it’s one trend you need to be on board with moving forward in 2013. Distribution Over the past year, 13% more B2B marketers are using social media to distribute content. The problem is solutionism. How to Start a Business. SEO: Impact of Ecommerce Catalog Structure. Information architecture and search engine optimization are both critical aspects of developing an ecommerce site.
During the process, early decisions made about the structure of a site and its product catalog can have surprising ramifications for SEO. Which product types and attributes are assigned as categories, subcategories, and filters within the catalog impact much more than user experience. They also impact which pages the ecommerce platform will generate and how they’re interconnected in the navigation, both of which impact SEO.
Let’s use a hair care products site as an example. Say we’re selling shampoo, conditioner, and styling products for men, women, and children. Our products are tailored to normal, dry, oily, and chemically treated hair and offer an array of benefits like curl and shine. Enlarge This Image Option 1: Sitemap organized first by product type categories. Enlarge This Image Option 2: Sitemap organized first by gender/age categories. Will the Right Pages Exist? Finding Products to Sell Online | What to Sell Online. Scribe: Content Marketing Software that Works.
Personal Shopping: A New Standard - SaleMove | SaleMove. Glia uses cookies and similar technologies to enhance site navigation, analyze site usage, and assist in our marketing efforts. You can always review and change your cookie preferences through the cookie preferences link at the bottom of our privacy policy page. How To: $30 Soft Box. A soft box is a must if you want to take nice subject photos without relying on fickle natural light. They soften shadows and provide a soft even light. They can hide blemishes and generally make things look more appealing. The different between a soft light and regular lamps is the difference between these two un-retouched photos. Left is not soft, right is with two soft boxes.
Left: Three bare bulbs with reflectors.Right: Two soft boxes. Now the one on the left is not that bad of photo. Although hard to see in this subject, highlights are also much better with soft boxes. Here’s a wide shot of the setup: Lots of light coming from lots of directions. There are no shortage of DIY soft boxes, but this one is mine. 1) I wanted something durable but cheap. 2) It uses incandescent bulbs. *You can somewhat correct for this. 3) It’s bright. 4) It has an (optional) stand and it’s adjustable. Enough justification. Materials: My pricing comes to $30.20 if you need to buy everything. Tools: Visual Communication. Digital Strategy: Empathy: The Key Ingredient to Digital Marketing. In all of my work as an interactive creative director and digital strategist, my main task in every project was to attempt to get into the shoes of my intended audience to imagine how they would use the things we built. In the digital business, we want people to feel emotions (like in traditional advertising) but we need for them to do something right away.
Click, buy, give us your email, post on Facebook, forward to a friend, or just play; the actions are key in digital since we're creating two-way communications. But how on earth can we succeed if we don't shed our own preferences and embrace those of the people who will use our work? Peter Drucker: "The number one practical competency for success in life and work is empathy. " If you plan, design, program or write for digital you need to have a high level of empathy. One of the biggest problems marketers have is the delusion that they themselves are the target audience. There's great power in trying to understand other people.