Friday, June 25, 2010

Karmaback Social Sweepstakes' new Pricing & new Look.



Whenever a new service or product is launched, getting the word out is job #1.  Job #2 is converting that buzz into real sales!  If done right, you can use Google Analytics to measure how people are flowing through your site.  You can even set up conversion events and tracking to see how people are converting and where they are coming from.  Here is the thing: the data doesn't lie!  Fix whats broken!  2 things were a bit broken according to Google for our website sales funnel... first, people were confused about the pricing.  second, people were bouncing on the sweepstakes page.

So without further gilding the lily, and no further ado, I present to you the new look of Karmaback.com and Karmaback.com/sweepstakes.  (Check them out, leave feedback, let me know how else I can improve!).

And what's better?  Simpler pricing: $0.25c per relevant fan or follower we bring you... and a cap of $299.99 no matter how many we bring you.  (You can set a lower cap if you want).  That's it.  Brain-dead simple.

Want 1,200+ new fans & followers for your Facebook or Twitter pages?  You got it!

Enjoy

Monday, June 21, 2010

Maximum-ally Buyable Product (what is next)

Onstartups has a great article and a very excellent read about what to do next AFTER your MVP (Minimum Viable Product) succeeds.  I think it should be opened up to a debate: Should you BUILD IT BETTER (MBP) or should you BUILD ANOTHER MVP?

My argument for building another MVP is: why ruin a good working product?  By definition success means its working.  STOP.  Let it work.  Build something else!

My other argument for building another MVP is: your current MVP is probably not working.  DO NOT Go from MVP that fails to Maximally Viable Product.

Finally the ideas that make an MBP good from the article, probably should be PART of your MVP!

1. Easy To Understand
2. Easy To Try
3. Easy To Buy
4. Easy To Stay
5. Easy To Leave

Finding your Focus.

Some people have a big vision.  It is complex.  It is beautiful.  It is impossible.  These kinds of people (myself included) need to find a focus for their energy, a single "part" of the vision that we can execute to.  Here are 3 steps to finding a single focus.

1.) Consider a formal marketing plan.  A formal marketing plan (such as I have described how to develop in detail), can help to focus your thoughts... specifically the sentence: "we are a x, that does x, for x, and unlike other x, we x".  Very effective (thanks Barry Raskin for teaching me!)

2.) Minimize your MVP.  I've spoken about MVP in the past, but this time, consider, is your MVP truly minimum?  Sometimes to find your focus, you have to build an MVP & discover if it really is V (Viable).

3.) Revise.  Inevitably you will fail.  Recognizing the failure and buliding a NEW MVP (in line with the original vision) is a must... in short: revise.

Now, get out there and build something!

Friday, June 18, 2010

My new startup, Karmaback, nominated for COOLEST NEW COMPANY from Austin Business Journal (ABJ).


We're very pleased to have been nominated for "Coolest New Company" by the Austin Business Journal.

Please take a moment to vote for us!  (takes just 5 seconds)
http://abjentrepreneur.com/contest_nomination.html

And if you don't know what Karmaback is... shame on you!  Check us out here: http://karmaback.com 

Vote for us... its good Karma!
You could Get Some Karma Back!

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Obvious and True: Fans and Followers are a Very Targeted Audience.



One of my favorite blogs (The Marketingsherpa Blog) recently posted the result of a study that showed "like search traffic, social media traffic tends to be very qualified” This stunning statement came from Maura Ginty, Senior Manager, Search and Social, Autodesk.  Is it any big surprise?  


Let me think, people who like you, follow you, fan you, or are searching for you on social networks are a targeted audience.  While this does seem obvious at first glance, what is interesting about what Autodesk has done is that they actually developed a keen way to measure it.  Unfortunately, their measurement stops at "sentiment".  Karmaback would like to take that measurement all the way through the sale.


According to Adam Sutton (Marketingsherpa),  "the [Autodesk] team can calculate the velocity of a marketing message — the number of people a message reaches in a certain amount of time in social media — and combine it with a sentiment analysis".  And while this is nice... speed of message, sentiment of message, I find it lacking in 1 key area: the Sales!  Why is it people assume that sentiment leads to sales?  


Remember, for a sale to happen, you need to have 3 key elements: demand (sure, we can call that sentiment), price (there needs to be a match between price and demand!  Economics 101), and place (a place to buy, to shop, to complete the purchase, that is convenient & fast).


Here's a Social Marketing Tip.  Ask for the sale!  Heck, even play with the price (promotions).  While you are at it, why not let them go ahead and buy, directly inside Facebook?  (place).

Saturday, June 5, 2010

Months and Months of work PAY OFF. Karmaback Social Sweepstakes+ is live.

After months and months of hard work, Karmaback's Social Sweepstakes+ is finally live!

My new startup, Karmaback, is finally finished with our private Betas, our testings, our public Betas, and our trials.  We have the case studies, we have the FULLY AUTOMATED setup process, and we've hooked in to Paypal for payment.  Karmaback is now officially live.

In case you wonder what Karmaback Social Sweepstakes is, and why we created it... here's the skinny:


Karmaback is a Social Network Marketing company that helps companies grow fans and followers on Facebook and Twitter and uniquely rewards users for engagement and sharing with Karmaback Points.

The Benefits:
  • Gain Fans & Followers
  • Build Loyalty & Evangelists
  • Get Sales & Justify Marketing
How do we do that?  Simple.
  1. Set up a Social Network Sweepstakes with Karmaback (a Social Sweepstakes+)
  2. Let us manage the sweepstakes & provide "viral growth" features, like social sharing & more.
  3. Use Karmaback's other tools for "after-sweepstakes" follow-up, including Social Discounts & Karmaback rewards for purchase!
Yep.  Our vision is here.  We really can help companies get real measurable increases in Fans and Followers, and help turn that attention into "Rewarded" engagement & "real" revenue.

Enjoy folks,

And do provide feedback to help us make this service even better!



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