Neil Wilson asks:
’”Get Ink” is the fundamental marketing mantra. You guys are natural self-promoters. What do you find is the best way of getting your name in the frame?
10 ideas that come to mind when I think about ways to get people to notice you/your product:
1. Provide something of value. The first step is recognizing that marketing is asking for someone else’s time and attention. You need to provide something worthy of those valuable commodities. So keep your message brief and interesting. When you educate or entertain other people, they’ll pay attention. If you bore them, they won’t.
2. Know your hook. Imagine you are a reporter who wants to write an article about your company. What’s the hook? What’s the angle that will be interesting to someone who normally wouldn’t care about your software? We’ve got a lot of mileage in the press out of staying small and focusing on “less.” What’s unique about your story?
3. Stand for something. Know and expose your company’s philosophy and mantras. 37signals started with a manifesto back when we launched as a design firm. Even though it’s from 1999 and our company has evolved a ton since then, you can see the seeds of many of our current ideas there. That sort of belief foundation will help guide you (and others) to your story.
4. Get your face out there. It’s tempting to think you can do it all from a keyboard. But emails are a poor substitute for real, face-to-face interactions. Go to conferences and meetups, take someone you admire out to lunch, etc. It’s ok to “network” — just don’t be a douche about it. Which leads to…
5. Try to build real, sustained relationships. Actually be a friend instead of a guy trying to get something. Keep your interactions human (a sincere, honest note will go a lot further than a buzzwordy press release). Seek out ways to help others. It’ll all come back to you.
6. It’s the message, not the amount you spend on it. Companies that spend tons of ad/PR dollars to convince people their products are worthwhile are like guys who spend lots of money on gifts and dinners to woo a woman. What kind of relationship are they really building? Successful customer relationships are like any other long-term relationship: They start with a foundation of communication and showing you care about the other person.
7. Give stuff away for free. (I don’t think this contradicts the previous point but maybe?) People love free. Offer a free version of your product, provide coupon codes, etc. Whenever we include a coupon code in a newsletter, there’s a big uptick in upgrades.
8. Ride the wave. Seek momentum and ride it. Is everyone buzzing about the iPhone? Then make an iPhone app. Are people interested in rapid development processes? Then blog about building your app in, say, under a month. Find out what people are talking about already and then figure out a way to get in the picture.
9. Be in it for the long haul. Recognize that promotion, like other aspects of building a company, takes time and effort. If you’re starting from scratch, you have to claw your way up. It’s uncanny how many “overnight success stories” you hear about are actually people who busted their asses for years to get into the position where something might take off. Don’t expect instant recognition.
10. Be undeniably good. Steve Martin was on Charlie Rose last week. At the very end, he gave his advice to someone who’s trying to make it in any field: “Be undeniably good.”
When people ask me how do you make it in show business or whatever, what I always tell them — And nobody ever takes note of it ‘cuz it’s not the answer they wanted to hear. What they want to hear is here’s how you get an agent, here’s how you write a script, here’s how you do this — But I always say, “Be so good they can’t ignore you.” If somebody’s thinking, “How can I be really good?”, people are going to come to you. It’s much easier doing it that way than going to cocktail parties.
That’s some good advice. Go out and make something that kicks ass and people will notice.
Related: Check out the “Promotion” chapter in Getting Real.
Got a question for us? Please send it along to svn [at] 37signals dot com and use the subject “Ask 37signals”.
Anonymous Coward
on 18 Dec 07Lots of fun stuff to dig through at the old 37signals site.
http://www.37signals.com/work.php
Duarte Carrilho da Graça
on 18 Dec 07Speaking of the old site, I really liked the old 37better projects!
Austin Govella
on 18 Dec 07Write better headlines in a style good for Digging!
Or, always work at being better. It seems like you guys are always working at improving yourselves. That probably goes along with standing for something, providing value, and being undeniably good, but it’s easy to miss (since its the part that requires the hard work).
Mari Smith
on 18 Dec 07Excellent list! I agree with all 10 and just shared with my 700+ Facebook friends. :)
Scott
on 18 Dec 07A great post. Being sincere is easier than people think. Start from the heart. Focus on others.
Nate
on 18 Dec 07Yeah, those 37better projects rocked. I’d love to see those get some life again.
Phil Darby
on 18 Dec 07The trouble with too many businesses today is that they aim only to be “good enough” when we all know “Eat my dust” is more like the objective. You only get there by being “kick-ass”, so I like particularly like No10. but, hey, they’re all on the button. My Brand Discovery programme rather sets the scene for this. Take a look.
John maver
on 18 Dec 07Value, value, value.
What’s in it for me? asks the customer, the reader, the listener.
I love your thoughts on this and have written similar ideas on my website. Check it out. http://mavermanagement.blogspot.com
You provide value and I will check back often.
Thanks
John Maver www.mavermanagement.com
Rajesh Sharma
on 18 Dec 07Yes, all above are basic fundamental Mantras. I got the valuable link to this page via the link shared by Mary Smith in Facebook.
Jan Visser
on 18 Dec 07What a great post – I caught it while following Seth Godin’s blog. We wrote a post about it.
John
on 18 Dec 07Uh…has SVN become a shameless place to post a link for self promotion? Has it jumped the shark? What happened to the hundreds of people who use to come here and provide real comments?
I am sorry, I am not trying to be a off-topic, or blatantly inflammatory, but it seems like most of your comments these days aren’t even from designers and developers. It seems like a lot of these are just to add a link, not value. So here is my question, How do you maintain the long haul for years on end?
The manifesto was an amazing set of pages back in the day, and still has great quality to them. 37S has always been an inspiration from the days when they were a design studio through present day. What keeps you, 37S, motivated with all the negativity on the web?
Sudhanshu
on 19 Dec 07I understand the need to provide value. But there is still one question which haunts me.
I just started out with my first app, and am thinking of ways to get it off the ground. So, naturally I wanted to find out what did you guys do when you first started out.
I don’t see a mention of it in Getting Real, nor anywhere on the blog. Where did all these fans come from? Where did all the experience, which helped shape 37signals, come from?
I’d love to see a ‘when we were young’ post sometime….
Christopher Hawkins
on 19 Dec 07Has Blast Media been helpful promotion-wise? Do they help get write-ups in the media, or do they help you with overall marketing strategy?
http://blastmedia.com/web20.php
Anita CM
on 19 Dec 07Can’t help but agree with all the 10 points ennumerated here. Worth giving a serious try…
Lee Stranahan
on 19 Dec 07Allow me a little self promotion.
So…in about five hours, I’m going to be appearing on CNN, live. I’ve never done anything like it before. They are doing a segment on me and some political comedy videos I started posting about 2 weeks ago on YouTube.
The videos instantly went viral. Crazy viral – over 300,000 views at this point, 14,000+ blogs linking to them, famous people saying things like ‘brilliant’ and ‘genius’.
So…in a few hours, I’ll be on camera in front of a few hundred thousand people. And about a half hour ago, I realized what I really want to say…that if people don’t agree with the points I make in the videos, that I want to encourage them to make their own videos. And that I’ll help them – I’m going to be posting tutorials on YouTube, alongside my films. And that what happened to me is remarkable, really – but it’s possible, for anyone.
Cut to right now.
Right before I’m about to go to bed so I can wake up in a few hours to go to a TV studio and a really big turning point in my career, I get Seth Godin’s feed in the mail and that brings me here. And it all makes sense to me – this is the way the universe seems to work sometimes. I got just the extra bit of information and encouragement I needed, exactly when I needed it. Hopefully, I’ll use it right.
So. Thanks a lot. Hope this made some sense to someone.
Oritseyemi Emmanuel Madamedon
on 19 Dec 07Kiva.com, craigslist.org, etc are companies build on very strong convinctions yet with simple business modules that is beneficial to mankind. Great job guys.
Peter Buick
on 19 Dec 07I think your point 5 about relationships is the most important one.
Communication shouldn’t be about self promotion. It should be a dialogue. You have to listen as well as speak.
Even to “offer something of value” you have to listen to what they want to hear.
Two ears and 1 mouth – still the best marketing mantra.
And to follow my own advice, I stop now and wait for your interaction…
Peter
Tom Witkin
on 19 Dec 07Your advice may seem like motherhood to some, but too few take that tack. We just hired a new PR firm to help launch our new generation collaboration software (yes, it’s free open source!). Part of the challenge was finding a firm that approached our community in ways you suggest. And, a key part of that approach is figuring out we can provide more and more good stuff - not just technology - to the open source community to build trusted relationships.
JF
on 19 Dec 07Has Blast Media been helpful promotion-wise?
We used Blast for three months as a trial. We were happy with their work, but in the end we found we were better able to promote ourselves by sharing, teaching, and just building the best products we could.
Chinmay
on 19 Dec 07O boy, What a post…! This was the first article I read this morning while checking Seth’s Feeds in my GReader. Since good old childhood days, I have been trying to decipher this whole “marketing” stuff…I mean amidst multitude of brands that surround us – making a presence felt is difficult indeed. “Permission Marketing” Concept by Seth Godin has helped me a lot thru’ 2007 and I am sure with techniques suggested above I can try creating an audible echo in 2k8 with my Team :-)
‘Know your hook” & “Getting your Face out there” points intrigued me in particular…a very well drafted post indeed…!
~Chinmay
Jess
on 20 Dec 07More top tens for retards. Also, I saw Matt’s poonin’ maw on hot or not, even once before he knew it was coming !
~
NOTE: I’d rather not moderate, but off-topic, blatantly inflammatory, or otherwise inappropriate or vapid comments may be removed. Repeat offenders will be banned from commenting. Let’s add value. Thank you.
Jess
on 20 Dec 07Or, in plain English: Never take advice from the living.
Dennis D. Balajadia
on 20 Dec 07WOW! This is something I’ll definitely keep. The last item is perhaps my favorite.
be UNDENIABLY good.
You know it and everybody knows it when it happens.
Tom Humbarger
on 20 Dec 07Speaking of getting ink, there’s a nice blog post from Hasan at Rephoria today about how his company is applying the fundamentals of Getting Real to developing their new software application. Rephoria is using the iRise rapid prototyping software under the iRise for Entrepreneurs program.
Rephoria blogs about how they are using the software to their advantage (and getting to use some software for free while they build out their product) – and both 37Signals and iRise gets some ink. Win, win, win for everyone.
Rephoria blog entry
iRise for Entrepreneurs program
Tom Humbarger
on 20 Dec 07Great post – and especially timely.
Check out the blog post from Hasan at Rephoria today. He writes how he is “Getting Real” by using the rapid prototyping tool from iRise (under the iRise for Entrepreneurs program) to develop their web application.
He gets ink for his company while also providing ink for 37Signals and iRise.
Win, win, win for everyone.
Rephoria blog post
iRise for Entrepreneurs program
Eduardo Sasso
on 24 Dec 07Great list!!!, i’ve just started my new venture and that’s exactly what i’m trying to be… UNDENIABLY good
Your posts are always inspiring 37s
cheers
This discussion is closed.