A few months ago, I released the first of our Abundance Insider: Skunkworks Edition. We're back with another edition on "going skunk."
Sometimes, you just need to grab a few of your best people, give them an audacious goal, a tight deadline (and as much coffee as they need), and then let them get to work. That's a skunkworks. How you can innovate with your own?
A skunkworks breaks through the bureaucracy and vertical structure of organizations, enabling an environment of rapid, goal-driven innovation.
In this Special Edition, I'll show you a few technologies and marketing trends that will allow your business to innovate effectively and authentically. At the bottom of this email, I'm linking to the tech and marketing team that supported me in the skunkworks-style launches of Abundance, BOLD and the ARKYD Kickstarter for Planetary Resources.
They have been a trusted player in my tech and marketing experiments and can be in yours too.
Now, on to this week's Abundance Insider: Machine learning, Native Ads, AI + PR, Micro Influencers, Starbucks and Shake Shack!
Cheers,
Peter, Marissa, Kelley, Greg, Sydney, AJ, Bri, Jason and Neil
P.S. If you want help building your own skunkworks team, scroll to the bottom and read about my experience with Tech Guys Who Get Marketing.
What it is: A new startup, Chorus.ai, has created a "conversation intelligence" AI that transcribes and takes notes of Zoom, GoToMeeting ClearSide and Join.Me meetings in real-time. The software takes the tasks that are simply too laborious for humans and provides insights like the Talk-to-Listen Ratio and the total number of engaging questions. The AI can even send a meeting recap to all attendees.
Why it's important: If your business relies on salespeople, this tool could help you reward your best salesperson and find ways to encourage your lower performers. As Peter says, without a target, you'll miss it every time. In sales, you might track the typically metrics: Total outbound calls, % of calls that turn to conversations, opportunities, sales, win-loss ratios, average contract size, and gestation from first contact to closed-won. But what about the softer side of sales? Are you accurately recording the objections from each sales call? How do you remove your emotions from a call and drill into the actual objection?
What it is: Innovative AIs are replacing the intuition of PR agencies by leveraging Big Data and estimating the liklihood of what news articles, social posts and trends will actually hook an audience. With AI, we're seeing 80 to 90 percent accuracy in predicting what trends will last over 30 days in just 3 days. Currently, the regular review and reaction to social trends has been up to the intuition and experience of skilled Public Relations specialists. But even they have bad days, make bad decisions, or miss important trends that have cost companies millions.
Why it's important: If you remember #DeleteUber or #BoycottUnited, you might have wondered why it's taken so long for the companies to respond and artfully end the negative press. Until recently, it's been a gambler's game to guess what hashtags and trends will reach a critical mass. PR firms are now turning to AI to scrape major blogs, news sites and social media to quickly find what trends look to be rising and have the probability of being big. This lets these brands focus on keeping their messaging on-brand and compassionate, pulling back any promotion that could possibly hurt in light of a rising trend.
What it is: Traditionally in marketing, the use of a big-name celebrity has brought about tremendous brand success. Look at William Shatner and Priceline.com, or Ashton Kutcher and Nikon. For startups and savvy businesses, affording an A-List celebrity isn't in the budget, so we've skipped them altogether. Now, with the rising micro-influencers, your company can get star power at an affordable rate. A micro-influencer has a strong but small following. These polarized people follow the lead of the micro-influencers at a higher rate than larger influencers.
Why it's important: It is undeniable that a good celebrity endorsement can do great things for your business. But they're not the only ones who can help your business. By finding a micro-influencer -- someone on social media with just a few thousand followers -- you can rally a smaller, more connected group to learn about your product. The crowd is fractured; in tomorrow's world, we will have more leaders and less centralized power. People band with others who share common ideals, hobbies or views. Leverage these smaller tribes in ways that help you reach your target audience more effectively.
What it is: Starbucks has decided to buck the trend of growing their online storefront in favor of pushing consumers through their swinging doors. Late last month, Starbucks announced it would stop selling mugs, T-shirts and coffee beans on their website, as well as fan favorites, their syrups.
Why it's important: The future of retail is about an incredible experience. In fact, experiential marketing is on the rise in a big way. We either order from Amazon, or we go somewhere that's worth the drive, the walk, and the hassle. Starbucks knows that they need to increase the experience of their brand and by doing that, increase the tribal nature of their customers. It's a very different thing to be a buyer from Starbucks.com than a regular at a local retailer. Doubling down on your tribe and building a deeper, more connected group will allow your brand to stay strong through the difficult times retail is facing.
What it is: Shake Shack, the New York City-based burger chain, has announced that it will launch a cashless burger retail store in New York City later this month. The fast food joint will take orders from a kiosk, or through a mobile app, which will allow the company to pay their employees a $15/hour starting wage.
Why it's important: The rise of automation and digitization is deceptive. If you've ever been to a Sheetz or Wawa, you may have seen their kiosks that offer a service similar to Shake Shack's concept: a simple screen that takes your custom order and feeds it to humans working behind a wall. Within just a few minutes, your meal is made and your number is called. It won't be long until we lose the humans behind the wall to a fully automated workforce. Experimenting with fewer personnel, or developing a concept that removes the need for human workers, is the future of retail. Digital-only transactions allow for easy data forecasting and dashboards, which means the business can be run much more lean.
What it is: New research reveals that in the last year, traditional advertising has decreased 12 percent whereas native ads have surged. Traditional advertising interrupts the viewer's experience to deliver a message to promote a product or service. This type of advertising has been the cornerstone of television and radio, as well as Google's Search Network. Native ads are quite the opposite. Similar to product placements, native ads just seem to fit in a magazine or on a webpage. This type of advertising is less intrusive, more subtle, and has been on the rise in recent years -- and according to the data, this is likely to continue.
Why it's important: Natives ads are disrupting the advertising market. They hide in plain sight, usually in the form of long advertising editorials (advertorials) in newspapers and magazines. By camouflaging advertisements in this less-pronounced way, viewers engage with valuable content and avoid overwhelm. If your business uses programmatic advertising, consider testing native ads as a way to fit in more with the page's content; you'll likely find an increased ROI.
Tech Guys is my technical and marketing skunkworks team...
In 2012, I had a wild idea to co-author ABUNDANCE with Steven Kotler. We had the experience in technology, but we didn't know a thing about marketing. That's when I met Mike Cline, the CEO at Tech Guys Who Get Marketing, an exponentially minded organization that helped me build my first real newsletter list and get ABUNDANCE on the New York Times Bestseller list. When it was time to launch the Arkyd Kickstarter, I again turned to Tech Guys for their support. We raised $1.5M in just 35 days thanks in large part to their marketing strategy and deployment. Finally, in 2014, Steven and I released our second book, BOLD. Tech Guys stepped up to the plate and made it our best launch yet.
Tech Guys is a multidisciplinary team that can be your skunkworks. They love Moonshots and wild ideas. With skilled programmers in a myriad of languages, direct response marketers and designers, talented project managers and a desire to see you succeed, they're worth considering when you're ready to go skunk. Lean on the Tech Guys team when you're ready to go skunk.
A fellow Abundance Insider subscriber, Alexander Malaket, reached out to Tech Guys the last time I mentioned them. Here's what he had to say about his experience:
"I first heard about Tech Guys Who Get Marketing through Diamandis' Abundance newsletter, immediately took up the invitation to reach out to them on a "moonshot" initiative – mine revolves around solving the challenge of funding the UN Sustainable Development Goals, small matter of a few trillion dollars and opportunities to create real impact. The first two video calls have been nothing less than fantastic: mind-expanding and enriching, practical and delivery-focused, but also highly collaborative in tone and approach. The solution we are exploring now is well in line with the massive challenge and the even more massive benefits to the world, of helping to achieve the SDGs."
— Alexander R. Malaket, CITP, CTFP, President
OPUS Advisory Services International Inc.
Use Tech Guys for Your Skunkworks
If you'd like to use my skunkworks team to help your organization develop new capabilities and capitalize on new opportunities, email Laura Gouin (laura@techguyswhogetmarketing.com) (or click here). She's the Director of Project Development and will make sure you're taken care of.
No comments:
Post a Comment