With respect to my post last week about how to make budgeting sexy, I made an online poll for my readers. The response did not really give me a large enough sample size that I can make any significant conclusions from the data (N=7) but I can say that the majority of people find budgeting a more desirable topic to bring up during a first encounter than their bowel movements, sexual experiences or fungal infections. Of course this poll was designed with a slight bias - it is totally ridiculous, actually. Its just that there is such a taboo about personal finance that I thought I might point out how "easy" budgeting should be to talk about with your friends and family. A lot easier at least, than poop, fungus and sex.
For those of you that did get a chance to see the poll, here it is (with results) in all of it's glory:
When you meet someone new, what topic(s) would you bring up LAST?
Now, this month I have tried out some new things (while I was thinking) and I would like to share some tips I have learned:
- Barter: Marketing is expensive, and when starting out in the software as a service (SAAS) industry all you have to go on is word of mouth. Until you have piles of venture capitol to pour into marketing your business, you need to spend almost ALL YOUR FREE TIME asking for free exposure. Ask bloggers, ask magazines and ask the newspapers to write about your product. Offer what you have in return - free advertising, links, and other types of useful favors that people will understand as a good gesture.
- No press is bad press: Don't be afraid of critical reviews, comments or advice. Unless someone is completely out-of-line and just slandering your business/service for no reason, be sure that you are able to step back and listen to good advice. The more constructive the critism the more likely you can be the most competitive and offer the best product/service.
- Do follow-up: Any opportunity, and open door, any email - always respond. 9 times out of 10 you may not get anything from the time you spend responding to unsolicited emails, thank-yous, business cards or even complaints, but you will leave a lasting impression on those you do correspond with and every once in a while you will find a golden opportunity that you will be glad you didn't miss out upon. You never know which door opportunity is waiting behind - so don't miss out on opportunities by keeping your doors closed!
In the past three weeks we have had three incredible reviews (1, 2, 3) written about our service and we have received positive and constructive feedback that will ultimately ensure an improved experience for our users! We also met some excellent new friends at the Ad:tech conference, and have made some unexpected partnerships with people in some unexpected places.
This month we hope to expand our user base and keep our users returning by expanding our gorilla marketing campaigns, finishing our mobile WAP application and polling our users for their feedback and advice. I'll get back to you with our progress... wish me luck!
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