Acquire Then Delight Your Customers

I started to write this post about passion - mine, our customers', and that of the company Clay and I are building. Then, "shiny object syndrome" got the best of me and I was distracted by this ClickZ piece by Bryan Eisenberg about the "death of the Web Page". While I wouldn't frame the issue exactly in this way, I do agree with the basic premise and conclusion that impressions are an antiquated and increasingly irrevelevant metric in the absence of other, more meaningful and relevant information about the effectiveness of marketing efforts. An earlier post about unit contribution describes my perspective as it relates to the core metric that marketers must rely upon to plan, execute, and optimize their marketing spend. I believe this more than ever. One of the interesting things about this is the structural barriers and frictions that are a drag on the transition from reach and frequency-based spend and campaign management to performance-based spend and campaign management. Clay and I believe firmly that performance-based marketing is the right way to plan and manage your marketing spend. Here's another thought to go along with the above. Be passionate. Challenge yourself to be more passionate about the problem your product solves than the people and/or businesses you're selling it to. More than operational excellence or product innovation, passion for your business, your customers, and solving important problems in your market is what will There is nothing more contagious, more viral, and more effective at driving awareness and sales growth than authentic passion for solving a problem for your customers. On the flip side, there are few things that will cause more friction in your sales efforts than an absence of passion for what you're selling. If you don't "get" your customers, if you can't figure out why they seem to like what it is your product does for them, then chances are your business has become about as big as it's going to get. In such a case, your messages don't make sense, they don't resonate, and they don't get passed on. You're stuck.