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Discover a weekly list of short, actionable steps to get out of operational deadlock, build a self-managing team, grow strategically, and increase company value in the Boardroom Bulletin™.
If you’re offering a service in the “real world” and ever wanted to take it online or create an app, this case study is for you. This offline service business is creating an app that can revolutionize its business. How do they launch and make the switch?
Transcript:
Raj: Hi there. I’m Raj Jha, I’m here with Hannah Mears with another case study. Today’s case study is great if you’re offering something in the real world and do you ever want to take it online or create an app? So there’s so much to think about when you’re thinking about a real-world service and transitioning it online. So in this case study, you hear about such a situation, what they’re doing, and some of the questions that they’ve got around that. So Hannah, tell us a little bit about the profile, of this company and what they’re trying to do.
Hannah: Yeah. So for any of you out there who are like me, and their guilty pleasure is binge-watching HDTV. And then thinking you are just like them, it can decorate your own house or office space or dream bathroom and kitchen. This one’s for you because if you’re anything like me, you actually can’t and you need a lot of help. So with that being said, Raj, our profile today says, “We’ve launched a service that can help you decorate your home in a cost-effective way. It works like this first, you choose your budget and decor preferences. What you like and what you don’t like. Then we give you a list of matching items from budget-friendly retailers like Ikea and CB2. The situation is right now, we’re offering this as a service in Portland with the five contract designers. But our real goal is to make an app that does this.”
“Currently we do a fixed design fee, but growing the business has been slow. The idea is to help people on a budget, decorate using the app and collect affiliate commissions from retailers whose products the app recommends.” I think this is great so far. I think it’s something that’s very attractive to people. The app seems to be something like we’ve talked about much before of this virtual reality experience that people are now expecting, but Raj, your first initial thought, when you start hearing about them wanting to create an app for this. What do you think the market is like for this?
Raj: It definitely seems like there is a market for this. So you talked about your HDTV guilty pleasure. I know my older daughter is always on this app called “Design Home,” which she’s like, “Look, I decorated this.” I don’t find that interesting. But then again, here I am, I just paid a decorator to help decorate part of our house. And she’s absolutely fantastic, she’s amazing but the bills certainly do add up. It is not inexpensive to do it. So I think there is definitely a market desire and there’s definitely a price gap that could be arbitraged here between hiring a professional, which can cost thousands and thousands. And someone who wants might want to kind of, sort of do it themselves and maybe even thinks they’re enabled to do it. So I think there’s definitely an opportunity in this.
Hannah: So the question that they have for you is, “So far we’ve done okay. Promoting our service locally on the fixed design fee, mostly by advertising on Yelp and partnering with apartment rental agents to refer us business. When transitioning from a service to an app, will the same promotional approach work or do we need to try something different?” So I think what we’ve talked about when we think apps really can work, but Raj, what they’re asking you and your initial thought on this is when they’re transitioning, will this approach work?
Raj: Yeah, so it might work. I will talk about petty more details as we go on here, but really it’s a different business. And I think that’s something that people have to realize when they’re transitioning from something in the real world. So they’ve got, I guess they said five designers and they’re actually working on a design fee. Let’s pretend it’s a thousand dollars to do your design work there. It’s a very different type of thing. What I’m thinking is, I have a person I could call and they’re going to help me and walk me through this kind of thing. That’s a different experience and a different value proposition than an app where it’s pretty anonymous and there’s just something you download and you’re expecting to do it more yourself. So I think it’s a very, very different business model, with very different price points. The good thing is you can leverage your expertise because I bet they would have a lot better knowledge than I would create, if I was creating that app would be pretty helpless. So they do have some expertise. They do have clients that they can use to help refine this concept. But this is my initial impression. It is a totally different business and you have to call it for what it is
Hannah: Before we get into how they should be promoting this app. Something that you were talking about was maybe the personal connection that they already have with some of the people and clients that they would be bringing in. How important do you think that will be to still be accessible on their app? Because we have talked about this before. People like to feel like they’re going to VIP when they’re coming and subscribing to your app and downloading, and just choosing you as opposed to maybe a big retailer. So how important do you think it is when they’re creating this app to keep in mind that they need to stay as personally connected with their clients as possible through this app?
Raj: I think if they haven’t developed it already, there is this evolution that they can go through, which is essentially enabling their current service with an app. And then just using that as a way to get customers and service their existing customers. And then slowly deciding how we transition that to take some of the heavy lifting done by people and then turn that into algorithms. So in the beginning, it might be just using the app to take a bunch of pictures of your space and it gets sent to the designers that already exist. So they’re using their existing infrastructure without having to develop too much code. And then over time, they can say, “Oh, okay, once you load the colors and what you need, all these other things, then it can start recommending things on an automated basis.” So there is a world in which they slide into it without having to do kind of this wholesale launch of the thing and it’s fully baked for.
Hannah: Yeah. And I think what Raj was also saying was whatever you have already incorporated into your app, like you were saying, I’m sure they would be sending pictures to designers would then be putting the space together for them, but maybe even have some sort of Avenue on this app where someone could take a picture of their space that they’re looking to design and physically placed items in it that they like and see what they come up with as well. That way they felt like they designed the space themselves in a cost-effective way and have physically already seen the items that they like in that space before they purchase them. That gives those people that personal feeling that they already have. They make them become attached to those items that they physically see and be more likely to go ahead and purchase them straight from your app. So keep these virtual reality experiences in your mind. They’re very attractive to people. And I think it’s a great way to then generate new clients to your business, knowing that there’s already been some success. But you’ve got to figure out a way to first get your app out there before people use it. So Raj, in general, before we get into some specifics, will the same things work for an app as a local business?
Raj: Yeah. The answer is only sometimes. So for a local business apps can enable certain things. So if you’re a truly local business and you’re dealing with things like coupons and reward points and things like that, apps can certainly work. In this particular case, there’s not a lot that is locally relevant. It so happens, they’re important. And it so happens that they’re doing service there because most businesses kind of start somewhere geography-wise and they continue there. But there’s nothing particularly tying them to that area. So in terms of, “Will things work?” Some of them might, and some of them might not. I guess we can go more into detail about Yelp versus the apartment listing agents versus doing paid media, et cetera. But the answer is not always, it really depends on the kind of app and what it’s doing that is relevant to the local geography.
Hannah: So let’s start then by comparing some of those things that you were talking about in terms of promotions they’re using Yelp. That doesn’t sound like a good match for an app-based business, I suppose. But what are your thoughts on that?
Raj: Yeah, not really. With one exception, I suppose that if they were to give this app and it’s a platform and I talked about the kind of evolution concept if you haven’t baked the full-on decision engine and helped people decide on the furniture. If it’s still people based on the backend, you can still do a hybrid situation where a local business in another geography could use your app and get on your platform. It’s almost kind of like a franchising style of the model where you’ve got a brand and it pops up in multiple locations and you do have a local designer who helps you and it’s enabled by an app. There is a world in which that could be relevant, but if you’re really talking about going truly into the app world, then no, that’s not really that relevant.
Hannah: So talk to me then about these apartment rental agents. And does that translate into an app? What are some of the ways that they would be utilized with this promotion of this app?
Raj: We talk about this sometimes, the old school going out there and pounding the pavement and making relationships. So if you do have rental agencies that are of a reasonable size and major cities, it sounds like they’ve had some success locally doing that. So repeat that formula because you can take the pick off the top 10 major cities in the United States and all of a sudden you’ve covered thousands and thousands of units turning over. That’s certainly something that you can do to try and jump-start the app. Now, I don’t know if that’s going to lead to enough adoption. But if you think about college towns, there’s a lot of turnover and people want to decorate or apartment rentals in large cities, some major metros. So definitely, that’s a way to jumpstart it. I think it’s an underappreciated way of doing things in the real world versus jumping straight to paid advertising.
Hannah: Yeah. Login to colleges as well for some of your clients, once you may expand because I know a lot of sororities out there when they do recruitment, they have these big gathering spaces that they decorate like crazy. And if there was a cost-effective way that they could sit there and maybe all come together on this app and decorate it the way that they want to, that may be something that’s really attractive, that if you’re ever looking to expand your audience a bit, that would be the route I would think of going as well. But in terms of promoting this app online, Raj, I think one concern would be, you don’t want this to look like just a game. As you said, your daughter plays, you don’t want this to pop up on someone’s feed and say, decorate your dream home because people aren’t going to want the right audience that you’re trying to attract and do not want to just download an app that seems like a game. So how do they go about, I guess, in the smartest way possible promoting this online?
Raj: Well, I suppose that you have to look at what the audience desires. So the desire of the audiences to have a beautiful home and for times, as we just had, when people have been trapped at home for long periods of time that’s certainly something that they want to do. So if you have to look at that audience and ask the existing customers that you have, why did you retain us, for this personal service that they’re selling right now? So what, why did you come to us? Is it because we’re a better value than hiring expensive designers? Is it because you just wanted to really decorate your home for entertaining, whether it’s because I’m living at home and I need multifunction areas of my own, like, I need the areas to work. And I used to live in areas where the kids were. I think through that, and then think through who are these people, are they college students, are they young newlyweds? Are they people with kids who are these people? And then you can start to triangulate. Well, what’s the messaging that needs to happen around that. So I think that that’s the beginning point for any online marketing or any kind of marketing release, understanding your customer and their used case.
Hannah: What about if they started to try to use some sort of PR to get customers? Do you have an opinion on that?
Raj: I always have an opinion on PR and I think I’ve said before that PR is a great way to burn a huge amount of money. It just lights it on fire and a bonfire. I suppose that people are impressed by being in a magazine. You might want to hire a PR agent and well, what if we get an architectural digest? Wouldn’t that be amazing? Well, guess what, that’s not the right audience for an architectural digest. Well, what if we got into an XYZ magazine or newspaper, the best-case scenario, even if that works, which usually it doesn’t usually have some crummy online placements, but if it works, the best-case scenario is you get a little pop and that’s it, and then it’s done. And then you’re starting from ground zero again, versus having something that’s much more controllable, which is what whenever we talk about demand generation. We talked about understanding your audience and where they are and the ways to get to those a year in control and really going direct to the consumer either on online advertising or having channel partners who already have those relationships. And you can just go directly that way.
Hannah: I think a really smart thing they could do too, is we can talk about, I want your opinion, I guess, on influencers. But if they were going to use any influencers, if you go to YouTube and you look up any type of HDTV type of people, you will get thousands of really popular designers online. They have millions of followers and they’re constantly promoting different types of things to make a cost-effective transformation of your home and ways to get products. I think it could be very smart, but you have to be very strategic about the influencers that you use because they can be very costly as well. Raj, what are your thoughts on the influencer route?
Raj: I think it’s great that you brought that up because I think that influencers are really a good way to do this. Look on Instagram, look on YouTube, find the folks who are doing that “Decorate for Less” silo stuff. There are countless channels dedicated to that and really do outreach. And see, you’d probably have to have the app before you do this, but can you partner with them and have them promote your app? Because I think that this is definitely an underappreciated way of doing things in the app space, but when you’ve got an app space that’s connected with something that people are already interested in the physical real world, it’s a great way to bridge it. And don’t necessarily look for those top-tier influencers. And I think we’ve mentioned this before. Don’t look for the ones with millions and millions of followers. Look for those micro-influencers. Maybe they only have a group of 10,000, 20,000, 50,000 followers, but those followers are highly engaged. That can actually be a really, really good yield in terms of being able to rent their influence in order to get in front of another audience.
Hannah: And they may be very helpful and willing to help you because they’re looking to be one of these big influencers one day. And this is how you start getting different types of people reaching out to you to promote things it’s exciting for them. It’s what they do. They want recognition as well. But Raj, I know we’ve covered a lot of ways that are pros and cons of how they can promote this app in some. Give them just a good starting point of what they can take away from this.
Raj: Well, I think that the big starting point is to realize this is a completely different business and decide, are you going to jump both feet into, “I really want this to be a standalone app that does it something, it is a different business”, or are you going to evolve into it and use the app as enabling what you’re already doing and growing it that way because those are two different business models. One is backed by people and the other one is backed by technology and in terms of how it’s delivered. So I think that that decision is a very important one. We didn’t have enough information on the original profile that they gave us to know which direction they were thinking, but very often people think, “Oh, I’m going to do this app and it’s going to be great.” And that’s fantastic because the app has a huge scalability potential in order to get thousands and thousands of people.
But of course, your revenue is probably going to be small and it’s a different marketing process to get to those people. Or do you want it to just blow up your existing business and use that as an enabler? I think that’s the first decision. And then that decision will drive how you get to market. Whether or not it’s getting more online advertising because it’s an app and that’s really how you’re going to drive it. Or if it’s enabling your person to service, that might just be a different route, might be partnering with other designers locally. It might be those rental agencies, et cetera. So first decide where you’re going and then have a disciplined way of getting there. So I think that at this highest level would be my take on it.
Hannah: Well, hopefully, we’ve answered some of your questions today. If you have more, please feel free to submit them to us, but also go check out our recent videos before this, because we have talked a lot about virtual reality experiences, app generation. So maybe some of your questions have already been answered in some of our earlier videos. Raj, thank you so much for your insight into our client. Best of luck to you as you move forward in this home decor experience.
Raj: Thanks, everyone. And see you in the next case study.
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Transcript:
Hannah: … Your demand generation perform at an elite level. And that’s whether you’re already using the strategy or just getting started. I’m Hannah Mears, alongside Raj Jha. And today we’re talking about something that may resonate with a bunch of people we’re talking about blogging, but most importantly, how you can use it for marketing your business. So, Raj, my first question to you is when you hear blogging, what’s the first thing that comes to your mind?
Raj: The first thing that comes to my mind is so many people are wasting so much time doing it wrong. It’s one of it’s a time sink. I did it for a number of years, but it can be great or it can be the biggest waste of your time ever. And I think without going into eyes open, it can almost certainly be a waste of time.
Hannah: I think that’s the biggest thing I got too is when I wanted to talk about blogging with you today, my first initial thought was so many people try it just to try it and sure – that’s great, but why didn’t it work instead of just giving up on it, try to figure out why it wasn’t working and how can you make it really successful.
So really, let’s start there. I guess let’s talk about some of the misconceptions about blogging. Are there a couple things that people typically assume, but aren’t really true about the blogging world?
Raj: I think the two big ones – the first is “write it and they will come.” I mean, it’s kind of the “build it and he will come” kind of concept. And the other is writing for SEO, which is writing for computers instead of people. So I think those are the two, two biggies that I come off right off the top of my head.
Hannah: Yeah. I think that’s a good one because a lot of the time, I think instant gratification with something you do, especially in my generation is something that we need to understand a bit more. Everyone in my generation has really got on board with the vlogging trends that are going on. And everyone that posts a video instantly wants a thousand likes on it and all these views and all these subscribers, but that’s just not the case. And it’s the same thing with blogging and writing something. These things take time. So I think we need to take it one at a time here as well. The first one you’re talking about is “write it and they will come.” Can you elaborate a little bit more on that?
Raj: If you’re gonna blog, typically you kind of pour your effort and sometimes your heart, your soul into writing this piece and you think this is the best thing ever, and then you post it and nothing happens. And it’s the most demoralizing thing ever when you thought you have this perfect piece and you cranked out a thousand words and for some people writing is not their natural medium, it’s a really hard thing to do. And it takes hours and then nothing happens. And so, “okay, I’ll do it again.” And nothing happens. And it is really, they write it and they will come just because you’re writing doesn’t mean that anyone is going to see anything, right. You have to go one step beyond that. So the write it and they will come – is all about, it’s more than just writing. You have to take a step back and say, okay, why am I blogging? And then I can create this wonderful piece, but then how are you gonna make sure anyone sees it?
Hannah: So how are you gonna make sure anyone sees it? How do you gain readership through your blogs?
Raj: So, so it used to be, and I think blocking still has this reputation that you write it and you publish it and then Google will rank your stuff. And then people searching for it will find it. And, and that was legit 15, 20 years ago, because there wasn’t so much content, but now with the amount of content on the web it’s just not. So the odds of you being found, unless you have an already popular blog, are really, really small. So you have to think about frankly, marketing your blog piece in some ways. And the big ones are social media syndication. So publishing your article or links to your article on LinkedIn, on Facebook and on Twitter and wherever you happen to be you know being on your or media, wherever you have an audience posting it there.
There’s also multi-purposing. So you can take that blog piece and you can cut it up into little pieces and you can put that on social media, or you could record an audio version of it, or you could record a video version of it. So taking the same content and using it more than once, allows it to have more chances to seen.
And ideally you’ve link them all back to your blog. So it drives people back to learn more about you. And then of course, if you have an existing list of people, whether it’s an email list or some other kind of a customer list, something like that, sending it out so that people actually see it is another good way to make sure it gets seen. So, in other words, you have to do more than just write it. You have to write it and you have to promote about it.
Hannah: I think it’s really interesting. You talked about Google ranking, the website and the blog content and how that sort of can be a misconception, but to a lot of people listening, they probably think it’s a good idea. Like why not try to get ranked by Google and have people search for me and that be the easiest way to do it. But I guess you’re saying is really not that great of idea. So why isn’t it then?
Raj: So I think there’s a difference between the abstract concept of, “so I want to this to rank highly in Google” and that’s a perfectly legitimate, good idea where it goes wrong is very often it’s written for search engines.
In other words, in the old days of search engines before they got super smart, smarter than can ever imagine, right now, it used to be that you’d stuff certain words into your article, and it would sound very unnatural. And you might still come across these articles on, on the internet where it’s like the same word is repeated in every paragraph. And you’re like “nobody talks like this. Nobody wants to read like this.” And that was written for search engines. So that’s an SEO.
So search engine optimization of the old days was all about that. Nowadays the search engine have gotten so smart. They’re actually watching how long real people spend on these pages. Are they getting fed up with it? Their natural language processing is really strong. So the best thing you can do is write something that’s super valuable for humans because the search engines are watching those humans and judging your content based on their reactions. So don’t write for Google finding you, writing as if Google is the audience, instead of a person in the audience, that’s the, that’s the challenge that I think that the should not be doing.
Hannah: I think, I think that’s a really good point that you make, but I also think there’s a lot of people out there listening to this blogging conversation and saying a blog that should be a strategy. I don’t have time to sit down and write a blog. So how often do you actually need to blog to make it effective? Because I think people probably have a little bit more time then they think they do when it comes to this as a strategy.
Raj: Well, I think it all depends on your goals, right? So if your goals are to that you need an audience and there’s a whole bunch of things they need to know, and there’s a bunch of information you want to put out there then maybe your frequency is higher.
If what you do is a little more esoteric, only a smaller number of people care about it, or there’s not so much to write about. Maybe it’s less frequent. So it really depends on the strategy of what you’re writing and how you’re getting people to see it. And then that will determine the frequency.
But the important point is to do high quality stuff. If you are blogging for the sake of blogging and it’s like, oh, what are we gonna do today? How about the “10 reasons”, what they call listicles – articles that are just lists, that is so clearly just like junk that is being posted on the internet, the hopes that someone sees it, instead of something that’s really insightful and thoughtful and has its own perspective, that’s the difference. So as often as you can produce something like that would be the right frequency and that could be daily, it could be monthly, it could be quarterly. More frequent is always better because you get more kind of at bets to get seen. But do that as frequently as you can, that allows you to produce high quality content.
Hannah: I think it’s funny, you mentioned the Listal things because I actually find some of them pretty insightful if they do the opposite of what you’re saying. So Raj, isn’t saying “don’t ever do that. It’s a bad idea.” I think what he’s saying is make sure that every blog you’re not posting is just, well, let’s talk about the top, this or the top, that or the top. And then you’re never really getting into the nitty gritty if you’re gonna do something like that, make sure the points that you’re making are insightful. And then you’re adding something in depth to a point where I got something from it. You’re not just stating it to state it because I do find some of those articles, like you said, really like, come on, this is what we’re doing then other times I’m like, wow, that was a really sly way to, to tell me something. Do you agree with that a little bit then? Just to Clarify.
Raj: Yeah. I, a hundred percent agree with that. In fact, there’s some people on Twitter who do this really well. They’ll say the top thing, 10 thing I’ve learned investing in companies, a thread, and then they’ll have 1, 2, 3 down 10, and that is super valuable. Why I’m getting a perspective of a person’s experience. And it is a list of the top 10 things, but it’s not the top 10 ice creams that Canadians like on Thursday. Right? I mean, that’s just worthless. Who cares about that? Maybe, maybe if you’re in the ice cream industry, but if it is something that has to do with your experience or something where you want to share something that would be valuable to your audience, then yeah. List format is a great format because it’s very punchy, but don’t make it just be fluff.
Hannah: Yes. No fluff,
Raj: No fluff.
Hannah: We can see through it. Don’t fluff it <laugh> I guess, with the thing, when we’re talking about time management and making sure you’re putting out insightful content, I guess there has to be a hack or something. That’s when you look at this blogging as an experience, is there a way to put out more content in a way to make it easier and not just maybe put out a mistake of a Listal that’s like, Ugh, come on. Like, what’s the easier way to put out inside?
Raj: Well, the biggest hack that I’ve ever heard of or seen is simply this, you record video of you talking face to camera, or maybe even this video, essentially you’re creating and now you have video content and what can you do then? Well, you can take off the audio track and now you’ve got a podcast or an audio piece and you can have it transcribed. Now you’ve got a written piece. So the same thing now. And actually then you break that down and then you’ve got individual social media posts off of that. So now for one session of a recording, a video and you can, we can speak a lot quicker than we can type. So from one piece of content, you’ve now generated four different media. You’ve got the video, you’ve got the audio, you’ve got the written, you’ve got the social, all in that all in one. So that is a great way of leveraging your time. And for a lot of people, they can speak more or easily than they can write when they start typing. It’s the blank screen. It’s like, oh, I don’t know what to do, but if they have a topic and, and if you’re the expert on it, which you should be if you’re creating great content, then you can generate it much more easily in a video or audio format to start.
Hannah: And I think it’s really easy to just write a blog, to write a blog and stuff about what you’re talking about, personal experiences and for your personal brand. But I think something that when we’re in the business world, what we’re always is trying to do is attract business. So how do you know what to write to in order to adjust, attract business and not just have people read it and move on?
Raj: Yeah. So I think, again, I’ll give one, my biggest hack here. My biggest hack is to go and call your customer service people or your sales reps. Okay. And ask them, what are the questions that we always get? Because these are the things that your customers and prospects wanna know. So if people are asking certain questions about your product or about the industry or about things, these are people in the front lines, in your, in your sales department, in your marketing department, in your customer service department, they’re the ones who really know what those questions are. And that can give you a great list. And that’s a whole huge slug of content that you could create there. And another one would be to ask them, ask your customers, ask your prospects and go do some Q&A. That is a fantastic format because Q&A shows your expertise and it, their real questions that people are, are submitting. So, you know, I’ve done a bunch of Q&A over the years because it’s an easy way for me to generate content that actually will, I know will be meaningful. Because if one person has that question, a whole bunch of people have that question.
Hannah: And let’s say, you’re the CEO of a company, or you’re the head of marketing. And you’re trying to find innovative ways to help market your business. And you go with the route of having a blog and, and doing this and trying to attract people through this. Is this something that you can do in house? Or should you look elsewhere to find somebody to help you with this?
Raj: That’s a challenging question because you can absolutely use people outside of your organization. I have in the past, I’d hired him to help me with my company. We’re we’re still friends and we still actually collaborating on content today. And why did that work? And that’s because he really got my voice in what I was trying to accomplish. And if you have someone like that, yes, absolutely. But don’t just try to hire, there’s a bunch of writing services out there and they’ll, they just, I think they phrase it as like ‘copypasta’ or something like that. There’s just a bunch of words and it doesn’t capture who you are, what you’re trying to convey. So if you have somebody who might be outside of your company, really understand the strategy and where you’re going then. Yes, absolutely. And if you don’t then try doing it in house with someone who does really understand it, it can be time consuming, no doubt about it, but better that it’s, it’s high quality and it captures your voice. Then it is just putting something out there for the sake of putting it out there. Yeah.
Hannah: We don’t want someone to put the salt and pepper on the business. We want all the spices. We want it to be good. Give us the flavor. Right. <Laugh> but once you start, once you start this blog, per se, something we always talk about is know your numbers and that’s for any marketing strategy that we talk about. And a lot of these blog platforms, perhaps online have really innovative, insightful ways built into them. That show you, Hey, this is working. This is not, and this is why. So what are the type of things you should track to really make sure if it’s working or not?
Raj: There’s a few levels of this. First of all, on the blog post itself, usually measuring how many people are seeing it. And then if you have a good CRM system that’s managing all your prospects coming through. Very often those can track who saw which piece of content and who turned into a customer. And that’s super valuable to know, because if you know, oh, these are the kinds of things they’re coming to. Well, I can do more like that. I can promote that more. So that’s one kind thing. So the second layer would be, where are people coming from? So we already talked about promoting the blog posts on social media. If you’re finding out well, 80% of the people are coming from Twitter, time to double down on Twitter, or maybe even run some paid advertising on Twitter to get people, to see it instead of just them stumbling on it.
Raj: And then I think the last thing is on the production side, how much time and effort is it taking you to produce content? That’s getting good results. And that way you can look to get better with it. Maybe if you’re starting out just doing the writing, maybe you wanna experiment with the whole record, the video that we talked about and, and do that, or that way you can also measure, okay. If it’s this much to do it in house, I’m gonna hire someone to do it as a contractor or as an agency. How long does it take them to do it? How expensive is that? And I can compare the inputs versus the outputs. So I think it’s a little more fuzzy than some of the marketing that we do. When we talk about paid advertising, it can be much more cut and dry here. It’s a little more fuzzy. And very often the numbers are small, especially when you’re starting out, but don’t get discouraged, keep on tracking them.
So numbers may be fuzzy, but is there a clear starting point if you wanna start a blog or are there a few steps to maybe before you start, what should you be doing? Where, where is that starting point? That starting line is how do I get value and how do I create things that people actually want to read? So that’s why, again, I go back to the Q&A and asking your customer support team and asking your sales team, you’re really getting the right kind of content out there because you can’t be answering real questions that people have in the real world. And there’s some folks who start a blog and they talk about what they want to talk a about. And that can be interesting from an academic standpoint, but if you’re actually trying to sell stuff, then really you have to go where the customer’s head is and, and that’s what you need to do. So that’s why I always say, start with whether it’s a survey or, or customer questions from your support team or sales team. That’s always the way to start if you have that information
Hannah: And like all of our marketing as strategies, we talk of the out, just like the blogs right now. If you’re interested in learning to hear more about any of this, please head over to rajjha.com. Raj, thank you so much for all of your insight today about blogging. I know it’s a strategy that’s really, really trendy right now, I guess is a good word. So I think it’s important that if you wanna start it, go about it the right way, don’t give up on it and be consistent in how often you’re posting and when you’re posting, it’s something that can be really successful if you’ve used properly. And I think you’ve given us a really good overview of what to do and what not to do and why it can really work if it’s done correctly. So thank you for all of your insight.
Raj: All right. Thanks Hannah. See you next time.
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