Daydream Believers

What should you look for in any potential employee these days? Assuming you have several candidates with similar qualifications, try these:

1) Demonstrable, insatiable curiosity. (" You've been where? You've done what?")

2) Healthy ego, self-motivated, ambitious ("You want my job? Next year? Fantastic.")

3) Emotional maturity (no fear of saying: "Sorry", "I made a mistake", "I need help", "I dropped the ball")

Seth Godin expands on points 1 and 2 in today's blogpost on what he looks for in a marketer. Unfortunately, such characteristics are extremely rare. They've been beaten out of most people by years spent studying and/or working in regimented environments. Businesses have been focused on production since the industrial revolution. Obedient workers with uniform skills were required for successful mass production. But now production is being automated and outsourced.

Now we need the complete opposite. We need more imagineers. We need people who instinctively question the way things have always been done, who have developed skills that are unique and specialized, who can see alternatives and gray areas. People whose unusual life choices and resumés clearly demonstrate their capacity to think outside the box because they live outside the box.

Many North American businesses are fighting to survive in the face of intense global competition. Mediocre offerings don't stand a chance. The only way out is a spectacular, bold, confident leap of faith. That requires minds that are capable of thinking, not just doing.

iContact versus Constant Contact

Here's an update to the very popular post I wrote a year ago about my in-depth comparison of the two most popular email marketing services. Basically, I wanted to compare iContact to ConstantContact.

I'm happy to report that iContact is now # 1 according to the 2008 report by Top Ten Reviews. So now there's really no reason not to go with them. More importantly, I'M still very happy with them.

Give me 5 mins, get a free latte.

What if Starbucks (or Borders or anyplace that sold fancy-pants coffees) offered a way to provide free lattes to their fans who may no longer be able to afford their daily fix?

Imagine a corner of the coffee lounge converted (as needed) to a "Give us 5 minutes, get a free latte" space. One at a time, marketers could set up a simple trade-show booth display and conduct sample testing/focus groups/surveys with willing volunteers that fit their demographic. Five minutes in exchange for a $5 coffee. Hey, if you're in there anyway, and you've got 5 minutes to spare, why not?

LOGISTICS
Sure, the store could use a simple drink ticket system: the marketer hands the consumer a ticket after they've participated, which the consumer then exchanges for a coffee, and the barista later tallies for a bill that the marketer pays at the end of their session. This would keep it simple and flexible (time-wise). But better yet, a sticker like the kind used for admission at museums, marked on the back with the date and marketer's signature, that says something like "I scored a free latte at ______(insert name of store)" would further promote the store, while also advertising the wearer's resourcefulness to friends and colleagues. The store's website could offer an instant alert via RSS feature for volunteers depending on what demographics they register under ("Free latte alert: Rosie's Cookies and Cakes is holding a taste-testing and survey at our Main Street store from noon to 1pm.")

COST
Assuming each volunteer cost the marketer the most expensive drink in the house, it's still a lot cheaper than the $20 - $50 an hour that they pay individuals to attend focus groups, not to mention a lot easier to organize and manage.

WIN-WIN-WIN
It's a win-win-win: free lattes during hard times; increased foot traffic to the stores, not to mention free press and lots of word-of-mouth; and an easy way for entrepreneurs and small businesses to test their products and services on remarkably willing test-subjects.

JUST SAY NO
How do you say No to willing participants that don't fit the demographic? Easy: a pre-registration form (online, which can be accessed at any in-store terminal) where they declare their various consumer preferences and categories. This is automatically matched to whatever the marketer has checked off and the result is either "Yes, come on down!" Or "Sorry, we have no matches for you today. Please try again soon."

Somebody please take this idea and use it. I want a free latte, dammit.

iPhone G3 and Canadian phone service plans

I've been reading comments on an article at the Globe and Mail site speculating about the price of phone plans for the new iPhone G3 due out in July. Lots of moaning about how high the service charges will be, with no thought to the root of the problem. To clarify:

1) phone service providers are not subsidizing the iPhone. They are no longer required to share revenue with Apple. Apple has gone back to just selling the hardware/software, in the hopes of accelerating global sales and thus becoming the world's most popular mobile gadget.

2) Apple has no control over what phone service providers will charge. They will leave that up to the market to decide. Only time will tell what people are willing to pay.

3) Canada's protectionist laws will ensure that Canadians will always pay a higher price via domestic monopolies, than other countries with active international free-trade agreements. Fear of being swallowed/pummelled by foreign competition keeps Canada from participating fully in its free trade agreements. ("Yes, please buy our Canadian exports, but no, no, you can't compete with us at the same price on our home turf. We must insist on slapping high import tariffs on your goods so that the playing field is tilted in favor of our own goods here at home, because we're just not sure we'd survive otherwise.") So Rogers, Bell, etc enjoy a sweet monopoly on domestic markets, with no real fear of international competition.

Until Canada realizes and believes that their products and services are capable of being world-class, they will continue to cling to protectionism. Unfortunately, globalization is unstoppable. It's only a matter of time before the tsunami of competition hits. There are already signs of leaks in the dam: Skype has found a way to circumvent the tariffs. It's called VoIP. And they now offer mobile phones with roaming capabilities (i.e. buy a phone and plan in London, use it in Canada for potentially less than a Rogers/Bell deal). You can tweet and text using Skype. Other technologies will soon follow.

The law cannot keep up with tech innovation, so the only way to survive is to jump into the fray and compete, head to head, with other countries. What are we afraid of? If we can live through harsh winters, surely we can kick some British butt.

loopt.com, the new i-phone and social networking

If you're a social bunny, you'll love loopt.com. Way more powerful than just being able to call friends for a spontaneous dinner, because it lets you see immediately where your friends are both on a GPS map, and via photo/video that they've taken (if they're in a giving mood). It also lets you instantly call or text them to get together. Yes, you can stay in touch with friends via twitter.com, but it relies heavily on text, whereas loopt lets you see where they are, and visuals are just much faster and more efficient than texting.

We all complain about not having time to see our friends, and the hassle of coordinating plans, especially in a big city. loopt.com puts the spontaneity back into relationships. If I see a friend is nearby, I can suggest lunch or a coffee, and the logistics are a snap. Of course, if I don't want to be found, I can simply turn off my sharing, or filter out all but a list of friends. How cool is that??

While it works with just about every mobile device out there, it's especially easy and fun on an iPhone. But then, what isn't? Speaking of which, I can't wait for the new iPhone (due out July 11), as it's hooked to multiple global phone networks and will take a SIM card. Hallelujah.

What makes a great designer?

Design is not a mysterious talent that one is born with. It takes skill (born of hundreds of hours of practice), experience (add several years of underpaid toil) and exposure to art of all forms, to develop "an eye."

To be a great designer requires imagination (born of daydreaming) and relentless curiosity. These combine to develop a capacity to generate fresh ideas on a regular basis.

You may be surprised to learn that many famous designers can't draw. Most cannot spell to save themselves. (You're feeling better already, aren't you?)

What they can do is make your stuff look irresistible to even the most rational of consumers. How many times have you bought something that you know is overpriced simply because you preferred its packaging?

According to a 2007 national survey by Procter & Gamble, professional design pays for itself 20 times over.

Wanna get rich? Hire a designer.

Why pay a designer when I can do it myself?

It looks easy enough. A brochure or flyer can be whipped up in 5 minutes (okay, 30 minutes) in Word or Photoshop, right? Your niece/neighbor/brother-in-law is a whiz on a computer. Between the two of you, you can whip something up, right? Besides, it looks like fun.

Let's assume you're capable of selecting a couple of colors, fonts and you've found some appropriate photos/art. Great. Now try putting them together.

Not quite what you were after? Try using a wizard or template.

Still have a nagging suspicion that it's, well... a bit ordinary? Something's missing, but you can't put your finger on what it is. The photos are great, the font is cool, the color is your favorite... Why is this so damn hard? In a word: composition.

Composition is the secret ingredient that separates professional design from home-made efforts.

Design is just a fancy word for composition. Designers are simply composers of visual elements. Whether they are fashion designers, interior designers or graphic designers, they are trained to select scale, color, shape, line, texture, materials and a myriad of other choices to create arrangements that look coherent and have that wow factor.

Composition is the art of taking raw ingredients (text, photos, a logo) and organizing them into an interesting, pleasing, coherent arrangement. This involves decisions such as how large each element should be, what colors to use where, what shapes to introduce. It involves creating a sense of hierarchy on the page so that the viewer is not paralyzed by too many choices. Most of all, it requires editing the thousands of possibilities, and then modifying them as needed to produce an original appealing look. The result is that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

To the untrained eye, it's often easier to spot a design that lacks composition than one that has it. Just open the Yellow Pages and scan the ads. Ever noticed how easily you're seduced by ads that look simple, elegant and organized, versus ones that just scream 20 messages at you? A presentation without composition is like an orchestra with no conductor.

What else can a designer offer that I can't do myself?

Skill and speed. As with any endeavor, the longer you do it, the faster and better you get at it. Someone who works with visual software every day is going to be faster and more skilled than someone who dabbles or is still mastering it.

Longevity: Being immersed in the design world, they are more likely to know when a trend has reached saturation point, and steer you in the direction of emerging trends for a look that is current and that will last longer.

Raw materials: Designers have access to hundreds of fonts. They also know how to tweak them to give your logo/piece a custom look. (When you use a font that's available with standard software like Word, the results look ordinary. Why? Because your eyes, and everyone else's, are conditioned to recognize them.) They know where and how to acquire original professional photography or illustration that fits your budget so that you don't end up using mediocre clip art or stock that looks –surprise!– bland and ordinary and, well, home-made.

You already know, from your own experience as a client and a consumer, that a first impression can be the last. Why cripple your efforts with anything less than a fabulous presentation?

a free mini site?

If you haven't already heard, there is a place online that allows anyone to build a quick, simple website. For free. (I'll get to the strings attached in a minute, but they're minimal). Very similar to a blog, except that you can add pages, and basic navigation. i.e. it can be a website or a one-long-page blog. You can even add PayPal buttons. It's called weebly.com

I tested it out, and I think it's perfect for micro-businesses or small organizations (sewing groups, book clubs, neighborhood watch, etc). There are plenty of layouts to choose from. Keep in mind you can change the photos. The only drawbacks I could find were:

a) it's for very small, basic sites only. No secondary navigation.
b) No databases (= no ecommerce, other than a single item button)
c) one or 2 column layouts only (which is fine for 95% of sites)
d) limited choice of fonts
e) there's a credit link at the foot of each page to weebly, small or large depending on the template you choose. You can't delete it.

If you can live within that, it's an amazing deal, especially for a freelancer or small organization. Even the hosting is free! But if you want to host it elsewhere, you can design your site at weebly.com and then download the code as a zip file and upload it to another webhost's server.

How can all this be free? No doubt the creators are pitching it to Google, etc in the hopes of getting rich. The consumer, however, has nothing to lose.

But let's say you want a small site with a lot of photos, music or video. Like, a wedding or baby album. You might be better off using Apple's iWeb, which is part of iLife. It's $79, or free with any Mac.

Follow-up to integrating a blog and newsletter

I wrote too soon. It would be lovely to have a service that integrates blog and newsletter publishing and reliable metrics (to measure your efforts). However, it seems to elude us still.

The blogs on iContact appear within a frame that displays all the iContact Community information (view sample). This is designed to publicize iContact, as well as the other members of the iContact Community. The problem is, it tends to clutter the look of a blog. So if you're not interested in co-branding with them, stick to wordpress.com or blogger.com. You can still use their Archive feature to keep a record of all your past newsletters. THAT is definitely useful for when your clients' email programs don't display your message properly (and over which you have no control). That's the link above every email newsletter that reads, "Having difficulty reading this email? Click here to view it in a browser."

Integrating a blog and an email newsletter

Why would you want/need both a blog and an email newsletter list? Because some fans prefer email, some prefer reading a web page. And you gotta give people what they want. At least, in business.

Okay, so how do you kill two birds with one stone? Sign up with an inexpensive email marketing service like iContact (for $10/mth) and publish both at the same time, by simply checking off the right boxes. They will also manage your surveys, and automate the Subscribe/Unsubscribe process. More importantly, they will track how many people read what you're writing, in both your blog and your emails.

Goodreads.com: Calling all book worms

If you love books, check out goodreads.com

Why would you bother signing up and spending time telling the world what's on your nightstand? Well, because if your friends sign up, you can see what they're reading and whether they recommend a book. Okay, that's nice, but how is this truly helpful? How is it any different from checking out Amazon.com reviews?

In a word: trust.

You're more likely to trust your friend's recommendation over a stranger's. You will know for sure that the rating or review you read is from them, rather than the clandestine marketing efforts of a PR expert or the authors themselves, who tend to rave about the work to boost sales and counter bad reviews.

You can also see other readers' reviews, so if you see someone whose tastes mirror yours, you will begin to trust their recommendations as well. But only if they consistently mirror yours over time, which is labor intensive for a marketing agency to maintain, and thus unlikely to happen.

I give it less than 6 months until they're bought by Amazon or similar.