Generative AI for Marketing

Bard AI says...

Generative AI is a powerful tool that can be used to create a variety of marketing materials, including blog posts, social media posts, and even ad copy. However, there are some pros and cons to using generative AI for marketing that you should be aware of.

Pros of using generative AI for marketing:

• Increased efficiency: Generative AI can help you to create more marketing materials in less time. This can free up your time to focus on other aspects of your marketing campaign.
• Improved personalization: Generative AI can be used to personalize your marketing materials for individual users. This can help you to connect with your audience on a more personal level and increase engagement.
• New and creative ideas: Generative AI can help you to come up with new and creative marketing ideas. This can help you to stand out from the competition and generate more leads and sales.

Cons of using generative AI for marketing:

• Potential for bias: Generative AI is trained on a massive amount of data, which can introduce bias into the generated content. This is something that you need to be aware of and take steps to mitigate.
• Quality of content: The quality of the content generated by generative AI can vary. It is important to proofread and edit the content before you publish it.
• Cost: Generative AI can be expensive to use. You need to factor in the cost of the software, as well as the cost of training and maintaining the AI model.

(human here)

When I asked Bard how generative AI was unique, it said that generative AI was more efficient than humans and could produce content at scale. 

Startup Resources for Remote Work, Pandemic Response

Never in my lifetime have I seen 17 million people file for unemployment within a few weeks. Couple that with all the country-specific travel restrictions, and the shutdown of certain retail industry sectors: entertainment, in-store dining, travel, brick 'n mortar stores, and from a state mandate, closure of non-essential businesses such as daycare centers, hair salons, eateries w/o takeout or delivery options, etc. 

Here is a compilation of resources that your small business or startup may find useful:

Video conferencing. Alternatives to Zoom conferencing if user privacy is a concern:

• Google Meet (formerly Google Hangouts)
• Goto Meeting
• Join.Me
• WebEx
• Microsoft Teams & Skype

COVID-19 Response Plans. HR policies and procedures that address health and safety of employees

• HR Examiner - Employers Coronavirus Checklist
• Coronavirus Overview for Startups by Elad Gil (blog)
• LifeLab's Google Doc - HR & People Ops Prep Doc
• CDC Guidance for Business re: Coronavirus
• Baker MacKenzie - Essential Action Items for US Employers
• Sample Response Plans
• Handshake
• Coinbase
• Front

Remote Work Policies & Tools (examples):

• Slack - Remote Work Tips
• SHRM - Legal Resources & Tools for Remote Work
• Zapier - Guide to Working Remotely
• GitLab - Tools for Remote Work
• InVision - Running Effective Remote Events [PDF]

Grants and other non-money assistance:

• Google - $340 million in Google Ads credits available to all SMBs with active accounts over the past year

Small Business Gov't Resources

• SBA's Small Business Guidance & Loan Resources
• Paycheck Protection Progran
• EIDL Loan Advance
• SBA Express Bridge Loans
• SBA Debt Relief
• 100 most active SBA 7(a) lenders

WA State

• WA official COVID-19 website
• SBA COVID19 Disaster Loan Programs
• Working Washington Small Business Emergency Grant (WWSBEG) - application [PDF], CREDC website (local small business agency in SW Washington) - one-time grant of $10,000 for small businesses with 1-10 employees or sole proprietors, FAQ

Bring Your Own Device Strategy

Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) is an interesting customer acquisition strategy that is currently in use by T-Mobile, whether it is regarding a tablet, a SIM card mobile device, or other portable device such as a next-gen handheld GPS, wifi-enabled A/V, etc. The BYOD concept emerged just a few years ago and is gaining more traction among security software providers, as well as corporate and government work environments. 

By 2016, Gartner predicts that more than 1.6 billion smart mobile devices will be sold, two-thirds of the workforce will own a smartphone, and 40 percent of the workforce will be mobile. Mobile will change applications and how they are delivered.  By the end of the decade, more than 30 billion devices will be permanently connected (to the internet) and 150 billion will be occasionally connected. It will soon cost more not to monitor devices than to monitor them.

Private Company Valuation

Two of my grad skool classes (econ & finance) taught this topic as part of its curriculum and both professors had us neophytes look at quantitative data with respect to publicly traded companies; but what if you are trying to do a valuation of a privately held company. Can you train your intuition to be as good as the eons of financial valuations done by the professionals?

What do we know about a company? Does it matter who founded it or who their VC backers are? Does it matter more if end users actually like the products and services offered? And, how would you even know if it's the right time to buy? What can LinkedIn do that similar competitors cannot? What is their competitive advantage?

First things first. I haven't invested in the stock I'm about to talk about in this post. I thought about it quite a bit, but a SaaS vendor that is relatively new on the block and as one that embraces emerging technologies, it falls outside my personal criteria for investing in new stocks. I have been a basic end user since they launched; and I heard about it from a colleague. Word of mouth marketing is pretty powerful stuff. These days, it's nearly mandatory for business students at the undergrad or graduate level to have a LinkedIn profile. I have a user profile where I allow some public (non-login) access to; though you can see much more if you are also a member of the site. And, for the most part, for those of you without a dedicated site for your resume or portfolio, this is a good business networking site to connect with or show others in the industry or prospective markets what you are all about.

The site serves three distinct markets: human resource professionals, business end-users, and advertisers that want to market products/services to site users. For business networking sites, LinkedIn has few competitors using the freemium model, such as Germany's Xing (65 million members) or France's Viadeo (30 million members). Bloomberg, D&B, or Hoovers often provide basic data and company overviews. If we looked purely at the site being for mid- and executive level job seeker members, the site also competes for pocketshare with Execunet and TheLadders.

Over the last couple years, LinkedIn had been quietly rolling out web technology advancements and key partnerships with app add-ons, relevant ones that help sell a user's online business persona. Google AdSense ads have also recently appeared on the site too; though, they appear to be there to help the site pay for itself rather than be direct attempts at forming partnerships with key advertisers (though, the site has that feature too).

The target offering price of $45 is fair. It's the starved market that has pushed the price above $100/share. Is it sustainable at that price? Probably not, but investors don't care. If you're looking for a rational explanation for the jump in price, you won't find one on talk radio or the financial news hour on television. Investing isn't about rational decisions, it's based on GRIEF (according to one of my professors): Greed (Return, Income, Earnings) Fear. Anyhow, back to the topic at hand.

Companies typically go public to raise their status (more media coverage, more marketing), attract new customers, fund business expansions or R&D initiatives, and/or pay off existing debt and early-stage investors. Private company valuations are done to help sell the company, raise additional capital from investors, for a management buyout, for estate planning, for creating an ESOP plan (employee stock ownership plan), or for tax purposes.

To valuate a private company, one method is to look at the pre-IPO or SEC filings of existing competitors that are publicly traded or who are open about their earnings and revenues. The statements that privately-held companies make in these filings shed the best possible light into who they are and what they stand for; and are pretty good browsing for those who want to launch a similar concept or business.

A second method is to look at quantitative figures such as beta (how much market risk when compared to others in the industry), cash flow, or market capitalization (share price x outstanding shares). Here is a decent overview of how to calculate beta and total risk; this PDF link comes from Aswath Damodaran's NYU page.

A third method is to use Inc Magazine's valuation calculator or site resources. Industry data is already neatly aggregated for users to see sector averages for different types of businesses; and from the options of the drop-down box for industry, it is based on standard industry classification (SIC) categories, or its more modern counterpart NAICS. The interactive visual calculator looks at multiple quantitative data points such as industry median sales and revenues, net sales, gross profit, EBIT (earnings before income and taxes), EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization), discretionary earnings (operating profit, owner compensation, and noncash charges), and BVIC (book value of invested capital).

There are a lot more strategies out there beyond the top three listed here. To make an informed decision about whether or not to buy the stock of a privately-held company, you'll have to engage in more than one method of valuation.

Organic Growth for Email Lists

You don't need a sophisticated ad program on a 3rd party daily deals website to gain traction with your local customer base. If you have a physical storefront like a dry cleaner, restaurant, bakery, coffee shop, or auto repair shop, you want a loyal, repeat customers.. right?

Here are five easy ways to get started:

1. Use online registration - on your website, on a social media profile page
2. Use offline registration - ask customers if they want to be added to your newsletter or sign up for special in-store offers; a simple sign-up roster or guest registry book can help
3. Embed opt-in messaging in transactional emails
4. Use a brand-relevant prize if engaging in a contest or sweepstakes
5. Use market research studies as a means to gather relevant customer insight, contact info

Pros:

This is relatively inexpensive and subscribers have already expressed an interest about you or your products/services. They are pre-qualified, or at the very least, open to receiving information or relevant offers from your organization. Growing your own list can help reduce spam complaints and opt-outs.

Things to keep in mind:

• Make sure your sign-up box is highly visible on your website (top left is common)
• Don't limit your subscription box to just the home page; make it available in more than once place and be sure it can be easily picked up by a search engine when users type in "email newsletter" when searching in conjunction with your brand(s) or company
• Give people a reason to subsribe: free offers, free webinars, new product announcements, offers from relevant partner firms (e.g., if you are a Photographer magazine and you have exclusive offers for teachers who buy software/hardware from an academic reseller like Studica); free industry research or highlights; coupon for free shipping, 50% off an item (Michaels.com); free gardening newsletter and %-off coupons (HomeDepot.com, Lowes.com)
• If you're using a contest as a means of traffic traction and conversion, track the lifetime value of subscribers obtained this way to determine if the promotion is worth repeating

Price of a loaf

Any home baker with a bread machine will tell you that it takes roughly 3 hours to make your own loaf of bread, and while you can control the quality of the ingredients that goes into that loaf, it still takes 3 hours. And, depending on your machine, you can at most only make one or two loaves at any time. For a consumer buying ingredients at retail, the cost to make your own loaf is about 30% of the price it costs to buy the finished good from a grocery store. You can imagine what the profit margin is like for restaurants that buy their raw materials at wholesale prices. 


People shop and eat at restaurants like Panera Bread because these places have an economy of scale working in their favor, larger ovens, the competitive advantage offering a multitude of culinary dishes not just breads, but also desserts, soups, salads, pizzas, and other common lunch fare. They even brew their own iced tea. Plus, it helps tremendously that the food that they make tastes really good. And, they offer free wifi and a casual, comfortable environment for people to meet and gather. You'll also note that aside from customers buying gift certificates for other future customers, Panera does not offer coupons or discounts on any of their bakery cafe items to attract new customers. Panera customers aren't all that frugal, nor are they value shoppers in that the discount a coupon would offer is the key decision point of that purchase decision. Because, as Michael Silverstein and Neil Fiske (CEO, Eddie Bauer) would tell you in Trading Up, "people are willing to pay more for quality products that matter to them."


In May, Panera Bread Company opened up a nonprofit restaurant location, branded under the Panera Cares name, where customers could pay what they felt their meal was worth and limited the program to one meal per person.  Barely six months later, the bakery-cafe which offers the same menu items as its for-profit counterparts reports that 4,000 people a day visit the restaurant and about 65% pay the recommended amount with the remainder divided among over-payers and those who pay less or nothing. The store almost breaks even and the company has plans to open more "shared responsibility" restaurants. (The Economist, 10/09/2010, p.94)


Is this a competitive strategy and could other restaurants compete with such a model? Well, let's backtrack a little bit to just before this restaurant opened.


Panera Bread rakes in $1.35 Billion in revenues (FY 2009) with over 1,300 for-profit locations and 85% of those revenues comes from bakery-cafe sales (the other 15% from franchise royalties/fees and fresh dough sold to franchises). The premise of the restaurant, how it is run and what it stands for is all neatly laid out in its annual report:


"Our bakery-cafes are principally located in suburban, strip mall and regional mall locations. We feature high quality, reasonably priced food in a warm, inviting, and comfortable environment. With our identity rooted in handcrafted, fresh-baked, artisan bread, we are committed to providing great tasting, quality food that people can trust. Nearly all of our bakery-cafes have a menu highlighted by antibiotic-free chicken, whole grain bread and select organic and all-natural ingredients, with zero grams of artificial trans fat per serving, which provide flavorful, wholesome offerings. Our menu includes a wide variety of year-round favorites complemented by new items introduced seasonally with the goal of creating new standards in everyday food choices. In neighborhoods across this country and in Ontario, Canada, our customers enjoy our warm and welcoming environment featuring comfortable gathering areas, relaxing decor, and free internet access. Our bakery-cafes routinely donate bread and baked goods to community organizations in need.


Bread is our platform and the entry point to the Panera experience at our bakery-cafes. It is the symbol of Panera quality and a reminder of Panera Warmth, the totality of the experience the customer receives and can take home to share with friends and family. We strive to offer a memorable experience with superior customer service. Our associates are passionate about sharing their expertise and commitment with our customers. We strive to achieve what we call Concept Essence, our blueprint for attracting and retaining our targeted customers that we believe differentiates us from our competitors. Concept Essence begins with artisan bread, quality products and a warm, friendly and comfortable environment. It calls for each of our bakery-cafes to be a place customers can trust to serve high quality food. Bread is our passion, soul, and expertise, and the platform that makes all of our other food special."


The short answer is no, other restaurants cannot compete against Panera's philosophy. But, before Panera became mainstream, there was the privately-held Corner Bakery and Cafe which operates the same type of upscale, fast-casual eatery and is thriving more with franchise operations than the restaurant being the core of its operation. But, that is a business strategy for restaurants for another blog post.

There are plenty of examples of for-profit restaurants that tried to offer the same "free meal" concept as Panera Cares and failed and/or went bankrupt as a result. But what boggles the mind is why would a for-profit business try to or want to compete with one operating as a nonprofit? The goals are different and revenue isn't the keystone of the Panera Cares operation.

Groupon: Local Area Advertising

If you were already willing to discount your products and/or services by half, and of the remaining half of the expected revenues, only take in 25%, then maybe Groupon might be a decent advertising channel for local area advertising. But, if you think that 75% of an expected sale is way too high of an acquisition cost of new customers, you may just be among those who believe that Groupon is bad for business.

Like any advertising strategy, you should weigh the pros and cons of using the service, as well as the ROI and costs involved. For example:

Pros:

• Can bring in robust traffic to a storefront in a short period of time
• Consumers love Groupon and can't wait to tell their friends about it
• Customer pays for the opportunity of using a voucher instead of receiving a comparable offer in the mail for free

Cons:

• Groupon voucher offer language must be carefully constructed
• Groupon vouchers apply to one person only and cannot be redeemed for the benefit of the group; Customers have to read the fine print to see what they are really getting
• No lasting relationship with Groupon (no business directory listing, no customer reviews)
• Customers become Pavlovian in response to deep discounts for your products/services, meaning, they will only shop with you if a coupon or reward is involved
• Very high cost of acquisition of new customers who must have an extraordinary experience in order to become a repeat customer or spend more (without coupons) with your store
• Overuse of coupons can cause brand erosion, loss of operating margin, and decreased long-term profits
• Your business, existing employees, and in-store technology may not be able to handle the immediate influx of new customers (e.g., your hidden costs will rise because of this; adding new employees, training them on how to redeem Groupon coupons, increased staffing management issues) and quality of customer service or first-time customer experiences could suffer as a result
• You may, as a business owner, feel fleeced from the whole Groupon experience
• And, there's no unique technology nor business model that separates Groupon from its competitors

Alternatives:

• Entertainment Book, RelyLocal, PayBack Book, Goldstar Events, the "blue envelope" local coupon mailer
• Start your own customer email list and offer a monthly newsletter; Constant Contact starts at about $15/month; Vertical Response offers pretty decent rates and does postcards too
• If you're a professional services business owner, after hours business mixers, Chamber of Commerce events, and local/regional networking events through Meetup.com are excellent places to meet new customers

Disney market strategy

When is the last movie or tv series that Disney was able to create on their own that was a blockbuster success? Exclude anything made by Pixar because that doesn't really count as being Disney-created.

Marvel Comics is a great franchise for Disney to pick up as a licensed brand. $4 billion is chump change over the lifetime ownership of all the Marvel properties and titles that could become movies. Kudos to Stan Lee for selling his soul to Disney. Miyazaki did the same by selling the rights to his library to Disney. Let's face it, aside from the failing amusement parks, Disney has what Time Warner, Fox Media, and Sony Entertainment have.. a distribution network and a very captive audience who wants to buy anything with their stamp on it.

Read more?

p.s. Stan Lee does not own Marvel; but his name is synonymous with the Marvel brand. If you read comic books penned by him in the early 80s.

40% of US Gamers are Women

In the Entertainment Software Association's 2008 report...

Audience Sample:

1,200 nationally representative households identified as owning either or both a video game console or a personal computer used to run entertainment software

Notable Stats:

• 65% of American households play computer or video games
• 35 is the average game player age
• 26% of gamers were over the age of 50 (in 2008)
• 13 years is the average number of years adult gamers have been playing computer or video games

Best Selling Video Game Genres, 2007:

• 22.3% Action
  
• 17.6% Family entertainment
• 14.1% Sports
• 12.1% Shooter
  

Best Selling Computer Game Genres, 2007:

• 33.9% Strategy
• 18.8% Role-playing
• 14.3% Family entertainment
• 11.6% Shooter

Read more?

So, how is this relevant to marketing? CRM strategy is one aspect that comes to mind. It is a marketer's ability to define, track, and market to specific demographic sets of customers who frequently buy certain game genres. Customer relationship management, CRM, is more than just a collection of people who bought your products and services at some point. A few challenges exist for anyone entering or playing in this industry:

- to create a substantial revenue stream of recurrent purchases from new or existing customers
- to maximize ad and marketing spends in the promotion of sales
- to anticipate what customers want to play next based on purchase behavior

A good CRM system helps marketers keep the customers populations in the right buckets, and by doing so, we're able to direct appropriate messaging and content to those customers. Just having software in place isn't going to tell you how or where to market, that's what marketers are for.

Book Review: Get Content. Get Customers.

Oooh! I'm so excited. My copy of Get Content. Get Customers. by Joe Pulizzi and Newt Barrett just came in the mail. I'll be posting a review of this soon and x-posting it to Amazon.com. The inside flap reads:

"Get Content. Get Customers. shows you step-by-step how to create and execute a content marketing strategy that works regardless of the size of your company or type of business you are in. This book provides dozens of examples of how large and small companies, associations, entrepreneurs, and international organizations are leveraging the power of content to drive their businesses."

I wholeheartedly agree with the authors' suggestion that all the rules have changed and marketers need to relearn the marketing game with a brand new marketing mindset.

This book pairs with the Right Content. Right Response. webinar hosted by BeGreeted.Com, Junta42, and Conversion Sciences.

Budget, time, and effort

Marketing needs come in all sorts of flavors:

• I'm a chiropractor working 12 hour days. When do I have time for marketing?
• I'm a CPA and I can only take on clients within an X-radius driving distance.
• I'm a licensed psychologist looking to get new customers in the [region] area.
• I'm a writer for the entertainment industry and I have a script to pitch.
• I'm a wellness health professional with a small retail storefront, what's the best way to attract new and retain old customers?
  

The way marketing has evolved with the digital landscape has made it easier than ever for small businesses and sole proprietorships to market their products or services to new, undefined customer segments.

Budget has always been a factor for the type(s) of marketing programs used to acquire or retain customers. The deeper the pockets, the better the program? Not necessarily so. You can always use a "no-frills", open source application to handle some of the marketing. You could use Microsoft Word to design a sales brochure in-house and either print it yourself or at a local printshop. A marketer can help you craft the right message and what to say that sells your services to a new customer.

People have to make the time to seek out marketing best practices for their industry and to utilize that knowledge that separates them from the competitors who attended the same seminar on how to market their business.

No one knows a business like the owner of a company. This is why effort is a key factor for marketing success. If you're not working with an outside marketing consultant or have one in-house, you'll be doing all the marketing yourself in addition to everything else your company does. It takes an active understanding of what marketing tools are best for your line of business. The days of flat advertising in the "yellow book" are no longer relevant.

Here's a tip on competitive intelligence:

Find a company that's similar to your own and search for them with all the methods you know. Telephone book ad, online listing, local flyer/message board ad, or where they appear in a search query on your favorite search engine. What is it about their marketing message that caught your attention? If you were their customer, would you respond?