#12. Do You Charge for Your Free Service?

Am I a marketing sheep? 261 Questions

Xobni is free. They're offering a private beta that is free, if you can get in.

Those of us who want to get an early taste of the service are paying for admittance. We're paying with our connections, with our links, and with our opinion.

I hope Xobni the application is as smart.

At this point, I'm not a Xobni fan. I've never used it. But I did request to get into their private beta. That was almost two months ago. I've done this with dozens of services.

When I got an email from them recently, I'd already forgotten what they do. But, they said I could get in early and with a click they would tell me how.

The Life's Blood of Web 2.0

What does any Web 2.0 company need to survive and thrive?

Not money. At least not much.

Not a high-powered sales team.

They need more people to try the site, people who will help them make it better. So, Xobni offered three ways to get into their early beta.

You should copy these down.

1. Invite friends (at least 4)
2. Qualify yourself as a desirable beta tester
3. Put their badge on your blog and generate two signups.

So, they've turned what could be a dark period with no press into a social free-for-all. This is more powerful than any $9.95 monthly subscription fee -- at least at this point in their life.

Smart.

What are you charging for your free services?

P.S.: Here's the badge. Now go join so I can get in early.

7. Are you OK with Tweakers?

Are you a Marketing Sheep? 261 Questions

Lately, I've had the audacity to call myself a Conversion Scientist. Conversion Specialist is actually a more accurate, but "Scientist" draws more interesting pictures in peoples' minds. Plus, I love that line from Ghostbusters: "Backoff, Mam. I'm a Scientist."

Now Seth Godin has come along and declared that I'm really a tweaker. My job is to make those often small changes that cause a Web site to convert visitors into leads and customers. But, a tweaker is not nearly as cool as a scientist.

I found this post through a discussion on Social Media Optimization that Rohit Bhargava started. Of his five good rules on SMO (fight that gag reflex), I love the last, "Encourage Mashup." This rule tells the marketing sheep that his job is to put a little bit of his product out there for others to play with.

This was at the heart of the first item on the Massey Marketing Manifesto: "Marketing is a valuable service." It says that marketing is an extension of the serivces (or products) provided by your company.

What information does your organization generate that could be shared with the public?

Just because you don't know what they would use it for, doesn't mean it wouldn't be valuable to someone. And if it is related to what you sell, doesn't it stand to reason that the people using it would be somewhat close to those you sell to? The answer may be NO.

But to try out such strategies, you clearly need to leave the flock and embrace the tweakers.

Finally, Social Media Optimization?! That is a name that will be bandied about in the flock for years to come. I hope this is the last time I'll ever use it.

6. Is Your Web site Mute?

Are you a Marketing Sheep? 261 Questions

I was "attending" the SXSW panels that I missed this year via podcast. John Battelle made an interesting point as part of the panel discussion Why Marketers Need To Work With People Media.

We've all heard that "Brands are conversations" he posited reflecting the Cluetrain Manifesto philosophy that "markets are conversations. This has become second nature to "new" marketers.

As an example, he sited Google. He made the point that searching through Google is a conversation. It might go something like this:

"So, what are you looking for?"

You tell Google the search term you're interested in.

"OK. I have lot's of hits. These are the ones I think you might be looking for. Oh, and I've got some sponsored links that might be helpful as well. Do any of these look good to you?"

You tell Google which you like by clicking on a link.

Google says, "OK. I'll take you directly there. If you don't find what you're looking for, just click Back and we'll try some other ones."

John's main question was Is your Web site mute compared to the very conversational experience the visitor just left at Google?

Is your site a brochure that tries to talk convincingly to everyone who might visit?

Are you offering anything to start a conversation like "I think you might like this whitepaper. I'm happy to send it to you if you'll provide your email address. By the way, could I talk to you some more about your problem through my free newsletter?"

Any valuable services available on your site? Forums? Helpful resources? Entertainment?

Photo courtesy aweinroth.