BUSINESS HOW TO
WHAT BUSINESS ARE YOU REALLY IN?
users “feel like they’re part of a bigger community — part of something more than just buying razors.”
friends. I help you get your community members to buy more products and services from you that will benefit their lives. My real business is relationship marketing. Sure, I use a newsletter to start and build on that community. We use content to develop relationships and to introduce or remind people of the all the products or services you offer. We run promotions to generate more referrals. We even educate customers on behalf of our clients with the content we create. But ultimately, we want your customer to feel like a member of a community and that they have a relationship with you. This concept of relationship marketing is not an easy sell, but, more and more, you’re seeing even larger companies, billion-dollar brands, implementing this strategy. Back in early 2014, Dollar Shave Club, the subscription razor service that made the amazingly funny viral video titled “Our Blades are F******g Great,” sent a monthly print newsletter, The Bathroom Minutes, to each of its 1.1 million active members. Dollar Shave Club’s senior vice president of marketing, Adam Weber, said, “One of our most important marketing vehicles is our actual box,” which includes their product and print newsletter. The Bathroom Minutes combines editorial content with product updates and company news, and informs and entertains to make the brand’s loyal
I see many people confused about the business they are in. Entrepreneurs feel that their ware or industry defines their business, but is that true? Am I in the newsletter or publishing business? What about the content creation business? After all, we create thousands of pages of content each month. Maybe that is my business. I send this newsletter to over 10,000 people a month. Maybe I’m in the education business. Understanding what business you’re really in and developing products and services to that end is WHAT ALLOWS YOU TO
Aren’t these guys just in the razor business? Why do they add the expense of a newsletter to their packaging? I assure you they don’t get 1.1 million of these printed and inserted for free. It’s simple. They know what business they are in, which is community. With their subscription business model, the name of the game is customer churn and customer lifetime value. Making sure they improved those areas of their business was a priority, so what did they do? 1. They had a solution for people. Good, but inexpensive razors. 2. They created a unique customer experience. They had good packaging and a good welcome email. They sometimes sent out free samples with your order. They included The Bathroom Minutes each month (notice it was not quarterly or bimonthly) with messages from the founder at the start of each issue. Based on their strategy, I’m now wondering if I had a consultation call with them in the early days. They used the customer’s experience to encourage word of mouth and social engagement, which helped build the brand and get them more customers. Finally, the benefit of the customer experience was that they had increased customer lifetime values. Could they track the ROI 100 percent on the extra money they put in the packaging, free samples,
GROW FASTER, MAKE MORE MONEY, AND, ULTIMATELY, SERVE MORE PEOPLE.
The truth of the matter is, I’m not in any of those businesses, nor do I want to be. Those are commodity businesses that can be ripped off and duplicated easily. My real business is helping you build a community and develop relationships, with the goal of bringing more people into your community and helping them want to stay in your community and refer family and
or The Bathroom Minutes? My guess is they couldn’t. But with all the right pieces of the puzzle in place, they ultimately started, and in a few short years sold the company for $1 billion, all cash.
I firmly believe that getting to the right answers starts with asking the right questions, so I ask again, what business are you in? Are you in the commodity business or the relationship business? Do you need people to buy your products or services? Do you want and need referrals or repeat business? Understanding what business you’re really in and developing products and services to that end is what allows you to grow faster, make more money, and, ultimately, serve more people.
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