In the last post I talked about some reasons why you should run an advisory council. Customer advisory councils are more work than they look. Here are some tips on running a better customer advisory board that have worked for me.
You’re pitching your startup to a lot of people including investors, business partners, customers, prospects, media and analysts. It might be tempting to build one pitch and re-use it. Don’t do it! Recycling is good for the environment but it’s very dangerous for your startup.
Smaller companies I work with are often reluctant to try to influence customer buying criteria. The thinking usually goes that the customer knows what they want and doesn’t want to be actively “sold.” I don’t believe that’s the right way to look at it.
What do John Mayer and Google Buzz product managers have in common? They’re both having a rough couple of weeks. It struck me that there were some common themes between the two incidents and business lessons to be learned. Not really but it’s my blog OK, and I always wanted to write a post about John Mayer and Google.
Ah Valentine’s day. There’s nothing like a made-up holiday to remind us that we should be nice to people at least once a year. When was the last time you showed your customers a little love? And I’m not talking heart-shaped box of Godiva love here either, I mean when was the last time you lavished carat-sized love on the people that pay your salary?
I was at South by Southwest Interactive the past few days and got to watch a lot of people present. Some like Clay Shirky and Gary Vaynerchuk were seasoned presenters, others were folks presenting as part of a panel or interactive “core conversation” that had less experience presenting in front of large groups. Here’s a bit of what I took away about how to give a better presentation.
I’ve run a few customer advisory councils and I’ve found them to be really useful both from marketing and a sales perspective. Product feedback is just the beginning. A well-run customer advisory council can be a great source of sales leads, can increase your marketing ROI and improve your operations.
Lean startups and hands-on angel investors are changing the startup landscape in Toronto. An article (plus video) I did for CityNews and The Mark News.
When your marketing budget is microscopic, every marketing tactic you run needs to be optimized. Cheap and easy to run, almost every company I work with does webinars but they are often run on autopilot. Here are 13 ideas for getting more out of your webinars.
Attaching your startup brand to a movement involves figuring out what your brand stands for. Here’s a hint – the movement isn’t called “Making me Rich.”
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