This post is by Michael Pollock, the original owner of Small Business Branding. Yaro Starak now owns and produces the latest content for this blog.
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Before I get to my own thoughts about yourelevatorpitch.com, I want to mention a related post by Rich Brooks, who writes flyte: what works online. Rich writes:
"I’m not here to talk about Elevator Pitch … but rather Michael’s clever marketing technique. What is he
accomplishing?
- He’s going to get a lot of his readers to give free feedback and usability testing…otherwise he might have to pay for it!
- He’s getting some buzz going for Elevator Pitch (after all, you’re reading about it right now.)
- He’s generating a lot of incoming links for Elevator Pitch (hello, search engines!)
- He’s getting a lot of bloggers to link to his site (like me!)
- I’m getting a link from his blog back to mine (win for me!)
- He even says, ‘if you’d like to play….’ See, it’s not work! It’s play! Everyone loves play."
At
first, I was a bit put off with Rich’s suggestion that my previous post
was a form of marketing. After all, it was hardly my intent to market
anything. I was merely curious what others thought about the site, and
I thought it would help Aaron
get additional feedback beyond mine (by the way, Aaron is not a client
of mine. He’s a reader of my blog and asked for my feedback). I also
thought it would be valuable for other readers to see a real-life
example of what works and doesn’t work when it comes to web sites. How
could that possibly be considered marketing?
Then I remembered my Small Business Branding Manifesto in which I write:
2. Forget Marketing. Feed Your Network. Stop trying
to get/acquire/attract clients. It’s too 20th century. It’s dead.
People don’t want to be sold. They don’t want to be marketed to. People
are hungry, and they want to be fed. Find or build a network of people
with common interests and needs. Find out what they’re hungry for and
feed them (wasn’t there a Jewish guy who did that a couple thousand
years ago?).2a. Forget Marketing. Think Conversations. "For
thousands of years, we knew what markets were: conversations between
people who sought out others who shared the same interests . . .
Conversation is a profound act of humanity. So once were markets." (The Cluetrain Manifesto by Doc Searls, David Weinberger, Chris Locke and Rick Levine)
Not
to toot my own horn … well, maybe a little, but I was walking my
talk. I was/am marketing. But I’m not marketing. At least not the way
it’s been done traditionally. Rich says I’m being clever, but I’m
really not. See, I really believe this stuff. Forget marketing. It’s yesterday’s
news.
Just like with blogging, the business people who make the choice
to stop marketing and start feeding their network will seize an
opportunity … an opportunity to stand apart from every other business
that’s still doing it the old way.
Yes, there are people who still respond to the old way of marketing,
but that group is becoming progressively smaller by the month. And
besides, most people in that group are mainly commodity buyers looking
for the lowest price. If it’s your thing to be the low cost provider,
go for it. If not, move on.
Yes, some of the old rules of business still apply (and always
will). You have to know who you serve. You have to know what value you
provide them. You have to communicate that value in a pointed and
memorable way. And that just gets you a ticket to the dance today. It’ll take more than that to earn a loyal, long-term dance partner.
Okay, there’s my rant. Thanks to Rich for the inspiration. Now to my feedback on yourelevator pitch.com. Here’s what I wrote to Aaron:
here’s what i like about the site/idea:
1. aesthetically, the design is
great. very cool, trendy and bright.
2. the idea itself is crucial to a
business of any shape/size, and there’s tremendous value in helping someone
perfect their elevator pitch.
here’s what’s not working or missing for
me:
1. when i go to the site i can’t tell immediately what’s in it for
me. the elevator pitch itself is merely a tool, like a hammer. pretty
unexciting in and of itself. what is exciting is what i can do/build with
that tool.
you need to talk about the amazing house or the cool guest
room that can be built with the hammer rather than the hammer. tell me
about how much better my life will be by using the hammer rather than
how great the hammer is.
2. i don’t know what you want me to do at the
site when i get there, nor do i know what’s in it for me if i do what you
want. there’s value in being able to articulate my elevator pitch, but what
value is there in posting it on your site? it may be there but i can’t find
the answer to that question within 5 seconds, and that’s about all the time
you have to really GRAB someone’s attention.
3. personally, i don’t
like the term "elevator pitch." it makes the pitcher feel like a salesman,
and most people hate to sell. i know it’s an oft-used term, but it repels me
more than excites me. that’s just me. it also doesn’t do justice to the the
idea. the concept to which you’re referring is the very foundation of my
business, and i don’t want to refer to it as a "pitch." i realize that
throws everything out of whack … after all, the site is named "elevator
pitch." sorry.
if i were advising you professionally, i’d want to come up
with another term to replace "elevator pitch." more importantly, i’d want to
come up with a term that refers to the end result of perfecting my elevator
pitch. "magnetic messages" or something along those lines. i’d also want
you to look at it from the perspective that you are trying to earn money from
it. after all, you’re asking people to make an investment, except it’s a
time investment rather than money, and for most people time is as valuable
as money. so how can you reposition this in a way that deserves the
value people are investing, whether it be money or time.
to sum it up,
your idea is sound, but the packaging needs a major overhaul. imho.