Hit a roadblock? Just look for the answers. They're begging you to find them.

We wrote in our last post about how the proliferation of cloud-based, cost efficient tools can help marketers and entrepreneurs everywhere succeed. Another topic that we have seen in our Twitter feeds and inboxes: how to use freelancers.

This adage article talks about how Madison avenue uses freelance depending on the amount of new business coming in. Not that this is news to anyone - freelance has been around forever. This article from Under30CEO.com  gives advice on how to bootstrap a startup using freelancers. Both really awesome articles from really smart people.

The common thread with these articles isn’t that they’re ground breaking journalism, but that they are dispensing knowledge. Knowledge that first time entrepreneurs can take advantage of. 

Lean start-ups (no, not these types of lean start-ups) are getting odds that start-ups before them never got. Free storage, free analytics, free access to your ideas from anywhere, getting customers inexpensively. And if you look in the right places (and are on a never ender search for content and knowledge), it’s out there. Hell, I even thought I heard some inspiration from a Chrysler commercial yesterday that aired during Mad Men.

So how can marketers and entrepreneurs increase their chance of success? Just look and you may find it.

PS - You might want to follow us on Twitter. We tweet cool stuff.

More tools means more success

In the past two days there have been two high-profile call outs that entrepreneurs and marketers must notice and use immediately if they are not.

The first one is the launch of Google Drive (finally) which is giving people 5 GB of free cloud storage - which is more than the 2 GB Dropbox gives away for free -and the second is this wired piece on A/B testing (which btw we love).

So what in the world do these two things have in common with each other?

These two things are important because they give entrepreneurs and marketers everywhere more options to go out and create something awesome. It doesn’t matter if you use Google Drive or Dropbox for cloud storage or Unbounce or Optimizely for A/B testing. The point is that these are ideas you need to embrace.

5 free GBs is more than enough space to store ideas you have for a company, or at least parts of an idea that you want to explore. It’s enough space that will store the business plan. Or the big idea for that upcoming product launch.

It gives you flexibility to work from anywhere (one of my main “offices” is the local Starbucks). Since you can access any of your files and folders from basically anywhere, it will allow you jot down any inspiration or other ideas you have.

You’re at a family party and your mom’s cousin happens to be a designer? It just so happens you now bring your ideas everywhere.

The second weapon that you have at your disposal is A/B testing. The aforementioned Wired articles doesn’t give you an excuse on why you SHOULD’T do it. Google does it. And Amazon. Don’t forget about Netflix.

A tool and technique as simple as putting up 2 webpages and see which one works better can be so effective, you’d be crazy not to. Data always wins over opinions. Always. I know that your boss when to Rutger’s in the late 80’s and is super “creative”, but is she right? 

These are only two of many tools that are out there that marketers and entrepreneurs puts the odds of being successful in their favor.

How you and Apple could have the same marketing department

Today in Mashable there was a great article called “What would it take to beat Apple?” Yesterday Apple posted another monster quarter, so the question out there is: Who can take on Apple? According to John Gruber there is a simple equation to what makes Apple great:

Apple’s success is based on a few obvious factors: a) they make great products; b) they sell them at compelling prices; and c) they explain, through marketing and advertising, what these products do and why people might want them.

The first two points - make great products and selling those products at compelling prices - should be obvious, but are easier said than done. The third point is something that companies from Apple to a new startup can start doing TODAY.

Whenever you are trying to drive people to your website or to purchase something online (or offline), your marketing and advertising comes down to answering 2 simple questions: “What?” and “Why?”

• What is your value proposition or product (can this be communicated in one sentence or less)?
• Why should someone buy this?

Let’s take a look at the new iPad page on Apple.com:

What is it?: iPad (Obviously Apple and iPad have A LOT of brand recognition)

Why buy a new iPad (i.e. Why should someone pay $500 for something they paid $500 last year): A revolutionary new screen

Simple. Simple. Simple.

A key takeaway you can implement TODAY

Think about how you describe your company to others (or how you position it in your marketing materials. Can you do it in one sentence? And then ask why someone would purchase from you and not a competitor?

Go out and ask your customers why they purchase (or stopped purchasing) from you to help your formulate the “Why” more concisely. Then be sure to articulate that in all of your communications.

The other 2 things are up to you, but now that you know Apple’s secret sauce you can go out and conquer the world with smart marketing.

When social media connects the dots, you win

A recent survey from Accenture shows that 64% of people recall seeing social media “symbols” while watching television and 33% have interacted with social media after seeing a symbol on their screen. The survey also found some other interesting things that people do while watching TV:

• 20% have Liked the brand on Facebook
• 11 have scanned a QR coded
• 7% have searched the hastag on Twitter
• 5% have used Shazam on the commercial

But the real question is WHY? We know that for a social media campaign to work, it must provide some value (monetary or otherwise). Here’s what they found:

• Getting coupons and promotional codes (32%)
• Entering a contest/sweepstakes (31 %)
• Watching another video (26 %)
• Interacting about the show or product on social media (26 %)
• Connecting with others with similar interests (21 %)
• Sharing or recommending video/program to others (20 %)
• Making a purchase (16 %)

Ok great, but so what?

The question we always ask ourselves after we see something like this is SO WHAT? What if a brand doesn’t do TV because it’s expensive and they want to focus on conversions?

The main insight from this is people are using social media to get their information on-demand, especially information on brands. The instant-gratification world that we live in has made people curious about what’s in front of them. “Let me see what other people are saying about Brand X. Maybe there’s something there for me.”

We can apply this insight to other channels as well - not just television. What about putting a QR code on a package that delivers a mobile coupon? Or some behind the scenes video of a cause marketing initiative that is only available on YouTube or a Facebook page?

The lesson here is: provide people something of value and find out WHY someone would share that value. Social media can continue to tell a brand story and connect the dots between channels. Remember, it’s about the content, not the platform, that will help drive your business.

Three things that help customer acquisition and smart decisions

Image: ParkOurGenerations.com

Quick data? Yes. Learnings overnight? Not really.

When running a PPC, SEO or even a content marketing campaign it's always exciting to log on to Google Analytics or into Mail Chimp and see how a particular email performed or how many clickcs a specific ad group received. It's also great when you can even get some free advertising to get metrics.

However, we must remember that data can come quickly, but learnings take time. Data can make it easier to decide on whether which headline works better (i.e. using A/B testing), but to truly understand the "why" of customer behavior, gain a true insight or to recognize a trend it's important to have a little patience. 

Example

Let's say we start with a Google Adwords campaign with a $200 budget over a week. While we can get some learnings in order to optimize or perfect a user experience in a week (or even less), what we can't see in this one week timeframe are three things that can help with customer acquisition and help drive smarter, more strategic decisions. 

• Trend - Over the past X weeks we seem to get the most clicks on Thursday
• Insight - Here's why we get the most clicks on Thursdays
• Strategy - Now that we know the insight and why people click, here's how we're going to optimize and increase clicks on the other days of the week

We believe that small data is the difference between a successful company and company that is not quite there yet. So a little patience, a tiny bit more investment and some smart thinking can make something huge.