In 2013, I attended a networking event in Melbourne, one of the regular "Lean Startup" meetups.
The feature guest for the night was Jonathan Teo, a Singapore born, Aussie raised guy, who moved to the US, worked for Google and eventually found himself part of the venture capital world.
Jonathan's past investments include Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat, so it's safe to say he is having a good run.
Product Is Marketing
Although Jonathan spent much of the night during his interview talking about things related to investing, he is well known as an expert at "product".
Early in the evening, he made a simple statement that really stuck with me -
Product IS marketing.
I felt the need to elaborate on this idea, including how it impacts information marketers like us bloggers who sell training products.
You can watch my video here -
Click Here To Listen What Exactly "Product Is Marketing" Means For Bloggers |
Products That Market Themselves
The core idea is that today more than ever, your product is your marketing.
This means that the product is so compelling, simple to use, valuable and easy to share, that it doesn't require artificial stimulation to drum up demand.
Word of mouth is the most powerful form of marketing and we all know how effective technology is for viral distribution.
If your product is unique, incredibly functional for a technology savvy group of people, they will share it. They have it -- it's part of the culture to distribute interesting things and be first to do so -- that's how you stay cool.
Mobile Apps fit this criteria well. They rest in your pocket so can easily be demonstrated to other people. Often they function on networked models, which means the more people who use them the better each new user's experience is.
Combine this with a media industry hungry for technology news, and you the perfect environment for huge viral growth. This was clearly demonstrated by each of Jonathan's investments - Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat have all exploded in a very short period of time.
For this to work of course, your product has to be very very good. Usability, function, value, interface design and many other subtle elements go into a product that sells itself. Simplicity is not simple.
As I talked about in the video, I am very curious about how to apply this idea to information products.
I'd love to hear your take - how can we as bloggers create information products that sell themselves?
Leave a comment below with your ideas.
I'll talk to you soon,
Yaro Starak Yaro.Blog
P.S. Affiliates are already making sales of my new e-guide, you can be one of them too.
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