Bio-hacking, the end of Jolt, and the future of retail
A few years ago I wrote a short essay about “Flow” and how the ideas in that book apply to a world where mobile computing enhances every moment of our lives. I never published it or anything, just showed it to a few friends. However, I did mention those ideas in my first post this year where I said that photo-sharing apps (and other “time-wasters”) are giving people a false sense of productivity and hence happiness.
My point is that mobile computing is going to make us happier, assuming Mihaly’s book is true. We can maximize the output of our day, improving our knowledge about things that interest us, and also ourselves. Apps that allow us to track (or check-in) to routines or habits -- like Lift, backed by Evan Williams -- are becoming very common and fairly popular. Even smarter tools like the products Nike has been pumping out for iOS users, or some of the new health care applications that can track all sorts of data about your body, are getting enough traction today that one can easily envision them becoming part of mainstream medicine within a few years.
Bio-Hacking
Along with all this new technology, an avalanche of information about diet and health has been hitting the bookstores and blogs for the past decade. And it’s only getting better/worse(?). One of my favorite sites, the bulletproof executive, comes right out and says they update the site every few months at new breakthroughs occur (and are hopefully confirmed). This trend have a new name, that’s “bio-hacking” or the idea of hacking our own bodies to improve productivity at home, at work, in the bedroom, on the field, etc.
Are the days of Jolt-powered nerds at an end? It looks like it, sort-of. While there will always be the more cosmopolitan nerd who craves espresso romano, wine, and gourmet cheese -- yours truly ;-) -- the impact of a new generation of super-nerds who are hacking software AND their bodies could be something incredible. Most people will go through a super bio-hacking phase, and return to a better (though not totally ideal) lifestyle. However, the interest in itself means we’ll see more and more software integrating with our lifestyle goals, helping us overcome craving for example, or somehow infusing us with positive reinforcement when embarking on the challenging endeavor to break.. um create new habits.
How this will impact marketing
Data will become more accurate and more specific, of course. Imagine we have these really awesome applications which “speak” to machines at retail shops, and instead of promoting whatever junk-food is the craze… it knows we are on diet (it should even know what our streak is) and it recommends we purchase items that support that diet. Great right!? Furthermore, with the right technology installed at the store your software could be alert when you veer too close to say… the ice-cream, sending some kind of notification that “hey, you should get some apples” or “if you are craving something cold and sweet, why not a fruit popsicle!” You get the idea.
This could transform the image of many retailers, and could really improve the happiness of millions.
Content Is King
Content Marketing is not new, but it has changed dramatically in the past 10 years or so. Mashable released a simple yet effective illustration a while back, which I came across while looking through my old bookmarks. They described this shift as a comparison between “Content That Humans What to Share” vs. “Content That Ranks High in Search.” While there was a noticeable disconnect in 2002, by 2012 content people wanted to share and high search ranks were in near alignment.
That article was about SEO, Search Engine Optimization, and included some wise-words from SEO Moz CEO Rand Fishkin about what kind of content businesses or start-ups should create to get noticed in this “new” paradigm. The conclusion... basically, “good.”
Good Content
It’s impossible to say at a granular-level what “good content” is. We can all only speculate and abide by some fairly good guiding points:
1. Good content must be genuine.
It’s impossible to say at a granular-level what “good content” is. We can all only speculate and abide by some fairly good guiding points:
1. Good content must be genuine.
2. It tells a compelling story about you or your brand.
3. It is relevant to the target audience.
4. Video and other visuals are used to convey information.
5. Form follows function.
Naturally, I intend to tap-away on my keyboard for the next 20 minutes or so to provide some thoughtful ideas about each of these points. But first, it’s important to consider just how important content is for business. 86% of B2C marketers use content marketing, and are spending 28% of their marketing budget on that content (37% for companies with less than 10 employees!). And that budget is enormous, reaching $100 Billion in 2012 and estimated to increase to nearly $120 Billion in 2013.
1. Good Content Must Be Genuine
There are lot’s of ways to interpret this, so here’s what I mean. You want to genuinely want to improve your consumers experience, life, cup-of-coffee. Whatever it is you are into, you are into it because you sincerely see a way you can help improve the community. Think about it.
Ultimately, your business (user-base, etc) will grow because influential people like what you are doing. This doesn’t have to be some cohort of celebrities, but ultimately it may be. People will want to work with you, will want to support you, if they feel you are doing something they believe in. In the words of Simon Sinek, author of Start With Why, “people don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.”
2. Good Content Tells A Compelling Story About Your Brand
This is not the same as point 1, but yeah they are (they all are) related. YOU MUST HAVE A STORY... this doesn’t matter if you are selling yourself, selling your business, or selling a house. Stories sell, and for lot’s of good reasons.
Your story is what is going to convey that genuine desire, it’s the vehicle that carries your excitement, your inspiration, your love, your frustration, whatever emotions you feel are motivating you to do whatever it is you are doing... those are carried to the hearts and minds of your audience via the words, those compelling words of your story.
You can start getting the right story by having the right mission statement. Your mission statement should convey your reason for existence, your "why," in addition to some hint at "what" you do.
It’s like the mantra of your brand. Make sure you nail it! Check this out.
Getting Beta Users
Building in the wild. While in SV this term got tossed around a lot, so what is it? Basically it just refers to the fact that most of the time you won’t get it right the first time. You have to get feedback. Beta testing is a great way to do that, some would say it’s essential.
Why You Should Beta
If your service is released as a beta, you get to say sorry. People who signup for your beta will assume your product is a work-in-progress, provide you with feedback on features and brand choices, and forgive all the bugs and errors and system crashes along the way.
In fact, if your service is not bulletproof you should release as a beta, or else. While many product teams tell themselves “well, so it crashes; everyone crashes at first,” that is not the way consumers see it. Only 16% of users will try an app more than once if it crashes... that means MORE THAN 80 PERCENT will ignore you forever if you fail. So please, go beta if you think you are going to crash.
Finally, when you work in a bubble your ability to observe objectively becomes hindered. People tend to reinforce bias in each other, you could call it group bias. This can even lead to members of a group to ostracize those with dissenting opinions. Getting objective feedback from users solves all this. No one can argue with the market, the idea sticks or it doesn’t . Of course, that assumes you recieve objective feedback... so how do you do that?
How To Beta
There are several resources that can help get beta users. However, there are several important things to keep in mind before you start.
1. Know how much you can spend. You have to assume the cost of future iterations, as well as the value of any users you acquire. If you get all this great feedback and can’t capitalize on it by improving your product, well you’ll have to start begging for money. Anyway, if you’re beta you shouldn’t be spending a lot of money on marketing. Wait until you have a sticky product.
2. Be sure you have a way to engage with users. Believe it or not, I’ve seen people set up services and have no means to engage with users. No email, no social media, it’s really incredible. Trust me, it’s not an ideal situation. To set up your beta, you can try a landing page host like Unbounce Pages, or Launchrock. These services will collect contact information for you. Better yet, integrate with Mail Chimp and really stay engaged with autoresponders and lot’s of other valuable bells-and-whistles.
Acquiring Beta Users
The easiest tool is you. Go to Meetup.com and find events where your target users exist. Show them your prototype and ask them to signup. They will also tell you how cool it is, and if they mean it they won’t mind signing up on the spot... so ask them to. If you get to know the organizers of a group or event, then ask them how you can participate. Offer your help and be sincere, eventually it will pay off. Organizers will appreciate your efforts and will promote your little beta, or give you the chance to as a guest speaker.
Next, use StumbleUpon Paid Discovery to direct targeted users into your acquisition funnel. This is probably the most cost-effective way to promote anything on the web. In one case study, a company got 6000 signups for $0.03 each in one week. OMG that’s cheap! You probably won’t get that good of a deal, but at most you’ll spend about $0.25 for high quality leads. Your retention will be higher if you’ve tested your landing page first (show it to people at meetups, etc), and if you are using Mail Chimp to send people autoresponders and informative email.
Beta listing services are also a good way to promote your product early on. These services let you list your beta with all the fun and fancy you desire: landing page screens, app screens, descriptions, etc. Users will discover your beta there, and try it. Here are a few:
Get Professional Help
The methods above are great because while you’re acquiring beta users you --hopefully-- build some buzz around your product. It’s a beta release, your marketing while improving your product. However, sometimes you just want to test and get it done.
If that’s the case, I recommend Center Code. They offer a variety of “managed testing” for hardware, software, and mobile. There are lots of benefits, and if you don’t have a QA team to support you (do you?) then this is probably a good idea. It’s $3000 to test a mobile app for 2 weeks... which is a real bargain considering the consequences of a buggy launch.
Application Overload
There are more apps than anyone could possibly review, so how do you choose? Most people probably hear about new apps from their friends or colleagues, others may read about an app in the news. A few brave souls may go so far as to scour app review sites, and you can too.
Here are a few ways you can find cool apps to impress your friends.
Search Is King
Just like the web, app discovery is overwhelmingly done through search. Most of these searches are done within the App Store or Google Play. Last year Apple acquired app search startup Chomp in order to improve the App Store search results and user experience. The impact of the acquisition was almost immediate.
While the “king of search” is, naturally, Google, another Eric Schmidt-backed company is making significant headway in the world of app search. Quixey is “The search engine for Apps” and you may already be using their search solution without even knowing it. Quixey is a functional search for applications across platforms and is integrated with 3rd Party app distributors, OEMs, and search solutions like Duck Duck Go and Ask.com.
App-Discovery Apps
There are a few of these services, but my absolute favorite is Discovr Apps. If you have ever tried the Visual Thesaurus (if not, you should), it is basically the same concept. When you click on an app, a bunch of related apps pop-up around it. It’s endlessly fun, stream of consciousness search. Discovr is a huge hit with Music, Movies, and now People too.
Of course, this genre could disappear in 2013. Apple has recently “cracked down” on services like Apps Fire and App Gratis (not the same as Discovr, but app-discovery-apps nonetheless).
High-class Reviewers
There are a ton of app review sites, and most of them are paid... meaning app publishers pay to get reviewed by them. However, there are three sites that I find outstanding. They are:
#1 Overlapps
The best of the lot. Overlapps has an inspired, engaging and beautiful design, just a wonderful browsing experience. You can browse apps based on categories (there are many and the icons are brilliant), or see the latest for iPad and iPhone. Another neat feature is you can “love” an app and see which apps are getting the most “love.” Subscribe to Overlapps to add apps you are thinking about buying to your Wishlist or Favorites.
#2 Appolicious
Wow, just an immense database of information about apps. Appolicious is probably the leader in terms of sheer volume of information, and it is very well organized. Recently partnered with Yahoo, the site is filled with Recommendations, News, and Video Reviews -- they own a video review service called AppVee. Also, when you create an account for Appolicious you can “Build your library” of apps.
#3 AppAdvice
AppAdvice features news about Apps. However, there are also some pretty killer mashups of apps they call applists. These applists are based on seasons or holidays, as well as interests, games, etc. Some examples: “life solver” (like health or wedding planning), “empower your device” (apps for productivity, utilities). There are also daily video reviews, and App Guides which are really cool.
App Guides are probably the best review format available. Basically, the best apps for any category have been curated here with subcategories. For example, within Lifestyle you will find “Baby Monitoring Apps” or “Best Goal-Setting Apps.” When you click on any of these sub-categories there are reviews for several apps within that sub-category ranked as “Essential,” “Notable,” Decent,” and “Other Apps.”
 |
| App Advice |
 |
| Overlapps |
 |
| Ask.com App search "powered by Quixey" |
Optimize for Mobile Web
While using landing pages to introduce mobile apps to targeted audiences online has become standard, these pages are not always responsive to various devices. Here are a few reasons why you should have a mobile optimized site, and hopefully make it functional.
4 Billion Mobile Devices and 3 Billion Toothbrushes
That’s why it is hard to conceive that people would overlook the need to have a mobile web version of their service, or at least of their landing page(s). According to research by Accenture 69% of their respondents accessed the internet using a mobile device, including smartphones and tablets.
Overall, you can expect mobile internet users to outnumber desktop internet users by next year. Already 25% of Americans access the internet exclusively through a mobile device.
A to the I to the D to the A
Mobile versions of your service can do more than just introduce your service or direct people to download. They can present to potential users the core-benefits of your product by providing a generic version to anyone out there. Not only that, these mobile web versions can be built much faster (and for less money) which means you can start building buzz -- not to mention getting real feedback.
In other words, start building “Awareness” and getting people “Interested” by showing them why your product is better. This will create “Desire” for the product, and means that more people with take “Action” when the time comes. This centuries old model for customer acquisition, AIDA, is the backbone for most acquisition funnels.
Speed and Universal Access
The mobile web is “device agnostic,” meaning it is fairly responsive (changes size to fit a variety of screens) and works on any operating system. Chris Borgan, he co-authored The Impact Equation (NY Times best-seller, blah blah), provided an interesting case study for a sports service that chose to build both native apps and for the mobile web. The service was able to provide core features (up-to-date scores) a full 6 weeks before their native app was ready for review.
Not only were they able to reach their audience sooner, it was available to anyone whether they prefer iOS or Android. That can be an enormous benefit for a bootstrapped team.
How to do it?
First, have a website. Even it is a landing page telling people to sign-up for your beta pre-launch. Next, optimize that site for mobile... it’s not that hard to do, here’s a neat article about it: [LINK].
 |
| A.I.D.A Funnel |
The App & Mortar Opportunity
Shopping destinations are crowded with connected consumers. However, retail has yet to perfect a means to harness mobility to direct traffic to retail stores.
What is “App & Mortar”?
By 2010 every destination shopping center was crowded with a new way to drive traffic to their stores, but no-one has been able to do it right. Yet.
At the time, several applications sprung up that tried to address the market including Shopnear.me, Snapette, Shopkick, Fancy, and more. The runaway success of Groupon and LivingSocial (starting a little earlier in 2008) left some important lessons for new ventures in the space. Specifically, retailers were frustrated with cash-flow problems created by newbies who came once and never again, not to mention the potential for erosion of loyalty and brand value.
In 2012 and '13 big retailers are finally taking this opportunity into their own hands. According to Flurry, the “App & Mortar” segment of mobile applications grew by more than 500% in the past year. Flurry’s data indicates much of this growth was driven by the likes of Starbucks, Walmart, and Macy’s, who have all invested significant resources into their own mobile strategy.
Forbes reported that more than 80% of retailers have a presence on mobile (Check out the infographic below by Cognizant). Most of them are offering all the things you’d expect, from shopping and payment to (of course) deals and store location. Retailers who can, do have a mobile presence, and some are doing a great job of executing.
What’s the big opportunity?
Shopping is often about brands, but those brands extend to the destinations. In 2010, my briefly lived startup focused on Santana Row, San Jose, precisely because the location itself is a brand. People travel there to shop, but also to spend an afternoon with family and friends. It’s a social experience as much as anything. These destination cater to a consumer who enjoys spending an afternoon in a well decorated space, where beautiful and unique things surround them, and (of course) can be acquired.
There are hundreds of high-quality individual or regional shops in any given, well-branded, retail destination. This includes a range of retailers from clothing and accessories, to health and beauty services. Are we going to rely on each retailer to have his or her own application? Do the math, that’s a lot applications and no-one wants to spend the energy to keep track of them all.
Big retailers have the advantage, since we all could use a Starbucks app or Westfield Mall app. However, that leaves a huge opportunity for the App & Mortar retail aggregators servicing the destinations and the experience. Connecting people with brick-and-mortar retail through mobile devices will change the way we shop; rather, already has. But the real promise of mobile applications for retail has yet to be fully realized.
What is “App & Mortar”?
By 2010 every destination shopping center was crowded with a new way to drive traffic to their stores, but no-one has been able to do it right. Yet.
At the time, several applications sprung up that tried to address the market including Shopnear.me, Snapette, Shopkick, Fancy, and more. The runaway success of Groupon and LivingSocial (starting a little earlier in 2008) left some important lessons for new ventures in the space. Specifically, retailers were frustrated with cash-flow problems created by newbies who came once and never again, not to mention the potential for erosion of loyalty and brand value.
In 2012 and '13 big retailers are finally taking this opportunity into their own hands. According to Flurry, the “App & Mortar” segment of mobile applications grew by more than 500% in the past year. Flurry’s data indicates much of this growth was driven by the likes of Starbucks, Walmart, and Macy’s, who have all invested significant resources into their own mobile strategy.
Forbes reported that more than 80% of retailers have a presence on mobile (Check out the infographic below by Cognizant). Most of them are offering all the things you’d expect, from shopping and payment to (of course) deals and store location. Retailers who can, do have a mobile presence, and some are doing a great job of executing.
What’s the big opportunity?
Shopping is often about brands, but those brands extend to the destinations. In 2010, my briefly lived startup focused on Santana Row, San Jose, precisely because the location itself is a brand. People travel there to shop, but also to spend an afternoon with family and friends. It’s a social experience as much as anything. These destination cater to a consumer who enjoys spending an afternoon in a well decorated space, where beautiful and unique things surround them, and (of course) can be acquired.
There are hundreds of high-quality individual or regional shops in any given, well-branded, retail destination. This includes a range of retailers from clothing and accessories, to health and beauty services. Are we going to rely on each retailer to have his or her own application? Do the math, that’s a lot applications and no-one wants to spend the energy to keep track of them all.
Big retailers have the advantage, since we all could use a Starbucks app or Westfield Mall app. However, that leaves a huge opportunity for the App & Mortar retail aggregators servicing the destinations and the experience. Connecting people with brick-and-mortar retail through mobile devices will change the way we shop; rather, already has. But the real promise of mobile applications for retail has yet to be fully realized.
