A Call To Action For Critical MassI love word-of-mouth, always have. We're the only company who wrote our own affiliate technology when we were small and who are still 100% word-of-mouth-driven today. Why do I love it? Because you tend to attract people just like you. What do I mean by that? Well, you yourself are not here because of an ad in Wired magazine, nor due to a clever Super Bowl ad. No, you heard about SBI!. And look around the SBI! forums. All you see are individuals who are...
"No big deal," you say? It is a very big, and rare, deal. C  T P M and SBI!'s system of integrated tools seem like common sense to us
-- it's so obvious. But common sense is, in fact, rare. So is the will to invest in the future through work...
No one wants to admit that they fall for Get Rich Quick. Everyone wants to believe that GRQ is possible. Heck, we all want to believe in Santa Claus. We all outgrew the latter belief, but so many people still fall for good copy that sells GRQ over and over and over again ("this one is different"). Why? Because they want to believe. Now for a purely personal statement... I don't have time for them. I don't want to attract those people. I don't want to be part of their disappointment... I don't want to be the one who tells them there is no Santa Claus. It's too late for that (for me and for them). And that is why I do not want to use "big company advertising." There are other reasons, of course, such as price increases to cover the costs, distraction of my time, etc. But I fear "SBIer dilution" the most. Here's why... Suppose your mass-market message says... "SBI! removes all the technical, tedious, SEO, and other barriers. So you can succeed online by making your work 100%-efficient and business-oriented." .... do you know the only word they hear? "Yada, yada, yada... WORK... yada, yada, yada." Our ads would have to do the same "quick-and-easy" message as the giant Web hosts (1&1, interland, verio, yahoo!). I don't want to spread that false message. But let's say that we did -- we'd dilute the forums with surly, lazy people who expect that a REAL business can be built quick-and-easy "because my site is on the Internet." That's why SBI! needs word-of-mouth to grow. Yes, We Are GrowingAnd we are now at that in-between size. We've left all our old competitors far behind, only to discover the "interlands" and "verios" of this world. We understand their power and reach. We realize that we (and I mean SBI! and SBIers) need to be totally in control of our destiny, regardless of what they do in the future.This is the stage where eBay "went vertical" (read "The Perfect Store" by Adam Cohen, ISBN 0316164933) through big-time marketing and management. But they lost the magic along the way. There's a reason these things happen when you reach a certain size. You must grow even faster before you are copied by a much bigger company (ex., Yahoo! copying eBay, luckily for eBay too late). Once copied by a major, your days, one way or another, are numbered if you have not built yourself up to the size you need to be self-sustaining, no matter what the competition does. SBI! and SBIers need to be an invulnerable unit that can push back any challenge. This may not seem urgent, at least a year or two away. But if I think about it then... it will be too late. The challenge is to grow without changing, without losing the magic. Here's an insightful thread from the forums that summarizes the magic... http://forums.sitesell.com/viewtopic.php?t=13703 How often do people write in other forums just to say, "Wow"? Read the replies, the first two fittingly from Debs, the heart and soul of the forums, and from Marcus, an outstanding contributor. My reply was written at the time this article was... http://forums.sitesell.com/viewtopic.php?p=70490#70490 The only way to penetrate the noise, to grow ever-faster without increasing price (or going broke) and without changing, is word-of-mouth. It pierces the ever-increasing noise like an arrow through clouds. And there is major noise out there. It comes from the louder and louder GRQ outfits. And it blasts from the major Web hosts (verio, yahoo!, 1&1, etc.). Word-of-mouth blows all that away. Why? Because you have total "share-of-mind." You have someone's complete attention. Tell the SBI! story, the who-what-how-why (see below Buzz It!, Call It!, WWW It!). Anyone who deserves SBI! will indeed "get it." What Does It Take To Make Word-Of-Mouth Go?What makes word-of-mouth fly? First and foremost, it takes a product that delivers more value than it costs. Much more. And it takes people who are dedicated to its customers, not in word but in deed.SBIers soon discover that SBI! OVERdelivers on all counts. And SBIers succeed...
That's what it takes to make word-of-mouth fly.
None Of That Happens at Any Other Small Business Web HostWhat happens elsewhere? If you've tried elsewhere, you already know...New customers start out excited and motivated, taken in by the "quick-cheap-easy" ads. They soon get battered by bad process, a lack of tools, low tech knowledge/SEO skills, etc., etc., etc. And when they try to reach out for help, well... who cares. So the instant gratification of having "a site up in 24 hours" turns into the prolonged agony of suffocation due to lack of traffic and inability to master all the skills to manage a non-SBI! site. But the majors churn and grow through sheer "noise"... expensive, intense and effective advertising. Only Word-Of-Mouth Can Pierce That Barrage Of False MessagingAnd word-of-mouth builds upon itself. For example, increasing numbers of SBIers improve the forums (it's why we waited so long to introduce them -- to be sure we had critical mass). The more who contribute, the greater the collective wisdom. The "network effect" grows exponentially. Naturally, "ever-smarter" forums lead to an even better experience, faster progress, and, therefore, even more word-of-mouth.Increasing sales also bring the budget for accelerated product development (SBI! is never "finished" -- witness the recent introductions). We have grown through our own cash flow, refusing investments from almost every major tech VC. Ever-improving features result in improved experience and greater success. And that, once again, generates even more word-of-mouth. And, of course, SBI! already gets raving word-of-mouth. That just happened naturally. Now I am asking you to ratchet it up three notches (both online and especially offline), for all of the above reasons. To pierce the noise and grow to be our own "island of success," big enough to be invulnerable to the large Web hosts and their hundreds of millions of dollars in false-message advertising, I'm asking you to Buzz It!, Call It!, WWW It!. SBI! Is The Future Of Small Business. This Is An Important Time In SiteSell's HistoryThink of yourself as starting with one huge futuristic head start. You drive a just-released Ferrari that comes complete with pit crew, while everyone else is still turning the crankshaft of their Model T.We must keep growing rapidly to keep improving that, "our way." I need your help to make SBI! and this community insurmountable, by making SBI! better and better and better. As I mentioned, we now compete against the behemoths of small business Web hosting. But we're a small fish in that ocean, full of some very BIG, aggressive, dollar-sucking fish. And we're on their radar. They spend insane amounts to spread the false message of "quick-cheap-easy" to suck folks in (and dollars out). So our counter-strategy is critical... Fight through that noisy environment by driving straight through to the right customers. Please tell friends, colleagues, small business associates, relatives, everyone... all about SBI!. How To Spread The Word Buzz It!, Call It!, & WWW It!I've updated and improved two important pages from the PREselling SBI! section of TNT HQ, and I've added a third. Here's how to spread the word...
The Bottom LineWord-of-mouth is the best way to pierce the noise, grow, and keep the magic. Spread the word to the right people. Naturally, this is WIN-WIN-WIN...
I can't emphasize the importance of this. Show the rest of the world how small business, "the rest of us," really can thrive in this noisy Internet world... Ken Evoy, President SiteSell.com
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