JumpStart: IdeaExchange Blog

I wrote in an earlier blog that everyone should regularly read the blog of one marketing guru — I follow Seth Godin’s religiously. One of his recent posts ‘Random Rules for Ideas Worth Spreading‘ hit a few chords for me relative to topics I’m often discussing with early-stage companies.

• “You can name your idea anything you like, but a Google-friendly name is always better than one that isn’t.”
  • I think this is particularly relevant, as is most of his advice, for people working on consumer ideas or businesses. That said, if you are working to rebrand or rename your company, considering the implications of search for your brand is often overlooked but increasingly critical. Criteria for a brand name: clear (or can become clear, depending on your budget) to your target audience, punchiness and memorability, and helps in organic search.
• “Figure out how long your idea will take to spread, and multiply by 4.”
  • This seems like a good benchmark, especially as my gut reaction was “no way, 4x as long?” That’s probably why delays tend to be such bad surprises. I would much rather have to deal with the challenges of too much momentum, more quickly than planned. That might actually be fun.
• “Seek out apostles, not partners. People who benefit from spreading your idea, not people who need to own it.”
  • Along these lines, I was talking a few weeks ago with JumpStart Venture Partner Ted Frank about finding customers whose own profit, or sales strategy, or value proposition is made better with your product. If you are trying to get your channel to sell something that inherently won’t help them accomplish their goals, it’s much harder. Very obvious to write, harder to do, I realize.
• “Prefer dry, useful but dull ideas to consumer-friendly ‘I would buy that’ sort of things. A lot less competition and a lot more upside in the long run.”
  • Loved this idea of “dry, useful but dull” ideas — and that idea that these are, in fact, sexy businesses. A few of these to a consumer marketer like me: microprocessors, enterprise solution systems, clean energy technologies to sell to energy companies…     no big businesses there, right? Realizing this is a challenge. I wish mainstream media wanted to cover these technologies and innovations more, thinking about how to make them interesting for everyday consumers.
• “Surround yourself with encouraging voices and incisive critics. It’s okay if they’re not the same people. Ignore both camps on occasion.”
  • Amen! We’ve had our own critics — or should I say, challenging voices — lately, if anyone has been reading them on Cleveland.com. In fact, we’ve had lots of people challenge our thinking throughout our history. Their points of view definitely make us better, as we listen to the questions and concerns, learn from their perspectives, and double-check our own thinking. This thought is also why our culture at JumpStart is about being both honest and fun (equal parts incisive and encouraging?).

Check out Seth’s blog - or suggest another one your favorites here.

Cathy Belk is the Chief Marketing Officer of JumpStart. She specializes in branding, marketing communications, and business management. She brings 16+ years of experience in a variety of marketing and business roles, but gets her energy from working daily with entrepreneurs and their growing companies.

Not quite a resolution (because I want to avoid the “breaking” curse), these are the most important things I’m going to prioritize this year, as they will directly impact my ability to deliver success for JumpStart. 

5) Monitor marketing news and trends every day. I use NetVibes to assist with monitoring blogs, Twitter, and news updates, in addition to my RSS feeds and email newsletters, but admit sometimes I’m catching up at the end of the week. The thing is, every time I check, I see one thing that is valuable right then. I hate the idea that I’m losing days in which those ideas can prompt and enhance my thinking. After reading David Carr’s Why Twitter Will Endure - NYTimes.com from the Times last Sunday, I’m wondering if I should focus some time on following the right folks on Twitter and leave it at that…

4) Reconnect with my network. I’ve spent time re-establishing professional connections through LinkedIn, but for a while now, the list has been sitting relatively fallow. (I would hypothesize this is somewhat common unless someone has sales responsibilities or is working to obtain or fill a position). But what a wealth of people with whom to brainstorm, tackle problems, and gain best-practice examples or new ideas! When was the last time I called someone to get caught up on responsibilities, most recent business challenges, and best new thing learned? Hard to believe this wouldn’t be richly worth the 10 minutes.

3) Create a mobile plan. Yes, this has been a long time coming, and many businesses are already  utilizing mobile tools to connect richly with consumers or customers. (In fact, Knotice’s Concentri product is one of the most robust around for cohesively marketing to consumers via mobile, Internet, and other customized points of connection. (Full disclosure: Knotice is a JumpStart Ventures portfolio company). Creating a plan for our email communication and website to become more mobile-friendly has been on the list for over 6 months; now that I’ve read Morgan Stanley’s Mobile Internet report which indicates — among other things – that more people will connect to the internet via mobile devices instead of desktops within 5 years, a more thorough strategy is due.

2) Continue to evolve our social media strategy and implementation. Continuous planning, prioritization, and implementation is the way of the marketer’s world, but social media has put the disciplined, steady approach into hyperdrive. What we had decided to do 3 months ago is already worth reconsideration and perhaps even a change in approach. Given the time commitment that these tools require, monthly review and consideration is required.

1) Focus on insights. While the world is always changing, this stays the same: insight regarding the needs and wants of our audiences, consumers, customers, and constituents should drive what we do. In a small entrepreneurial firm without a formal research group, it’s easy to slip in into believing all people think a certain way because you have talked to a handful of people who share an opinion. And now that it’s so much easier than ever to gain small and large insights formally or informally on a much more regular basis, there’s no reason that we shouldn’t be asking and gaining new insights on a monthly basis. With that – look for more questions from us about how we can better meet YOUR needs. (You can start with suggestions and ideas by commenting on this blog!).

What’s on your list?

Cathy Belk is the Chief Marketing Officer of JumpStart. She specializes in branding, marketing communications, and business management. She brings 16+ years of experience in a variety of marketing and business roles, but gets her energy from working daily with entrepreneurs and their growing companies.

As a blogger, one of the prerogatives of the job is that you get to pick the scope of what you write. I mentioned in my last post (My Favorite 5 Marketing Bloggers) that the “top 5 biggest changes of the year” was coming. But, it’s a broad and unclear title. Was I referring to the top 5 biggest changes at JumpStart? The top 5 in marketing in general? The top 5 in the world of entrepreneurship? I decided to identify the top 5 of all those: the top 5 things that seem to me to have the biggest impact from my (marketing) seat and hopefully, in some way, from yours. Here it goes:

5.  Pepsi drops Super Bowl advertising for online program. Since the early 2000s, I’ve been waiting for this — the pivot point when TV advertising finally loses its dominance to online marketing. While the isn’t exactly that point, the decision that Pepsi won’t be advertising in the 2010 Super Bowl for the first time in decades is big news (remember the Cindy Crawford ads?). It’s also big news that they are using the investment for an online program that invests in cause-related marketing, specifically, community-based projects proposed and selected by consumers. If anyone doubted that consumers now have the power instead of brands and businesses, that the recession has made big glitzy events a little unsavory, and that online marketing will eventually overtake TV advertising as a percent of marketing investment, that doubt is absolutely gone. Like Pepsi on the Super Bowl.

4.  More media vehicles for early-stage companies. This isn’t about social media, although of course the importance of participating in those media vehicles —  if on-strategy for you — grew in 2009. Instead, this is about the launch of many other media vehicles in Northeast Ohio. With the addition of MedCity News, hiVelocity, and NEOtropolis (in addition to existing marketing partners such as the Plain Dealer, ABJ, Crain’s Cleveland, WCPN, WKSU,WKYC,  Cool Cleveland, and other bloggers, broadcasts, and publications), there have never been so many places for good news about the region’s early-stage companies to be heard. The fact that these folks — new folks — can grow a business out of telling the stories of the region is exciting.

3.  The launch of two “new products”: The Social Innovation Fund and the Office of Entrepreneurship and Innovation. Here I’m making a choice sort of like the Nobel committee did, given for the start of something this year instead of results already accomplished. All marketers launch new products/services/solutions to address needs, and the U.S. Government is apparently no exception. In May, it announced the Social Innovation Fund ($50 million to go to the nation’s most effective non-profits to expand their footprint) and in September, the Commerce Department announced its new Office of Entrepreneurship and Innovation (which will help guide efforts to connect ideas to their commercialization). What better way to give visibility and credibility to entrepreneurship than putting money where the mouth is? Thank you to these policy leaders for the boost to entrepreneurship and job growth that these “new products” will provide in the coming years.

2.  Videos as a critical marketing tactic for early-stage entrepreneurs. Despite the fact that YouTube is 5 years old and creating videos easily isn’t new either, the prevalence and importance of them accelerated this year like wildfire. Consumer goods campaigns are all over the internet, which allows consumers to participate in brands by submitting videos to be used for advertising, or submitting other types of marketing ideas through videos. I wrote a blog earlier this year about how Richard Branson’s VC pitch event was accepting pitches via video. As JumpStart has gone from almost no video to a video in every JumpStart Connect newsletter in a matter of a year (often, more than one video per issue), we have see the videos vault to the top of our content in popularity. And perhaps most importantly, we have seen the impact with entrepreneurs. As one recently said to us, “ever since you have promoted the video of my elevator pitch, I’ve received several potential investor and customer phone calls”.  

1.  The year of getting to the point. I went to a club a few months ago and the live band only played the chorus of popular songs, moving from “song” to “song” in about 1 ½ minutes. Watch YouTube or Hulu and you’re more likely to see the edited version of movies or skits than the long version. Even with the written word, you better get to it. While 140 characters messages were around, Twitter’s enormous surge in usage and publicity this year dramatically accelerated the impatience with reading much more than 2 lines. With all the devices which allow us to fast forward, skip, move on, or leave, the time to send your message has gotten dramatically shorter. I am positive I never thought we’d have so little space or time. And with that, I’d better shut up. You’ve already moved on.

Cathy Belk is the Chief Marketing Officer of JumpStart. She specializes in branding, marketing communications, and business management. She brings 16+ years of experience in a variety of marketing and business roles, but gets her energy from working daily with entrepreneurs and their growing companies.

Recently, Rich Bendis, the former CEO of InnovationPhiladelphia and nationally renowned TBED (technology-based economic development) expert launched a daily news digest called Innovation Daily. You can find this digest here.

If you are someone who cares about anything related to global and national issues surrounding the topics of invention, commercialization, angel and/or venture capital, and public policy do yourself a favor and subscribe to this free service.

Rich has done an incredible job of aggregating news and stories that are relevant to his readers – I look forward to reading it everyday.

Happy Holidays and I wish you all the best in 2010!

Ray Leach is CEO of JumpStart and brings his energy and leadership experiences from founding five high growth entrepreneurial and intrapreneurial endeavors in the last 20 years. Ray is a Sloan Fellow and earned an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management. He also earned a BA in Finance from the University of Akron.