Register at http://www.groopskool.net
For more information about the HOW Interactive Design Conference, go to http://www.howinteractiveconference.com/

Our first ever “Groop Skool Video Newsletter”. All video newsletter covering updates, upcoming Groop Skool workshops and events.

Workshop 1: Inception
Defining your users, your brand & your goals
April 30th & May 1st

 
Learn The Groop’s entire brand driven, user experience process to building and launching a successful online business, website and digital platform.

Workshop 1 will cover:

- User Definition
- Brand Strategy
- Feature Prioritization

Whether you are an entrepreneur with a startup, a freelancer with a client project or an executive with a digital initiative these workshops will be invaluable. Through Workshop 1: Inception, you will gain an understanding of who you are, where you want to go and what you need to build..

For more information or to Sign up visit: www.GroopSkool.net

Thank to everyone who tuned into this Tuesday’s This Week in Web Design. This week’s episode was about brand-driven web design with expert guest Julie Glassman from BRAND.

Below you will find our take-aways from this week’s episode available for download. Be sure to tune into next week’s episode airing Tuesday, January 18th, 3pm PST. Next week’s episode will be about User Experience driven web design with expert guest JP Bedoya, Sr. Director of Product and User Experience at Citysearch.
 
If you would like to have your questions answered by JP and Jose on next week’s show, leave a comment or video response for next week’s promo by clicking below.
 

 

Brand 101

An introduction to Branding.

Click here to watch video

Starting this Tuesday 3pm PST you can catch Jose and special guests every week on This Week in Web Design at www.ThisWeekIn.com.

Each week we will be solving your roadblocks and answering your questions.

 
Next week’s episode will be about online brand strategy and brand driven web design. Our expert guest will be Julie Glassman, Creative Director and Founder of BRAND.

If you would like to be on our show or have any of your questions answered, please watch our video above and leave a video response or comment. We will choose the most interesting questions and help you with your projects on our LIVE show.

Click here to watch video

 
Be sure to watch This Week in Web Design hosted by Jose Caballer

Every Tuesday
LIVE 3pm PST 6pm EST at:
www.ThisWeekIn.com

Round of applause for our Executive Breakfast panel and all of you who attended Groop Skool’s Executive Breakfast. Thank you to everyone who participated as we answered your questions about project management, technology, brand strategy, design and more. If you missed out take a quick look at some of the highlights from the breakfast below!
 

Our featured panelists include:

 
Julie Glassman: Creative Director and Founder of BRAND
JP Bedoya: Sr. Director of Product and User Experience at Citysearch
Tony Wong: Founder of Pointman Project Management and Leadership
 

 

So remember:

 

It’s not about you! Define your brand and website in the eyes of your users.

Align the interests of your team; work together towards a defined goal.

Have a single product manager. Remove as many people out of the decision making process.

If you are an integrated media producer at an ad agency or a marketing executive at a fortune 500 brand then you have already dealt with creating an online video campaign. And whether your goals where to build brand awareness, drive online sales, capture emails or simply to educate your customers the sheer number of options, collaborators and budget constrains likely made the experience challenging.

In our experience the most common challenges are:

1. Figuring out what to do and how to get consensus amongst your many stakeholders

2. Maintaining expectations during the production of your campaign

3. Follow-up after the launching your campaign

We have talked to integrated media producers, marketing executives and countless others and determined that there is no clear agreement on what makes a good online video campaign. The one thing that remains constant is that with the increased complexity and quantity of moving parts you have to take a more strategic approach to solving these three challenges. In our experience we have found that the same tools developed to create successful user experiences for websites apply to creating video. With that in mind we have created 6 rules that you can apply to your online video campaign website.

Here are the six rules:

Rule #1. Have a shared language:

Have everyone agree on who your viewsers are and what is important to them. It allows the teams to ask the question “does this idea or solution work for our viewser”.

We helped Savings.com rally around their viewsers’ needs and created a common language from which to frame our conversation. This can sometimes be dismissed as “fluff” but if used correctly can be an effective way to communicate and produce better results.

Rule # 2. Have clear measurable goals:

Create simple measurable goals. For example: To increase return visitors by 10% in one month.
Instead of having your team focused on a set number of features, “shots” or functions have them ask “what will it take to meet our goal?”

In The Groop school of thought we use the Agile concept of the “Global Business Objective” as one of our tools to help keep the team focused on “the prize” not fighting over some of the minutia.

Rule # 3. Create approach consensus:

Working to define your goals together allows for both creative and technology partners to feel part of the process. The traditional hand-down from strategy or planning to creative to technology simply does not work.

Our experience has been that consensus is best reached when all of the parties involved participate in
the process of defining the goals and the viewsers for the campaign.

Rule # 4. Have flexible execution:

As with most websites it is better to release less features that are awesome versus more features that are mediocre. Quality of experience trumps quantity of options. More importantly even if you plan well things will change and you will have to be comfortable with cutting features to meet your deadlines and budget caps.

We use a project approach that resembles film and animation methods used today by companies such as PIXAR and Dreamworks. Shorter cycles with more with frequent adjustments towards a shared goal.

Rule # 5. Measure often but plan it well:

Measuring often is much easier than knowing what to do with the data. For optimal data analysis make sure that you plan your tests, and conduct A/B or multivariate testing. That is what makes online video campaigns so awesome. It’s like TV but you can fine tune even after “airing” the campaign.

Google Analytics, Omniture, Webtrends and others provide you with the tools and metrics that you need but only if you use them with A. a cleal goal and B. Well planned analysis will you get optimal results.

Rule # 6. Plan to Adjust:

Launching is only half the battle, the real work begins in the small adjustments that you will continue to make on an ongoing basis. Always plan for several releases in the life cycle of an online video campaign. It’s ok if you don’t get it exactly right the first time, you can adjust it.

To the left is the first design of a Savings.com coupon page. To the right you can see the evolution of the design based on the results of multiple rounds of testing.

We would love to hear what you think. What are your experiences? Leave us your comments below.

José Caballer
Chief Visionary, The Groop

For more information about The Groop’s online video capabilities please email us at video@thegroop.net

You can also call us at 213.613.0066

Since our founding we have helped over 20 start-ups at different stages in their development and needless to say we have learned a lot from each of those experiences.

Important: You can find many if not all of essentials I am sharing around the web and in many books.
However the five that I have put together are based on my personal experience as a principal and strategist at The Groop. I can’t claim I am right, but it does genuinely pain me to see fellow entrepreneurs spend a lot of time and money to learn these same lessons.

If you are an entrepreneur, before you choose to work with The Groop please read this post. And read the books it recommends.

1. Build Less. Spend Less. Release More.

No matter how many features we have seen a start-up build into their software it has very little bearing on their success. For example in 2004-5 The Groop worked with Entrepreneur Zak Kahn to build TalentBoom. He spend a lot (a lot) of money to build then redesign and rebuild TalentBoom until it had enough features and he felt it was different enough from his competitors and had the right “design.”

Early on I told him to release (launch), release, release what he had so far and start monetizing it. He did not follow my advice.

Today the market leader is still Breakdown services and TalentBoom is still looking to gain traction.

Zak called me recently and let me know “You were right, I should have followed your advice.” More importantly he said that I could share my story with you.

I told him this before I had read Getting Real by 37signals the makers of the successful online project management tool BaseCamp. From Getting Real:

“If you want to build a company that follows, you might as well put down this book now.

So what to do then? The answer is less. Do less than your competitors to beat them. Solve the simple problems and leave the hairy, difficult, nasty problems to everyone else. Instead of oneupping, try one-downing. Instead of outdoing, try underdoing.”
From Getting Real

If you have not read the book you should read it now.
Is it the absolute truth in how to do an online start-up? I don’t know, but BaseCamp is an extremely successful subscription service. We use it and pay for it, you might too.

2. Design does not matter.

Yes, I said that. And yes by trade I am a very well trained Graphic Designer who paid a lot of money to attend Art Center College of Design, one of the top design schools in the world. And yes The Groop has designed and built many beautiful websites for great brands over the 9 years of its existence. And yes Apple is an amazing example of how Design (big D) matters.

“So dude, why are you saying such blasphemy?!” you might ask.

First let’s make some important distinctions that will help:
By “Design” I mean visual language such as your logo and what exact color your links are and the style of photography you might use.
By “Does Not Matter” I mean “matters less than the whole” in the context of adoption and monetization. (People using your online product or service and you making money from it.)

So what matters?

The next three principles outline what matters. And to illustrate each point I will use one of the most important client relationships in my 15-year web career. One who happens to be in a business that many might not deem as “sexy”, but that is executing very well. I am talking about the coupon and deal site Savings.com .

3. Execute your business evenly and in the right order.

Like a rotisserie chicken. Don’t let one side cook too long before tending the other side. Your customers won’t like a half crispy and half raw chicken.

You have heard me call this “Total Brand Execution.”

Though Savings.com monetized well the Savings.com team who designed it felt it could be better both from a user experience point of view and from a brand identity point of view.

Savings.com generated revenue well and was growing. What allowed for that? The mechanics of its business model. It’s design (little d) or more accurately it’s user experience supported the affiliate business model sufficiently well, regardless of how it looked.

Before:

After:

Ebay in its heyday, MySpace in its heyday, Craigslist today are not the best looking sites and all three have been or are very successful.

I won’t even talk about Microsoft Windows, (predating Vista and 7) and a slew of other software products that succeed not on looks but on their business model and an acceptable if less than ideal user experience.

4. Have a business model and work from there.

Preferably one that your customers want or need urgently enough.

For Savings.com, brands and merchants need to sell more online and customers want deals on products/brands they need or desire. A customer who already has the intent to buy and is at the beginning or the end of the purchase funnel will be readily inclined to use a coupon or deal.

In other examples, people want to sell the contents of their garage, find a job or find workers, Craigslist brings them together. In these cases it involves one or both of the parties making money; in the case of Savings.com it involves saving money.

What does your online product provide your user?
Have you defined why your customer should care about your product?

More importantly what business model are you starting with?

And before you say I need a product before giving it a business model let me warn you that putting in place the mechanics of an affiliate model is far easier and far cheaper than building a product that looks awesome but is looking for a business model.

You can succeed either way but the latter will take a lot more capital and a lot longer. The heavier the rocket you want to launch the more fuel you need, it’s basic physics.

5. Know your user (singular) well. Delight them. Repeat.

The more type of users (customers) you can please the better your product will do.
That does sound right. Because more is better. Wrong. This mistake is replicated over, and over and over and over and over and over. And it’s wrong in so many ways. Let me count them.

- The more users you want to please, the more features you will need to create. Which violates the first essential principle in this list. Just like Issac Asimov’s rules for robotics.

-The more users you want to please the more confused they will be as to what makes you unique.

- The more users you want to please the more confusing your product will be to use. How many features do you use in Microsoft Excel?

And on and on.

Savings.com first focused on getting their core users to use the product more often. That is the first goal we were given in our brief. It also happens to be the first rule in sales, sell to your existing customer base first.

Together we segmented their users into three user profiles and aggressively aimed to delight the SMALLEST number but most INFLUENCIAL segment of their customers. Using essential principle number three above they executed evenly across social media, PR, design, user experience, content (and etc.) including the one place that matters most. The real world. They flew 30 of the most influential of their customers to San Francisco for a one day “Save Up” conference.

I can’t begin to express how successful that was.

Finally, until now I have not had the courage to urge my start-up clients to think radically different from their urge to follow and make “me to” decisions. Marty Nuemeir  in his book  ZAG, The #1 Strategy of High-Performance Brands explains it well:

“If nobody’s doing it, you’d be crazy to do it yourself, right? Wrong. In fact, if you’re looking to become the leader in a new market space, the rule is just the opposite. If ANYBODY’S doing it, you’d be crazy to do it yourself…”

…radical differentiation doesn’t test well in focus groups. When you ask people what they want, they’ll invariably say they want more of the same, only with better features, a lower price or both.”

Next:

You can read the entire Getting Real book online here:
http://gettingreal.37signals.com/

And you can start reading Zag here:
http://www.zagbook.com/

When executives need a marketing catalyst to come in, challenge a “this is the way we’ve always done it” mindset, and inspire consumers to take immediate action, they ping Brody. Exploring and developing new innovative approaches to business is not a hobby for him; it’s a full time pursuit.

Brody arms North with over 20 years experience in venture analysis, brand strategy, product launches, retail promotions, consumer anthropology, and developing disruptive concepts in traditional and emerging mediums.

Before drinking the Virgin Kool-Aid, Brody wore just about every strategic leadership hat within the advertising industry; from Copywriter to Account Planner to Creative Director. He created and spearheaded the Concept Team for the Integer Group/TBWA, America’s 4th largest retail promotion agency with over 800 employees nationwide. The sole mission of this intrepreneurial project was to breed a higher degree of innovation and trigger breakthrough impact for new business and high-priority client initiatives; it resulted in putting more beers in hands, more butts in seats and game-changing thinking into motion for big brands like Coors and Coors Light, the NFL, EarthLink, Qwest Communications and United Airlines.

He first sharpened his experiential marketing chops as Director of Game Operations for the Sioux Falls Skyforce of the Continental Basketball Association, where he was recognized league-wide as a promotional innovator. Each home game he entertained the fans with a mix of stunts that included dropping pizzas from the arena rafters and showcasing on-court diaper derbies. He even taught the team’s mascot how to dunk (yes, “with authority”) off the mini-tramp. Brody graduated from the University of Arizona, and spends his free time pedaling bikes, tracking down the ultimate carne asada taco, and boasting about his prowess in Ping Pong.

So we have taken a little bit of time to compile some of the”How-To’s” grow Twitter followers. We have experimented for the last year with a lot of different ways and we where curios as to the experiences out there. Here are 3 list that we found that we liked.

Here is our “web round up”:

From WebStudio13
How to Grow Your Twitter Followers – 5 Ways That Work for Me
by Andrew Ran Wong published September 12, 2009

From Ploked
11 Ways To Grow Your Twitter Following
April 15th, 2009 | ploked

From TechCrunch
Kevin Rose: 10 Ways To Increase Your Twitter Followers
by TechCrunch on January 25, 2009