A DARK CONFESSION

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IN BUSINESS, I’M ALLOWED TO CHEAT.

CHEAT CODES FOR YOUR SMALL BUSINESS PATRICK MCKENZIE

BOARD MEETING KALZUMEUS SOFTWARE

SCENE: A LARGE ENTERPRISE SOFTWARE STARTUP “WE NEED A CONTENT MARKETING STRATEGY” ▸ Email marketing team ▸ 3 members ▸ Marketo license ($10,000 per month) ▸ Content team ▸ 3 members ▸ Engineering support ▸ 1 member ▸ Marketing management

500 VISITS / POST

6 POSTS / MONTH

CUTEST PUPPIES

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ςΩετ

▸ Publishing >>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Waiting until perfect ▸ Multiple platforms but you don’t have to be everywhere ▸ Static website ▸ Email list ▸ Blog technology but publish essays ▸ Podcast or video (totally optional but they can work) ςΩετ CHEAT CODES FOR CONTENT DEVELOPMENT

THIS LOOKS LIKE A WHOLE LOT OF WORK. (Let’s peek behind the curtain.)

DEVELOPING A PROCESS OPTIMIZED TOWARDS SHIPPING MORE WHAT’S REQUIRED TO SEND? ▸ Text of email ▸ Design ▸ Calls to action ▸ Archive page ▸ Push the send button

▸ Send more email than you’re comfortable which. ▸ Watch for what works — engagement and, ideally, conversions. ▸ Take the best emails, edit to remove references to time and add CTA, add to autoresponder. ▸ Your newest users get your best writing automatically. BETTER, FASTER, AT HIGHER VOLUME THAN A TEAM OF PROFESSIONALS SPECIFIC CHEAT CODE FOR EMAIL

BETTER, FASTER, AT HIGHER VOLUME THAN A TEAM OF PROFESSIONALS MARKETING VIRTUOUS CYCLE ▸ Post a blog post, get more emails. ▸ Post an email, get more emails. ▸ Do a podcast, get more emails. ▸ Don’t be shy about re-using or repurposing themes or content.

SEPARATING CONTENT AND PRESENTATION IMPROVES VALUE OF YOUR CONTENT PORTFOLIO AS TIME GOES ON.

2 MILLION WORDS

2 MILLION WORDS I get 90% of the economic benefits from 2% of them. Start there first.

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MAXIMIZING THE VALUE OF WHAT YOU MAKE ▸ Direct almost all of your efforts to platforms you control. ▸ Separate the content and the process / technology, so that process / technology improvements incrementally increase the value of your back catalog. ▸ Double down on what works. ▸ Triple down on what works. ▸ You’re still not doing enough of that. 99.98% of your market has no ideas that you’ve “done it before.”

MOST OF THE WORLD CAN’T USE EXCEL 0R ANY API CHEAT CODE FOR DEVELOPERS

A PRACTICAL EXAMPLE EXPEDITED SSL (MANAGED RENEWALS / INSTALLS FOR CERTS) ▸ Identify a business need of your target customer ▸ “I need to not have my SSL certs expire w/o knowing.” ▸ Build a tool which addresses that need succinctly ▸ Paste in domains; we’ll tell you when they expire ▸ Snap into your marketing empire ▸ Give us your email/phone and we’ll send you reminders

TOOLS PREDATE SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS! NOT A DEVELOPER?

I JUST DON’T HAVE IT IN ME TO BE CREATIVE TODAY UNREASONABLY EFFECTIVE ONE-DAY DEV PROJECTS ▸ Integrate any of the following with your application ▸ Trello: instant, arbitrary, low-friction work queues ▸ Slack: incredible insight into “pulse” of business ▸ Email: tag customers w/ lots of stuff, figure out emails later ▸ House ads: given cookie w/ opaque ID, post to API, get desired ad ▸ Automatic post-sale upsells ▸ Annual billing for SaaS ▸ Next higher plan for people at 80% of quota ▸ Cross-sells for info products

THE AUTO- RECRUITER

CHARGE MORE

I LOVE TALKING TO PEOPLE JUST LIKE YOU ▸ @patio11 or [email protected] ▸ You should really be on my email list: https:// training.kalzumeus.com ▸ bit.ly/baconcheats for my slides (pssst if you ever do a presentation swap slides or related commentary for email addresses)

FRANZ APOSTOL IN MEMORIAM

FUNDING FOR THIS PROGRAM MADE POSSIBLE BY THE INTERNET PHOTO CREDITS ▸ Big Jigsaw: Alan Levine, by CC: https://flic.kr/p/mDYE ▸ Unfinished Jigsaw: a2gemma, by CC: https://flic.kr/p/ wTUmk ▸ The Thinker: Sharyn Morrow, by CC: https://flic.kr/p/ qoK2g3 ▸ Franz Apostol: Keith Perhac