by Juho Tunkelo on January 4, 2012
I could write about a lot of things that benefit any online business, but there seems to be one overarching theme things keep circling back to.
So riddle me this, my friend:
What is the actual reason why your web site exists:
- To look pretty and make you look good?
- To ‘get your name out there’?
- To make it possible for people to ‘contact you’?
- To ‘describe’ your products and services?
This is what comes up when looking at company sites who haven’t really thought about why they’re putting up a web site in the first place.
Pretty silly when you think about it, right?
photo credit: Micky.!
Instead – the real reason for a web site to exist… could it be… possibly… just perhaps…
- To make more money, for you and your business, at every step?
It’s now 2012, and so many people and so many businesses still dance around this issue it’s stunning.
Even the biggest newspapers in the world have finally come around and admitted they lost a decade and untold billions in revenue by not thinking things through first.
To make money ‘later’ is like choosing to have a child and deciding to ‘choose later’ whether you’ll support the kid. Nuts!
Sound familiar? ‘Just amass market share and the money will come…’
Unfortunately many startups as well as corporate divisions have gone down this path, and many more will before saner minds prevail.
If you’re in charge of your company’s online operations, here’s the thing to remember:
- Web design and web business are two different disciplines. Two entirely different competencies. Make sure you’re getting what you need.
If nobody in your web team has ever made a verifiable dime online in their life, they probably have no business trying to do the same for you. A business exists to make money, and you deserve the benefit of online business models that actually work. After 10+ years, they do exist. Go and find the people in the know. 
by Juho Tunkelo on December 22, 2011
“Hey Instagram, why is your mouth so big and your design so beautiful?”
- So I can eat my competition faster and faster! Ho Ho Ho!
Right, I’m mixing my tales but who cares. Here’s what’s going on.
Instagram the photo sharing app recently overtook FourSquare as the largest fully mobile social network.
15 million users… yeah, whatever. Point is, they’re doing great and people love to use their app. So…
Why exactly did InstaGram blow up in the first place?
You’d think that the 800 pound gorilla of photo sharing, Flickr (still love ‘em to death), would have snagged the self-evident crown of the King of Mobile Photo Sharing long ago?
Instead, a four-person startup (yes, still just four with the 15 million users) overtook and then lapped the Yahoo-owned behemoth, all the while singing neener-neener in their faces.
Or something like that…
photo credit: ohdarling
Now, if we look at things from the perspective of a marketer slash product designer.. things look a little different:
- Instagram appeals to emotion – quick atmospheric touch-up to your mobile phone photos that tend to not look so professional anyway… makes all the difference. It makes you look good, it makes you feel good, it makes you want to share that feeling you had taking that snap. Folks, emotion sells – and I don’t care what it is you’re selling; personal status, attractiveness to the opposite sex, whatever the reason you share photos in the first place.
- It’s done for you sharing – you get a quick value add that you can share without tweaking and editing and all those things that are possible with more professional software… but you never spend the time figuring it out anyway. People want a service that hands it to them on a silver platter.
- There are no extra steps to take. It’s all very quick and in the moment – so you don’t lose that emotion – just take that snap, maybe apply a filter and a couple of words and buzz… out it goes. You get it now, hence the name. Instant gratification.
- Great name that sticks AND tells you what it does. With a name like instagram, it makes it sound like something you want to at least try once. And once you have, you probably won’t want to use anything else because of the other reasons counted above.
There it is. Go figure.
All based on principles well known by marketers, and mastered by those who actually use them to create and sell product like crazy.
The remaining question is…
Why indeed are marketers so rarely involved in the design of a product, since they know how to sell the final product the best, anyway? Something to think about for the holidays.
