Jeremy Goodrich's Blog

Some marketing concepts are classics, they'll never change, alter or be improved upon. Sure, you can rephrase them, rehash them and remix them into new fandangled jargon...but, at the core, those concepts are still there. Seen "the dip" by Seth Godin? Or the Crossing the Chasm, by Geoffry Moore? I've read one of the two, but from the description of "The Dip" my gut says that it's the same message, same concept, with new jargon and different case studies. That's OK, in fact, that's awesome. Truly original thought neither of those works might be, however, there are perhaps a dozen or so insights that are profound in any given business book, even if the message is the same old, same old.

Why bring this up in the context of bridging the gap between failure and success? Well, when you think about the evolution of a company (say, an online forum) you have the early adopters, then the follow on, mass market and last, the laggards or late adopters.

Considering Moore's law, you have to think about selling differently. Considering Seth Godin's approach, you might reframe the issue in the context of the early adopters leaving, precisely because the mass market is starting to arrive. Thus, the dip, before the final surge into mainstream acceptance.

Moore argues beachheads, niches, the bowling pin strategy. Sure, sure.

Personally, I have no idea what Seth Godin is selling, and I'm sure it's awesome - I just read his blog, and share a previous employer (Yahoo) with him.

My take: online, there are set distribution patterns out there. Take a look at a study, any study, and you'll find "word of mouth" being the number one source of new visitors to any given website. Number two is search engines, and three is links from a third party website (non search). So...as a pragmatist, myself, I'm trying to learn about number one, but I rely on number two & three. Why? Because I can't control what Joe Bob says to Joe Six Pack about my website, nobody can - do you know how to control minds? Didn't think so. However, given a formula & search engines desire to send people where they want to go, and people who run websites desire to give people relevant, related places to go that are also quality...why not start there?

Eg, why not as part of your business plan, talk to people who control sites that are related, compatible, to your own? And why not make sure that when you build your site, you talk in the language, the nuance, and the dialog of your market? Do these things, and #2 & #3 will work out for you. I have no idea if that'll help with number one or not, however, I don't deal in vagaries, I deal with things as i find them. So do your customers, I'll bet.

What do you need to do, then, to bridge this gap which I'm speaking of? Simple: build stuff people want, in their language, and let people who you're sharing space with no about it. Offline, you'd want people in the community to know you opened a pizza place, right? So...isn't online the same thing?