I agree with Warren Buffet: “Price is what you charge. Value is what people think it’s worth.”
In Does It Work?: 10 Principles for Delivering True Business Value in Digital Marketing, Shane Atchison and Jason Burby introduce a four step process to create or increase demand online, guided and informed by ten core principles.
Here they are, accompanied by my brief annotations:
1. Business Goals Are Everything: Yes, but without execution, measurement, evaluation, and refinement, business goals are essentially worthless.
2. A Collective Vision: All great organizations have a shared [begin italics] compelling [end] vision that ensures buy-in. However, Thomas Edison reminds us, “Vision without execution is hallucination.”
3. Data Inspires Creativity: Data can verify possibilities and degree of probability of making a promising idea a profitable reality. Developing an idea without data is like driving a vehicle without windows.
4. Finding Unicorns: No organization ever has too many people with passion, credibility, and all kinds of talent who have the ability to get beyond their own egos and work well on a team.
5. Culture Predicts Success and Failure: Customers do not want generic treatment. Here’s the “secret sauce” at Southwest Airlines according for former chairman and CEO, Herb Keller: “We take great care of our people, they take great care of our customers, and our customers take great care of our shareholders.”
6. Measure What Matters: Only measure what you will then take action to improve. (See #8.) Long ago, I concluded that “what matters” is whatever I am most concerned about.
7. What It’s Worth: Really, the challenge is to identify what works [begin] better [end] and then make it even better.
8. Never Stop Improving: I agree with Marshall Goldsmith: “What got you here won’t get you there.” In fact, I think it won’t even let you remain here, whatever and wherever “here” may be.
9. One Size Fits No One: That’s an exaggeration but the fact remains that no two people are the same. Also, the needs, interests, concerns, and expectations of every individual also change over time. Make each person feel special.
10. Framework for Innovation: Constantly nourish a workplace environment within which innovation is most likely to thrive. Only then will you have a culture within which [begin] people [end] will thrive.
Atchison and Burby: “As we introduce each principle [in the book], we also include a link to a short video to bring the principle to life.”
I highly recommend their book and urge you to put it to work for you and your organization before your competition does. If not now, when?