Copyright 2009 Dennis S. Vogel All rights reserved.
This blog post was transferred from another service.
I added my insights to another Inc magazine article. I included advice applicable to a variety of businesses.
There is advice in the Inc article you can learn from also.
The article is The Product: Online Golf Lessons. The URL is www.inc.com/magazine/20081201/the-product-online-golf-lessons.html
David Nevogt should continue to compete with himself/his business. Almost all business, product or service categories are open to somebody inventing or innovating, then offering things people will want more. These inventions/innovations may be almost any combinations of these: cheaper, more advanced, less complicated, more sophisticated, upscale, more durable, disposable, bigger, smaller &/or faster.
As long as what he offers is profitable & people benefit, each product & service can compete with his others.
Instructional DVDs are apt to appeal to some whose computers are too old record & upload videos.
Since competition is inevitable, he should be among the competitors.
If Nevogt uses trading up/trading down paradigm of Michael J. Silverstein, he can create higher cost, more functional options & low cost, adequate commodity options.
In retail terms, options can be good, better & best. Creating a mid-priced better option may be unprofitable.
The conversion rate of less than 1% from his email campaign can definitely seem low. But what matters more than the conversions is how profitable the campaign was. If he gets more money than the campaign & order fulfillment cost, the campaign was successful, even if it was barely successful.
By testing different lists, copy & art for an HTML email message, he may find a profitable combination.
Golf magazine subscribers who were on his list may not have gotten his message because of Spam filters. Was there a tracking device in the message? If so, he may be able to determine the open rate. But the presence of a tracking device may be what got a message snagged.
There are too many possible problems, which can be eliminated, to justify him thinking he tried it & none of it works.
The problem could be something external that distracted people: terrorist attacks, disasters, scandals, bad economy, etc. After hearing or reading bad news, it can be hard to mental shift to buying something for pleasure.
What Tom Cox wrote is valid. Nevogt should avoid competing with golf pros & free alternatives like YouTube.
Since his offer is a video-based product, prospects may skim through his message, then generalize & think, Oh, it is just another golf video. I tried those, they do not work. I heard those are no good. I need something more advanced.
Some prospects will read a sentence or a paragraph & decide if they may be interested. He should test a message that has nothing about a video product or web site based service in the 1st 2-3 paragraphs. Convince prospects they want & need help, then introduce ways they can get the help.
Chris Hurn has great insight about disruption & differentiation. To expand on it, Clayton M. Christensen would probably advise Nevogt to disrupt current options by competing with nonconsumption. There are apt to be some who may have tried golfing & were frustrated & never tried it again. Others may be curious, not have time or money to learn. Some may have been frustrated & turned off by golf pros.
The problem would be finding them since they may not subscribe to golf magazines. To help find them, determine the top perceptions, benefits & purposes of golf: 1: is it a pure sport or more like a hobby? 2: is it a social activity? 3: is it a good reason to be outside? 4: is it an opportunity to excel & be admired?
Example: People who are bored may look for hobbies or participation sports, there are magazines & web sites that may attract them.
I wonder if being a duffer/weekend hacker or slightly better is enough for some. I enjoy bowling occasionally, without aspiring to be a great player. Some lessons were enough to satisfy me. Consistent strikes are more than I expect, but I also want to avoid gutter balls.
If there are 2 millions duffers who aspire to golfing without losing balls, Nevogt may be able to generate $30 million by selling a $15 product.
Some duffers may only golf to spend time with their spouses who are golfers; without embarrassing themselves or their spouses. Their spouses may not be good teachers. The solution would be a cheap instruction product/service.
I agree with Nevogt, just raising prices for the sake of more money or value perception is bad. More functionality would justify paying more. He should test how much more functionality people want. More functionality will overshoot aspirations of some golfers & undershoot others.
Ed Sattar had valid advice to a point. People may identify with a famous beginner who learns well. If a famous advanced player improved dramatically, it could help also.
A celebrity may be too expensive & his/her fans may not be interested in golf. Considering how many celebrities & famous athletes end up as felons in prison or rehab, they may be more risky than their endorsements are worth. When you add in their high price tags to their penchant for trouble, anybody famous may become an infamous, expensive problem.
Guilt by association can ruin a business.
Smita Pasumarthi has great insight about personalization; let people improve what they want. Since data storage is relatively cheap, a server hard drive & backup can hold lessons of subscribers & track their advancement. If storing their progress is too expensive, Nevogt may be able to have a system that lets people download their files when they finish a session, then upload their files when they start their next session.
This would fit the paradigm of them uploading a video of their techniques. To progress, they would have to upload a video each time they advance to get a lesson tailored to their new levels.
Thank you for using my blog. Please let me know if I should clarify anything.
Copyright 2009 Dennis S. Vogel All rights reserved.
When you compete against big businesses with big budgets you need powerful marketing strategies & tactics. You'll find them here-
https://thriving-small-businesses.blogspot.com/
http://www.voy.com/31049/
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