Archive for Marketing
New in the Get Clients NOW! Answer Center
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Here are this month’s new additions to the Answer Center. (You’ll need your password to log in.)
- Designing a Compelling 30-Second Introduction – Audio by C.J. Hayden
Get Clients Now! facilitator Cristina Favreau interviews C.J. Hayden on how to design a compelling 30-second self-introduction, commercial, or elevator speech. - Is Your Marketing Stuck for Words? – Article by C.J. Hayden
Many aspects of business are driven by numbers, but marketing often seems to be all about words. Whether it’s naming your business, coming up with a tag line, or writing copy for your website, you probably spend a big chunk of your marketing time trying to find just the right words. - Planning to Meet Your Business Goals – Article by Donna Feldman
Many business owners start the year with a written list of things they intend to accomplish, yet by year’s end these goals have either been forgotten or left by the wayside, ready to be recycled for the coming year. - Don’t Wait for Tax Time to Look at the Bottom Line – Article by C.J. Hayden
A curious thing happens to entrepreneurs in the spring of every year. They wake up one day and realize they had better figure out how much money they made last year so they can pay their taxes. But wait, shouldn’t a business owner already know how much money he or she made last year, last quarter, or last month?
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Digging deeper with User Stories
Posted by: | CommentsThe INVEST acronym from the User Stories Applied: For Agile Software Development
think serves as a good guideline for defining User Stories. The following is from Doug Seven’s take on INVEST. INVEST stands for Independent, Negotiable, Valuable, Estimatable, Small and Testable.
- Independent: The story should not carry with it dependencies, which can lead to estimating problems. Instead the story should be completely independent so that it can be worked on without pulling in a set of other stories.
- Negotiable: Stories should have room to negotiate – they are a starting point, not a contract.
- Valuable: The story should communicate the value to a user or customer, not to the developer. The story should define not only what a user can do, but what value the user gets from the implemented story. If there is no value, cut the story.
- Estimateable: You need to be able to estimate the amount of work required to implement the story. If it is too big and too daunting (an epic), break it up into smaller stories.
- Small: Similar to the previous, stories need to be small. Large stories are too complex to manage, and are typically more than one story compounded together.
- Testable: The implementation of the story needs to be testable. Define the tests that can be performed to validate the story was correctly implemented.
From a marketing perspective, you could develop user stories for many of your projects. For an example, consider developing a direct mail piece for a home roofing contractor: Using the standard outline for developing a user story: “As a [end user role], I want [the desire] so that [the rationale]. The user story may go something like this: As a roofing contractor, I would like to develop a 4-part mailing program targeting subdivisions of 20 to 24 year old homes.
- Using INVEST, I could look at this user story and conclude:
- Independent: Yes it is very independent.
- Negotiable: I think it is negotiable from the standpoint that you might be able to yse a 3 or 5 part or make some recommendations after initial testing.
- Valuable: I think presently it is rather weak in that area.
- Estimable: Time frames are very easily estimated.
- Small: The actual story is very small and well-defined.
- Testable: I think like most direct mail pieces, unless under a time constraint sample pieces could be sent and feedback given as additional pieces are developed and modified from the feedback.
Though this is a very easy initial user story, it still could be broken down into a variety of story points to put in the backlog, However, I think user stories for marketing should even go a step further. Using this example, they really should be re-directed so that they are written from the home owner’s perspective (the end user).
What could we create using our standard outline: “As a [end user role], I want [the desire] so that [the rationale]. As a homeowner, I would like information on the telltale signs that my roof needs inspected.
With this approach, you can see not only the need for supplying relevant content that is of value to the consumer but this story will strengthen your marketing. As you develop the piece, you may even find more content and/or a more targeted message.
P.S. Notice that I did not say replaced but inspected.
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Why are we doing this?
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Do you ask this question before your start a marketing campaign or project? Sometimes it is really hard to come up with a number or a goal, but should we not try before doing it? I hear more people discussing why you should not measure things rather than why you should. But I think it really pays to have a goal or some sort of metric, even one that is not worth very much.
The goal might change and be adjusted during the process but I certainly think having good solid reasoning would be worthwhile to most people. Especially, when you get in the middle of the project and start wondering what you should be doing today. I know this sounds rather trivial and many may think that I am rather foolish in discussing it. However, I think if you sit back and look at some of your last marketing projects or maybe even your last sales call, you might find that this answer is a little “Grayer” than what it should be.
By answering such a simple question you may clarify for your whole team decisions based on outcomes, cost, time, and resources, that get allocated. Without the question you may not even build a process to answer, why you did it.
I would challenge organizations to not only consider this question. But spend time thinking of how it fits into a larger picture. If you have ever heard me talk about what works in marketing, you know that I believe that one single event by itself seldom works. Effective marketing is the strength of the connections between each single event.
Why are we doing this? I like that question!
