Martin Koss – Internet Marketing Strategy Coach

Business

When I was fourteen, any glance of lady boobies had my giggles on overdrive for the rest of the day. I was a sheltered young whipper-snapper. Heck, I remember thinking bellybuttons were, ya know, a rude bit. Until I figured out we all had one and they are all pretty much the same – smelly.

I never got off on it. Porn. I guess Debbie Does Dallas was enough for me in my tender teenage years, and the same goes for blood and guts movies too. Texas Chain Saw Massacre was a shocker – a right doozey to a naive young lad like me and, as it happened, was such a shocker it was removed from the shelves in the early eighties.

They got talked about though – a lot! Every decent video rental dude had a copy he loaned to his favourite customers! Everyone wanted to see them to see what all the fuss was about. They were remarkable – like ‘em or not.

Going back those twenty or thirty years anything out of the ‘norm’ was a shock, a kick in the head and a landmark for what was, and has become more, ‘acceptable’.

Now that most of us have seen shock horror in the likes of Hostel and Saw and with so much sickly porn on every site from YouTube to BluTube (don’t pretend you never looked) and the sad (not the teary kind of sad) thing is, it’s not shocking any more. Whatever your view on it, I bet you’re not shocked by it? Repulsed by it perhaps, but not shocked. Read the rest of this entry »

Isn’t it sad that more and more suppliers only want us to listen to reminders of how wonderful their website is when we call them by phone – possibly because we can’t get any joy on their website?

Just the other day I was struggling with a supplier’s website – I was unable to login (which is the only way I could buy the item I wanted) so I called their ‘sales’ and advice line. Instantly I got a message saying that their call centre was experiencing a ‘seasonal’ high call volume and it may be easier and faster to find the answer I’m looking for via – you guessed it – the website.

I hung on a while – ‘cos I’m a persistent so n so… Eventually given the option to press 3 for technical support… And there I was told to call back at another time as they are experiencing a higher than normal call volume.

Funny really – because within the past few weeks I’ve heard the same BS several times when calling a variety of suppliers – it seems none of them want to provide telephone support or telephone based customer services, and why? Well, I think the answer is simple: it saves money by ‘forcing’ their paying customers to wade and wait. Read the rest of this entry »

Here in the UK we are about to face a fairly impacting tax increase (January 2011) with our VAT being increased from 17.5% to 20%. This may not seem like a massive leap but in real terms it is a 14% increase in the actual tax being paid at the checkout.

While I appreciate that this will have everyone up in arms (and I’m one who isn’t too chuffed about it – we will all feel it in one way or another), and it is frustrating how the Government can increase their ‘prices’ whenever they need to raise a little more cash for the Jags and the 2nd homes with a little bit left over for straightening out the NHS, it’s not the first time businesses have been hit where it hurts and I’m sure it won’t be the last.

That’s my five minutes on the soap box for today – moving on…

Any business can increase prices.

How? I can hear you shouting at me that your customers won’t pay more than they do and how hard it is to keep the wolf from the door already in these purse string tightening times that we’re in.

Easy:

Do more than the other ‘guy’! Simple.

Think about it. You’re earning X for doing what you do now. What if you doubled the amount you offered without Read the rest of this entry »

As the dust settled on another wonderful “Father’s Day” I pondered a while, posted a status update on Facebook that described how great I felt when my kids told me I was the greatest Dad in the world.

I’m sure there were millions of “Greatest Dads” around the world feeling the same pride and love yesterday…

We can all be the world’s greatest Dad!

I got smothered in love yesterday for Father’s Day and, after all the cards, books and chocolate were unwrapped, I asked “why am ‘I’ the world’s greatest Dad?” and my kids said “because you’re crazy, you make us laugh, you look after us and work hard”.

That was good enough for me!

Made my day.

Anyone can be a ‘father’ but it takes much more to be the “World’s Greatest Dad”.

It wasn’t until a few moments after writing this update that I realised how this applies to all things we do in life; social, private and business. We can all be the greatest. Read the rest of this entry »

Do you use Amazon (.com / .co.uk / .ca etc)? Well, that’s probably a silly question because I would guess most of us have used them at one time or another – especially since you can get pretty much anything from them, directly or indirectly.

Why do we keep going back? Why do we rely on them so much?

Well, I can only speak from personal experience and I must confess – it rare that I shop anywhere else unless someone offers me a cracking deal.

The reason is simple: They have spent years mastering customer services. They know how to provide the absolute nearest thing to perfect online customer services – without ever giving the impression they are selling to us/me.

I go back to Amazon because I want to.
There’s the key: I want to.

I want to do buy from Amazon

Because they get it right, time and time again. I honestly cannot remember a time when Amazon got it wrong. And even if they ‘almost’ get it wrong I can see them with their hands in the air saying “oops – that was me – sorry dude” – and that was probably just something like a book is late from the publishers so the delivery will be a few days late… No big deal. Read the rest of this entry »

How can ‘Being Human’ in Politics have any relevance to ‘Being Human’ in our businesses?

I am a big fan of Jeff Jarvis, author of ‘What Would Google Do?’ and his writing on BuzzMachine – where I’m never surprised to find many interesting posts about a wide variety of subjects ranging from privacy, being human, politics, being public (publicness), and many more random issues (I like ‘random’).

On May 18th (2010), Jeff wrote a post on BuzzMachine about our new Prime Minister, David Cameron and the transition from campaigning politician to PM and how, if at all, DC’s online activities would change or cease now that his slippers are in the master bedroom at No. 10.

In “Human in the throne?” Jeff refers back to the past couple of years (or more) of many ‘home videos’ David Cameron made but now asks:
“but will he talk with the people from the kitchen, as he used to? His last Webcameron video asks people to vote (you’d think he’d at least have one saying thank you). We haven’t yet seen the PM buttering toast. Will he? Can he?”

Well we’ll have to wait ‘n see about that but let’s just think about it for a second. If DC stopped doing videos, stopped sending his messages out via the web and reaching the masses of people for and against the Conservative party and/or coalition Government, then is he being a bit ‘2 faced’?

We could easily start to think that now he’s got the public vote (well, kind of) and he’s ousted Gordon Brown from his armchair at No. 10, that he thinks he has no further need for ‘keeping in touch’ or ‘being connected’ – ‘being human’.

This is where we find a link to how many businesses work and how the web gives us the opportunity to continue being connected. Read the rest of this entry »

Have you had a head scratching session today – wondering how the bloomin’ heck you’re going to get over a problem? Well, maybe it’s time to ‘phone a friend’ quite literally. What seems like a huge hurdle for you (or me) could be made so much simpler by bouncing the idea off someone else…

Running your own business single-handed can be a fantastic way to carve your own path and make your own way in the world without having a bickering management team telling you what to do and without having to constantly decide between yours and someone else’s ideas.

But – lets be honest, quite often it is such a refreshing break to get another opinion. It is helpful to you and your business when someone else can shed some light on a problem that you are looking at with blinkers on – they see it from the outside and, very often, make you aware of something glaringly obvious- but, perhaps, not obvious to you while your head is deep in the trenches of the problem. Read the rest of this entry »

“Do I Think About My Competitors?”
I believe there is always things worth knowing about what the competition is up to (in social media there are occasional opportunities presented by listening to what people are saying and how the ‘competitor’ is responding – or not) but some businesses get a bit obsessed with it.

Example: a few years ago I spent a lot of time with a double glazing firm and the MD was somewhat obsessed with ‘crushing the local competitor’ and my advice was constantly “stop obsessing with beating them – just be better than them – the marketplace will know you’re better”.

There’s room in all markets for the best, the worst, and every level in between and there’s a slice of every market that will go for the cheaper option (short-term minded) and a (hopefully bigger) slice that will lean toward the best (quality and value for money).

The best in any industry become the best by following many logical paths and procedures but up there is focusing primarily on producing and delivering “the best” they can. By doing so the business becomes known by reputation and promoted by natural “word of mouth” online and offline. Especially in our ‘new world’ where more people have a louder voice.

One of my fav bits of advice is “be aware of your competition’s strengths and weaknesses while focusing on being the Amazon of your industry – people will come back time and time again and they will recommend you“.

Originally posted as a comment
by martinkoss
on Chris Brogan using DISQUS.

So I’m guessing we’ve all heard about our silly Prime Minister’s comment yesterday (that’s the one and only Gordon Brown for anyone not paying attention) that seriously landing him, and his Political Party in hot water – well – Read the rest of this entry »

With so many authors sharing their knowledge and experiences, 17 zillion blogs about blogging and everyone and their dog sharing opinions – who should you listen to? Well, for me, Chris Brogan stands head and shoulders above most Read the rest of this entry »