If you are selling a product, service or technology, invariably you are going to run into the issues of marketing it. The question is, do you just tell people about it, or do you show them?
Examples vs. Real Applications
Yahoo! has been promoting their new “Search Assist” feature for the last couple weeks. While there’s been a little buzz of their kick-off party and of the new features, the new feature set hasn’t really made a large impact.
So Yahoo! has begun a new type of promotion… Rather than simply talking about all the features and talking about all the cool stuff it can do, they have decided to show us.
Talking vs. Showing
Up until now, I’ve read about all the cool things that Yahoo! has built into their search engine. However, none of it has really knocked me off my chair. I didn’t really see how useful it could be.
And that’s just it: I didn’t see how useful it could be.
Yahoo! has teamed up with the New York Times’ Puzzle Master, Will Shortz, to build a real application of how effective the new search tools Yahoo! built can be.
What Yahoo! has done is given the user a real-world example and a perfect situation to really show how useful their new search features are.
It’s very effective, click on the image above to see for yourself!
In the top half you get an enticing crossword puzzle, with enough functionality to make it very easy to use and not frustrating.
This point is important: If the application was hard to use or frustrating, it would defeat the purpose, and probably leave people with a sour taste for Yahoo’s Search Assist.
In the middle you have the new Search Assist features, and in the bottom of the screen you have the search results generated by the Search Assist features.
Building the Perfect Situation
There are a couple things to notice with this example. First off, Yahoo! has ingeniously crafted a ‘perfect situation’ to showcase their new features. They are no longer just talking about it, instead they are showing and letting users see. In addition:
- It is extremely easy to use – users don’t even have to figure out what to search for to be able to use the Search Assist features.
- It is well designed – the layout is easy to understand and is pleasing to the eye.
- It keeps the focus on the Search Assist – it is so easy to use the Search Assist to find the answers, that you almost automatically choose to do so.
Real World Uses vs. Tutorials
Many years ago, a new technology was becoming popular (although in the long run it never made it) called SVG (scalable vector graphics). Many people created tutorials and talked about all the cool things that it could do, but there were zero “real-world” examples.
So, I created one. I created a web site and a web application (with a real purpose — it allowed you to interact with photos of apartment buildings so you could select the floor and exact apartment you were looking for).
The buzz generated from this was amazing. I was offered one book deal, one co-authorship deal, was written up in the newspaper and business journals, and last but not least, was one of the top web site locations for people searching for SVG information.
All this simply because I created a real-world application and my competition was just people talking and showing you how to draw a circle with the technology.
Applying this To Your Business
Hopefully you are already thinking about all the cool “real-world” applications you could showcase with what your products or technology. There are a couple guidelines I would suggest:
- Make it useful — Build an application that has a real purpose, something you might consider throwing a business model behind
- Let people know about it — A new technology with a real-world solution is newsworthy, create a press release
- Make it pretty — People remember visuals more than what they read — so make it aesthetically pleasing
- Make it easy to use — If people can’t use it, they will associate your product with the poor usability
- Keep your focus — Make sure you are showcasing the technology or service, not the partner or the design you created for it
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