How to Create, Develop, Test, Produce, Market, and Sell a Unique Product

I would like to welcome "guest blogger"—Bobette Kyle—whom I have mentioned many times in The Writing Life as a marketing and Web guru, among the many hats she wears. If you are interested in "living your best day, every day," read on.

Four St. Louis women recently started Daysteps LLC, where our mission is to help women live more balanced and fulfilled lives. The company is very nontraditional in that all four of us balance work and personal time independently--and very differently--according to what works best for each of us. Additionally, our "office location" changes continually; meetings are held wherever our lives intersect (whether that be at one of their homes, online, or a local restaurant).

• How this day planner for women is different from other's in the market today

In a broad sense, Daysteps is a lifestyle. It is the personal desire to become more accepting of life right now while achieving life balance, self-improvement, and personal fulfillment. It is the process of making these changes part of a daily routine and integrating them one day at a time, one step at a time.

Our first product--the Daysteps Personal Lifestyle Planner--helps women do this. This planner is different because it combines lifestyle, appointment tracking, and goal setting features. It encompasses many key aspects of life and is designed to motivate the user to become the person she wants to be.

• The target market for Daysteps

Our ideal customers are women who run households and have significant other responsibilities (a home business, for example). Yet, it is flexible enough that each woman can "make it her own" by using each section as she prefers.

Daysteps empowers women by giving them tangible ways to move toward their own goals on their own terms each day. We recognize that each woman has a unique set of values that should define her personal vision of success.

• How Daysteps came about

The concept began when Kelly Wagner recognized an unmet need: a lack of tools to easily integrate positive life changes on a daily basis. Kelly knew each of us from different parts of her life and recognized that our different strengths could contribute differently to this project.

• The main challenges we faced in creating Daysteps

Creating a unique product, then getting the message across. We literally began with blank paper and built this planner from the ground up. The iterations, rewrites, and testing took more than a year.

• How we are marketing Daysteps

Our marketing plan includes a combination of strategies for reaching our ideal customers; both short- and long-term activities, plus different distribution channels. We are focusing on direct distribution channels (local shows and direct, face-to-face sales through our individual networks), online ordering (through our Website, Amazon.com, and other sellers), and sales through independent retail stores or professionals. Longer term, we are beginning the process of gaining distribution in retail chains, who have a longer decision-making time frame for planners.

Our marketing programs are primarily social media and public relations related. We issued a launch press release, are offering opportunities for reviews, sponsoring several giveaways, and can be found on Twitter and Facebook.

• Our plans for Daysteps in the next five years

We're planning to roll out new versions for different user types, if surveys and market research indicate a need. We also plan to continue publishing our Personal Lifestyle Planner (current offered in 2010 Full-Year, Jan-June 2010, and July-December 2010 editions).

• Lessons we can share other entrepreneurs

There will always be more to do than you can physically accomplish. That's why prioritization is critical. Every second spent on one activity is a second *not* spent on another. If the latter activities are more profitable than the ones you are doing, that has a direct impact on the bottom line. To prioritize marketing and sales activities, ask yourself if that activity has a direct, positive impact on reaching or satisfying your ideal customer. If not, there are more profitable ways to spend your time.

A misconception held by many entrepreneurs is that successful businesses run smoothly. In reality, being in business comes with bumps and challenges along the way. Keep in mind that implementing a business and marketing plan is an ongoing process--implement, evaluate, adjust, implement, evaluate, adjust, etc.--and success does not require perfection.

Another lesson is to believe in you. Many times others will not "get" your vision, especially if it involves a completely unique product or new way of thinking. That's OK. Continue to focus on your ideal customers, and understand how your company meets their needs, and you will be successful.

Your Best Day, Every Day
http://www.Daysteps.com

The Business of Blogging

Since I’ve launched my blog I’ve become very interested in this subject. I want to know, of course, if I’m doing is correctly, but instantly discovered that everyone seems to have has a different idea of what “correctly” means.

First of all, people blog for many reasons — to keep a kind of diary of events as they unfold; to reflect on various topics of interest the blogger; to support a position, political or otherwise; to serve the needs of the blog’s readers; to display one’s creative abilities; to market a brand or a product; and to entertain, educate, or enlighten. I’m sure I have barely scratched the surface.

Second, there are the many ways blogs are designed. Some are plain vanilla — no frills, just text —which encourages the reader to concentrate on the words. At the other extreme, are beautifully designed, truly artful blog/websites that are a pleasure to look at, as well as read, like Riehl Life, my friend Janet’s blog. Some are so busy, you don’t know where to look; others are cleverly but simply designed. Mine, I think, is somewhere in the middle. It’s really simple because that’s all blogspot allowed me to do in terms of design, or at least it’s all I have been able to figure out so far.

So, I’ve been reading about blogs and discovering there is a lot to learn! Last month the SLPA had a speaker on blogs. His name was David Strom. Here are a few points he made that I found very helpful:

1.Social networking is about creating conversations.
2.Keep your blog entries simple and searchable.
3.You are a source of content for other blogs, as well as your own.
4.Think about your target audience.
5.Solicit stories and comments from readers.
6.Digg.com will drive traffic to your site.

Julie Hood of the OrganizedWriter.com generously sent me a link to WellnessCoach.com with a series of articles by Erica Ross-Krieger on “What should I blog about?” If these articles are excerpts from a book, I want to read the book. Here are a couple of gems:

• Go back to basics. What do your readers want to know? Do keyword research with the word tracker keyword tool to see how they are looking for that phrase. Create a post with a commonly used keyword phrase in the title and in the post.

• Comment on current news in your topic area and add your own spin to it.

Here are three tips are from an article on that same website by Alexandria K. Brown, the Ezine Queen. She lists 11 quick (and good) content ideas for your e-zine, website (or blog).

1. Jot down 8 questions your clients have asked you in the past, and answer each in a short article (or post).
2. Think of three areas in which you’d like your clients to think of you as a resource. Now develop content in those areas
3. Recommend books and resources you use and offer full reviews on them.

In 7 Things You Can Do to Improve Your Online Marketing Presence by Bobette Kyle, one great suggestion is to “Identify 10 Bloggers in Your Category. Then send them your product as a gift. The idea is to expose your product to influencers in your category by giving them an opportunity to try it free. If they like it, they may give it a mention in their blogs. Note that this is a subtle online marketing technique. The idea is NOT to advertise to them, ask a favor of them, or ask them to blog about the product. Choosing to mention (or not mention) your product should be solely up to them. You can find and read blogs by searching blogging directories such as technorati.com.”

When I started The Writing Life I thought I would just muse about my favorite subject, but obviously, musing is only a small part of the package. One has to muse with purpose. My purpose is pretty clear to me — to help writers write — but there is much I have to learn about how best to achieve it.