31 May 2007

Acquisition fever!!

Err, don't blink too often in 2007 or you risk missing another acquisition. In recent times the ever-growing list includes:


  • TangoZebra
  • DoubleClick
  • aQuantive
  • Cheeze
  • Big Mouth Media
  • Spannerworks
  • Accipiter
  • AdTech
  • YouTube
  • MySpace
  • and now Bebo and Last.fm.
The amounts of money are intriguing not least because some have represented inflated valuations, particularly the tech providers. But these are companies that have matched a solution to a demand at just the right moment and their true value comes from the longer term strategy their new owners will look to adopt rather than straight turnover or EBITDA. Very easy to say - very hard to execute.

Last.fm
Hats off to the team at Last.fm for their news. Martin Stiksel, Felix Miller and Richard Jones started this business on the back of a university project. Living on the roof of the office in tents because they couldn't afford to pay the rent on their flats is the difference between a flash of inspiration and actually making a real business out of it.

And now in their early 30's they are multi-millionaires. Great stuff, well done.

What's next? Watch this space. It wouldn't be 'New Media 2007' without at least one acquisition a week now would it?
…

As a side note, going back to late 2000, walking past the corner of Market and 5th in San Francisco, working with a company that was built on vast pots of VC capital but not generating the return to be sustainable, and I am introduced to the man who has just appeared out of nowhere asking for spare change.


‘6 months ago he was a senior developer for us’ I was told. ‘He was
so dedicated; he used to sleep on the floor of the office 6 nights a week’.
Six months later, the company itself was gone, along with any hope of a return for the VCs.

Some of the events of recent months will remind many of you of 99/00, but my intention is not to suggest a doom and gloom environment or a suspicious looking pin scoping our bubble. Instead it’s a reminder that some ideas and companies make it and some don’t.

Look at each of the companies listed above and in every single one I can guarantee you will find people who have paid for their reward with blood, sweat and tears.

There is a great book I recommend on this topic:

“Smart Luck: What Are Entrepreneurs Made Of?” by Andrew Davidson
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Smart-Luck-What-Entrepreneurs-Made/dp/0273652656
The central theme is about how reward doesn’t come without risk, and often personal risk, such as giving up your house and sleeping on the roof in a tent.


:~Dax~:


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23 May 2007

Del.icio.us

Do you know about del.icio.us? You don't? You should.

http://del.icio.us/about/

Once you have read the link and learnt what it is - use it. Great tool for helping you promote your content and allowing others to categorise and share it.

All posts on my blog will have a link "Add this to Del.icio.us" at the bottom, check it out and you can benefit from it too.

:~Dax~:

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Email Marketing 1 - Opting In

What better place to start this new series than by talking about how people are going to opt-in to your database.

Often an overlooked element of any program but critical to your overall database size and its ongoing quality.

:: Keep it simple – have you tested if your target audience understands your terminology?

:: What do you need to know – it is common to see newsletter forms ask for a date of birth. This is very personal information that many people associate with security. Do you really need it? Is it adding value to your marketing activities to have it?

:: Be honest – spell out very clearly what type of content you are going to send. If you only talk about great content but don’t mention the 60% of the content that’s adverts then new subscribers are likely to leave soon after.

:: Say ‘Thank You’ – if you ask them to trust you by giving you their email address, the least you can do is thank them! Actually, there are other benefits too, including a space to up-sell & cross-sell, and to get them familiar with seeing your ‘from name’ in their Inbox.

:: Deliver on your promises – if you promise a fun-packed, content rich weekly newsletter but only send an intermittent content poor, advert-packed newsletter then your new subscribers will not stick around for long

:: Good example – HP show a screenshot of the latest edition of their newsletter on the signup page. This offers the visitor a chance to see exactly what they will get and decide if they want to join.

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