The feedback, and the results, of Winning ECommerce of June 7 and 8 were amazing. Over 40 people from all over Italy came all the way to Macerata, not exactly a convenient destination for most, with the intention of hearing me speak for over 12 hours on e-commerce, marketing strategies, winning business ideas and new low-cost solutions. Beautiful, fun and above all, revolutionary for many who were still tied to old ideas, expensive tools and folk beliefs inculcated by some zombies (read here). But, there is always a but... The most incredible thing happened in the following days when so many my colleagues they felt, as it were...pull the chair out from under their butts or uncover the skeletons in the closet. What am I referring to? But simply to inefficient, ineffective or ultra-dated services sold for absurd amounts of money.
Some examples:
- services SEO or positioning, which do not and never will work.
- services of social marketing (creating the Facebook page or putting up the ad campaign) sold as if Zuckerberg himself was working on it
- Email marketing on abusive lists, untargeted or simply sold at absurd prices ("2,700 euros for 10,000 mailings" with no guarantee of clicks or anything else...)
- websites still "handmade" or with Proprietary CMS created by agencies that do not follow quality standards, and that charge capital for each update
- websites created with Open source CMS, sold as their own or at hallucinating prices, using a template from $10
- ideas, strategies, and applications dating back to 2008 (read => Middle Ages)
I prefer not to go any further. I anticipate someone's objection, and yes, I absolutely agree that ignorance is the main business lever, since the dawn of time, and that knowledge has its economic value, you have to charge for it in some way to transfer it or to allow others to access it, just as the work, the time spent and the effort that everyone puts into it must always be remunerated in the right measure... but here I have seen shooting on the Red Cross.
Not to mention the reactions there have been to "putting one's face to it," which, in my opinion, is always a guarantee for those on the other side, because they inevitably observe, reflect, deduce and come to enlightening conclusions.
There is one thing that many people here (in Italy) still do not understand, a simple simple principle: the vegetable gardens Are dead, and need to get a move on!
M.S.U. = Make Stuff Up!
Have fun.