While we discuss what everybody is going to do on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, others execute EVERY day, brilliantly. #smalldata
— Kevin Hillstrom (@minethatdata) November 12, 2012
Okay. I’ll take the bait.
Kevin Hillstrom of Mine That Data is one of the few people I follow on Twitter. My reason for following him is a selfish one. The man keeps me in check. When many bloggers out there are focusing on the short-term, Kevin reminds me how important the long run is to business.
In general, Kevin just keeps his followers in check including this quote above.
So I’m going to take the bait and highlight five companies doing great things every day of the year.
1. Apple
It’s easy to talk about Apple, but I’m going to include them on the list anyway. The company doesn’t offer discounts…ever. They set the price they believe is best for their products and they focus on the merchandise. That’s something Kevin always talks about with his consulting. I try to stick to it as best as I can.
Why discount something if you feel it’s worth it and have the demand to back it up?
Apple doesn’t seem to be easily affected by short-term issues or successes. That’s something that can be looked up to because it’s not easy.
2. JCP
JCP has been getting hammered over the last few months. For years the company was a discounter. They grew the company based on the discounts they were offering, but earlier this year JCP decided they had to change.
People ripped them in the open and behind closed doors.
The other day I went into JCP. I hate shopping and it still wasn’t a great experience, but I purchased a shirt. The price was good. The quality met my mediocre standards. I’m pretty happy with the way things worked out.
It seems like JCP is focusing back on the merchandise instead of the discounting strategy. I think it could work even while Wall Street pounds on these guys. Maybe it’s time to invest.
3. SEOmoz
Okay. Now we’re getting back into the blogging and content area.
I’m a huge fan of SEOmoz. They’ve built their company on great knowledge of SEO. They’ve turned it into a successful consulting company and now a really successful software company. The sky is the limit.
I always use SEOmoz has one of the examples of a company that uses blogging and other forms of content (video, etc.) to build their brand. They gain awareness, earn trust and ultimately earn sales because of their efforts.
4. Crazy Egg
Crazy Egg is another company that understands the power of a blog. They know that not every person that finds out about their service – visual website analytics – is ready to purchase right away. Crazy Egg kicks those people back into the blogging and marketing stream to learn more about analytics in general.
Once the trust is built those people are more likely to make a purchase down the road when they are ready. It’s a great strategy that can be used by businesses in a variety of industries. It follows the basic rule of “I don’t know you? Why should I buy something from you?”.
The good companies earn the trust and the sale.
5. Amazon
Here’s another obvious one.
You won’t always hear about sales from Amazon. The company simply focuses on offering anything you could want. They offer a consistent experience and people appreciate that. Plus with Amazon you only have to trust one company and you can get anything you want just about. It’s taken time for Amazon to become the king, but I don’t see things changing anytime in the future.
Also, they’re on The Big List of Companies That Blog.
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