Yes… I got in a bar fight over NDAs.  Okay, so it wasn’t really a fight, but it was a heated conversation.

Walking into this party, I never thought the conversation would turn to Non-Discloser Agreements (NDAs).  The party was hosted by an old college friend and conversation is usually fun and light.  But this time there was a newcomer who happened to have an opinion on NDAs which conflicted with mine.

The conversation started when he found out that I started Purlem.  He also had an idea for an Internet Startup, but refused to share the idea with me.  He told me that he had to get a NDA in place before he spoke to anybody about it.

This is when I  may have come off a little strong by saying “NDAs are bull sh*t.”

For those that don’t know – NDAs are a legal contract to help protect business “secrets.” See Wikipedia to learn more.

Needless to say, my new friend spit back “How can you say that?  I have a truly unique idea. If I share it with others I’m risk it being stollen and the NDA will project me.”

Sounds good in theory, but there are three big problems with NDAs

1. As a startup, your ability to actually enforce the NDA is minimal.
2. The value of openly sharing your idea far outweighs the benefits an NDA can provide.
3. Odds of actually getting somebody of importance to sign the NDA is low.

Startups that use NDAs over-value their idea.  As brilliant as you think it is, the idea itself has no value.  If ideas did have a value there would be a market for it.  Think about it: have you ever tried selling an idea?  Where would you sell it? Who would by it? The fact is that there is not a market for ideas, and by themselves, they are worthless.

The real value is in actually executing the idea. On of my favorite startup dictum’s is “One can steal ideas, but no one can steal execution or passion.”

Some other resources on this topic:

• The Fallacy Of The NDA
• Ideas for Startups
• Do More Faster: Trust Me, Your Idea is Worthless
• Note to entrepreneurs: Your idea is not special
• Why Entrepreneurs Shouldn’t Worry about NDA’s

Did you know that your 10 times more likely to get ahold of a prospect over the phone if you contact them within the first hour of receiving the lead? The odds of making contact increased 100 fold if the lead was called within 5 Minutes, versus 30.  These statistics are part of a survey conducted by Prof. James B. Oldroyd at MIT, in conjunction with InsideSales.com *

A second survey, conducted by InsideSales.com in conjunction with Omniture, found that only 0.6% of companies responded by phone within 5 Minutes of receiving a lead.

So what is holding the other 99.4% of companies from quickly responding to leads?  Is it a lack of sales people, technology, or just old fashioned laziness? It would seem if companies knew how important it was to quickly follow up with leads, there would be way more than 0.6%.

For those in the 99.4% who don’t quickly follow up with your leads, Personalized URLs (PURLs) can be a great way to be notified of any type of activity on your landing page.  With PURLs, you can receive email alerts notifying you when one of your prospects visits your Landing Page.  You can see what they have shown interests in, and any information they requested – instantly!  Use these email alerts to give a quick phone call to your prospect, and watch your sales increase 100 fold!

* http://www.leadresponsemanagement.org/lrm_study
** http://www.leadresponsemanagement.org/omniture_study

I receive new feature requests for Purlem on a near-daily basis.  My instinct is to try and please everybody by adding all feature requests that come in – this is a very dangerous road to go down.

During the first year of Purlem, I started going down this road.  Heck.. I was gitty just because somebody was showing interests in the product. The last thing I wanted to say was “Sorry, we can’t do that.”  So I started to build in every feature requests that came in.

Before I knew it Purlem was not only a PURL application, but also had a complete Email Marketing platform and Content Relationship manager built right it!  Purlem was quickly turning into a very complex application. My initial focus on doing the basics of PURL marketing extremely well was quickly fading into the background.  I was becoming just like my competitors by trying to offer everything for everybody.

After a little deliberation, I ended up removing all features but those required to perform the basics of PURL marketing.  It was not an easy change as I did disappoint a few paying users of Purlem.  But after explaining my rational, not 1 user ended up canceling because of this change. I would argue that this helped to even establish a deeper relationship with these users and they were excited about being part of something that was growing and changing.  This was probably one of the best early-stage moves I made, and I attribute much of Purlem’s success to this.

Today, when considering adding a new feature to Purlem, I look at two things:

1. Would it make the application more complex?
2. Would less than 80% of Purlem users use the application?

If the answer was YES to either of the questions, I wouldn’t add the feature.  Simple as that.

As Purlem continues to grow, and attract larger and larger companies, there is a new wave of feature requests coming in.  These features I call “Enterprise Features” as they help the larger companies use Purlem more efficiently.  The nice thing about adding these features is that Purlem will not only win a larger client (which is always nice), but could also help position Purlem to attract other larger clients with similar needs.  The downside of these features is that 80% of Purlem users will not use this feature.  In fact, these features, for now, will likely only be used by the company requesting it!

In some of these cases, I think it is important to break the 80% rule.  This only leaves the question “Would it make the application more complex?”  If the answer to this question is NO, then I think it is important to still consider adding this Enterprise Feature.

Feature requests can be a balancing act for startups like Purlem.  I dont’ think that early-stage startups still refining their product/market fit have the luxury to forget feature requests as 37 signals promotes in their Getting Real book. There is a lot of value to be gained by working with 1 on 1 with clients to create new features. In some cases the clients will also help financially with getting the new features created.  It is, however, important for Purlem to remain extremely selective and intentional on the features we choose to add.

I can’t loose sight of Purlem’s original mission of doing the basics of PURL marketing extremely well.  As tempting as it is to please everybody.

Have a feature request for Purlem?  Post to our Feature Request forum.

The day after I wrote a post about  The Best and Worst of Entrepreneurship, I have one of those days.  Like I mentioned in that post, the worst part of being a single founder is the fact that the computer is glued to my side at all times.  Today I had a little golf outing with my wife and grandfather.  (Yes, that is my computer riding in the back of the cart).  I think I broke golf’s #1 rule – but as I explained to the guys, it was only in case of emergency.

We’ll luck has it that emergency hit. TWICE!  So while I am waiting to tee off, I break out my computer, teather to my iPhone for Internet and try to quickly address the issues.   I hear my grandfather yelling “Let’s go!” in the background.  Oh,  I guess it’s my turn to tee off.

Sometimes I wonder just how urgent these issues really are.  What if I didn’t address them for a few hours.  Would that really matter. I think I need to become better at prioritizing my responses, and not feel like I need to jump every time a minor request comes through.  On the other hand, I credit customer support as a large part of Purlem’s success so far.  In these cases today, I would say that in these cases today, the immediate responses did really matter.

I guess it is just one of those things I’ll have to deal with until the Purlem Team begins to grow.

My wife and I are on a little getaway to spend Easter with my in-laws in Scottsdale, AZ. It is a gorgeous area, and makes for a great temporary office.

One of the things I enjoy the most about entrepreneurship is the flexibility it allows.  As long as I have my computer and the Internet, I can pick up and work anywhere.  Purlem has provided me with a lifestyle business that allows me to do what I want, when I want.

However, there is a flip-side.  Even though I have the flexibility, the computer is glued to my side.  I’m still my only employee, and thus all responsibility is on my shoulders.  If a client needs help, or God-forbid, something goes wrong, I need to have immediate access to my computer and the Internet.  This requires me to lug my computer with me everywhere I go – dinner, beach, to the bar, and to make sure an Internet connection is close by.

It will be very nice when Purlem’s team begins to grow as it will allow me to disconnect.  Maybe even take a vacation and leave the computer behind.  (Ya right… who am I kidding?)

The following are some facts on PURL marketing that I have gathered over the last few years.  If you have any other good facts/statics related to PURLs let me know!

According to the DMA, 42% of direct mail respondents PREFER to respond ONLINE.
Direct Marketing Association “2007 Statistical Fact Book” 

According to the 2004 report from PIA/GATF’s Digital Printing Council, the response rates for a customized color direct mail campaign [including PURLs] average 21%! Compare that to traditional direct mail response rates hovering around 1.3%.
Interquest, “Variable data imaging Opportunities with Digital Printing Presses” 

When a group of service providers were asked which tools or priorities would grow in importance in 2009, 87% indicated Digital/Online Integration.
Winterberry Group, A Channel in Transformation:Vertical Market Trends in Direct Mail 2009 

81% of marketing executives agree that target direct marketing campaigns outperform mass–market campaigns.
Patricia Source “Data-Driven Print” 2006 

Only 3% of marketing executives had not produced a single personalized campaign in the previous year.
Patricia Source “Data-Driven Print” 2006 

Well executed multi-channel marketing campaigns generate a sales lift of 7-34% versus traditional marketing approaches
Internet Advertising Bureau 

We each get about 40 pounds of direct mail each year? 50% of which we discard, totaling over 4 million tons of paper wasted annually.13
EPA Questions About Your Community: How to Stop Getting Unsolicited Direct Mail 

If you are trying to convince your clients to try using PURLs, you must be able to demonstrate that personalization will deliver more profits over time than a larger quantity of mass-produced offers.

PURLs, however, might not be right for every client.  It is important to have a discussion with your clients to first completely understand the objectives of any given campaign.  Then to understand just exactly how the PURLs will be used to hit the objectives in a cost-effective way.

After both you and the client agree that using PURLs can help achieve the objective, the next logical step is to simply show the ROI of integrating PURLs into a campaign.  Below is a chart used for this purpose that compares the ROI of a Standard vs PURL Campaign.

As you can see from the chart, PURLs will need at least a 3% response rate to achieve a greater ROI vs the static campaign.

The campaign used for the chart had a mailing list of 10,000 prospects, standard response rate of 2% and a converaion goal value of $60.  The cost of completing the standard campaign was $5000, vs $7000 for the PURL campaign.

If PURLs fit into the overall campaign strategy, and the ROI makes financial sense, PURLs will sell themselves.

To create an Standard vs. PURL chart for your campaign, visit
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AtTdGzRGb02DdEZMbFRYM015TWtQVVNFeHVaTnZxMFE

Posted April 2nd, 2012 in Uncategorized.