It’s 9:45pm and Google is down…I break into a cold sweat.
Why?
If you’re like me, you can function when the Mr. Coffee craps out or the car breaks down — but take away our default search engine and your palms get clammy.
This is just another small reminder of how the Mountain View Masters of the Universe have positioned their product with skill, results, and savvy marketing/branding.
1. Simplicity is the Highest Form of Elegance
The Japanese believe simplicity is beauty, that you should cut away all unnecessary elements of a product until it reaches its essence. If you want to build a beautiful product/website/blog/business/search campaign, add everything that will make it better while stripping absolutely anything that does not add to the experience.
The History and Simplicity of Lean Process Improvement
2. Continuous Improvement
Never stop making your product better — EVER.
Ask your customers/fans/colleagues for their opinions and criticisms and make incremental changes.
3. Roll Out New Products NOW…
Don’t wait until you’ve perfected the product. Start your own ‘Beta’ versions of new products and get them to market. Potential customers/users will help guide your path by telling you what they want.
4. Distribution is King
Content is not King (your content may be amazing, but how can people access it if you do not syndicate and deliver it efficiently?).
5. Kill Your Competition With Kindness
Google is a silent assassin. Their homepage is friendly, clean, inviting, and well branded. Google succeeds because they make it simple to like them, instead of other search engines that pollute their pages with irrelevant features and results.
7 Things Yahoo Does Better than Google (Just 7…Wow).
6. Partner
Google is a Master of Search…but they don’t have the massive infrastructure or engineering experience to create mobile handsets. However they do possess the ability to create a powerful Web OS for mobile devices that will run their platforms in exponentially large numbers moving forward.
Google cannot afford to cede control of this market, so they partnered with a wireless provider (maybe they will make their own handset someday).
Bottom Line: If you can’t produce the entire solution, partner with a business/individual who complements your product.
An Android phone by Google: I think not
7. Learn Spanish
The numbers don’t lie — Google isn’t satisfied to conquer the US market because their business model relies on global growth.
You can build an incredibly successful business model by tapping into niche cultural/ethnic/emerging groups. Try looking into under represented groups that can use your intellectual capital and distribute it to them.
U.S. Hispanic Population Surpasses 45 Million
8. Advertise
You’re a nice person, and that’s fantastic, but if you want to build a business/product/blog it takes advertising, which is a form of distribution.
Target your advertising to serve the market who will use your product/service (and never, ever assume what your market is — do the work and research it first).
9. Social Drives Search
Google offers free blogging software, provides free Google Profiles, and is stepping into the Social Media sphere in earnest with Google Wave.
This is intelligent because social media is a major driver of search. Think about it. If you can build a large community of followers and build a solid brand, you can leverage this property to drive searchers to your products.
How Major Publishers are Using Social Media to Drive Traffic
10. YOU TELL ME!
…How are you ripping off replicating the Google business model to generate a successful plan of your own?