If a tree falls in a forest, does anybody hear?

There are two expressions that really hit home for me when it comes to Tucows Insight:

"If you build it, he will come" - Field of Dreams Fame

"If a tree falls in the forest, does anybody hear?" - Bruce Cockburn fame (for me anyway)

The first one isn't so true. We have built lots of things, but people don't always come. And the second, well, if you build something, and you don't tell anyone about it, does it count?

We have this product buried in OpenSRS called "Tucows Insight". It's free, it's for all of our partners, and nobody knows about it. I launched it three years ago, and we made a big splash at the time, but since then we've been quiet about it on the marketing front.

You're probably asking yourself, what is it? It's a pretty darn cool reporting tool. It actually blows away any competitor's reporting tools that I have ever seen for partners (heck, I know I am biased, but....that's my job). It helps partners see their renewal rates, their transfer in/transfer out rates, who they are losing those transfers to, and reporting on all their transactions.  Tools like Insight let people see if there is anything wrong with their business.

This fact was brought back to me this week when a partner sang the praises of the tool (sort of), and noted how integral the tool had become to their business. Another partner told me the same. Every day they are checking things like domain name renewal rates, and changing their course accordingly.

It's like getting a checkup. "Oh dear, I've got high cholesterol, guess I better stop eating fries," could instead be, "Wow. I am losing a ton of registrations to <insert slimy registrar here>. I'd better start educating my customers about bogus transfer requests."

So the moral of the story for me is to keep talking about this stuff. Otherwise, no-one will come, and there will be a forgotten tree in the forest of Tucows products. If you're a partner, try it out. Maybe you can get some of the same benefits that our partners are already getting! Maybe your cholesterol will improve too. If you cut out fries, that is.  ;)

Comments
Post a comment
Re: If a tree falls in a forest, does anybody hear?
Given how well information flows nowadays, it is more like Build it, blog it and they will come

Kiko is a good example
Re: Re: If a tree falls in a forest, does anybody hear?
true enough :). Makes old marketing methods feel stale. I am sure your comment is music to Ken Schafer's ears!
Re: Re: Re: If a tree falls in a forest, does anybody hear?
Music indeed. I'm not sure we can become overly reliant on blogs as the only channel of communication with the outside world, but for talking to your core audience there is nothing better.
Post comment:
Format Type: 
  Convert newlines
  Receive comment notifications for this article
Subject: 
   
insert bold tagsinsert italic tagsinsert underline tagsinsert strikethough tagsinsert linkinsert blockquote tags
Comment: 
Comment verification:

Please enter the text you see inside the graphic to post your comment:
You are not currently logged in. If you would like your user information to be displayed with your comment, please enter your login information below.
Login information:
Username: 
Password: 
If you would like to post contact information on your comment, please enter your information into the optional fields below:
Contact information:
Name: 
URL:  example: http://yourdomain.com
Email: 
Please note: email will not be displayed on the site, only for the blog owner. If logged in, URL will only be used.