Hey, this is the Daily Overpass!
My name is Eric and I make apps!
Now today, I want to talk about overt benefits.
Alright, so like for the past 18 years or so, I've been in a habit of reading about
one book a week.
I always have a book that I'm reading and usually a non-fiction book.
I can't remember the last time I read something in fiction and I've read books on - oh, mostly
it was on software development in the early days.
So, I was like behind the curve in technology and I thought, I have to learn how this stuff
works, so I'm reading all these computer books and everything like that and I just got the
habit of doing it.
And I got into this self-help genre and then into the busines and then into marketing.
And sometimes, the titles of the books that I'm reading are like really cheesy and like
the Think and Grow Rich is a good example, a very popular one.
But like these other ones that are just as cheesy as that, I'm so glad for the Kindle
because people will see the titles, right?
Anyway, about 16 or 17 years ago, I read this book called Jumpstart Your Business Brain.
I just found this recently in the loft.
the reason I've kept it and it hasn't gone to -like to the thrift store or everything
like that is because I remember a lot of things from this and had a big impact on me.
And it's very - it was published in 2001, I got it in a bargain rack in a bookstore
in London in like 2004, 2005, I think.
And it's very early 2000 like 3 Merwin Ideas Can Access a $500 value.
So, it's some website that you can put out your business ideas in there and they will
automatically tell you that's a good idea, really cheesy stuff.
But, he talks about some really good concepts and I think it's been published again in 2010.
One of the things that I took away from it, he talked about the 3 Marketing Rules.
He talks about - he talks about Number one: The Overt Benefit, so you have to explain
what your overt benefit is.
Number 2 is Give the real reason to believe coz even though you say my product or service
can do this for you, lots of times you have to demonstrate - make them believe that it's
actually possible through testimonials, whatever.
And then the other one is What is the dramatic difference?
What makes you different from the others?
But it was that first rule, the overt benefit that always stuck with me.
In fact, a lot of times I'll use that phrase the overt benefit and I remember it was from
that da*n book Jumpstart Your Business Brain that I read years ago.
A few weeks ago we did a live stream and we're looking at a few different apps and there
was one app that we looked at and I said, "I can't tell what this does."
And it wasn't like - I saw the criticism of that person because lots of times these people
sent me apps and they say, "Can you have a look at my app?
I'm not quite sure what it is."
And I'll say, "Yeah, I'll have a look at it."
By the way, I don't do it that often so it's better to do it on a live stream.
I think the live stream is better coz my opinion is my opinion and at the live stream, all
our opinions go into it.
So if you can make the live stream this week, it's really good to do it.
If you want us to look at you app, that's a good chance to do it.
But, lots of times people will send me their apps and I will have a look at it and I can't
tell what it does.
And it's so obvious to the developer what it is.
It's so obvious to them that I'm almost like I don't want to tell them that I don't understand
what it does.
Coz I think - coz my first instinct is to think it's probably me.
It's probably me coz I don't know enough that i don't see the importance of this application.
An example of this if you go to a hardware store, and you walked down a certain aisle,
all these tools, all these certain tools that they don't have a label on whatever it is
hanging up, and if you could look at it and think, "Dude, I don't have any idea what's
that for."
I always think, if I go down an aisle like that in a hardware store, and I see a bunch
of tools, I don't know what they're for, I don't think they're not doing a very good
job of marketing this, I just think, "Dude, I think I'm not smart enough to be in this
aisle.
I don't feel welcome here.
I feel like I don't know what I'm doing.
I'm out of my comfort zone."
And things like that.
Which is something you don't want your client or your customers or your users to feel like.
They just don't get what it is you're trying to do.
And the overt benefit is huge when you think about the relevance for keywords.
When somebody's looking for something - I talked about it before on Ear Spy - we used
to call it Ear Spy and now it's called Ear Agent, but then we added Super Hearing on
to it.
And we had Super Hearing Aid which got me into trouble but trying to think about what's
the overt benefit and the thing that you get.
For our language learning games we started adding the suffix like Learn Chinese, Learn
Mandarin, Learn German, because we knew that the overt benefit, that's what somebody who's
looking for we'll try to find it.
I read another book and for the life of me I can't remember what the name of it was.
It wasn't - it didn't have that big impact on me.
But it was a book on apps.
In the early days, it was like 2013 or something.
I read it on my Kindle.
And he said, when you title your app you just say what it does.
Don't try to come up with a clever marketing name.
Just say what it does because then it's easier for people to find.
I don't necessarily do that because I think naming an app is one of the most fun things
you can do.
But you have to think a lot about what people are searching for.
And this is that overt benefit that it should be in your name, it should be in your description,
and ideally that first screenshot should just say what it does.
How does it helped me?
Which is difficult when you talk about things like entertainment.
Like if your app is a game and it's just entertaining to pass for the time, it may not be easy to
see the overt benefit.
But you might be able to say, "Hey, if you like this game, you'll love this game, if
you like this, then you'll gonna like this.
Because before they even know anything about it, then that's something to do.
But anyway, the real thing I want to talk about is the overt benefit.
If you're running a company, do you know what your overt benefit is?
More importantly, do your clients know what your overt benefit?
That's the overt part is.
It's not subtle.
It's like, "Hey, this is what this does."
And there's also the reason to believe...
The reason to believe is you know, everything someone says, "hey, I could put you on the
front page of Google."
It's not so much that - it's like I don't believe they can do it.
(laughs) That's the thing, it's not so much that I don't believe they're not gonna work
or they're lying to me, I just don't believe they could do it.
They don't demonstrate it in a way they could do it.
In fact, they're spamming me and all that kinds of stuff.
So anyway, that's just my thought for today.
It is a good book.
I'm gonna re-read this again because I'm just browsing through it this afternoon thinking.
"Ahm, you know what, so many years have passed, this might really be beneficial for me."
So anyway, that's it for today.
I'll talk to you, guys, again tomorrow.