privypet

“Simplicity is the final achievement. After one has played a vast quantity of notes and more notes, it is simplicity that emerges as the crowning reward of art.”

– Frédéric Chopin

The ultimate goal is simple. It is the essence. After all the fluff is melted away, it is the core story that is left. Chopin – and I take great care taking only the best inspiration from Chopin – knew about melting away fluff in art to create something of grandiose beauty.

“After one has played a vast quantity of notes and more notes…” If you have listened the Polonaise, you know the man played notes and more notes. But there was a story under all of that which Chopin told us. He carried us through an adventure the most beautiful and the most interesting way possible. Under the vast quantity of notes, what is left is the beauty and drama of the story. The result that sticks with us is the core story and the emotional responses we had. The result is simple: great art.

And seeking this simplicity is the task of every story teller. Every novelist, every musician, every painter, every photographer, every blogger, every digital marketer seeks to produce the concision that is great art. They seek to melt away the fluff and leave you with simply great art.

I immediately think of one of our newest clients, Sharon Goddard and her Privy® Kitty. Sharon is an inventor who sought to simplify life. She seeks to simplify her life, that of her family (including her cats), and that of pet owners all over. She couldn’t find the simple solution she sought, so she created it.

So this week, when we focus on simplicity, I’ll share it with, as always, from a few different perspectives.

Simplicity: An Interfanatic Quality

Last week, it was about endurance: ten percent more try. This week it is about simplicity: 90% less. How can we remove the extra to be left with the essence – that which is most important.

This is what we do.

I recently got a new phone. It comes with a nifty dock. The charging system is a classic over-engineering catastrophe where the engineers forgot their jobs. They forgot to simplify. They forgot to seek the simple solution, and in the process created a monster. This dock acts like a case around the phone. The phone charges with a USB-C input. So the engineers for this phone company thought it best to create a small magnetic dongle that magnetically attaches to the dock, this case, that can take a USB-C input. The case has a male USB-C port that must be handled carefully or it will break off. The dongle is small and easily lost. I’m sure it all works fine. But they didn’t do what we do. They forgot to think it through. They created a complex, fragile system that is expensive and difficult.

All they had to do was cut a hole in the case for the USB-C to pass through.

But they didn’t. There was enough right about the rest of the product that it was still the best choice for me. But this over-engineering nightmare certainly makes me consider the rest of the product carefully.

With this kind of over-engineered complexity, it’s no surprise the manufacturer is getting out of the business of this product.

We always work to find the simple solution. The easiest way. We seek to boil away the fluff and find the essence of the project. Sometimes projects require complexity. Trust me, the companies we work with work hard to make things complicated. But often, there is a simpler way. We find it. It’s better for our customers that way.

Privy® Kitty: Simplifying Pet Ownership and Care

Owning cats is difficult. And, I just said that wrong… I’ll fix it: Allowing cats to own you is difficult. One of the trickier parts of cohabitating with cats is giving them a good place to take care of their business.

“Sharon Goddard created simplicity for herself and for other pet people through Privy® Kitty.”

Most places have litter boxes. They smell up the house, they’re dusty and messy. But they work. But Sharon Goddard had a better idea. Why not punch a hole in the wall and make a little restroom just for your cats. That way, the smell and mess is contained outside. It gives your pet a place to go while making your life easier.

So that’s just what she did. She’s working on ways to adapt her Privy® Kitty to different climates as we speak. But for the warmer summer months and for milder climates, the solution exists. She made it. Have one or have three. Have one for each cat, or have your kitties share one – any way you look at it, it frees up space in your home and simplifies: makes everything better.

She came to us, referred by a business colleague, in need of some simple updates to her website. We took care of them. That’s, simply (see what I did there?) what we do.

The point is that Sharon Goddard created simplicity for herself and for other pet people through Privy® Kitty. That’s why we feature her and her business this month, because we’re celebrating simplicity.

When you seek a little simplicity in your and your cat’s life, get yourself a Privy® Kitty.

Interfanatic Service Focus: Interfanatic Basic Fortnightly Email Marketing

As you may have gathered, I feel it is our job here at Interfanatic to simplify the lives of our customers. One way we do that is by handling our customers’ email marketing.

Again, not new: getting an exceptional email marketing plan together can be difficult. However, great email marketing always leads to sales. It is a very reliable method to use to generate leads and customer interaction. Every single one of your emails should lead to a sale. It should most definitely pay for itself.

As is almost always the case, the tools for digital marketing may be overwhelming. Click rate, open rate, subject line optimization, “why did this person label my email spam when they told me last week they wanted to hear from me!?”

You can try to wade through this yourself, or you can have us do it for you. We know how to write the right subject line and configure send timing to get more opens. We also know how and where to insert the right call to action to get more clicks. And, we know how to develop a landing page for your email so that you’ll get more conversions. It’s what we do.

So you can try to figure all that out on your own, or you can trust professionals with decades of experience. Whatever you think is simpler. If you have time and you’re happy with your results, wonderful! If you seek to simplify your life, we’re here to help.

We can do any digital marketing you need. If you want help your email marketing and you want to improve results, we’re here for that.

Interfanatic: Simplicity in Action Help You Drive Your Business

Is there a simpler way to do it? We’ll find it, so long as it’s better. And simpler is almost always better. Like Chopin, our goal is to create that which is simple, because that is the best work can be. Is your life simple enough? If not, we’re here to help.

This week’s image:
Interfanatic‘s founder, Ryan Delane, takes or creates every image you see in our social feed.

The greatest artists of every time have tried to duplicate the delicate simplicity and beauty of the rose. Few have succeeded. I found this rose sitting our table; my wife clipped it from our garden to brighten our dining area. A quick snap of the phone and here we are, an attempt to capture the beauty and simplicity of a lovely rose. Of course, you’re not richer than I am for the experience – you don’t get to smell it!