“Since my youth I’ve grown to understand that the power of proper planning can never be under-stated.”

Interview by Kelsey Meyer of The League of Innovators

Allan Chang understands that not everyone has the time, nor can everyone remember to send gifts for every occasion.  For those forgetful, busy, or traveling persons, the solution to timely gift giving is simple: 7pgifts.com.  The 7 p’s is an adaptation from an old military adage modified into the phrase “Proper Prior Planning Perfectly Preserves Precious Promises”, all words that give the connotation of characteristics involved with good gift-giving.

7pgifts.com is a service that automatically sends gifts for you.  They are not simply a reminder service; they do all of the work for you.  What makes 7pgifts unique is that they also provide people the conveniences of sending gifts or pre-written letters to surviving family members and loved ones even after they have passed away.  It is this type of thinking towards the future that makes 7pgifts.com the perfect solution to gift giving.

MO:
I think it is very interesting, and touching that 7pgifts thought to make this service available for people departing from life.  How did you come up with this specific part of the business?

Allan:
My girlfriend and I watched a movie where a terminally ill husband arranged for gifts and letters to be delivered by family members to his surviving spouse years after he had passed away.  We were both very touched by the sentiment and agreed that we would have done the same for each other in a similar situation.  Given that this service does not exist, and that wills & trusts are too complex for smaller matters, we felt that we could truly do something impactful and heartfelt by creating 7pgifts.com.

MO:
Can you explain what the different services are that 7pgifts offers?  For example do I have to send you the gift or can I get it delivered to you offline?  How does all of this work?

Allan:
There are various service options that we provide our customers.  You can choose gifts from an online catalog that we provide, you can ask us to be your personal gift shopper, or you can send us items that we can store and deliver at a future time.  For the last option, you can either send us personal items (pre-written letters, cards, and memorabilia) or you can directly ship us items that you’ve purchased (including online purchases) – we will safely store and re-deliver all items at the appropriate time.

MO:
What has been the biggest challenge you have encountered in starting 7pgifts?

Allan:
The most significant challenge is creating brand awareness and marketing our services.  Since there is so much dilution on the internet, it is quite costly and time intensive to reach our targeted audience.  As you’ve noted in your opening remarks, we are not just a reminder service, but we actually send gifts automatically for our customers.  We have observed that most casual web users have a subconscious trigger that labels 7pgifts as a reminder service.  We are trying to break that paradigm, and spread awareness of our unique services.  It is this execution phase that has been the largest barrier so far as we’ve had to tweak our marketing content numerous times, and shifted strategies a handful of times as well.

MO:
I was very impressed by your Facebook and twitter pages, do you think that social media has been an effective marketing tool for 7pgifts, and if so can you give some tips to our small business owner readers who may be looking to delve into social media marketing?

Allan:
This is our first start-up, so prior to founding 7pgifts we were unsure of what to expect with social media.  We were aware of the hype, but did not have any tangible experiences that provided any indication on its effectiveness.  Out of prudence we dedicated a decent amount of our time to creating and sustaining our FB and Twitter content – It has surely paid off.  From our web analytics, 35% of our daily new traffic comes as referral from either FB or Twitter.  I’m sure that there are certain demographics that aren’t routine users of FB, but when you have 40% of the world web users on one application, it’s likely that your business will benefit from being a part of it as well.   Our social media approach is straightforward – keep it creative, keep it relative, and keep it balanced (maintain frequency, but do not over-expose).

MO:
Your site has a section for gift ideas.  Is it in your company’s near future to have a section where you actually sell the gifts?

Allan:
We do not plan on selling our own gifts in the future, but ideally would like to partner with other small businesses looking for an avenue to promote their products.  The main goal of the “Gift Ideas” section is to provide suggestions for our customers.  Whether it is an event suggestion or a gift type, we’ve thought up almost all of the applicable scenarios where you can use our services.  Again, we’re looking to make life more convenient for our customers, so the more work we do upfront, the less you will have to do, in order to remain happy.

MO:
The military adage you adapted to name your company 7pgifts is very impressive.  Can you explain why you believe this perfectly portrays your company?

Allan:
I had a childhood sports coach that reminded us every practice that Proper Prior Planning Prevents Piss-Poor Performances.  Since my youth I’ve grown to understand that the power of proper planning can never be under-stated.  Merging this concept with acts of kindness and love has limitless bounds, and this is why the 7 Ps is so paramount to what we strive to do.  From people who are on active duty, to forgetful spouses, to individuals who are planning for departure from this life, we help customers in any situation plan future gifting events so that precious promises of love are always kept intact.