‘Old school’ marketing resurgence

The great promise of online marketing is, you can sell to an unlimited number of customers wherever they are – simply by shifting electrons around the Internet.

Websites and emails and marketing automation are great. But there’s just one problem…

Humans didn’t evolve in a virtual world. We evolved roaming the plains, chasing down antelope and spearing mammoths.

No matter how convenient the virtual world is, humans still thirst for the tangible, physical world. Probably more so now than ever.

I’m not suggesting you turn your back on virtual marketing – far from it.

But what I AM suggesting, is by incorporating a “physical” dimension into your online lead generation, you’ll enjoy greatly improved results.

A few real-life examples:

1. One MR client sends out a physical “Shock And Awe” pack to each new prospect.

This is a 3-pound pack of DVDs, Special Reports, Sales Letters, Testimonials and other “goodies” that arrives in an Express Post envelope within 24 hours of enquiry. Somewhat harder to ignore than an email!

2. Another client in the finance sector has been quietly publishing a PRINT newsletter every two months.

It has proven to be an outstanding vehicle for driving repeat and referral business. And it gets read more and commented on more than the email equivalent.

A print newsletter becomes a sit-down-and-have-a-cuppa experience for the recipient. And as the sender, you’re not competing with hundreds of other messages in an overcrowded inbox.

3. Then there’s getting out and meeting people.

Several months ago we held a series of small-group events in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. It was a great opportunity to deliver more in-depth content. Meet subscribers face to face. Get “live feedback” from the marketplace. And of course, it resulted in a lot of new client engagements and project work. All in all, a resounding success.

So there you have it…

The FASTEST way to transition a new prospect into a paying client, or build an iron cage around your existing customer base, is by incorporating a physical dimension into your online lead generation.

I’d be interested to know what your experiences have been with this.

Feel free to leave a comment below…

23 Comments »

3 Key Marketing Lessons From The Apple OS X Lion Launch

August 10, 2011 on 9:15 am | In Case Studies | 7 Comments

Mac afficionados will be aware of the recent launch of the latest OS X Lion operating system. But this article is not intended for computer nerds, but rather a case study in very smart marketing and pricing strategy.

Here are 3 key takeaways from a very well-executed launch…

1. Brilliant Pricing Strategy

The upgrade was offered via digital download at the “no brainer” price of AU$31.99 (roughly the same in the US and other regions).

Compare this with Microsoft, whose Windows 7 OS upgrades start at $199.

I’m all in favour of premium and high-margin pricing, but when it comes to operating systems, a $200+ price point:

Makes it a much more considered purchase — not an impulse buy
Prompts many users to say, “I’ll wait”
Drives more people to download illegally (I’m certainly not defending the practice, just stating the facts)

By making the price of entry very low, Apple has neutralised most of these issues, leading to greater uptake of the new OS.

That’s where the real brilliance comes in – OS X Lion has the Mac App Store built in.

When you install Lion, you’re also installing Mac’s transactional platform, complete with your credit card details for Apple to milk on demand.

They’ll make their $200+ all right… it will just take a little longer.

2. Enough “Headline Features” To Generate Social Media Buzz and Shares

Much has been made of the Lion feature set on geek blogs and social media websites. My purpose is not to re-hash many of these excellent feature reviews.

Sure, Lion offers a number of useful yet nothing-to-write-home-about features such as:

Resizing windows from any edge (Windows users will be laughing at that one)
Better Finder functionality (equivalent to Windows Exporer)
Misson Control (an easy and visually pleasing way to get a quick view of open windows and programs)
And so on (apparently there are 250+ upgrades in all — most are not intelligible to the non-propeller head)

These tweaks and new features are nice to have, but not particularly exciting and probably not enough to motivate many users to upgrade.

Then there are a few “headline” features that are more remarkable, such as:

AirDrop – a fast way to share files between computers with no WiFi network required
Multi-Touch Gestures – a faster and more intuitive way to navigate using the TrackPad

The point is – some of these “headline features” may not even be used frequently (e.g. AirDrop), but they just sound and look cool. And they are the stuff of Twitter and Facebook shares.

They’re a little like the sunroof and cherrywood dash on a deluxe sedan that adds $15K to the sticker price.