Most of our marketing efforts are completely self-serving… we need revenue and so we offer a discount… we need more members so we offer a free week trial… we need a low cost member acquisition promotion so we run a referral campaign…
When we market we are first and foremost thinking about a win for ourselves.
Of course, it’s natural for us to think of a win for ourselves because we need to win to keep our business running.
But winning at the expense of our customer is a pyrrhic victory (a victory that is so costly it is actually a loss). For example, spamming people gets your marketing message out there but it’s likely to convince people not to buy from you because they get so used to associating your brand with spam.
Marketing that only seeks a win for ourselves is bad marketing.
Obviously we need a win for ourselves but we need to create a win for our customer too… that’s a win-win.
So a free trail is a win-win right? Not always… the purpose of the free trial is for the prospective new member to inform their decision making about joining your club. But for many people a single session isn’t enough time and for a lot of people a week or two weeks won’t be enough time.
Therefore, that generous two week trial you offer can be seen as a sales opportunity for the business (much like that free weekend holiday at a time share) from the prospective new member’s perspective… and it’s their perspective that matters.
So to create a win-win you often have to go way beyond what you consider a good deal.
Marketing that achieves a win for ourselves and a win for the customer is good marketing.
However, to create a win-win-win scenario you need to create a win for yourself, a win for the customer and you need a winning advertising channel.
So what is a winning advertising channel?
A winning advertising channel is one that is low cost (because you need to get your message out there often), is targeted (because you need to get your message in front of the right people), is scalable (because you are going to have to rely on it more and more), and is manageable (able to be changed, tracked, and improved because you are going to have to respond to changing markets and consumer preferences).
Unfortunately, these criteria pretty much rule out traditional media (which is exactly why we came up with iPOS).
When we can combine a win for ourselves, a win for our customers, and a winning advertising channel you get great marketing… win-win-win.
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