10,000 of my closest friends...
Posted 03-08-2010 at 09:05 PM by RMC
In response to...
Become a friend and people will buy from you - REALLY?
Why do they tell us to treat our subscribers like friends?
I would argue that it's not just theory, it's one of the various long term tested marketing strategies, and it's a much deeper subject than the casual observer might care to reflect on. I'll give it a go, but it won't be short.
Marketing is not all about sales. Also I think "friend" is used loosely for lack of a better word. I'll address both.
Let's look at brand loyalty and differentiation, as well as competitive/strategic advantage.
Amazon is virtually a monopoly... where else would you go online to get the vast selection and discount on what they have? The CEO wisely dumped all profits right back into the business even when the market was bubbling over, knowing that if they survived the potential impending crash they would stand alone. They basically do...
Kinda like Walmart...
Low price leaders generally need long term competitive advantages to survive (broad market appeal, better systems, leaner support, monopolistic share, etc).
Conversely, where else would you go to learn "traffic generation"? Well dang near everywhere.
So automatically, being the low price leader is out of the question, unless you want to compete with people who feel happy just getting $1 in sales.
Where then will you get differentiation?
Packaging, branding, pure information, or some combination. However, information is hard to make stand out above the rest, and it's easy to copy. In other words your competitive advantage is quickly eroded.
Now, often a list can be started without much thought to any of the above. High quality information on a white page, with an opt-in box works great. (hint: credible or focused source traffic can increase opt-in % dramatically though.)
A list in effect simulates a monopoly. That's why they rock!
This in turn is one of the critical reasons you can get away with being a non friend hard selling son of a gun to a list. You get almost 100% control of message deliverability as long as they are subscribed and reading their email.
Build a big enough list, that grows fast enough, and the numbers work in your favor.
So then what's the point of all this friendliness junk?
Well it's the marketing junk that relates to long term strategies and goals.
A large part of "friendliness" is about building long term brand loyalty and differentiation, because a list is great, but people can still unsubscribe and start following someone else matching or exceeding your content level.
However, nobody can duplicate and erode your "you" factor, more commonly known as your brand.
I.M. has commonly distorted branding by focusing exclusively on personal branding. Thus the "friend" term more aptly applies to that market, which is the angle from which most are teaching "marketing".
As an example, nobody is going to duplicate the reputation Frank K. has built...but could easily match content quality at face value.
You can practically hear him say, "Hey man, got some cool stuff for you today..."
Rich Jerk is another classic example...he sure as heck wasn't being a friend, but he was quite different and well branded.
I think this is where the term friend goes astray. With personal branding, it's more about being you, and personable to stand apart from someone else offering what's relatively the same info.
It's also interesting to note, a lot of the low priced relatively unknown folks exceed the big names in delivering the information level of goods, because it's the only leverage they have. Unfortunately, that's not usually enough.
So...
#1. At the end of the day, no you don't need to be friends. But I hear a lot more negative chatter about the guys who aren't. Expect more one-and done sales. M.F. vs. F.K. ...both millionaires, but I almost never hear anything negative about the latter, and almost ALWAYS hear negatives towards the former. I don't think that's pure coincidence.
#2. The smaller your monopoly(list size/and growth ability), the less you can get away with the constant non-differentiated hard sell
#3. New customer acquisition often costs more than customer retention efforts when operating with limited resources, and market share.
#4. Generally, higher priced products require more marketing.
The big picture lesson here is this...
Are you a giant warehouse store, or a niche boutique? Lexus or Honda?
Low price vs. High price?
How are you building competitive advantage?
These all play a role in determining your marketing methods. At some point you pick one and live with the varying disadvantages.
Last of all, remember copy machine salesman, and car salesman lock you into leases for a reason...
Become a friend and people will buy from you - REALLY?
Why do they tell us to treat our subscribers like friends?
I would argue that it's not just theory, it's one of the various long term tested marketing strategies, and it's a much deeper subject than the casual observer might care to reflect on. I'll give it a go, but it won't be short.
Marketing is not all about sales. Also I think "friend" is used loosely for lack of a better word. I'll address both.
Let's look at brand loyalty and differentiation, as well as competitive/strategic advantage.
Amazon is virtually a monopoly... where else would you go online to get the vast selection and discount on what they have? The CEO wisely dumped all profits right back into the business even when the market was bubbling over, knowing that if they survived the potential impending crash they would stand alone. They basically do...
Kinda like Walmart...
Low price leaders generally need long term competitive advantages to survive (broad market appeal, better systems, leaner support, monopolistic share, etc).
Conversely, where else would you go to learn "traffic generation"? Well dang near everywhere.
So automatically, being the low price leader is out of the question, unless you want to compete with people who feel happy just getting $1 in sales.
Where then will you get differentiation?
Packaging, branding, pure information, or some combination. However, information is hard to make stand out above the rest, and it's easy to copy. In other words your competitive advantage is quickly eroded.
Now, often a list can be started without much thought to any of the above. High quality information on a white page, with an opt-in box works great. (hint: credible or focused source traffic can increase opt-in % dramatically though.)
A list in effect simulates a monopoly. That's why they rock!
This in turn is one of the critical reasons you can get away with being a non friend hard selling son of a gun to a list. You get almost 100% control of message deliverability as long as they are subscribed and reading their email.
Build a big enough list, that grows fast enough, and the numbers work in your favor.
So then what's the point of all this friendliness junk?
Well it's the marketing junk that relates to long term strategies and goals.
A large part of "friendliness" is about building long term brand loyalty and differentiation, because a list is great, but people can still unsubscribe and start following someone else matching or exceeding your content level.
However, nobody can duplicate and erode your "you" factor, more commonly known as your brand.
I.M. has commonly distorted branding by focusing exclusively on personal branding. Thus the "friend" term more aptly applies to that market, which is the angle from which most are teaching "marketing".
As an example, nobody is going to duplicate the reputation Frank K. has built...but could easily match content quality at face value.
You can practically hear him say, "Hey man, got some cool stuff for you today..."
Rich Jerk is another classic example...he sure as heck wasn't being a friend, but he was quite different and well branded.
I think this is where the term friend goes astray. With personal branding, it's more about being you, and personable to stand apart from someone else offering what's relatively the same info.
It's also interesting to note, a lot of the low priced relatively unknown folks exceed the big names in delivering the information level of goods, because it's the only leverage they have. Unfortunately, that's not usually enough.
So...
#1. At the end of the day, no you don't need to be friends. But I hear a lot more negative chatter about the guys who aren't. Expect more one-and done sales. M.F. vs. F.K. ...both millionaires, but I almost never hear anything negative about the latter, and almost ALWAYS hear negatives towards the former. I don't think that's pure coincidence.
#2. The smaller your monopoly(list size/and growth ability), the less you can get away with the constant non-differentiated hard sell
#3. New customer acquisition often costs more than customer retention efforts when operating with limited resources, and market share.
#4. Generally, higher priced products require more marketing.
The big picture lesson here is this...
Are you a giant warehouse store, or a niche boutique? Lexus or Honda?
Low price vs. High price?
How are you building competitive advantage?
These all play a role in determining your marketing methods. At some point you pick one and live with the varying disadvantages.
Last of all, remember copy machine salesman, and car salesman lock you into leases for a reason...
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