"My 3yo Pooped In The Toilet By Himself" as a Marketing Strategy

Sounds kind of desperate if people are doing that. It doesn't seem like the sort of thing very successful businesses do. It is just a gimmick.

I can't imagine the brands and products I highly respect such as Market Samurai or Aweber for example doing this. The "Aweber the CEO's cat got stuck on the roof sale"? No I can't imagine this happening.

Anyway tpw thanks for bringing this subject up it is very interesting . Would like to see other points of view.

I'm not more inclined to buy because of someone else's life event. Actually I'm not all that interested in them because I want to know "what's in it for me".

I don't mind if they throw in some personal stuff in their emails but it doesnt make me "like" them anymore than I did before.

I know that Kohls and Macys never have to say anything like that in their emails but i always open them

Well, then that makes two of us.

I open emails to see what's in it for me!

~Bill

I don't know. Sometimes it may work for a product that I've had my eye on. The reason for the sale itself may not matter all that much... just the fact that it's on sale.

For example, if I've been wanting to buy something that costs $197 and I've been on the fence about it or not wanting to spend that much... And all the sudden the seller shoots me an email that says he and his wife just found out they were pregnant so they are going to have the product on a "baby sale" for $97 for the next 3 days...

well...

I don't really care so much that they are pregnant, but at $97, I'm going to grab that shiny thing I've had my eye on.

Not a huge fan. In fact, I almost didn't click on this thread, but just got a little curious (:p). At the same time, at least its less annoying than getting multiple emails with the same subject lines like...

"This was WSO of the Day! An absolute MUST See!"

If they work it in with an actual IM subject (or whatever niche the list is for) than I'm good with it.

In my opinion, it is a pretty weak marketing tactic. I'll take the thread title as an example. So your three year old pooped in a toilet? I don't give a damn. Its your kid, not mine. If anything, I'll trash the email instead of ever opening it. Of course, I'm a lot less sensitive to other people's stories than most.

Bill,
You are slowly starting to overlap Jared's territory with all the $hitty threads
you've started here lately. Don't forget he is the Godson of The Godfather
and may not give you much, if any, warning before he levels the playing feild
and starts launching cow dun your way!


Just saying,
Have a Great Day!
Michael

Well I can speak from personal experience on this as I'm one of those Marketers who recently sent out one of those "personal story offers" for the first time.

My wife and I just found out we were having a baby (our first), and I was excited and put together a special "we're having a baby" offer.

My email subject line for this offer was "Holy Crap...I'm Having A Baby"

And my open rate for that email was 41.3% which ain't to shabby.

My open rates are for the most part always in the 20 - 30% range, with the occasional high and low one.

I'll admit I was very surprised it was that high especially with no benefit mentioned, but also certainly am not going to complain about it.

Was I being desperate to create this offer...Not at all. I was simply excited, got an idea and made a special offer that was tied into the news of our pregnancy.

Nothing dirty or underhanded about it.

Tanner

Tanner,
Congrats to you the Wife and the soon to be!
Boy? Girl?

Have a Great Day!
Michael
PS, Sorry for the Hi-Jack Bill.

-1 for the thread title.

Do we really need a thread title about fecal matter?

ffs

At times..and depending on the situation presented I guess it might work...but most of the time I would think it's something spammy

It really depends for me... it can be a really good hook for me to actually look at a product rather than passing it over. I forget who it was now... but a Warrior was doing a firesale to earn money for their wedding. Normally I probably wouldn't have taken a look at the WSO, but knowing how much weddings cost, I took a look and ended up deciding it was worth the money.

I didn't buy it because of the story, I looked at it because of the story and decided to buy it. Also, if it was someone I followed a lot, there is a good chance I would buy it... It also depends on the story though. None of those would have triggered me to take a look, but the mention of saving money for a wedding, with my wedding still fresh in my mind, got me looking.

Well, here is another topic where you'll NOT get the
"correct" answer from marketers. Marketers
are the worst people to ask these types of
questions.

But this is all based on the principle that if
you tell them WHY then they'll BUY.

As far as how personal you get will all depend
on your list and your personality--assumed
or otherwise.

But then this is a case of nobody admits to buying
and reading the tabloids yet these papers make so
much money???

-Ray Edwards

I'm with Ray on this one - the "reason why" is the driving force behind the effectiveness of personality based marketing.

I do think some marketers go over the top, but at the same time, you're thinking of it from a "marketers" perspective...

... in other words, YOU might think it's silly but the majority of people aren't savvy enough to realize it's a marketing tactic.

Ansar

Personal stories? I would never "fall for that" sneaky and slimy marketing tactic in a million years. What do you think, I'm dense? After all, I'm a perfectly logical and rational human being. I have an education. Don't feed me that recess time nonsense. Just give me the bottom-line. Right? If you say so...

As usual, there is a huge divide between what people say they do... and what they actually do. The proof is in the pudding with Blake who "almost" didn't click and then you've got Michael's sincere and genuine interest in Tanner's future fatherhood. It's only natural. Now, is Michael more prone to buying something from you with the knowledge that you're a father-to-be? Who knows. If he's a father, probably. But he knows of you. That's key.

A very popular marketer who we all know once said in the infomercial business... look. We're putting out this show. We're expecting X number of calls. At the end of the day, how many almost picked up the phone and called? How many didn't call but almost did? That almost can be the difference between a winner and a loser. Just think about what adding one "s" to a word in your headline can do, for example. As marketer's, we all deal extensively with the almost.

As far as the Makepeace thing goes, the fact that someone unsubscribes from your list after sharing your personal stories is hardly a rock solid foundation to base any of your decisions. I hear it all the time, many people get more unsubscribes from their list when they send out 100% free content, than when they send a pitch. I'm not surprised.

It's the same thing as coming up with a product to sell. Let's say you have an idea. Are you going to go around asking people, "Would you buy this?" You could, and many people do. But it's only one approach. Would you be better off making them an offer to actually take out their wallet and buy? Probably. But which would you bet on? Which are you currently betting on by investing your time, money and energy right now?

Plus, like Ansar said, if you're taking it from a marketer's perspective, we all like to think we're immune to marketing. But I take the stance that we're all just as interested in other people as we are about what's in it for us. It just depends on whose better at holding our attention long enough, until the time comes to say, "Here, try this on me, risk-free."

If you guys think you're somehow different from the average person, just simple "nuts and bolts" robots, only interested in facts and figures, lacking emotion and empathy, then I call your bluff and raise you one ham sandwich. Wheat bread, two slices Velveeta, toasted... and hold the mustard please.

Marc

P. S. It does help to be tasteful. Unlike the title of this thread.

Hot damn... Marcus Rodillus.

On fiyah.

What a fantastic niche idea. I have been dying to get into this niche for the longest time

In my wedding photography industry, I see a lot of that on photographer's "about me" pages. Silly, quirky, non-wedding related mentions such as, and I paraphrase here, "I can wiggle my ears", "I enjoy changing my baby's soiled diapers", "I'm a big fan of the cartoon network", "I love eating cupcakes with sprinkles"...

I know most photographers don't really understand marketing and look to see what the next guy's doing and simply copy that. You can't look at what a photographer keeps doing and think "must be working" because as a group they're notorious for perpetually doing things without knowing if it's working, because they think, "well at least I'm getting my name out there and/or building my brand."

And in these cases there's a thought going around that you want to connect with brides based on "personality" and this, they feel, does it. Can't say I agree because none of this tells a bride what's so amazing about one's photos that you should hire them, totally irrelevant points to make for sure, yet that doesn't seem to stop them from getting work.

There's also the approach that many photographers copy of talking about how much they love their spouse, how many kids they have, how much they love photography, their passion for weddings, how they were born with a camera in their hands, yadda yadda. I see lots of that too.

Telling personal stories is supposed to be effective when the stories are allegories for pitching to a potential client or overcoming an objection, but that's not the case here. Their websites' goal is to get the bride to contact them, that's it.

So what do you make of all this? Is it that brides don't care? Or is it that it works?

If you ran a potty training site, golden.....

otherwise, well, poop.