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Does this stuff work?

imageDave Armano and I had just had a great conversation about the future of marketing and the quest for a true, meaningful connection with customers.

As we walked out of the office, we saw street marketers wearing TVs on their shirts.  I have no idea who they worked for or what they were selling.  What a waste.

The week before I saw a semi-trailer selling software parked outside a Staples.  I’m sure this road show cost them a ton of cash.  The software marketers were ignored — but the toddlers in the crowd were thrilled with the truck, and the driver gave tours of the cab.  What a waste.

For what these sort of promotions cost, you could:

  1. Hire 4 customer service reps full time to search out blogs and message boards and answer people’s questions. 
  2. If those reps made 20 posts a day, you’d have 30,000 permanent incoming links to your web site at the end of year.
  3. Proactively stop negative word of mouth by responding to problems before people got angry.
  4. Make a ton of people happy.

Lesson: Focus on making people happy. It’s easier, cheaper, and more effective than big-splash marketing.

(photo credit: AdRants)

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