Dave 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:
- Hire 4 customer service reps full time to search out blogs and message boards and answer people’s questions.
- 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.
- Proactively stop negative word of mouth by responding to problems before people got angry.
- 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)