One of the net’s best ezines died quietly. It will be missed. Markus Allen’s Marketing Ideas daily email had some great free material. The lesson is illustrative to say the least. His conclusion? Free information attracts freebie seekers!
So my last tip here is this… let your competitors sell ice to Eskimos Ever since December 1 of 1997, I’ve been trying to sell ice to Eskimos… trying to “convince” marketers that my newsletter was the answer to their marketing problems was both naive and arrogant.
For the tiny fraction of a fraction of subscribers who implemented the marketing ideas, it really paid off. It was tempting to call the police because these “implementers” virtually stole from me (with my permission of course).
… But the vast majority of my subscribers hardly (if ever) implemented any of the 1,841 ideas I’ve published every business day for over 7 years. A surprisingly high percentage didn’t even open the emails — I know because I precisely track this.
Cash vs. gratis
The bottom line is free stuff has virtually zero value.To further prove this observation, I’d offer free advice to struggling retailers in my small town… revealing how they could easily grow their business as big as they desired.
These shop owners were always cordial and listened. Yet none… literally none of retailers implemented any of my suggestions.
I’m not bragging… the advice I offered wasn’t original… stuff like ask customers for their email address… track advertising and slash non performers… and all of the other simple, yet proven ideas dispensed by the masters of marketing.
Today, it’s painfully obvious why these retailers “smiled and nodded”… I was trying to sell free ice to Eskimos. That’s a recipe for disaster. Free advice isn’t respected.
Only the flip side, there’s a group of retailers that invest almost $100.00 a month to get these same proven marketing strategies… this simple newsletter is read cover to cover — and almost every subscriber thrives in a marketplace were most struggle to merely survive.
While the information is basically the same, the difference is striking — those who pay for stuff have a much greater respect for information than those getting it free.
Another trend quickly discovered by information publishers is the perceived value of printed information vs. onscreen information.
Buyers are often willing to pay up to double or even triple the price to have the same information printed and mailed compared to reading the exact same content on the ‘net.
What’s next for Markus Allen?
I’ve just launched an expensive, private membership “coop” for trade show marketers and managers called TradeShow Insider. My research found US and Canadian companies use 10% of the marketing budget on trade shows — but that’s chump change compared to European marketers… they invest up to 20% of their budget on exhibitions! Even better, trade show exhibitors spend obscene amounts of money on branding. Let’s see if I can help them invest the same money real marketing like pay per click and direct marketing to get more out of their trade show dollar.
Best wishes Markus!
michael on November 18th, 2005 at 8:17 pm
Although I did not read these emails because I did not get them, free info is what I have thrived on to get my business going because I had no money, I read site pro news and now Chucks blog, also and found plenty that helped more than most, its site pro I first read about he description tag, where I first read content is knig and it all worked, its here that I first read about Google Base and I was the first scooter biz there, its here that I read how important this comment is to my site as in a other link to my site HA HA, so those who can not pay treasure the free info for what its really worth