|
|
| Information |
|
|
Subscriber Incentives: Are They Effective?
Peter Boulder of Pepper and Rodgers Group tells a story of a friend of his who recently visited New York City. His friend spotted an ad that read something like: "Buy at our grocery store and if the cashier doesn't smile at you when you check out, everything in your cart is free."Impressed, he made a straight line for the store in question and filled up his shopping cart with everything he'd need for a week. To his chagrin, the lady at checkout not only didn't smile,but didn't even look at him. But there was some consolation in the situation, he thought, and he triumphantly claimed his bounty of free groceries. The cashier, however, denied any knowledge of such a special offer. Puzzled, the visiting gentleman took out his newspaper and showed her the ad. "Ah," she said, "look at that date! That's last week'spromotion!" So what's wrong?Now what was wrong with the grocery store's marketing approach? For a start, of course, friendly customer service, if you want to offer it, cannot be contingent upon certain time slots or seasons of the year.Either it's part of your mission statement, your philosophy of business, or it isn't. That's pretty straightforward. But let's say you're not really interested in the service-with-a-smile concept. (A pity - but your loss!) You know your cashier's only there for the paycheck, and that's fine by you, as long as she's competent at her job of checking out purchases. You don't expect her to take any special interest in your customers, and you just have this "smile or don't pay" gig once in a while as a stunt to bring a few more people into the store. The question now is: how effective can this kind ofmarketing tactic be? Well, in the case under discussion, it may not be the ideal way of stimulating new business, but such a promotion could serve some purpose, up to a point. Conceivably, some new people, or those that haven't shopped for a while, will be attracted by the prospect of a winning smile. The result: a little more money in the cash registers, as long as the promotion is running and the cashiers are cooperating. Even once the promotion is over, a few of these people might have already become habituated to doing their shopping there. Now, instead of friendly countenances (which, sadly, itdoesn't really believe in anyway), let's say that the storedecided to offer, during the period of the promotion,special discounts on certain products, or a brand newproduct for free with purchases over a certain amount? Which of these two promotions is likely to be more effective in the long run? Surely, the second. Why? Simply because once the customers have been induced to sample the products on "special offer", and happily, they find them to their liking, they will probably continue to buy them at full price, once the promotion is over. Biting the carrotNowadays, ambitious entrepreneurs dream up and implement all kinds of ingenious incentives to drum up business - contests, referral bonuses, points, loyalty programs, you name it. Some types of viral marketing also rely heavily on incentives to persuade people to pass the message along. All too often, the end result is disappointment - forentrepreneur and consumer alike. This usually happens when there's little real relation between the incentive and the product or service, and the product, in turn, falls short of the consumer's expectations. Viral marketers and their willing agents may succeed beyond expectation in whipping up mass hysteria about a new idea - which, in the end, turns out to be a damp squib. Unfortunately, email publishers who offer incentives to prospective new subscribers, sometimes suffer the same fate. Disillusioned newsletter consumers are becoming increasingly wary about biting the carrots dangled before their eyes. But if incentive and product are closely connected, at least you have a chance of success. The most cynical of people will bite a carrot if they're genuinely convinced that it's truly representative of a sumptuous repast ahead. If that conviction is then vindicated and everything's according to their taste, they'll stay right to the end of the party. It's hard enough, though, to produce scintillating contentin your publication itself, without being forced to createadditional "bait" or "teaser" material in the form ofspecial reports or the like. And if your new readers aredisappointed with the final product, the most tantalizingincentives won't help in the end. You only have to look at the prominent news sites on theInternet that repeat virtually the identical stories weekafter week, to get an idea of the challenge of producingconsistently good content on an ongoing basis. Yet, if you really want to succeed, this is precisely the challenge which you, as publisher, must face. Good marketing strategies are essential, but marketing is the means, not the end. A good marketer, they say, sells the sizzle, not the steak. But without the steak, there's no sizzle! Azriel Winnett is the creator of Hodu.com - Your Communication Skills Portal. This popular free website is devoted to helping you improve your communication and relationship skills on all levels in business and professional life, in the family unit and on the social scene.
Latest News:Site: Yahoo! News Search Results for news JCDecaux in talks for News Outdoor Group in Russia (AP via Yahoo! News) French outdoor advertising firm JCDecaux SA said Thursday it is negotiating to buy Russian rival News Outdoor Group from global media company News Corp. News Corp tightens grip on Premiere with new CEO (Reuters via Yahoo! News) Rupert Murdoch tightened his grip on German pay-TV broadcaster Premiere by appointing News Corp executive Mark Williams as CEO in a move to get the company back on track. JCDecaux and News Corp. in talks to combine outdoor ad groups (International Herald Tribune) The News Corp. chief executive, Rupert Murdoch, has recently expressed nervousness about investments in Russia, where News Outdoor generated the bulk of its revenue last year. News Corp says Mark Williams interim Premiere CEO (Reuters via Yahoo! News) News Corp. executive Mark Williams has taken over as chief executive of German pay-TV broadcaster Premiere in an interim capacity, News Corp. said after the move led to renewed takeover speculation. News Corp. says Mark Williams interim Premiere CEO (Reuters via Yahoo! News) Mark Williams, a News Corp. executive named late on Wednesday as chief executive of German pay-TV broadcaster Premiere, has taken over in an interim capacity, a News Corp. spokeswoman said on Thursday. JCDecaux in talks to buy News Corp. billboard unit (AP via Yahoo! Finance) In a deal that would create the world's largest outdoor advertising company, French conglomerate JCDecaux SA said Thursday that it is in talks to buy Russian rival News Outdoor Group from global media company News Corp. Weekly world news quiz (BBC News) At the end of another week, test your knowledge with our world news quiz. UPI NewsTrack Entertainment News (UPI) Kanye arrested in paparazzi scuffle ... Report: Critic smacked Ebert with binder ... Cafe Tacvba nominated for 6 Latin Grammys ... Groban to perform TV songs at Emmys ... News from United Press International. United shares climb after news debacle (UPI) CHICAGO, Sept. 11 (UPI) -- A computer program assigning dates to news stories was partly to blame for a sell-off of United Airlines stock Monday, a Google spokesman said. JCDecaux in talks for News Outdoor Group in Russia (San Francisco Chronicle) French outdoor advertising firm JCDecaux SA said Thursday it is negotiating to buy Russian rival News Outdoor Group from global media company News Corp. In a statement, the global seller of outdoor advertising said it was in exclusive talks with Rupert... Site: news - Google News New Voices in Congress Will Change the Tone of the Democratic Majority - New York Times
MORE RESOURCES: Site: Yahoo! News Search Results for ezine publishing Site: ezine publishing - Google News The Ezine Queen's 7 Reasons to Grow Your Business with Ezines ... - Gather.com
|
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Top 10 Tips to Give Your Newsletter Impact! There are thousands of email newsletters or "ezines" produced every week, and most of them have great material and are written by passionate people who want to share valuable information. Unfortunately, very few of them have many subscribers. How to Make Your eZine Work for You Long After Its Published If you publish an email newsletter, do you convert the issues to HTML and archive them on your website? If you haven't been doing so, you should start now, today."But the free mailing service I use already archives them. Why Dont My Subscribers Listen to Me? I received a very good question froma subscriber and I wanted to share it with you:"I have almost 500 people sigend up to receive my newsletterbut each time I send it 8-9 open it and 1 =3 click onto thewebsite. Now what do I do?"Honestly, there could a lot of factors involved in the lowopen rate. 8 Killer Mistakes For Ezine Failure You Must Avoid It is true that sometimes in life there is a small line between failure and success. The same thing applies with ezines and newsletters. Good News About Getting Published So you want to get a book published and add "author" to your resume. A decade ago, there weren't too many options for professionals and consultants to get into print. What Every Ezine Owner Should Know About Unsold Ad Space The deadline approaches and your ad STILL has not sold. What are you going to do? Many publishers would leave the ad unsold, but some publishers have found "insider" ways to make money with their hard-to-sell ads. The Disintermediation of Content Are content brokers - publishers, distributors, and record companies - a thing of the past?In one word: disintermediation.The gradual removal of layers of content brokering and intermediation - mainly in manufacturing marketing - is the continuation of a long term trend. 5 Tips for Catching Errors in Your Manuscript What is your worse fear as a self-publishing writer? For many, it's finding mistakes after publication.Imagine receiving boxes of books from the printer only to discover a glaring typo. 10 Ways, How To Get Significant Exposure For Free Ezine are one of the best source of information on the web today. They are generally free and can make a huge impact marketing success if used correctly. You Can Develop An E-zine Even If You Dont Enjoy Writing! Do you know that many business owners market their businesses by writing content for their online newsletters (e-zine)? And if you don't enjoy writing, the authors make those articles available to you.You can find both articles in article directories and article bank located on the Internet. The Power of Personality Owning an online business and publishing an ezine can be very frustrating, AND rewarding! There can be 100's or even 1000's of websites and/or ezines that are almost exactly like yours. What can you do to make your online business stand out from the rest?The number one answer to this question is - add your own personality to your business and in your ezine. The Biggest Mistakes That Can Spell Doom For You As A Newsletter Publisher And How To Avoid Them A lot of newsletter publishers spend a great deal of time wondering why they are not making money with their newsletters. Most of them expect to make so much money on getting started but they become disappointed with poor results. Who Should Offer an Ezine? If you are a professional, consultant, coach, speaker, seminar leader, author or small business person, you need to develop and offer one of the most powerful Online marketing tools around-the eNewsletter, otherwise known as the ezine. Your ezine's purpose is two-fold: 1 - It should give your clients and potential product buyers something that benefits them-tips, feature articles, resources and special offers. Don't Distract Readers from What They are Doing I'm working on a report for a company that puts out a newsletter on a monthly basis.Their open rate and clickthrough rate are somewhat above industry averages. 7 Ways to Self-Promote Within Your E-zine We all know that an e-zine won't attract and keep subscribers without offering insightful, practical content. If you only drone on and on about how wonderful you and your services/products are, your readers won't stick around for long. The Future of Email Newsletter The future of email Newsletter - Llando Ford 07.28. An Embarrassment of Riches - Part II The DOI Foundation has unveiled the DOI-EB (EB stands for e-books) Initiative in the Book Expo America Show 2001, to, in their words:"Determine requirements with respect to the application of unique identifiers to eBooksDevelop proofs-of-concept for the use of DOIs with eBooksDevelop technical demonstrations, possibly including a prototype eBook Registration Agency."It is backed by a few major publishers, such as McGraw-Hill, Random House, Pearson, and Wiley. Publishing Special Reports And Ebooks At No Cost So you'd like to start publishing special reports and ebooks to use as marketing tools and to sell as products. But you have no budget to get this new venture going. Three Breathing Techniques For Any Ezine Article I subscribed myself to many ezines. I'd love to read articles in them. Delivering Your Email Newsletter After creating your email newsletter, you face the challenge of delivery. With a printed newsletter, there's usually only one method of widespread distribution: the post office.
|
| Home | Site Map | Resource Links |
