Got a call the other day from a very bright and well seasoned fellow who is an administrator at a local university. He wanted to know why the Entrepreneur conference he was holding this year was drawing so many fewer people than the one I held last year.
He figured correctly that they should have been able to use last year’s successful conference as a foundation to build upon. We were told last year that being the first year we should only plan on 80. We had more than 600. We left them all of our notes, ads and plans, the email and mailing lists we used, and evaluations and testimonials. They should have attracted more than the 200 or so reported attendees. Last year we had no credibility and couldn’t even get a local mayor to come. Using our credibility combined with their contacts and effort, they were able to get the governor to attend! Sadly, he spoke to a partially filled room.
I admire the administrator because he sought to evaluate the program. Instead of making up excuses, he sought to find reasons for the less than stellar attendance. Most people blame the economy (it was worse last year), some conflicts in the public’s schedule, or something.
So why didn’t the conference exceed last year’s?
The answer is fairly simple.
Notice that we’ve changed the name of this blog. We waited until we got a certain number of readers to change the name to a more accurate description: Marketing Motion. We did it to drive home a principle: Marketing is NOT Magic, but Motion.
The reason the conference didn’t attract as many is they didn’t have the marketing motion. They did a few things, but we did many things.
We did some controversial things – dared to go outside the academic box. We made some enemies on campus with advertising department folks by using art for ads that didn’t look pretty. Our ads had more words than pictures and not enough white space for their taste. But the words were powerful, full of emotion and benefit and attracted people. Their ads were picture perfect and bland. Tombstone advertising.
Their conference name seemed academic and ours said how the customer would benefit. We really ticked off the university’s conference and workshop people because we made up tickets and put a high price on them. Crass.
Then we sent tickets to groups and gave them a whale of a discount. We sold them on an option basis to students in business classes for a low price and told them they could go out and sell them for whatever they could get and keep the difference. Funny how the profit motive works.
We had an email campaign, a direct mail campaign, a poster campaign, an affinity campaign (sell to groups of like minded people who meet regularly at a wholesale price), several referral campaigns, and got all of the business students involved with self-interest motives. Every day we tried something new.
It wasn’t Magic. It was Motion. Lots of motion. That’s what it takes.
Marketing is a pain in the neck. It is a lot of work. But if you want to succeed, that is the key.
Right now I’m involved in selling a vehicle transmission technology. In case you’re engineering inclined, it is the ONLY Positively Displaced, Infinitely Variable Transmission. That means it doesn’t disconnect gears to change speeds and ratios, has no belts that use friction so it has race car performance but hybrid car economy. Should save the average consumer 30% or more on fuel. It can put a hybrid engine in a large pick-up and burn rubber while getting two times the gas mileage. Therefore, it is so innovative with such high customer benefit ratios that it has led some to say, “the technology sells itself.” Wrong. It doesn’t.
Using good, fundamental marketing principles – all involving Motion and lots of it – we’ve managed in four months to get in front of the world’s best transmission engineers. We’re in front of the biggest names in the auto industry and transmission world (did you know $240 billion worth of transmissions are sold every year?). We’ve been in front of Americans, Germans, Japanese, Koreans and more. But every step along the way we’ve had mental roadblocks from them. We manage to sell the CEO but he wants his engineer’s to approve... but it takes them time to figure out all of the great things we have and people don’t want to think outside their box. Slowly we’re succeeding. But what a pain.
Why didn’t they jump at it instantly? The benefits are so obvious. Because they’re human beings and human emotions and needs are immutable. They must be persuaded, coddled, cajoled and romanced. It’s how we humans all are.
So stop thinking Marketing is Magic. It’s Motion, and lots of it. You must do something every day. Welcome to the game.
To make sure you know the fundamentals so you can build upon the right principles, read my book “Marketing Singers.” Follow this blog where other principles come out with real examples.
Just do it.
