Give 'Em What They Want

Well, its been said before, the world is a stage
A different performance with every age.
Open the history book to any old page
Bring on the lions and open the cage.

Give the people what they want
You gotta give the people what they want
The more they get, the more they need
And every time they get harder and harder to please

- Ray Davies, The Kinks, recorded Jun-Aug 1980 at Konk Studios, Hornsey, London

I brought in 1,780 names today...

Not bad for a Saturday, eh?

The names are manly from PPC… so my job is done, right?

Ummm, not even close.

Here's what I did in a nutshell... created awareness, acquired the traffic, and converted it, thus creating the most important asset, an email subscriber… a potential customer.

What’s next? You guessed it… create value (for the new to file) or die!

In other words, now the editorial challenge has began. You invite the new to file to the community… ultimately converting him to a sale.

Sure you’re a marketer that needs new names constantly, but if you neglect the newly acquired name and just set off in pursuit of new ones, you’re wasting your time. Your names will leave as quick as they join. If that's the case, what's the point?

It's bad business.... and unfortunately this is what happens in most companies. As a result, most customer databases are littered with email names that come and leave. Or who have only transacted once.

Your goal should be to see free names convert to paid names, and paid names to convert to renewal and multi-buyers. That, dear reader, is marketing to the lifetime value. AND to do that... we need retention.

Oh no... Buzz Word alert!

To do that you need... "RETENTION MARKETING".

Retention marketing is all about converting someone twice without having to acquire the name twice. You don't want to have to go through all that heavy lifting again!

The million-dollar question is how do you do it?

The simple answer… as Ray Davies, one of my favorite singer/songwriters says ...give the people what they want! (Did you know he's still rocking.. and he's got to be in his sixties now - Go Ray!)

It’s communication… it’s community … it’s trust, friendships, and giving special access and special benefits that only the inner circle (your readers) will receive.

What about customer loyalty? Is that part of it?

I don’t think so. Your competition is one click away. Heck the world is one click away. No one is loyal. Everyone is out for himself or herself. We’re all selfish as consumers. So unless you have the money to bribe your new to files…

Just kidding... instead of bribes why not just give them a valuable, entertaining and/or exciting opportunity… one that they’ll want to be involved in.

Ah ha, that’s retention. That’s creating the so-called loyalty.

You want specifics?

Stay tuned.