I
was reminiscing with a friend over lunch the other day about
the old Reader’s Digest marketing campaign.
Many years ago. You’d get a letter saying that you may
already have won a prize and you responded by sending back a
card that you put a sticker on to find out about your prize and
also order a set of condensed books, delivered one per month.
The funny thing was, getting the condensed books was optional.
The Digest assured you that you might already have won the prize
even if you didn’t order the books (but there was a bonus
gift if you did.)
It became a standard
joke. I remember a comedian telling his audience how he’d cut short his vacation and rushed home
because his wife told him he’d got a letter from Reader’s
Digest telling him he might already have won a prize.
My friend wondered how something like that could ever have worked.
It was expensive designing those letters with the peel off sticker
and all and expensive mailing them out. It was all snail mail
then. Stamps and everything! What was to stop 90% tossing the
letter and 99% of the remaining 10% ignoring the condensed books
and just exploring the possibility of winning a prize? The prizes
were substantial cash payments and the Digest even paid the return
postage.
Well, they were no
fools at Reader’s Digest. They knew
it was all about traffic, engaging their audience and creating
a buzz.
They got their traffic
through mailing lists that started out broad and became focused
by concentrating subsequent mailings
on those who attached the sticker and returned the letter (sort
of like a double opt-in), engaging their audience (their letters
were quite fun to read and you were being asked to take an action
reminiscent of getting a reward sticker at school) and when a
comedian gets a laugh just be referring to your campaign, then
you’ve got buzz.
It’s exactly
the same in the on-line world. You start off with relatively
broad traffic which you funnel through your
double opt-in squeeze page, you engage your audience with giveaways,
good content, insight and humor. And you create your buzz through
forums, social networking and by getting others to promote you
and your products to their lists.
Embarrassingly, I
had to admit to my friend that I carried around a box of unread
Reader’s Digest condensed books through
three house moves before finally throwing them out, still unread.
I hate condensed books. But I still wanted to know if I’d
already won a prize.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Phil Lancaster is recognized as one of the
leading experts on getting new websites indexed and ranked quickly
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