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The Black
Bean Quesadilla Principle |
| Recently my wife and I tried a new restaurant here in Dallas. As we made our way to the order counter, we were greeted by a pleasant young man at a small grill offering samples of the restaurant's Black Bean Quesadilla. Not being known to decline free food, we took samples and ate them as we prepared to order. After we received our order and sat down to eat, I couldn't help thinking about this marketing technique and how it could be applied to the Internet world (needless to say, my side of the mealtime conversation wasn't particularly scintillating!). How did it make me feel and why, and how could I use this technique? Here's what I concluded. 1. Make it free. Not a new concept in the grocery store or on the Internet, although it was new to me within a restaurant. But let's face it - "free" still carries an appeal that is hard to match any other way. If the main course is good, it brings a conviction in the customer's mind that your confidence in offering the free samples was part of a well-conceived marketing plan. But making it free is only the first and simplest part of this technique. 2. Make it relevant. I am sure the restaurant we visited could have given out "Tiny Mac" hamburger samples and seen them disappear just as quickly, but that wouldn't tell the customer anything about what to expect when he actually placed an order. It seems too obvious to state, but if your site concentrates on dog products you wouldn't want to be giving out free catnip samples. This is a slam-dunk to implement if you are selling e-books, but more difficult if you are selling Cadillacs! Some creativity is called for here. If you are selling a single e-book, you could create another e-book that is taken from your product offering, having valuable content but not giving away the store. And, unlike in a restaurant, if it's relevant it will work almost as well after the sale as before. I had this proven to me recently when, to my surprise, my purchase of an e-book was followed by not one but several unannounced bonus items, all relevant to my original purchase. How do you think I feel about that supplier? Like I want my customers to feel about me, that's for sure! While any good ebook would have been welcome, this supplier's thoughtfulness in providing bonuses he knew I could use showed lots of marketing savvy, and made me ready to consider anything else he would offer. 3. Make it good. As anyone who spends much time on the net knows, there are a lot of free items such as e-books being offered that are simply too old or too devoid of good content. My reaction is, if the free items represent the quality of what that site is offering, I don't need to waste any more time at that site! Frankly, with the rising level of competition for the customer's attention, the days of giving away only the items you received for free are probably almost over. It's inevitable that the product you are selling will be pre-judged by the quality of the free item you are offering. We probably wouldn't have left the restaurant if the quesadilla sample had been cold or tasteless, but it's unlikely we would have paid for one. As it turned out, the sample was delicious and we did order one. But that's not all we ordered, because we already had confidence that any item on the menu was likely to be good. The entire rest of the menu could have been inedible, but we was predisposed to believe that we would enjoy anything we purchased. Can you think of a better mindset you would like your customers to have? So make it free, but be sure you also make it relevant and make it good. Attract the customer on the front end with good free samples, then cement the relationship on the back end with additional free items relevant to the purchase. Black bean quesadilla, anyone? Glenn Gordon - Building Success Online at http://www.ur-in-business.com The Ultimate Autoresponder Guide at http://www.AllAboutAutoresponders.info http://www.BusinessBuilderNewsletter.com This article may be freely reproduced as long as the resource information is included. |