These are explained well in a delightful book I read recently called
"UnMarketing-stop marketing-start engaging"
'UnMarketing' is written by viral marketing and social media expert Scott Stratten. (It is one of the most useful business books I have read in the last 10 years. I highly recommend you get a copy.)
'Push and Pray Marketing' is when you push something out there and pray that people will buy it.
Scott gave a great example of this approach in an event he attended called 'Art by the lake.'
Here a number of artists would gather by the shoreline and set up in tents. They would display their paintings, photographs, sculptures to large numbers of visitors.
The potential customers who came to 'Art by the Lake' loved it. They walked into each artist's tent, admired their work, made comments and often gave compliments.
Scott observed that the artists on the other hand were not nearly as engaging.
They were sitting in their lawn chairs, half heartedly thanking people for their kind comments. But you could tell they were secretly saying to themselves 'if you like it, why don't you buy it?'
The ratio of lookers to buyers was at least 100 to 1.
The most Scott saw any of the artists do with a person who didn't buy was to hand them a card and say 'let me know'.
And a crowd of potential customers would then move on to the next Artist's tent.
Scott noticed that crowds of people were raising their hand expressing interest in the artist's products and were simply being allowed to walk away.
And that brings us to "Pull and Stay Marketing'.
With this approach you pull customer information and stay in front of them.
Let's imagine you are one of the artists at the Art by the Lake event. Someone comes in and comments how wonderful your work is, especially your landscape photography.
Instead of just saying 'thanks' you could say "I appreciate it, I regularly take landscape photos and it's amazing how well they're received. I know it's tough to decide on art, especially when there are so many great artists here today. I have an 'exclusive preview' email I send out to people when I take new shots. I could also send you some shots of what is here today. Would you like to sign up? No charge."
Now you can start to build a relationship with this person. That night, after you take each visitor's email address, write a personal email to thank them for coming to your booth. Send them a few shots and ask what they thought about the event.
You are now building a list of people who will get to like and trust you. Many of them will go on to become happy paying clients as you develop this relationship.
All from using the Pull and Stay Marketing approach.
There are dozens of proven marketing strategies that you can use in 2012 to radically improve your sales and results.
The key is to change and try something new.
Action Step:
What will you change with your marketing strategies in 2012?
What will you try that is new or different?
"When in doubt, choose change."
Lily Leung
Graham McGregor is a marketing consultant and the creator of the 396 page 'Unfair Business Advantage Report.' www.theunfairbusinessadvantage.com (This is free and has now been read by business owners from 11 countries.) You can email Graham on graham@twomac.co.nz
