Sorry to bother you again
Published: Wed, 02/12/14
I hate marketing, I really do. Years ago I worked for a while for
a person called Robert Holden. He ran a self-improvement programme
he called the 'Happiness Project' . Basically teaching
people to be happier and thereby more efficient and successful in
their lives. I was involved in sending out the promotional
literature for a seminar which Robert was running. As I recall it
was going to run over two days and was going to cost at least
£400. There were about 60 places and I recall that the
bookings came in and I think the event was filled. This was around
1999 and I don't think the internet actually played any part in
the process (I can't recall for sure if the office computer had
email or not, yes the online revolution really is that recent). I
recall taking telephone bookings and having to write down credit
card numbers and then processing them manually. Remember those
little no carbon required chits and the little machine that you
rolled back and forward? All seems like another world doesn't
it?
What was enlightening was that although the event was filled, at
what seemed to be to be a pretty high cost. The cost of the
advertising and promotion in order to fill all those places was
pretty high too. I wasn't privy to all the figures but I was
paid to administer the process, there were color ads in various
publications, the cost of printing and posting a rather nice
brochure and various other expenses. Of course a lot of people who
came on the seminar, probably the first ones to sign up, were
people who had read Robert's books ( at the time he was
promoting one called 'Happiness Now') and they had made
contact as a result. These people were already fans and could
probably have been signed up on the course by a single phone call
or a hand written post card. So the people who were signed up as a
result of adverts or receiving the brochure in the mailing list
(and the adverts and list did seem to be very well targeted) must
have cost a great deal each to reach. I am guessing here but I
doubt I would be far wrong to suggest, that about half the cost of
the event was in the marketing. So for every £400 people
paid to attend £200 or thereabouts was the cost finding out
about the event and being persuaded to come.
Now you know why I hate marketing. I want to put my time, effort
and resources into providing a service, actually delivering the
goods, whether it is teaching Stav or in my other business as a
handyman. On the handyman side of things I can usually get away
with word of mouth and repeat business. Stav could be the same but
not if I am going to run a centre or arrange camps with guest
instructors. So some effort has to go into marketing. It
isn't as if I am fumbling in the dark either, I have read a
huge amount around the subject and I am subscribed to a mastermind
group with Jon McCulloch. The more I know the more I hate it
because marketing is actually very simple, just a matter of
communicating with people and keeping up with that communication
and knowing that most of the time most of the people you are
reaching don't have the time, energy, resources or money to
respond to you. But if you don't market at all you had
probably best give up altogether. Now you know why business owners
of all kinds keep pestering you, please don't think too badly
of them, they are just trying to make a success of selling whatever
product or service it is that they offer.
Email marketing is an option that didn't exist in 1999, but it
is no different in principle to any other form of marketing. So,
course this Saturday in Crewkerne
http://www.iceandfire.org.uk/train.html and you can see how we are
getting on with the Stav centre.
regards
Graham
PS Robert Holden is still around and his marketing technology has
moved with the times http://www.happiness.co.uk/