The Desert of Arizona
Clear 57 Degrees
Business on the web is slowly reverting back to be a whole lot like business in the village. The style of business where you went to Bob, the shoe cobbler, because you knew Bob. And you trusted him. And he treated you well.
Except now, Bob could live in India and you could live in Hawaii.
In the village, Bob didn’t try to milk you for every last dime you had. And he didn’t chase you around every day to buy something. Bob knew that’s not how you treat people. And he also knew that if he did that, you wouldn’t come back.
Plus, people would talk about him. About how he doesn’t care about his customers.
Just think of the internet as a connection of thousands of little villages. Villages where people share stories and experiences.
But does “old school” direct response marketing work in the village?
What I’m calling “old school” direct marketing is focused on creating leads and/or sales. You do a thing to get a result. And there’s usually a straight line between that action and the response. Traditionally, it hasn’t really been focused on creating relationships and connecting people.
At least I don’t hear many direct marketing experts or books say, “Let’s just send this out… it’ll help build a strong relationship. Let’s just send this because we care about our people.”
I’m sure it happens, I just don’t see it too much.
After all, how do you measure that?
But can you imagine our friend Bob in the village, walking around thinking about how he can place a killer 2 step ad in the village newspaper and then follow up with a salesletter to close the deal?
That’s just not how selling works when you are in a village. It’s too cold and impersonal. It’s not effective.
And it’s missing the most important ingredient: the relationship.
Instead, Bob does great work. Instead, Bob gets to know people. He asks about their kids. About how they’re doing.
The relationships Bob creates do his selling for him. The relationship IS his marketing.
There’s just one problem. Especially for any entrepreneur that wants to “hit it big.”
In the village, I’d bet that Bob never became a millionaire. He didn’t really have the tools to do that.
Bob couldn’t really scale his relationship building.
And he couldn’t really scale his caring.
His market was pretty much defined for him, because it stopped at the village wall.
Online, we no longer have those limits. So how do you scale relationship building? How do you scale caring?
I asked these questions about six years ago. At the time, I didn’t have the answers.
Today, I do have the answers. Or at least my answers. It’s called the media platform.
And the folks that have figured that out and then used that idea to build relationships with many people have a bright future.
The guys who only have “advertising?” I’m not so sure about what’s next for them.
No one can copy a relationship. Because relationships are unique. And no one can really put a price tag on one either. Because relationships are valuable. And unique value is something customers will gladly pay for. They always have.
Last call for the Platform Lab, it starts up today in just a few hours. Registration will close at 12 noon PST. This will most likely be the last one I do for a while as I’ll be focusing on Mastermind members.