Marketing 101
I’ve learned a lot about marketing principles through writing all those salesletters. This was something I realized when talking to a way too pushy for her own good “Fei Yeh” at Celebrity Fitness last weekend.
Fei Yeh was trying her darndest to get me to sign up as a member, even having one of the personal instructors to get their boss to give me one month worth of personal training.
Unfortunately while doing her annoying best to get me to join, she failed to notice some of the biggest marketing mistakes that renowned copywriters the world over touch on at the beginning of all their courses.
First off, she kept on harping about the benefits that she had gotten since joining CF. This is a good thing. When writing sales copies, we always want to stress on the benefits. However, benefits must always be supported with proof. Without proof, a marketer has no credibility.
All Fei Yeh talked about was how much using the facilities there had helped her tone up and shape her figure. That immediately destroyed any shred of credibility that she has because she’s as big as a barrel!
One of the benefits that Fei Yeh emphasized on is the availability of equipment and personal training. Well, I have those benefits as well in my current gym, but you don’t see me using them. What makes her think I’ll use them if I decide to join there?
Here’s where she went wrong - she doesn’t know her market. We always want to find a market first then find a product to sell to that market. This requires a marketer to do his homework and get to know his market, listen to it and find out what it wants.
Obviously my telling Fei Yeh about my lack of interest in the personal training programs and gym equipment is useless. The point is, she’s trying to sell me something that I didn’t want.
It doesn’t matter that she has the best product in the world. If her market, ie me, doesn’t want it, it’s not going to do her any good.
Next, we always want to try as much as possible to remove all risks for a prospect so that they can sign up with us with peace of mind. Fei Yeh was very reluctant to give me a straight answer when I asked her for the bottomline on what I would be paying should I decide to join CF. In fact, she talked about so many different packages that I got confused.
I told her that the best deal for me would be something that I can pay a fixed price for each month and come in any time I want. Again, she went on and on about the benefits and told me not to worry about the money issue because the benefits that I will get far outweigh whatever amount I will be paying.
Hello?!?!
There are top marketers who give a full year’s money back guarantee on their products just so that their prospects feel secure buying from them.
And here’s Fei Yeh telling me to just hand over my money to them, regardless of the amount that they ask for.
Having too many packages is also a no no. You always want to keep in mind your aim and that is to get your prospect to sign up using whatever marketing model that you may have.
You NEVER want to present your prospects with more than one choice because it distracts them from taking your call to action. You can always upsell them something after they have decided to buy your initial product, but never present them with more than one thing before they even decide to buy from you.
A common gimmick that marketers often use is a limited quantity type of offer. This can be limited in quantity or time sensitive offers that play on a prospect’s tendency for impulse buying.
Fei Yeh played it well but then, in these cases, if a prospect doesn’t want to buy, he doesn’t want to buy. End of story. It could be because the copy doesn’t push at a prospect’s hot button or the gimmick is not applicable to the market. In this case, it’s the latter.
I find that whenever I go to enquire at gyms, beauty salons or even spas, they always seem to be having one type of “promotion” or other. So these days, “promotions” are over rated.
Lastly, before we were allowed to go and attend our Pole Dance class, we had to surrender our ICs to them. When I went to collect mine later on, Fei Yeh was very reluctant to give it back to me without me agreeing to sign up.
Now this, I don’t need a marketing course to tell me that this is similar to a hostage situation. Haven’t we all seen enough of cases like these in the newspapers when people are forced to buy something expensive that they don’t want to from certain establishments because the people in the establishments refused to let them leave or are holding something of value to them until they agree to buy?
Top marketers always stress that if a prospect doesn’t buy the first time, at least get their contact details so that you can follow up with them later on.
Follow up requires a delicate touch. Too often and you sound pushy and could be reported for spamming. Too little and prospects tend to forget about you.
This is something that Fei Yeh seriously needs to learn.
Now don’t get me wrong. I’ve got nothing against CF. I’ve seen with my own eyes how many friends have benefited from its programs.
I just can’t stand pushy people :p
Everything was happening so fast!