In October 1984, just thirty years ago, I started my first firm. No mobile phones yet. No fax machines. Nada Internet. My sound system needed LPs. The fellows that later started Google were messing with Fisher-Price technology.
My first portable PC, aka luggable, weighed 12^kg, looked like a suitcase, and cost $3500. ($1.00 = R1.1276 if memory serves.)
When I proposed we buy a fax machine my MBA partner refused. He felt it was a passing fad. I had to force him to man the telex for a day before he relented.
Those days were quieter and slower. You could hide away for a time to cleanse your soul.
I flustered a receptionist a few weeks ago. I told her I was calling from Oslo. She patched me through to a wireless phone which she passed under the cubicle door to my startled callee while he was, as our leaders often do, passing a motion. I apologised for catching him with his pants down.
In 1984 I read a simple book that suggested I try direct marketing, writing letters to people that fit my prospect profile. If I was to compete with a firm like IBM, the author wrote, I might afford to invest $1 into marketing for every $10,000 IBM threw at it. I took this to mean I should nurture relationships with all the folk who might one day buy from me. I still do it.
Letters became faxes, and faxes became emails. The principle still works.
Most marketing spend hides heavy wastage. This short video of David Ogilvie talking about direct marketing says it all. He built the world’s biggest advertising agency by sending out letters and building relationships.
There are three basic genres of marketing.
– Interrupt-based marketing, where you get a brand drummed into you by repeated adverts while you are busy with something else, like watching a program, or trying to find out about your ex-wife’s new man. It’s expensive because you pay for the number of people that see the message, even though most will never buy from you. Spammers fit into this box. As does Facebook.
– Interest-based marketing, where you can search the entire knowledge-base of mankind and find the most pertinent link on the philosophy of life leads you to a video of a dancing cat. Search Engine Marketing mostly fits in this box.
– Relationship-based marketing, where you grow a community of friends who share challenges for which you have answers. Kevin Kelly wrote a fine piece about 1000 true fans that shows a great way to float above the tech. Email marketing should fit into this box.
We waste money trying to find new sales prospects. Then we stop talking to them as soon as they have bought, or have said no. How silly.
Instead of thanking people for the time they were clients, we complain when they leave. That’s like my Mom no longer talking to me after I left home. (She didn’t do any such thing, and I would rather you did not mention I used this analogy.)
The tech has changed. The principles remain sound.
Business is about people. People are about relationships. It’s delightfully imperfect, as we all are, but wonderful fun.