We Get Letters: Small Business Marketing for the Future
I warn you, this is going to sound like self-indulgent drivel, but there’s a really, really good lesson at the end. Just sayin’.
Over the last few days, Havi and I have been getting letters from people saying that the price of the VIP package for the course we’re offering is too cheap. People have been pointing out that we’re charging only $80 an hour for personal coaching. Since we normally charge about double that, you’d think that wouldn’t be very VIP, would it? And isn’t a VIP package supposed to be a big fat coup full of exclusivity and scarcity and all that filthy marketing whore stuff?
Good point, and I’ll address it here.
To the outside observer, cutting our rates for this sounds kind of dumb. Where is the exclusivity in a VIP package if we’re slashing our rates? But there’s method in the madness.
This is the first course I’ve ever put on, and it’s the first course Havi’s done with me. Unless one of us sleeps with the other’s husband, it’s pretty likely we’ll do it again. Odds are, we’ll put out a bunch more courses and help a bunch more people and make a bunch more money and gain a bunch of new fans. Wicked, right?
But right now, from a course standpoint, you don’t know me from Barney the Purple Dinosaur. You do not know who I am. You don’t know if I’m going to call in high off my head. You don’t know if I’m going to call in at all. You have no testimonials. You have no social proof. There is absolutely nothing on earth to make you think this is going to rock.
A little aside on Small Business Marketing 101:
Early adopters are the people who are ready to go right now. They’re risk takers, and they usually have money. They were the first people to buy the iPhone.
Sneezers may or may not be early adopters, but they like to tell their friends. In the case of the online world, they often have sizable platforms from which they can spout how awesome something is. They were the people who blogged about the iPhone.
If you’re promoting something new, you want to focus your marketing efforts on the sliver of the universe where those demographics intersect. Get the early adopters who like to tell people what they’re up to and bing, bang, boom, you’re a fucking millionaire.
Back to my story.
Early adopters make me money NOW, and that’s good. Middle to late adopters make me money LATER. That’s also good. So how do we woo both groups?
Encourage early adopters, then tell the middle and late adopters about all the early adopters that already whipped out their Visas.
In this case, here’s the logic: (It would probably behoove you to read this and see how you can apply it to your own business.)
- 1) Create an exclusive package, one that only eight people can get in on.
- 2) People with the desire and financial means to be among that group do the math. They realize we’re offering consulting for eighty bucks an hour.
- 3) Those people get on this like white on rice, knowing there are other smart people doing the math as well, and they’re loathe to lose their spot.
- 4) We come out and say that the most expensive package sold out in 36 hours. (Which I think it did, by the way. Havi’s in charge of the admin stuff, so I can’t say the exact hour or whatever.)
THIS IS THE IMPORTANT PART!!!
Next time we run a course, we can say that the last time we did it, the VIP option sold out in 36 hours. Ideally, we back this up by linking to where we said it the first time.
We then look credible and highly in demand. Next time we run a course, people will be even faster to take slots because they never know when it’ll sell out.
We lose a little cash right now to take advantage of multiple marketing opportunities in the future. Plus we’re still making eighty bucks an hour, which isn’t exactly going to qualify us for food stamps.
Now go away and think about how you can spend or forego money now to make a shitload later.