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You Need Shortfuse, High Intensity Promotional Events Four to Eight Times a Year
By Robert Skrob | March 24, 2010
For 6 years, a select group of information marketers have been “by-invitation-only” subscribers to Dan Kennedy’s Information Marketing Special Reports and Info-Marketing Letters. Now, for a limited time, Dan has opened his vault to make these available to you.
If you’d like to find out more about the archives, visit www.DKArchive.com. Here is an excerpt from Volume V, Number 4 of the archives. I’m sure you’ll find it valuable and enlightening.
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Regardless of what you do, you need to create “shortfuse,” high intensity, highly focused promotional events around something “new” at least four to eight times a year in your market, not just for the direct surge of new customers or sales for a new product, but for attention, interest, prominence and “buzz.” Otherwise you become of minor consequence, known but not of interest. This is the premise behind the Jeff Walker-type launches engineered online … behind series TV shows’ hyped, cliff-hanger finale episodes … run-ups to movie releases like Indiana Jones, Iron Man, Sex and the City … behind the special sales at stores from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. the day after Thanksgiving.
I suggest reading about the recently departed Evel Knievel, Houdini*, P.T. Barnum, and others of their ilk: promoters of selves in highly competitive environments, compelled to create some new event to re-focus the public’s attention on them again and again. (*I promise, one of the upcoming No B.S. Info-Reports will be my postponed dissection of the book, ‘Secret Life of Houdini.’ But don’t wait. Get and read this brilliant book, with hi-liter in hand). You should pick a major movie known to be coming out in six months, and read the trades like Variety, the tabloids like The Star, mainstream mags like People, then pay attention to TV talk and entertainment shows; you’ll see a systematic process, beginning with “leaking” news of casting decisions, plot lines, romances and fights during filming, “pirated” film at YouTube building up to about a three week, very intense build-up to that first weekend; the stars cooking giblets with Rachel Ray, knitting doilies with Martha Stewart, in every magazine possible, to point of omnipresence. Coordinated merchandising tie-in launches with fast food chains, bookstores, etc.
Big broad, mainstream things you see plus lots of subculture specific things you may not, such as extensive Sex and the City promotion in the fashion industry trade pubs or Harrison Ford on cover of Cowboys & Indians Magazine the month of the Indiana Jones release. Sex and the City was #1 at box office its opening weekend with $56 million … actually disappointing to investors, yet, think about it: it’s a continuation of a five year old cable TV show. But if you paid attention, its six-week run-up hype effort was massive. There is more thought, time, energy, plotting and scheming, work invested in this short-term high intensity promotion of the movie than in the making of the movie itself.
If you study Glazer-Kennedy Insider’s CircleTM as example (and why wouldn’t you?), you can see that there is a foundation of ongoing, chug-chug-chug business: membership continuity; numerous means of bringing in new members day-by-day; the catalog/web store business. But atop that is the “only as good as your next hit” business, much like Disney and Pixar or other entertainment industry companies. Consequently, we are not even done with the promotion and delivery of one event (seminar; tele-seminar; new book launch; new product, etc.) when we are planning the next. It is my observation that most info-marketers are much more “casual” about this than we are.
If you could see our ‘drawing board’—we have Preparing To Do, Do, Doing. In ‘Doing,’ Done. Right now, there is the Info-SUMMITSM marketing at mid-point, the early campaign nearly Done, the next to begin Doing with about a week’s breather, and the above described Book/Tele-Seminars promotion. On the Do list, being worked on, being readied is promotion for a probable but not yet confirmed special, one-time event in January which will be promoted beginning in October; an entire line of new products and licensing opportunity to premiere in November. In ‘Preparing to Do,’ amongst other things, we need to be six to twelve months out, to keep the book pipeline full, so there is the new book I’m doing with Sydney now being promoted to the trade beginning at the June booksellers’ convention, for a January launch; Bill completing contract for his first book; and my negotiations with both of my publishers regarding new books; at Adams, a 3rd in the Ultimate series; at Entrepreneur, the 8th in the No B.S. series. These are partial lists. Each item moving along on its own timeline. Each leading to its own short-fuse, intense, focused promotion event. So that, time and again, there is something new happing, to be the centerpiece of new promotional blitz.
FAILURE TO LAUNCH. Recently, I generated a small number of leads out of a business niche I’d worked in many times before, and secured their expressed interest for small, boutique, special topic ‘summit’ like I now enjoy conducting, with a minimum number set of 12 to proceed; maximum attendance of 25. At $15,000.00 each. When I had enough leads who had raised their hands, filled out applications, and knew the price, I prepared a solid sales letter, support package of information, relevant proof including my own tax returns and copies of 1099’s—and, incredibly, only a few actually registered. After three follow-ups, I still had only five. Knowing this market as I do, I’m completely convinced I would have gotten virtually all of them registered at a significantly lower price, probably $5,000.00. And I could have gone out to the entire list and really worked at it with mailings, tele-seminar, etc. and gotten a full 25. But … 25 at $5,000.00 or so would not have been sufficient to justify that extra sales effort, the extensive preparation and the three days for the event. And holding a different kind of lower priced event for a larger number of people on this subject didn’t interest me. So I cancelled it. Frankly, it is nice to be in the position to so carelessly choose not to process $75,000.00 of registrations in hand and kill a project in which some time and effort had already been invested—but I do not consider it a “luxury,” as many would categorize it. It’s a right I’ve earned for myself. And an example of intelligence conquering impulse.
There ARE, in fact, legitimate price limitations in different markets. Most marketers never come close to testing them, grossly under-pricing. But there ARE limits. There ARE things that can be done but aren’t worth doing. There ARE also brilliantly conceived, expertly written and perfectly executed marketing campaigns (as was this one) that fail. And there ARE even entire markets that should be abandoned. Some fields are more fertile than others. Ultimately, of course, this is about determining the value of your own time, energy and expertise, and disciplining yourself not to go very far down paths requiring too high a toll for too little reward. I thought you might like knowing that I have my share of rockets that fail to launch.
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If you enjoyed this excerpt, you may want to review the entire Dan Kennedy archive. It is available for a limited time at http://www.DKArchive.com. Every one of the 72 issues is packed with advanced, specialized, experience-tested insights into what it takes to succeed within the info-marketing business. Visit http://www.DKArchive.com to reserve your copy.
Topics: Information Marketing | 12 Comments »
March 25th, 2010 at 12:07 AM
As a Jeff Walker trained Product Launch Manager, I have seen the powerful benefits of a launch, or ‘high intensity promotional events’.
Such a great idea of doing an event such this multiple times a year, not just when you want to release a product.
May 25th, 2010 at 12:41 AM
i love to see new product launches because i am addicted to shopping both online and offline.’”;
May 25th, 2010 at 5:33 AM
Terrific. It is a great way to see what’s new.
Thank you for commenting.
Best wishes.
September 14th, 2010 at 12:44 AM
product lunches are great! i am always on the lookout for it”*.
September 24th, 2010 at 9:37 AM
мне нравиться знакомиться с природой!
October 13th, 2010 at 6:29 AM
on our local store we have lots of product lunches specially with those cool new gadgets”:*
October 26th, 2010 at 5:07 AM
light emitting diodes for bathroom lighting is also very cool, they consume less electricity and is very bright too:*’
November 12th, 2010 at 3:05 PM
i would like to replace our bathroom lighting with light emitting diodes to save electricity `.”
December 21st, 2010 at 2:43 PM
i love new product launches, i always attend events like those because i want to see some new stuffs `-`
January 27th, 2011 at 11:38 PM
Nice website, hope you continue to work on it ^_^
May 5th, 2011 at 1:14 PM
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August 28th, 2011 at 11:07 PM
I concur with your thoughts.Thanks for your time for your sharing.