The title of today’s post may sound a little weird. But it will all make sense and help you improve your sales results. So, bear with me.
I updated the operating system on my Macs yesterday. While they were updating, I decided to see if my 2014 Surface Pro 3 PC still worked. I loved that device and took it everywhere. However, I haven’t used it in years. Anyhow, I plugged it in, grabbed a coffee and started to get some work done. In fact, I decided to use it all morning and see what that 10-year old machine was capable of.
I discovered that it was able to do everything I needed it to. This included; writing a newsletter, then writing a marketing email for one of my clients. I used it for Basecamp and also did a Zoom call with it. Had I wanted to, I could also have hand-signed documents with it, streamed video or music while I worked and even some light design work and lots more.
Why am I telling you this?
Marketing can be powerful. Really powerful!
The hardware companies need us to upgrade our mobile devices every year or two. The challenge is that we don’t need to upgrade that often. This means they had to change things and decided to invest in high-impact marketing, to motivate us into a totally unnecessary rapid upgrade cycle.
The results have been utterly spectacular.
We still don’t need a new device every year or two. But now, millions and millions of people want one. Remember, it was iPhone sales that made Apple the world’s richest company — not computer sales.
What happened?
High-impact marketing!
Through the effective use of high-impact marketing, hardware companies are able to make that amazing device they sold us a couple of years ago, seem like a total dinosaur. Our new phone, laptop or tablet device makes a statement. It tells every other member of the ‘shiny new thing’ tribe that we’re one of them. We have the hot new thing. We’re in. As a result, even though our 2 or 3 year old device still does everything you need, we upgrade.
In short, people want to upgrade… and that want is born of marketing. Not of necessity.
To see how counter-intuitive that is, consider this.
Imagine if we used that same approach to buying, when we bought a refrigerator. Every 12 months, fridge manufacturers would release a new model, which is slightly thinner, or slightly lighter than the previous one. And every year or two, we’d feel the need to junk our perfectly good fridge, and buy a new one.
I know. People don’t buy fridges that way.
But back in the 1990’s, they didn’t buy their phones that way, either! That’s how powerful, high-impact marketing is. It’s also why smart business owners insist on it.
Thankfully, any business can deploy high-impact marketing. Here’s a tiny example of some I’ve worked with; accountants, lawyers, online retailers, software companies, high street retailers, training providers, designers, coffee-shops, photographers, dance schools, charities, freelancers, comms agancies, PRs and lots, lots more.
High-impact marketing and you
This begs the question: Are you marketing your business like a fridge or using high-impact marketing like a mobile phone company?
Because if you’re marketing isn’t high-impact, by default it’s low-impact. That’s a bad idea in any economy.
In the current economy, low-impact marketing is unsustainable.