I wanted to show you a brilliant marketing strategy that some may feel is a little controversial.
I live in a small town and last month we had a MAJOR problem with our water. In fact over 1,000 people got sick with campylobacter. Basically you get way sick. There were only 12 “Confirmed” cases but we did a survey in our church group and figured out there were over 1,000.
So bottom line it was big news and a huge concern for my town.
Yesterday I found the following hanging on my door.
What do you think my first impression was?
I was thinking it was our city or the health department asking for a survey and was about ready to fill it out.
Then the marketer in me realized it was a water filter company gathering leads. Ok so if you can almost trick a marketer you can for SURE trick the regular “Common Folk” (I say that in jest)
That night we had a party at my home and I asked several of my neighbors it they had seen the same flier. They all had and they had all filled it out! When I explained to them it was a marketing promotion and now they were all “Leads” and were going to get hit up by a water filtration company they were all surprised.
My guess is these guys get a 80% return rate on the survey.
So is this controversial or brilliant marketing?
In my opinion it’s brilliant marketing. How does this apply to Internet Marketing?
You can use the same principles on the Internet as you can in the offline world.
Here is what I would do….
Find an affiliate product or make a deal with a local water filtration company to sell leads to. Use Google Adwords and create some text and banner ads specifically for my town like.
“Saratoga Springs Residents. Did you get sick like me last month? Here is what I did to fix this problem permanently”
Use the local targeting so only residents of Saratoga Springs can see the ads. Then collect the names and phone numbers and boom you have qualified leads you can sell.
That is just one idea. This principle applies to all kinds of marketing. The key is to look for events that make a large impact on people.
Some people call this event driven marketing.
Have any ideas you would like to share on other marketing ideas that are simillar to what I shared above? Please feel free to comment below.
Take care,
Joel Peterson
{ 43 comments… read them below or add one }
Yup, to get rich, find a need and fill it. This
company is on the ball. Brilliant!
Find a need and fill it. that’s the formula for riches. The water filtering co. is on the ball.
I thought it was brilliant!
Its great marketing Joel, however it maybe seen as exploiting an unfortunate situation.
Great post.
Philip
It’s just taking advantage of an opportunity. If I sold water filters or something like that – it’s simply what you do….It’s no awesome; it’s just plain business.
Now this is right up my alley! I’ve actually done stuff similar to this. I love outside the box marketing and may do something similar…hehe
Interesting… could work for pharmaceuticals. Find a problem drug, point them to a better drug…
Problem / solution – any faulty product that’s being recalled… Point them to a better product.
Joel,
This is most definitely a form of Brilliant Marketing. You need to fill it out just so you can see what the rest of their follow-up/sales sequence is, so you can share with all of us here on your blog the rest of this case-study.
To Success,
Mitch Mauldin
That reminds me that when we had a volcanic ash cloud, there was a full page ad abt credit card company offering money @ special rate to people stuck abroad! Quick marketing thinking!
It was an excellent move by the filter company, especially if thier product would filter the likes of what made folks sick.
Last week west Houston had a bad smell in the air that prompted folks (including our office of 1,000) to call the gas company about possible leaks. I checked Amazon and they have a gas detector pen. Wouldn’t you want to know if your family or pets were in any danger!!! Hmmmm
right person
right time
right message.
is that you jj?
Joel,
Thank you for the post. It goes to show how effective these types of lead generation mechanisms are. How many people who fill out these surveys actually read the fine print below the spaces where they enter their names? Imagine if you applied a double optin qualification system of lead generation offline.
Hi!
I don´t see any controversial with that.As a smart marketer you just have to be at the right place at the right time.If you don´t do it someboby else will and if you´re honest better go you and serve these people yourself.
Great post. As a former sales person for water filtration systems. I well know how valuable such leads are to the sales company.
Marketing ideas such as this will not make you rich but they are great for cashflow.
Yes, I think it was a great idea and not unethical at all as long as they did not hold themselves out as an official entity.
I get some “official” looking mail with all sorts of postal code statutes on it, open it up and get a “check” for debt reduction, and what have you, and feel those are deceptive.
Event driven marketing works because people’s awareness and need for solutions increase.
Obviously if people HAD water filters the amount of people getting sick would have been less.
That was brilliant thinking and excellent marketing. I am also impressed with your natural briliance to have the presence of mind to recognize what they were doing.
” That’s what I told them, it’s good that they followed up on my suggestion.”- Jay Abraham.
LOL.
At least I think it’s a Abraham-ish style of marketing.
Postive Oppurtunism,
I love the concept. It’s a brilliant marketing angle. Take advantage of the events and you know you will be helping people out in the long run too.
brilliant
It reminds me of the time that a radio station warned the residents of their town about dihydrogen monoxide getting into the water system. Ingestion would cause frequent urination. Excessive exposure would cause their skin to wrinkle. So they should avoid contact with anything coming out of the pipes. It was only after they were flooded with phone calls from scared citizens and one from the local utility company did they finally announce that it was an April Fools joke. BTW, dihydrogen monoxide is H2O (water). Fear is powerful.
That is pretty amazing. There are a lot of emotions there and you can imagine the response with people being so upset about the issue. Adwords and Facebook ads would be great opportunities in this situation.
I just saw a website called bpoilspill.com. It looks like someone just bought the domain name because it is still parked under godaddy. At least they were thinking about taking advantage of a big current event. They just didn’t take it to the next level.
it’s a brilliant marketing response. find a need and yes, fill- satisfy an emotion.
I notice they didn’t ask for a phone number or email…I would have found an excuse for getting that info!
I think that is a great idea that person should get a pat on the back. As long as he provides some value now and doesn’t become a spammer then it is good to go. Great idea on doing this on the internet though.
If the primary purpose of your site is to collect leads you’re gonna get Google Slapped really quick! Make sure you add plenty of valuable content and don’t just throw up a lander with an opt-in form. Google is all about what they call quality user experience these days.
Now your neighbours were suprised what will happen when the get a call from a filtering company, they’ll probably get angry. Not a good customer experience at all I think. Maybe you can get leads applying these tactics on the internet, and maybe one time buyers but is the customer likely to return?
I call it Brilliant Marketing.
With the right approach to the \leads\ they will do very good business.
As they havde not asked for a telephone number or email address, the follow-up is in the post… not intrusive at all.
Absolutely BRILLIANT!
There IS a problem, The company HAS a solution and they are using subconscious “advertising / awareness”.
Absolutely BRILLIANT
That is brilliant marketing, for spotting the opportunity and acting on it quite quickly.
There is a great lesson to be learnt here.
Great post Joel,
it shows how simple Internet marketing can be when you put your mind to it!
Ashley
It’s definitely a good marketing strategy, but not new. This is one way specialized companies or individuals get leads. It’s quite legitimate and helps all sides.
Hey Joel,
I don’t like under the table gimmicks. I personally thinks it sucks. And, no this is not the first company to employ this type of marketing to take advantage of a situation.
There are those notorious storm chasers who go from state-to-state after there has been extensive damage and promise to make the necessary repairs only to get the money and leave.
If you know anything about water filters they don’t always live up to their hype either. If you like this type of marketing by all means go for it. It’s just not the way I like to do it.
Of course there are scammers out there but just because you are a smart marketer doesn’t make you a scammer.
I do appreciate your opinion though Eddie. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Joel
While that borders on dubious, it is indeed brilliant. Think not only about things like that, but also the “small print” on credit card offers, mortgages, etc.
)
These are loaded guns pointing at the consumer. It has now become OUR responsibility to filter them. These surveys are no different! I printed your post for future reference. (AND hung it on the wall!)
MINDSET MINDSET MINDSET MINDSET!!
Being new in the biz and drilling and drilling for six months
this gives me a new perspective of the whole process of IM
refired the engines joel.
Houston we have a problem
Well, sure is enterprising. Of course there are no filters to remove campylobacter – you have to boil it for a minute and cool. This is a minor point in the overall scheme of things as the main concern consumers have is “there is something wrong with my water”. As long as a solution, effective or not, there is money to be made.
For some reason I never made the connection between consumer desperation as a motivator to fill out surveys until just now. Perhaps we are desperate to have our concerns heard and responded to after decades of neglect at the hands of customer services(!).
IDEA: Use this to survey people about the BP oil spill. I’d do it myself and build a freakin massive list if my life wasn’t pure chaos. Design survey to divide participants into those interested in green energy (see clickbank) and those interested in donating to green charity (charge charity a proportion for marketing costs).
Hope you avoided drinking bug!
K.
This is brilliant and timely marketing.
Yes, focus on events, find the proper affiliate product that delivers value to that market, then use your most effective and fast traffic generation – distribution channel. Online or offline.
F.
Most of the times, the difference between success and failure is how you take the opportunities that you find. People always tend to moan about life and how unlucky they are and don’t see the opportunities. Clearly the water filters co saw the opportunity and jumped aboard. I think is a nice piece of work.
Jorge
It reminds me of the time that a radio station warned the residents of their town about dihydrogen monoxide getting into the water system. Ingestion would cause frequent urination. Excessive exposure would cause their skin to wrinkle. So they should avoid contact with anything coming out of the pipes. It was only after they were flooded with phone calls from scared citizens and one from the local utility company did they finally announce that it was an April Fools joke. BTW, dihydrogen monoxide is H2O (water). Fear is powerful.
+1
Hello Joel! I have finally tested your marketing idea/suggestion regarding the brilliant-marketing Saratoga Springs Water Outbreak. I have been checking out a Kangen Drinking Water Machine (ph balanced alkalized great drinking water) for purchase and thought what a great way to advertise this water machine on the internet using the skills that I have been longtime learning, as well as, sharing a great product machine with others. Please check out my internet marketing & advertising results as I am a super newbie to this internet marketing world and THIS is one of my First Examples of internet marketing on google. Google search keywords in IE: saratoga springs water boil and my video from myspace is reflecting on the first page of google last position out of 72,000 results and has shown up less than 12 hours of submission using all of the special techniques and tools I use. Google search keywords in FoxFire: saratoga springs utah water boil and my Dailymotion Video shows up on the First Page! – last position out of 42,400 results – less than 12 hrs. ago! Google keywords in IE: saratoga springs utah water outbreak and I am the #2 position on the First Page of Google with my video being featured on this link below: http://www.americantowns.com/ut/saratogasprings/videos I AM SUPER ECSTATIC that I am able to do any of this! I have taken snapshot before and after pictures of my proof, too! (a cool tool I have learned about) WooHoo! There are many trainings I have taken and many tools and systems I have learned to use over the past year and am still learning. I have many people including you to thank for my progress learning and now using systems and tools to get results! My next product I will be promoting on the internet and sharing with others (if I may) is: http://www.dotcomsecretsshared.com
Thank you and Have a Great July 5th! Dona
Great to hear the good news Dona! Keep me updated on your progress!
Wow this is genius! I bet those guys are getting a ton of leads and most people probably never figure out where those guys got their info. It’s always a good thing to be a marketer yourself as you can easily see into their “game”.