Here’s a fun 3-act parable for you:
ACT 1: A guy starts a business to help you cancel subscriptions to services you don’t use any more. Think AOL, or the home security at you old house, or getting milk delivered to your doorstep.
ACT 2: The guy gets a bunch of users interested in the service he is offering, but he struggles to make money with it. He tries charging a one-time fee. He tries doing affiliate deals. He briefly considers selling user data. All of it is no-go.
ACT 3: Wrestling against the irony of it all, the seeming hypocrisy, the sheer ridiculousness, he finally decides to change his business model and starts to charge… a monthly subscription. For a service that helps you cancel subscriptions.
EPILOGUE:
The guy’s company takes off. I mean, takes OFF.
Several years later, it is sold for over $1B.
ONE BILLION SHINING AND CRINKLING DOLLARS.
(True story, by the way. Look it up. The guy’s name is Haroon Mokhtarzada and the company was called TrueBill.)
Lots of lessons in this little parable I think.
I want to highlight just one today, because it is the core of the entire direct marketing business. It’s this:
Sell people more of what they have already bought, preferably earlier this month.
Seems crazy at first, but the best prospect for a tennis racket is someone who has bought a bunch of tennis rackets already, maybe even yesterday.
Same is true for books… supplements… courses… sneakers… coaching… and apparently, subscription services.
Which gets me to wondering.
It’s January 2nd. I mean, just the second day of the year.
What significant purchases have you made already this year? Write in and let me know. I’m… curious.