Nothing repels like excess.
I did a strange thing yesterday. I bought a book in response to the most blatant excess of "relationship marketing" I've ever witnessed. I didn't buy it for the reasons I was urged to buy it--to make the author happy, the office staff dance and jump for joy, to rescue the author from disappointment, and a lot of other equally ridiculous and unimpressive (at least to me) reasons presented.
I bought it so I could see the full extent of his overkill and misuse of the relationship marketing concept. I wanted to look at the back end of the multiple "bonus" offers and surprise gifts that were promised. I wanted to know just how far the author and his helpers had gone, so I could write about it here.
No, I'm not going to say who it was or what the book's title is. I'd like to, but I don't want to hurt his sales, and if he's wrong about how far he took the concept (way, way over the top, I think) I don't want to do him any more harm than he's already done.
Some of the bombardment:
1. The run up. I subscribe to the guy's newsletter, so I've been getting updates from time to time. That's OK, no problem.
2. As release date got closer the messages became more enthusiastic and urgent.
3. Day or so before the big Amazon.com release date I got the first begging letter. Please help the author get a number one spot on Amazon. It's going to be spectacular, huge freebies, surprises, prizes, better and bigger than anyone has ever offered before...
4. Day of release, please please please help this author make it to the top. Now it's getting personal, he's begging big time, and always, he's reminding the reader that he's there to serve them. He practically licks my face. (I've never met this man, I simply subscribe to his newsletter.)
5. Another urgent message later in the day, the book is climbing, but it's not at the top, please please please help him, more florid personal begging, including:
6. If you've already bought your copy, for which he's very grateful, cold you possibly go and buy another one, maybe for a friend or family member. Or, buy a bunch, for the office, etc... And send this message to your family and friends, please.
That's not all. I also received a message from someone who is on his helper team, someone who has taken courses from him, worked with him, whatever, urging me to buy this guy's book that day.
Curious about all the emotional high pressure and overkill, I went to the book's Amazon.com listing, and found, on the day it was supposed to be released as a brand new book, over thirty reviews already in place. All except two praised it high to the sky, many looking very much like canned pre-prepared reviews and not the kind of reviews most readers would write. I happen to know the names of several people in the author's employment niche, and viola, there they were, writing reviews for their co-worker, co-associate.
Wanting to see how far he would go with this promotion, I bought the book via his site, to find out. Ordinarily, I'd have passed it by, repulsed by such obviously manipulative overdoing it. But, ye Market Maid thought, in the spirit of research for this blog, she'd better go ahead and buy a copy. It might even be worth the price. It's possible. Just because the book shamefully promoted doesn't mean it is useless. We'll see.
Meanwhile, I clicked on the link to take me to my grand and glorious, multi thousand dollar free opportunity perks received for having bought the thing. There was a contest, for which I'll supposedly have several chances to win stuff the author has negotiated to get access to, likely in exchange for the promotional value to the provider of said stuff.
And, in the rules and disclaimers note, I found that one must enter the contest via FAX or email. But, I didn't see a fax or email link there to use. Was this an error, and it only means that if I am notified that I'm a winner I must respond via email or FAX, as stated elsewhere? Or, is this the piece that makes no one the winner, or only those who manage to locate an obscure email link somewhere and enquire about it?
Are there strings on all the "prizes" that will make them not worth the trouble for most winners? I'm curious about that, partly because there are strings on many of the surprise bonus freebies that were presented next as yet another great abundance of goodies coming to me as a buyer.
After entering my data for the prize possibilities I went to the bonuses page and found a long string of links to free things I could access. It was the usual over priced, over valued batch of things one finds in the usual Amazon.com book marketing scramble for the top on the day of official release.
I checked them all out. I think there were three among them that I actually downloaded. Most of the offerings were simply ways to harvest some email addresses and names for the free report providers' future marketing efforts. And, they made the recipient jump through hoops to get the freebie. Some simply wanted my name and email address so they could send me marketing stuff until I told them not to. Others wanted more information. Some required me to sign up for their newsletter. I passed them all by.
But, there were three savvy people making free offerings there. They offered downloadable ebooks without any strings attached, nada, zilch. No strings, no hoops. I downloaded them, opened them up, deleted one because I thought it was mostly cheerful drivel, kept two. One of those looks promising.
The promising one has real content, useful content, not hype. And, the author of that ebook is smart enough to know that if he has a clickable link in his ebook to his site that the satisfied reader will click it. I suspect he will also not beg me to buy his products to make his day, keep him from emotional meltdown, or from kicking his dog.
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