I got a bone to pick today with a company I respect, admire, and use.
I don’t have a problem with them or their product, but rather their advertising strategy. And my problem isn’t so much with their advertising strategy as it is with the state of advertising itself.
Alright, enough buildup. Here’s the story:
Live music is one of my guiltiest pleasures. It fills me soul in a way that’s impossible in modernity: In a digital landscape where short-form content corrupts our attention spans, social media dopamine fixes are always within arm’s reach, and half of what you read or see online is fake.
But live music ain’t the best for your ears.
Luckily, there’s a brilliant brand for this problem in Eargasm. They make high-fidelity ear plugs, which fit comfortably into your ear and take out all the harmful frequencies without sacrificing any of the frequencies you paid money to see.
I don’t know how the engineering behind these things work. It’s like literal magic. And in my wildly biased, yet accurate opinion, these ear plugs are one of the best technological advances of our time.
After Peanut and I watched a show too close to the stage without ear plugs (a massive mistake), we immediately bought a pair of Eargasms.
But that’s when my advertising problem with them started…
Y’see, since I’ve been on their website, they cookied me like any good brand ought to do. And since I’ve been cookied, they now show me their ads all the time.
But here’s the thing: As much as I admire and respect this company, I don’t need another set of ear plugs.
In other words: They’re burning money every time they show me an ad because I’m already a customer.
But media sites don’t know I’m a customer from my cookie. Or if they do know I’m already a customer, Eargasm is phoning in their advertising.
This is yet another reason why email is superior.
Not only is it far cheaper, more personal, and more effective than advertising… but it’s also easy to obey one of the fundamental laws of direct response marketing: Sell your customers something else.
There are a few accessories that Eargasms offers that I could be convinced of buying. But the likelihood that I visit their site from an ad promoting their awesome ear plugs that I don’t need because I already have a pair is zero.
Moral of the story?
Advertising can produce a boon to your overall marketing strategy. But it’s not nearly as important as email is—despite what your favorite advertising gurus say.
Capisce?
Anywho:
Need help leveraging an email strategy that skyrockets your revenue and customer loyalty (without running the risk of setting money on fiya)?
Hit reply, and let’s hop on a quick call.
John
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