A Marketing Mistake True Story
Do you know about Arkon, a company that specializes in products to help livestream and social media folks? I use Arkon selfie ring lights and Arkon mounts for my iPad and iPhone almost every single day – they are quality products. In fact, I'm an affiliate for Arkon – you can buy anything on their website, use the coupon code suepainter and get a full 20% off.
By far, they have the best selfie sticks, camera holders, iPad mounts – all the stuff that helps you if you do things like Facebook lives or other social media work.
But in my opinion they made a marketing mistake recently. Here's what happened. Recently, Arkon sent me by snail mail an iron-on patch that shows the Akron logo and says I am an affiliate for them. Iron on patches for an online business owner are useless and feel very old-school. What am I going to do with an iron-on patch? Even if I put it on my wall, none of my clients come to my office. If I stuck it on a ball cap (which I hardly ever wear) none of my clients will see it.
What would be better? Arkon would have been much better off to send me an html file and ask me to put the code on my website as a badge. I would love that, in fact! In that way, anyone who comes to confidentmarketer.com would see their logo, click on it, and perhaps buy a selfie ring light or more.
Not only is sending me an iron-on patch through the mail antiquated for someone whose products are aimed at social media and live stream users, it's costly. But sending me an e-file costs almost nothing, and would do much more to boost Arkon's sales.
Arkon deals in products designed to help people online, but their affiliate marketing program is aimed toward old-school “wear this on your hat.” It's a total mis-match. I'm betting 90% of those iron-on patches end up in the garbage. I need a badge that I can use online, not something to iron onto a hat!
Three Ways to Avoid Marketing Mistakes
- Make sure that you are providing your end user something she will appreciate and use.
- Think about how what you are gifting your end user will help her as well as boost your visibility and sales.
- Make sure that all your marketing has the same “scent” as what you sell. As an example, if you are a weight loss coach, don't share coupons for free cookies and ice cream to your clients.
If you need a good, solid, stable holder for your tablet or phone, or a really sturdy selfie stick, or one of the selfie ring lights (I use that literally every single day) go to Arkon and be sure to enter “suepainter” as a coupon code. You'll get 20% off anything on their website. I highly recommend (and personally use) Arkon's products. But don't look for me to show up with an Arkon iron-on patch on my hat anytime soon. In my opinion, that's a marketing mistake. What do you think?
Want more marketing tips? Here's an article about creating multi-channel marketing that works.
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