Vegas Nails The Marketing Equation

I have a love hate relationship with the entire Vegas experience. The bright lights, abundant food, and leggy dancing girls are certainly captivating; yet losing hundreds (or thousands) of hard earned dollars in the casino is always a bit of a bummer. However, on this most recent trip I was surprised how effectively Vegas marketers, both big and small, have mastered our marketing formula.

First a quick refresher: Our marketing equation has four key components:

• Interrupt
• Engage
• Educate
• Offer

Marketing is seldom effective when ALL four components are not utilized.

Here are two examples I noted while wandering the “Strip” on Sunday afternoon

The ubiquitous street hawker: “Discount Show Tickets Available” they say loudly as they shove a card in your hand (the interrupt and the engage). If you accept the card and stop they will immediately ask a few qualifying questions (where are you staying, how long are you in town) and then tell you about the show they are promoting (the educate). Finally, all good marketers know the importance of a low risk offer that moves the prospect to the next step in the buying process. For my club hawker, he gave me two coupons for free entry.

Now I didn’t go because I wasn’t interested in seeing the show, but I did admire the full use of the process.

Then I found someone who did it even better.

He had a sign that said “Ask me anything about VEGAS Clubs” (his headline). While everyone else was pushing cards into the face of passers by, he was just standing there with his sign … and had several people lined up to speak with him. As I wandered by, I overheard him having a similar conversation as the other hawkers and at the end of the conversation he gave the prospects two free admission tickets to clubs.

What makes this approach so much better is he was effectively identifying his ideal clients by focusing on their emotional hot button. No one likes to be interrupted by someone shoving something at you (think telemarketing) but when the interrupt focuses on your need and you initiate the conversation, the conversion rate is so much higher. Since the street hawkers are not paid to hand out tickets (they are only paid for the tickets redeemed) this guy was allowing qualified prospects to select him (people who are actually interested in going to a club). I imagine his conversion rates are 10X higher than the other hawkers … and he had a line of people waiting to talk to him on the busy sidewalk.

That simple example drives home the #1 rule with crafting a good interrupt; It is not about what you sell, it’s all about the emotional hot button that your ideal client is struggling with.

Learn how to apply our marketing equation to your business, watch our free video:” The 3 Biggest Lead Generation Mistakes Businesses Make” at www.akelapartners.com.