I was sitting there by myself. The place was dark. I remember a car or something embedded in the wall. A nice touch.
The reason I was there was the special.
It was $20 for an all you could eat plate with some meat, pasta, and some salad.
And there was one other thing.
They had all you could drink house wine.
Now before you start emailing me to find out where this paradise is, I should probably tell you that it was in Montreal.
And it was a long time ago.
But I was a student at the time and thought, what the hell, I’ll give it a shot.
What I didn’t know was that they were ready for guys like me. Or so they thought.
Plates of food dropping like it’s hot
The first carafe of wine arrived, and along with it, a terrific-looking plate of food.
I wolfed that down like a civilized savage.
I have some manners, of course. The napkin wasn’t tucked into my shirt collar but appropriately placed on my lap.
And when that plate was gone, I ordered another one.
While I was waiting, I finished off the wine, and another carafe arrived at the table.
The next plate showed up, and I put that one back with equal satisfaction.
Then I went back to drinking the wine and letting my mind drift.
But there was a problem.
Things had slowed down considerably.
No, I wasn’t sick. I was just getting warmed up.
But the next plate seemed to be taking a while.
So I drank some more wine.
Ringer in da house!
At one point, I realized what was going on.
I’d been identified as a buffet ringer, and they were slowing things down and filling me up with wine.
I’m not sure that choice made much sense financially.
I burst out laughing, unable to contain myself, causing some of the other patrons to look over.
You see, what they didn’t realize was that I could drink a lot of wine.
And the more I drank, the hungrier I got.
They were literally priming my appetite.
Then I started thinking about how many plates I might be inclined to pack back under the circumstances.
But eventually, I had to leave because, well, while all the wine was great, the whole experience became pretty unsatisfying.
I never went back.
And this is the same thing that can happen with your marketing.
Does your offer deliver the goods?
You arrive on a page.
There is something of interest there.
Ok, so what do these guys do?
You wander around the site. You get all this free stuff.
The site tells me all about the company and all the stuff they do.
Nice! Just like free wine.
But in the end, where is something to eat? You know, the substance.
And you might have something to eat. Maybe a somewhat compelling offer, maybe even a good one.
If that offer doesn’t satisfy or doesn’t deliver exactly what it promised, the person will leave.
You’ll probably lose them forever.
And if you don’t provide that reader with a compelling offer, the meal, you’re doing them a disservice.
But the fix for these problems is often relatively simple to identify.
Deliver the meat instead of focussing on the free wine
For example, does your offer touch a deep desire or problem they are trying to solve?
If you provide a free report or another item, how valuable is it?
Did you make a bump offer right away? You can recoup a bunch of your advertising spend right there. But you’ve got to price it right.
What about a follow-up offer? Did you have one of those, heavily discounted and priced just right?
All of these are part of a funnel approach that can take a compelling free asset and turn it into cash flow and a relationship.
But you can’t treat your leads, prospects, or customers like ringers and keep your best stuff from them. You have to deliver the goods in a well-structured series in order to move them through the process into a buyer.
That’s how you turn a ringer into LTV.
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Get in touch at tristram@wordsunfold.com