The Power of "Implied Endorsement"

[Dien Rice]

Originally Posted by Don Alm

I learned early on in my Advertising Career that.....if I was going to get businesses to join in my AD-Ventures (Most had to do with needing 6 or more advertisers) I had to show a Mock-Up that ALREADY had participants.

My very first AD-Venture was printing Placemats for Restaurants. I had space for 12 Ads around the edges. I got a restaurant owner to agree to use MY Placemats. When I went out to sell spaces to local biz.....after getting "NOs" from 3 biz......I thought, "There's something wrong here!"

Then it hit me, "Nobody wants to be First!"

So.....I took 3 biz cards off a wall display in a grocery store and stuck them in 3 spaces on my Mockup. This made it appear that I had 3 local biz owners participating.

After that, sales jumped. When I had filled 9 spaces I then went to the 3 biz I had placed on my mockup and NOW I had NINE participants with 3 empty spaces.

I did NOT tell anyone that the 3 initial Ads were NOT paid for. Other biz "inferred" they had paid and joined in.

SO....with every AD Project I've done since.....I place 2 or 3 Ads on the mockup. NO one asks if these initial Ads were actually paid for. It's assumed they are.

So.....by showing participants ALREADY participating .......this makes for an "Implied Endorsement"!

However.....with my "Video Lead-Gen" projects, I put up a Video.....get it Ranking for a KeyWord.....then, when calls begin coming in.....I phone biz in that niche and simply ask if they'd like some "Leads".

No "wondering" whether I can produce Leads.....I've already got Leads coming in.

Hi Don,

You're absolutely right... Nobody wants to be first!

It's like the start of a high school dance. Nobody wanted to be first. But once a couple are out there on the dance floor, then everyone else joins in!

Or it's like a new restaurant. If people peer in and see that a new restaurant is empty, nobody wants to go in and try it.

I remember reading a story of a guy who opened a restaurant. When it opened, he got all his friends to come and eat, to make it look busy. When other people looked in and saw it was full, they said to themselves, "we gotta try that place!"

If you're starting a service type of business, say creating websites for example, you can always do the first few for free (maybe for some of your friends who have businesses, and don't yet have websites). Then, when you talk to a prospective customer, you point out the websites you've done already. (You don't have to tell them you did them for free!) Nobody wants to be first, so if they see you've already done it before, you're more likely to get the work!

The great thing is, you only have to do this once - right at the beginning. Once you get a bit more established, you don't have to worry about this any more.

Best wishes,

Dien

P.S. I'm still at the tail end of this illness (bronchitis), so sorry I haven't posted much. I'm not quite well yet... But definitely on the path to getting better.