A Lesson or two in Marketing from Seth Godin [Power of Freebie]
Seth Godin, better known for coining the word ‘permission marketing’ has launched a free ebook ‘What Matters Now’, that brings together 70 big thinkers and each one of them shares an idea – 1 page: 1 author.
The book is free (download it from here, also embedded towards the end of this post), but the real reason why this book launch is extremely important is this – Seth is launching Linchpin on Jan 26, 2010 and the free ebook is precursor to keep the buzz going.
![6a00d83451b31569e20128760a3602970c-800wi[1]](http://www.pluggd.in/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/6a00d83451b31569e20128760a3602970c800wi1.jpg "6a00d83451b31569e20128760a3602970c-800wi[1]")
The book was trending topic on Twitter for more than 7 hours (with as many as 20 tweets/minute) and a good number of people have started sharing their perspective/insights on their blogs (and linking back to Seth’s blog). In essence, its an idea worth spreading (TED styled) and is spreading like a wild fire (not an exaggeration, but why are we write about this book here?)
Free With a Mission
Seth brings in his friends/contacts to share their insights/perspective, binds them together and launches an awesomely done ebook. The amount of effort that is probably gone in getting the entire stuff ready would have brought anyone to say ‘let me charge a few dollars for this’, but free spreads the word and helps Seth in his most important venture, i.e. Linchpin (upcoming book).
That is, free ebook with a bigger mission.
Conversation? Not here!
Did you know that you cannot leave comment @ Seth Godin’s blog.
Apart from the fact that he may not have time to moderate them, it also helps him in spreading the conversation beyond his blog. Infact, people talk/discuss his blog content everywhere else (including offline meetings), because they cannot discuss them at his site.
Ofcourse, this is a function of one’s confidence on the quality of content, but isn’t this a great strategy for viral growth?
I agree, not everybody can afford this – but the point I am driving is the need for a ‘different’ strategy, if you want to position yourself as a thought leader.
It’s all about making a difference and engaging people – but ensure that your generosity has a bigger mission.
If you make a difference, you also make a connection. You interact with people who want to be interacted with and you make changes that people respect and yearn for.
Art can’t happen without someone who seeks to make a difference. This is your art, it’s what you do. You touch people or projects and change them for the better.This year, you’ll certainly find that the more you give the more you get – Seth.
To summarize, free is important, but the sense of mission combined with a ‘good cause’ (heck! Indians support Brands that support Good Causes) gets far more attention than desperate selling.
So here is to the entrepreneurs – Rethink your marketing strategy. Ask yourself – Am I doing what everybody else is doing?
Am I impacting people’s lives? If not, why do I matter?
What Matters Now
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Related posts:
- Startups, Can you really outsource marketing? Why tech startups fail at marketing? The wait for 'right...
- InfiBeam’s EBook Reader Priced at 9,999. Stiff Competition for Amazon in India? InfiBeam is scheduled to launch its ebook reader, Pi (Pi...
- This Week’s Theme – Understanding User Needs From this week onwards, we are building a sense of...
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
About the author - Ashish Sinha is a Startup Mentor/Product Strategy Coach, and the founder/chief editor of pluGGd.in.
He has launched/managed couple of products (consumer as well as enterprise) in US and India, and now consults with startups/small businesses on their product/media strategy. He can be reached at: ashish (at) pluGGd.in [+91 98452 06443]
The no-commenting works only if you’re already popular. It doesn’t work otherwise.
Right. That’s why I said ‘confidence on content quality’
Its strange how I always read stuff like ‘Am I impacting people’s lives? If not, why do I matter?’ OR ‘what problem is your start-up solving?’
Sure the biggest of companies today might be answering the above questions in the affirmative, but how can a startup be burdened with such holier-than-thou attitude?!
It’s about positioning and messaging – smart companies have done that…and if your startup isn’t able to impact people’s lives – survival is a big challenge.
And frankly, if a startup cannot answer ‘what problem is it solving’, it will soon hit martyrdom.
Have you guys noticed Seth looks like BigB in Paa OR other way around ?? and BTW why most of his POOR pictures are from India??
Well his philosophy on “Free is a commerce” is way too blown out… free alone can never make any commerce.
@Kasi – that’s why I said ‘free with a mission’. Free wont make money, but it does create that buzz that’s sufficient to monetize something else at a later point. Too many cos. blow the ‘free’ trumpet, w/o giving much thought to the final strategy.
@Ashish this FREE thinggy will work if there are no BOM (bill of material) involved in production OR some major part of the product is to be bought again and again… there are only few examples that fit
i) documents or books (in e-format) with No BOM.
ii) Razer (where we can charge with blades)
iii) Printer (where we can charge with ink)
That is why i said “Way too blown out” … I am not saying it is completely absurd.
Just stumbled upon this blog. Very impressive to say the least. I’ve always believed in startups, so there’s a common ground to connect. And hey, my blog is comment locked too
It just boils down to one’s self confidence. Yes it requires some audacity as well.
As for free with a mission, there’s plenty on that topic on my blog. I call it “Freemium Model” That is Free + Premium. Glad to have found this blog. Am subscribing !
I thought Freemium was invented by Fred Wilson
…
Kasi
Guess you got confused by the similar sounding word. Seth coined the word ‘permission marketing’
Yes. I use it too. Its Freemium baby
But there are some fundemental differences between Fred’s theory and mine. Same name, yet different concepts.