How Nixon McInnes Sold Me A Ticket

I’m always looking out for good examples of marketing which I can share and steal for my clients.

Here’s one from today. Last week, Will McInnes started hinting on Twitter about his company doing a new event. “Tomorrow we release our first bunch of tickets for an event that we haven’t even told anyone about. Should be interesting.” Pretty low key, but it must have intrigued me enough for it to stick somewhere in the back of my head, along with all the other junk that resides there.

I like the idea of hinting about something in a very relaxed way, just to start the ball rolling. Note the absence of any call to action, or even description of what he’s selling.

Then, Will and the rest of the company started to actually tell people about the conference. They had a nice looking website all ready to go, and their first speakers booked. They had the product sorted out, but not completely finished off. I like that they had all the marketing guns ready in the wings, but didn’t need to have every last tiny detail sorted out before they could start selling.

Too often, we wait until everything is perfect, or tell everyone all about what we’re selling when it’s too early to buy yet. Note also that they had a separate site for the conference (I forgot to mention, they’re running a conference) so it doesn’t get confused with their main site and their main brand.

They made direct approaches to people they know already, including me, to say they’re running the conference, a little bit about the conference, a link and my email from the ever delightful Belinda Gannaway at Nixon McInnes said there were only 12 tickets left from the first 50 tickets at £99.00.

Do you see what they’ve done there? Special invitation, for special Julia. I’m flattered into buying a ticket, right there and then. That’s my emotional decision made. And then I rationalise buying immediately because I want it at the special cheap price. That’s flattery, selective price discounting and scarcity marketing all in one. Genius.

Now I’m £99.00 poorer, Nixon McInnes are £99.00 richer, and I’m booked for a conference on 1^st October, which I only now realise starts at 9am on a Monday morning. It had better be good.

Of course this stuff only works if you’re selling the right thing to the right people, with whom you’ve spent time developing trusted relationships. If some stranger had emailed me with early bird tickets to a conference on the mating habits of cuckoos, I don’t think I would have shelled out. They knew that I’d be interested in learning and talking about new ways of doing business, so all the rest is just making sure that I come along on the day.

It worked – could some of these work for you and your business too?

Photo credit – Meaning Conference by Clive Andrews