Clever Marketing, I Think…

There’s some very clever marketing I’ve just come across. Or at least I think it’s clever on the face of it, I haven’t quite thought it all through yet for the pros and cons. It’s hot off the press of my mind and onto here.

When (if) I find out more about how this works I’ll let you know.

At any rate it’s certainly something I’ve filed away in the back of my head for future reference.

So what is it?

A couple of days ago I was sent an email about some FaceBook software. I don’t use Facebook in my personal life but of course it’s very important for a lot of people including my own family members.

(My dad has a FaceBook account that he uses to “stalk” the rest of the family, leaving funny and vague comments on various posts the family make and any photos they upload. My eldest son is often killing himself laughing at things his grandad has written…)

That aside, when I hear about some new software, I always go check it out because you never know what use it might be.

It turns out this software lets you post optin boxes together with teaser videos on FaceBook.

Don’t confuse this product with a $67 launch that’s going on at the moment that I guess you’ve probably had emails about. (Not from me.)

This product isn’t that, it’s something very similar, but doesn’t have ONE of the features of the larger product.

In any case… I took a look at the sales page, watched the explanatory video (it could be a service, I haven’t bought yet, but it looks like it) and scrolled to the bottom to see the price – it was a one-off $20.02 on a rising price sale, which I thought was reasonable.

So far so good?

I then forgot about it but left the page open in a tab. I’ve been hibernating my laptop the last couple of days so I knew it was there for when I got back to it.

My inbox has had quite a few emails for this (slightly?) bigger $67 product, so I took a look and thought it was just like the one I’d left open in a tab. It’s not the same thing, and it’s definitely a different product as it also has a countdown timer you can add, which the first product didn’t have.

So I decided to go check out the details of both on JV Zoo, and did a search for the first product. I then got stopped in my tracks because I found 38 products that matched the description.

I opened the first one and clicked the sales page.

It was the same product, same sales page, different price – $11.

I clicked on some of the others – all the same domain, same sales page, different prices, with the lowest I could see at $7, all with different sellers offering different commission rates for affiliates in JV Zoo.

Hmm. Brain engaged and I did a bit of thinking.

The clever marketing bit was that the creator of the product didn’t appear to be selling it himself. I could be wrong.

Each page had its own reference in the URL (?r=9999) which I originally thought was the affiliate ID. I now realise it was a way of identifying each vendor and so placing the correct payment button on the sales page.

My guess is – because I haven’t bought yet – is that the original creator is selling a service, and so will gather the name and email of each person who signs up for it regardless of where they’ve come from.

It’s as if he’s selling it with 100% commissions, but isn’t inserting himself in the sales process at all.

In other words, he’s building a list of buyers without any of the hassle or risk associated with being a product vendor.

I’ve not seen anyone else do this, and it could well be the start of something big – a new trend in selling and list building. I’ll be keeping an eye on this.

I just thought you’d like to know, and to say that you heard about it from me first.  😉

-Frank Haywood