Titanic Disaster Marketing Lessons

 Titanic Disaster Marketing Lessons

The RMS Titanic was an Olympic-class passenger liner owned by British shipping company White Star Line and built at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Ireland.

Shortly before midnight on 14 April 1912, four days into the ship’s maiden voyage, Titanic hit an iceberg and sank two hours and forty minutes later, early on 15 April 1912. The sinking resulted in the deaths of 1,517 of the 2,223 people on board, making it one of the deadliest peacetime maritime disasters in history.

How could that happen?  

Afterall, the Titanic was designed by some of the most experienced engineers, and used some of the most advanced technology available at the time. It was popularly believed to have been unsinkable. It was a great shock to many that, despite the extensive safety features, the Titanic sank.

You’ve undoubtedly heard the expression “that’s just the tip of the iceberg”. Well, the Titanic’s fate was sealed by what the captain and crew couldn’t see.

While they were focused on the visible part of the iceberg,  it was other 90% of the iceberg lying below the surface of the water -hidden from view – that created the irresistible force that responsible for a lot of the damage.

So what does this have to do with marketing?

Simply this.

An effective marketing plan – one that produces leads and profits – is like an iceberg. Your web site. Your email sales messages. Your pay-per-click ads. These form the “tip” of your marketing iceberg.

But over time, your marketing program should be silently expanding below the “surface” -out of sight from your prospects and clients - as you add on additional strategies and systems that gradually transform your marketing into a powerful force that stops your prospects and results in an outcome that benefits both parties.

Here’s why this is critical:

The sales resistance your prospects have built up as they steam through a sea of daily sales messages  - some studies say upwards of 1,600 – is like the hull of the Titanic.

It has been so hardened by countless cheesy come-ons, unmet expectations and failures to deliver that it easily allows new prospects to deflect one-time sales messages from your website, periodic emails and the odd PPC campaign.

This is called one-step marketing and rarely results in producing consistent results.

In fact, a high percentage of sales are lost with this one-time “here’s what I got” approach. And the reason is simple. No one proposes on the first date.  And that’s exactly what we’re attempting to do if we simply use a series of unconnected tactics to try to sell services or products to someone who doesn’t know us.

This just doesn’t allow for the connection needed to move your prospect from interested prospect to satisfied buyer.

That takes time and repeated connections with your prospect.   Which is why developing a marketing iceberg is effective for attracting qualified prospects and converting them into profitable sales. Marketing is a multi-step process and the systems and strategies we need to eventually “stop” our prospects so they will consider our offer form a powerful out-of-sight foundation that gets bigger and bigger as our marketing system expands.  

How well is your marketing iceberg equipped to break through the sales resistance armor you prospect suits up in every day? 

Do you have:

A compelling sales message? This is what gets your prospects to notice you in the first place. Does your marketing message stand out? Is it clear to your prospects what they get if they stick around and investigate your offering a bit more?

An automatic way to build a list of  interested buyers? The simple, inexpensive sales lead generation systems available today allow you to easily create an audience of people who want to know how your services and products can help them.

A system to eliminate possible sales resistance?  80% of sales are lost due to lack of follow up. 80%! That’s incredible. Understable back in the day when following up was a tedious. But today, creating an effective follow up system is easyand effective in generating faster, higher profits. By anticipating potential questions and concerns in advance and using an automated sequence of emails to address them, you can effectively pre-sell your prospects and help them enjoy the benefits you offer.

A reason for your prospect to take action? Everyone procrastinates. Especially potential buyers.  It’s human nature. They may need or want your services but just don’t see a need to act today. You need to give them one.

A way to make more with each sale? 90% of businesses don’t use this simple strategy. There is no better time to cross-sell or upsell than when your prospect has made a decision to buy from you. Why not try to help them with their needs even further? Afterall, we’re in business to help people. If you have additional services or products that create value for them, it’s your duty to make sure they know about it. We all have heard ( it’s never actually happened to us, of course!) the stories about clients and customers buying add-on products and services elsewhere because they didn’t know they could get them from the source where they bought the original product or service.  

A system for generating repeat sales? It’s 8 times more costly and more difficult to attract a new client that it is to sell an existing one again. If you have a client base of any size, you are sitting on a potential goldmine. You simply have to implement a repeat sales strategy system.   

Okay, so, how’d you do? Iceberg or ice cube? Don’t worry. Many business owners have 8-10 leverage points they are not tapping into to easily increase their sales results. And most of them have to do with implementing simple and effective marketing strategies.

If you have decided to make 2010 the year you take action to start building a marketing iceberg that pierces your prospect’s invincable hull of sales resistance so they are able to clearly understand the value you offer, great.

 You can ease in or dive right into the deep end. The important thing is to do something to start creating a marketing system instead of relying on disconnected tactices that aren’t delivering the results you want – and need – to grow your business.

Remember, the iceberg that sunk the Titanic was a powerful force. But it started out somewhere as an ice cube and grew gradually.

Gerry Black is a Marketing Writer based in Toronto, Canada
and serving clients in the U.S. and Canada.