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Internet Marketing Like Walt Disney

Epcot Recently I was fortunate enough to visit a number of different nations during a whirl wind tour.  The day long journey included Canada, Norway, Japan, and Mexico. The evening finally culminated back at the United States for a spectacular fireworks show.  The best part of my journey was that it all occurred within an area of about a half mile. My adventure came courtesy of the Walt Disney people. By the end of the day I had plenty of new ideas and lessons learned.  It was a unique way of observing extraordinary marketing in motion.

I believe that any business person can learn a lot from the simple process that Disney uses at their theme parks. They excel at creating Lifetime Value Customers and generating additional revenue after each ticket purchased. Most adults are paying around $65 USD for the park entrance fee.  I haven't been able to find any statistics, but based on my observations while visiting Epcot I would safely estimate that each adult probably spends an additional 50% - 75% past their ticket fee.  They spend it on food, beverages, and any number of novelties. All of this occurs in a low pressure environment.  They don't manipulate the customer to buy and deliver value all day long.   

Being Passively Unique
Epcot and the World Showcase is great example of passively unique marketing. When you enter the park you are free to choose which attractions you'd like to experience.  Their target market is pre-qualifying themselves for additional purchases upon entering the park. When you finish almost every ride or attraction you exit into a conveniently placed gift shop or other areas with tantalizing offers. The staff is extremely pleasant and happy to answer additional questions about the ride or offered products. This sort of process and environment makes it much easier for people to buy. P.T. Barnum would be envious.

Targeted Markets
What does Epcot and Disney have to do with my web site?  You can use a similar sales process to promote online revenue generation.  Just like Disney, you can create individual attractions via different web sites that target certain markets.  People visit the attractions that interest them, the same hold true for web sites.  How many times have you returned to a web site that didn't hold your interest?  When your target market shows up, shower them with high quality content. Lead them through an "edutainment" process of what you have to offer.  This helps you get your prospects involved in what you can do for them.  You need to build trust with people before you can expect them to make a purchase.

Use Lures to Keep People at Your Site
Disney theme parks make use of sales lures throughout the day. Some of their lures include live music, street entertainers, and fireworks at closing. There are no sneaky sales techniques here or need to pressure people into buying something.  Their objective is to keep people in the park.  Successful online business people know they need to keep users at their site for more than just a quick look. Give your users a reason to stay at your site.  This can be through ancillary information that supports your product or service.  These include simple things like testimonials and product reviews.  Stay user focused in everything you do.

Are You Creating Lifetime Value Customer?
Disney also creates Lifetime Value Customers.  They're much like Amazon and Ebay in this regard.  The Disney people keep their customers so happy that they keep coming back and interested in trying new things.  If you have a new offer or product, test it with your existing customer base.  Your customer base has already demonstrated some level trust and credibility in your business.  Disney can port their movies and theme parks across a wide customer base.  They get people to think to themselves "If I had fun there, I'm sure their other offerings are going to be worth my time." The same thing happens online. Many people who buy from Ebay or Amazon don't just purchase or sell once.  Many people come back to buy their products. If you want to generate consistent revenue online you need to keep your customers coming back.  It is much easier to sell to an existing customer as opposed to paying to market and acquire a new one.

I hope that some of the simple examples described assist you in creating a better sales experience and Lifetime Value Customers.

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Posted at 15:10 in Internet Marketing | | Comments (0)

Tags: Entrepreneur, Internet Marketing, Small Business, Web Site

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