Monday, June 6, 2005

  Corey Rudl, one of the pioneers of online marketing, died recently in a car crash. He was only 34 years old.

I was very saddened to hear about Corey’s passing. I had purchased one of his online marketing courses three years ago and devoured its contents in only a few days. Despite the small fortune I paid for the course, I remember thinking it was worth every penny.

Corey’s course introduced me to the importance of website automation, email lists, up selling, and general online consumer behavior. He was a superstar who was able to eloquently mold tried-and-true offline marketing techniques to the Internet.

One entertaining anecdote from the course still stays with me…

A woman opens up an online store that specializes in rare coins. Days pass and she grows frustrated at her new company’s total lack of sales. She finally makes the leap and talks with a marketing expert to adopt a promotional strategy…

After discussing a number of options, she finally settles on a plan that’s both unconventional and promising.

She starts her new strategy by choosing a relatively inexpensive coin that’s stocked in high volume. She then prices that coin below-cost and advertises the sale extensively. The orders come rushing in and she ends up losing a considerable amount of money. However, this is only the beginning…

With a newly acquired customer list in hand, she sends out a mailing weeks later to advertise another sale. This sale is for a coin so rare and expensive that even discounting it at 15% off would still yield an extraordinary profit.

The store owner becomes delighted when a few of the collectors on her customer list place orders for the expensive coin. She makes a handy profit, which more than covers her initial loss.

The lesson here is essentially on trust. If you can win a person’s trust on a small-scale, you’re guaranteed their trust on a much larger scale.

Thanks Corey, you’ll be missed.
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