Power of the Buzz

Bryan and Jeff Eisenberg have a New Book

The Monday Morning Memo by Roy H. Williams

People have said for decades, "Word-of-mouth is the best kind of
advertising. That’s the best kind: word-of-mouth." You hear this so
often when you sell advertising that my friend Bob Lepine used to joke
about opening The Word of Mouth Advertising Agency. He said he was
going to hire people to sit at bus stops and ride the elevators in tall
buildings and say to people, "Have you tried that new restaurant over
on Fifth Street? It’s GREAT!" The funniest part of Bob’s idea is that
it probably would’ve actually worked.

The power of the buzz – word-of-mouth advertising – lies in its
credibility. But the only way to create buzz is to rock a person’s
world so hard that they can’t help but talk about it to their friends.

I’m going to try to do that today.

Ray Bard of Bard Press, the publisher of my bestselling Wizard of
Ads trilogy, looked at the new hardback book about to be released by
Wizard Academy Press and wrote me an email. (I was walking out the door
to meet Ray for lunch when a boxful of advance copies arrived from the
printer. On impulse, I grabbed one for Ray.) These comments by email
were completely unsolicited:

Roy

Great to see you and catch up yesterday. And, thanks for the new
Wizard Academy Press book. I usually refrain from providing comments
about books after they’re published (I’ve made enough mistakes myself
over the years) but there is one issue that may deserve attention.

When I got home last night I gave the book a quick look. It felt
good in the hand and the inside contents looked good. Although the
title sounded like a political book and provided no information about
the content, I know that it can get by as it is. The other, more
difficult issue, is the price. When I first saw the $13.95 I thought it
was a mistake but noticed it was printed in two places. The last time
300 page hard cover business books sold for $13.95 was probably 30
years ago. The retail price is a statement of what you think the value
of the book is. When most similar business books are selling for twice
as much today, you can see the message this sends.

If the publisher is pursing a strong merchandising strategy with
lots of face out retail space I recommend pushing the retail into the
"value" category. Unless you have a new distribution effort, I would
not recommend it for this book. And, the $13.95 is way beyond "value"
pricing.

For what my opinion is worth, I would have priced it at $30. and
sold it at $20 for special customers. I think you can see the
difference in psychology.

Again, I regret bringing this up now, but I know the book will
be used in the company’s marketing efforts. And, as it is, the price
sends just the opposite message you want.

Ray

Ray Bard is America’s most successful publisher of business books. He
is responsible for putting two of my books on the Wall Street Journal
bestseller list and one on the New York Times list, so I listen
carefully to what Ray says.

He’s right. Thirteen ninety-five is way too cheap for a 326 page hardback containing this kind of detailed information about how to make online marketing actually work.
These pages are chock full of little-known techniques for improving
online marketing results. More than a dozen Fortune 500 companies have
paid the authors huge amounts of money to learn this stuff. That’s why
our plan all along was to price the second printing at 25.95. But this
first printing exists only to create a buzz. That’s why we’re giving you 2 additional copies for each one you buy at just $13.95.
We know you’ll give them to friends. We know your friends will be
rocked. We know your friends will talk about it to their friends. It’s
all about the buzz and this book contains some fabulous honey. By the
way, shipping is free if you live in the US, so you’ll have a grand
total of only 4.65 per book in each of your 3 hardback copies.

Wizard Academy Press is gambling that the information contained in
this book will give you a heady buzz and be worth mentioning to your
friends.

I’ll let you know in a few weeks how the experiment turns out. In the meantime, why not get 3 copies headed your way?

Roy H. Williams

PS – If the name Bob Lepine sounded
familiar, it’s because he’s been co-hosting a radio talk show for the
past 12 years heard in cities across America. Bob and I worked together
in Tulsa a quarter-century ago. I think often of all he taught me.