Two Lessons from a Great Example of Offline Hub Mentality

By Stephen Palmer • March 17th, 2009 • Email This Post • Print This Post

Hub Mentality isn’t only about leveraging online technology. Your offline systems and offerings must also reflect the core principles.

bd-banner3-2-330x58-custom Two Lessons from a Great Example of Offline Hub MentalityMy wife got her hair cut last night by “Beverly D.”

Beverly employs an excellent hub strategy to sell hair products. She tours the country, holding “hair parties” for women. They are set up by a sponsor, who hosts them at her home. 6-20 women are invited and Beverly cuts all of their hair for free, while telling them about her hair products. Not only does she cut their hair, but she gives each a consultation on how their hair style can complement their face shape, etc.

My wife spent $30 on products after getting her hair cut for “free.”

Examine all of the Hub Mentality elements involved in her process. She gets permission to market, she works in an environment of trust and authenticity, she provides free “content” (hair cuts), her giveaway is built around a coherent strategy, she executes flawlessly, there’s a gradient approach, and she customizes her presentations.

It’s a brilliant approach, especially for women. The free hair cuts make the whole thing work.

Of course, it could be even more effective if she added online elements to the strategy. For example, she could collect names and email addresses of everyone who attends her parties, then use email marketing to keep them in the hub. She could send out two emails per month. 75% of them would be valuable content, such as hair maintenance tips, and 25% of her emails would be inviting her database to purchase her products.

The main point I want to make here is that Hub Mentality is a holistic mindset that applies to both your online and your offline marketing efforts.

This is also a great opportunity to stress that you shouldn’t be afraid of giving away content for free. So many people have a hard time with this concept because they think that they’ll lose sales with giveaways. But when done properly, this actually boosts your sales.

For example, this article explains why free e-versions of books actually help to sell more print versions. Science fiction author Cory Doctorow has been giving away free e-book versions of his books for years. He explains:

Most people who download the book don’t end up buying it, but they wouldn’t have bought it in any event, so I haven’t lost any sales, I’ve just won an audience. A tiny minority of downloaders treat the free e-book as a substitute for the printed book — those are the lost sales. But a much larger minority treat the e-book as an enticement to buy the printed book. They’re gained sales. As long as gained sales outnumber lost sales, I’m ahead of the game. After all, distributing nearly a million copies of my book has cost me nothing.

So two lessons: 1) Hub Mentality must permeate your entire business culture, both online and offline, and 2) don’t be afraid of giveaways. Free content is especially critical in economic downturns. Just make sure that it supports a core strategy, as exemplified by Beverly D.

How have you used Hub Mentality offline? How can you do it better? We’d love to hear your stories.

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Comments

By Stephen Palmer on March 17th, 2009 at 9:45 am

My wife just informed me that Beverly DOES collect names and email addresses. Double kudos to her!

By BeverlyD on March 23rd, 2009 at 6:12 pm

Wow this is fantastic….I will share it with other entrepreneurs.

By Stephen Palmer on March 24th, 2009 at 2:33 pm

Hey, Beverly, great to see you here! You’re doing a phenomenal job with your marketing. Keep up the great work!

 

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