As I write this, I'm admiring the brand-new Blue Yeti microphone sitting on my desk right now. It's the same model pictured above... it's gorgeous, right?
But I didn't buy it for decoration. After my online teaching set-back last week, I decided to invest in some additional equipment to enable a better learning experience for my class. Since I had read that using a laptop's built-in microphone isn't ideal for sound quality during meetings, and because I have 11 weeks of Zoom-teaching left, I felt spending some money on a high-quality USB microphone would help make things better.
I cared enough to spend the money, but not enough to spend countless hours of my finite free time researching the best microphone I could buy. After all, I was buying a microphone, not a car; if I didn't like my purchase, I knew it'd be fairly easy to exchange it for something else.
So how did I decide what to purchase?
I asked my friends.
To be more specific, I posted a note on my personal Facebook page asking for microphone recommendations and tagged a few friends who I knew would have had experience using microphones for both meetings and podcasts.
It was an effective approach: I had a shortlist within an hour, and the Blue Yeti easily came out on top.
After I spent a few minutes to confirm it would be compatible with my laptop, I clicked the "Buy Now" button on Amazon, and three days later, a shiny Blue Yeti was sitting on my desk.
Asking people for recommendations on what to buy isn't new.
It's what we've always done.
The best television advertisement in the world can't compare to a trusted friend's recommendation. It's not even close.
So if you're a marketer, the most effective thing you can do with your marketing budget is to ensure whatever it is you're selling is worthy of a recommendation. Make sure the product is exceptional, the packaging is fantastic, and everything involved with the purchase and use of whatever it is your selling is remarkable.
There are other things you can do too, but none are more important than that.
It's easier said than done.
But it's worth the effort.
- dp
P.S. Would it surprise you to learn that 66% of online shoppers began their product search on Amazon in 2019? That's right: when people want to buy a product, 2/3 of the online population head over to Amazon and use their search bar to find what they need. Is it any wonder that Amazon is a trillion-dollar-plus company?
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