The Grateful Dead and Audience Retention

The Grateful Dead and Audience Retention
a follow up article from Glenn Jewett on today's Shirtless/Shoeless Midweek Zap on building and retaining your fan base with Ben Fisher and Christine DeGraff 

#audiencebuilding   #clientrelationship  

Originally shared by ****

Zara Altair 's Midweek Zap was a great lesson in a process I refer to as "formalizing informal relationships". It's short sighted to view the value of any individual or group through the lens of immediacy. You may want a new sale today, or even need a new sale right now, but if that causes you to bypass or negate the value of casual commonality, the first time reader of a blog post, or viewer of your profile, then you aren't looking at the distant horizon.
I recommended to Zara Altair that she read, "Everything I Know About Marketing I Learned From The Grateful Dead" and if you just think of the title, without even seeing the book, what connection is that author making? Even in 2014, unless you have been in a monastery for your whole life, you must have an inkling at least of the that rag tag army of followers collectively called "Dead Heads". Hugh Downs on the Today show in the 80's was interviewing Jerry Garcia and he described the "Dead Heads" as willing to travel anywhere on earth to be at a show. Their number has been estimated variously from 50,000 to 200,000. A more cohesive group of fans as ever existed, and this was before the Internet, before instant messaging, before cell phones. What did they do that set them apart? The Grateful Dead gave to their fans! Trying to get a recorder into a Bob Dylan concert could get you bruised as you were ejected. The Grateful Dead provided an area behind the sound board and sold "tapers" tickets in that area. Garcia once told me that "I never play the same song the same way. When I'm done with it they can have it. They'll buy the records anyway." In return, the fans collected and traded recordings, binding them together as a group. 
For a producer, getting to produce a Grateful Dead show was a present, you didn't have to advertise, just get the venue. The Grateful Dead had their own call in "Hotline" and as soon as a concert was announced it would be sold out. 
I got a call one day and Jerry said, "I have an open night between Denver and St. Louis, do you want to do a show in Kansas City." It was like saying "if I give you $10,000 would you take it."
This all comes round to understanding that a large audience, knowing your message, creates it's own market  and demand for what you offer. 
So look at who has visited your page and looked at your profile. Why did they. There are over a million pages to go to. But what you do, who you are brought them to you. If you fail to followup and seek even minimal engagement, you are missing an opportunity to increase that audience from which will come those inquiries, "Could you help me out?" Value every relationship and remember to nurture it. 
I maintain a list of every client I've ever had and send e-cards on holidays. One Thanksgiving day card, once resulted in a long ago, one time sale, emailing me "How nice it was to get those cards. And could I help with..." That was an $80K sale that I didn't have to do anything but keep my $30 per year e-card subscription to get. 
And that is the lesson.