Absentee Ballots
Very few people vote by absentee ballot (though the number goes up every year). This is interesting because it’s usually easier, more convenient and more certain. It’s free and it works. If you’re going to vote, why wait until the last minute?
Because, I think, people like the idea of COD. They like the certainty of getting something right now in exchange for their effort. They want to know that nothing in the world changed between the day they would have had to send in their ballot and the day of the election.
This leads to two opportunities for most marketers. The first is that you could slice off the portion of the market that likes to order in advance (in a market where that’s not really available). So you could sell your product or service long ahead of time and offer a discount or certainty that appeals to this group. Or, you could do the opposite. You could find a product (like Girl Scout Cookies) that are only offered ahead of time and figure out how to sell them in a retail fashion, like at the reception desk at work. Buy a bunch on spec and sell em when they come in.
Which leads, in a surprisingly untortured way, to pub day for my new book, The Dip. For those that didn’t pre-order (and the reasons are obvious–what if you forgot how to read between then and now?), here are some useful links. It’s out now and you can get it the moment you pay for it:
At Barnes & Noble (less than $10 for members).
The $5 abridged CD audio edition (exclusive to BN).
At Amazon.
And the brand-new free PDF manifesto, with links to 8CR. Feel free to share.