But we want to buck the trend. And have been doing so for a while.

most marketers completely focus on attraction and conversion, and forget about consumption.

I’ve seen that a lot, Sean. It makes sense what you’re saying. I’ve often thought that it would be better for my business to work with fewer clients and help them ‘use’ my knowledge and get results then to simply work everybody I can and just give them my knowledge.

Of course, I’m speaking of services here and not products so much. And, of course, there’s a premium for working with me in that regard.

It depends on how the products are engineered. If you subscribe to the products, and they have a finite life cycle, then you’re kinda doomed.

E.g. You go to a restaurant, and order a meal, and it’s a buffet, so darn…you’re stuck. Eat like a piggie, or get less value than you expected. But hey, there’s also the concept of a takeaway.

Now if the restaurant (read: infoproduct) is built as a buffet, then you’re in big trouble. But if the restaurant is built as a normal restaurant, then there are two options. The waiter dumps everything in the bin–or you take home the food and eat it another day.

Everything depends on two personalities. The personality of the waiter. And the personality of the diner. But there’s one personality that has a little edge. The diner may be embarrassed to ask for the doggie-bag (or shall we call it piggie-bag?). In other words, the diner may not even ask to take away the food. But the waiter can control such a situation by asking specific questions, and thus enforcing consumption.

It’s almost a given, that if you can’t eat most of your meal at a restaurant that you won’t go back again. But if you are prompted to take away, you’ll eat most–if not all–and hence be more likely to go back.

With the Protege, and with many of the courses, products, books etc., we systemise the consumption process. So if you can’t eat your ‘book’ at one sitting, or don’t ‘eat it’, then we make sure to prompt you to ‘eat’ using many different systems of technology and psychology.

The core is value.
If you get value, you’ll come back.

But of course, most marketers completely focus on attraction and conversion, and forget about consumption.

And that’s their biggest ‘buffet’ mistake.

It’s a hard lesson to learn, and harder to implement, but I’ve tried it back to back with two batches (e.g. Protege vs. Copywriting–which are now running at the same time–and Protege has far more uptake). The reason?

Consumption begets consumption.