The Gravity Well Effect

By Michael Drew - Apr 25 , 2007

A Methodology for Pulling Customers Deep into Your World
by Michael R. Drew

It’s a hot summer day and you want to go swimming. As luck would have it, both next door neighbors offered up their pools when they welcomed you to the block. The two pools are an identical length and depth. The only discernible difference is the way you’re required to enter them. Neighbor X allows guests to get in however they prefer, while Neighbor Y insists visitors begin with a swan dive off the board. A cannonball will suffice if you’re not a diver, but under no circumstances may you test the water beforehand. It’s a true leap of faith.

No-brainer, right? You’re not going to risk sending your system into hypothermic shock if it’s not necessary—nor will most of the people your client needs to construct a significant marketing platform. Most aren’t willing to take the plunge until they know more about the benefits of doing so, especially with so many competing authors giving them the chance to get their feet wet on their own terms. Your client must develop a strategy that allows people to stick their toes in and wade around a bit before asking them to dive in headfirst.

In his book, Magical Worlds of the Wizard of Ads, best-selling author Roy H. Williams likens this gradual process to a Gravity Well. Science defines a gravity well as a massive body that distorts the space-time continuum (think, Black Hole). It’s shaped more like a tornado than a traditional well, with the velocity required to escape increasing the deeper something (or someone) is pulled down and in.

Let’s apply this concept to an author’s marketing platform. If selling out expensive seminars or being brought in as a hired gun is the ultimate goal, there needs to be a spiral staircase of steps in place leading towards that purchase. Step one might be a magazine article introducing a new idea or revisiting an old idea from a fresh perspective. Having taken that first step with minimal commitment, a reader might be prompted to visit the website referenced in that article. Once the information found there is deemed interesting and credible, that same reader decides to sign up for an online newsletter. A few newsletters later, that reader purchases a book—before finally, several months down the road, that same reader (who by now has become a walking, talking ambassador for your author) shows up for a seminar to inquire about hiring her to consult.

Were you counting? That was six incremental steps from introduction to payday. That’s the kind of pull a Gravity Well must display if it’s going to lead to a considerable marketing platform. It’s not easy. But it is the common denominator among the most successful authors I’ve worked with.

One last thing about an actual gravity well. Deep inside, general relativity is altering both time and space. Objects are being pulled closer and closer together, beyond their control, as time slows around them. Ultimately, they will go exactly where the well leads them.

Kind of evil, isn’t it? Kind of beautiful, too.

Sun’s out. Anybody up for a swim?

Questions about developing and using gravity wells within marketing platforms may be directed to Michael R. Drew at the Austin, Texas, headquarters of Promote A Book: 512-858-0040. You can also contact Michael via email at Michael@promoteabook.com.