The Tale of a Fortified City Paris, a Trojan Prince, kidnapped Helen of Troy who was reputed to be the most beautiful woman who ever lived. When her husband discovered that she was missing, all of Greece took part in the ensuing war. They sieged the huge city of Troy for years, but they couldn’t figure out how to get inside the gates.
We all know necessity is the mother of all invention. After 10 fruitless years, they came up with the Trojan Horse. It was a big wooden horse on wheels, big enough for a bunch of Greek soldiers to hide inside. They pretended to retreat and sail home, acting like they had given up and left.
When the people of Troy opened their city gates and the found the horse, they didn’t know what it was. The Greeks planted a spy to trick them into believing it was a gift, so they brought it in. It was so big that it couldn’t go through the gate so they tore down a piece of the city wall to get it in.
During the night after everyone had fallen asleep, the Greek soldiers came out of the Trojan horse, killed the guards on the walls, and signaled to the other Greeks to come attack Troy. The Greeks could get in now because the walls were torn down. Troy was conquered and the war was won.
How does the Trojan horse apply to marketing?
When the Trojans saw the a huge wooden horse, they brought it in. Why? Because they perceived it as a gift of some value. They took it inside. The Greeks used the Trojan horse to win over the Trojans. I’m not advocating violence, but I am pointing out the genius behind the idea of using the ‘gift’ as a way to get to your prospect’s wallet.
An Introduction to Trojan Horse Marketing Let me introduce you to a marketing principle called Trojan Horse Marketing. The reality is, when people see a marketing message or a promotion, their walls go up further.
Trojan Horse Marketing is defined as getting your promo message across, past the prospects’ barriers which have been erected to block out those promotional messages to begin with.
Trojan horse marketing works in the real world. Why? Because even if your prospect has strong walls and fortresses, when they see your Trojan horse, they see it as a gift from heaven, and they bring that gift inside the barriers. That’s what Trojan Horse Marketing is about.
It’s about how to position your marketing as a Trojan horse; as a gift; as a welcome distraction from life; as an answer from heaven.
Ask yourself, “Am I a Trojan horse in my marketing?” Down the line, I’ll talk more about how to express Trojan Horse Marketing - in email, in blogs, in different forms of promotions.
An Introduction to Trojan Horse Marketing - To learn more about this author, visit Michael Reining's Website.
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Michael Reining
(Visit Michael's Website)
Prior to MindValley Media, Mike was the
Head of New Ventures Strategy at eBay
where he conceived of the strategies that
led to the investment in Craigslist, the
launch of Kijiji.com and the acquisition
of Skype. Mike has an MBA from Stanford
and previously worked for the Boston
Consulting Group. He is also a certified
Google AdWords Professional.
MindValleyLabs Internet Marketing Blog: bl
og.mindvalleylabs.com/
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