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April 25, 2007

Dan Bricklin's 97% rule

Yesterday I gave a talk at the Mass Technology Leadership Council's Social Media Cluster — 30 minutes followed by 90 minutes of questions and discussion. Paul Gillin, who'd suggested me to the group (thanks Paul!), and is the author of the just-published The New Influencers, made the point (relevant in context) that traditional direct mail marketers are thrilled to get a 3% return rate. "I don't know of any other case where a failure rate of 97% is considered a success."

From the front of the room Dan Bricklin responded instantly. "Sperm," Dan said. It made me laugh. But, as Dan points out, it's a common strategy in nature.

BTW, Dan's posted a podcast of the session. [Tags: nature direct_mail marketing sperm dan_bricklin paul_gillin mtlc everything_is_miscellaneous ]

Posted by D. Weinberger at April 25, 2007 10:55 AM


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