Christine Watson the marketing manager for the Outlet in a recent tongue in cheek conversation justifies the price of her expensive handbags citing the theory that the “cost per wear is very low”. The statement is a mathematical calculation correlating the value of the garment to the frequency of its appearance in Belfast hippest bars.

Expensive Sausage Bag

I mentioned to Andrea Cleland a member of Ion staff for the past seven years “I’m nipping out to get sausages for tea”. Andrea retorted “Coffey’s butchers have a great rib eye” My purchase went from £1.50 for sausages to £9 for rib eye when I bought the accompanying pepper sauce.

In the internet era we are now fluent in Cost Per Click, or Cost Per Thousand (CPM), but the real value is the Cost Per Referral. In a recent presentation I gave I asked the attendees how many welcomed the referral client over those that came from an ad. The answer was unanimously skewed toward referral. But what do we do to assist our advocates to help promote our business? What stories do we give those that are likely to help sell our handbag or rib eye to spread our story? Stories and referrals are the best way to get business. The skill in marketing both online and offline is in the creation of the story.