Overall, I’m a big fan of Chris Anderson’s “Free”. To sum it up, technology advancement is pushing the cost of many things close to zero. There are many recent examples, but the most often cited is the news business. The last 4 years have been absolute carnage in newsrooms whether it be print or broadcast. Estimates range, but conservatively 200K plus jobs have been lost in the sector over this time period. Largely this redefinition of the space has been ushered in by the reaching of digital critical mass. It’s now simply easier and more convenient for everyone to get their information via an alternate channel that also happens to be significantly cheaper to operate.
A past post by the folks at Right On Interactive broached this subject in context of the marketing automation space. From their perspective it seemed inconceivable Free could reach our shores. The argument went that the cost factors were simply too high. While the thought was articulated by ROI, surely this was an outlook shared by the entire space. Whisperings of consolidation and acquisition run rampant, but no one dared consider the true commoditization of the space – except Loopfuse.
Over a 6 month period the team went nearly dark re-engineering the onboarding process, technology deployment model, support community, the sales model. In so doing, what Loopfuse did was to remove as much cost and inefficiency as possible. The resulting model, which no one in the industry can match because of their bloated infrastructure including hoards of sales people and hardware thirsty software enables Loopfuse to get close to zero.
Successfully implementing a marketing automation tool takes time. The major driver of which is the time it takes marketers to understand how to effectively use the tool. What LoopFuse can now do is offer clients a zero dollar alternative to bridge the gap as they discover how to profitably use marketing automation. It’s more of a partnership.
Yes, Free has reached our shores and it’s poised to usher in a new age of marketing. Marketing for the masses where every marketer can explore the potential of integrated profiles, automated touches, and multi-channel engagement without betting the farm.
Tags: Freemium Business Model
