Understanding the Inertia Promotion Principle

By Andy Brocklehurst
Posted Thursday, August 26, 2004

Have you ever set out using some form of promotion only and then felt that it's not working?

If so did you give up and begin to look for another method?

So many people miss out on the benefits of web promotion because the do not understand the Inertia Principle.

Let's look an analogy for a moment that will help you to understand what this principle is and the importance of it.

Your best friends car won't start because it has a flat battery, you do not have any jump leads but the car is on a
level, straight road and you decide that giving him a push will help to get the car going.

You get behind the car with him inside, he puts it into gear, hand brake off, and his foot on the clutch so that you can push the car. - the plan being for him to release the clutch pedal when you have picked up enough speed.

You lean into the back of the car and with all your might you start to try to push the car. At first it seems almost
impossible, you are putting in every effort that you can but the car hardly seems to move even an inch.

You keep pushing, it edges forward an inch or so, it still seems that you are putting in tremendous effort but not
getting anywhere. You push more, the car moves a few inches and it is seeming easier. As the car moves it gets even easier to push, soon its moved a couple of feet and is picking up speed, the more it moves, the easier the pushing is getting.

Suddenly it seems easy to push the car, its moving further and faster and yet the effort you are putting in is no more
than it was right at the start - this seems so easy now.

What you are experiencing here is the inertia principle.

So what does pushing your friends old car have to do with promoting your web site?

Too often a form of promotion is started, but when no big results come in the first few days we give up. Stopping at
that point is much like giving up before the car has moved that first inch. It seems like you are putting in an
enormous amount of effort and getting no where fast.

The secret is to not give up but to keep pushing and let the inertia principle kick in.

Let me give you a couple of examples from my own personal experience:

1) I set out to do some promotion in Newsgroups, in the first week I made around 90 postings per day, at the start of that week I saw nothing in return, but by the end of the week I had gained a couple of subscribers to my newsletter
(which was the aim at the time).

I could have said at that point "all that work for 2 new subscribers - forget it" - but I knew the inertia had not kicked in yet. I kept going, same postings, same groups. In week two I gained 50 new subscribers.

Week three bought me another hundred or so - all from the same promotion method.

2) I ran a batch of free classifieds using Yahoo. Again, in the first week I saw very little response, but with the same ads running, weeks two, three and four bought me five, fifteen, forty six orders for my book on credit and finance.

There are times when the inertia does not seem to kick in, in which case it is time to review your headlines, or the ad copy, or maybe the place where you are promoting is not right. What is vital is that you do not give up too soon - you must give the inertia time to kick in.

About the Author
Andy Brocklehurst is the founder/owner of Succeed Marketing. He is also the publisher of a free weekly e-zine packed with success tips for business and personal use. Check out his web site at < (http://www.succeed4u.com) > you can subscribe to his free weekly ezine by sending a blank email to mailto:newslist@succeed4u.com