Just when you thought it was safe, there’s an alternate approach to crossing the chasm. This one reflects the work of Emanuel Rosen and Itamar Simonson, which they explain in their book Absolute Value: What Really Influences Customers in the age of perfect information.

Their idea is that the gradual-adoption, trickle-down approach that started when Moses went to see God is less applicable today because online information is getting fast, free, and perfect. For example, people can use websites like CNET and Amazon to read reviews hours after a product’s introduction.

Innovators, early adopters, and early-majority users can express their opinions a few minutes after it ships—and with leaks, even before it ships. Information no longer trickles down; it disperses fast, free, and far. For example, in books, who wait to read a New York Times review before buying a book from Amazon?

The fast, free, and perfect nature of information can turn marketing upside down:

INFLUENTIALS MATTER LESS.

Many people can evaluate a product and spread their opinions immediately. Influentials still matter for reporting that something shipped but not necessarily for inspiring purchase or trial.

BRANDS ARE LESS IMPORTANT.

When information was incomplete and slow, people depended on a brand’s imprimatur for quality assurance. In the book business, the average number of stars on Amazon and the first few comments that strangers have posted are more important and visible on Amazon than the publisher’s name.

“Merit is the new marketing.”

PAST EXPERIENCE AND LOYALTY ARE TRANSIENT.

In a perfect world, the manufacturers of what you bought in the past produce great stuff in the future. In the real world, sometimes they do and sometimes they don’t. For example, people may love the sharing features of Facebook but never use its e-mail service.

Altogether this means that merit is the new marketing.

Here’s how to thrive in this world:

EMBRACE THE NOBODIES.

Lonelyboy15 and LATrixie are as likely to make your product successful as influential bloggers and traditional journalists. Anyone who gets your cause and wants to help is a friend to have. Nobodies are the new somebodies!

ABANDON THE ILLUSION OF CONTROL.

Omniscience and omnipotence are illusions. You can’t know who can and will help you. Nor can you control people with your marketing and advertising. So blast your product out, and then flow with the go.

PLANT MANY SEEDS.

Plant fields of flowers, not flower boxes. This is a strategy of big numbers: the more seeds, the more flowers. You never know which seed will turn into a sunflower.

Which method should you use: Cross the chasm or perfect information? The answer is both. Some people you reach through influential, top-of-the pyramid methods, and others you reach by blasting. As with other entrepreneurial topics, there isn’t a right and wrong—there’s only what works and what doesn’t, and you can only find out what works by experimentation. 

We have always emphasized the importance of having a good website for your company because it can act as your best tool for marketing and sales. A poorly designed website can repulse people from your business and can cause you to lose customers before you even have them. Get in touch with HyperEffects to work on creating, enhancing, and making the website of your company more user-friendly.