In-bound Marketing as Defined by the Grateful Dead

You read that right, The Grateful Dead, the artists of “Truckin’ “ and “Terrapin Station” fame, were one of the first modern in-bound marketers.

The Grateful Dead took an idea that wasn’t new and used it to a level of sophistication that can only be marveled at today. The Dead went about promoting themselves in a way that defied every rule of the modern recording and marketing industries. They invited their fans via mailing lists to their concerts, encouraged them to openly record their songs, they gave away their music, and they made their living off of and gained fame from their live concerts. They eschewed studio-recorded albums and had only one top 40 single, “Touch of Grey” released in 1987, 22 years after they had started as a band.

What did they get for all of that?

Well, at their height, they could go to any venue in the country and fill it at little to no expense, in short, they had very low overhead. Not only that, they created an eco system of 1000’s of small vendors and businesses that would assemble around a show and turn the whole event into an experience making a living from alternate sources. Everyone made money, not a lot, there was a lot of bartering and what we refer to now a days as “free-miums” being handed out. But, the dead and the vendors around the show made money by charging small amounts for items perceived as having little to no value, over a long period of time, with limited overhead, to hundreds of thousands of their adoring fans who followed them where ever they went just to hear the music… even if only from the parking lot.

Fast forward to Chris Anderson, a businessman and author of a book released in 2009; “Free: The Future of a Radical Price.” In it he explains how huge companies like Google have made vast sums of money by appearing to give away their wares.  The idea being that you give away some of your product to hook your customers while you take advantage of alternate revenue streams or charge a small sum for other related items. You make your money incrementally off volume and longevity, with reduced overhead, and in so doing you create brand advocates or fans who will follow you anywhere, so you see the connection?

Anderson’s explanation above is the definition most marketers go by for in-bound marketing; and it’s what the Grateful Dead were doing. In the business world, if you set-up microsites that offer free white papers, or you allow limited access to research and copy rich web pages, or if you allow viewers of your ads to use free aspects of your product or service, then you’ve reduced your overhead and you’re engaging in-bound marketing to sell for you. Your hope is that your potential customers follow the links in the article or on the site or ad back to your main web site where they give up their email address and name, pay a small sum of cash and viola… they become promoters and they’re hooked, or new fans. Google has used this very well, think of the Gmail, Adwords, Analytics eco system. In his book, Anderson points out that this concept has existed long before Google, or the counter culture hippies of Haight Ashbury. But like I said earlier, the Dead where the first modern in-bound marketers to use this tactic, they just didn’t know it since they they were having such a good time.

Even though the Grateful Dead’s version of in-bound marketing was driven by altruism and not business, they achieved levels of notoriety and success with it that modern day artists and companies can only dream about. The critics of the Grateful Dead said that they weren’t very talented and that they were crazy for giving away their music, but in reality, just like Google, they were securing their place in history and building something larger than themselves.

The difference though was that unlike Google? The Dead really did embody the idea of “don’t be evil.”

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