Who actually reads the fine print? Despite everything seemingly coming with Terms of Service or Fine Print these days, don’t we all just click “I agree” and go on with our lives?
Donelan Andrews, a Georgia school teacher, has long taught her students to pay attention to the details. For an upcoming trip to England, Donelan purchased travel insurance from a company called Tin Leg, and she actually read the fine print. On the last page of the policy, she found the “Pays to Read” clause, which said:
“If you’ve read this far, then you are one of the very few Tin Leg customers to review all of their policy documentation,” and gave instructions that whoever emailed the company first mentioning the clause would win $10,000. Being the first, Donelan turned her trip into a profit-making venture.
For their $10,000, Tin Leg not only made a great point about reading the fine print, they also got coverage in People and the Washington Post, creating something even more valuable: social currency. It’s the kind of story that creates word of mouth, getting people talking about travel insurance. That’s not an easy thing to do: who sits around at lunch talking about travel insurance? Someone who just read a story about a Georgia school teacher winning $10,000.
Now they’ve even got me talking about it. Why? Because no matter what your business or what you do, you can always amplify the effect of Word of Mouth. It’s the one form of marketing that really works, day in and day out. It doesn’t just happen, you make it happen by doing things that are worth talking about, and then being good and consistent about spreading your message.
Now, Tin Leg needs to come up with a clever way to overcome the challenge of most travel insurance companies always assuming everyone is lying.
All the best,
Bill Bice
CEO
