Today is Thanksgiving in the US (affectionately known as Turkey Day, because that’s what most people eat to celebrate). It commemorates the Pilgrims and the Indians sitting down to a feast in the “New World.”
If you’re in the US, Happy Thanksgiving. If not, happy Thursday. Either way, take a minute to be happy for the good things in your life.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to start cooking. NO turkey here (we’re having chicken with 40 cloves of garlic instead). Shhh, don’t tell anyone.
A few months ago, I received a new newsletter from a publication I’d unsubscribed to long ago. I clicked on the unsubscribe link, but it wasn’t on the list of their publications (!).
So, I opted out of everything that was. Then, to make sure, I sent them an email asking to be removed from all their lists.
I got a reply back asking which newsletters I didn’t want.
I sent an email back saying, “Well I don’t want any of them. Suppress me!”
Then another reply, “From which lists?”
All of them!
The response to this was, “Well, we have 30 different lists, which one did you want to be removed from? And which did you originally subscribe to?”
I sent back, “I have no idea. I don’t remember, just take me off all of them!”
At this point, I was getting annoyed. Shouldn’t they have a universal opt-out? Doesn’t the FTC have rules about this?
It took 4 hours, 10 emails back and forth, and a little bit of luck (finding my account number) to get everything stopped and block my email address!!
If you have an email newsletter (and you should) you need to follow a few simple rules (they didn’t).
Here they are:
1) Tell recipients how to opt out of receiving future email from you. Your message must include a clear and conspicuous explanation of how the recipient can opt out of getting email from you in the future. Craft the notice in a way that’s easy for an ordinary person to recognize, read, and understand.
2) Give a return email address or another easy online method to allow people to tell you what they want.
3) You may create a menu to allow a recipient to opt out of certain types of messages, but you must include the option to stop all commercial messages from you.
4) Honor opt-out requests promptly. Any opt-out mechanism you offer must be able to process opt-out requests for at least 30 days after you send your message. You must honor a recipient’s opt-out request within 10 business days.
5) You can’t charge a fee, require the recipient to give you any personally identifying information beyond an email address, or make the recipient take any step other than sending a reply email or visiting a single page on an Internet website as a condition for honoring an opt-out request.
Full text of the rules here:
According to KTTU in Alaska (Nov. 17, 2009), the US Post Office has decided to stop handling mail addressed to Santa at the North Pole.
A post office spokesman said they were concerned about security because a few people have gotten the letters and sent inappropriate things.
From now on, letters to Santa at the North Pole will be set aside, or probably recycled (?!?).
They’ve also completely disrupted local businesses in the town, which depends on Christmas-related revenue to keep its economy going.
Why not treat people like, well, people. Not like account numbers, or commissions, or names in a database you can manipulate at will. You’ll get more trust and more customers. Set up your policies to help your clients, not push them away. The post office’s numbers aren’t good (last I checked they were losing billions). Maybe a little genuine customer care would help. Couldn’t hurt.
Why do marketers always ask if you have a target audience? Why not just tell the client what to do? You know, a step-by-step tutorial. Isn’t marketing just marketing? Why does it matter?
It may seem odd, but there is method to this madness.
The reason we ask is because we’re trying to find out how to help you and what to recommend. It matters because what’s appropriate for a business trying to reach Fortune 500 companies is not suitable for a business who wants to sell hangers to local dry cleaners.
If you were going to do a logo for a toy store, you’d choose different fonts, colors, and design elements than you would if you were creating a logo for a funeral home. The first should be lively and happy and bright. The second should be somber and reassuring.
Spending a lot of time creating a cheery logo for the funeral home would be a mistake. The client would be unhappy and you’d probably have to redo it (costing you time and money). If you spend a lot of time and money trying to reach “everybody,” you’ll end up with fewer clients (not more). Market to fewer people, and you’ll earn more.
You need a target audience so you know where to focus. Picture a real archery target. There’s a big red circle in the middle, and rings around it. Hitting the circle gets you 10 points. Hitting one of the rings gets you fewer points. The further the ring is from the center, the fewer points you get. If you miss the target entirely, you get nothing.
Marketing works the same way. If you hit the center of the target (your ideal customer) and you make money. Hit something close, you make some money, but not as much. Miss the target entirely, you get nothing.
Let’s say you’re selling car insurance for commercial fleets. Your ideal customer might be moving companies. A close second could be florists or contractors. They all have several vehicles, which get a lot of use, and have to be insured. On the other hand, copywriters and designers likely only need a single car, for their own use. Marketing to them (and I have personally received offers for this) is a complete miss. That sort of marketing is completely broken (and unfortunately, too common). It costs lots of money, but earns very little.
On the other hand, once you have a real ideal customer profile, you can then narrow down where you look for prospects, what to offer them. and how you reach them. Think like a fisherman. Go where the fish are.
Ever had a client you had to educate?
You know, they want to change the design of their Web site, and “just want you to switch a few things around”? And, it shouldn’t be a big deal…
But, of course, if you do, the pages won’t flow properly, the code will break, and it won’t load properly.
Frustrating, isn’t it?
Your instinct may be to talk about design integrity, being search-engine friendly, or compliance with web standards. But your client isn’t a techie (that’s why you are at an impasse in the first place). She’s in the insurance, hardware, or accounting business. She’s not a graphic designer or a Web developer, and doesn’t speak “design.”
Translate the problem into terms the client will instantly understand.
Tell her that swapping some colors or switching fonts is like repainting the kitchen. Redoing the code, adding Flash, and assuring the design works correctly on all browsers, is like doing a complete overhaul — tearing out all the appliances, replacing the cabinets, and ripping out the plumbing. Complying with Web standards is like following local building codes.
Explain the work involved this way, and she’ll have a better understanding of the costs and time required to fix her site.