On tap today, marketing mistakes. Learn what you should never do when using social media, the 7 deadliest web copy mistakes, and the worst marketing email (ever).
One Thing You Should Never Do When You’re Using Social Media
How to Pull Your Marketing Out of the Mud
The Worst Marketing Email. Ever
The Top 12 Reasons Your Marketing Failed
See you in 2010 with a super-deluxe Freebie Friday.
Image: Avolore
I got my annual telemarketing call from The DMA today.
The one where they try to sell me a vendor listing on their site. Last year, it cost $395.
First, they try to tell me about The DMA. I know about The DMA, I used to work there.
Then, they try to explain why I should pay $395 (or whatever it costs now) to get a listing when Google will put me on the Web for free.
If I want an ad, I bet I can get quite a bit of Adwords for $395 — and Google keeps sending me discount coupons too.
Lastly, they got my name wrong. It’s Jodi. Not Judy.
If you’re trying to sell me something, explain why I would want it. Will my listing be at the top of the page, or buried somewhere? Is there a paper directory that gets distributed to DMA members? Or special distribution at conferences and events?
What would I get from it that I can’t get from Google? Will more of “my people” (ideal clients) see my name? Do they have data showing the response rates? Your product has to cure your clients’ headaches (not yours).
Before you try to sell something:
What’s the worst telemarketing call you ever got?
I got an FYI email yesterday from a newsletter I subscribe to. It offered me a free download of a social media webinar.
I thought, “Cool, sounds like useful information and I can use it for ‘Freebie Friday’. I’ll download it, watch it, and spread it.”
I clicked on the download link. Instead of a download, I got taken to a page asking for:
Whew! That’s an awful lot of fields to fill in. I don’t want to submit all of that information for a webinar. There are too many barriers. I smell “big sales pitch” and it stinks.
Sorry, I’m not filling it in, and I’m not spreading your webinar either.
Yes, they did get me to talk about their business, but probably not in the way they intended.
What tips do you have for spreading your webinars (or any other free content)?
Would you like your clients to be raving fans?
The germ of this idea started a few weeks ago when I went to a focus group. A big financial services company wanted to roll out new tools for small businesses to help them manage their money.
Afterward, I thought, what do small business owners really want today? They want more business!
What if you were the company that helped them get it? What if your company brought those together — and offered a true relationship?
Use strategies that bring people back, and get them talking, so other businesses will want to join in.
I don’t care about shopping points or coupons I must use in 30 days. I do care about a company that takes the time to listen, and develop a relationship.
Unless you’re different and worth talking about nobody will be interested. You have to interact and show you actually care.
A free soup strategy, that brings a smile to your customers’ faces.
Thank you notes or birthday cards. A gift card for their favorite coffee shop. Or, a framed photo of their favorite sports team’s championship win.
Encourage one client to help another. Introduce the florist to the candy-maker. Or, host events for small businesses, bringing the florist, the candy-maker, and the jewelry designer into the same room.
Invite clients for breakfast, ask them for ideas, let them interact, and brainstorm. Watch how they use your tools. What’s obvious to you (because you’ve lived with it for two years) may not be to people who haven’t.
When you go to events, listen more. Be the person who brings people together (rather than the person with the big sales pitch).
What are you doing to bring your clients together?
Once, Checker cabs were ordinary. You could see them on city streets every day. Now, taxi regulations require that cars be taken out of service after they reach a mileage limit. So there are only a few left. Seeing one is remarkable, worth talking about.
Being remarkable is one way to do that. Be worth talking about (like the Checker cab, or the fun car wash, or a no-kill public animal shelter). Talk to people (not at them). Yelling louder and louder won’t attract clients. You will get them by listening, asking questions, and building trust. Bob told me about a car wash that lets you squirt water and soap on the car (like a giant fire hose). It’s owned by Procter & Gamble, which is also a remarkable thing – that a big company could do something unusual.
As I was writing this post, an email popped up from a marketing forum. Someone wanted advice on how to promote her computer repair business. They’re the only Apple service/sales store in the area, but they also want to promote PC repair and document management services. When they focus on Apple, nobody knows they fix PCs. If they concentrate on PC service, the reverse happens. Then, there’s the document management software they sell.
Being the only Apple repair store in town makes them remarkable and worth talking about, “Hey, they’re the Apple guys. Thank goodness! I can get my Mac fixed.”
Doing too many other things makes their advertising messages confusing and changes their service from remarkable to ordinary.
You’ll get more business (and more rapid fans) being a purple cow than a brown one.
How are you remarkable? What are you doing to stand out?
Image: wikimedia
Note: The sad thing is, I saw an actual Checker cab a few weeks ago, and took a photo with my dumb cell phone. Unfortunately, Verizon has put all sorts of barriers in place to make it hard to get the photo from phone to screen (the USB cables don’t fit, for one thing). If you want to post an image you have to pay a fee to email it to yourself.