It amazes me that there are still businesspeople, who have not figured out that there’s a right way and a wrong way to grab someone’s attention.
For example, I’ve been emailed this morning by 2 unrelated companies. Both wanted me to write a review here on the blog, about their service. Each email consisted of a poorly written, cut-and-paste sales pitch. Both senders thought that the best way to grab my attention, create a great initial impression and inspire me to blog about them, was to spam me.
Attention grabbing
If you walk up to a stranger at a networking event, you can quickly grab their attention by simply poking them hard in the chest with your index finger. However, this is not going to be the kind of attention you want. Spammy emails are just like that! They may gain someone’s attention, but only to alert them that the sender is a spammer. That’s not the kind of attention any business wants to attract.
Now, if one of the companies that spammed me earlier had actually took a moment to market their service to me correctly, I might have checked it out. If, for instance, either of them had followed me on Twitter and then tweeted to me, I would have definitely checked out their website. This would have presented them with a window of opportunity, to make a great impression.
Attention grabbing – Done right
- Seth Godin didn’t spam me and ask if I would write a review about how brilliant his marketing blog is – but I did! Seth’s blog was mentioned on a radio show I was listening to years ago. I read it and was hooked.
- The reason I bought a Samsung when I was shopping for a netbook, is because there were universally excellent reviews for the NC10 all over the Internet, from trusted sources. I even mentioned the netbook in a blog post.
- When Danny Brown told me how great the Headway (affiliate link) wordpress theme was, I had to check it out. Within 15 minutes of reading about it, I had bought it. A few hours later, I had it installed. A week later, I became an affiliate; the first product I have ever been an affiliate of!
The bottom line is this: If you want people to write positively about you, recommend you and buy from you – don’t poke them in the chest.
Photo Credit: Purple Slog
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I see wayyyy too many people using this method, especially younger entrepreneurs. I cannot tell you how many times I get people instant messaging me “look at this! look at this! you know you want to!” or “hey, will you link me? I’ll link back. Pleeasssee?” It gets really, really irritating.
What’s worse is that even when you flat-out say “no,” they continue to prod. I have blocked people before for being irritating as hell. What does this say about your personality? About your business? Good Cthulu…
If someone emails/IMs me asking for my opinion in a calm, casual manner, I’ll probably check it out. But I kind of really hate being ‘marketed’ to.
Great point Corey, thanks. I get email like that all the time and it simply doesn’t work. You can’t ‘pester’ your way into a position of trust and good faith.
I get that happen a lot at business networking events where people barge in and just talk at you. Grrrrrrr!
Thanks for sharing xx
Why do some people still thin it’s a good idea to talk ‘at’ people?
Thanks Rachael.
great post, I am always getting bombarded with those type of emails, it’s so irritating and it doesnt work, they just get deleted.
The crazy thing is Karen, the guys that send us those spammy emails ALSO delete the spammy emails that people send to them. Thanks for the feedback.
You know, Jim, I guess it’s one of these examples of where there’s still a mindset that non-permission marketing is the way forward. Hit enough times and bluster your way to the pitch, or assume you’re big enough that everyone will immediately fall over themselves to meet you, work with you or write about you.
Of course, the business dead wood path is littered with companies like these – add another two to the mess and here’s to the great companies that actually care about who they contact and what they say.
Hi Mr Brown!
It makes me wonder if these kind of people live under a rock – they just seem totally oblivious to the ineffectiveness of that approach.
I agree that it’s also important to show some respect to the guys that get it right; as you do on your own blog sir.
Thanks for the comment my friend.
I wouldn’t say it’s blindness so much as lack of perceptible cost. If it cost them $5 to send you each missive, there would be an obvious direct cost for each message so they’d probably pay more attention to the crafting of them and make them more meaningful. The senders rarely seem to consider the hidden and non-financial costs of such actions, all they see is it takes barely 30 seconds to create and send you an e-mail and they might, just might get a positive response.
It’s the same with spam, the cost to the spammer is on a scale of cents per message, if that. They only need a small return rate to make a profit.
That and probably in their arrogance they can’t imagine why you wouldn’t be excited about the product they’re selling.
Interesting point – thanks for sharing.
In the case of the emails I referred to in this post, there was a (maybe significant) cost attached to each spammy email they sent. The cost was not a direct $ cost, but the cost of the damage to their brand/reputation. I suppose you could argue that there was a cost attached to the missed opportunity too?
I agree with you regarding the $5 cost idea. Well put – thanks Paul.
When I make a buying decision, it is almost always a referral from someone I trust or extensive research and questions. If I get unsolicited emails for anything, I am apt to ignore them, DMs make me suspicious after all the phishing, and I need to know that a product works well for others that I know to be interested.
You’ll get my enthusiastic endorsement if you have impressed me and I will refer you to others, but it has to be on the basis of a good product or service.
You’re right Julie – a personal recommendation is massively powerful. When Danny recommended Headway to me, it was his reputation, not theirs, that got my attention.
Thanks for the comment my friend.
Hi Jim,
I think that the lack of interest generates bad e-mails, bad newsletters, poor blogging results or poor results with your social media campaign.
Anyone who is really interested in what he has to offer, his business, his product/service, his blog will spend at least 10 minutes to think about how to better introduce his product and himself.
The thing is that in the today-web it’s no longer sufficient to present your product. First you need to introduce yourself and generate awarness and trust. Then, when people will trust you they’ll start to see how great your product is.
Thanks
Michael Arrington, the man behind Tech Crunch did an interesting blog or two on the subject recently after getting increasingly frustrated by people that struggle even to do the face-to-face thing right.
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/09/20/greetings/