Last week, whilst I was cleaning the ice from my car, I burned 3 of my fingers and my thumb on the ice! I was in pain for several days and will make sure I don’t repeat the same mistake again. Most people, don’t associate scraping ice of their car with getting burnt. After all, ice is cold. Cold is the opposite of hot, and hot is what burns you. Well, as I discovered, extreme cold burns you too!
Just like the law of gravity, which works regardless of whether you know about it or not, ice can burn you, even if you were previously unaware. This is because ignorance of a process does not stop the result from occurring.
The people you see filling their social media accounts with sales pitches, are unaware that they are actually damaging their reputation by pushing their marketing on you and failing to connect. The same with cold-callers and those who send you DM spam on Twitter, etc. In fact, no one in business sets out to hurt their reputation or alienate potential clients or customers.
These ineffective marketing techniques are like my burnt fingers; they are the result of ignorance!
Why not take some time out to think about the impact of what YOU are doing, on the network of people who are exposed to your marketing. For example, how do you currently reach people? Do you have permission to contact them? If you do have permission, do you contact them too frequently? Do your marketing messages offer advice and answers, or does the reader feel like they are “just” being sold to (or sold at)? Can they easily see the value of your services?
Taking an outside look at our own marketing activities can be extremely illuminating. We know the intent behind our actions is good, but by taking an objective look at our actions, can we see how they may be perceived by the marketplace – BEFORE they hurt our results.