All marketing fits into one of the following two groups. It’s either making a noise or it’s making a difference.
Here are examples of both and how they impact your marketing results. You’ll identify them instantly.
Making a noise
Most marketing is noise. Irritating attempts to grab our attention.
- Spam emails.
- Cold calls.
- Banner advertising.
- Pre-roll videos.
- Junk mail.
- Social network spam, etc.
Those tactics are unwelcome. They don’t command our attention. They selfishly demand our attention.
What do we do? We block them!
We either use software to block them or we mentally block them. But we block them.
This means business owners using those pestering tactics, are seeing worse and worse results. So they then spend even more time and money, to push their message ever harder. And even more people learn to block them. That’s why there’s so much noise out there.
Here’s a much better alternative.
Making a difference
We pay attention to the marketing that makes a difference. It doesn’t demand our attention. It commands our attention. It stands out for all the right reasons.
- Valuable tips and ideas from a YouTube channel, podcast, blog or newsletter we subscribe to.
- Useful updates from our service providers.
- Trusted recommendations from our friends.
- Targeted, valuable offers from vendors we trust, who know what we enjoy.
- Eagerly anticipated communications from groups we’re members of.
- Amazing service, which motivates us to return to a vendor again and again.
These tactics make a positive difference. So we value them. We pay attention because they’re useful. They don’t even feel like marketing. They’re focused on helping us rather than pestering us.
The big question is…
Which group are you in?
We know the good intentions behind our marketing. We know we’re professional and that people would love us, if only they knew how great our service is. So when we add them to our email list or call them at work when they’re busy – we think that it’s okay.
But it isn’t. The same rules apply to us. If it’s unwanted, it’s noise and if it’s noise, it’s working against us.
Everything you do to market your business is either training the marketplace to ignore you or training them to embrace you. It’s working against your business or working for your business.
So whenever possible, instead of making a noise, make a difference. And it’s always possible to make a difference.