Three Ways Marketers Are Damaging Their Relationships

By Michael Roderick  -  On 06 Jun, 2014 -  0 comments

If you’ve spent any time scrolling your Facebook feed in the past month, you have fallen victim to at least one of the rabbit holes that involve a list. With the advent of this powerful click bait, the folks in the marketing world have come on full force, resulting in people making very poor choices with the permission-based lists that they fought so hard to attain.

So here are 3 things that marketers are doing that are damaging their (and your) relationships.

  1. Bait and Switch – If we click on an article that is offering us information and it leads to nothing more than a long form sales letter, we feel used. If we feel used, not only are we less likely to click, we are less likely to buy from you in the future. If you are playing a numbers game, you may win for a while, but you will not secure repeat buyers. Stop trying to hide your messages in “relevant” articles. They aren’t actually relevant and you are torching your relationships.
  2. Faux Authenticity – I get it. You’re working at scale and need to reach a lot of people at once. Stop assuming that we don’t know that you are using a program to “personalize” the message. I’m not expecting those of you with lists by the thousands to start emailing people individually, but if your message is one of being open and giving, please do make sure to respond to those who email you back from these blasts. I have seen too many people present themselves as someone who reads every email and then has some cheesy auto-responder. Be honest with what you’re able to do and we’ll respect you for that honesty. Show us you care about us individually and we’ll believe you. Phone it in and we’ll stop letting you email us.
  3. Interrupting Us – Permission based marketing was born out of the fact that we got tired of being interrupted. The interesting thing is that we have turned back to interruption marketing on the web. This takes the form of seeing the same detergent commercial every time I want to watch a video or having ads pop up before I even get a chance to read an article. When these little interruptions happen, our progress is impeded and we get frustrated. If we get frustrated, is it likely we will buy?

Marketers who build relationships WIN.

They win our respect, they win our trust, and we are happy to give our money to them.

Marketers who spend all of their time interrupting and tricking us LOSE.

If you are in marketing, I want you to win.

So please take these things into consideration. Thoughtful marketers can change this environment.

We are counting on you.

Excelsior!