Saturday, September 04, 2004
How to Avoid Becoming Road Kill Along The Freelance Highway – Part One
Sometimes we can learn much from the bad life lessons that others teach us. Here are a few that have application to all of us in the business of providing services.
How annoyed do we get when we get marketing phone calls at supper time from someone who wants us to: a) contribute to some needy charity; b) participate in a survey; or c) buy into the latest, greatest credit card.
Why do they tick us off? Let us count the ways. First they are unsolicited. Second they are computer generated. That's why you hear the pause at the end of the line before the live operator sees that the call has connected to you. Third you have to be down right rude to get them off the line.
The latest wrinkle is even more maddening. It is the phone message that is entirely computer generated. So not only is no one on the line when you pick it up, you actually get a sales pitch that is pre-recorded. Then there are the unsolicited faxes - which waste your time, your toner, and your paper. This seems to be a great favourite of florists, toner cartridges resellers, and travel agents.
So why do these awful marketing methods work when they make us so angry? Well for the same reason that junk email works. High volume and low distribution costs. But at great cost to the reputation of those using these services. If only they knew.
Let me give you another example of wretched marketing practices.
I was looking for a web-based service that would distribute my newsletters on freelancing and speech writing. I settled on Constant Contact because, not only is it a great product, they gave an honest to goodness free trial. But it's interesting. There were other national services I considered but they ruined it by offering one thing and delivering another. One web-based service offered a free trial that turned out to be neither a trial, nor free. Just endless emails trumpeting what a great product they had.
Here's another one. I received an email from a very well known contact management software outfit, announcing the latest version of their product. I bit and downloaded a trial version. I pretty quickly determined that it was probably a little too robust for my needs. But before I made a final decision, a final decision was made for me by the president of the company who sent me hourly – and I do mean hourly - emails telling me how pleased he was I was trying out their product. And although there was a link to unsubscribe, of course it didn't work. Talk about your viral marketing!
So ask yourself this before you place your next cold call, send your next email, or initiate a direct mail campaign. All things being equal, how would you react to your message if you received it out of the blue? If you are at all in doubt, perhaps a little quiet focus testing is in order.
You have all heard the marketing cliché that people do business with people they like and trust. It is only a cliché because it is so often repeated. My version of this oft-repeated mantra is this. In all that you do to promote your service, in every marketing effort you initiate, what you want to do is to get in their heads, and not in their faces.
Sometimes easier said than done. A topic for future columns.
