Attention-Marketing Doesn’t mean Shouting

How do you feel when someone keeps raising their voice when speaking with you?  Personally I can’t wait to get away!  And yet some people misguidedly think if they shout at you, you’ll want to do business with them.

Shouting doesn’t work

They carry on shouting by sending you their latest sales pitches in the post, by email and even by phone, at annoyingly regular intervals (I really don’t like those recorded calls).  A few years ago I signed up for Chris Cardell’s marketing tips (he’s a UK marketer).  The tips (delivered by email) were well written and quite helpful at the time.  Eventually they seemed to run out of steam (or perhaps the autoresponder series ended) and I heard nothing from him for quite a while. 

Then last year he decided to hold a 3-day conference in London, and that’s when my inbox and post box were flooded with non-stop promotional material.  Unsubscribing online thankfully stopped the emails, but the envelopes and postcards keep on coming – and there seems to be nothing I can do to stop them, except hope the high costs of printing and postage eventually do the trick.

What a difference to those people who have learned how to attract, and keep, your attention by communicating their message at a more gentle volume.

Sharing something of value does work

By this I mean using newsletters, blog posts and podcasts to send great tips and information.  These are the messages you look forward to receiving and, because the author continually shares something of value, you accept the accompanying promotional messages.

As a complete contrast to the above example, I signed up to Connie Ragen Green’s list a couple of months ago.  She not only sends out free special reports full of helpful tips and resources, she also holds an ‘Ask Connie Anything’ teleclass almost weekly.  These are free to attend (and download) and Connie always generously shares what she knows in answer to the many questions on each show. 

Of course she also sends out emails with links to buy products or sign up to her courses, she is in business after all, but the next email is just as likely to contain a link to another valuable free report.  You can bet I always open emails from Connie!

People who shout to get your attention are being lazy – they really don’t ‘get’ social media marketing at all.  Yes it does take more effort to keep writing or recording information to share, but the rewards of a loyal client list, high open rate of emails and increased orders more than make up for it.

Have you been ‘shouted’ at lately? Please let me know in the comments below.  And if you found this post helpful, feel free to share it via the network of your choice?