Reiki Music. Video Marketing

Don’t shoot I’m only the Piano player… well it sounded better than I’m only the messenger. Only?

Customer lists seems to be the global blog topic of the week. Yeah OK, not by “normal” people, more by Internet Marketeers and their email lists.

But say “wanna join my list” to people, and they generally have little bells go off in their head going “spam”, “sales pitch”, “what will it cost me”, “what are you trying to flog me now”.

Nobody likes being sold to, and unfortunately, spammers and Internet marketeers (not necessarily related) like email lists, because it is a quick, minimal cost way of, erm well flogging stuff. Email selling is a numbers game. Somewhere there must be a cellar full of old grannies who really think they have won the Euro lottery (who naturally use a Yahoo address and one full of numbers like LotteryHQ32 {at} yahoo(.)con) and all the need to do is send a 2000 Euro release fee to get millions. (By the way, it is NEVER true ladies! Yes it is a BAD man lieing. Yes he should be publicly horse whipped. No that would never have happened during the war. And no I’m fine for biscuits and knitted jumpers thanks.).

Not sure who the “I work for the African government and I have acquired money which will go to waste, I’ll share it with you for helping me get it out of the country and money laundering through your bank account” is aimed at?

Pensioners aren’t renowned for their money laundering skills, and what would Bradford and Bingley think if a million Rand did suddenly appear in their account? Not that it EVER will! Yes, this is not true either! Yes I now unbelievable! All those millions of African Rands are not coming your way out of the (still) starving mouths of its population.

So who is it that would think they can launder money and should screw the African people to make a buck any way?

Anyway back on topic to IM list marketing…

Actually this is the crux of the matter. Internet Marketeers see email as a marketing tool. Or more accurately an “advertising” tool. But email was never meant to be a sales channel. It is a communication channel. Sure some of the things one might talk about is buying and selling stuff. But ultimately email is, and should be, about communication.

And that is the rub. many Internet Marketeers are not communicating, they are selling. One way, without listening. Without much targeting at all. With little regard to what you might actually be interested in.

For “salesmen”, that isn’t a good sales technique. The age old rule of seling is 2 ears, 1 mouth. AKA listen, listen some more, then respond. It’s “pull” communication, not push.

So my point is, do not blame email, or lists, for spam and selling and hype.

Email is just a channel to communicate what people want to communicate. Just like they might in a pub, knocking on your door, or sending you a brochure or letter.

But the problem is that the sellers are hurting the reputation of email. They are making people switch off and reach for their spam filters.

All the time, somebody, anywhere, says yes, and it costs them less to send than they sell, this sort of thing will never go away. It my take new forms. Email may be superceded in junk by some other technology (mobile, instant messengers, website pop-ups, and the web 2 things we don’t even have yet), but there will always be “junk” communication.

The only answer as an individual, is to choose your friends carefully. Part of the reason why Facebook works so well.

If you don’t already have a spare dross secondary email, to use for all these list hunters, then get one! Get one today! And keep your real email, the one you check every 20 minutes, for people you actually have a “relationship” with and you want to hear from. Even give them a grace period for them to prove they are not suddenly going to go in to dross mode, before you swap them to your real email.

If you are a businessman or Internet Marketeer, and you want to be ethical and moral, what should you do?

In my best YODA voice, feel this wisdom Luke… (What you are not Luke? Get out!)

1) Don’t try to sell anything.

2) Form a relationship with your contacts, so that they want to hear from you.

3) In the words of a very expensive consultant, leave them better off than before that contact.

OK so that is a utopian’s dream. You’re here to sell, not to read bedtime stories to strangers. Well if that’s the way it has to be with you, AT LEAST do this…

1) Be brief. Be very very brief. Ask them quickly that IF they are interested, to make contact. A web URL would be favourite as it is the most instant.

2) Do not send them war and peace before you even know if they are interested.

3) Do not send gratuitous flashy graphics.

4) Do not send them a web page in an email.

5) Do not send them a zipped (or unzipped) attachment of a PDF brochure or anything else.

All of those things make you not just a salesman, but a “PUSHY” non-listening salesmen.

If you personally got a one line pure text email, on a topic that interested you, which just said, “if you want to know about this go here” then would you reach for the spam complaint box or just bin it or act on it if it did interest you?

It’s polite. It’s listening. It’s “I just wondered if you might be interested in this. No, OK then, thank you for your time.”

Compare that to the 8 page sales letter, which just offers more and more with each paragraph, each word trying to brain wash you in to that “you really need this or you will be scum, unsuccessful, a failure, sexually inadequate, and not only will you get this, but you will get this thing we just made up which is worth at least four million dollars becaus w e could type the price in Photoshop“.

Now imagine that as a full page web site with graphics, and scrolling gratuitous Flash bicyclist singing the stars and stripes, with random window pop-ups and MP3 zips attached of testimonials of fake people who say “it really changed my life and I am just an average Joe, why wouldn’t it work for you.” (Well if your name was Joe buster… you’d be Mr J Buster?)

One is a polite, I just wondered. The other is a ram it down your throat till you submit slime fest.

It’s the difference between push marketing and pull marketing.

Any email list should be people who “want” (pulling) your information.

When you push to an email list, you are most likely to lose 10~30% of your list on each communication. You may not notice this, because you are always recruiting more subscribers. But are they subscribers, or people who use secondary email until they work out you are a scuzz ball and junk filter you on that email too.

And as for the recommend 3 friends emails before you proceed… please! That is not viral. That is #*’*@*

Peoples’ time is very precious! People don’t have time for what interests you. They only have time for what interests them.

OK so you’re a salesman and you like to “ask”… Must be something in the starch in the tie…

But you can ask in a way that will get you shot, or a way that will get a no thanks, or a sale. Imagine that a satisfied customer…

Two ears, one mouth. I guess those old marketing books were correct when they said there was a reason for this (ignoring the obvious stereo locational physics/biology of hearing of course. But why would a marketing book be accurate when it can be artistically illustrative – ROFL).

So you have a choice. Keep cluttering the world with junk mail, or form proper relationships with your list.

Would you rather have a list of 10 quality customers, or 10,000 who really couldn’t car e less?

The money is NOT in the list. The money is in the QUALITY of the list and more importantly the QUALITY of what you do with it.

Google don’t spend millions on user profiling and ad targeting for fun you know!

Now if this had been an email, even I would have shot me
Fortunately as you came to my blog, it is pull and not push. Phew – LOL

A time and place for everything. Email isn’t a sales panacea.

Happy list building.
Peter