Good Marketers Give First
Apr 21st, 2009 by Val Nelson
A perfect exchange
The main reason people search online is to look up information, so if your online communications are only about selling or asking for something, you’re missing the boat.
The key to effective marketing and communications whether online or offline is to give your audience something they find valuable first.
Be helpful. Then offer them the option to check out your opportunities.
Be like the appealing flowers that give a little nectar to the birds, and in return, they get a little pollination.
The people who get the most followers online are the ones that are the most helpful. Tried and true.
People tune out old school sales pitches, don’t you? Who needs metrics to prove that?
If you use marketing 1.0 in the 2.0 channels — you will fail.
—Brent Leary
The take-home lesson (in case you didn’t learn it in kindergarten): Play nice and people will often play nice back.
What Can You Offer?
Here’s a few ideas to get you out of the mindset of asking for something. Instead consider answering questions; providing useful tips, downloads, coupons, gifts, links to valuable information; or spreading their message. Watch what others offer. The possibilities are endless.
In a recent email campaign I helped with, we got far better click-through rates when we focused on offering free downloads of activities for kids. The freebies were featured in the subject line.
We left our “pitch” as an aside near the bottom of the email. The free downloads drew traffic to the website, where visitors were exposed to our key messages, and we got more leads.
Indirect is the key.
