The ugly truth about marketing

It doesn't have to be so hard

Happy Friday…

We like to think we learn things intelligently. Learning and then putting what we learned into practice. But we don’t, really. We’re more like a Roomba. We move forward until we bang into something and then we re-adjust.

A guy used to run a newsletter. Then he didn’t. Nothing new there, people start and abandon lists all the time. It was a good one. For years, I read his newsletter every week. It was one of the few I’d always open. Always.

He always had an interesting perspective. But even more, he made me think and that’s a rare thing in a world where we spend way too much time in reactive mode.

One day he emailed and said “you don’t need my hot takes anymore” and that was it. Done. Wow. Nothing like minimizing all the people that read his newsletter for all the years he’d published it. Like choice isn’t a big thing. (Hint. It is.)

There were a zillion ways he could have ended it. He could have said you guys, I’m tired. I can’t do this anymore. He could have said I don’t have the time. But no. He chose to devalue a choice thousands of readers made.

Incidentally, no names. I don’t do names. It doesn’t cost anything to let people retain their dignity.

Another guy I read said when his book went bestseller he got bombed with people asking how he did it. “I spent 4 years building my list, that’s how” was his answer. That’s one way, of course. Not the only way, but it’s one way.

So many people don’t understand marketing.

Like the stupid woman on Facebook I wanted to like, but she made it impossible. I saw an ad on Facebook for a design tutorial that caught my eye. It was an opt in, of course. So I signed up. I was going to give the tutorial a whirl on the weekend because the work week is nuts for me this time of year.

I hadn't even read the tutorial yet when the email tsunami started. Every damn day, another email pitching something I absolutely must buy. Promos for her big course. Affiliate links for other people’s stuff. Sell, sell, sell.

It got so tiresome I unsubscribed.

Which kind of makes me a hypocrite. Because of the tea.

There's a brand of tea my daughter likes. Couple of years ago, I ordered her tea for Christmas. When you buy from their site, you get added to their list. Then the email tsunami begins. 10% off. 20% off. Free shipping. New tea. Hurry, stock is low.

I unsubscribed the first time they added me. But I got added again the next time I ordered tea. So whatever. Now I just delete their emails. If they want to pay to keep me on their list, well that’s their stupidity.

You know why people don’t understand marketing?

Because they look around to see what everyone else is doing and figure that’s how it’s done. When they look around, they see 1) Internet marketers and 2) big companies who are clueless and can afford to be.

Internet marketers just adapted direct response marketing. Like those old commemorative plates and such. There’s only 500 of these Princess Diana plates. Hurry and get yours before they’re gone. And people hurried.

So internet marketers applied that methodology to their get rich schemes. Hurry and get this course before the doors are closed, as if the doors really ever close on a pdf or video series. Pitch, pitch, pitch.

The list churn is really high on that approach. They don’t care. When they open the course again in a few months, there’s always more broke people.

Big companies also pitch incessantly, but for different reasons. Because they have deep enough pockets to pay to keep every customer on their list. And if their emails convert at 5% that’s still a better result than they get from Google ads.

Here’s the ugly truth about marketing.

The method you use has to match your goal. For example, if you’re a writer and want people to stick around for your first book and your third, incessant pitching might not be the best approach.

It really doesn’t have to be so hard. As Seth Godin puts it — you just need to strive to be a welcome guest, not an annoying pest.

Can’t speak for anyone else, but welcome guests to me aren’t door to door sales people. Know what I mean?

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“Don’t walk behind me; I may not lead. Don’t walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend. ”

—Albert Camus

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What I wrote this week…

• Black Friday Started as a Very Bad Thing!

• There are only 2 reasons writers struggle to build an audience

My #1 post right now…

• 10 Ways to Avoid Bad Writing According To a New York Literary Agent

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Thanks for reading!

xo,
Linda