The latest way to harvest email addresses of potential sales leads seems to be to offer a report / white paper for free.
To get the paper you enter your email address and usually a phone number and then you get to read the report before the inevitable follow up campaign to get your business.
I'm writing this as I've noticed of late that many of those using this excellent approach are writing reports which actively make me think that there is no way that I would ever do business with that company. They think that putting anything out there that gets downloads and hence harvests email addresses is a success for them but they have really not thought through what tthey are attempting to achieve.
I've seen some really shoddy reports, some reports that basically say nothing but have lots of management speak regurgitated by those who don't really understand it, and reports where the content has little if anything to do with the title.
Its so obvious with some reports that businesses are desperate to get into this type of marketing but they don't want to invest any time or effort in the report that they are attempting to hook you with.
I actually saw a truly awful one where the title professed to by a report on client leverage for users of VT but the report was a generic one that gained differentiation interest from the title. No doubt the company giving that white paper away must have felt themselves a success by the number of downloads but because of the poor content of the report I do not see that converting to sales for them and only sales not downloads are the real measure of success.
Personally I go from being interested in a title and a potential client of their business to feeling that they have actively stolen from me by using my time to read rubbish and my time (like yours) is money.
The point of this post is that I can see this as a really good marketing tool. Give something away, get contact details only from interested parties, focus the follow up marketing.
However, I just want to say for anyone thinking of going down this path to make sure that what they are giving away for free is worth anyone's time reading it.
The very best one that I have seen for this sort of approach was from Nigel Botterhill who gave away a copy of his best selling marketing book to hook an audience then follows up with regular sales emails that are often informative but never overly pushy.
Whilst I may not sign up with him as I have no reason to at the moment, I have to say that his whole somewhat American styled approach should be considered a roadmap for how to do this properly.
But thats off subject, all that I'm trying to say is that if you are thinking of using this approach for marketing purposes, either do it properly or not at all. As if you do it badly you will alientate yourself from potential clients
kind regards,
Shaun.
p.s. sorry, that turned into a bit of a rant in parts didn't it.
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
Yes, it was a bit of a rant in places ... but we all do that from time to time. I agree that it is irritating to find your inbox filling up with daily emails, just because you responded to some invitation, offer or whatever. I just unsubscribe when I get fed up with it, however. Or you can set your email filter to trap them. I guess we live in a marketing orientated world these days and it strikes me that trying to stop it all would be a bit like tilting at windmills. We all have Don Quixote moments now and then, don't we?
Sometimes firms hand out worthwhile information gratis and I think that should be welcomed. I have to say that I have received some first class information from some very well known firms in the past, and they have never followed-up once (and I've even claimed CPD points after reading some of them!). Besides, there is so much free information out there that you can find answers to almost any question that is general in nature, and if you need a specific answer, well you should be prepared to pay for that, and who better to go to than someone who has already demonstrated his knowledge/skills?
-- Edited by ilsm on Wednesday 25th of June 2014 09:48:59 PM
That's where you need ethical marketing, based on giving things of real value, and building an audience of people who like and appreciate what you do, and that you genuinely care about. I'm part way through a course on doing it properly, but not for flogging accounting related services you'll be pleased to know!
Which begs the question. Would anyone ever say that they are an expert at unethical marketing?
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
Which begs the question. Would anyone ever say that they are an expert at unethical marketing?
Maybe not directly, but they'll happily talk about exploiting and ripping off punters, while the ethical ones will tell you they're ethical.
Whilst exploiting and ripping off punters.
lol.
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
