Recent studies show that most people now consider advertising during their favorite programming to be an interruption… which of course, it is.
Whatever you are watching, or listening to, stops… it is interrupted… to bring you information about some product, service, or idea that the sponsor hopes you’ll find more interesting than what you were doing two seconds earlier.
And occasionally they’re right…
They happen to hit exactly the right viewer or listener… at exactly right time… with exactly the right message… to solve the very problem that was keeping their ideal customer from paying full attention to the program to begin with.
But for everyone else… it’s an interruption.
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Now… I am not saying that traditional push marketing doesn’t have its place. In fact, I believe it does… and I use it myself… respectfully.
However, as small business owners, we must understand that the ‘mass’ in mass-marketing and advertising is likely not our ideal customer.
We must show respect for our market, as well as those who are currently not in our market… but who may be in the future. And we need to speak with our customers, not shout at them.
We must provide relavant content to them… and give them the tools to find more of what they want… indeed, more of what they need… on their own terms… typically ‘off-air’.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Questions:
Do you have a positive, negative, or neutral experience when on the receiving end of ‘push’ marketing activities? Advertising? Direct mail? Cold Calls?
Comparing information that you receive unsolicited versus information you search and track down yourself; which are you most likely to trust?
How are you currently integrating new media ‘pull’ activities with traditional ‘push’ activities in your sales and marketing?
What low-cost, non-media solutions are on your table now to improve overall customer experience, and deepen customer relationships?
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