Off The Mark
By Steve Carter
Who can remember the fairground game Whack-a-Mole, where a mole pops up, you give it a clump with a hammer and then another one pops up and you repeat the exercise?
There would appear to be a new version of the game based on speculative emails where you delete one and another pops up, then another and another. The frustrating thing is that the emails have little or no relevance to me. There seems to have been a surge in these in the last 6 months or so, to a point where, a few days ago, they were literally pinging in one after another, so much so that I actually checked in the bathroom mirror to see if the words ‘easy target’ had been tattooed on my forehead. Thankfully they hadn’t and the only words visible were ‘tegrat ysae’ which meant very little to me.
I know the people sending these emails have a difficult job to do and probably have unachievable targets to reach, but if they just did their homework, they would quickly find out that I don’t require any ‘voltage optimisation’, I don’t need to ‘think like a Jedi’ and I am pretty sure that I don’t need my kettle PAT testing.
I don’t particularly like unsubscribing, I guess I feel a bit guilty, but a new tact has forced me down that route. I have noticed that when a 2nd follow up email drops in, I am asked if - following our recent conversation have I got all of the information I requested? What conversation?
What all this has actually done, is to galvanise my belief that the marketing strategy utilised in our industry has to be absolutely spot on. I like to keep things reasonably simple and straightforward, so for me it is about gaining a full understanding of what product or service I am going to offer and by working closely with the manufacturer I can understand their vision of the target market.
It’s then about making the right choice on how to articulate that information and to who. This is where a good understanding of your customer base and prospects is vital and having them segmented so that you are targeting the right people with the right information. It’s not rocket science, we want the best possible return on the time we invest, so why keep flogging a dead horse with the scattergun approach?
I suspect that our marketing team are now panicking, thinking I am going to get involved with their marketing programme. Fear not, we have an abundance of expertise in that area, which certainly doesn’t require my meddling. Instead, I am off to the fairground for a game of Whack-a-Mole.
If you’d like to know more about how you can become part of the wider Advantia team then please do contact us today for a friendly chat.