Lessons from Blast Emails
Every two weeks, I receive an email from a legal staffing vendor. Each time I receive it, I deleted it. Each time I went through that short process, I was annoyed. Today, I finally unsubscribed. It is highly unlikely I will ever choose to do business with this company, and the annoying blast emails, which send me information I don't want at a time I don't want it, will be one of the principal reasons why. I have to believe that the company did not intend to trigger this reaction: to the contrary, they probably view these emails as an important part of their marketing. But I also have to believe that my reaction is not unique. But I am not writing to tell this story--instead I am wondering what lessons I should learn about my own marketing efforts.
Here are my top lessons:
1. As enamored as I am with our story, the prospective client doesn't care about our story. He or she cares about his or her issues.
2. Talking about "us" is not useful--it is counterproductive.
3. Selling solutions is much better than selling pieces with the idea that the client will assemble a solution.
4. If my goal is to get on someone's radar screen, my outreach has to be either useful or funny. Serious and sales-y, not so much.
Now, to put those lessons to work.
