Are You Pitching Blind Prospects?
(By Gil Gerretsen) You get them. I get them. It’s the constant barrage of marketing outreach campaigns via email, social media, and even text messaging. If you are currently using these techniques, have you been frustrated by your results?
If you have been disappointed by your outreach marketing campaigns, then consider first the underlying problem and challenge. The recipient doesn't know you. Do you really think they are going to buy your product or service when no prior relationship exists? It is the epitome of folly.
Sure, if you throw enough of your marketing outreach campaign efforts at a huge list of prospects you may bump into a person here and there who will buy from you, but is that really the type of customer you want? Customers like that tend to fall for the next blind pitch just as easily and ten you'll get dumped in the process.
If you look back at history -- centuries, not months -- you'll see that people do business with other people they have come to trust. Ultimately, productive business revenue grows from the cultivation of supportive relationships.
How do you build trust? Create familiarity.
How do you build familiarity? Tell relevant stories.
The human brain remembers stories much better than statements or simplistic inquiries. Think of stories as the green traffic light at an intersection. You may proceed. Anything else gets the red light.
To your further advantage, people share interesting stories. It's the foundation for word of mouth and that is where the majority of new business comes from. All other marketing really just fuels and reinforces word of mouth.
Once you have your key stories, repeat them over and over. Entrench them. Become famous for just a few of your stories. They will become part of your brand.
Your marketing outreach campaigns don't need new stories every day. Just a few favorite ones that resonate with your target community will make you memorable and interesting. Newsworthy. Funny. Thought provoking.
But stories you must have. People need to hear those core stories many times, ideally from different people.
People won't pay any attention to your outreach marketing efforts, nor do business with you, until they have a sense of who you are. That you can be trusted to make their life better in some way -- because they've already heard the stories about you from other people they trust.
As you shift your outreach strategy to this style of messaging, here’s one final tip. Keep your stories short and simple. If they get too long or complex, they become harder to share and that will reduce your results.
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