Marketing ≠ Manipulation
Don’t design your marketing to bamboozle and frustrate people. It’s a form of entitlement on your company’s part that will always put you in second place.
Image: stop with the marketing fan dance, black box with white writing
Call me impatient but:
1. I want to know exactly what you do in one line or less somewhere on your website, especially if you contact me out of the blue
2. I don't want to have to resort to Google searches to find your prices. And stop writing sales pages like it’s a bloody recipe blog
3. If I have a problem with your product or service, I want a clear path to troubleshooting it on your blog, FAQ, or help files
4. I have no interest in hearing wankerisms or words from your Nan’s thesaurus when plain speaking language could do the job
Let me self-research!
Forcing people to wade through content that teases but doesn’t answer questions to contact you to get clarity isn’t a warm lead. It’s not even a cold lead. It’s a customer with some strong objections who feels like you’re wasting their time who is desperate for relief.
That kind of manipulation might get you a sale initially, but you can forget loyalty. I’ll be buying the minimum with an eye to replace you the first chance I get, eager to tell my own story of consumer pain (and how to avoid it) on any social media post or forum I see.
“But you’re just not my ideal customer!”
Who is? The confused, compliant, silently frustrated person who is will eventually explode at you after one too any tricks are played?
Doesn’t sound like a long-term strategy when you put it that way, now does it?
Don’t design your marketing to bamboozle and frustrate people. Stand by your merits, not the games you play.