Secrets of Post-Modern Business #1 – Attract, Don’t Pursue

To get and keep customers better, attract -- don’t pursue.

Over the last few weeks I’ve been on a binge. No, not the liquid kind. Been signing up here and there for newsletters from sources I thought would have something to say. After critical reading, I’m dumping some and keeping a select few. I realized this holds a marketing lesson to share with you.

The newsletter thing is touted as a golden inroad to your customer’s inbox. To some degree it gets you there. But frankly, it’s already getting a little old. You know, you’re out there on the web, you visit an interesting site, there’s a free information incentive available like an article or an e-book. But you have to sign up for the email newsletter to get the freebie. You glance at the privacy policy.

You think, “Well, why not, I’m curious enough to give out my email address, since they promise they won’t share it. And I can always opt out later if it sucks. And my spam blocker works pretty well. . .”

You sign up. Their auto responder sends you the freebie plus the current newsletter issue before you can say “in box.” If you like it at first, you may not like the umpteenth issue and all the intervening hard sell emails they hit you with.

When you get tired of their spam or realize the newsletter isn’t worthwhile, you opt out. It stops coming, but now you’re on their list, so the hard sell emails continue. You just mark it as spam and life goes on. Except that now instead of 100 spam messages an hour you’re getting 101.

Now their image is tarnished in your mind. They didn’t exactly tell you the whole truth. In their ardency to sell to everyone, they didn’t consistently deliver solid value that made the subscription worthwhile. Now you don’t really like them any more.

The net result, then, of their campaign, relative to you, is a minus one customer. Exactly the opposite of the intended result. They are working against their own best interests because they aren’t keeping straight what effect they have in the mind of their market.

They didn’t attract you. Except maybe at first, to get the subscription. They pursued you. And you ended up running away.

Attract. Don’t pursue. Consistently.

OK, that was the dark side of newsletter based email marketing. Those are the ones I delete. But there’s a light side too.

You manage to get one email newsletter that consistently enlightens, an exception. Your attitude about it is entirely different. You actually buy stuff once in a while, when you have a need, from this person who consistently delivers solid value – information that attracts by rewarding you, not pursuing you.

You come to anticipate their newsletter like a treat that shows up unexpectedly to brighten your day. When you see the Sender and Subject Line in your inbox you know it’s going to be good.

This marketer is achieving the real intent of an email newsletter. They are being a friend. They are also selling something in every issue, but you just don’t care about that, or you may actually enjoy considering what they offer because they provide such solid value consistently.

No hard sell, so your resistance is never triggered.

They attract. They don’t pursue.

They are like an ocean pilot in a storm with attention riveted on the compass. They never lose focus on the effect of what they do and how they are doing it – in the mind of their market – in your mind. What a great lesson.

I believe the next wave of email newsletter marketing should adopt a running renewal policy and mechanism. The customer’s subscription should last only through the next issue. Or maybe two issues. All subscriptions should automatically expire unless the recipient opens, reads, appreciates, and renews the issues regularly.

I can hear a lot of groaning and denial out there about that last notion. Hard sell people will have fits about this idea. But wait a minute. With required renewals, several good things happen.

You have to wake up to the real effect your email newsletter campaign has in your subscription base. And fix it if it’s broken.

There would be significantly less spam on the web. That would be a good thing.

You could tout auto cancellation as a desirable feature. “Less spam automatically. Unless you keep inviting us, we don’t show up to bug you.”

You would be forced to attract and not pursue. Publishing your newsletter would be a high wire act where you HAVE to provide relevant, valuable content each time. Or disappear.

Your customer base would like and respect you more in this age of permission marketing. Hard sell is dying as we get hip. Soft sell works better now.

If you’re so hard core with hard sell, try this. Even if you cling to hard sell, my general thesis works.

You’d be less manic about response rates, but response would probably improve. Maybe you’ll stop thinking 4% is good response. Or 10%.

Maybe some of my least favorite marketers would stop making fools of themselves with fake deadlines they keep extending. And the expired offers immediately repeated under new fake deadlines that also get extended. Come ON. Say what you do and do what you say.

You can have the one newsletter that distinguishes itself and hangs in there long term to accomplish the real intent.

But only if you attract, and don’t pursue.

Psychology demonstrates intermittent reinforcement is a powerful attractor. It stops working, though, when there’s no longer a reward. Or if it turns to a punishment.