Do Your Customers Feel Stalked?

I was at a concert last weekend, shaking my booty and singing badly.    I try to make up for talent with enthusiasm. 

Several sponsors were there doing their best to promote their brands and gather email addresses.    The Finlandia Vodka girls were working the crowd passing out cards to fill out with your information.   In return for your email address, zip code and age, you were rewarded with.....a straw.   I passed.

Lots of other groups came around with various giveaways.   All were trying to collect email addresses.  The only one who got my info was, actually, the Finlandia girls on round two when they had really cool beach towels.  And then, they got a fake age and my throw-away aol address.

You want my real email address?  One I actually check?   You have to build a relationship with me first.   My email is sacred space.   I actively comb it for unwanted messages and report spam diligently.

If we've actually started a relationship, and I agree to let you send me email, you have to respect that relationship.   Too many companies take advantage of my permission.  They bombard me with emails day after day after day.   I feel smothered.  I feel taken advantage of.  Especially since the vast majority of these emails are pushing me to take an action I don't want to take.   What part of "no" do you not understand?

Are you stalking your customers? 

 

No one likes their personal space invaded, but I would argue that women are especially sensitive to it.   

Vehicles like email and live chat are very powerful and can help build relationships and increase conversion.  But they can also destroy relationships. And just like a bad boyfriend, she is likely to warn her friends about her bad experience.

So what can you do to make sure you are not stalking your customers?

- Give her the option of how often she wants to hear from you (every day, once a week, once every two weeks, once a month, etc.)

- Send her relevant information on topics she is interested in.  Don't just constantly ask her to buy products.   

- Keep it short (especially with newsletters)  She doesn't have time to read a lot of material, keep it short and keep it relevant.

- Stay away from "sales-y" language.   You are building a relationship.  Use a more conversational tone.   

For some great ideas, specifically on newsletters, read Karen Gedney's article on "in box feng shui."

Email is just one area you need to be very respectful of.    Watch out for other ways you are pissing your customers off.   

Comments

[stockhelps]

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[Holly Buchanan]

LOL! I'm leaving up this spam comment because it so perfectly proves my point.

Bizmakers.org is invading my personal space. This comment field is for people who want to share their opinion on the topic posted.

It is NOT a place where spammers and obnoxious sellers can hock their wares.

They are using my personal space for free advertising.

Is that any way to start a relationship? Is this someone I want to do business with????? No way.

Holly

[Stephanie]

Don't you just love it when spammers prove your points? My site got a comment from them too, but of course it wasn't appropriate, and was deleted.

Sad part is how often spam comments make it through.

[Victor]

This is a great post! Though its light hearted, you touch on a really serious underlying issue that just so many people don't get. Advertising must be on the customers terms! This is not a generation issue; it is a revision to the science of marketing. Any invasive advertising is immediately dismissed.

Spamming is the most egregious form of invasive marketing. Seriously, nothing demonstrates a companies lack of marketing savvy more than spam. The exception being those nifty nigerian email scams :)

In general, any marketing or communications on your end must be subservient to the user's actions. Take MOXI DVR for instance, offered by Time Warner cable. If you click on the menu button, there is a 'movies playing' option you can click on to checkout whats on. But what do they do? Time Warner ingeniously decides to list 89 pay per view movies that no one will ever buy - thus conditioning people to avoid this function at all costs. And how many more pay per view movies does this sell for them? My guess is 3 a year.

[Rachael]

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[Masahiro]

Plz plz someone help me no smthyypy but I'm 18 ben livin on my own a year more income,work whatever I need HELP please someone get to me at my email I juss got a blckberry storm so i can now repliy since I don't have my own personnall computer?? .