Stickiness is not a Marketing Strategy
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Angela Brown, Business Development Specialist at
Venable LLP is today’s guest blogger:
No matter where you are in your career or what industry you’re in, chances are you’re constantly being bombarded with the next big thing when it comes to marketing your brand.
The way that we work and communicate has changed so much that our attention spans are increasingly short and our brains are increasingly fried. We’re always on – tethered to BlackBerries and iPhones, checking emails from soccer games and taking conference calls from airport terminals.
Twenty-four-hour news cycles have given way to up-to-the-minute blog posts, and every time you think you’ve mastered the latest and greatest social networking tool, another one comes along and it’s time to play catch up.
Trying to establish or sustain a career in a challenging economy while staying on top of industry trends and living your life is a recipe for burnout. So you start to slip, and common courtesies and best practices go out the window. We’ve become so consumed with what’s next, we have forgotten the basics.
I’ve seen it everywhere lately. I see it when a disgruntled blogger posts about a pitch they received from an individual or company that clearly has no idea what they write about or who their audience is. I see it when I receive pitches for services I don’t need or don’t have the authority to buy. And I see it when people flock to social media sites, post once and never return.
The people and companies that make these mistakes have one thing in common – they are members of the “throw spaghetti at wall” school of thought, choosing to take action without direction in hopes that their efforts will stick. But stickiness is not a marketing strategy.
If you treat your marketing and branding efforts like spaghetti, you won’t get very far.
A sticky marketing approach will get you two things:
- You will risk alienating your audience.
- You and/or your brand will lose credibility.
To the first point, the worst thing about sticky marketing is that it’s self-serving. Sticky marketers are so consumed with their product, their service and what they believe to be newsworthy, that they give little consideration to the needs, wants or interests of the people on the other side. They’re looking inward and working backward.
Under ideal circumstances, the point of sale shouldn’t be your first encounter with a blogger, prospective client or consumer. From performing extensive market research to gain insight into consumer wants, needs and complaints, to monitoring blogs and commenting on posts prior to engaging the authors (and engaging them with relevance), what the marketing strategists behind the most successful businesses have in common is that they look outward with their efforts.
Savvy marketing strategists recognize the importance of understanding the needs of your audience first. Never assume that a prospect wants or needs what you have to offer because their name appeared in a search or on a list. Do your research, listen, establish and cultivate the relationship, and go from there. Every move you make should be client or prospect focused, and you must continue to nurture that relationship for the long term. They’ll thank you for it and tell their friends.
Going about it any other way sends the message that you can’t be bothered to tailor your approach to what your audience truly wants or needs, and there is no faster way to get them to write you off.
Loss of credibility is a natural byproduct of alienating your audience with a sticky marketing strategy. Credibility is based on trust, which is extremely difficult to gain if you don’t take the time that an outside-in marketing approach requires. And in the same way that a business can reap the benefits of word of mouth when it comes to a job well done, word gets around when you compromise credibility with the wrong person.
The proliferation of new media has given a new voice to consumers and influencers, and increased the speed with which they can sing your praises or verbally rake you over the coals. Choosing sticky marketing over a thoughtful, consumer-centric approach can make the difference between building a stable of loyal brand evangelists and having your brand skewered on a blog (or in the mainstream media). And when it comes to earning trust and building the lasting relationships that will carry your business forward, sticky marketing just doesn’t work.
There will always be new ways for us improve and change the way that we work, but we can’t forget the fundamentals. Save the spaghetti for supper.
Green Buzz Agency wants to thank Angela Brown for her great guest blog post!
To Contact Angela Email: angelabrown810@gmail.com
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Great post. This strategy totally makes sense and echos my own intuition and the way I want to market. I believe in relationship marketing to people I actually know or at least have met, rather than trying to spew thoughts at random strangers. Yet, I’m inundated with constant messages that the way to market is to push my message to the masses and blog my brains out. I speak when I have something to say, and I like to say it to people who it will resonate with, ie. my target market, not the masses. I’d rather send an enewsletter to 500 people each month that are in my target market, who I’ve started to build a relationship with (and many of whom I’ve built a strong relationship with), rather than blindly send to 5,000 people in a database hoping something sticks.
I wish you well, and I intend to continue following this advice because it works. Relationship marketing is for the long haul. People may buy on a whim because they are hungry, the timing was right, or some other emotional reason. But if you are a trusted advisor, they’ll keep coming back to you because of the relationship.
Lori T. Williams, Esq., Owner/Managing Attorney Your Legal Resource, PLLC
I could not agree more. We constantly provide over and above service and our existing client base appreciates it. I formerly worked for a company that literally made me sick of “shaghetti” with managements hands of attitude towrds client follow up! Your post really hit home.
Denise Elaine Abshire
Chief Executive Officer
A.I.R. Destination & Event Management Inc
PO Box 36281
Indianapolia,, Indiana 48236
Thank you both for your comments! I’m glad that you agree. What inspired me to write this, and continues to amaze me is the number of senior, trained marketing and communications professionals that continue to take this approach. I think that it’s particularly pervasie with so many new forms of marketing and engagement. There is a greater tendency now to select tactics and work backwards rather than identifying client/audience focused goals and work from there.