I welcome the era of "conversation is marketing". I look forward to chat-italism. But, much like at a party where someone unskilled at conversation is trying to be witty and charming, the new landscape is littered with people inventing new faux pas right and left.
I'm going to list a few here, if you have others, please continue the meme or comment.
Blocked, 800, or Bizarre Numbers
On NPR the other day, a report cited some 20% of American households no longer have a land-line. This means everyone has caller ID and everyone uses it. Many people I know will not answer calls they do not recognize.
In this era of aggressive screening, hiding your identity is a quick route to losing customers. Case-in-point, I was waiting for a call from a Microsoft Business Partner liaison yesterday. She was to call at 10 am. She did, promptly. I almost didn't answer because her caller ID was "23032". Not even a phone number.
I have not taken calls from my credit card fraud department (an annoying bunch of people if there ever was one - how many false positives do you need to prove that I travel frequently?) because they show up at 888 numbers which are 99% of the time telemarketers.
Since telemarketers don't want you to know who they are, they frequently hide behind blocked, 800, bizarre or otherwise unrecognized numbers. When your company does this it is a conversation killer.
Legitimate Mail That Looks Like Spam
iKitchen has the worst marketing I have ever seen, so they are an example of the extreme. They have great deals on kitchenware and I have bought a lot of stuff from them. I've also sent them several emails telling them to stop having their emails titled things like "DO NOT READ THIS" or "THIS IS NOT A JOKE".
They represent a growing group of legitimate, honest, and good companies that have an incredibly bad sense of what starts a conversation. I understand that they're trying to catch people's attention. However, we often filter our rapid-delete key pressing engine on a simple hierarchy.
1. Does it hint of spam?
2. Is it an advertisement?
3. Do I know this person?
Since iKitchen's emails fail test one 100%, it only has to smack on #2 to be deleted before opening. And it is an ad, so it totally smacks of #2.
Social Media Abuse
Let's just take Twitter abuse. Lately there's been a massive growing trend of "people" following me on Twitter who are not people, but a spam message in a single tweet. This someone usually has a few dozen followers and follows thousands.
The second type of Twitter abuse is using Twitter as a broadcast mechanism. Where you put updates about your company in Twitter and that's all you do. Is this heinously bad? No. People can choose whether to follow you or not. But it is not conversation. It's broadcast using a conversational tool.
How Can You Get Better
Part of being naked is being honest, but also interactive. Naked conversations have two elements: Naked and Conversations. Transparency and interactivity. Your client base needs to recognize your communication as:
- valid
- honest
- respectful
- a conversation
Don't hide behind weird phone numbers. Don't do the used car-salesman shock approach of iKitchen. And don't use social media as a broadcast tool.
Do create an open invitation to have a meaningful dialog with your customers about what's important to them and important to your company. These people want to buy your stuff. They want to give you money. Take some time out to really interact with them.
Congratulations! You beat me to it for nailing iKitchen on their scary and misleading email subject lines. I have, however, used their emails in presentations to clients on how not to write subject lines.
Posted by: Karen Anderson | 11 July 2008 at 21:35