something that resembles a slave market makes imprisoned the free development of ideas almost to the point that we have … created an intellectual slave market — J. A. Brandt
In marketing, there is a concept of bad practice and one can fall for intellectual slavery which is the state of being voluntary bound to intellectual servitude as the mental property of an intellectual slavery; the practice of mentally controlling a person or group of people by one's thoughts and deeds; to be influenced by a group think; to purposely maintain a person or group in order to reduce their chances for prosperity and remain dependent on a person or group.
Historically, marketers have thought that the more people they can contact, the greater the response, and therefore the sales. This was somewhat true in the past when the market was less saturated, customers had more time to listen, and media channels were more interesting to them. Today customers don't listen, not only because there are more marketers trying to capture their attention or because they have less time, but also because many marketers aren't caring, helpful or entertaining enough. Unnecessarily annoying consumers is making it harder for everyone else, including you. Those customers will become more reluctant to engage with marketing.
It is bad enough that so many brands compete for the same customers, but it makes it even worse when others that have nothing helpful to offer or say simply join the noise. Thoroughly describing a target based on what marketers sell (not just products, but unique selling points) and where it is sold will help marketers be more focused, and therefore helpful.
Part of the problem is that marketers today don't have enough resources, relevant information and time to do a good job at trying to target so many potential customers. It's important to estimate how much you have to invest per customer to have a good chance at selling something by being helpful; then, by dividing the marketing budget by that number, you will come up with how many customers you can afford to target. It is far more effective to be helpful to a few than annoying to many. This way, we will all reduce the number of unnecessary contacts so everyone has a better chance to succeed and customers will be respected and helped.
Conclusion
In order for marketers to maintain their influential role in consumers' decisions and behaviour, we have to do a much better job of only contacting the right targets with helpful, caring and entertaining information. Personal marketing is more difficult to plan and execute, but it is the only way to convince customers that today is the day they should buy from you.
One of the biggest mistakes in marketing is to think that marketers are the experts when the truth is that customers are. The customer tells us if we are right or wrong. Still, in most cases, we don't listen to them such as daily email marketing to their inbox or insistent phone call on the weekly basis.
If you want to learn to target the right group of customers for your market attend our Social Sales Growth Strategy Program open to all from the 06/09/17 and learn to segment your market correctly and acquire the right customers for your business.
Trisha Amable CEO of Girlfridayz
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