I never intended to do something like this. However, this very same marketing expert’s products encouraged me to speak up when I see something I don’t agree with.
Note: I am going to continue to follow this marketer, as his site has attracted lots of attention and has some great information.
I had found out about an upcoming seminar via a Facebook group, but the only information included was a link to the actual web conference room. I dug around his website using the search bar and going through recent posts only to find no information or plugs for it.
1) Word of mouth marketing can only go so far. Keep your website current and easily navigable. If you have an event coming up that day, I expect to see something about it within a few seconds of looking at your website. I took extra time to search around, which isn’t a luxury a lot of folks are willing to indulge on you.
But since I had enjoyed this marketer’s posts before, I started searching around for e-mails about this. Suddenly I remembered one I received not long ago:
Subject: Too Much E-mail?
2) Don’t allow your customers to question your methods or view them in a negative light. I remembered that I got on a specific e-mail list about an e-product of his, but apparently I wasn’t on his main list. At least I didn’t think so.
While I hadn’t considered before if I had gotten too much e-mail, suddenly I decided to check. I had gotten five e-mails in 24 hours from this person.
“Huh,” I thought. “Maybe I am getting too much. I’ll just unsubscribe.” This had happened about a month ago, and that’s why I didn’t know about the seminar.
Finally, I decided to ask directly via Twitter about the seminar.
Me: Are you doing a webinar today? I know there is one on the 16th.
3) Space out your marketing efforts. I never expected that this marketer would have two different seminars within a week of each other. It seemed like overkill.
You know, kind of like the number of e-mails I received.
Mega-uber-marketing-guru: Yup, both
I kid you not. This is the response I got.
No link.
No date.
No time.
No nothing.
I replied asking for more information and got this several hours later.
Mega-uber-marketing-guru: just happened, but maybe I can get you on a replay – email me
4) Don’t fail at reaching out to a follower. Yes, we all are busy. Yes, Twitter has a limit on the number of characters you can use. But this marketer had 131 characters left initially to give me something, and I didn’t get anything.
The second Tweet I got was too little and too late. Plus, the “maybe” suggests that even if I take still more time to contact this marketer via another method (that I will also have to apparently find myself), I may not even get the information I seek.
Obviously, this has put a bad taste in my mouth. I’m wondering now if I should even attend the upcoming webinar.
Despite this, I once again picked up his popular 200-plus page e-book, which was free, but it’s kind of a tough read. The first 30 pages are just filler about what the book is about and about other products.
It turns out that most of the book and its bonus products were created by other people. It’s essentially a “Here’s How I Did It” compendium of marketing case studies.
5) When in doubt, surround yourself with a great team. The best part about this book so far is a bonus document written by someone else who isn’t part of his marketing team.
It’s been extremely useful and in part inspired this post!
What are some marketing flubs you have noticed or committed yourself? What suggestions or improvements do you have for my blog or site? Let me know in the comments below.
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