Scary Marketing Strategy: Are You One of These Marketing Monsters?

No matter which industry you’re in, keeping in touch with your clients until they’re ready for your services is crucial for a successful marketing strategy. But even those with the best of intentions can sometimes come off a bit scary thanks to a few common marketing pitfalls. Read these descriptions to figure out which monster most resembles your marketing strategy style and what you can do to replace your spooky tricks with delicious treats.

Ghost

Are you haunting your clients with too many emails, phone calls or letters? I understand the impulse — after all, staying in touch with your clients after a completed transaction will keep you from blindsiding them with communication when you’re ready to ask for their business or for referrals. However, we’ve all hit the unsubscribe button when a company sends us too many emails. As an avid online shopper I enjoy relevant emails about products I’m interested in, but I don’t need to hear from these stores more than once or twice a month, or I’m over it. Stop haunting me, American Apparel!

Get back into the land of the living.

Follow best practices by contacting your clients directly twice a month and updating your social sites every two to three days. If they hold a séance (call or send you an email) feel free to respond or follow up, but don’t spook them in the middle of the night by emailing them over and over.

Vampire

Hey there, bloodsucker. While your intentions may be in the right place, if you’re reaching out to your clients with only information about you or your company, you’re probably sending the wrong message. If you’d just gone to the dentist for your annual checkup and found out your pearly white fangs were in tip-top shape, and a week later received a message about a discounted rate on annual checkups, you’d feel like your dentist wasn’t really paying attention. Side note: discounted dentistry is terrifying.

Start eating solid foods again.

Marketing is simple: it isn’t about you. When you give your clients information that is useful or entertaining, you’re letting them know that they don’t need to wear a garlic necklace to ward you off (or unsubscribe from your email list). Let them know that you care about them, and they will remember you when they need your business or have a referral to pass along.

Mummy

Are you still sending snail mail? If so you might be wrapped up in old-school marketing ideas. Do you know how many of those letters are going directly into the recycling bin without being opened? Well, how could you when there is literally no way to track them (short of installing hidden cameras on all of your clients’ mailboxes)? Things like snail mail, fax and ads in yellow pages are mummified, not because they’re uncool, but because there’s no way to track your return on investment.

Come out of the sarcophagus and into the modern world.

If you’re going to put money, energy and, most importantly, time into your marketing strategy, do so in ways you can track. With email marketing you can see performance stats like open and click rates, and with social media you can see how many people like or share your posts. I’m sure that back in your day (2500 B.C.) snail mail made sense, but with so much technology that lets you see how effective your marketing is, there’s no reason not to unravel those bandages and give your marketing some life.

Zombie

If you’re not doing anything at all to stay in touch with your clients, consider yourself a marketing zombie. There you are, sitting at your desk, so immersed in responding to emails and doing paperwork that you sometimes forget to eat a healthy lunch of live human flesh. You might be extra busy, you might think, “I have all the business I need,” or you might not want to “annoy” your clients. The fact is this: if you’re not keeping your name in front of your clients, no matter how long the sales cycle is or how unlikely they are to need you again in the next 12 months, I can guarantee you someone else in your industry is.

Take your rotting corpse to the spa.

Regardless of why you aren’t doing anything, the solution is simple: say hi. Reaching out to your clients on a regular basis lets them know that you care about their business. When they need you, or have a friend who does, not only will you be the first person they think of, but if you follow industry best practices, they’ll know that you are a knowledgeable professional who is more trustworthy and reliable than your competitors. In other words, they’ll know you have brains.

Werewolf

It must be a full moon, because that’s the only time your clients hear from you. If you’re only contacting your client when it’s time for them to renew their policy, upgrade their plumbing, refinance their home, etc., then you are a werewolf. Not only does this make you look wolfish, it tells your clients they are important to you only when you need something from them.

Retract those claws.

Turn that snarl upside down! Reach out to your clients regularly, not just when you’re hunting for prey. You don’t have to bake an apple pie and head over to grandma’s house, but by keeping in touch twice a month, you’re letting them know that they can come to you with questions. More importantly, when their coworker asks if they have a referral in your industry, they won’t say, “Well I used to…I think his name was Scott maybe…really hairy, lots of teeth. He was great to work with. Anyway, I’ll let you know if I remember his name or how to get in touch with him.”

Bringing your monstrous marketing habits under control might take some effort, but your clients and your bottom line will thank you. Now that you’re on your way back to humanity, go forth and terrorize the neighborhood no more! (And have a few pieces of candy. You’ve earned it.)