Intrusive Marketing vs. Attraction Marketing

I’m convinced that traditional marketers don’t understand marketing online.  They think that the old style of intrusive marketing (or marketing by intimidation) thus shoving their stuff in your face works online.

No one goes online to see your ads, your company or what’s on sales at your store. No one goes online to really find out anything about you at all!  They only go online to find out about them. Are you intruding in their space… getting in their face… oblivious to the fact that they  just don’t care? Why is that?

Attraction marking is the only way to market online.  People who transition from print, radio and TV are totally missing the mark.  On those medium people are trapped.  If you are watching Oprah and want to see the next diet or ‘who the real father is…’, you have to stay through the commercial break.  That’s why they call it a cliffhanger.  Because they leave the person hanging off of the cliff until they come back.

Online, if you aren’t interesting… people will be gone and they will never return.  They may even label you as a spammer. They don’t have to be there like they do on TV.  Online, people are not trapped.  They’re not hanging off of a cliff.   There is no incentive to be there one second longer than they need to be.

Intrusive marketing doesn’t work! It’s like trying to push a string… If you want to move a string, you need to pull, not push. Guess what… people aren’t interested in you!  They are interested in them!

Before you make your next post, before you make your next tweet… ask yourself… “Is this really about me or is this about them?”

Is 10% off my store merchandise about them or me? (really?)

Is information about my services about them or me? (really?)

Is shoving my services in their face really about them or me? Ask yourself… would you want to read this article, email or tweet? If not, why would they? Add value to their life and grow your follower base, customer base and attract more business. Shove your issues in their face and lose customers, followers and respect.

The Exception or ‘The Rule’?

Are you the exception or are you ‘the rule’? I know it’s a line from a dating movie, but it’s more than that…

Here’s a dose of reality… average sucks! Too many people are complacent with it because getting beyond ‘ok’ is too difficult.

Many people see others that are beyond ‘ok’ and figure that those people got lucky or have extraordinary talent. That’s very rare… it’s probably a result of someone who didn’t settle for average.

‘The rule’ is people are lazy. ‘The rule’ is people give up. ‘The rule’ is people don’t try. ‘The rule’ is people settle. ‘The rule’ is people stay in their comfort zone. ‘The rule’ is if you want something different, you have to be the exception… that’s why they call it exceptional.

They don’t give medals for average. They give them for being the best!  Go be the best!  The second best lawyer at a trial – lost, so did the second best goalie. The second best fighter pilot is dead. What was that one guy’s name that lost to Michael Phelps in the Olympics by 1/100^th of a second? I don’t know and I don’t care.

Society rewards the winner! Forget ‘the rule!’ Let other people follow the rules. Break the rules! Defy the odds! Be the exception! Be exceptional!

Corporate Whack-A-Mole?

I’m sick of watching people put round pegs into round holes and then patting themselves on the back for ‘thinking out of the box!’ Doing what you are expected to do… they way it’s always been done… isn’t ‘thinking out of the box’ it actually is, in fact, ‘the box!’

I met up with a group a CEO’s that ‘believe’ that they ‘think out of the box’. Thinking out of the box isn’t a belief, it’s an action. When amazing ideas get crushed by a homogeneous group of people that have ‘tried something like that before…’ I call that corporate Whack- A-Mole. My definition of corporate Whack-A-Mole is when someone actually starts to stick their head out of a box and others immediately crush their idea (whack them on the head), to get them back in the box… just like in the carnival game.

Granted, not every idea is brilliant, but mediocrity sucks! I’d rather crash and burn than be average ANY DAY! Many people put down your ideas because of their fears of your success. It could be because they actually tried something similar and it didn’t work for them, but it’s more likely that they just don’t want it to work for you. Maybe they were too afraid of trying something new and they don’t want you to either. It could be they just don’t want you to succeed. People put down others’ ideas for a multitude of reasons beyond the possibility of failure. Usually it’s some sort of manifestation of their own fears.

The real question is when people are playing corporate Whack-A-Mole with your life, whose life are they really afraid of leaving the box? Of course, most people won’t even stick their head out of the box in the first place.