Watching the Rio Olympics in August, I was struck by just how persistent (indeed aggressive) some of the Gold Medal winners had to be. For example, 58 year-old Nick Skelton who won Gold in the Individual Show Jumping for Team GB has been to SEVEN Olympic Games!
Persistence is essential to success in any endeavor and business is no exception. However, most marketers give up on prospects too soon and fail to communicate enough with existing customers. Part of the reason for that is an understandable fear of coming across as annoying. So, here are 3 KEYS to marketing with the persistence of an Olympic Champion and being a welcome guest – not an annoying pest.
First, you need to be INTERESTING. Remember that you’re competing for attention against hundreds, if not thousands of other messages every day. You need to stand out from the crowd and be genuinely different and interesting. Dan Kennedy once proclaimed Being Boring as the #1 Marketing Sin.
Next, you need to be RELEVANT. That means attracting the right people in the first place and then targeting your message. Most likely, you may need to SEGMENT your list to make it possible to focus your message to make it even more relevant. This is why lead generation within your own list is such a good idea. An added bonus…more relevant messages will most likely be more interesting as well.
Third point…be WELCOME. What kind of relationship do you have with the audience? You might well have taken the time to build trust and demonstrate authority with new prospects or cutomers. But what have you done lately? You can’t take customers for granted. A further point…how are you communicating? Is it a way that customers like and prefer or simply convenient for you? Email, for example, is quick and cheap, but not the best way to reach some audiences.
Neither persistence or aggressiveness are the true problems when response is not satisfactory. The real issue will involve one or all of these three factors.