What does your digital reflection look like?
About nine months ago, I really screwed up. In a moment of weakness and morbid curiosity, I responded to an internet ad for information on refinancing with a very low mortgage rate. I found myself getting sucked into the experience. The further I got into the process the more uncomfortable I was with the information I needed to provide. Before I could restrain myself I had provided my property address, my email address and my cell phone number. Big mistake!
Almost immediately I received several emails and phone calls from not just one, but no less than three different mortgage companies. That is when I really started to regret my insatiable desire for an experience. After taking several phone calls and responding to several emails telling them to opt me out I just gave up.
That was nine months ago and still today I get a call every other day from a telemarketer. Oh, they have gotten smarter. They know my gender and my age. They know that men my age are more willing to listen to the attractive voice of a twenty something female. The recording was high quality, with pauses in the correct spots and initially fooled me into thinking I was actually talking to a real person. Maybe it got too expensive pursuing me as a lead to use a real live person after all this time. Maybe they are giving up on me. I hope so.
As a Marketer, I should have known better. I should have ignored the too good to be true offer. But overall the experience itself was a good lesson. My perception of this negative experience and how I felt has provided me a true understanding of what not to do when engaging customers on the web. Internet based web forms allow consumers of an easy way to gain information and knowledge about your products before they ever need to contact you. Make the experience one that is memorable and portrays a respectable digital reflection of you and your organization.
Suggestions for managing your digital marketing campaign
- Avoid getting too much information at one time. Use progressive forms to build the data profile.
- Be a responsible custodian of data. Use data timely and effectively in your customer’s journey. You don’t need to let your consumer know everything you know about them.
- Educate your consumer. Most people don’t mind giving up a little personal information to gain knowledge. Let them make the decision to work with you. Avoid the hard selling techniques.
- If the consumer is engaged, continue to educate and provide more information at the appropriate times. Move them down the customer journey.
- If it is just not working, stop already. You don’t want to be remembered for offending someone.
- Market as if you’re not selling anything. Consumers resist being sold to and in today’s world, people search for information and knowledge giving them the power to make intelligent decisions. The best sale is done before you even know you sold anything.
- Use technology effectively. Marketing today leverages the behaviors of consumers and leads them down a sales journey without an overt sales persona.
The one response mechanism I will never use for refinancing a mortgage in the future is the web. That industry is tarnished forever in my mind. Fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice shame on me.
What does your digital reflection look like? Will people remember you as a positive or negative experience?
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