Have you experienced this yet? A random number texts you “HUGE SALE ON (Insert product), BEST PRICE IN TOWN, LOOK NO FURTHER FOR YOUR (Insert product) NEEDS!”
It has happened a couple of times now and I don’t like it. Here’s why if you use text-message advertising we’re both losing.
1. I have not given you permission to interrupt me on my phone, doing so makes me strongly dislike whatever the message is you want me to read.
2. You seem lazy and disrespectful, I want to return the favor. I’ll call you back or MySask411 your number to see who you are and when I find out I’ll realize how elementary your understanding of marketing really is. I will not forget this.
3. The more niche focused your text-message deal is, the better your chance of it being completely unrelated to my purchasing patterns. EXAMPLE: Niche focus, “HUGE SALE ON GRANITE” Broad focus: “HALF OFF ICE CREAM AT COLD STONE” – The first one you lose all credibility, the second only works if the person receiving the text sees value in what you’re texting.
Moral of the story? Lay off the Spam sandwiches, you’re hurting your personal brand and wasting my time.
Last Saturday morning I was woken at 9:45 by my doorbell. No one comes to our house that early, it could be an emergency I thought to myself, so I staggered out of my room. My room mate, in the same state (squinting eyes, wearing the pants from last night) was a step a head of me and opened the door. To our dismay we found no one, just a little, old man leaving the yard going to the neighbors house. We thought nothing of it except for how mad we were at this little, old man that got us with the ol’ ring and run trick. Back to sleep.
Two and a half hours later I finally woke from my sleep and decided to check the temperature before I left the house. Standing on the front porch something in the mailbox caught my eye, it was a “Heaven, how do I get there?” pamphlet. The little, old man didn’t ring and run our house for nothing, he woke us up to ensure we got this pamphlet in time. I think you understand the title for this post now.
Heaven’s a touchy subject, but I think Church is great, I try to go as much as I can and this has nothing to do with Church in general. This has to do with the specific Church that lets this little, old man walk around neighborhoods ringing doorbells to try and get their message across. Let’s think about this for a minute, how many people will answer the door, find that there’s no one there but grab the pamphlet that was left behind and say “You know I have been wondering for a while, how DO I get to Heaven?” I’d be willing to bet no one.
So why ring the door bell? The pamphlet isn’t time sensitive, I don’t need to read it immediately do I? What ever happened to mail delivery etiquette and just leaving it in the box that it was intended for? If your message is a difficult one to get across you may not want to piss people off before you tell them.
So do you want to know how to make me hate your organization no matter who you are? Wake me up on a weekend to tell me your message, I guarantee I will hate you.
