It’s never been easier to reach potential customers, yet the reality is that most outreach efforts are being ignored. Digital tools have flooded inboxes with a tsunami of generic, unsolicited messages. Once, nearly everything got opened — now, email open rates are as low as junk mail rates.
We are all increasingly wary of scams, which feed the above
Cold calling by phone is similarly suffering.
I would get two or three cold calls a day, none of which get a response beyond a blocking of the caller number.
Text messaging is going the same way, rapidly.
The vital question for marketers is obviously how do you break through this barrier of denial.
Here are four suggestions.
Quality personalised content. This takes time, money, but most particularly intimate understanding of the behavior and competitive context of your defined best customer prospects.
Relevance and timing. Focus on the most relevant communication channel and be very sensitive to the business cycles that impact your best customer prospects. Failure to do both will mean your message will be just another piece of auto-generated blurb.
Authenticity: This is a much used and overused term. Nevertheless, standing out by being real, transparent, and trustworthy in a sea of automated noise is essential.
Value driven engagement. Another of those overused cliches is ‘engagement’. However, it is a cliché for a reason. Providing immediate, clear value in every interaction through the conversion process, building trust at every stage is essential. Your prospect must see the value that makes it worthwhile to move a further stage through the conversion process.
Refining these strategies by continuously testing and improving them will give you the edge over mass produced blurb in the crowded to overflowing inbox facing your prospects every morning.
While this is easy to say, and write in a blog post, it is very hard to do. You need an expert, to direct the process.
