Shall I ‘wrap’ it for you?
No, this is not a blog on wasteful packaging; I’ll leave that to a friend of mine who hates packaging and plans to start his own blog on it ;-)
After reading Permission Marketing by Seth Godin (which, again, made me stop and think several times) I decided on two things: focus our marketing strategy for next year on this principle, and that something was missing in Seth’s book.
According to Seth Permission Marketing works when the message you send out is:
- Anticipated (it’s no use buying lists containing email-addresses of people who have never heard from you and probably don’t want to hear from you anyway)
- Relevant (your message should contain information that the reader/listener is really interested in to read/hear; don’t go on and on about your company)
- Personal (spend time to create a specific message this specific person wants to read/hear; the message to his/her neighbour will be different)
But sending out RAP-messages (I like acronyms, but ARP sounds too much like selling a loan or mortgage, so allow me some creativity ;-)) doesn’t tick all the boxes in turning strangers into friends, friends into prospects, prospects into happy customers.
It ticks more boxes than spam, more boxes than adds in newspapers and magazines, and more boxes than a website that doesn’t entice ‘visitors’ to take action.
But something significant is missing to achieve that ultimate goal of marketing: turning a stranger into a happy customer.
- Worthwhile, or in marketing terms: WII.FM (What’s in it for me).
The messages should also be worthwhile, a promise that the one who benefits most from the message is the reader/listener. Then it ticks all the boxes.
Hence, WRAP your message ;-)
