Annoying Sales & Marketing Tactics
Annoying Tactic #1: Launch a campaign without communicating it to everyone who needs to know internally.
Yes, if we told you we’d have to kill you. It’s that secret! Or, just not well communicated. There’s a fine line between keeping everyone in the loop and spamming everyone with constant updates. Personally, I’d rather err on the side of caution and go with the borderline spam. At least that way I never hear that dreaded phrase “Well nobody told ME that”. In my opinion, the more informed the employees are, the more interested and invested they are in making the company work and grow successfully. Maybe that’s just me.
Annoying Tactic #2: Contact everyone at the company you have contact info for to push a deal.
While erring to spam internally doesn’t bother me, constant follow up when I have no say in a matter does. I read an interesting blog a few months ago and man does it ring true. Listen up…if I’ve told you that you need to talk to a certain person that’s obviously not me, don’t keep sending me e-mails and calling me. Despite the word “assistant” in my (former) title, I am not this person’s secretary and cannot get them to call you back any faster if they are not interested or, better yet, not in the office. I’ve never been one to respond well to hard sales even if I was genuinely interested in the product. So back off, Salesman Steve. We’ll get to you when we’re good and ready.
Annoying Tactic #3: Make sure everyone you’ve ever met knows where you work and how they could use you.
There’s a fine line between informative introductions and obnoxious introductions. If someone you meet at a show or other non-work related function asks what you do or where you work, don’t be afraid to tell them. It might spark their interest and give you a wide opportunity to explain to them how great your company is without shoving it down their throat. But be careful not to be obnoxious. Princeton’s WordNet search defines obnoxious as “objectionable: causing disapproval or protest”. So don’t leave a sour taste in people’s minds about your company by announcing it off the bat when you shake hands. Yes shows are great networking opportunities, but if you go around spewing information about your company to everyone who didn’t ask, they won’t be likely to use you. Saturation is not always good.
Annoying Tactic #4: Miss deadlines
Missing so many deadlines that the promotion or campaign is practically a moot idea is the most annoying of all. When people get a postcard for a sale and the sale is halfway over, they tend to be ticked off about it and it really doesn’t encourage them to go order right away to take advantage. I know, I’ve received many a sale card mid-sale and thought simply “well, that’s a sale I won’t be able to hit”. Marketing is all about timeliness, so missing the mark is just poor form. It doesn’t motivate your customers to take action and it holds back other people within your department trying to work on the same project.
Read MoreEek! Affiliate Summit Almost Sold Out!
That’s right, the summit is almost sold out! “As of this morning, we are at 85 percent capacity,” said Affiliate Summit Co-Founder Shawn Collins. “Based on historical data, the rest of the space is going to go quick.”
The keynote speaker for Monday, February 25 will be Jason Calacanis, founder of Mahalo.com. The conference will also feature Moniker’s Live Domain Auctions, the Affiliate Summit Pinnacle Awards Gala, and nearly 70 expert speakers
During the Affiliate Summit 2008 West, marketers will gather and learn from one another in a cooperative environment, while attendees gain intimate knowledge and experience about the affiliate marketing industry and network with industry leaders.
The Affiliate Summit 2008 West conference will be the ninth Affiliate Summit event presented by industry veterans, Shawn Collins and Missy Ward. More information about the Affiliate Summit Conference along with a schedule of speakers and events is available by visiting AffiliateSummit.com. For up-to-date information about the affiliate marketing industry, subscribe to the Real Deal Newsletter – the Official Newsletter of Affiliate Summit at RealDealNewsletter.com.
So what are you waiting for! Go get your tickets today and make sure to get your butt in gear! Once you register you’ll also see the offer for 20% off your printed materials through PsPrint. Get on it!
Read MoreAffiliate Summit Won’t Come to You
Vegas… again. For faithful readers you’ll know that after having not been to Sin City since I was six, I’ve been twice since August. And I’m going yet again at the end of February for Affiliate Summit West 08. It should be sweet; AS East 07 in Miami was my first trade show attendance and it was a special and magical time. And since the show is directly involved with what I do on a daily basis, it’s like going to a crash course on my job.
Luckily for anyone who saw footage of the Monte Carlo on fire today, it’s being held at the Rio All Suites Hotel & Casino. Home of Penn & Teller, an excellent show if you’re looking to mix business with pleasure. I saw them in August and it was top entertainment for not bad of a price.
This year Affiliate Classroom LIVE is putting on an all day training session on affiliate manager training. And it’s FREE (well, aside from that $97 reservation fee to make sure you come). It’s 8:00 am to 6:00 pm so that much won’t be fun, especially since my husband will be joining me for part of this trip so he’ll be on his own to explore :(. But at that price, how could you pass it up? There’s only 150 seats, so if you’re interested go make your reservation now!
Jay Berkowitz of Ten Golden Rules is also putting on an Internet Marketing Bootcamp the same day. Which sucks for me because I’d love to go to both, but maybe some kind soul would give me a verbal crash course in how it goes ;). But this bootcamp is a lofty $200. In comparison to what you’re spending to attend the show that’s chump change, but still hard to swing if you’re a start up publisher wanting to learn the ropes. Affiliate Summit attendees do get $50 off though. Check out the Affiliate Summit Blog for more details on how to swing that.
For anyone even thinking about going to this, I highly recommend it. I learned SO much as a beginning affiliate manager, and got to network with some great people. It’s also an excellent resource for a publisher to check out all the different networks that are out there and all the best strategies and tactics for converting your website into your income. And just look outside at your winter weather then remember that Las Vegas will be warm and sunny and book your flight to go already!
Remember to take plenty of business cards as you WILL need them (we ran clean out last time). As a special, PsPrint is offering 20% off for attendees. But you have to register to get the code for the discount, so register today for Affiliate Summit!
Cribbed Content for January 25th
As promised last week, here’s my look around the web for interesting business, marketing, web 2.0, etc. stuff.
- Digg changed their algorithm. No one cared except Digg diehards.
- After two+ weeks, PrintSalesPro finally publishes a reprint of my All For One, One For All Printers post.
- LaTease Rikard, one of my StumbleUpon friends, took some advice after my post about our launch of the affiliate program (officially) and joined up and wrote about it.
- ProBlogger just today published Dropping The F-Bomb: Blogging with Naughty Words. I don’t see a whole lot of repeated topics on my jaunts through the blogosphere, but this is the second article on using the F-bomb since September. The first was Scott Jangro back in September. I wonder if this is really a wide spread phenomenon?
It’s been a slow week, so there you have it. Not much going on, really.
Read MoreCommenting is Marketing
I was looking through the nominations for the SEMMY awards and came across this great post by Darren Rowse over at Problogger. He talks about 10 ways to hurt your blogs brand by commenting on other blogs. It’s all pretty informative stuff that seems like common sense to me. This read comes at a particularly pertinent time for me as I was recently asked to compile a list of blogs that we should respond to as a company.
I grabbed a few to check up on and added them to my Google Reader to subscribe. I’m very sensitive to spam and I don’t want to be “that guy” (or girl, as is the case). I learned after reading Darren’s post that I’m not doing anything wrong. I’ve been making relevant comments (of course) and throwing in the PsPrint URL when it adds to the conversation of the bloggers post.
I post Darren’s question to my few readers here:
- What practices would you add to the posted list?
- Which would you remove from it (or modify)?
- What advice would you give bloggers when it comes to commenting on others blogs?
- As a blogger – do you police any of these types of things? Do you have a comment policy of any kind?
Higher Commissions? Yes Please…
About a month I go, I briefly mentioned that we’ve started a new affiliate program on Commission Junction. Didn’t bring a whole lot of fanfare to the party since we hadn’t officially made the announcement to our customers and current members at that time. I gave up my position as the manager of PsPrint’s Direct Mail Services to focus more time and attention on this little bugger.
Well, let’s get this party started? 8%? Weak sauce of the past. We’re serving up 15% commissions now, baby!
That’s right, we’ve dropped our measly 8% commissions and boosted to 15%. Partnering with Commission Junction has made the program so much better: a better interface, more reliable tracking, the support of a big affiliate network, you name it. It’s all simpler than ever for our affiliates AND us!
I’m really excited about the transition as it gives us a chance to start over and scrap the old program soon. It’s hard to improve on something that’s inherently flawed like our old program.
We’ve made sure to get the word out on this just in time for Affiliate Summit 2008 West. The Summit will be held at the Rio All Suites Hotel & Casino February 24th through 26th. PsPrint will of course have a booth and I will be there, so if you happen to be a reader of this blog stop by and say hi to me for a special treat :).
Really, I swear!
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