Are you over communicating with your clients and customers? This is becoming more of a problem as new communication tools are introduced to our companies. We are using email, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and RSS Feeds. Have you ever considered how many messages you are sending out using all these marketing vehicles? It may be time to consider that while technology has made us more efficient perhaps it has also made us less effective.
I've seen so many companies lately bombard their lists and followers with multiple messages on a daily basis. This causes detrimental effects. When you over communicate with your customers you will find that your message is being lost, your audience encounters confusion and worst yet you will even begin to lose that audience one-by-one.
There is a balance between marketing, being informative and overwhelming those that receive your messages. Have you found that balance? If not it may be time to consider the messages you are sending out, the volume of those messages and make a determination as to whether they serving as a marketing tool or a nuisance to those that are subscribed. Learn how much marketing communication is too much and how to find out what type of communication your customers and clients want from you.
Your turn: Have you found that balance in your marketing communication and have tips that you would like to share when it comes to balancing email, social media tools and RSS feeds?
I have found on the receiving end of too much communication that I will just delete the message without even reading it. Too much communication will could the receiver to get irritated by the messages and stop reading them. Also how are you really going to communicate really important information if you overwhelming them with a bunch of not so useful information. The balance is somewhere in between when you would want to receive messages from a particular company and on what topics you can consider important.
Thanks Laura…good post
As with most effective marketing strategies, the answer usually comes down to “It Depends”.
If you are a company with multiple products or a constantly changing product line, frequent emails are acceptable for one main reason – people are always looking to find a deal. Even if they delete 9 out of 10 emails, they still want to receive your email in case they can take advantage of some special or discount. On the other hand, if your company has a single product or service – users tend to get very disturbed seeing the same message over and over again.
The best strategy – Put yourself in the shoes of your audience and be objective. Thanks again…
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Hi Laura,
Excellent post and very good points… particularly about surveying e-list subscribers and segmenting them.
I tend to unsubscribe pretty quickly, if I suddenly find myself recieving more than one communication per day from an organization/person/entity I’m interested in. Personally, I think it’s bad public relations to spam your audience too much, and from a marketing standpoint, it can be a negative.
I send out an e-tipsheet twice a month via e-mail, and have an open rate right around 50%, which is more than double my industry average, so that seems to be the right balance for my business. I do 3 or 4 direct mail campaigns a year, and will occasionally post things to my Linkedin page, when I think they’re relevant, good points related to my industry, and something that will give my network connections some solid take-aways.
That’s the balance that works for me.
My tip or suggestion would be to focus on quality, not quantity. Give your list/friends/followers something of value, by sharing your expertise, versus simply just promoting or advertising your business product or service. Keep it to one or two topics at the most, and limit it to no more than once a week.