Can You Market Too Much?
We as Internet marketers know what marketing looks like, we can generally tell when we are being marketed to. However sometimes it’s a bit more subtile then normal.
As an Internet marketer, it’s your job to know how to market to people on the internet. It’s your job to know how, but also to know when to market to people.
I believe there comes a point when someone can market too much to the same group of people, when they may not know when to stop marketing and to start backing off a bit.
I have seen this in action recently. Where a successful Internet marketer wrote a few reports that contained some very good information, and then they started talking about their new product. This in itself isn’t marketing too much, it was a few reports to promote a high end product, which is fine.
The reports had information in them that I think all Internet marketers should read. However the sense of the reports where in a sort of “the end of the internet” type of style. The writer was discussing how everything was going to change online, and that they were selling a product to help you to stay in the game.
However, I think they may have over-done the marketing by sending out another report a little while later which then was promoting another high-end product.
This marketer became well known by the good information they provided and by those people who were promoting the reports and the products. There became a lot of “hype or buzz” around this marketer, and their reports/emails keep being written as if we had to have their product, or else our business will fail.
At the time of their latest promotion, I was getting tired of them telling me that my business will basically fail if I do not do what they say, also that their products were not geared to the average Internet marketers income.
For me, they ended up marketing too much to me. Too many times they were trying to get me to buy their products that I did not want to pay for, and then telling me that I was going to fail because of it.
Using fear as a marketing tactic isn’t anything new… but it can be used too much within a short period of time.
Using the same marketing tactics to the same group of people, over a short period of time will cause them to become numb to the tactics and then eventually ignore everything the marketer says.
November 3rd, 2006 22:12
Hey Joel,
Excellent take on what is becoming an ever increasing
problem.
I know as an email marketer, it takes restraint to not
promote these high end products….or even low end ones…that use these fear tactics…
I’m not currently aware of any marketing system/product that a person can’t absolutely do without…though as you pointed out, many salespages would have you beleive you are going to be left in the dust if you don’t participate…
All a guy/gal “REALLY” needs to focus on is building their contact list…the rest we learn as we go.
Thanks again Joel!
Ken
November 4th, 2006 02:20
Joel
I can’t tell you how many newsletters I have resigned from when it became obvious that their purpose was entirely to bombard me with just enough information to supposedly camouflage their latest affiliate signups. Even newbies learn fast and know who to blacklist for ever. Marketers beware. This is not the way to earn long term clients.
Thanks for realising this.
Christine
November 4th, 2006 09:35
You ask me to add before I have coffee? lol. I have been studying internet marketing for about a year now. Signed up for everything under the sun. I am on so many lists, I had to create a new email address. Yes, you can over-market, and it is a very good way to get your list unsubscribed from. Another good way is to bombard your list with offers and provide no real content or useful free advice. Those that occasionally give me great information have kept me as a subscriber, those that don’t offer me anything but the lastest gadget have gone out with the trash.
Marketing to scare your prospect into buying is not a good way to build a good reputation.
November 4th, 2006 18:07
Hi, Joel~
I agree with you most wholeheartedly. I have unsubscribed from almost every list I was subscribed to this year. I am flooded with hundreds of offers a week, and most of them for the same thing. It has become predictible to the point where you can know what the offer is by reading the header.
In a day and age where information is both needed and searched for, I think that too many marketers are overdoing things. Few of the emails I get from these folks have any useful information for me - just another offer…
Peace,
Charlie~
November 7th, 2006 13:53
Hi,
You’re getting an “Amen!” from this corner.
List owners who give me good information without the hype for this or that “new thing” and only mention their newest item in their signature are more likely to get my continued support. Especially if they also tell me when they don’t like something or that there is a workaround for a problem with something.
Best wishes,
Linda
December 3rd, 2006 20:01
I agree with all comments above. After a well-known marketer came out with a new report that ‘condemned’ the idea of bombarding your subscribers with email after email - and I was bombarded with email after email promoting his report - I began clicking the unsubscribe link in a majority of them, including the author of the report, who in my opinion, is among the worse for practicing the very tactic he was condemning.
I’ve now whittled it down to where I’m only subscribed to mailing lists that are feeding me more than just a “Buy NOW” diet.
You Joel, are still on the menu