Don’t Hassle Me! I’m On Vacation

July 28 2008

I have just returned from a week long vacation in Benidorm.

If you’ve never heard of Benidorm it’s probably the largest holiday resort in Spain and has basically been taken over by us Brits. It’s like a home from home but the weather is a lot better.

I’ve now been to Benidorm 4 times and while I love it there is one thing that annoys me. It’s the constant barrage of reps trying to get me to visit their particular bar. If you have ever been to the centre of Benidorm on a night out you will know what I mean. You can’t walk more than 10 meters without someone running up to you trying to shove a ticket down your throat with comments like:

Come in here and get a free shot…
Two for one on all drinks all night…
Kids drinks are free tonight…

In fact you can even be walking into a particular bar and you will still get hassled on the way in. This is because the rep will get paid for every ticket that get’s handed over the bar. So it’s in their interests to get you to go in.

While I don’t mind someone standing at the door with a ticket to give me for a free shot or a two for one offer I don’t like it when they cross the road and almost try to drag me into the bar. So over the course of the week I found myself AVOIDING areas where I knew I was going to get hassled. I would much rather choose where to go without someone shoving a ticket down my throat. And this got me thinking that if these places weren’t so pushy they would get my business. So marketing this way could actually be hurting their business long term.

And this can also apply to Internet Marketing.

While it’s ok to try to sell to our subscribers sometimes we need to balance things out.

For example I may email you with offers sometimes once or twice a week but if I started to do it every day and became PUSHY you would go somewhere else wouldn’t you?

So get the balance right in your marketing, sure you can sell to your subscribers but also make sure you give them some reason to keep coming back to you by offering quality free content from time to time.

Not every email needs to sell or every blog post needs to contain an affiliate link. And by marketing your ‘free shots’ this way you will actually find that your subscribers will come back time and time again for your ‘two for one’ offers.

But become pushy and constantly hit them with offer after offer and you may just find them crossing the road to visit a different bar.

Cindy Battye
Reply July 28, 2008

Hey John,

You are so right! We marketers often walk a fine line between exuberant promotion, and just plain old spam. It takes a while to find the middle ground though, because I think that some people are often too shy to promote stuff. There are few who I think get a good balance.

The only problem I find is that what I think is reasonable, and I am happy to accept isn’t always someone else’s idea of what is reasonable.

Well.. we just keep trying, and keep learning Thanks for sharing – and I hope you had a great trip!

Cindy
Aaron
Reply July 28, 2008

That’s a good analogy. It’s not so much the shoving the tickets down your throat, but the fact that no one is original in their approach – same with internet marketing.

I would also second your point about subscribers. Treat them like gold and they will return the favor. I don’t sell very often to my list, in fact I spend more time giving away valuable free content and videos and only sell something when it is really worth it!

Giving goes a looong way Just my thoughts!

http://www.teach-me-how.com/how-to-make-money-on-the-internet
Randy Smith
Reply July 28, 2008

Good One John,

I saw the challenge Mark laid out of finding a useful marketing tip from your holiday…
And you’ve come up trumps with this one

Excellent advice!

FYI
What I noticed last time I was being pestered by all these canvassers may help next time you’re away.

I saw that certain individuals or families were approached – then left alone.
Others were badgered on and on to take the tickets or get dragged into the bar or eating place.

So I investigated by standing as close as possible.

Here’s the tip:
For some reason the wonderful people of Germany have a bad rep on holidays… it seems they are assumed to have a really bad attitude?

However the Brits are seen as polite suckers?

SO…
When the reps/canvassers come over – if the person/family answers them in English… They get Full Throttle pitching!

However if a firm ‘Nein Danke’ is your reply – the reps turn and walk away quickly, looking for the next prospect!

Give it a try next time 😉

Sidenote:
Do visit Germany – they really are great people – it’s only on holidays that they seem to have a bad rep!

Randy
http://www.RandolfSmith.com
Peggy Baron
Reply July 28, 2008

Hi John,
I loved your analogy. It’s funny how one can’t stop thinking like a marketer, even while on vacation.

You wonder if these bars did any testing and have checked their results. Are they selling more or just giving away a free drink to a tire-kicker? Is their clientele (their list) increasing or decreasing since they’ve implemented their aggressive marketing tactic? Do they feel good about what they’re doing?

Thanks for the post.

Peggy
SEOGuy
Reply July 28, 2008

You are so right.

Another way to look at this too is in the information you give them be extremely relevant to your niche. In the early days of http://SEO-And-Beyond.com I thought getting personal with my subscribers would be a good idea.

It was my wifes birthday, so I asked people to E-mail her with a birthday greeting.
1. No one E-mailed her
2. I had a huge unsubscribe request because of that E-mail
3. I also received my largest spam report on that E-mail.

Boy did I learn a lesson the hardway.

All I had to do was weave it into my niche topic like you have done in this post and I’m sure things would have been different.

Bottom line.
Yes, provide them good free options to entice them into your website. However, those free options work 100% better when they are highly relevant to the niche audience you are working with.
John Szram
Reply July 28, 2008

Welcome back John, I hope you had a great time.

I couldn’t agree more. I learnt this in my old I.T. Sales job. I never aligned myself with the company and my big “sales secret” was simply making eye contact with a customer, smiling and making sure I was in the vicinity if they needed help.

When I was asked for help I gave the same advice I would give to a member of my own family, I simply told the truth and didn’t try to sell. I was consistently the top salesman which used to rile the more “experienced” pushy types. They were just left scratching their heads wondering how I did it!

There’s a lot to be said for subtlety in both the online and offline worlds. Great post.

John Szram
http://www.johnszram.com
Amin
Reply July 28, 2008

Good post and a useful point to remember.

Randy’s idea of pretending to be German had me ROFL, but he makes a bigger point, I think.

If you can’t sell the rep on the idea that you won’t be persuaded, they’ll keep trying to sell you on coming to their bar.

I know in my own case if I’m ‘pitched’ by anyone they tend to take my no as a definite no because if I say no I mean no, but my father-in-law can’t get away from them. When he says no, he doesn’t really mean no and they sense it.

Kids have the finest instincts for that in the world. “Do it now” from me has them doing what they’re told. When mum says “Do it now” there’s a 10 minute discussion about it, usually. That means my kinds know not even to ask me when they’re sure the answer is going to be NO. The consequence of that is that they ‘pitch’ me far less than they ‘pitch’ their mum.

They ‘spam’ her!

As you say, hit your subscribers too often with your hand out and you’ll push them away.
Jerry
Reply July 28, 2008

John,

Pushy marketers never get my business. I think you’re right when you say to balance out the email marketing.

Jerry
Pippa
Reply July 28, 2008

Hi John,
I hope you enjoyed your holiday in spite of the hassles. I know just what you mean, nobody likes to be sold to but everyone likes to buy. I feel just the same about windows that pop up every time you try to leave a web page. I might be leaving a page with the notion of coming back later, however a pop-up window that tells me not to go etc is like the pushy reps. I just want to avoid them and so won’t go back there after all.
Best wishes
Pippa
Alpha981
Reply July 28, 2008

Hey Randy

Carefull I live and work in Germany

Wait till you got to “Turkey” for your holidays and say
“Nein, Danke” the reps and the like will be all over you

The English have a bad time in Benidorm and the Germans
have the same problem in Turkey.
Carl T
Reply July 28, 2008

John:

You hit the nail right on the head. As a person attempting to get things going on the internet I met up with this one guy who is suppose to be the best of the best. Well let me tell you, every and I mean every email I received from him was a constant sales pitch. There would be little bit of advice (not much) and then the normal sales pitch. After a few weeks I started seeing him as a sales man who was never sure what company he worked for as he was always recommending someone’s product every other day so I unsubscribed.

I am running my business online keeping in mind the internet works because of people like all of us and I myself would like to have a good experience and meet good people. Working together is still necessary online as we want to have a great reputation in this line of work. Our company believes there is enough to go around for everyone. “Run Your Business With Respect To Others And You Will Succeed Given Persistency, Determination and of course the Right Product” “Good Day to Everyone.”
John Beer
Reply July 28, 2008

Hi John,
You are absolutely right about some people being too pushy and perhaps we in the UK would rather be lead than pushed. And how well you do that.

If I was in the area of Benidorm you mention I would just take the voucher while I walked along and put it in my pocket. Smile on the face. Then I would go into the bar that I wanted to drink in. When I got back to the apartment I would empty my pocket of unwanted pieces of paper. While you may be thinking “go away you prat” keep the peace with a smile on your face and drink where you wish.

Enjoy your next trip to Benidorm….maybe the vouchers will still be valid!!

Thanks for all your advice.

John Beer
Wealthy Affiliate
Reply July 28, 2008

Hey John,

Great post. This is something all email marketers should be doing.

A couple of days ago I unsubscribed from a certain internet marketers mailing list because he was doing the exact opposite of what you said, always trying to push a sell and never giving out free useful information. Sometimes I would get the same email 2 or 3 times in a day!

William
http://www.william-gary.com
Ray Johnson
Reply July 29, 2008

Hi John

Good post. It’s a fine line in email marketing isn’t it?

I did a few tests where I emailed my list EVERYDAY with FREE advice and then emailed them 2-3 times in the week with “sales offers”. The results were pretty eye-opening…

The people who received FREE advice emails DAILY, STILL remained on my list but when they were being presented with the pitchy emails I received unsubscribers.

I have since amended my mailings frequency to 1 pitch per week, and a mailing 3-4 times per week with advice (e.g. a link to my blog posts)

I think it’s all down to testing at the end of the day.

Regards

Ray
Big G Killer
Reply July 30, 2008

Hey John,

Hope you had a nice vacation, aside from all those hasslers lol.

Really good post, definitely agree. I’ve heard tons of different opinions on this topic, but I think in the end it’s best to stick with free advice instead of shoving offer after offer at your subscribers.

A really good example would be Lee Mcintyre. He has a relatively small list compared to some of the larger marketers, but the responsiveness of that list blows the rest away!

Big G Killer
Marc Sampson
Reply August 4, 2008

Hi John,

Seems like you have lots of people who agree with you, myself included.

I hate being hassled, and not only will I avoid that area where you get hassled, I avoid that particular resort altogether, so not only are those ‘pushers’ harming their own business long term, also those of their competitors.

Therefore, not only will you get people ‘crossing the road’ just to avoid you (unsubscribing), but people can get a bad impression from a general type of people, i.e. in this case, all Internet Marketers, because of the experience they have had with just one or two lists they have been on and not bother subscribing to any others becaues they think they know what they will be getting in their inbox every day.

Marc Sampson.
http://www.marcsampson.com