If You Want to Be an Effective Marketer, Don’t Treat Your Customers Like Prey

Don’t Be a Pickpocket

I am not a f*ing deer in the crosshairs of your marketing shotgun.

I am a human being. I am not a “target,” an “avatar,” or your “ideal customer.”  I have a human brain, a human heart, human fears and desires. And yes, I will pay to realize those desires or make those fears vanish.

But not if you make these mistakes:

You comment on my post as though you’ve read it, when your comment shows that you 100% haven’t. You want my attention, but you won’t give me yours. 

Where’s the reciprocity in that?

You then slide in my DMs again with a message carefully calibrated to be generic enough to send to many people at once and yet be perceived as personal by the gullible. 

You may think you’re being clever and efficient.

Instead, you’re just like the spam callers who are very concerned about my expired auto warranty. How you do anything is how you do everything. If you’re trying to manipulate me or flat-out lying, why should I trust you?

I don’t want to have a relationship with a con artist.

Do you? Why are you behaving like one in your marketing? I believe good marketing should be like a lighthouse:

*beam a light that helps me avoid hidden dangers

*illuminate my ignorance and light up my enthusiasm

*show me “the way home” to the benefits of buying your stuff

You can help me. Show me. I’ll be grateful.

Market from a place of generosity, not with the heart of a pickpocket.