Random acts of kindness are those generous little deeds that can make someone’s day – buying coffee for the person behind you in line or mowing a neighbor’s lawn, for example.
Random acts of marketing, however, aren’t so kind. In fact, they can ruin a brand.
Disjointed, poorly timed or just plain stupid marketing outreach can alienate prospective buyers and existing customers, or send them running to competitors – directly affecting a business’s bottom line. As the ways customers engage with brands continue to change and multiply across channels, it’s important for marketers to think holistically about all these unique, and oftentimes digital touch points throughout the customer journey, and try to provide a seamless and consistent brand experience at all intersections.
Now layer in the complexities of marketing to multiple decision makers within a business, and random acts of marketing within your customer journey can almost feel like an inevitable outcome. However, it doesn’t have to feel so daunting! I oftentimes find it easier to focus on the things that you don’t want first. So, here’s eight examples of marketing randomness to avoid, in no particular order:
1. The mistimed message
A customer experiences a problem and reaches out for support, and receives an invite to an advocacy program before the support ticket is resolved. The wrong message, at precisely the wrong time. It’s important for marketers to align with their customer success counterparts and jointly define the post-sale experience that they want to provide. Coordinating scheduled, as well as trigger-based emails can resolve some of these mishaps.
2. Lack of personalization
A prospect completes a form on your website, in hopes of attending an online event. What they receive in return: a note of thanks that leaves their name blank – “Hello {{First Name}}” and thanks them for attending (though they actually only registered) – followed by a call, days later, from a rep that hasn’t the faintest idea that they never attended. When you start personalizing your automated communications, build in rules that account for missing values in your data and find ways to give your sales team access to the buyer’s digital behaviors – so they can have a more tailored 1:1 conversation.
3. Missed cues
A prospect indicates they’re ready to purchase – attends a webinar, say, accesses a trial version, visits your pricing page and downloads a report that talks about selling the solution to the executive team – but somehow wires get crossed, and the hints go unnoticed; an opportunity is not properly prioritized with sales and is left to languish on the vine. Marketing continues to send messages, yet sales continues to ignore. Proper lead scoring and routing can help ensure “sales ready prospects” can be fast tracked right to sales.
4. Overkill
It can happen to the best of us: one message in a succession of several that pushes a customer over the edge, sends them scurrying to the “hide” and “unsubscribe” buttons. Multiple voicemails and SMS messages plus multiple email sends; not taking into account previous interactions or engagements the customer has had with the brand. All in one day, you invite them to be a reference, register for a roadshow and attend a live event. You even go on to have them rate your service, and ask if they want to buy an add-on module. Suddenly you’re channeling Pepé Le Pew! Too much of a good thing, avoided only if we as marketers can be mindful of our customer’s overall engagement level – setting sending conditions and fatigue rules so the relationship is never strained.
5. Slow responses to unsubscribe requests
A prospect looking to opt-out of your communications is forced to wait days or jump through hoops for their request to be processed. Possibly the worst random act you’ll ever commit – hurts your brand’s reputation, and absolutely devastates deliverability.
6. Overly generic messages
In trying to speak to everyone with a single message, companies sometimes end up speaking to no one. The person on the other end thinks, “why am I even getting this message?” It’s important to tailor messages so you’re hitting the right people at the right time, depending on their stage in the buying cycle and their influence in adoption.
7. An unexpected invitation
A customer in Connecticut gets an invite to a user group you’re hosting in London, because of a careless list pull, or an incomplete CRM record; maybe your parameters were too wide (accounted for too great a distance), or your details were off (the Connecticut customer worked remotely for a London-based company). Either way, it’s a constant reminder to be vigilant about your list management and marketing data.
8. Competing messages from sales and marketing
Marketing builds out a bottom of funnel campaign for prospects offering a product discount or a free module add on, but neglects to work strategically with sales to identify whether a discount is even needed to move the needle on the deal. So you have sales trying to sell and negotiate one offering, and marketing sending out a competing offer. While this scenario exemplifies another “random act” perceived by the prospect, the competing messages could also negatively impact revenue. This speaks to the importance of organizational alignment and account-based marketing and sales – ignoring it can hurt your bottom line.
Random acts of kindness are fun, unexpected and are focused on delighting the person on the receiving end. Marketers also want to delight their customers. But, random acts of marketing? Not so much! Some of these mishaps can be resolved by coordinating plans, messages and outreach across departments. Others can be removed through periodic audits to your customer journey, technology and marketing data.
