Re-thinking Constant Contacts
I have a favorite sunscreen company that reached out so often I nearly ended up hating their product. I don’t know how often most people use up a 3 ounce tube of sunscreen…but I received a sale notice on that exact item every three days. When they weren’t texting me about that, they were emailing me weekly about all of the other products I could buy.
I let this go on for about a month before texting STOP and unsubscribing. If I was halfway normal, it would have been a week on the outside. But I like to see everyone’s marketing defaults, and to study if and how they change. For example, I suspect CVS only sends me a 40% coupon in the 24 hours after I’ve just left their store, but that could be my imagination.
Back to the sunscreen company. Their frantic contacts made no sense at all. If each of their staff had reported how many weeks it took them to empty their bottle, and they derived an average from even three people, and then emailed a coupon to everyone a week ahead of that range - that would have made some sense and probably yielded better results for the company.
In contrast, my favorite yoga studio in town also does text marketing. They seem to know when I’ve been slacking. And their messages are still goofy enough that even if I don’t make it to their studio, I don’t mind hearing from them. I don’t want to stop receiving those messages because I’m afraid I’ll miss out on hearing about something I may want to attend.
The same thing happens in newsletters, too. You can probably think of a newsletter or other mail campaign that arrives in your inbox and gets saved for later. And others that you delete automatically now, if you haven’t already unsubscribed.
You know what my favorite unsubscribe message is? “We’ll miss you!” Invariably this comes from a company that has been sending me daily emails. Like the mail bot is deeply sad it can’t harass me any more.
For years, marketing wisdom has been that repetition is the key to a customer engaging with a brand (company). Or that someone has to hear from you about 5-6 times before they’re ready to call, buy, or whatever. This isn’t untrue.
But I think a more helpful way to understand this is, how often do you want to hear from your favorite cousin? You enjoy seeing them at family reunions. But if you hear from them weekly and they have nothing to really say, you’ll be polite at best. If you hear from them once in a while and you’ve come to look forward to that, you may wish to actually meet up for coffee and catch up.
Your biggest fans want to hear from you often-ish, especially if you have something to give.
Your maybe-interested maybe-not fans want to hear from you a lot less than that.
Neither group wants a text or email from you daily, unless they signed up to get something daily, like a workout or inspirational quote.
If your contact is more about frequency than quality, you’re likely pushing your customers away. But if you prioritize quality and reach out thoughtfully, you’re on your way to a better relationship with someone who is on your mailing list.