Frugal Marketing
(featured column)

If You Talk to the Right People--You Don't Need to Shout (Part 1)
by Shel Horowitz

The older I get, the less patience I have for those "marketing gurus" who encourage hard-sell, in-your-face hype. I don't like being shouted at with hypey sales letters, loud abrasive radio and TV ads, websites that deluge me with all sorts of headache-inducing ad displays before I even know what the page is about, and on and on it goes.

*  *  *

I have no patience for it--and I try to avoid giving my business to people who market that way. Though I grew up in New York City, I live in a small village of about 200 people, one small part of a town with about 5000 residents. My neighbors have 300 cows on a working dairy farm. My street gets about a dozen cars on a typical day. If I wanted all that in-your-face stuff, I could have stayed in New York.

I don't think I'm alone. The world is losing patience with intrusive, obnoxious marketing--and as a marketer, I'm glad!

Fortunately, there's an alternative. If you follow this principle, you won't need to shout--because your helpful, softly-delivered marketing will have you welcomed as a friend.

Ready for the key idea?

--> Find the exact right audience for your message.

Talk to the people who need and want what you offer, who understand the benefit to themselves, and who value as a partner in meeting their goals.

In my 1993 book, Marketing Without Megabucks, I discussed the idea that the less your audience matches your market, the harder you have to be work to be heard. Unfortunately, too many people think that working harder is the same as being louder and more obnoxious. So it's time to turn the equation around: If you find the exact right audience, you can dispense with all those push-away methods that get the customer to buy, but make enemies in the process.

In Grassroots Marketing, published in 2000, I began to look at bringing that focus back to your target audience--and in my newest, Principled Profit, I explore in some detail the idea of creating real 
relationships with your customers and others who can help you.

Next month, we'll talk about *how* you find these perfect audiences--and then in January, we'll examine why talking to the right people isn't enough; listening has to be a big part of the process as well.

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Get Shel's Great Marketing Books, Available at Amazon!

Principled Profit

Grassroots Marketing

Copyright © 2003 by Shel Horowitz

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