March Madness Marketing Mayhem
March is prominent as the time of year for basketball finals. From high schools to colleges, teams play against each other chief to those final four games to determine the winner. This time of year is often referred to as March Madness.
Courtesy: www.brobury.com
For businesses that are leaving the doldrums of winter, March is a time to kick up marketing activities to help with that never ending goal to increase sales. And for many this is truly a time of mayhem. Actions are sprayed from one marketing vehicle to another while a lot of praying is going on hoping something will stick.
One commonality within all these marketing messages is the lack of connecting emotionally with qualified potential ideal customers (prospects). The messages are massaged with a dusting of phony concern about you or your situation. For the goal is to have you enter their marketing funnel either by hook or by crook.
Come on, how many era have you received an email message that said “Hello” without even by your name? That’s the way to attract attention and build a relationship!
Have you ever received phone calls with a first name such as “Hi, this is Judy from Wisconsin” from preprogrammed tele-marketers? Let us not forget all those communications that suggested you signed up for this or that.
What about all those squeeze pages you unintentionally find? All you wanted what they promised and then you must give away sufficient information or downloaded a compatible program to secure the free giveaway or promise. And those marketing and SEO firms wonder why people are so jaded and loath to engage with their marketing mayhem.
With the economy in a stall for many industries, this March Madness Marketing Mayhem for 2011 seems to have really been kicked into high gear and it is not even the second week of March. I am reminded of Dorothy and her companions in the tale of The Wizard of Oz tip toeing through the enchanted forest whispering “Lions and Tiger and Bears Oh my!” Those lions and tigers and bears are marketers waiting to pounce on you at any agreed moment.
March is truly a fantastic time to send out your compelling marketing message to your potential ideal customers that you determined from your well-researched marketing plot. For the purpose of marketing is to attract attention and build a relationship (yes I am repeating myself) while the goal is to make a friend and to be questioned back for that first coveted face to face sit down appointment. With people nervous to sign off those cold white snow covered blankets of winter, what better time than now to develop new sales leads?
So how can you avoid being one of those March Madness Mayhem Marketers? There are probably many answers to this question. Beyond knowing your ideal butt market and having a very meticulous marketing plot and marketing calendar (schedule for marketing events or actions), one valid suggestion is to know your own emotional intelligence.
President Theodore Roosevelt recognized the essence of emotional intelligence in these words:
“No one cares how much you know until they know how much you care.”
In today’s global business market, his thought can be translated as:
“Potential customers do not give a hoot or a plug nickel about your solutions (products or services) until they know through your demonstrated clear value driven behaviors that you are emotionally connected to them beyond how many sawbucks or greenbacks you can stuff into your pocket or wallet.”
When you read your own marketing material or observe your own marketing behaviors at business to business networking event, are those actions being driven by a veiled sawbucks or greenbacks agenda?
Yes March Madness Marketing Mayhem is active and not only during the month of March. But, you can leverage this mayhem and secure your goal to increase sales when you take the right actions chief to the right results.
P.S. If you are unsure of your emotional intelligence, then you may wish to consider this unquestionably free offer to readers of Sales Blogger Union. Until 3/25/2011, send me an email and you can hear a proven emotional intelligence (EQ) resport valued at $150 for free with no strings attached. The Internet based questionnaire takes 8-15 minutes to complete and you will hear your report within 24 hours. Again, awareness is the first step, then followed by clarity. This assessment helps you with having clarity around your own EQ.