I’m a firm believer that you can often learn as much by a bad example as you can a good one.
Yesterday this little nugget slipped past my spam filters. Something, I don’t know what, compelled me to read it.
I need your help. Do you know someone that knows lots of Realtors and or Loan Originators that may be interested in earning an extra $1,500 – $12,000 a month?
The perfect person might be an Title rep, a Realtor, a rep for a Home Warranty Company, a Loan Officer, or just someone you know looking for an opportunity.
We need people to show folks how to get out of the ice age and generate business quickly using a new approach – especially in a down market.
<< Blah blah blah insert plan to dominate the world via CD ROM business cards here. >>
Just standard spammy crap we’re all inundated with on an hourly basis. Then came this part:
Forget the Caveman, our program is so simple even a Realtor or a Loan Originator can do it.
Huh? What marketing genius came up with this?
I can just see a bunch of people, sitting around an office (or more likely in a booth at Pauly’s Pub and Pool Hall) brainstorming how to market their wares:
“Anyone have any ideas?”
“We could buy an email list and spam people!”
“Excellent! Run with that one. Just be sure to leave out our web address and make sure if anyone interested hits ‘reply’ to the email that it will be undeliverable, OK? Let’s make it as hard as possible for people to contact us!”
“Oooh oooh! How about if in the body of the spam, we insult the intelligence of our target market group!”
“You are a freaking genius! That’s a fabulous idea!”
Now I’m sure no readers of this weblog would be as clueless as these folks appear to be. But it does point out that it’s probably a good idea to stop and think about your marketing materials.
Here are a few tips to keep you from pulling the trigger on something and setting yourself up to look like a fool:
- Read your copy out loud. You might be surprised how different it sounds from what you’ve written.
- Give it to a third party for review. A second set of eyes that’s a little removed from the process will often be able to spot something that is a little off.
- Wait a couple of days before committing to marketing copy or materials. Sometimes taking a break between writing something and publishing it will give you a different perspective.
Tim Theiss says:
I am a Club Carrying Caveman Realtor who also received this email. After laughing off the insult I investigated their program and determined my caveman integrity won’t let me join forces with these progressive carbon units.
December 2, 2007 — 10:06 am
Russell Shaw says:
A few years ago my radio ad copy (which I was SO proud of) said “I’ll sell your house for more”. It wasn’t until I received a call from Cec Daniels, who not only didn’t “hear it” the way I intended – he had taken the time to ask several other people how they “heard it” – and it wasn’t even close to the way I intended it to come across.
Why yes, I did change my ad copy (and send Cec a thank you gift). 🙂
December 2, 2007 — 10:10 am
Hojin says:
I’m so sick of spam. It’s freakin annoying and wish I can make it stop.
December 2, 2007 — 1:20 pm
Dave says:
I’ve got a similar post in the works, Jay. Isn’t it funny how people don’t want to be bothered understanding the dynamics and etiquette of the blogosphere and think they can get a viral campaign going by just spamming us bloggers?
December 2, 2007 — 2:00 pm