Can we over communicate with clients and customers?
My short answer is yes. We used to have to worry about the number of emails that we sent out to ensure that didn't bombard those interested in our products or services to the point that they would unsubscribe. We tried to measure how much is too much and how often did our subscribers want to hear from us. Now, while this is still something we all must be concerned with when it comes to marketing over communication has become even more of an issue. Technology has made us more efficent with our marketing, but perhaps it's time to consider that maybe it's made us less effective.
Case in point, a few weeks ago I unsubscribed to a newsletter. Why? The communication became overwhelming. I was following this company on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and RSS Feed. I was receiving close to 5 to 7 communications daily about upcoming events. Perhaps that doesn't seem like a lot but take that times 5 times a week and you'll see my point - that's approximately 25 to 35 emails weekly. I wanted information on the events and I was even interested in attending them, but I was turned off by all of the communication.
Over communicating with potential prospects, customers and even event attendees can unfortuantely result in your message being lost, confusion and even the loss of your audience. This is not an area where "more" works. It's actually the opposite - less is more.
How do you know how often to communicate?
Ask your audience, perhaps when they sign up for your newsletter pose the question to them "How often would you like to hear from us?" and you could even expand on that "What information on your interested in hearing about?"
Make sure that the messages you are sending are of interest to those you are sending them to. Consider doing segmentation with your lists and even creating groups with social media to ensure that recipients receive the message they are most interested in.
It's never to late to put these tools into play. If you have a list that is already built it may be time to send out a survey asking for their input. The worst thing you can do is to continually bombard them with messages without having a dialogue about what it is that they want and only offering an opt-out option. You can also rest assured that if you have recently seen a lot of people unsubscribing from your email list, unfollowing you on Twitter or leaving your Facebook fan page or LinkedIn group that you could very well be overwhelming those prospects with messages.
By Laura Lake
http://marketing.about.com/
My short answer is yes. We used to have to worry about the number of emails that we sent out to ensure that didn't bombard those interested in our products or services to the point that they would unsubscribe. We tried to measure how much is too much and how often did our subscribers want to hear from us. Now, while this is still something we all must be concerned with when it comes to marketing over communication has become even more of an issue. Technology has made us more efficent with our marketing, but perhaps it's time to consider that maybe it's made us less effective.
Case in point, a few weeks ago I unsubscribed to a newsletter. Why? The communication became overwhelming. I was following this company on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and RSS Feed. I was receiving close to 5 to 7 communications daily about upcoming events. Perhaps that doesn't seem like a lot but take that times 5 times a week and you'll see my point - that's approximately 25 to 35 emails weekly. I wanted information on the events and I was even interested in attending them, but I was turned off by all of the communication.
Over communicating with potential prospects, customers and even event attendees can unfortuantely result in your message being lost, confusion and even the loss of your audience. This is not an area where "more" works. It's actually the opposite - less is more.
How do you know how often to communicate?
Ask your audience, perhaps when they sign up for your newsletter pose the question to them "How often would you like to hear from us?" and you could even expand on that "What information on your interested in hearing about?"
Make sure that the messages you are sending are of interest to those you are sending them to. Consider doing segmentation with your lists and even creating groups with social media to ensure that recipients receive the message they are most interested in.
It's never to late to put these tools into play. If you have a list that is already built it may be time to send out a survey asking for their input. The worst thing you can do is to continually bombard them with messages without having a dialogue about what it is that they want and only offering an opt-out option. You can also rest assured that if you have recently seen a lot of people unsubscribing from your email list, unfollowing you on Twitter or leaving your Facebook fan page or LinkedIn group that you could very well be overwhelming those prospects with messages.
By Laura Lake
http://marketing.about.com/
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