The new, more socially oriented rules of marketing and public relations tell us: don’t just email/blog/tweet at/message people; deliver value to them, and with their permission. Make them feel respected and cared about. Let them know that you can solve their problems. Listen to them in the spaces where they are; don’t expect them to come and listen to you.
It’s the “listening” part that we trip up on the most. To some extent I think that’s natural for humans, perhaps even more profound in a newly social (some would say self-obsessed) scene where everyone has something to say.
In a marketing context, we fail to listen when we become so convinced that our product or service can solve problems, that we start telling our customers all about how. Even in spaces not built for that purpose.
Vendors in investigators’ clothing
In the past few weeks, I’ve noticed on a couple of the investigators’ listservs that marketers are starting to become more vocal. I include myself in that group. I’ve put press releases out to those groups, notifying them that new training (free or fee) was becoming available. I’ve also linked to articles written by clients, as well as my own.
I would never do this if I were not absolutely convinced that the information was valuable to members. But therein lies the rub. If I think I’m providing value, and I am noticed, then the other marketers think they’re missing out. Indeed, a client has taken me to task for mentioning one client but not them.
As I told him, I’m very picky about what I put out to listservs. I don’t want to look like a spammer. But if enough of us put out “valuable” information (or contact members off list)… we will all look like spammers. Worse, the listservs will lose membership. That means investigators not connecting with each other for critically needed resources.
The owner of one listserv is a good friend, and I emailed him to ask his advice. Would he prefer we sent him stuff first, for him to choose to put on his list? Or would he prefer silence? Perhaps the biggest question of all: do vendors belong on the restricted listservs to begin with?
Many LinkedIn groups say no, because they’ve faced these problems before. (The listowner who’s a friend invited me when all I was doing was trade journalism.) Some groups are so sensitive that they’ll go as far as to ban marketing members.
Thing is, groups and listservs like these provide valuable intelligence about what problems our target markets are having, what their needs are. That’s true even if we’re attending training and demo’ing products in the field. Because we can never know what it’s really like to sit behind those desks.
What it means to give value
I’ve blogged before about the need for marketers to be more a part of the community, and a listserv is just a microcosm of the larger investigative community. Sure – it may be set up as a very simple information exchange, where members mainly ask for contacts at ISPs and phone companies. But it’s still a community where the investigators trust one another to give them the information they need – that they actually need – not just what we think they need.
“But how do we get people to come to our webinar?” we cry. “Or subscribe to our blog? Or attend our training?” Short answer: not like we’re trying to get them now.
We should be linking to articles that have nothing to do with our clients and flipping through our own Rolodexes for people who can help them. We should also be asking listmembers for help, not “market research,” but as real investigators who use real processes to work their cases:
How do their systems work? How don’t they work? What do they need? What can we do better – not just better than the competition, but better than ourselves? Again: listening, the kind that encourages listmembers to consider dropping by our site, where all kinds of lovely content awaits them – the kind that not only shows our product’s or service’s value, but shows it to them, because it was born from their living feedback.
Forensics practitioners, how would you prefer we marketers interact with you? Marketers, what can we improve about the way we attract attention?
Image: bareknuckleyellow via Flickr
Christa M. Miller specializes in public relations, writing and editing for the law enforcement and digital forensics communities.