In defense of friction

If you're like me, your inbox is regularly filled with emails from every store or website you've ever visited, trying to bring you back for a quick hit.

But are they sacrificing quality to get there?

On the product/service side, hopefully not.

But on the leads and trust-building side, almost definitely. The qualifications for "hey, we should contact that person" are about as low as they get. (i.e., the person came here or searched for a thing we sell at least once)

In B2B, this is generally less of a thing (thank goodness).

But it does raise an important point about friction. And about how you get people onto your list.

You can make it as easy as possible, collecting more names and ending up with a bunch of people who don't care. Or you can add friction to the process, helping to ensure that the people who do care are the ones who make it through.

After all, you have to really want something to go through the rigamarole of multiple form fields and double opt-ins.

On the one hand, you may lose some people who do (or will) want what you have to offer. On the other, you can be much more sure that the people who make it through will be receptive to what you have to say.

All this to say: you have a choice.

It's not a foregone conclusion that more friction is bad.

Make some friction,

James