Lead Sourcing in 2018 The Truth About GIGO Marketing

Recently, I received a telephone solicitation call asking to speak with a young lady who was a receptionist with our company for less than a year... in 2002. Funny that I happened to answer the telephone as nobody else on the team would even recognize the name. The caller was flexible, though… as if she wasn’t available was there “another decision maker within the organization” that they could speak with? 

In college, we learned a lot of acronyms that apply to business. Some of the most common being LIFO and FIFO (Last in, First out and First in, First out) which are mainstays in inventory accounting. Though few know their lesser-known cousin, GIGO. Garbage in – garbage out, a phrase that traditionally applied to computing. The concept being that if you put garbage data in to any computation, your end result will indeed be no more than garbage. 

GIGO is a simple theory that applies to just about everything in both business and in everyday life. If you put rotten ingredients in a recipe, the finished product will therefore be rotten. Easy concept, right?   Applying it to marketing, if you use garbage data to make a garbage effort, your results will also be garbage.

Daily, I receive 8-12 emails from individuals wanting to sell me lists. Lists of Meeting Planners, lists of Exhibitors, lists of anything that I could imagine whether it is relevant or not to the nature of my business. On occasion, the email has my name correctly; but it can range from a variation from my professional designation “Dear ,DMCP” or some unique configuration of my name, “Dear Stephanie L”. 

Now, simple logic dictates that if the list that they are using to solicit my business are inaccurate enough to have outdated or incorrect information on it, how accurate could the lists that they are trying to sell me be? It makes me wish that there were a bright red, oversized delete button on my keyboard that gave me 1000 times more satisfaction than the regular delete button and automatically blocked the sender from future violations of my inbox.

Super trendy now are the calls! For years it was only the ominous “pause” when the robo-dial catches up with the live telephone marketer as you wait anxiously to who is calling. “May I speak with the owner of the company?” But alas, technology has evolved this beast to calling from locally recognizable area codes, tricking you into answering. It may be your Doctor’s office calling you back; your child’s school; or any local number that you may not immediately recognize but are afraid to ignore… SUCKER! Time after time, we answer only to find a robo-message offering to relieve us of your school loans, sell us healthcare, or warn ambiguously that your credit card may be at risk.  

Seriously, does ANYONE press #1 for more information?!  Usually, there is no way to remove yourself from their calling list… isn’t there a law against that? Sure there is, but who has the time to report each offender – I know I sure don’t. I get frustrated, hang up, wish for the bright red delete button and go back to my day.

Now, from a business perspective, cost-wise email and phone calls are pretty inexpensive ways to try to cast a wide net. While you don’t invest much to try it, if you get one nibble on the line, it pretty much will cover your costs… but the OG of marketing - direct mail; now that isn’t cheap.   

As a small business, on a single day last week Activity Planners received (9) pieces in our mailbox. Of those, (7) were solicitations. One was addressed to my maiden name (been married for 13 years), two to the prior owner of our company (I’ve owned it for 10 years), one to a member of our field staff, one to “business owner” and two to the same past employee (she’s been away from our company for 4 years now) in both her married and maiden names – same piece from the same company. 

If you estimate that each mailing costs roughly a dollar start to finish– between the lead generation, creative design, printing, assembly, postage, etc. I almost felt guilty as I fed $7.00 through the shredder with no remorse. All of these originated from lists.

So, I guess the point that I’m getting at is… what good is a list if:

·        It’s not current

·        It’s not accurate

·        You aren’t targeting your most viable audience

·        Your approach is so blatantly list driven that content-wise you don’t stand a chance to get the attention of any business owner or decision maker that potentially would be interested in your services.

Some considerations to avoid falling into this trap:

Don’t buy a list if you can avoid it. Spend the money on a lucky rabbits’ foot or a dream catcher. Both are more likely to produce results with a lot less effort.  If you do have to use a purchased list, vet it out. Some simple legwork using the internet speaks volumes. Rather than calling for “the owner of the company”, go to their web-page and get their name. In 10 seconds or less you just improved your chances of getting to the next level exponentially or at the very least making it into their voice mail.

Use your resources to build your own list. Do some research online, talk to colleagues, share stories, and attend industry events. Update your list, make notes on your list, and know something about each company and/or person on your list. 

Put the shoe on the other foot. If you look at your list and have no idea why someone is on it… don’t market to them. There should be some plausible connection to why you are contacting them that needs to make sense to them, not just to you.

If someone gives you their business card as a courtesy, and they don’t respond to you after two attempts to reach out, remove them from your list. They are telling you that they are not interested without saying a word. If you run into them at another event and they offer their card, then its fair game to start over again. Making yourself an annoyance isn’t going to net positive results… even if you are a potentially good business match. Find another way.

Now, once you build your list, if you use an online blast mail service, make it friendly enough that people can opt-out at will without being shamed, and infrequent enough that you don’t get marked as junk. I once had someone that I had never done business with call me on the phone to ask me why I unsubscribed myself from his newsletter. Did that unsubscribe request mean that I never wanted to do business with him… no, it didn’t. It meant that I didn’t want my inbox cluttered up with information on his services when I didn’t need it. Don’t take offense to being asked not to follow up. Market positively so that potential clients can find you when they need you.

So, is there a good way to list market? You bet your booty there is…

Turning the tables, this past week I also received two amazing pieces of marketing from thoughtful senders who captured my attention at both ends of the cost spectrum.  Both of them got my name off of a list of some sort, but what they did with that data in creativity and effort earn the VIVO designation… Value In, Value Out.

A large box arrived, addressed to me at the office from a reputable online gift-basket provider. I opened the box and found no card, only a packing slip referencing a sender whose name I didn’t recognize, so I wrote it off to third party billing and unboxed the item to find a lovely basket featuring a bottle of Gentleman Jack (Daniel’s) Tennessee Whiskey. Now, you’ve got my attention.

Who could my secret admirer be? I racked my brain to consider who it was from… It wasn’t a client. I know them all by name. The Jack Daniels Company? No, it wouldn’t have come through a third party. I finally decided to ask the wizard (Google) and was so excited to see that it was from someone I had never met, never worked with, and exchanged emails with - once… Wayne Hoffman . 

Wayne, ladies and gentlemen, is a mentalist and magician. 

When it all came together in my 46 year old head, I beamed from ear to ear. I honestly have to say that the joy that I got out of his effort and creative approach to get my attention far surpassed the (generous) value of the gift itself. Wayne wanted to get in front of me for future bookings, and so he did his research. He went online to see what he could learn about me that would capture my attention and he scored.

Honestly, I’m likely one of the most guarded people I know. I am not on Instagram, barely on Facebook, and share nothing but professional information on LinkedIn. Suffice it to say, I’m an introvert in an extroverted industry.  I know that he had to dig deep find out that Jack and I are old friends… but then to take that seed of information, cultivate it into a mysterious marketing bloom to be sent without fanfare to create a mystery?  YES!!! There is hope for the future of marketing after all!  The subject line in my thank you message was simply, “Well Played”.  Take a minute to check him out at www.waynehoffman.com for more on Wayne and his abilities – he’s a super-talented guy and needs to be on your radar for future corporate events. 

Still on my marketing high, that same afternoon in the daily mail amongst the immediate discards, industry magazines, and “occupant” was my second award winner for VIVO Marketing… this one at the opposite end of the spectrum in budget. As I opened the envelope that was hand written with my name on it, I found what at first looked like a graduation announcement.  There was a photograph of a lovely young lady with a name that I had never heard before.  I was curious of how I may know this gal, was she a friend’s daughter? From a class I lectured?  I started reading… it was an advertisement! 

Jessica Daum is a recent graduate of The University of Nevada – Las Vegas Campus Hospitality Program, and was reaching out to local companies within the industry to let us all know that she was returning from her overseas study in Japan at the end of the month, and would be available to interview. My inner “Miss Manners” and “Marketing Guru” went to war on this one. The simple piece was a billion different things wrapped into one. It was clever, colorful, concise, pretentious, informative, personalized… and more! I will never forget it. Domo arigato Miss Daum, this old dog loves learning new tricks. Check her out on LinkedIn if you have an open position, this girl is going to be awesome!

Do you have a great example of VIVO Marketing? Please share it with me – share it with the world, scream it from the rooftops! The more attention that goes to those who creatively exert effort, the easier it is to turn a blind eye to those who don’t.

Sincerely, Another Decision Maker at Activity Planners