I’ve gotten this email/Facebook post/tweet a gazillion times in this past week:
I’m sure you have too. Folks, your business is not a lottery. Hoping and wishing for a magic fairy to grant you the chance at $250,000 is not a substitute for a business or marketing strategy.
Think about all the things you’ve done to promote someone else’s business – and make no mistake, you ARE promoting someone else’s business, the bank sponsoring this. (may I remind you that said bank’s CEO is currently testifying in Congress about how badly they’ve gambled and lost)
Think about all of the things you’ve done for them, and then ask yourself this very serious question: why haven’t you done this for yourself? You’ve hit us up on Twitter, posted to Facebook daily, emailed every other day, asked us to share with friends – the perfect recipe for a marketing campaign, only instead of promoting you, you’ve given away all of your link juice, social currency, and word of mouth “ad space” to someone else.
Next time you see an opportunity like this, instead of hoping the bank fairy will grant your wish, use it as a reminder to emphasize your own marketing instead.
Oh, and feel free to send this post to the next person who sends you that same bloody tweet/Facebook post/email.
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Chris – I saw more than a couple of these messages for the past week and my first reaction was ‘oh, that company/person is hard up for some cash.’ To me this destroys a little trust in the relationship. It’s like seeing your favorite Uncle selling oranges on the street corner in his Armani suit. The part that made me sad were the really talented people who are participating. Thanks for clueing me in about the bank testifying. I had no idea, but they’re a bank so I didn’t really have the ‘warm and fuzzy’ from the start. Call me jaded, it’s ok. 🙂
Looking at this in the wrong light, perhaps? It sounds like you’ve run across people, who probably shouldn’t be running a business in the first place, spamming for votes so they can feel good about at least having “tried” something. I understand the point of the post, but wish you would have gone into the way to do it ‘right’.
My local Martial Arts school is a community asset. We work in the community, school systems, host workshops on bully prevention, leadership, safety, etc (all of which is free.)
We have, maybe, a little over 300 active students. And in under 24 hours, we were able to rack up the 250 votes to put us in the running for the giveaway. Why? It’s not because we spammed, it’s because we have a strong core community. People who WANT to see the Dojo succeed, people who would GIVE to the Dojo if it ever fell on hard times, just to keep it open.
What I wish you would have went into is this. Regardless of the marketing you’re doing for Chase and Living Social. It’s a win-win for you, your community, and for the people giving the away the grant.
If. You. Do. It. Right.
If you’re not the type of business that is energetic, community oriented, and has a long term goal with already-proven results (in other words: attractive as a candidate for the contest), then yes. You will have wasted your time promoting someone else’s business, annoying the crap out of your current client-base, and made everyone who could have been a potential client hate you.
Really an interesting topic you have talked about and I think if any person did know about seo that should be considered or talk with the developer or seo person to get some idea about it. 🙂