As a marketer, I know I can be pretty skeptical when it comes to the marketing pitches I receive in my inbox. And the same holds true for most of the other marketing professionals I know. That’s why we held a #ContentChat community conversation on how to engage with a marketer’s toughest audience—other marketers. Here’s what we learned from each other.
Q1: Who here markets to marketers as part of their work?
We have some marketers who market to other marketers.
A1: Oh, sometimes I do, for sure! It’s pretty entertaining conversation. #contentchat pic.twitter.com/343OftnfQI
— Brandie McCallum (@lttlewys) July 2, 2018
A1: Oh, so much me. I have several clients who specifically market to marketers and it is an interesting and challenging world. #ContentChat
— Maureen Jann (@SuperDeluxeMo) July 2, 2018
A1: A big part of my old job was marketing to marketing agencies and marketers. #ContentChat
— Derek Pillie (@derekpillie) July 2, 2018
A1: I have some clients that have marketers included in the target audience, but they’re outliers #contentchat
— Kristen Hicks (@atxcopywriter) July 2, 2018
A1. In the #B2B industry over here! #ContentChat
— SourceMedia (@SourceMediaCo) July 2, 2018
..and we have some marketers who get marketed to.
A1: I end up doing so every now and again, but I’m dealing with a physical product, not marketing services. Everyone needs soap, after all. #contentchat
— A. B. England (@A_B_England) July 2, 2018
A1 I don’t, but they market to me – usually content syndication or better audience targeting, and (sorry but) I usually ignore or unsubscribe #contentchat pic.twitter.com/HVsQzzV0da
— Dan Goldberg (@Jonas419) July 2, 2018
Q2: What are some current trends in the marketing you are receiving that cause you to roll your eyes and write the senders off as not understanding your challenges as a marketer?
Just say no to negging.
A2a: I’m seeing a rising trend of “negging”. If your email subject line tells me I don’t know what I’m doing as a marketer, I’m not opening it. Who are you again? #ContentChat https://t.co/O2b673DILP
— Erika Heald | Marketing Consultant (@SFerika) July 2, 2018
The faux urgent message doesn’t drive other marketers to action.
A2 The email / voice mail creating a sense of urgency from someone I’ve had no prior relationship with and almost no understanding of what they are selling. #ContentChat
— Derek Pillie (@derekpillie) July 2, 2018
Auto DMs aren’t going to close a sale to other marketers.
A2: Auto DMs or messaging you just to spam you with sales pitches is an automatic turn off if not an out and out automatic block for me. #contentchat
— A. B. England (@A_B_England) July 2, 2018
Marketers don’t believe that their CEO referred them to you.
A2: Not sure if it’s a trend…but one sales guy starts of his emails “I’ve tried calling you CEO…” dude wrong person to outreach with a marketing product #eyeroll #contentchat https://t.co/dmkWV397zj
— Amy Higgins (@amywhiggins) July 2, 2018
Content-obscuring and negative pop-ups send marketers back to their search results.
A2: Pop ups that block text (literally was just complaining about this an hour or so ago), remarketing ads for products I tried to buy that are out of stock or not sold in my area (or even for something I already bought) #contentchat
— Kristen Hicks (@atxcopywriter) July 2, 2018
A2: I decline an offier, then pop up windows asking me to confirm that “No, I don’t want to increase my traffic” by whatever in however long. Its just so condescending. #contentchat
— Steve Bitter (@stevebitter) July 2, 2018
Marketers don’t like it when your SEO is showing.
A2 Increasing the amount of content with a cynical algorithm-centric approach that ignores quality and value #contentchat
— Dan Goldberg (@Jonas419) July 2, 2018
Bad personalization is bad.
Q2: Marketers that misspell my name or don’t take the time to read my bio. Get personal and details matter #itsthesmallthings #contentchat
— Brandie McCallum (@lttlewys) July 2, 2018
A2: These days working in-house for a #SaaS #fintech company, I can’t handle marketers outreaching with #B2C content and solutions when I’m clearly #B2B. your solution does not apply here= #unsubscribe #contentchat pic.twitter.com/W0PGNlkqM9
— Mike Bryant (@MichaelRo22ss) July 2, 2018
A2: My favorite fail ever?
Dear *|FNAME|*
Uhm… you might want to make sure your tags are set up before sending on a message.#ContentChat pic.twitter.com/c0y4hsKM8c
— Jenn Victoria 🤘🏳️🌈🎙🏳️🌈🤘 (@Renoe) July 2, 2018
Marketers don’t want to connect with random salespeople on LinkedIn. It’s not a great cold call move.
A2 Another fun crappy marketing outreach is the random LinkedIn connection request with no context as to why they want to connect with you or reason why you should connect with them. #ContentChat
— Derek Pillie (@derekpillie) July 2, 2018
In that same vein, I wish that the act of people who try to “connect” with you on LinkedIn and then try to sell you things was grounds for banning. #ContentChat
— Maureen Jann (@SuperDeluxeMo) July 2, 2018
“I’d like to join your network”. I’m sure you would. Why should I add you to MY network when I know you are going to cold market to my contacts? #ContentChat
— Erika Heald | Marketing Consultant (@SFerika) July 2, 2018
Form emails need to try harder not to sound formulaic.
A2 I also get emails that say I’ve read the content on your website, and I’m really impressed… Really? It’s pretty niche IT. #contentchat
— Dan Goldberg (@Jonas419) July 2, 2018
No one owes you a reply to your cold email sales pitch, including other marketers. Sending 13 follow-up emails isn’t going to get a reply if I am not interested.
A2b: I’m also not a fan of the endless follow-up emails. Especially when they start to get a little rude. No one OWES anyone else a reply to their unsolicited marketing email. #ContentChat
— Erika Heald | Marketing Consultant (@SFerika) July 2, 2018
Q3: What do you wish you saw more frequently in the marketing messages and content that’s delivered to you as a marketer?
Marketers want more empathy.
A3a: I’d like to see more empathy in the marketing I receive. You know I am getting hundreds of marketing pitches each week. Make good use of my time, and only send me content that relates to me as a marketer. #ContentChat https://t.co/T9B0oOIb26
— Erika Heald | Marketing Consultant (@SFerika) July 2, 2018
Marketers want authentic, relevant, no BS content.
A3 When marketing to marketers its all about: No BS, standing out and showing value! We do this all the time so I need more than a canned messages/sales pitch. #contentchat
— Carol (@YoursTrulyCaro) July 2, 2018
A3: Relevance! So many messages just don’t mesh with what I want to see or what I’m looking for. #contentchat
— Ryleigh Hazen (@HazenRyleigh) July 2, 2018
A3 cont. And also just a lack of laziness. Spend 30 seconds on my website before you send a message so you know if I’m in your audience or what you’re suggesting is relevant to me #contentchat
— Kristen Hicks (@atxcopywriter) July 2, 2018
Marketers understand the power of data-driven personalization and expect you to use it to market to them.
A3: I wish personalization was used more effectively, I know marketers have enough data about me to deliver more relevant, useful messages my way. It rarely works out that way though #Contentchat
— Kristen Hicks (@atxcopywriter) July 2, 2018
A3b: I’d also like to get content that reflects the data you have/can easily access about me. I have 20+ years #B2B marketing experience. If you have, literally, a few years of marketing experience, please do not try to sell me your content marketing masterclass. #ContentChat https://t.co/9bteFs52Su
— Erika Heald | Marketing Consultant (@SFerika) July 2, 2018
Marketers expect case studies that reflect their use case, and preferably, their industry.
A3: When I ask for a case study, don’t send me something that has no relevance to what I do. That does me no good at all and just makes me feel like you’re out of touch with my business. #ContentChat pic.twitter.com/SzazwNH6H1
— Jenn Victoria 🤘🏳️🌈🎙🏳️🌈🤘 (@Renoe) July 2, 2018
Marketers want you to get to know them before you make your sales pitch.
A3 My wish list for marketing efforts to marketers:
1) An effort to connect with me – just any form of introductory exchange
2) Pitches that demonstrate you took 1-2 minutes to make what you say relevant to me
3) Understanding and respecting time to make a decision#ContentChat— Derek Pillie (@derekpillie) July 2, 2018
Marketers want to spend some time with your free trial before you start trying to close the deal.
A3 Another thing that would be nice would be if after signing up for a demo version of a software tool that I’m not immediately bombarded with “training opportunities” or “account managers” checking in on me. I just wanted to take a peek at what it is you do! #ContentChat
— Derek Pillie (@derekpillie) July 2, 2018
Q4: As a marketer, whose marketing with YOU as the target audience are you the biggest fan of and why?
A4: In addition to @MarketingProfs and @CMIContent I regularly engage with the marketing messages I receive from @MeetEdgar @SMExaminer. #ContentChat https://t.co/RDb1gbgNfz
— Erika Heald | Marketing Consultant (@SFerika) July 2, 2018
A4 The best EVER isn’t around anymore (thanks Research in Motion) – but @GRMeyer at what was once Gist is my all time favorite. #ContentChat
— Derek Pillie (@derekpillie) July 2, 2018
A4: Honestly, the only ones I pay attention to any more are those from the writers I actually connect with here or on Facebook or YouTube. That connection and sense of familiarity make a big difference. #contentchat
— A. B. England (@A_B_England) July 2, 2018
A4 Besides Gist being an awesome product it was a respectful conversation, they were open to interact on multiple channels and they moved at your pace, not an arbitrary pace they set themselves. It was nice! #ContentChat
— Derek Pillie (@derekpillie) July 2, 2018
A4 I like being in the nurture streams for Hootsuite, Marketo and Hubspot because I get some useful content now and again with fairly low touch – if I see enough value, I’ll check it out #contentchat
— Dan Goldberg (@Jonas419) July 2, 2018
A4: Hubspot literally kills you with content. You can’t shake a stick or search for a marketing related term without finding a convenient list of stats to help support your point. Well done. #ContentChat
— Maureen Jann (@SuperDeluxeMo) July 2, 2018
A4b: I also have to call out @intercom and @buffer as producing excellent marketing content for marketers. #ContentChat https://t.co/wFnaFkSocT
— Erika Heald | Marketing Consultant (@SFerika) July 2, 2018
A4 @AirTable suckered me in effectively to do a demo of their product and I’m in love with it. I’d describe their approach as persistently unobtrusive. #ContentChat
— Derek Pillie (@derekpillie) July 2, 2018
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