Tuesday 13 May 2008

Marketing Messages - Too Time Consuming?

I've just been trying to watch a series of training videos, the content of which is supposed to help me make a lot of money in my business. I got annoyed when they kept stopping and starting and then playing out of order (could that have been due to my frantic clicking?). Anyway, at that point I gave up and starting writing this post!

Only a few months ago, free audio and video downloads on the internet were far less commonplace than they are now. Advances in technology mean that just about anyone with a webcam and internet connection can make and upload videos (audios are even easier). These are an incredibly powerful marketing tool for small businesses – if they’re done right.

The internet marketing 'gurus' teach that you have to give away something that has high value when you want to promote your product or service. I certainly agree with that. Unfortunately there are many people who have a different idea of what constitutes high value.

It’s true that these preview audios and videos are getting longer (at least an hour). But what I’ve noticed is that the value of the content is shrinking and the amount of verbose ‘filler’ is expanding to fill the gap! At this point I should say that there are still some excellent and very generous providers of free information – but unfortunately they are becoming outnumbered by the poor content providers.

The problem is, for those of us looking to get an idea which provider’s program or product to invest in via these previews, we simply don’t have the time to watch or listen to all of them! Even if we wanted to!


Just as we have become increasingly selective in the newsletters we subscribe to, I believe we need to do the same with these latest marketing messages. The marketers who will succeed in attracting our attention are those who take the time and trouble to form a strong relationship with us - which they will only achieve by delivering consistently high value information.

What's your experience? And your opinion? Feel free to post your comments!

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