May 6, 2010 66 Comments

Whack a Mole Marketing

I watch people beat their marketing prospects all day. It’s easiest to watch them do it via Twitter. Pick any marketing you feel is filling your stream, click into them, and watch their recent tweets. If it’s a nearly endless stream of promotional tweets, what are you getting?

Whack a Mole.

We do this in email marketing, too. Beat a list twice a week, or heaven forbid, daily, and watch people slowly unsubscribe. The only reason they slowly unsubscribe is lethargy. But they’re leaving.

Treat Your Community as a Privilege

Yes, you need results. But are you going to get them by beating people? Are you tracking the responsiveness of your beatings? Does it really help anyone?

Stop. Push back. If the mother ship says that’s how you should use Twitter, point them to this article.

I’m at the point where I’m going to unfollow people. That’s the beauty of tools like Twitter. I can opt YOU out of MY community. Email? I push the spam button a lot more than I used to, especially knowing that it’s the nuclear option for email marketing.

Please stop. Please come up with more unique ways to market than retweeting and beating your online communities. There are many other ways: co-op marketing in the community, content marketing with video and other good lead generation. Comments without being spammy on related and pertinent blogs. Searching for people in that community looking for help.

See what I’m saying?

Stop. Please. Thanks.

Photo credit Joe Shlabotnik

ChrisBrogan.com runs on the Genesis Framework

The Genesis Framework empowers you to quickly and easily build incredible websites with WordPress. Whether you're a novice or advanced developer, Genesis provides you with the secure and search-engine-optimized foundation that takes WordPress to places you never thought it could go.

With automatic theme updates and world-class support included, Genesis is the smart choice for your WordPress website or blog.

Find out more about the framework features
Check out the Genesis demo and the wide variety of child themes
See example designs in the Genesis design showcase

Become a StudioPress Affiliate

http://www.synapticlight.com/ SynapticLight

Hi, my name is Phillip and I Whack a Moles.
Sorry.
I see your point, it's tantamount to spamming or sophisticated stuttering.
I'll back off.
Noticed that you have changed the site a bit – look great. (obviously been a while since I was here last)
Phill
http://www.kgcreative.com kg_creative

Spot on, chris. Some vendors seem to think that because I've ordered something from their ebay store, they have free reign to email me 3 times a week with urgent messages. Or because I downloaded their freebie PDF, they now clutter my inbox everytime a new paid product outside of my field is released.

I've had “Friend Requests” on facebook that end up being nothing but endless streams of friendfeed-digg-linkbait->website loops, or reposts of their twitter feed AND their facebook fan page.

It's as if each new social media connection is an excuse to spam the same email template in a new channel.

Make it relevant to me, make it interesting, and don't treat me like a dollar sign, and i'll probably buy from you when I'm ready to do so. Otherwise you'll lose me as a customer, probably forever.

http://www.joshchandlerva.com Josh Chandler

Ah, Kevin you seem to be having the same problems I do. It’s amazing how a simple acceptance of a friend request on Facebook becomes a lifelong sales pitch. I’d love to see the conversion rate of those sales promotions. :)

At least with Twitter I don’t have to accept a request on a public profile in order for others to see my stream.

http://www.patrickcurl.com/ Patrick Curl

Couldn't agree with you more Chris, I do think it's ok to jump in on conversations related to your 'Niche' but I think it's better to discuss things that potential customers care about, with that said. I also share a lot of content, and write a lot of content, and I don't feel that synching it w/ Facebook / Twitter is a bad thing. I only tweet /share for diggs if it's digg-worthy like 1 in 20 articles I'd consider really digg-worthy, and lots of times I will write those up, and send them off as a guest blog to another blog.
http://mydarabell.com/ Dara Bell

I agree with Kevin had same treatment from Ebay. If the inbox is the first thing many of of us see in the morning and there are a few spammy emails you may actually never do business with them again. Spammy messages are like pickup lines, just less funny.

My inbox had a reply from Mari Smith today to a comment I had made on her being queen of Facebook or something, I thought that is making the relationship before the sale. If I am serious about using these channels for business, she would get my money.

To me seeing the community before it appears is something that would be helpful. I will work on Creating Outreach presence that works on the delivery value. Also I will try to keep contact less subjective and about, me as you infer.

I think the mole strategy is still prevelant though I missed a contract yesterday I built around the the human strategy, using relationship building and Gowalla and Foursquare. For the client though this did not seem to be as relevant as email lists and mailing people to the client. The client did not even want anything of value like a newsletter just email marketing. Still have to get feedback.

Social Media to me is more one-to-one and less about information streams and even keeping that stream less about you. I sticking with my strategy even if Guy Kawaski and yesterdays client say it should used like TV, he does admit that making about 10% of Twitter stream about you is a good strategy. Sure data will come along to prove him and others wrong.

http://chrisbrogan.com Chris Brogan

Love your thoughts on this one, especially looping email into it. Doubly so, I like that you mentioned a few folks doing some interesting things that buck this a bit. I’m certainly anxious to be proven right on this part, because I prefer human to crazy.

Hey, question: is it *easy* or hard to think up your afterthoughts? : )

http://www.ricardobueno.com Ricardo Bueno

David Meerman Scott suggests: “don’t talk about your own products and services in your blog. Nobody cares. Instead talk about things of interest to your audience.” Something he talks about at length in “World Wide Rave.” I think he's right.

If you seek first to be helpful, and provide something that's of value, it's much more useful than the alternative approach (the “work with me cuz I'm awesome” tactic). Make sense?

Kinda like what you talk about in terms of “relationship before the sale.”
http://mydarabell.com/ Dara Bell

The Afterthought
To me Guy Kawasaki using Tweetmeme, to “permission market” Alltop is most effective.
http://www.r4icarte.fr/ r4

Nice idea for marketing, surely work. Today marketing is very important for increase the sell of product. As many products are coming nowadays so appropriate marketing is also important.
Very nice thought.
thomsinger

Whack A Mole is always frustrating, both as an analogy for people who misuse social media and the actual game at a carnival. You beat them and beat them, but you are reacting to the moles and it is annoying and not the best way to win a prize. Plus, most people look dumb playing this game..

Instead people should treat marketing like Ring Toss, Darts or Throw a Baseball. You cannot just spray the rings, darts or balls at the target if you want to win the prize. It takes skill and focus to win the big prize (sure anyone can get the crappy bean bag toy). Plus, you only get three chances to hit the bullseye, thus you must take care with each action.

When you see the person with the really big stuffed animal…. you are looking at a person who had practiced their craft for a long time before they showed up at the fair.

http://www.TrafficGenerationCafe.com/ Ana | Traffic Generation Cafe

I second that, Chris – sounds like you are a big carnival fan, Thom!

Great analogies, seriously – did enjoy what you had to add to Chris’s bullseye post.

Ana

scottstroud

Chris – Sheer profundity! In the rush to 'keep up,' we marketers need to resist the adage to Just Do It and learn to Do It Right. Great insights; thanks for sharing.
http://twitter.com/iamthegreatest Arild Orholm

Oh I thought someone stole our idea of an actual game of Whack A Mole to Market a brand:

http://arildium.com/swf/WhackaCeleb2.swf

(from my student portfolio at http://arildium.com)
http://www.johnpaulaguiar.com John Paul

Whack a Mole reference lol Just awesome.

I learned this the hard way.. less is more.

This applies to ads on your blog, to twitter and especially to your list.
http://davidhorne.me david horne

Great word picture. In the end when you play “whack a mole” you just get tired. Worse, the guy next to you playing ski ball gets ten times the tickets with a third of the effort. Probably because in ski ball we get to choose exactly which points to go for.
imjustagoyle

Ohhh, I so agree!! Just the other day I was remarking about how this person on Twitter had like 38K followers and the only thing in his tweet stream was “make $500 a day doing xyz!” “how about $1000 a day?” etc. All different tweets saying basically the same thing, as far as the eye could see. It baffles me! I cherish my 2700 some odd followers. Some of my tweets are marketing related but certainly not all of them. No one gives a crap what you're selling if they don't care about YOU. They don't care about you because of what you're selling, either.
http://twitter.com/SigmaBiz Jamie Gorman

I was moving on to my next project for the day, but was captured by the headline “Whack a Mole Marketing”. Had to read immediately, and it was worth it. Great reminder of what a top notch headline can do! Thanks.
http://chrisbrogan.com Chris Brogan

Hahahahaha! That's perfect! : )
http://chrisbrogan.com Chris Brogan

Thom – I can't believe how well you extended this out. Amazing, really. : )
Batman

This post raises more questions than it answers, and I fear that's because I'm attempting to be unique, just like everybody else….
http://www.davidsfinch.com David Finch

Chris, I know this is not a new statement, but “whack a mole” marketing is the by-product on wanting to be in a social space without being social. Usually, it's driven by the idea that their information has greater value than their conversation.

However, it's the conversation that leads to future influencers. When they don't value the conversation, their activity in the social space will always be short-lived. Not to mention, it's always from this group that will say the social space in ineffective.
http://mydarabell.com/ Dara Bell

Usually a feeling I have missed something and a desire to do something with 140 Characters.
http://www.karinulik.wordpress.com/ karinu

How timely! Right after I cruised through my inbox doing the morning Delete exercise (saving the “real” email for later), I saw your post. Simply another reminder that every piece of marketing needs to have relevance & value to the customer. Even promotional discounts are a dime a dozen now–so if I'm not shopping, they all get deleted unless there is something else worth my time. Just like every other consumer, If I get too many similar messages I unsubscribe.

As a marketer, I'd rather identify the real opportunities than throw a bunch of you-know-what against the wall hoping something will stick!
http://www.ivanwalsh.com Ivan Walsh

Hey Chris,

The Harvard Business Review last week discussed ‘Social Media as Entertainment’.

They authors suggested that marketers use ‘conversions as marketing’, i.e. soft-sell activities via dialogues.

The end-goal is to harness the power of ‘fans’ to spread the word on your behalf, e.g. thru WOM and recommendations.
http://www.ryanhanley.com/about Ryan Hanley

Chris,

Question: I have about 20 sites that I regularly follow. Some of them are in my industry, some aren't, some of local to Albany, NY, some are Global… I comment on all these probably once a week. Only when I something relevant to say or an experience to share or a question for the Author.

Is it considered Spammy to leave my URL, (like I did below), on each comment? Does that bother people? I figure I'm part of the community because I am participating and I'm NOT leaving comments like “Great Post” and then a link… I'm add value… and I want people to see who I am and check me out…

Thoughts?

Ryan H., http://www.RyanHanley.com
http://twtrcoach.com TwtrCoach

.. Chris since I see you are in Memphis you need to drop by here in Tupelo, MS and help me wack out this mole I have running around in my yard.. he is a smart little devil…

It is just like the Retweets.. if keep repeat the same message over and over again.. he just find another path out there.. and the sad part about it I can even follow his tracks…

I asked one 'expert' about some cool tip on how to get rid of this mole.. he suggested me to get a snake… I don't know if that will fly with my wife…. and in my mind I am just replacing one problem with another.. And I see those snakes all the times.. you opt in for a program or newsletter that you believe will help cure the problem.. all of the sudden you get two or three emails a day about some fancy shmancy discovery they made.. and soon they just blend in and become that mole you just got rid off..

Well.. have fun in Memphis.. what do I call you know.. DuckMaster Brogan or? :)
http://spotlightportfolios.com/ Allen – Personalbrander

Despite the fact being one the most popular social network site, most marketers are not much concerned towards it! If they can realize a strong twitter profile can strengthen their brand they will !
wordandmouth

I totally love this yet the bitter truth of business and 21st century competitiveness is that people are so desperate to get ahead they'll try anything until it fails.

As I mentioned in my video at WordAndMouth, I think the sooner people tune in to community and customisation, and the benefits of pursuing a synergistic strategy, we'll find a quietening of Twitter channel abuse and a more cooperative, 'collaborative' interplay between company and consumer. That's what it was built for in the first place, right?
http://twitter.com/Atomicdust Atomicdust

Totally agree Chris. You can't just send out promotional messages and expect anyone in your community to respond, much less care. You have to make a constant effort to add value and engage your community, otherwise they'll leave.

Danielle, Atomicdust
http://mytwittertoolbox.com David Perdew

WOW! Nothing like hitting the nail on the head! While I'm a Twitter advocate, I know it's not the only way to reach our target audience. Again: glad someone else is thinking this way.
http://www.elizabethdohertythomas.com Elizabeth Thomas

I admit I was a victim to Twitter's appeal at first. I'd throw out information without results. And then quickly realized it's about RELATIONSHIPS. If I don't give a rats butt about them why on earth would they care about me? Humbling indeed.

I am so careful with subscribing to things by email that if someone has a “gated” website where you can't really see or do anything without giving my email, I leave. I don't have an interest in giving part of my soul (email) to someone who can't respect my desire for a calm inbox.
bkjrecruiter

Chris- I am wondering who you were thinking of when you wrote that article?.. Would LOVE to be a fly on your wall for 1 full day… :)

Call him/her/them out… and maybe you have a future friend that needed that “aha” moment..

Best, Brian-
HAPPY HAMMERIN WiiWare

Hey Peeps..Check out this Whack A Mole game on the Wii. Only 500 points !!

http://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/5K0zyFZfno…
http://www.cox.smu.edu SMU Cox MBA

AMEN! I have to say that I totally agree. One of my favorites on Twitter is Sallys. They don't tweet often but it's always an item at a significant discount. One or two a week. While the item(s) this week might not be something I want, when it is something I want, it is oh so worth the occasional tweet to get it.

What I want from companies is HAM – not spam. It needs to be something good. Send me a 20% off coupon for the entire store – not one specific and crappy item that no one wants like the blue and brown size 3 only bikini or the bright yellow bra that only comes in A cups. As a customer, I don't care that you're trying to move out your left over shiza. I want stuff I might actually be interested in.
Pingback: 3 Important Affiliate Marketing Tips To Guide Beginners Towards Success « Top Reviews Blog
http://www.Guydz.com/moneypowerwisdom/ drmani

Chris, with over 15 years in email marketing, I can state ONE thing with confidence…

No one knows the best/optimal frequency for emailing a list.

I've emailed mine daily (even more than once a day, at times) – and once a week, or less often – and each of these schedules has worked well for different purposes and lists.

Testing your best frequency, and striving to constantly provide value to your audience, is the critical factor rather than simply 'how often' you email, or 'how many pitches' you send out each week/month.

Just my 2 cents. I like to think of it as 'Different strokes for different folks'!
http://konoponopdesign.blogspot.com/ deborah

It is not just limited to the internet….phone sales people do the same. It is abusive. I just got off the phone with CLEAR, where the sales man tried to bully me into signing up for their service, when I told him, I wanted to think about it….he continued to spew all kinds of high pressure reasons why I had to change now….. To the point, I finally said, I am about to be rude and just hang up on you. You are not going to bully me into buying your service….I did not make this phone call to get aggravated or feel the need to be in a conflict, I just wanted to understand the services you were offering.

Geeeeezzzzzzz, they lost my business, today…..even though they were cheaper than the service I had. It is like marketers are taking their cues from the PUA (pick up artist) sites…..

What happened to treating your customers and prospective customers with respect? If you have a great service, you should not need to beat someone over the head to buy it…… Your newsletter arrived just after I hung up….. how's that for timely…. :-)
johnslevin

thomsinger – great thought. With Whack A Mole you don't get to chose the target – you have to react. So many people dream of being the best “whacker” and some in fact are able to react quick enough to succeed. Where are the biggest prizes? Basketball, Water Spraying, Darts, etc. Sharpen your talents with a solid strategy and go to where the big prizes are.
http://www.mikestenger.com Mike Stenger

It's one thing to market to a group of people. It's another thing to market to a group of people in way that screams “BUY, BUY, BUY!”. Great topic regarding Whack a Mole marketing Chris.

I believe that if you focus on giving out great content, show the community that you care by helping them and communicating with them in a non-pitchy way 7 billion times/day, you'll reach your goals and sell your products or services.

People hate to be sold when A) They don't know you and B) They know very little, if anything, about the product or service. If you communicate more by giving out value first, then you can open up ways of marketing to them because you've created a relationship and the connection is much more meaningful versus you being some random dude who just wants to make a buck or two.
http://twitter.com/Seth_M_Miller Seth Miller

I recently discovered private and public lists on Twitter (yeah I know you're laughing at me, but I'm new to this) and separate them out in my HootSuite. I love efficiency.

I wrote about this a few days ago. Feel free to delete this as spam if you like, but I think it's relevant. http://sethmiller.org/network-marketing/do-i-kn…

Great post!
thomsinger

I love it…”so many people dream of being the best “wacker”. That is the best line of the week on any blog any place!!!
http://omaralam.tv/ Omar Alam

Whack-a-mole can be used in lighter forms and with lower cash spends if just looking to get research data. But even this should be done the right way.

Just sending follow-on emails/letters to upsell someone does work, but the % is generally super low, and your total profit may not make it worthwhile after expenses.

Some industries thrive and are VERY effective with this (see adult dating, porn, fetish), which would provide a counter to an argument stating it does not work.

Cool article Chris.
benlanders

“Just because you can doesn't mean you should” could be the theme of the web. The “noise” on Twitter, LinkedIn groups, and Facebook and in my inbox is nearly maddening. They've gotta start charging for some of this stuff to cut down on the nonsense. Then again, they charge for mail and I get plenty of junk there too!
http://twitter.com/sdipietr Steven Di Pietro

Funny you wrote this. I posted a similarly this week about how we treat sales like banging a stick against a fruit tree to harvest. We need bigger and bigger sticks, until ultimately, we damage the tree.

The whacking stick metaphor applies to:
Sales calls,
Advertising
Direct Mail
Outbound sales etc

It can be appropriate at times, but otherwise, don't damage the tree.

http://www.servicewithpurpose.net/blog/2010/4/2…
jvsrikrishna

Nice post. It really bothers me when I receive random emails about products or services I would never even think of buying. But then sometimes, well more like once in a few years, I do give a marketing message a chance. That is how I came across Skillocracy.com, a great new website for freelancers to quickly build their professional profile.
http://thoughtbythought.net/ Tresha Thorsen

Hmm. The photo makes me wanna find a fair and go actually do it. how fun. ps. i never ever win those games. It's ego at large i think b/c it all looks so dang simple. over shoot the ball? check. over toss the bean bag. yup. over tweet my schtick? well, happily i'm getting better at not talking at. long way to go tho. but of late what is helping much is spending tons of time retweeting and listening.

your post is so applicable to in real life relationships.
lemme ask the obvious: know anyone who only calls when they need something? well you probably don't allow that in your life anymore. and @brandbuilder offers a great post on saying no to the drama folks.
but i'm beginning to wonder if we're not all just so inundated pushing out stuff that we've forgotten the wonder of BE and BE with eachother. I welcome learning anyone's gift or joy given it's offered in a context that =ly wants to hear about mine….remember kindergarten? show me your toy, teach me how to play with it, let me borrow it, and i'll take you to the imaginary wonderland i've just built as a sand castle and let's do both together. okay. i'll stop dreaming here. ;) but we can all do better business wise and living wise. me included so much. thanks for this. i'm not good at wacking. but unfollowing is a gentle click.:)
http://www.memorybits.co.uk/ micro sd card

Marketing strategy is really necesary to sale any product they did such nice work I am very excited about this thing It is very nice work for us.I am very glad for this one.It is so nice for me.
http://twitter.com/tomheggie Tom Heggie

I'm just grateful that every business doesn't run like online companies, I certainly wouldn't want my local supermarket to drop round three times a week to inform me that they're replaced the milk that had passed its use-by date or that there was a new paper towel in off-white.

I hope that by reading this and instantly hitting Retweet doesn't undermine what you're saying – people need to read this one. Thanks for taking the time to write and post it!
caroompas

Well said, Chris. I think large organizations have a tendency to see social media as a large free advertising opportunity, and ignore the 'social' part of the equation. And, as you say, the result is a loss of the community. The opposite side of that coin is well worth the effort; no matter how large, any organization can benefit from the integration and interaction of and with a community, instead of a customer base. It's what makes today's opportunities so exciting. The ones who see that will prosper.
http://myecornellexperience.blogspot.com Kathleen Lisson

Anticipated. Personal. Relevant. Right?
How about even -gasp- starting a conversation with the customer?
http://www.autoinsurancequotes.com Auto Insurance quotes

Whack a Mole, played this at chucky cheeze all the time
Pingback: Clever Marketing, Clever Storytelling | digital pink
Pingback: Clever Marketing is Clever Storytelling | this life 2.0

Whack a Mole Marketing

Treat Your Community as a Privilege

ChrisBrogan.com runs on the Genesis Framework

Supporters

About

Subscribe