Are You Turning People Off With Your Marketing?


Do you, like me, cringe if someone points out something about your marketing they don't like? Recent chats with other marketers have me realizing... I don't get enough complaints.

How are complaints useful?

Disqualifying prospects: If complaints are from people who aren't in your target market, you might be doing something right, rather than wrong. Don't water down your message to try to appeal to everyone or it will resonate with no one.

Differentiation: Thinking about "the opposite of" or what something is NOT is extremely helpful in developing your marketing messages. Recently, when receiving feedback from friends about a landing page I have under development, the "negative" comments specifically led me to think about what my new program is not. And listing what my program is not has helped me to focus in on why it's different.

Feedback: Complaints are just one form of feedback - and like all feedback, should be evaluated for their merit. ALL feedback is useful in some way - and sometimes it can verify that what you've been doing is right.

No one likes to hear complaints, but we can turn them around into useful lessons... it just requires a different perspective.

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Originally published in the Work Better, Not Harder newsletter September 25, 2018

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