Every now and then I will actually read one of the junk facsimiles I receive on a weekly basis. First off, it is important to note that I am inherently skeptical of their offers due to the way in which they bombard my machine. Second, most of the offers are too good to be true, thus are likely to contain a catch of some kind.
This week I received what appeared to be an article with a hand written note. The article was about a “revolutionary†weight loss product. The hand written note went like this:
Sue,
Here is the product I used last month to lose all of the weight and inches. Dr. Palmer down the hall told us about it. Everyone is losing weight on this stuff. Give it a try.
Now come on. Am I supposed to think they actually meant to send this to “Sue� Do they expect me to be so overwhelmed with the need to lose weight that I will ignore the bogus intro? Seriously, I wanted to track down the author of this “campaign†and ask them what they were thinking. However, it probably works, thus they do it.
I am sure you can think of dozens of similar examples in industries ranging from diet supplements, to car dealers. Now I know, in B2C, marketing lies seem to be common place, and car dealers, well they have been shady for years. But, every year I see more and more gimmick based advertising trickling into B2B. The internet has empowered an entire wave of marketing tricksters, who use legitimate techniques and knowledge to fudge the truth to improve conversions and make a buck. We have all seen this in the “MLM†or what I call Multi Liar Marketing, segment. I wonder, have wee all been so desensitized to bogus marketing to where we now expect it? This is why legitimate marketers must be extra careful in B2E.
Please feel free to share your experiences with gimmick advertising in the comments section. I am particularly interested in ones dealing with B2B.
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