Comments on: Bad Marketing Practices

By: Debra

Debra — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 20:03:37 +0000

Scott, today’s buyer is much more savvy and doesn’t fall for bate and switch type marketing tactics. In the past, something like this would go unnoticed. With the Internet and blogging, a bad marketing practice will get exposed quickly.

Thanks for commenting.

By: Scott Hubbard

Scott Hubbard — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 19:45:41 +0000

I agree. It’s all about building a trusting relationship through caring and answering your prospect’s questions. You need to show that you understand their problem and have the solution.

I feel that it’s very important to look at everything from the prospect’s perspective – from their point of view. This is a real change in my thinking.

.-= Scott Hubbard´s last blog ..The Customer Experience and Your Website – Is Your Website Building Customer Relationships or Turning Customers Away from Your Small Business? =-.

By: Debra

Debra — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 21:51:37 +0000

Oh how funny. Laurie was interested in my business too! And I thought she was only “keeping my options open for new income streams and products/services and am attracted to other like-minds.” You would think they’d learn (or we would so they would stop!). Thanks for commenting Elizabeth.

By: Elizabeth

Elizabeth — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 19:18:18 +0000

I got this exact message today – also from Laurie. I also get a lot of queries from individuals who want to get a start in project management. However, when I get things that I’m suspicious about (the message didn’t have any contact details or even my name, so they can’t have been that interested in me) I Google the text – and your website came up. Thanks for explaining what happened to you.
.-= Elizabeth´s last blog ..Book review: How to Manage in a Flat World =-.

By: Debra

Debra — Tue, 19 May 2009 02:53:33 +0000

Hi Alan,

Sorry I took so long to thank you for stopping by and commenting! Glad I was able to alert you to these bad marketing practices. I supposed I should have realized that the “Hi there” was a bit informal for someone looking for help. But many times I do get college students sending me email about their projects and they are somewhat informal. So I’d rather err on the side of believing they are real just in case they are. Luckily this was just someone who really needs a lesson in how to market your business by building relationships.

By: Alan Bleiweiss

Alan Bleiweiss — Thu, 07 May 2009 02:04:33 +0000

I knew it! I got an email with the same wording about a week ago, and right away felt it was spam, so I deleted it.

I got another one again today! LOL this one was from

lauriehack2@gmail.com

So that’s when I just copied part of the 2nd sentence into Google, and your article came up right away.

While yours was from “amber”, mine was from “laurie”, though personally I saw it as a red flag for a few reasons.

1. The subject on mine was “RE: your ad”
Uh, if you’re going to use an “RE” it has to be more creative than that. Sorry, but I don’t take out ads anywhere most of the time. For any reasons.

2. Given the subject, the opening “I found you online and was intrigued”, and “Your business sounds interesting” were the deal killer as to this being pure spam.

3. There was nothing personal to me – no reference to my name or my business or the field I’m in.

Okay so maybe someone needs to be educated in how to not use spam methods to learn about business. But ultimately, it just smelled too fishy at that point.

Thanks for creating the article, because I love how I can use the web to do research before just responding to email, or worse – to those “some little kid has cancer so let’s send this email to everyone we know” kind of messages.

Though I bet your email address is now locked in as a valid address in the endless list selling loo, I’m glad for your sake that it just turned out to be a dumb marketing ploy.