Get Them and Keep Them

Three of Four Adults on Do-Not-Call List � MarketingVOX

Link: Three of Four Adults on Do-Not-Call List � MarketingVOX.

Accordingly: " Seventy-six percent of all U.S. adults have signed up for the FTC's Do-Not-Call registry, according to Harris Interactive,  MediaBuyerPlanner reports. That's a significant increase from January 2004 when 57 percent had registered."

I'm betting that the other 24% of adults, who are not on that list, will add their name soon.

I also think it's a matter of time when a similar "Do Not Call" list emerges for e-mail direct marketing (except when there's a pre-existing relationship between the company and the customer). But that will take some time.

 

Can you trust someone jumping outside your window?

I remember the sitcom scene explicitly: a traveling salesman gets turned down at the front door, so he walks to the window, waves franticly and jumps up and down, in a desperate attempt to get the “lady of the house’s” attention.

Most of the time, it didn’t work. In fact, the intrusion was almost laughable because it was so annoying.

Yet, that’s the strategy employed by telemarketing firms, hunting for customers. They try to find customers who – for whatever reason - didn’t submit their name to the “Do Not Call” list – and then do whatever they can to push their offer on whoever answers the phone.

It’s not a good way to acquire customers. It doesn’t cast the company in a good light and weakens the company’s credibility - as well as brand - with every attempted call.

After all, what consumers can trust a wireless or high-speed internet provider that calls them with an urgent offer at dinnertime?